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Chapter 18
14 years later…
"Call my son, I want to speak with him," the king said in a low croaky tone.
"Which of them, my king?" the priest asked as he bowed low.
"Octavius."
The priest bowed and left King Philip's presence. He stepped into the passage where Octavius stood with his wife Emilia by this side, beside them was Angus in his red cloak, the official archery uniform, the king's court stood with them at the passage with heads bowed down. At the sight of the priest, Octavius gently uncurled Emilia's fingers from around his arm and approached the old man.
"How is he?" he asked the priest in a low voice.
"He wants to see you, my prince," the priest responded. At the look of hesitation on Octavius' face he added "It's alright, my lord, the king is not contagious."
Octavius nodded and let the priest lead him to the room. The room was darkened, the heavy curtains were drawn close, the atmosphere in the room was heavy also very heavy as
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He hurried into his chambers, walked briskly to his trunk by the window, and threw the lid open forcefully. He rummaged through it and pulled out the old black cloak he was looking for, he dusted it and laid it on the bed before taking off his robe and putting it on. Suddenly a knock came at the door and before he could respond a maid walked in with her head bowed slightly. She approached him cautiously. "What do you want?" Octavius demanded. "My lord, the queen has sent me to keep you company and to see to it that I provide you with anything you may need" "I don't need your company. Go" "She is worried you might put yourself in danger." "Go!" The maid raised her head and with a raise of her brows and a coy smile moved closer undeterred by the murderous look Octavius had on his face. Angus and some other lecherous guards were the cause of this sort of boldness from the palace maids. They always did things like this when they th
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Ashterah dropped him back in his chambers at least this time she dropped him carefully on his feet, a pleasant change from the way she had dropped him the first time she had taken him to her temple on Mount Kpamos. He went quickly to the washroom to look for the dead body and found it empty save from the towels he had used to cover it and even they no longer had blood on them, in place of the blood was Ashterah’s emblem. He sighed and hung the towels back and couldn’t help but wonder again what he did to warrant the unwanted attraction of an obsessed goddess. There were sudden voices in the hall and he quickly closed the washroom door, entered the main chamber, and donned his purple robe over his cloak just as soon as a quiet knock sounded on the door.
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The alarm sounded throughout the castle early the next morning and the rushing sound of feet echoed down the hall. Emilia stirred softly beside Octavius. She had slipped into his room during the night after he stormed off the dining room. She had quietly entered the room, slipped off her tunic, and slid under the covers with him with hopes of comforting however way she could but Octavius couldn’t even bring himself to touch her especially not with the hands he had used to cradle Ashterah’s neck as he drank from her. Of course the conniving bitch had enjoyed it and had seized the opportunity to explore his body until she decided he had had enough. Even when Emilia had wrapped her arms around him and his body responded he held himself still.
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Emilia woke up to find Octavius’s bed empty. Like she had been doing in the past few days she snuck into his room to lay beside him. He wasn’t the same as he used to be and she couldn’t put a finger on when exactly he had changed but she knew the death of his father coupled with Festus’s accusation had hit him hard and in her bid to comfort him she always snuck into his room late at night to lay with him. Sometimes he would be awake but pretend not to be while other times he would be fast asleep but before long he would wake up like he was troubled and at times like this he would either stand by the window to look out or take a walk and she never knew where he went only that when he came back his feet would be cold so her guess was he took walks outside. As she touched the bed around her to confirm that he was indeed no
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Octavius opened his eyes to the bright sunlight that streamed in a window he knew was supposed to be covered with the curtains. He squinted his eyes against the brightness and rolled over to get his bearings, as his eyes adjusted to the brightness he saw Emilia standing by the window looking out with her hand on her belly. She had her robe hanging loosely from her body and in her hands, she held a small steaming cup of tea, the sunlight brightened the golden strands of her hair making her a beautiful morning sight. This was what Octavius had had in mind when he thought about running away with her, nights of loving and happiness, mornings waking up next to her, and days running around with children of their own. As the last thought struck his mind he sobered and tore his gaze away from her, tears welling up in his eyes.
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Garius walked up to the tower where he knew Octavius would be. It was noon and the sun was high, there was a hint of cloud far away on the horizon marking the nearness of the rainy season. Octavius was leaning against the high wall of the tower without his robe, his knee-length tunic blowing in the wind and the only accessory marking him as royalty was the gold band that circled his biceps. Garius walked closer until he was standing a few feet behind his prince. “What are you doing here, Garius?” Octavius asked. Garius marveled at his accuracy even w
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The night was strangely cold, even through the thick fur coat, he could feel the cold seep through, biting at his skin and fingers. He would have preferred the afternoon when it was hot to make this journey to the temple but as he stood at the tower waiting for the priests and temple helpers to finish with what they were doing he realized they had no plans of leaving any time soon. So he had waited. And then his wife had gone to sleep, the villagers and retired to their homes, people closed their windows and doors, only then did he don on his coat and sneak out of the palace. He hated that he had to sneak out of a home that was his, he hated that he had been reduced to a stranger in his kingdom but then what choice did he have? What power did he have against a god
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Octavius felt the air around him tighten, his gut pinched as if he was being pulled into a vortex. Nauseous, he fell to his knees, he felt Ashterah’s hand holding him up. He felt like his body was sucked into a vacuum of hot air, squeezing his lungs and making his breath even harder to catch than when he had felt the burn of Ashterah emblem burn on his chest. Suddenly the feeling passed and just as he felt he would empty the content of his stomach, fresh air filled his lungs, he gulped gratefully and pulled away from Ashterah to stand on his shaky legs. “I didn’t use my powers to shield you from the unpleasant feeling of teleporting. Sorry,” Ashterah said to him but she sounded anything but sorry. He nodded anyway and looked around
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