A King's Mistake

 "Even Kings are humans."

That is what my father taught all of us, princes and princesses of the Empire. We are destined to greatness but we too are imperfect. We make mistakes that cost lives. We trust the wrong spies. We fall in love with the wrong girl. This is the kind of tale that I will tell you.

Growing up as the Crown Prince is brutal and lonely. Everybody wants to see me fail. I don't know who to trust at all in my life, not my family. Friends only want something from me, they don't care if I live or die in the royal court. That is, until I met a young servant girl in disguise.....

Her name is Eowyn, a simple palace maid who still finds palace life completely ridiculous. Her smile and laughter is so sweet that my days became bright and cheerful. Even Mother noticed my change. I have to hide it better before someone figure out I have gained a fatal weakness. 

Politics is similar in war in the way information changes everything. I invested a lot of money, time, and effort to build my own private spy network. I know exactly when the Emperor wakes up from his bed and who my younger brother's mistresses are. I just couldn't believe my own paranoia was used against me in an epic scandal. 

Eowyn suddenly went missing one day, I trusted the wrong spy to protect her. I tried searching for her all over the palace but all I found are clues that she is pregnant. My anxiety went into overdrive quickly. I used every spy I could, spent every money I have, until a letter arrives.

"We have her. Surrender your Crown Prince to us or you will never see your lover or child ever again." I stood there for a long time, silent and angry. And then I replied her abductors: "No." 

I couldn't protect her. The only one I loved. Whenever I close my eyes, I have a nightmare. All I see is her face, her eyes staring back at me. Dead and blank. Thus I vowed never to love again. For love brings weakness. 

Yes, I married someone else after that. Yes, I have other children besides my first born. But Eowyn and Agi will always have a special place in my heart. 

Needless to say, when I became Emperor, I killed off the rest of my siblings who abducted her. That war cost a lot but it was worth it.