Achieving the state of meditation took a while when he was so anxious, but finally he managed.
He sank deeper into his mind, searching for the source of that niggling feeling.
I find it curious that there was a royal child about your age that went missing around the time Idhron brought you to the High Hronthar.
I thought I was seeing a dear friend of mine who died a long time ago. The resemblance is quite uncanny.
Eridan went still. He had dismissed Tethru’s speculations as ridiculous at the time, but if Queen Janesh used to have a friend who looked so like him that she had actually mistaken him for a dead person… Coupled with Castien’s uncharacteristic wariness and tension…
Taking a deep breath, Eridan told himself it proved nothing. He needed something more tangible.
He closed his eyes and fell into meditation again. He delved deeper and deeper, searching for those elusive, half-forgotten memories of his early childhood.
A tall, spacious room filled with toys. “He is old enough to get him betrothed… Perhaps after the trip…”
A lanky boy, with blue, tear-filled eyes. “They are dead, Eri. They won’t come back.”
A much younger Castien, gazing at him in an assessing manner. “What is your name, child?”
Eridan’s eyes snapped open. He stared in front of him unseeingly, his heart pounding. Castien had really brought him to the Order. Tethru had been honest, at least about that part. Could Tethru have been right about everything else?
He strained his memory, trying to remember more, but it was difficult. He wasn’t surprised. The day a High Hronthar child was Named, their existing familial and betrothal bonds, if there were any, were broken, to help the child let go of any previous attachments and adjust to their new life. That generally made the earlier memories vaguer. He had been too young to remember much, in any case.
I find it curious that there was a royal child about your age that went missing around the time Idhron brought you to the High Hronthar.
Chewing on his lip, Eridan reached for his multi-device. He could look up if there were any three-year-old royal children that went missing around the time he was brought to the Order. Although the mere idea still seemed ridiculous, he doubted Tethru would make up something like that for no reason.
An hour later, Eridan set his multi-device down and stared at it blankly. At the picture of the boy. Crown Prince Warrehn of the Fifth Grand Clan went missing seventeen years ago—as well as his three-year-old brother, Prince Eruadarhd.
There were no later pictures of the younger prince, since it was forbidden to photograph young children of high-profile figures unless it was for some official purpose. The only picture Eridan could find was from the day of Prince Eruadarhd’s birth, when the royal couple had released a press statement that included the Queen-Consort holding the newborn.
Eridan stared at the Queen-Consort, at her golden hair and violet eyes. Just like his own.
I thought I was seeing a dear friend of mine who died a long time ago. The resemblance is quite uncanny.
Then he looked at the ten-year-old Prince Warrehn. Looking at his picture made something inside his chest squeeze. He was almost sure that he remembered him, but it could be just confirmation bias.
Could this really be his family?
Eridan traced the Queen-Consort’s lovely face with his finger.
“Does it matter?” he whispered.
If they were his family, they all were dead anyway. The King and the Queen-Consort had died not long before their children’s disappearance. Crown Prince Warrehn was presumed dead, supposedly killed by the rebels.
Eridan was skeptical about the latter part—that he was killed by the rebels. The rebels were actually harmless. But in any case, it was highly unlikely that Prince Warrehn was alive. It had been over seventeen years. The elder prince would have turned up somewhere if he were alive.
His brother was dead, just like their parents.
Eridan’s vision was suddenly a little blurry.
It was so stupid, crying over strangers, his blood family he almost didn’t remember.
He wasn’t Prince Eruadarhd. He was just Eridan, an apprentice of the High Hronthar.
The Grandmaster’s apprentice.
Eridan frowned. Regardless of what he thought about this discovery, the fact remained that his Master had been lying to him, or at least lying by omission. Castien had never told him that he was the one who had brought him to the Order.
Where had he even found him? These old reports said that the two princes had been attacked by the rebels in