Seven Years: A Prince of Persia Tale
Story I: Closure
The Prince slowly crept back to the encampment his father's troops had established at the outskirts of the Maharajah's fortress palace. Dawn had broken and the men were readying themselves for the coming siege of the palace. He quietly returned to his tent to make it seem as if he had never fled from the camp to avoid arousing suspicion from the soldiers.
Somehow…Father must be told that invading the Maharajah's palace would be a mistake. He thought as he looked out amongst the men arming themselves and going through their morning training rituals. Though I have averted the traitorous Vizier's vile plan, I must stop Father from trying to claim the Artifacts of Time all the same. They must not be allowed to leave the Maharajah's palace.
The Prince had just returned from the Maharajah's palace where he had met with the Maharajah's daughter, Farah, to return to her the mysterious Dagger of Time. The Dagger was a cryptic item in the care of the Maharajah that allowed the user to manipulate the flow of time and even reverse events recently passed. He himself had come into its possession after a chaotic series of events that lead to the release of the mystical Sands of Time and subsequent quest to undo the damage caused by his hand. In addition to returning the Dagger, the Prince sought to warn Farah of the coming betrayal of the Maharajah's Vizier. The Vizier seeks the Dagger to give himself immortality and his manipulative ways lead to the Prince releasing the Sands. However, the Prince had managed to successfully undo the release of the Sands and even reversed time to the point before the invasion ever took place. Using his knowledge of the future, he rushed to Farah's bedroom in an effort to possibly prevent any of it from happening again. As he warned the princess of the Vizier, he was interrupted by the Vizier and forced to engage him in mortal combat, emerging victorious and putting an end to the Vizier's ambitions.
"Good morning, Prince!" one of the men called to him as he exited his tent. "Today will be a day of glory and honor for Persia!"
The Prince paid him little mind as he found his way to his father's tent. Inside, King Shahraman was being fitted by his servants with his battle attire.
"Father, I must speak to you about this invasion," the Prince said.
"Son, it is good to see you so ready for battle!" the king said upon seeing his son in his tent. He sent his servants away so he would be able to talk to his son in private. "Come, son, tell me what you came to say."
"Father, the invasion of the Maharajah's palace…we should not carry forward with it," the Prince told his father. "There are forces at work here greater than you understand and invading the Maharajah's palace would set those forces into motion."
The king looked shocked at his son's sudden lack of desire. "My son, why would you not want to fight for glory and honor? Do you not know what it means to serve your country and prove its strength?"
"That isn't why I am asking you to avoid invading the palace," the Prince countered. "I have every interest in bringing glory to our throne but there is a much deeper reason that we cannot disrupt by invading the Maharajah's palace."
The king was confused by his son's words. "What are these 'forces' you describe that you say cannot be disrupted?" he asked.
"I…cannot explain what it is. It is a higher reason beyond your understanding," he said.
"And what makes you so capable of understanding them?"
"Because…I have had…" the Prince stammered. He was having trouble finding reason to explain his case. "I have had…a vision."
"A vision?"
"Yes…I have seen the fate of our soldiers and if this invasion were to happen, we'd be met with nothing but defeat and a violent end," the Prince said. He knew his father believed in omens and decided to play on this fear in an effort to discourage the attack.
The king pondered his son's words. "I too have seen visions in the past that have eventually come to pass. And you say our troops will be unsuccessful if we attempt to take on the Maharajah's guard, according to your prophecy?"
The Prince nodded. The king walked past him and looked out of his tent across the legions of men preparing for war. He turned around to face his son.
"Despite your vision, I cannot stop this from happening. If we were to tell the men that the invasion would not happen, who knows what their reaction would be? They might very well mutiny and we can't have that," he told the Prince.
"No, Father!" the Prince said, defiantly. "This has nothing to do with the men! They are your subjects, you could easily have any dissenters dealt with! This is about your own personal desires and want of glory and honor and inability to see anything past that!"
"Silence, son!" the king said, interrupting the Prince's argument. "I will hear none of this! Even if what you say is true, I am King Shahraman of Persia and my will is to be done. Even as the Prince of Persia you are still not in the position to question my agenda so you'd best learn your place. I respect the notion that you have had seen these visions but this attack will carry forward."
The Prince looked dejected that his plea had failed. "But…" he started, trying to find another reason to cancel the attack but could not find the words. If only I could tell Father that I have not "seen" these things…but have experienced them myself and have him understand that.
"However…I trust that your conviction is not rooted in falsehood and your visions do predict some kind of catastrophe for our men," the king continued. "As such, I will accommodate anything I can to avoid causing us any great misfortune."
The Prince was renewed with hope. Even if he couldn't stop his father's attack on the fortress, at least he might be able to dissuade him from taking the Artifacts of Time. "Yes," he told the king. "In my vision I saw our troops attempting to capture two artifacts inside the palace: a giant hourglass and a mysterious blue dagger. These two items seemed to bring the downfall of us and our men once we left the palace. Unfortunately the vision did not make clear what exactly it was that struck us down, just that if we are to avoid any hardship that these artifacts should not be taken from the palace."
The king nodded. "I will see to it that we do not take anything from the palace resembling these artifacts during the siege."
The Prince thought more for a moment. "Father…there is one more thing…"
"Yes, my son?"
"It would be advisable…to avoid taking hostages from the palace. The vision I had…showed me someone in the group of hostages would be the one to bring about our destruction. I believe if we avoid taking prisoners from the palace, we may be able to sidestep an untimely fate."
"Then so be it," the king said. "There are definitely forces beyond the reasoning and understanding of humans and if these visions have come to you on the night before our siege then I will pay them careful mind and follow through with your requests."
"Thank you, Father," the Prince said. He bowed then showed himself out of the king's tent. Even if I have not been able to stop my father's men from attacking the Maharajah's palace, at least I have ensured the Artifacts of Time will remain undisturbed and the safety of Farah.
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Later that day, the king's men had attacked the Maharajah's palace as was planned. The Prince looked around at the chaos and fire erupting as a result of the ensuing battle from one of the castle's guard walls. He shook his head as he recalled the same battle that he had taken part in from before the time reversal.
It is a shame I could not stop this from happening…so much senseless death and destruction. He looked out over the castle walls then saw something in the distance. It was a lone red-clad woman with a bow attempting to defend her home from the attackers. She was shooting arrows into the courtyard below to provide support to the palace guards fighting within. Could that be…Farah? He thought. He descended the castle wall and crossed the wrecked courtyard to the adjacent wall that would lead to the wall where the woman was. After he climbed up the opposite wall, he took another look and saw it was indeed Farah. He ran into the guard tower that intersected the wall he was on and the wall Farah was shooting from.
"Farah?" he shouted above the bedlam of the ongoing battle. She turned towards the sound of her name and saw the Prince standing inside the guard tower at the end of the walkway. She left her post and scurried into the safety of the tower. "Farah…" he started.
Her immediate response was to slap the Prince in the face. "Ow!" he cried in pain after the slap. "What was that for?"
"How dare you try to talk to me again after your men sack my palace for no reason!" she told him angrily. "How can I believe anything you said before if your men still attacked us? My countrymen are dying and you have done nothing to stop it, despite all you claimed to know! I bet you intend to take me captive just as you told me in your story!"
"No! Nothing I told you was fiction! I had experienced it all, returning the Dagger of Time to you this morning was my proof!" he tried to explain himself. "I assure you when I returned to the camp this morning I made a case to my father that this attack on your home would be a waste and that we should move on. However my father is a stubborn, honor-driven man and he still believed the attack would be best for the glory Persia so I was unable to convince him otherwise."
"Liar!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. "What reason do I have not to kill you right here?!" She reached behind into her quiver of arrows and pulled out an arrow. She slowly laid it on her bow and then took aim at the Prince's forehead at point-blank range. "I can't believe I fell for your deceit…"
"Stop this, Farah…" the Prince said. "Think about all I have told you…I've told you things that you said you've never revealed to anyone…" reminding her about the secret word he used when he left her in the morning. She slowly lowered her bow and released her tension on the bowstring. "I understand if you don't believe me but do understand I've done as much as I could to prevent as much of the story as I told you."
"How…?" she asked, still uncertain if she should believe the strange prince's words.
"I was able to at least convince my father that taking the Hourglass of Time and the Dagger would be a very unwise choice. He has ordered the troops that we are only to raid valuables from the halls of the palace. The Hourglass and Dagger are safe from capture," the Prince explained. "We will give the Sultan of Azad something else from the palace instead of the Hourglass…even though I stopped the Vizier I cannot feel safe knowing the Hourglass and the Dagger are in the hands of someone else who might be tempted to unknowingly release the Sands as I did." He took Farah's hand into his own. She quickly pulled away and turned her back to the Prince.
"I have also told my father not to take any hostages from the palace. I had you in mind the whole time I was making my case to my father. You, your family and any other residents of the palace will be able to remain here after our men are done," he told her. "I am terribly sorry this had to happen to your home. Know that I make no endorsement of my father's actions here and I've done as much as I possibly could to stop the invasion from happening but alas, it was for naught."
Farah slowly turned back toward the Prince and looked him in the eyes. She saw the sincerity that he carried and dropped her bow and arrow. She stumbled forward two steps and then fell into his chest, crying.
"My…my home…" she said through sobs.
"I know…" the Prince said as comfortingly as possible. "I wish there was something more I could do…but even with the Dagger of Time I would be unable to stop my father's ambition." She pulled her head from his chest and looked at him again.
"Is…is what you said true?" she asked him. "That if you never came to me this morning then everything as you told me would come to pass?"
"I give you my absolute word," he assured her. "With my knowledge of the consequences, I may not have been the one to release the Sands in this timeline but if the Vizier were to ever obtain the Dagger of Time, I would not need to be. I would probably be one of the many victims of the Sands of Time." Farah wiped her eyes of tears.
"And…is what else you said also true?"
"What is that…?"
"That…in the alternate timeline you described, you and I…we fell in love?" she asked. The Prince slowly nodded. "I…I trust you," she said. She passionately hugged the Prince. "Thank you, Prince," she whispered into his ear.
"I would go to any length for you, Farah," he told her. The two shared a long kiss inside the guard tower while the battle raged outside. After what seemed like an eternity, the two parted.
"Will…will we ever see each other again?" Farah asked. "I still don't even know your name…"
"It might be possible…" the Prince replied. "For now, it's best we leave things as they are. I must return to my father's company lest I cause suspicion and they come looking for me. I admit I am a liability as the Prince of Persia."
The Prince turned to leave the guard tower before stopping short. "Wait…there's one more thing…" He pulled out a small, coin-like object from inside his shirt. "I think this is yours…" It was the Medallion of Time that Farah left with him before he had sent the Sands back into the Hourglass. "It protected me from the Sands after you took the Dagger…I believe I should return this as it is another artifact of the Sands of Time."
"No…" she said. "Keep it…think of it as a memento of…us…" her voice was uneasy. A brief silence hung between the pair. "I'll always know where it is…"
"Thank you…" the Prince said. "Stay safe, Farah…" he said. He quickly gave her one last kiss on the lips then ran out of the tower the way he came in and over the edge of the wall, leaving Farah alone in the tower.
Continued in the next part…