Old as Balls Highschool Creative Writing Assignment. Enjoy.

In the process of writing down. its really long. I'll be posting this in small chucks so sorry if it seems like im leaving the story hanging! I found this in the dark cobwebbed depths of my laptop. It's a cool concept but it's olllld. I figured I'd put it up for people to read/laugh/cringe/possibly enjoy at it. Here it is? Deep in the ancient heart of a capitol city was a man. A man with many troubles for such a comfortable life he lived. Being of noble lineage, his family and he were very close friends and allies to the royal family. Given the noble surname of Thanatos and named after one of his great ancestors, Adriel was expected to do great things in his life. One of these great things however, was quite suddenly thrown upon him about a week ago. This is where the trouble started to arise. So now he walked, down the polished limestone road to the Temple of the Gods. The structure was made of smooth bleached stone, arching over the grand door way in intricate design. The spires and walls were touched with the sunlit hues of the stained glass, depicting the Gods in all of their grace and power. But its beauty all went unnoticed by Adriel and most of the population of the Empire. They obviously had much better things to pay attention to, like world domination or in Adriel’s case, arranged marriage.

Opening the grand wooden doors of the sanctuary he was greeted immediately by a man in white. He was decorated with Holy symbols woven in the robe with soft silver thread and a simple silver ringlet atop of his golden brown hair. It was a priest tradition to never cut his hair so it was tied back with a thread, trailing past his shoulder blades. It was a way to show how long a High Priest has been serving the gods. He was new, seeing as the old High Priest had passed away five years ago, but with those years, he already shown wisdom and knowing through his shining dark green eyes. But they also shown with warmth and welcoming for Adriel. “High priest, Kane,” Adriel bowed his head in respect and formality. The priest smiled and waved off the greeting with an amused shake of the head. “Enough with the formalities, I am glad you arrived, my friend.” Kane spoke smoothly in a calm yet cheerful voice. “Your hair has grown.” The man pointed out the noble’s raven, chin length hair. “So has yours,” Adriel returned with a grin. It had indeed been too long since he had last met with his closest friend. Kane gestured a hand at the vast Temple grounds, silently requesting that they walk about the lush court yard while they discussed. “So what was so important that you just had to see me today?” The noble mused as they passed various exotic plants and a few priests who bowed their head in respect for their High Priest. The said priest sighed halfheartedly explaining his reasons. “I had a vision from the Gods Adriel. It was about you.” Adriel gave a snort of disbelief. He respected his friends beliefs but Adriel believed that the ‘Gods’ were not real and were created by mans idea of hope and reason.

Kane looked surprisingly desperate to Adriel. “Please Adriel, listen to me. They told me of your betrothal to Princess Mae.” It was Adriel’s turn to act surprised. Not even the Royal court knew of this arrangement yet. The King wished to keep it secret until a month before the wedding so there would be less chance of an assassination from The Rebellion countries. “They told me you have a path to choose, Adriel: to wed or not. They did not tell me the result of each path only that one will lead to your death. Please Adriel, I’m not telling you to believe in the Spirits, just to think carefully on what you choose to do.” Adriel sighed doubting the Spirits, but believing his childhood friend. For now he would have some thinking to do and decipher all the positives and negatives of each decision. He was still however, very unconvinced of this warning. Besides, how could one decision change his whole life?

Adriel and Kane talked a bit more, on small trivial things before the sun began to meet the earth and the priest had his duties to attend to. They bid each other farewell, his friend giving him one last plea to think over the situation. It unnerved Adriel, to see his friend so distressed over this. The noble had pondered all the way back to the family manor. The servant opened the fancy doors to the entrance hall as he walked inside. The rooms were beautiful but it looked dead of life. It was obvious that his mother was somewhere else in the home. Shrugging off his light jacket and giving it to the maid, he walked through the silent hall down to the living area. “Mother? I’m home.” He called out dropping his formalities in the prescience of his mother. Celia was currently in the far corner, in her favorite chair reading a rather large tome. “Adriel darling how was your visit with Kane? He’s been so busy now that I’ve rarely seen him. Did it look like he was eating right?” her small delicate voice asked as she raised her head, locking her similar green eyes with her son.

“He’s fine mother. And yes, he’s remembering to eat.” Adriel chuckled amusedly at his mother’s antics. She found Kane to be like a second son to her. “He was trying to get me to think wisely on my choice to wed or not. He says the ‘Gods’ have sent him a vision.” The comment made Celia’s eyes widen a fraction and smoothly lifted herself off the chair and towards her son. Now unlike her baby boy, Celia had a very religious faith in the Gods. She had always believed that this arranged marriage was a bad idea and now that Kane had a vision from the Gods… things may have gotten much more serious. ‘For the Great Ones to send a vision. They must have a plan for him.’ She thought as she embraced her son, who in return was a bit surprise but hugged back awkwardly. “So, what were you reading when I came in?” her son asked a bit curious. “Marriage laws.” Celia replied simply with a shrug. Before Adriel could protest she continued on. “I know you don’t like this situation Adriel, so don’t you dare lie and tell me you are alright. Princess Mae is a sweet girl but the position you are placed in is not fair. I know you do not wish to marry and rule the new acquired state of Shimia. And I know that all you want is to live a simple life without all the politics, war, and slaves. I want help you find a way out of this. I just want…I just want my baby to be happy.” She finished giving Adriel a distressing look.

Adriel stared at her, not knowing what to say. He knew his mother loved him, but he never knew she cared so much as to disobey his father’s orders. His father was the total opposite of his mother and was in fact the one who suggested to the Emperor to engage his eldest daughter and Adriel to rule the newly taken over country. His father was in fact a very good example of an arranged marriage. Sure they tolerated each other but they had totally different views on life. For one Marius believed that the first born ‘must’ be male to carry on the line and to become his true heir. Adriel wasn’t stupid; he heard the maids and butlers whisper about the older sister that he was to never know about. A few days after her birth she had gone ‘missing’ and Marius had conveniently gained quite an income of money at the same time. So for all his heart broken mother and the maids knew she was dead or still in the slave markets somewhere. But that was how life was in the Empire. Slavery was one hundred percent legal and the head of house could sell whom he wanted in the family into slavery. So yes to say that his mother and father were different was an understatement.

Adriel snapped back to the present and smiled softly at his mother, picking up the book. “I’ll help you look. Two minds are better than one after all.” Celia gave a watery smile and picked up another book and sat back down, Adriel following her lead. There they sat, for about an hour or so, reading in a comforting silence between mother and child, until it was disrupted by an unwelcome guest. “Ah, so there you are Adriel.” A man walked in looking like an exact replica of Adriel, only seemed to be in his mid forties. “A little family bonding is it?” he gave a smile which seemed to only grimace. “Yes father, Mother and I were just doing a bit of reading together.” Adriel bowed his head respectfully as his mother shut her book looking at Marius a bit concerned.

Marius lifted an eyebrow looking at the cover of the book, recognizing it anywhere. “On ‘Marriage Laws’?” he questioned voice raising slightly, the tone already showing his irritation. “It’s too late to try to get out of this Adriel.” “You never gave me a choice!” Adriel snapped back rather disrespectfully but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Marius’ eyes darkened and he looked to his wife. “Celia please leave the room, I need to have a little chat with Adriel, father to son.” Needless to say as soon as Celia left the room, a long and heated argument ensued for about two hours, leaving both men winded and furious. They needed space so they both went their separate ways for the night. Adriel, instead of going to his room went to his favorite spot to think: the Manor gardens. Their beautiful exotic plants were even lovelier at night, especially with the fireflies out. It gave the place a serene calmness, which made Adriel forget about the rest of the world. His Father had been right for a few instances. He would be married to the Princess and both would be off to rule a province of the Kingdom together. Rule, what more could a noble want? It was just a step lower from King after all.

Adriel had also pondered the idea of refusing the arrangement. The results would not be pretty. The Emperor was not a happy man as the Royal Court made him seem. The King would probably see this refusal of marriage as an insult to his family and treason to the Empire itself. By the next day he would already have his head on a pike, he had no doubt about that. Yes, marriage was looking very promising right now. He would rather live a miserable life of politics and court meeting rather than death. With his decision made, he went to inform his father who would no doubt be pleased in a ‘I told you so’ and ‘its for your own good’ type of manner. From then on the weeks seemed to fade away. It was all a blur to Adriel, the wedding plans, the party, the meeting with the Emperor. It all happened in a blink to Adriel and now things seemed to go back into focus and the world seemed to stop moving as quickly as the sensation finally set in the man’s gut. “I’m getting married today…” his small whisper awoke the rest of his mind as he watched the forest go by while looking out the window of the over done luxurious horse carriage. To the newly acquired province of the Empire was where he was destined to be wed. All over the Empire was celebrating ‘A new beginning to a new Province’ but Adriel could not help but think as they reached the border, they were toasting to ‘the beginning of the end.’

Chapter 2 ‘In The Hands Of The ‘Enemy’ ’ Adriel’s hands were going numb. Every fiber of his being was on edge and unnerved, why would he not be? Today was ‘the’ day, the day that set the rest of his life in stone. For today, he would be wed to Princess Mae Falena Amaria Rynfaen in the newly controlled country of the east, Kaerin. His father had suggested it to his Majesty, so naturally; the whole thing was the King’s idea. Adriel and his soon to be would rule the country together as part of the Empire, probably one of the greatest honors one could receive from the King. Adriel would be set for life, a beautiful princess and a land all to himself; it was any man’s dream. But Adriel felt numb… This wasn’t… what ‘he’ wanted. ‘This isn’t my dream.’ He thought forlornly. He never wanted to be a ruler, heck, he never wanted to take on the family business. It was probably one of Adriel more kept secrets from his father that he wanted to be an explorer and have his own ship. Maybe he could even build his own boat; he did love wood carving and carpentry after all…