Irium

"Irium!" In Trevor"s voice, my name is called.

"…" I chose to not answer. And so, the person out to visit me walk towards me as he asks,

"Are you okay?"

"No." I answer. I do not say any extra words. Just the ones I need to give for the answer.

"I see. Come with me!" Trevor tells me so even as he faces my back. And so, I turn around and face his back and follow him as he tells me to.

And we walk. We walk. We continue to walk. We do not stop until we reach our destination, which is, the throne room. At least, looking at it from a traditional sense, that is what I would call this room.

"I have noticed something, Trevor." I say as I see that the room is empty.

"What is that?" He asks quite courteously.

I turn to him and answer, "You already know that."

I turn to look everywhere and find no one in the room. No guards, no officials, no nothing. It"s like the king and his second-in-command are the only ones in this castle.

"I want to know where the other officials are." I state quite clearly, and in a voice just as clear, the answer comes immediately.

"There aren"t other officials here."

"Are you for real?" I ask, furrowing my brows, "There is no one but the king and his second-in-command in this castle. How can you run an entire realm all by yourselves?"

Trevor smiles and says, "That"s the thing, Irium. There is no need for government in this realm."

"I find that quite hard to believe." I say but,

"That"s because you are bound by your traditional values." He says, "Try to keep an open mind and take a look at the citizens of this realm once again. Tell me, where is there a need for authority?"

The citizens of this realm, huh? The people who live in so much happiness that there is no crime; the people who laugh so much that it hurts my heart; you want me to look at them, Trevor?

"There is no crime in this realm. People live with order and morality. No one cheats anyone. Everyone gets a good amount of food every day and sleeps under a roof." Trevor goes on and on proving his point. And it"s not that I don"t see his point but that it"s an absolutely ludicrous point.

"Tell me Irium," he asks as he looks at me, "What would authorities do in this kind of place other than earn a salary for sitting on their a.s.ses and doing nothing."

"They disappointed him, didn"t they?" I ask.

"… who?" Trevor does not get who I am talking about so I clear it for him.

"The authorities. Back when everything happened, back when Remedy Corporation tried to come after her?"

"…"

"He saw how his family was torn apart, starting from Grimma, but the authorities did nothing. Neither the authorities that knew about magic nor the authorities that didn"t knew about them, they couldn"t do anything."

"…"

"And so he was so disappointed in them that he decided he would create a realm where there won"t be any authorities." I say, even seeing how Trevor does not respond, "He thought he could pull it off, and seeing how everyone seems to be smiling, I"m pretty sure he is trying to convince himself that he was right."

All this realm is – is an embodiment of all of his regrets and memories. It"s not a place of happiness or sadness, but it"s a place of disillusion and stupidity.

"And what if that is the case? What is wrong with this realm?" Trevor asks me. "What"s wrong with your father"s ideals?"

"Calling him my father doesn"t change my perception of it, Trevor." I say quite firmly. "And as for your question, there is definitely something wrong with this realm. And when that wrong comes into play, things will escalate so fast no one would have time to do anything about it."

"…" He stays silent, not denying me, and not agreeing with me either.

"So anyway, where are my two co-visitors and the ruler of the realm?" I ask, "I believe that has something to do with you bringing me here, doesn"t it?"

"…" Trevor stares out the windows and stays silent for a moment, and then he asks, "You remember everything now?"

"Not everything. I remember as much of the story Roswaisa had earlier told me. I remember from the part of getting adopted by them to Grimma disappearing and him going out to help you bring her back. I don"t remember what happened past that."

"I see. That"s enough for now." Trevor says and turns to look at the throne … which then mechanically moves away from where it was and reveals a narrow hallway.

"Let" go in." Trevor says, "The three people you asked about earlier will be waiting where we this path will lead to."

"I see." I say; so many emotions inside me but none coming out.

*****

"So what is your plan?" Danny asks me as he looks at me with suspicion.

"Hah!" I sigh. "Do I look like I have a plan?"

I smile with innocence as I look back at him. And he says,

"Yes, you do."

"I can second that." Roswaisa adds.

"Impressive!" I remark and so tell, "I do have a plan. And it"s to prove a point."

That"s all there is to my plan.

"Is that why we are here?" Danny asks.

"Yes, that IS why we are here." I answer.

This place that we are in – it is right behind the castle – and is called the coliseum. And that pretty much explains what it is. It is a coliseum.

It is a coliseum with about 100,000 seats, far more than the number of people living in this city. The ground in the middle of the coliseum is a perfect circle by the way. I guess one could even call it a stadium instead of a coliseum. That wouldn"t exactly be wrong.

This place one of my most esteemed creations, probably the biggest attraction for anyone visiting the capital city we are in. And as I look at the beauty of it, I say,

"This is the place that I will die."

*****