Love is such a powerful motivation. Many of the greatest deeds in history have been for love. Human passion to do whatever it takes to meet their objectives is as strong as a wild fire. Catching fire to the small weeds until cities were swallowed whole, nothing but barren wastelands left.
To stop such passionate flames from licking the walls of his kingdom, his majesty seeked the help of an oracle and their arts, not aware, nor prepared, to hear what they would say.
“You´re wise and kind, your kingdom has flourished from such virtues and has given you back riches and the trust of your people. An adored king among their own shouldn´t meet his end at the hands of his own descendance, but such is to be done” the oracle told them with apprehension, then continued “I´m not one to stop destiny, and you, my king, should know that too. You can not outwit fate, my lord.” The oracle bowed before the throne before looking once again at the young king before them. Hardened by a war he was too young to fight, but was strong enough to survive.
Despite their occupation, the oracle couldn´t help but pity those whose fate would end in such cruelness. Devoted as they were, but empathic enough to know the pain of a merciless fate, they could only warn.
“Be wise and remember my words”
Were their last words before they dissapeared from the king´s castle. Almost in thin air.
Agitation was palpable through the king´s eyes. A pacific blue turned gray by the sudden news of a storm they couldn´t run away from.
The king stood from their throne with grace and calm, if he couldn´t run away from it, the only option left was to face it head on.
A beloved king who would meet his end at the hand of his own lineage was a story he had heard before. The results had always ended up in tragedy due fear. Death is not an easy thing to accept, after all, much less at the hands of those you should watch grow into honorable people.
He had always wondered how could such kings surrender their children in hopes to keep a crown on their heads when they were a blank sheet.
Fearless to defy fate, asking his wife to allow him to take his newborn in his arms, he promised to never let his fear of death take his child´s life. The love he felt for the tiny boy in his arms was big and strong enough, he reasoned as the tiny boy´s hand wrapped around his index.
Education and training with the sword, a brother and a sisteer who accompanied his expeditions to the gardens with wood crafted monsters until they became hunting trips on the borders was what the little prince grew with.
Fate watched from afar how the prince grew loved and taken care of.
The kid who was fated to kill his parent was anything but a cold blooded murderer. With his poetry and trips to his lovers homes, with the kindness and wisdom his father instilled on him since young that grew to make him the kingdom´s beloved prince, the king boasted of having beat fate.
Naivety is not rewarded, however. And as the oracle had said almost twenty years ago, fate can not be outwitted.
Relaxed at last, the king set off with his children to a diplomatic visit to the neighbouring country. His wife, strong and capable enough, was left behind to handle all kingdom´s affairs while he was gone.
Little did they know their trip was nothing else but a trap they caught on too late.
In heavy chains, they were moved to the dungeons. There, they were put through inimaginable terrors in order to get the queen to give in their kingdom. Was it not because the king knew her strength in battle and mind, their kingdom would have been surrendered almost immediately after they passed their first night screaming their lives out of their mouths.
The king used to be a fearless soldier, he was used to endure pain. But his children, born in times of peace, didn´t know how to keep their sanity when their bodies were taken to the limits.
The first year in the dungeons, death claimed his youngest son at the hands of an executioner. His remains, sent to his mother through the lapse of three months.
After his begging, he was allowed to meet his two surviving children to console them at night. It wasn´t only their thin bodies and their hollow eyes what had changed, the king understood immediately with just one look as he embraced them as tight as he could.
His children had never had motives to feel the need to use their training with the sword to end someone else´s life, but now, their eyes shined at the mere idea.
As the time passed by, their faces who once showed wrinkles of happiness around the eyes, only twisted with anger and powerful, venemous grief.
That was all that was on his daughters eyes when she gave birth to one of the guard´s children. A product of nothing but the wish to conquer and subduing one who couldn´t fight back. Allowed to see a doctor during labor, she managed to take a knife, hidden in the folds of her ratty skirt.
He had been proud of her ability to butch an animal evenly, precise and elegant, but the king was horrified to learn she had used such skills to take the baby´s life before she took her own.
The guard who had provoked such events couldn´t live after the king pulled out every ounce of strength out of his now tired and scrawny body to claim his life as his only surviving child cried in shock of seeing his father once again become the merciless soldier he was in his youth.
Then, fate finally stirred up from its bystander´s position to claim for the course of life to follow its command.
As the king was dragged to the kingdom´s court, the very same one his youngest child had exhaled his last breath, a knife was put into his son´s hands.
Away from the king´s ears, his child had had a conversation with the king of the nation who had taken them hostage. He was aware the king´s son had taken a liking to the prince in the twisted way love could tangle with the word of obsession.
His freedom for his father´s head and kingdom. Such was the wicked deal his son had made.
The king´s tired eyes fell on his son´s, but instead of finding absolute rage, the dire need to kill, he found tears and trembly fingers who couldn´t hold the knife in his hands.
He had no other children to fulfill the profecy, but most importantly, he couldn´t lose another child.
Love is a powerful thing that makes the world move.
The king´s love for his children charmed his numb aching legs to move forward, to pull him closer to the young prince whose tears he washed off with his thumb.
“Grab it tight and dont doubt” he said as he wrapped his hands over his son´s, forcing the young prince to grip tighter on the weapon.
“It´s ok, you can do it” he told him as he pulled his bony hands to point the knife to his neck, ah, how could he let them grow that thin?
“Father, please” the boy cried as he moved to drop the knife, only stopped when the king fished his wrist to pull it back to his neck.
He had failed two of them, he wouldn´t do it again.
As the boy only trembled, spears soon went down to circle them, pressuring him to hurry up or the deal would be cancelled.
As the king pushed the knife deep into his neck and blood began to spill off his mouth, the young prince struggled to get away in order to save his father. Despite everything, his child still loved him and wished to go against fate.
In his last moments as he dropped to the ground and his son was handed an axe to finish the job, he wished he could´ve known he was but a simple human against fate and there simply wasn´t a chance to win.
However, as his son held the axe high with tears washing the blood he had spilled over his face, he said goodbye with a smile.
His dying wish being that fate didn´t claim his son the same way.
The prince held his father´s head to the king seating in his throne. His smile and laughter caught short when the blade of his mother cut his throat, his nation coming back to save them just a minute too late to save his father.
In the middle of the plaza, where a fountain of red stood silent and the noise of festivity was too far to hear, the prince sat still in the cold ground. Not believing he was finally free.
Like a wildfire, hate spread on his chest as he went back to the dungeons and saw the prince chained to the very same ones he had been chained to for two years. On the exact same spot the three of them had cried the loss of their youngest.
With a swiftness he didn´t know himself to possess, he beheaded the prince before going back to his kingdom at last.
The once amiable prince, who recited poetry about the sweetness of being alive was now just a lamenting ghost in a castle that seemed to be as foreign as the one he had left.
Without course in alienated lands, he went to see the same oracle his father had seen.
It only took one look for the oracle to know who he was.
“So you have taken your father´s life” the oracle told him inspecting him and the sword hanging from his hip. A new feeling of need marked on his face as he gripped around it tight. Maybe, a prayer to not let the past repeat itself.
The prince lowered his head.
“It should´ve been me” he said, simply. “I´ve learned from my mother that you saw his death long before I...long before it happened”
“Fate played out as it should, your majesty”
The prince let out a cynical laugh “But why didn´t he try to stop it? Why didn´t you tell him how to?”
“No human can stop fate from happening, my prince. As much as I wanted to, I couldn´t interfere with the paths of destiny. However, it may have gone, your father would have died. Despite this, you father chose life. Yours” the oracle rested their hand on his sword “This hands have taken two lives, but they will take no more if you restrain yourself from giving in to what your father managed to replace with love alone”
The prince watched the oracle slip the belt holding his sword and gently take it on their hands.
For a long moment both of them held the sword between them.
“Your father might have been a simple human, but inadvertedly, his actions changed the course of fate. You that has become tainted with the anger of grief and strangement, who could turn a whole kingdom to ashes in vengeance, is instead, standing before me, looking for a path to follow that doesn´t involve blood shed”
The prince stood stunned by the oracle´s words and was even more perplexed when the oracle giggled.
“The love your father gave you is stronger than the hate over the injustice of what fate had in store for you. Your father could´ve dropped you off a cliff, but instead chose to fill both of your lives with happiness”
The oracle slowly pulled the sword away from the prince´s reach.
“Your father saw in you and your siblings nothing else but children he should raise with love, regardless of how fate would fold out in the end, he never had anything close to a thought of ending your life to save his” the thin prince´s fingers wrapping the sword tight, slowly uncurled.
“And in the end, despite grief becoming a life companion, I don´t see more blood or pain in your future, your majesty. Not spilled for you, nor one you cause with this sword”
The oracle slowly lowered the sword and placed it next to the wall.
“That´s the power your father´s love had. I believe... this is the last of your father´s teachings, you should never forget. Even fate was charmed by such passion” The oracle said as the prince´s eyes dripped with tears.
“Your future is still uncertain, my prince. Choose wisely what path you wish to take before it´s laid upon you”
Anger crossed his face, the dark desire to get “justice” taking a hold of him, before his eyes settled back on his sword. His father´s. The ribbon sealing it shut since the war ended a testament to stop blood shed.
It wasn´t his place to break that promise. Nor would fate insist once the prince left to go back home, taking the sword back to be put next to the old king´s graves, where now, his siblings and his father finally rested in familiar lands he swore would abide to their last king´s wishes to remain peaceful, but now, wouldn´t be as naive when trust shouldn´t be so easily given.
No human could change fate, maybe that´s why love could at least shape it.
