The Crimson Prince： Awakening

King Ragnos put his hands up in a calm matter. "Weinried, we have been friends for years." He said calmly. "We can get through this misunderstanding, just let my son go."

Will saw Maya behind his father. If anyone were to pay attention to her, they would see that she was waiting patiently for something.

"Your son decided to pay me a visit today and showed me a rather unique power." The Duke said with greed in his features. "He can change his flame attribute. He can also take away and give power." Weinried said as he pushed Will down the first step. "A power like this shouldn"t be exclusively for a king who has lost his power!" He shouted as he pushed Will down another step. "If I keep him, our kingdom will definitely be strong enough to take Ebonhart! Take heart, he will live much longer than you. He will be our ever powerful source of energy!"

"Weinried! You re going to far!" King Ragnos bellowed, yet he didn"t dare take a step.

"Father!" A voice rang out from behind the king. A young woman with golden hair ran up the stairs to join her father.

"Jeselle, did you have fun in the city?" He nudged Will down yet another step as he smiled at his daughter.

Jeselle smiled a huge grin as she stared at Will. "I bet you wish that you cooperated with me now, huh?" She punched Will in the face. He didn"t react as a trickle of blood streamed down his lip. During the entire situation, his eyes never once left his father"s. He held a calm demeanor while waiting to see where things went.

"Oh, look father, I made the Crimson Prince live up to his name!" She laughed an innocent laugh and looked at the king. "Don"t worry, your majesty. You will be a grandfather yet, we need to keep the bloodline open so the next Ragnos can be of Bloomstar!" She licked her lips at the thought. "You are looking at the soon to be queen of Ebonhart and her concubine, William Ragnos!" Their laughter rang out as they made their way down the stairs.

"Have you heard enough, father?" Will said quietly while they were half way down the stairs. "Do you see why I have to deny you?"

Will felt the Duke"s hand with the stone press up against his shoulder blades. "Move kid, if not I"ll just have to settle for killing you." Weinried sneered and tried to push him down another step.

The Duke met resistance in the last push and tried again. "I mean it kid, is this worth losing your life for?"

"That"s what I was about to ask you." A bone chilling voice sounded as Will turned to face Weinried. "Your time for talking is over."

A storm of turquoise flames erupted around Will, the Duke and his daughter creating a perfect circle, obscuring everyone"s sight of the three.

"Will!" The king shouted. He knew his son had tipped the Duke in the wrong direction. By insulting him one last time, he finally ignited the stone.

"Weinried! I"ll give you whatever you want, don"t hurt my son!" The king begged as he saw the unforgiving flames engulf them. "I"ll step down! I"ll find a way to get your powers back! Leave my son out of this!"

"This won"t do." A chilling voice whispered from the flames. Suddenly, the turquoise flames turned the royal crimson and gold. "There, that"s more my taste."

A silhouette of a man could be seen through the flames. He walked down the stairs, still covered from head to foot with the royal colored inferno.

The man stopped just feet away from King Ragnos. His knights had already formed a protective circle around him. "You are not worthy." The man whispered through the flames.

The king knelt down, pale faced and wide eyed while staring into the flames. "No." He managed to force out through his fear. "No I am not, just please. Let my son go."

"You idiot." The voice whispered once more. "This is why I cannot be King of Ebonhart." The flames slowly subsided starting at the head of the figure. "I hope now you understand," the fire diminished at the head and to the king"s dismay, "father." Will"s eyes pierced through his father and saw every flaw.

"No, Will! How is it you?" The king looked over to the steps in horror and noticed that the ring of royal flames still burned.

Slowly, it extinguished and a horrorstruck Duke and his daughter appeared. "How?" Weinried stared at Will. "My daughter saw you put all of your energy into a stone, this shouldn"t be possible!" He squeezed the stone, intending to burn a path through the knights. "Come Jeselle!" He pointed the stone towards Will. "I don"t know where all this power came from, but there has to be a limit!"

He walked down the stairs, but Will let him half way. "Are you so blind by power that you haven"t noticed yet?" Will smirked at the Duke. "Why don"t you try to use that stone." He challenged with daggers shooting from his eyes.

The old man dawned a serious expression. "You leave me no choice then." He pointed the stone at Will. "Farewell, prince."

The Duke activated the Crystal, he knew that within seconds he would blow through the young prince and be on his way out the door. He let his consciousness meld with the stone, summoning its power. But nothing happened. "What?" He tried again, but nothing happened. "What"s going on?"

Will laughed openly. "Weinried, you said it yourself didn"t you?" The laughter abruptly stopped and Will sprang forth and s.n.a.t.c.hed the Crystal. "I can give and take power."

"No!" The old man was defeated and he knew it, but he was confused. "My daughter watched you absorb the power of the wind crystal yesterday, it took all the way into the night to absorb such a small amount. It"s impossible!" He began rummaging through his robe to find the other Crystal. When he found it, Will looked at it through the man"s pocket. "Ah!" The man yelped as he dropped the stone. It smoked from the carpet, leaving a burn mark under it.

"You"re done, Duke." Will collected the stone and allowed his flames to go out completely. "Knights!" Will summoned two of the guard that stood watch over his father. "Take them to the dungeon!"

The knights looked to the king for approval. "Did I ask you for his approval? Take them, now!" His voice grew and the men jumped.

Two knights took the Duke and his daughter from the entrance to the dungeon almost the moment his voice sounded.

Will looked back at his father with a look of pity. "Father, try to understand that this is for the best." He spoke softly.

"You usurped my authority so easily." The king looked lost. "Is this not my kingdom?"

Will"s expression hardened when looking at his father. He didn"t want to, but he knew he had to break him of his delusions. "No, it isn"t. Not since a few moments ago."

King Ragnos looked into the eyes of his son in disbelief. His face remained calm, but when he spoke, it was like thunder after a flash of lightning. "Explain."

"You denounced your right to rule when you begged the enemy to spare me." Will"s tone was like a knife stabbing his father in the chest. "You gave up the entire kingdom to Bloomstar when you thought he was going to kill me. You gave in at a turning point and you made the wrong decision."

The king looked as if he were about to explode. "When is it a sign of weakness to put someone else above yourself?" He yelled at Will. "I thought he was going to kill you. I couldn"t lose you again!"

"That"s the thing, father." Will looked down on the King. "My life is not more important than the lives of thousands. The thousands you threw to the Duke as bargaining chips. If he had been the one within the flames, he would have killed or enslaved them all and taken your resources as his own."

Will knew his words were harsh. He knew he was chipping away at his own father, but the right thing was not always the easy thing. He had to get the King to notice what exactly he was going to do.

"If you were a righteous King, you would have put aside your feelings for the good of the kingdom and taken the Duke out."

"The system that you have in place is flawed, father. Do you not care that there was slavery within your lands? Do you not care that there were poor lining the streets of many villages within the kingdom?"

Will pointed to Maya. "Did you not care that your own knights took advantage of those many poor and exploited them for their own personal amus.e.m.e.nt?"

Maya looked away from Will. She knew that would always be a sore spot for him.

"No more, father." Will shook his head as he looked at King Ragnos. "You have five months." He held up his hand. "After five months, if you have not brought order to this land, I will find someone who will."

The Crimson Prince walked past his father without looking at him and stopped next to the door. "There will be no banquet celebrating my return home until I have returned to a place I would be proud to call home." Will pushed the door open to the courtyard. "I hope with all of my heart that you are able to do that, father." With that, he left the castle with Maya by his side.

"Do you think you went overboard just a little?" Maya asked as she kept up with his pace.

"Not at all." Will said as he stared forward. "This incident proved to me that Ragnos was right. Even though Aremesis is no longer a threat, there"s still something much worse."

"You mean the other you?" Maya guessed. There wasn"t much else that could be the cause of Will"s worry.

"No, the threat is the people. The threat is growth and change. Without a firm hand, our neighbors will come to us in swarms and suppress us. They will take all that we create and greedily horde it for themselves. As long as there is separation between the kingdoms, there will be war and turmoil."

Will did his best to smile at Maya. "Lets put this behind us for now. My father has five months to bring order to Ebonhart and we have a home to move into."

Maya knew that Will had closed that conversation for now. Through spending enough time with him, she was able to pick up the signs and dropped it.

"Would you like to pick up our new furniture?" Will smiled with a childlike glint in his eye.

"No need." Maya smirked at him and took a gem from her pocket. "I took care of that trip while you were filling your Crystal."