《Restoration》


 Presence

    With my eyes still closed, I awoke from what felt to be another prolonged slumber.


    Just how much time had passed while I was sealed away, sequestered and cloistered in this dark cell?


    Instinctively, I concentrated on feeling my power course through my body.


    Knowing that everything was fine and that I was as powerful as ever,


    I gave strength to my arms and legs and pulled on the chains that bound me.


    A ritual that I engaged in everytime that I awoke, one which had always borne the same results.


    Insanity perhaps, but there was no other course of action that I could take.


    This time however, I heard the chains scrunch and scream in twisting metal agony.


    Surprised, I opened my eyes, and saw for the first time, light creeping through within a crack in this prison.


    I yelled and pulled at the chains with feverish fervor, and succeeded in breaking free of the bonds that bound me.


    I slipped my fingers from both hands within the crack of the wall and started to peel it open forcefully.


    There was a lot of resistance and it took a lot out of me to be able to withstand the barrier to even grab hold.


    But with a loud crash, the entire structure shattered like fragile glass thrown to the floor.


    And then I saw.


    I saw the dilapidated ruins, once a grand and marvelous temple, which had held my seal.


    Fallen down and crumbled, with vines and vegetation having taken up abode everywhere from around the pillars to the broken floor. I saw that immediately outside the temple there was a forest, where once there was an open plain surrounding the hilltop.


    How much time had passed?


    I flew up into the air above, to gather my bearings and to take a look at the surrounding area.


    I saw the place where there used to be a small village, which over time I had built into the great city Vevelon.


    Nothing much remained of the once proud and mighty city, only an empty field.


    The geography of the lands around me had changed quite drastically and dramatically.


    I could still recognize the rivers however, the grand flow of their course remained much the same.


    I also saw a small town at the edge of the forest, walled off by wooden pallisades, as if standing guard to the entrance.


    I decided to make my way there.


    However, I flew off into the distance away from the forest, and alighted on the dusty path leading towards the town and the forest. I took out a traveller''s wooden cane from my inventory, and likewise equipped a standard Wanderer''s clothing set. As I steadily approached the town, I could see various others coming and going on the path.


    Some merchants and travellers, but mostly those who seemed to be of the mercenary or adventuring kind.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.Listening in to their conversation, I didn''t quite completely understand the language at first, but soon enough realized that the most commonly spoken language was some dialect descended from the Shared Continental Language from my day. I saw an aged man on top of a cart full of hay being pulled by a donkey passing by my position.


    "Sir, would you be so kind as to be able to give me a lift to the town gates?" I said while taking out a nondescript silver coin.


    "Oh-ho, what a curious piece of coinage. And a curious accent as well. Well come on up traveller, and keep me some company," the old man said.


    "Thank you sir. Whereabouts are we, if you don''t mind me asking?"


    "That''s a curious question to be asking, got lost did you? Well, we''re heading towards the town of Milltred, part of the Duchy of Mcalle, Kingdom of Cleria. The town is on the edge of the Great Forest of Velon, full of hidden ruins, and those who seek its treaures amidst the danger."


    "I see. Yes, I am lost. I''ve been completely lost for a long long time. I''m not even from this place or anywhere nearby actually, so please, tell me more."


    "What would you like to know?"


    "Everything, anything. We could start with history. Cleria for instance, the founder was a Queen named Cleria I presume?"


    "Well, well, perhaps you''re a studied man? Yes, the legendary Queen Cleria, second wife of the mythical King whose name has been lost in time."


    "And the first wife, a woman named Julia then."


    "Aye, indeed! the fiery Queen Julia, progenitor of the world''s foremost superpower the Julian Empire, first wife of the mythical King."


    "To my knowledge, the King took many women as his wives."


    "Aye, which is why we had and still have so many different kingdoms in our world. But this kind of knowledge is hidden, traveller."


    ''Hidden nowadays, but not in your time good sir. And dare I say still not forbidden."


    "Now, if the subject we''ve been speaking of is the stuff of myths and legends, how long ago is it alleged to have happened?"


    "That''s a tricky one. I learnt history from my own grandfather, a real scholar, and t''was myth and legend during his time too. So I couldn''t really tell you, stranger."


    "I see. Well, whatever happened to the Mythical King? Where is his Kingdom?"


    "Who knows? There are so many different stories about that. Part of the reason so many adventurers go into the Great Forest is to try and uncover the ruins of the Mythical City. Anyhow, your guess is as good as mine about the King."


    At this point, I excused myself and after exchanging farewells, got off the cart.


    I found a rock to sit down upon and looked up at the sky.


    Julia... Cleria... my reddy and my ally...


    Is everything lost to oblivion?


    Am I now in some foreign land where I am blind and everything is dark to me.


    Where Everything is dead to me?


    And then I remembered. That I was granted, at the very end, right before being sealed by the mighty God, one final condolence.


    That one, and only one, but one - my greatest wish - would be given to me. When I finally realized what the world was, what the world had meant to me.


    For one man was to be wed to one woman.


    And she the world to him.

 I said Tomorrow, She said another Season

    "Longing"


    Now I know


    Why


    You looked at me so despondently


    Even then


    The glitter in your shaking eyes


    As you gazed at me


    Shook me deeply


    within my heart


    within my soul


    And afterwards


    Though I wanted to see


    I could not see


    Your sad gaze


    had such a meaning


    of despair and longing


    So I imagine


    Gazing back at you


    And when once again


    I actually do


    I long to smile and laugh


    As I see you do so too


    A Vision?


    A Mirage?


    A Dream?


    I remember. Before coming to this world, when I was a mere mortal.


    I saw her only twice and she looked at me only once but that was enough.


    She peered directly into my eyes with her gaze and made me feel something that I had never


    experienced before. She shook me to the very depths of my soul and stirred the core of my being.


    Such sadness. Such desire.


    Years passed before I saw her one more time.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.And I let her just pass on by like a fool.


    Her hair the color of the sun''s passion.


    Her eyes the color of the sea''s embrace.


    She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.


    I had wanted her to be my first woman.


    I cannot forget her.


    My desire to see her is as acute as it has ever been.


    In determining my greatest wish, I''ve had wrinkles imprint themselves on my forehead, so troubled have I been.


    Must I necessarily forsake everything and everyone else?


    For just that chance...


    I looked up towards the heavens, standing beside this rock which has kept me company for these several weeks.


    It is my wish, my only wish, my greatest wish, to see her again.


    So that I may have the chance to be with her.


    That is what I want.


    And so, I took out the scroll that was given me as my final condolence.


    I undid the strap holding the scroll and unrolled it.


    And finally, I tore it in half.


    Whereupon a blinding white light engulfed me and made my ears ring; I felt as if though I was skyrocketing up and up into the clouds above and eventually lost consciousness.


    <hr>


    Things are that some time has passed in the real world, or the world in which I originated from.


    For I have been returned.


    I have lost all my powers, all my accumulated wealth and riches, all my status, and all my people.


    I am once again, a mere mortal.


    And being so, I have no definitive way of seeking her out.


    I did many things to try and look for her to no avail.


    On one day, many days later, a profile on an online dating site caught my eye.


    There was no picture, but I was simply smitten.


    So I messaged this woman.


    And when we actually met up in person, she was the one I had been seeking all along.


    Of course, I had to play the part of a normal and ordinary man.


    Because that''s what I am now.


    I am no King, but for her I am willing to be her prince.

 First, You Grandest of Fools, See Things as They Truly Are

    The years passed on by.


    And this passing of time and the flow of events within it caused me a great quandary.


    One of the prime reasons why I had chosen to be with the woman of my dreams was that,


    I had seen whom I believed to be our children within the dream.


    But for whatever reason, the children I had longed for never came.


    That most beautiful and cherished of girls, with red hair and blue eyes just like her mother.


    She never came.


    At least not as my child.


    For she was her own separate person.


    Yes, she had been in my dreams.


    But she had not come to me as a daughter, but as a woman.


    I had simply misinterpreted and misattributed to a grievous degree.


    This I confirmed by crossing paths with her.


    She looked at me from afar, with such unconsolable sadness within her being.


    At that moment, I realized.


    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.What a grand fool I''d been.


    What an oblivious sinner I was.


    That, whatever the decision I make and the choice that I take,


    I should have done so after having seen things as they truly are.


    That these were two separate women all along.


    I was completely broken.


    I was full of anguish and agony.


    How could I have been so blind, so stupid, so onerous?


    And if I had known then...


    If I had known the truth about the matter, what would I have done?


    That I would actually love to lean on the lord''s prayer at a time like this.


    Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us -


    Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil -


    Who had it truly been all along


    Who had I truly wanted all this time


    What must I do? What I want to.


    What do I want? Right now, that rock to sit upon and look up at the heavens.