1 Freedom and Oppression

The boy sat on the ground, outside in the fresh breeze enjoying the rays of a new dawn. Butterflies and hummingbirds flitted to and fro performing their morning tasks and enjoying their innate freedom. The verdant leaves rustled and shook in accordance with a gust of wind sending a few leaves a-skitter in the late summer air.

The boy was staring intently at his black moon carving with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked up as he felt the strong gust and sighed with pleasure, taking in the scenery to the east with a hopeful expression. In the direction of the sunrise, endless forests and nature flourished unimpeded, while in the opposite direction, civilization grew like a parasite among the western plains of Arandor.

A large city shaped like an octagon stood in the middle of a flat grassy plane a quarter day's journey from the child. Enormous towers of red and white grew from the very center of the octagon with gradually shabbier structures the closer to the outer wall one got. The city had 4 walls separating the city into sections where different social classes resided. These walls also provided a near impenetrable defense against any armies or other strong enemies that may attack.

Roads and trade highways shot out of the eight gates of Folcnar and spiderwebbed across the plains in most directions. Mysteriously, the roads kept away from the east where the child sat currently. Many who had never been to this side of the planet before would find this strange but for all those who were in a sane state of mind, knew that the forests and mountain ranges of the east were protected by the Lakna Vis, an empire of dragons that had kept the eastern wilderness protected and flourishing for millennia.

This was the destination of the boy. Although it was uncertain if the Vis would accept him, he knew he had to try.

He couldn't let them catch him

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3 hours due west from the Laknian border

A group of elite Senate Guard were running in formation at full speed towards the line of trees in the far distance marking the border between the oligarchy of Arandor and the empire of the Lakna Vis.

The Senate Guard were wearing a set of full plate armor made with white Folcnian steel. The armor was painted completely white with red patterning over the whole set. The patterning on the armor marked the difference between each position in the military hierarchy, allowing the Senate Guard to know who was who when wearing full plate. This also provided for good defense as enemies couldn't differentiate the commander from the other Senate Guard, only the Senate Guard themselves could.

Speaking of the commander, he was currently running in the back middle of the formation and occasionally yelled and screamed encouragement to keep the pace.

"Keep this pace we've got another three hours till the border! We can't stop until we reach it! The prime senator will have us killed if we can't find his son!" The commander yelled in urgency.

The Senate Guard didn't respond but showed renewed vigor in their movements. Nobody wanted to face the wrath of the prime senator on the subject of his son.

The prime senator had every right to be furious about the escape of his son. His son was meant to succeed his position as the prime senator and under no circumstances was he allowed to be influenced by other sources other than his father. Because of this mindset of the boy's father, the boy had been kept within the palace his entire life. The boy was only allowed to read the books deemed safe to read and went through a carefully chosen and picked through education, the prime senator being sure to have picked through anything that could be detrimental to the development of his child in the way he wanted.

However, the boy was unsatisfied. As he grew to the age of seven, he began to realize that there was more to life than what he was taught. He began to see through the lies of his educators and eventually, the lies of his father.

The boy grew restless and began looking for ways to escape the palace. He wasn't looking to run away, he just wanted to see the city and maybe find a few books that weren't censored by his father.

Because his father didn't necessarily think that his son would have the willpower to want to understand more about human society at the age of seven, the exits to the palace weren't strictly patrolled and with some skillful maneuvering, the boy was able to escape the palace. There was a daily time slot of about three hours that was allotted to the boy for reading and the boy decided to escape close to the beginning of this recreational time.

The boy was quite scared of being out of the palace the first time, however, his timidness was was soon replaced by a childlike wonder and awe. He saw many grandiose buildings directly surrounding the palace, and as he traveled around them, he noticed that all of the people walking on the sides of the street, which were very few, were dressed in extravagant and effervescent clothing. He had learned about these people in his studies but it was very different hearing about them than actually seeing them.

The boy continued to scrutinize his surroundings and gradually made his way to the library located in the noble quarter. It was a massive building of white marble mixed with red folcnian steel (there are two variants of folcnian steel, red and white. Both hold the same strength but different magical properties). Massive marble pillars supported the front of the literary mausoleum in which many millennia were depicted in etchings and ancient glyphs.

According to a book that he had been allowed to read, the library is a symbol of the longevity and prosperous nature of the country of Arandor, holding thousands of years of information and knowledge.

The boy approached the entrance of the library and was stopped by two heavily armed guards and a scholarly looking man who looked to be in his 30s.

"3 gold folcni to enter the library," said the middle-aged man in a flat disdainful voice. The boy had not bothered to put good clothes on and escaped in his leisure outfit which was basically a black shirt over black trousers. The boy's hair was also a bit unkempt. Although the boy did not look like commoner, he didn't look like he came from a noble upbringing either. At most from outside the third wall where the upper class resides. As a result the doorkeeper looked upon him with disdain and prejudice, not expecting the boy to be able to pay the price.

And the man was right. As a lack of foresight on the boy's part, he had not brought any form of currency. But then again, his main goal was the library and he had not expected there to be an entry fee.

"Well? Either pay or get off the steps, you are repelling business," the man questioned impatiently, showing a more annoyed expression the longer the boy stood there.

The boy had spaced out for a few seconds. He had never really had any interactions with people outside the palace and the people he had interacted with had always been deeply respectful. Such a contrast in behavior as exhibited by the doorman slightly surprised the boy.

The boy snapped back to reality with the doorman's words and frowned slightly which in turn caused the doorman's frown to deepen and increase his annoyance. But before the doorman could say anything else, the boy turned around and walked back down the steps. He tried to keep a calm expression typical of rulers on his face but because of his inexperience and the fact that he was only seven, he let slip some of the true emotion on his face and movement patterns as he walked down the steps. A slight downturn of the mouth, a furrowing of the brows, and a slight quickness in his pace were all evidence of the feeling of injustice and anger dwelling inside him.

However these feelings gradually died down and were suppressed completely by him as he made his way back to palace's north entrance which was where he originally exited from (the palace's four entrances are all a part of the fourth wall that separates the nobles from the palace and oligarchal families themselves). The boy realized that getting back in the palace would most certainly by tougher than when he escaped as the guards focused most of their attention on the people entering and less on the people exiting. Therefore, the boy's re-entry strategy had to be completely different (I'll spare the details as these kinds of scenes drive me insane with boredom).

After several close calls and a few bruises and scrapes later, the boy had successfully re-entered the palace and was on his way back to his room. He had to continue to be stealthy however as the three hours that were allotted for his reading time had not elapsed yet. He was expected to be in his room.

Walking stealthily along the glamorous empty halls and up an equally empty long spiral staircase, he arrived at his room. However, there were 4 heavily armed men guarding the door to his room. The boy already knew they would be there and had faced this problem when trying to figure out how to escape. Thus after mounting the top step of the staircase he quickly ducked left, away from the direction of his room. The guards were a good 250 meters down from him and couldn't differentiate him from a servant. They had seen him but didn't particularly care because of this reason and the fact that the prime senator's son was still in his room. Well, supposed to be.

After walking for another 100 meters he turned right into a sort of lounging area and spied the balcony he had used to re-enter the palace after escaping from his window. Although it was a bit daring walking along a thin ledge, with gusty winds, fourteen stories off the ground, he had done it. He still had that sort of fearlessness all children have when they don't really think about death as a possibility.

He walked toward the window and opened it with a noticeable creak. Climbing through the opening, he pulled the window behind him shut and began his slow walk along the ledge toward the direction of his room.

It is quite euphoric, from a philosophic standpoint, being so high up and watching over all beneath you. Watching people go about their daily lives, doing extremely mundane things while you watch them with a godlike omnipotence. It is also interesting that many of the people below, being so absorbed in their own lives hardly ever wonder what sort of powers lord over them. Yes, there are religions but they only offer a very short-sighted, narrow-minded, and extremely biased point of view which utilizes the power of imagination to manipulate the easily manipulated human mind. And, for this reason, no one bothered to look up. And if they did they would have seen a small, human-like figure clinging to a towering castle spire.

The boy took a short breath to marvel over the scenery of the city before being brutally reminded by a strong gust of wind that he was in imminent danger of falling off the ledge. Regaining his stance on the ledge he continued to inch his way toward his room.

Finally, after what seemed like hours to the boy, he climbed over a railing and onto his balcony. He was freezing cold from the brutal winds that had pummeled him the entire way along the ledge and was very sore from having to rigidly hold onto whatever he could to keep from falling off the spire.

He collapsed to the ground on his balcony and breathed a large sigh of relief. Laying there for a few minutes, he began to regain his energy and stood back up. He walked confidently and triumphantly to the door to his room and pushed it open...