~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The men who crave power are best fitted to acquire it, and least fitted to exercise it."
-Seti
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been a long time since Ty has been at the Shivoan Palace. As a Prince of Estron and a Naval Captain, Ty made countless ventures to King Mitchell to deliver messages and such and to aid in several battles. Truth be told, Ty preferred Shivoa over Estron. Shivoa has something that Estron doesn't, warmness and belonging.

Ty respects King Mitchell, he loves the kingdom that Mitch has created. More importantly, he loves that Mitch didn't hesitate to throw away old traditions and values for the good of his people. Sure, he sees the danger in letting commoners hold positions of power, but he knows Mitch isn't a fool. He wouldn't do things out of spite.

The people of Shivoa always looked happier than the Estron civilians. And Ty has gotten to know a lot of the Shivoan people because of his many visits. It is also because, unlike Estron, Shivoa doesn't possess a tainted view of Ty and that's because of King Mitchell. While he could feel bad that Shivoa feels more like a home to him than Estron ever did, he doesn't feel bad at all.

Ty stopped in front of the King's chambers, knocking on the door and waiting. Once he heard the right to enter, he came in, closing the doors behind him.

"You wanted to see me--" Ty stopped when he saw the king. Mitch is sat up in bed, shirtless, with Quentin taking off the bandages to wrap a set of fresh ones. Ty bit on his bottom lip once he looked at the king's wound, seeing sickening bruising decorating Mitch's stomach. "I can come back later--"

Mitch shakes his head. "No, no, it's alright, Ty. Stay, Quentin is almost done," he said.

Ty nods a bit, waiting. 'How can he just sit there and smile? Isn't he in pain?' he thought to himself as Quentin started wrapping a new set of bandages around Mitch's stomach. Ty looked at the physician. "How is he doing?" he asked.

Quentin glanced at Ty. "He's recovering well. He hasn't had another fainting episode since the one he had four days ago. I'm pretty sure that episode was the product of him overworking himself like he usually does in getting me into Seto's chambers," he said making the king shyly smile.

"Probably but it worked. Seto's well on his way to recovery--"

Quentin yanked on the bandages making Mitch yelp and him smile. "I agree, it was a necessary evil. And you better not have been getting out of this bed," he warned making Mitch shake his head when Quentin's expression darkened at him.

"I-I would never. Besides, Jerome and Rob threatened to knock me unconscious and/or chain me to this bed if I tried to get out of it without good reason," Mitch stammered. Ty smiled a bit watching the two.

Quentin finished the bandages, getting up and tossing Mitch back his shirt. "Well, I'm going to check on Seto. Luckily, his fever broke hours ago and can hold food down. So it won't be long until you both are back on your feet," he said before he leaves.

Ty chuckles lightly before crossing his arms. "Does he ever take a break?" he asked before looking at the king. He loses his smile seeing Mitch wince when he tried to put on his shirt. "Here, let me help." Ty pulled the shirt over Mitch's head and down, his arms already through the sleeves.

Mitch let out a pained breath. "Thanks," he mumbled making Ty cross a realization.

"How long have you been putting up that 'I'm feeling better' front and why did you drop it around me?" he asked the king. He's asked how Mitch was doing plenty of times and always got the whole he is feeling better response.

Mitch sighed. "I'm feeling a lot b-better than I was. It just hurts to move sometimes is all," he said. His eyes looked at the prince. "I dropped it around you because you would see straight through me almost immediately."

Ty sits on the bed, sitting at the foot of it since he didn't want to put stress on his injuries and cause him pain. "What do you mean?"

Mitch gives him a soft smile. "You're preceptive, Ty. You see things that go unnoticed by a lot of people. I would know since I was the same way. And being as perceptive as you are, you can hide behind your walls much easier and keep people out," he said making Ty look away from the king. Mitch loses his smile. "I want to talk about your father."

Ty's hands gripped his pants as he felt a mix of emotions burst through him, making his chest tighten. "Do we have to?" he asked not looking at the king.

Mitch looked at Ty's hands for a moment seeing he was uncomfortable. Which was something that he expected since he knew Ty wasn't always the most open person. "I'm not going to act like I know more than you just because I'm a king, after all...we aren't even ten years apart in age. But I know what it is like to have a disapproving father and a fractured father-son relationship since that was my father's and I's relationship as well," he said surprising Ty.

Ty looked at Mitch. "No, that's not--"

Mitch's eyes looked at Ty. "To the rest of the world, Prince Ty and King Nathan had the perfect father-son relationship...but to those who know better know how fractured your relationship was. We act like we are fine for the people, but behind closed doors is a different story, am I right?" he asked making Ty look away from him in shame.

The king's eyes soften at Ty. "Look, Ty, I was prepared for my father's death because he was suffering from a fatal illness. That's why I led the Shivoan Army in the Decade War instead of him, he wasn't well enough to leave the castle, so I took charge. But I had emotionally prepared myself to lose my father, even though we had such a broken relationship...I knew all the terrible things he did to me...they were done out of what he thought was best," he said making Ty look back at him.

"What exactly did your father do to you?" Ty asked curious about the answer.

But Mitch looked down at his lap, hesitating. "Do you know about the Court System?" he asked.

Ty nods. "Yeah, it's a bunch of advisers who serve the king. They can be military officers like the General, or important persons of the kingdom that are vital to its survival. But they are all nobles, no commoners or anything. The king appoints them," he said not sure why this is important or relevant.

Mitch hesitated before he spoke. "Did you know that I was named the most targeted royal prince in history?" he asked surprising Ty.

Sure, Ty knew that before Mitch became a king, he was targeted by assassins a lot. But so is Ty, he had has a few assassins come after him. And he's been present during one of these assassination attempts on Mitch's life a few months before he became king. He had no idea that Mitch was targeted so often though. But given Mitch's fame that started during his princeling years and has grown more and more to this day, that wasn't very surprising to him to hear that Mitch has made enemies.

"I mean, no, I didn't. But aren't we all targeted--"

"Ty...the Shivoan Royal Court, my father's royal court, was targeting me," he said making Ty's eyes widen. Mitch looked at the prince, seeing his shocked expression. Mitch smiled softly at him but lost his smile as his eyes diverted down to his lap again. "And I know for a fact that my father knew it was his royal court behind it all and instead of doing something about it, he looked the other way because he didn't entirely disagree with them."

Ty stared at the king, shocked, as thoughts raced through his head. 'So that's why he fired the entire Shivoan Royal Court shortly after he became king,' he thought to himself.

After Mitch was crowned, he fired his father's entire Royal Court, kicking them out of the castle. While having newly crowned kings fire royal court members aren't unheard of, firing the entire royal court certainly is. And there was never an explanation provided for what the world saw as a very rash and stupid decision.

And hearing King Luther Hughes, a king that Ty looked up to when he was young, was okay with killing his son...well it was world-shattering news.

Ty looked away from the king. "W-What proof do you have that he knew?" he asked.

Mitch's eyes soften at him, knowing he wouldn't believe him at first. He lets out a shaky breath, looking away as he thought back. Truth be told, Mitch doesn't like to visit the times when he found out what his father truly thought of him...it hurt too much to think about. Mitch loses his smile more. "I ordered silence on his involvement because I know how much people looked up to my father, I...I didn't want to ruin his image. And truth be told...I don't remember much of what happened that proved my father's involvement because I was barely clinging to life at the time. But...I remember Jerome and them telling me everything they found out after I had recovered. And I remember confronting him and...the look on my father's face told me everything I needed to know. He feigned ignorance, claiming he had no idea and I was being fooled by the people who attacked and kidnapped me," he said making Ty look at the king.

"So you just believed Jerome and them?" he asked.

Mitch shakes his head. "No, I didn't want to believe it at first, but then I found out what my father was going to do in response to my kidnapping," he said.

"How did you get kidnapped?" Ty asked.

The corner of Mitch's mouth curved slightly. "It was kinda my fault really, I was unarmed and alone, slightly drunk too. The Royal Court set kidnappers on me, they hit me with some strong sleep dart. The kidnappers stabbed me since the dart wasn't working fast enough. I passed out because of the blood loss. Lachlan told me that Jerome, Vikk, and Rob were beside themselves when they found out I was kidnapped and injured too," he said before he lost his smile. "They went to the king to see what he would do and instead of coming up with a plan to save me...He...had a different agenda. He arrested Jerome, Rob, and Preston once he figured out that they knew the truth. He sent those three to the dungeons and set their execution at dawn. My father was going to announce to the entire kingdom that Jerome, Rob, and Preston murdered me in cold blood. And as for Vikk and Lachlan, they were nobles, so my father didn't want to execute them. And Vikk was my father's best friend's son so my father had Vikk's father decide how to silence him...and it...was bad. Vikk refused to forget me and wanted to rescue me...so Vikk's father slashed him with his sword. And after slashing Vikk, he slashed Lachlan as well so my father could claim that Vikk and Lachlan were fatally injured while trying to protect me from Jerome, Rob, and Preston since they couldn't silence the two."

Ty's stared at the king in horror. He had no idea that such events took place and he could tell by the look on Mitch's face, such events weren't ones he likes to dwell on. "How...How did you survive? Who saved you?" he asked.

Mitch looked at Ty, seeing his horrified look. The king smiles softly at him. "Jerome, Rob, Preston, Vikk, and Lachlan did," he said confusing Ty.

"B-But how? You said that--"

"I never said that the knights of Shivoa approved of any of this, now did I? Once they found out what was really going on, they contacted Seto, Brice, and The Fyre Brothers, crying out for help since they didn't know how to save me and the others," Mitch said before he smiled. "Seto and Brice broke Jerome, Rob, and Preston out of the dungeons while the Fyre Brothers rescued Vikk and Lachlan, taking them to healers immediately for their wounds. And since Seto and the Fyre Brothers held positions of power, or at least Seto did at the time, in the MAgic Council, my father couldn't touch them. And when he tried to go after Brice, Seto turned...well he turned scary. He threatened to kill my father if he touched Brice."

"So then everything turned out okay? He started to help?" Ty asked hopeful the answer was yes but Mitch shook his head.

"No, because he knew that I was gravely injured and was clinging to life. So he doubted they would even be able to save me...and he was right because my heart stopped when I heard them fighting to get to me. I died moments before they got to me," he said surprising Ty again.

"Y-You died? But you are--"

Mitch smiled looked at Ty. "Luckily, Quentin and Seto were able to restart my heart otherwise I would have stayed dead. I remember waking up and seeing Jerome horrified face after Seto revived me. Of course, I passed out shortly after I woke up. Jerome and them took me to Fadea where Quentin was at the time and Quentin was able to stabilize me," he said before he smiled. "I'll never forget the looks on the faces of my father's royal court when I walked back into the castle after I recovered. Oh and this incident made Jerome and them more paranoid and protective over me too."

Ty chuckled lightly. "I imagine they would be. You are kinda important after all," he said making Mitch smile slightly in response.

But he lost his smile. "Ty, I didn't tell you this story just for the heck of it. I'm telling you it for a reason," he told the prince.

Ty's eyes looked at the king, curious. "And what is that reason?" he asked. While the story was interesting, he had no idea that Mitch struggled against his father like that. He didn't know that Shivoa was so divided before Mitch's rule.

Mitch let out a soft breath. "I know of your displeasure for politics, your hatred for the throne and crown. But...you may not have a choice," he said making Ty stand up.

"I don't want to be King--"

"It's not about what you want, it's about what your people need," Mitch said.

Ty stared at Mitch. "Why did you tell me about your kidnapping?" he asked.

"Your ideals are not far from my own. And we were both targeted for our ideals. I also know that you don't completely trust Sky--"

"And you do? He's an--"

"--an Skaldian? He's the son of Prince Elliot Skylen. The Prince who would have ended the war between the three kingdoms and open the Skaldian borders. He was going to reinvent Skaldia but was killed for his ideals. King Izic killed his own brother because he didn't like his brother's intentions for the kingdom. Does that sound familiar?" Mitch asked Ty. Ty looked away.

Truth be told, that was so familiar because that was part of the reason why he was at odds with his own brother. Zachary follows the old ways while Ty wants to do his own thing and not be restricted by rules made up by a bunch of dead people a long time ago.

"My reputation is beyond redemption. Zach and my father ruined me--"

Mitch shakes his head. "No, I don't think that is true. After all, I have the perfect plan to fix your reputation. Your crew looks at you with a spark in their eyes already, so I doubt all of your people look at you with tainted views," he said. Ty paused, not knowing what to say.

Yes, he cares for Estron. But...the throne was Zach's. And even though he knew that Zach probably won't hold it for long because he would fail as a king, he still didn't want it.

"My sister can rule--"

"Your sister is only fourteen years old, Ty. You're twenty-one," Mitch said. The king could tell that Ty was nervous and anxious. He sort of reminded him of himself before he became king. He remembers how nervous he was before the coronation and how Jerome, Jessica, and the others had to calm him down because he was on the verge of an anxiety attack. "Can you at least promise me that you will think about this? And you will help me reclaim your kingdom?"

Ty nods. "Of course I'll help you reclaim Estron...and I guess I'll think about being King. But I'm not making promises," he said making Mitch smile.

The king let out a soft breath, knowing that is probably as far as he going to be able to get with the prince. "That's all I ask of you, Ty."