33 Risen#re

In the centre of the throne world Lirian sat in his throne and for the first time in many lives he felt truly panicked, never before had he been attacked by himself, and if one were to ask even the survivors of his attacks what it was like, the memory would leave them drowning in their own sweat, and the idea of more than two dozen of that same person would leave them dead from fright.

It was fortunate that the throne could only be relinquished willingly or he would certainly have lost it.

The world around him trembled and the thrones of the others encroached on his that sat in the centre, only the thrones of those that left and Kallidins and Penn who had been asleep since he gave up his life remained fixed in place.

He looked at the approaching thrones, he could never hate them for their actions, but never before had he imagined that he would fear them, they had always been there for each other, but now there was something they all wanted more than anything.

It was the freedom to live the life they always wanted, one that was free of endless loneliness and suffering.

He cast one more look at his past selves and he felt knots of pain in his heart, he knew what it felt like to be abandoned by all the world, but he never imagined that he would do it to himself.

He retracted his consciousness and as he opened his eyes two streams of tears poured down his face, the room was completely silent and as he looked up, he saw a ray of gold rushing towards him, then he saw a familiar face smiling at him.

"Hush now little one, it was just a nightmare," Taliyah said as she wiped the tears away and held onto him tightly.

'I wish that it were so mother,' he thought as he grieved, 'I wish that it was only a nightmare,'

It was only then that he stopped and looked again, he realised that Taliyah was holding him in her arms, he wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his head on her shoulder. 'Yes, for the first time in all my lives I have a mother, perhaps not all is hopeless.', the thought calmed him down slightly.

Taliyah turned around to face the director, "I think you were right director; I have no need to see any of the other children, he will be mine from now onwards."

The room was strangely quiet everyone had seen what had happened, the door opened and the empress entered, not even two seconds later Lirian started crying and it was odd, they had never seen a child cry silently, that was something that only adults did.

But the strangest part was the empress's reaction, before even a tear could fall, she had already grabbed the child from the care-givers hands and wiped away his tears.

It was as if she already knew the child, and several thoughts filled their heads, the child was from the empress's home-world, so could it be possible that she had a love child with someone on her home world and did all of this to legally adopt him.

It didn't even cross their minds, that the empress was infertile at that moment.

"Uhm, your majesty will you be going to your manor?", the president asked as he pretended to not notice the odd behavior of the empress.

"Yes, I think that it's time I retire for the night, it's been a long day."

"I'll have the cars readied," he said and head out of the room.

---

An hour later they arrived at the manor, two massive black gates swung open and welcomed them, a beautiful garden spread out with neatly trimmed hedges and three four-meter-tall fountains sprayed water.

The president pulled up first and opened the door to the entryway, they walked up to a grand staircase that had a single aisle, it had wooden rails and a red carpet flowing down, once they reached the top of the first flight of stairs, they turned to look down at the entry hall that could easily hold a thousand people and from the ceiling, a large majestic chandelier hung, after the first flight of stairs the stairs split into two and wrapped around the walls to form the mezzanine.

"I suppose that you're a good glorified house keeper," Anya whispered to the president as she walked past him, and admired the manor, it was very different from the home worlds architectural design, but it felt very homey.

President Juel grimaced when he heard that unlike the others when he spoke on the news, Anya was already on world and she didn't have anything to do so she had heard his foolish choice of words.

"Your majesty you must have had a tiring day, I'll be taking my leave now, if there is anything that you need anything at all please let me know." he bowed humble and waited for the empress to dismiss him.

"I do need just one thing, arrange for a few wet nurses to come here my son is in need of his meals, you may leave."

---

From there the days began to move slowly.

The empress sat in her room quietly as an old cot was brought in by the servants, she looked at it fondly, and a trace of melancholy, her eighth child had used it, Sicilia was a very talented child, almost as good as she was, but during her two-hundred-year princess candidate trial, she died.

That was almost two thousand years ago, she had raised her on this world and she had a great life here, she hoped that Lirian would enjoy it as much as Sicilia did.

She had the cot placed at the foot of her bed, it might be her inner village girl thinking, but she never felt comfortable with her children sleeping in a different room, it always left her restless.

One morning Lirian woke up in the dark hours of the morning, he still felt despondent, his current frame of mind was slightly fragile, he had everything he ever wanted but now he had also lost something important to him.

The brightness of his eyes had dimmed from before and Anya especially had begun to notice it, he was a baby with depression, so no matter how much she tried to figure out what was wrong with him it proved futile.

He sat up in his cot and leaned against the bars, he didn't recognise the material but it did carry a lovely scent, that vitalized his body, he looked up at the various lights that decorated the ceiling, even while they were off a faint gas could be seen shimmering inside them, it looked like little stars.

He noticed a trace of movement in front of him but he didn't bother with it and continued to stare blankly at the lights.

Taliyah picked him up brought him to her lap, "Little one, what's the matter, you've been very sad since I came for you, are you angry with mommy for taking so long?", her beautiful face held genuine guilt.

Lirian was still figuring out the language so a lot of it went over his head, but he still understood the meaning of her words, "No, never... angry.", he replied after some time.

It still took Taliyah by surprise when he spoke and it impressed her that even though his sentences were broken, they were never completely incoherent. "Then are you sad about something else is it that nightmare you had?"

He looked down from the ceiling and saw the worry on her face and wondered what it would be like to get a bit of her wisdom, he didn't know how to resolve a conflict with his only friends but it seemed like something an ordinary person should be able to do, the light around him went silver and he reached out a hand to touch her temple and a little spark crept into her mind revealing images to her.

Lirian used a simple soul share ability to show her a little of what had happened.

Taliyah lost her breath as she felt her vision fade, then she stepped into a world of black and dark green arouras swirling around, and in the centre, she saw the most majestic throne she could imagine and it reminded her of Lirians eyes, and on it she could see Lirian sitting, his whole body trembling as the world shook.

Great fissures opened up beneath her feet and she could see dozens of other thrones closing in on Lirian each one was far more majestic than even her own and the emperors and she could feel an oppressive might surging from every throne.

She could hear the people on the throne shouting like starved animals, 'Give us the throne!', 'It belongs to us!', 'We worked for it.', 'You have no right to sit there!' the voices, reverberated in her soul, even though she didn't know the language they spoke she still understood every word.

The voices were endless and filled with a desperation she couldn't fathom, but oddly enough Taliyah felt a familiarity with them all, but before she could do anything she felt the world tremble and the columns in the world began to crack, suddenly she was falling uncontrollably down a fissure and the world seemed to crumble all around her.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw Lirian staring into her eyes, "No, nightmare... it real."

"Are those the bad people?" she asked still uncertain of what had happened, that vision left her in awe, it was so vivid and real like an entirely different world, and the hardest thing for her to understand was the silver energy that rippled around Lirian and flowed according to his will.

"No, they are..." he thought hard for the word friend but, he didn't know it, ", like... mommy.... and Anya," he said pulling his hands together