Ethereal

Prologue

10 years ago, Kingdom Nupawyth

The day had finally come to end, everyone retiring to their rooms to prepare for a night of rest. For Prince Wentworth, he still had a few hours before he would even consider sleep. Today he had been in hours of training to help him strengthen his power and he needed to understand more. He had managed to find and sneak a book about meditation with the body to help it strengthen and connect with his power and he hoped it would help. He now rested on his bed; legs crossed together as he flipped the book open to the first page. Being 13, he knew he still had a long way to go before he could master his power but he didn't want to wait for his training sessions every day. He wanted to be like his brothers, and not have to break out into a sweat at the simple thought of trying to summon his gift.

No one else had his power, nor was is it common amongst others apparently. It made it difficult because with his brother's being wrapped up in other important stuff, he didn't have anyone to ask questions. So, it was up to himself to discover his power on his own. Once the book rested open in front of him, Wentworth stretched his back and took a deep breath in before carefully letting it out. Slowly, he opened his hand to see the palm of his hand.

"Clear your mind, and focus." He whispered to himself, eyes drifting to focus on the palm of his hand while he cleared his mind of everything and sought out his power from within.

Almost like water droplets hitting water, small purple-colored sparks weakly snapped from the palm of his hand. Some of the sparks traveled up his fingers, forming a ring of flashing purple before it beamed out and disappeared. He had only ever managed to create one lightning strike and that was a couple of weeks ago. It had been a complete accident during his training, but had Wentworth excited. Once he was stronger, he couldn't begin to imagine what he could do.

Faint shouting pulled Wentworth from his train of thought as he looked at his hand. He turned his head towards his bedroom door, eyebrow raised in question. It was almost midnight, and he knew for a fact almost everyone would be asleep. The shouting continued on for a few seconds before a faint raddling sound occurred, all noise dying down. Swinging his legs over the mattress, the young prince moved to the side off his bed, socked feet meeting carpet. He reached out to the tablet that rested at the side of where he slept, to see if there were any alerts or messages to explain the strange, yet almost quiet commotion. As his eyes drifted to the screen to see it was unable to connect to the castle server, his bedroom burst open with someone rushing in before they hastily closed his door.

"Royce?" Wentworth asked, having jumped at the sudden action of his brother barging into his room. However, the hair on his arms stood up when his brother turned to face him.

Royce stood before him dressed in his sleepwear, however what had Wentworth's heart stopping was the fresh blood that covered him. His bottom lip had a long large gash as well as his forehead, the blood from both running freely down his face and onto his skin. Royce was grasping his left shoulder where his hand was coated in blood as it covered another deep gash that not known to Wentworth, went almost down to the bone.

Royce was the second oldest of the 5 of them, he had just turned 19 years old and was working alongside the guards every day. Although Wentworth didn't see him terribly often, he loved to watch his brother spare with his power. He was one of the stronger Forces in the castle, however he never let it define him as he made sure to be just as powerful in his attacks without his power. So, seeing Royce, standing before him injured and bleed in front of him had Wentworth scared.

"Royce? What's-"

Royce was quickly in front of his brother, his bloody hand quickly pressing over his mouth.