CHAPTER 138: THE THIRD GATE AND FAMILY

While the crafty merchant and the hot headed smith finished their not so quick chat, promising each other to meet up in the coming few days, before Tajed has to leave again, and the pull of different lives once again calls upon them; the man they were talking about, the emperor himself, was deep underground in his ancestors’ personal training chamber, surrounded by the steam and water of what used to be a solid ice block, as a flame the size of a torch’s light blazed in the palm of his right hand.

Alexander was beyond elated, his smile as infectious as it was frightening, for he finally, after relentless, unfaltering diligence of arduous training that bordered on masochistic torture at times, he finally managed to unlock his third gate after a mere three years, an achievement that only a scant legendary few could ever claim in the many millenniums long history of the world.

He then spent a few more seconds admiring the hellfire, wanting to see if a similar phenomenon like the last time would occur, but after a while with nothing happening, he sighed and closed his fist, recalling the black flame with silver streaks back into his body, before he then made his way through the small lake of hot spring like water around him and arrived at the door, which released an ear splitting hissing sound the moment it opened, as the constricted mist within rushed to escape it’s confined prison, and welcome the open air of freedom.

Yet before he could step out of the pitch black chamber, and lose the cover of the obscuring white mist that hid his nakedness, Isaac instantly appeared to his side and wrapped him in a large black robe.

"Congratulations on your successful advancement, my liege!" The combined voices of my three most trusted retainers sounded out.

"How long was I in there?" The now eighteen year old emperor of the Eclipse Empire, nodded his head in acknowledgement, before calmly asked, with an impassive, slightly bland look on his face.

"Almost eighteen hours, sire." Isaac replied, a happy smile gracing his old features, before he stepped back with a slight bow.

He nodded expecting this, before he then asked, with some worry evident in his tone "And what of my mother?"

"The Empress has taken note of your absence, and has asked for you several times, sire. Thankfully though, she seems to have accepted the excuse we have made for now, though she is growing more and more apprehensive with every passing hour. It probably won’t be long now before she sees through our lies and comes here demanding an explanation." Abraham stepped forward and answered.

"And the others?" Alexander languidly inquired, running a hand through his now shoulder blade length hair.

"Lord Darius has managed to expertly keep the council blind to your absence, so there is no issue on that front, but your uncle is beginning to grow restless, probably on the precipice of piecing things together as well." Isaac quickly reported, before a third voice continued.

"As for the princes and princesses, the younger ones are none the wiser so far, only slightly confused by your sudden disappearance, but Cyrus and Nizam are suspicious and have begun to quietly investigate." Horus finished with a small smile.

A long, weary sigh then escaped the emperor’s lips, as he rubbed his eyes with his right hand’s thumb and index finger, causing amused smiles to sprout on the faces of the three men present, as Horus asked "Finally regretting your decision to keep your advancement a secret from them, sire?"

"It’s better to seek forgiveness than ask for permission." Alexander directly answered, with absolutely no hesitation in his voice, as he then continued with a slightly relieved smile on his face, knowing that his plan had achieved it’s intended purpose "And this way at least, I have spared them the worst of it."

The two ancient pillars of the empire nodded their heads solemnly at his words, understanding his meaning; but Horus, whose been curious this entire time why his master and friend had gone to such lengths to hide, the ostensibly elating fact of his promotion to a third gated demi-God from his beloved family, asked "The worst of what, sire?"

"The worst of the hauntings of some unwanted memories concerning the long since deceased." He apathetically answered, which further confused his poor spear wielding, silver wraith, but they were as clear as day to Abraham and Isaac, who not only knew, but vividly remembered of what and of whom he speaks.

His late father and previous emperor Akhamenid.

Though Alexander made it seem effortless, the act of unlocking the gates for any God blooded individual was not an exigent task, but a near palpable risk. As it is often times described as a gamble, even the lower ranked ones, where one bets their health, sanity and sometimes their life in the hopes of winning big.

And back then, when his father was still a young man, who like most other demi-Gods, also craved the power of the divine gates; he hazarded this threat to obtain the ultimate prize, as he valiantly if not slightly foolishly chased after it, only to be faced with a horror his comfortable life so far had not prepared him for, which nearly destroyed him.

He spent weeks howling from the phantom pain, as his mind grew paranoid of even the shifting shadows of the candles in his room. It was so bad that many thought he would never recover, but after months of gentle care and constant, near unending supply of narcotics that nearly left him numb and addicted, he surprised everyone by finally recovering; though he was never again the same.

He never dared to attempt the trials once more, even training his divine power was out of the question for him from then on, as he utterly refused to even feel a pin prick’s sting on his skin ever again. He grew to abhor pain in all it’s forms, and instead found joy in receiving and giving pleasure, which many attributed to his increasingly hedonistic tendencies in his later life.

"Let’s go." Alexander then said, beginning to make his way out of the underground structure, as his three loyal retainers quickly followed.

Once they were outside, the ever meticulous Isaac, already guessing where his master wanted to go, quickly answered before he could ask "They are in the gardens sire, having tea at the behest of her majesty the empress."

Nodding his head, he quickly pivoted to head to the Imperial Gardens, as he readied himself for the talking to he was certain to come his way again.

Once he was there, his ears were filled with the jovial chimes of echoing laughter and surprised yelps of his siblings, and what appeared to be a few maids, quickly followed by the sounds of splashing water.

His family was in the midst of a water war, as they ran around with buckets in hand dousing any one who was unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire, as a dozen or so servants kept refilling their ammunition.

An unconscious smile stretched across Alexander’s lips at this warm spectacle he was robbed from in his past life, as he watched Cyrus and the twins corner their uncle and drench him from head to toe, before the reinforcements of Kira and Alisar could arrive to save him from his soggy demise.

So engrossed by this spectacle was he, that he utterly lost himself in it and completely forgot the reason he came here in the first place, as he stood there in silence for the next several minutes, just watching them play, not wanting to spoil their fun; as well as selfishly wanting to accrue more of these picturesque scenes, to save in his mind.

Yet he was eventually discovered, when he couldn’t stop the laugh that escaped him at the end, when Cyrus led his victorious troops against their last opponent, mainly those who sat comfortably in the gazebo this entire, not wanting to partake in the festivities, most notably of whom was Nizam. And being a nearly third rank water mage, he effortlessly halted Cyrus’ frontal assault and turned his enemy’s weapons against them, chasing them around the garden as he made cute water cats and little sparrows to chase after the jubilant twins, while he comically hurled their defeated general, Cyrus, with giant snakes and vicious hounds.

"Brother!" The twins called out, as they rushed to me.

I quickly bent down to hold them in my arms, not caring for all the water and mud smeared all over them, as the cute little water animals that were following them melted back into small puddles on the ground.

"Where were you?" Azrael curiously asked, as he began to confusedly grope his face, seemingly investigating why he felt his brother was slightly different than normal.

"We missed you!" Meanwhile Dido just clung happily to his shoulder, as he strode through the soaked battlefield, which had now quieted down, as all the combatants called for a momentary ceasefire, on the account of how they all, the servants included, stared at him with shocked and inquisitive eyes, because he and his hair seemed to have grown taller by a few inches in the matter of a single day, which surprisingly enough was the less noticeable of his changes, as his usually heavy presence had become somehow even more overbearing, confirming the thoughts of the more knowledgeable, such as Haytham, Esmerelda, Cyrus and Nizam.

"We greet the emperor!" The servants only then remembered themselves, as they received the chilling glare of the Grand Chamberlin, throwing their bodies to the ground, fearing the monstrous dragon they served would have their hides for their unintentional disrespect.

Little did they know that he didn’t even notice them, as he was mostly focused on how to ask his most beloved mother’s pardon.

Reaching the beautifully crafted wooden gazebo, he placed the two rascals down, before he caressed Bellerophon’s now fully grown mane, as the little beast had impressively grown to the size of a particularly large adult male lion in these past three years.

He then made his way up the short stone steps of the pavilion, where he nodded to Nizam, before turning to his mother, who looked at him with a small smile, as she padded the seat next to her.

Alexander smiled in return and sat by her side.

The two then remained in relative silence for a while, watching the resumed water war with the same content expressions, as Nizam returned to his book, while Bellerophon, the needy creature, put his head on Alexander lap, asking for the affection he didn’t receive yesterday, in accordance to his his absence.

"I understand why you did it." Esmerelda finally spoke, her tone was not mad or anything of the sort. It was the same unabashed and unrestricted sweet and gentle tone, that oozed of her love for her children, she always used when speaking to one of us.

"Mother, I..." He wanted to speak, but she instantly cut him off.

"I know why you did it, but please don’t do it again." She finished as she looked at him with pleading, tear beholden eyes.

Alexander quickly wrapped her far smaller frame in his arms, as he calmly said "I just didn’t want to worry you, mother."

"And how do you think I felt when you disappeared for a full eighteen hours." She replied, which froze him for a second, as he didn’t have an answer for a moment.

"But you would’ve worried more had I told you what I was doing." He said after a few seconds.

"You still seem don’t understand, my silly little boy." She said, as she removed herself from his hug and lovingly cupped his face with both her hands, focusing his eyes on her own. "Did you learn nothing from when you unlocked your second gate? We will always worry for you sweetheart, it’s practically my job nowadays, but we will never try to stop you, understand? You carry a great many burdens already. You have done so ever since four years ago, so don’t add our weight on top of that as well. If you decide to do something we will always be there for you, standing right by your side, always. So never again hide these things from us. Alright, sweetheart?"

"Yes mother." Alexander muttered, his eyes lowered.

"You’re lying." She said with a small smile, as she strongly hugged him.

"Mother..." Alexander tried to speak, but then a butler came rushing to the foot of the gazebo panting, as he said.

"My emperor, an emissary from the Astrapi Kingdom has arrived. The Grand Vizier asks for your presence immediately."