SERENITY

CHAPTER 5

**Jacob.

It's finally over! This training is killing me. I have a terrible headache from so many hours of studying finance. Dad says, I shouldn't complain and I should be grateful, because others would beg to be in my place. "To have power and authority" as he says in his stern and thunderous voice. Nothing is building without sacrifice, let alone the career of a great and capable leader, but is it really worth it? I'm not even sure if I want that. In fact, I am more inclined that I do not want it and anyway, I have already sacrificed too much, my childhood alone is enough. Not that I had a childhood. From the age of 4 I started to study. At 5 years old, I already knew arithmetic and much more than the simple count that every toddler knows. I also knew how to read. If I'm not mistaken, "normal" kids learn to read around 7, but not me. Neither my brothers, nor anyone else, from the chosen McCarrion family. You see, I belong to the one and only royal family that has ruled the city of Forkys for over 250 years. 

My father was his father's heir, as was his father's and so on. So I, too, will be the heir of my own father. The curse of the firstborn, I think. Except that for them, it was not a curse, but a gift from God. From what he has told me, the one and only time he spoke to me like a father, when his own coronation ceremony was approaching, he hadn't slept a week out of joy and excitement. He had been waiting for it, since he was 14. The town celebrated his coronation with festivals two months before the ceremony and there had been unprecedented celebrations such as "the ritual of the sword of fire", which symbolizes the power and wisdom that the rising king will have, as well as the way he will rule the place. It is also said, that it brings luck.

 In fact, it is an ancient ritual, that took place under the guidance of the god Forky, before the coronation of the first King Maccarion, when the city was founded. They say, it's a majestic sequence. Its first step, is some psalms in an unknown language, the older folks call it "mermaid's language or serene language" and some of them, even claim that their ancestors spoke it, but for some reason they never passed it on to them and so it ended up disappearing. According to history, this language was spoken by the god Forkys, which through a vision, guided the first Maccarion to this piece of Earth, after blessing it in order to create an all-powerful nation. 

Before the coronation, and always under the guidance of the god, "the ritual of the sword of fire" took place for the first time. The second step of the ceremony, involves the rising king holding a sword made of sea copper, a kind of copper that exists only in our city and its color is deep blue like the sea. It is extracted from a cave somewhere between land and sea, whose location remains unknown to the people. The sword is decorated with white pearls and a rare species of deep red coral called the "fire coral".It was created by the god as a gift to the goddess Serenity, a goddess who is said to be the protector of mermaids and the greatest love of the god Forky. I have even heard that this coral is the favorite creation of the god, after our city. The ascending king, holding the sword with both hands, and looking towards the sea over the "precipice of creation", where the temple is located, must recite aloud the following oath: "I, the king and protector of the city of Forcys, blessed by the one and only god, who appeared before me after having blessed this Earth, I swear to protect always, until my last breath, this city with all the strength of my being. I swear to defend it in time of war and to destroy every creature that turns against it, even if there is a blood bond that binds us, just as my one and only god, Forcys, slain his brother Nereus, when he tried by treachery, to steal from him the piece of land and sea in which I am, I dwell and dominate, and God Himself has appointed me his protector. I swear to do my best in times of sickness and pestilence and to take care of the sick, just as my lord and god took care of his daughters, mermaids and sirens during the period of "Coral Petalitis".Finally, I swear to be fair and not to act for my own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole community. Through God we were created, and through God we will die. Through god we will be punished, and through god we will be rewarded for our righteous life. From the foam of the sea we were born and in blessed soil we will die, now and forever!''. The ceremony concludes with the third and final part of "rebirth through God". The king, with sword in his hands, jumps from the "cliff of creation" into the sea and must nail his sword to its bottom, where the "sacred rock" is located. Then, the seers and fortune tellers of the god, go to the sign and prophesy his course as king. A prophecy, however, that only he can hear and thus he can prepare for any wars, diseases or avoid mistakes of the future, which he would have made, if the oracle had not been communicated to him.