HEIR OF LIGHT Book1: The lost prince

CHAPTER 19

Detok growled as he struggled in the stone enclosure he was stuck in, shouting was a futile effort, conjuring his fey magic from the inside of the abandoned temple he was trapped in would hasten its collapse and even though his fey blood was pure and strong, tempting fate by allowing the boulders to crush him was not a wise choice, immortality or not.

Even still he seethed in anger, he detok, son of the dark deity refrot, heir to the winter throne and soon to be usurper of the summer throne, assuming he did not meet his demise in this stony cave. Roaring in an angry voice his mind involuntarily replayed his memories. Detok was by no means a challenger for the throne of the fey, being royalty from both the winter and summer thrones was of course legitimate candidacy, till one realized he was the sixth offspring. Not an offspring between the sibling rulers refrot and herandra of course, but individually, meaning he had the choice of choosing which of the courts he would lay his candidacy.

Except herandra had banished him from the land of the summer feys, and the winter fey sibling he had were locked in a feud for the throne that detok honestly knew he would not last should he decide to enter such a battle. Detok was built like an athlete, slim toned muscles in the right places, he would had been a menace on the field had he decided to get training from the numerous legendary fey warriors in the winter court, after all learning under refrot was allowed, any form of violence around the vicinity of the court itself was met by overwhelming power and cruelty by refrot himself, such dissidence was frowned upon by the god and deity of winter, power struggles were for outside the court, whoever won would then present himself or herself to refrot.

Detok may indeed had never been a warrior, but his mind was another thing entirely, it would later become a saying, "as cunning and devious as detok". Seeing as he could not go toe to toe with his winter siblings, detok decided on a strategy, first he joined one of his siblings named artok, convinced him down the line by slowly whispering from the shadows to create a coalition of other siblings to take out half of the contenders. It worked like a charm; in few weeks the siblings had cut down their original number of over forty to the remaining fifteen in their coalition.

Drunk with victory, detok found it easier to convince them that the reason refrot had been ruling unchallenged was due to the fact that they had never come together to attack the "weak old man playing at being a god". The siblings believing this since his strategy had led to victory the last time gathered their troops and staged a full-scale invasion of the winter court, it would be their first and last mistake, for in truth detok had planned to use them as sacrifices, for their father.

Refrot cam out in all his glory, laying waste to their armies, fatally injuring the siblings, in time to see one of his long-forgotten offspring silently slitting his siblings' throats and offering a silent prayer to him, and for the first time in a millennium refrot smiled, this fey, this forgotten and abandoned offspring of his whom he claimed had no fey blood in him was to be his heir. Detok was soon on his way to the dark mages on the isle of the dead to learn about warcraft and necromancy, spells and potion making. Soon refrot would be named heir secretly among the winter court, for refrot had another plan entirely for his heir. Refrot would go on to challenge alectre heir of herandra, queen of the summer court.

Herandra of course objected to such an arrangement, sensing a plot by refrot, but noble and valiant alectre would not back down from a duel, perhaps he had the mentality that good will always triumph over evil we will never know, for alectre fell in duel on the isle of the departed souls, making detok heir to both the thrones of summer and winter, the first fey to unite both courts in recorded history. Herandra raved and cried to the light gods for aid, seeing as she was unable to act as he had won the duel far and square, but the decree came straight from illumino telling her to 'hold fast for the son of light'.

Detok bit his lip in frustration, how could he had been so blind to what had been literally staring him in the face all these while?, jason Alecto elixtu was obviously the son of light, anointed by illumino and chosen by aether to be the tip of the spear in the light gods' weapon of battle against the dark pantheon, and the most infuriating aspect of it all was, the dark pantheon was limited in what they could do, they had played their hand in the wave of surprise attack they took against aratia, installed their puppet head in marxis and ousting illumino.

If only detok had not been so careless, now he would die in this abandoned temple to the shame of refrot, not like the god of winter would send help, his heart was as dead and cold as the position he held and herandra couldn't be happier at his demise. Chuckling at the thought he was startled as the rock debris sealing the entrance of the temple was blown wide open, dust blowing into the room. Detok coughed, eyes watering as he squinted to see who had cleared the rocks, his eyes widened to see the blue clad army of the winter court march into the room. Their helmets of frozen ice gave way for their shining blue eyes that glowed underneath those helmets, at their back, entering with a flourish was a dark elf, in a flowing blue robe and seemed to be floating inches above the ground, she took one look at him and with a snort she tore the rocks off him with a flick of her hand. Detok bit back the scream he would have let out, she was a priestess of refrot, any idea of killing her would not come to fruition as she would turn him to broken chunks of flesh in a flash.

The priestess waited for him to recover, idly picking her nails, glancing at him once he stood,

"Hear my words detok, for they come straight from the lips of the winter father" she started as the army took and knee, same with detok,

"You detok, heir to both the winter and summer thrones has fallen short in the eyes of the rulers of both courts, particularly in my eyes for the thoughts of herandra matters little to me, you will have one chance to absolve yourself of this shame you have soiled me with. You will travel alone to the gates of artemon, there you will slay the prince and present his head to me as an act of apology, then and only then will I consider you my heir once again."

The options were clear, either he killed the prince or he died there, coming back was not an option in the slightest.

She finished as the soldiers stood, detok followed, seething on the inside to be disgraced so publicly, but showing such outrage would not be befitting of him, he would get back into the graces of refrot, if the winter father had one anyway and reclaim his position as the heir to the throne. The army turned as one and marched back the way they came, the priestess snapped her fingers as a blue portal opened, cold winter breeze blew into the room and detok could faintly see the edges of the looming castle that belonged to refrot on the horizon, as the soldiers all marched in, the priestess turned to him, a malicious smile on her face,

"I would advice you to ensure you win, but then again, I don't need to remind you of what happens to those that fail refrot do i?" she said, laughing in glee as she passed through the portal and sealed it.

The room shook as detok released all his magic in a blast, screaming into the sky, one child, just one child had toppled everything he had worked for, spent all his life laboring for. Walking out the temple, he saw a blue crystal hovering in the air, refrot had been kind enough to give him a teleportation crystal. It mattered not what had happened in the past, what mattered was what he would do to the prince should detok lay his hand on him. With that thought and detok chuckling to himself, he passed through the portal....