Numbered

Chapter 4: Prince Elric Sondez

It was hard to be a 7 was putting it lightly.
Sure he was royalty and got almost whatever he wanted, and sure he was going to be King of Aldovia one day, but no jewelry or possessions or country could ever erase the trauma that it was to live a life of a 7.

The confusion he had when, on his fourth birthday, when he had looked on of the castle's maids in the eyes, she just sort of collapsed letting out a tiny exhale of breath on the way down. She didn't look like she was in any pain or anything, she just slumped over. It was instant.

No reaction, no struggle, not even a sound. Just standing one moment, and on the floor lifeless the next. As if it were a fact of life, as normal as his parents conversing with a noble. It was horrifying that death could be that instant. And that he was the cause of that death.

At first however Prince Elric hadn't known she was dead. No, he didn't get the privilege of that horror until he nervously padding up to her and tried to shake her awake only to find out that she wasn't breathing at all.

He was only four years old and he'd already watched his first murder. A murder in which he unwillingly committed. What would his parents or the poor maids' family think? That was a trauma and guilt that the prince would carry for the rest of his life he was convinced of that much.

And training to control his ability was a special kind of hell all on its own. The prince could recall the countless times that he would be, as a child, training to be able to control his ability and he would get frustrated... how do you tell a family that their loved one was dead, all because you lost control.

How do you listen to the screams of agony and still be normal afterwards. He remembered their pained expressions and the horror on his face as he watched them die an extremely painful death.

How do you tell them that you really didn't mean it, that you were a kid and you got frustrated because the training WAS difficult and you didn't mean to activate your ability it just sort of happened.

That's how he learned that his eyes could make people have different kinds of deaths. If he was calm it would be a swift and painless death like what happened when he first manifested the ability.

On the contrary, if he was upset or frustrated in any way it was rather slow, painful and terrifying to watch. Luckily he had learned to control his ability and he never used his ability (he didn't like to unless absolutely necessary for obvious reasons) but he always kept a violet bandana on his left bicep just in case.

And the bandana wasn't there just for him. It was also there for any other 7 still struggling to control their ability or even non 7s like other royals, nobles and even civilians.

Prince Elric was interrupted in his musings by the voice of his older brother. The princes were supposed to be headed to the Farien district of the country as part of the regular check-ins to make sure that the country was running smoothly.

This would be Prince Elric and Prince Henry's first time alone. Or to be more specific, without their parents. Their parents had deemed them old enough.

As the two Princes were walking Prince Elric couldn't help but ogle at how many people showed up. He only really saw other royals from different kingdoms or nobles from all over the globe and while he logically knew that there were a lot of people on the planet, it was sort of surreal to see them all, his future subjects, in real life.

It must have been all that ogling that made him distracted because he went from walking to getting hit dead on with a very hard something that felt like a wall.

Turns out, that "something" wasn't a wall, it was another human being. He rubbed his head and looked at the girl in front of him. She was wearing green, (so a noble) he made the mental note and looked to be around his age.

She had wavy brown hair, brown freckles on her nose and cheeks, light skin and the most striking pair of forest green eyes he'd ever seen before.

When she realized who he was, no doubt due to his violet clothing, she bowed her head in respect and started to apologize in a hurried manner, blushing in embarrassment.

But there was something weird about her. Something he had never ex before, even with nobles. It was that she wasn't scared or trying to suck up to him because he was royalty, because he was the future king, but rather she was just embarrassed that she'd bumped into someone. And when she gave him the bow of her head it wasn't out of obligation or to mock him but rather out of genuine respect.

Prince Elric blinked once, then twice. She was interesting, special. He couldn't let a noble like that leave without ever seeing her again (he probably would see her again seeing as she was a noble apart of his country and the royal family had to see all nobles in their country at least once no matter how minor but still).

He had to find out what her name was. The prince called out to her just as she was about to turn a corner out of sight. She simply stopped, turned around and smiled at him making him notice that she had dimples when she smiled.

"Amber Tia Hulman," she said just loud enough that he could hear her from that distance but not so loud enough that she would be shouting, "My name is Amber Tia Hulman."

And with that she turned the corner and left the young prince with many questions.

1013 words.