As I lay in total darkness, a voice suddenly spoke out of nowhere. Do you still not understand? I opened my eyes and stood up, looking around for the person who had made the voice. Strangely though, the voice sounded like mine...though perhaps sounding older and hoarse. I couldn't see anyone though, as darkness still seemed to cover my vision.
One day, you will truly understand that being the hero is not always the right thing to do, the voice continued. I was confused. What did he mean by that? I looked around more fervently and shouted, "Who are you? What are you saying to me?"
I am you, weakling. I am what you will soon become. What I would soon become? Now this was interesting. This voice has been talking to me in cryptic sentences I cannot seem to decipher. And why did he call me a weakling?
You couldn't even save the very mentor that cared for and fed you all these years, and yet you tried to save a girl you don't even know? Ha, that's hilarious. Haven't you heard about putting your family first? the voice said in a mocking tone. In defense, I shouted, "How was I supposed to know that Edward would die if I tried to be a hero? At least he died happy-"
Don't give me bullshit. You only know how to save others but you don't know how to save the ones you love and those closest to you. Love your neighbour as yourself? If you use that to defend yourself I have to say you are too dense. Hell, you don't even know how to carry out what's necessary, like putting your mentor's safety first before some stranger you only just met. The voice was getting more and more mocking...as if it seemed to detest my very existence. Shivers ran down my spine as my heart started pounding against my chest, terrified by the voice.
But that's okay, you are still young. You don't know how's it's like to be in my shoes, but one day you will. And you will one day find out that there are no such things as heroes, and that the strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must, and what is the definition of doing what's necessary. At this, the voice broke into cackled laughter, and at that point I just ran blindly in the darkness, not knowing where was I going. I just wanted to get away from the voice, and sweat poured out of my face as I ran, heart pounding wildly and my breaths increasing in intensity and rate.
At that point, when I felt I couldn't take it anymore, I woke up.
My eyes were met with a maroon ceiling as I lay on the ground, and strangely it felt slightly hotter than usual, as though I were in a furnace. I looked at my hands and saw that it was blue in colour. Surprised, I checked other parts of my body and found that they were blue as well. I got up and looked around to see where I was exactly.
It looked like I was in some sort of prison, with each cell consisting of a maroon-coloured rock bed( wonder how anyone could sleep on that) and metal bars like the ones back on Earth's prisons. The same soldiers I had seen earlier marched through the walkways along the cells, with many prisoners mocking them and shouting expletives to them. All of them spoke English and were not human like me, ranging from talking slime blobs to talking wolves with human-like features. Torches lit up the prison and by looking up through the bars of my cell, I could see that the prison was huge with lots of cells and stories and everything in the prison was mostly the same colour of maroon, though perhaps in different hues. I went back into the interior of my cell and tried to reason out what had happened to me, and suddenly, I thought of Phoebe, that girl whom Edward and I tried to save from her father. Wonder why he treated his daughter so badly. I sat on the rock bed and tried to think about how was I going to get out of this mess. Another thing that came to my mind was that I was even in the prison at all. Why didn't they just dispose of me? After all I was just an ordinary human and did not have anything to do with the kingdom where Phoebe had come from, except perhaps trying to save her. So why spare me? And where was Phoebe? Also how was I gonna get on with my life without Edward to guide me?
At that point a knock on the gate snapped me out of my daydream and I looked up to see that two soldiers were outside my cell, one of them unlocking the gate using a key and opening it with a creaking sound. "The Flame King would like to see you, human. Come with us and don't you dare try anything funny," the soldier said in a gruff and deep voice as I quickly grabbed my bag and wore it, remembering the box Edward gave to me. They then took me by the arms and walked alongside me, leading me to their king.
We had to climb a few stories up the prison before we got to the entrance leading out of it. As we walked on a rocky road, I saw that it was on a lake of molten lava and that all of the kingdom's inhabitants passing by me were made out of fire and rock, except that their bodies were varied to certain extents. Heck there were even dogs that were made out of lava and stone with yellow eyes. I was beginning to realize that the entire kingdom was made out of fire and lava, from lava waterfalls to tall rocky maroon structures and more. We walked through the market square of the kingdom and I saw that many of the people looked at me weirdly as if I was something they had not seen before. Strange, I thought.
As we neared the palace, I was awed by how large it was. It looked like a tent except made out of rock, with many hollow and curved tubes protruding out of its walls. There were many hollow triangles dotting it, and the door was a large triangle guarded by two soldiers on each side. This was truly a complex society, which was surprising considering the fact that I had only seen ruins of civilization on this world. Anyway, the soldiers dragging me to the palace conversed with the other two soldiers guarding the door before the door swished open automatically as I approached the door with the guards.
Inside the palace, there were two flights of stone stairs surrounded by the same protruding structures I had seen earlier,except they were not hollow. On these stairs sat what I presumed to be the nobility of the kingdom, and in between these two stairs was a throne made up of those protruding structures, as a giant flame with dark-yellow small eyes and mouth sat on the throne, with bronze armour and red ruby crystals decorating the collar of his armour. He also had a red ruby on the top of his head that looked like a small flame. Guess that must be his crown. On top of him, hung by two ropes, was a giant oil lamp. And in the lamp was Phoebe, looking at me helplessly. Oh, how I wished I could free her. So that's how he imprisons his daughter. By putting her in a giant lamp, I thought to blood was already boiling and about to burst out of my body as I felt angered by this injustice done to this poor young girl about my age. She was like me, being put down by others and despised.
The Fire King looked at me for a few moments with a mixture of scorn, anger and wonder as rubbed his chin with his hand. The nobles on the stairs also looked at me with more or less the same expressions. Then, he sighed and chuckled. "You know, of all the things I thought I would ever see in my entire life, a filthy human like you would be the last thing on my mind ever since almost all of humanity was wiped out many centuries ago." He stopped and then looked at me mockingly. "Guards, make him kneel." I was forced onto my knees, although every part of my body told me to defy him and what he was doing to humiliate me. I then remembered at that point what Edward told me once: Never rebel against those who are more powerful than you unless you are equal to or superior to them in that aspect.
"But I didn't bring you here for no reason," he said, as he leaned back against his throne. "You see, while you were unconscious for...about two days, I guess...my daughter told me she is...interested in you and would like to spare your life." I was shocked at this and looked up at Phoebe in the lamp above, looking at her with mouth wide open. She responded by giving a reassuring smile. What a beautiful smile she has...pity that she has to go through this...
"Normally, because you harmed my soldiers and hindered them in their mission, and also because you are human, I would have put you to death,but..." In response, all of the nobles shouted in unison and scorn, "Yes filthy human, you better know now that our Majesty's mercy upon your worthless soul has saved your skin!"
Tears that felt like fire brimmed in my eyes as I struggled to contain my anger at this abuse hurled at me, and I tried to prevent the tears in my eyes from flowing out and showing that I was affected by their insults. When you are insulted by others, don't show that you are offended by them. Their words are nothing but a dust and cannot harm you in any way. I repeated that over and over again in my mind as I looked down at the ground, remembering what Edward had taught me.
"Everyone, that's enough! Father you can't treat him like this, he just tried to save me out of compassion. It's my fault that he's in this, please show mercy to him and let him go!" Phoebe suddenly shouted, looking defiantly at her father from the lamp, silencing all the nobles' insults at once.
"Girl, you better know that I am your goddamn father, you spoiled brat! And you should really choose people better than this..this...piece of trash kneeling before me like a common dog! You may be a Fire elemental, but I'm still your father! " The Fire King, breathing heavily from shouting at his daughter, took a while to calm down before continuing, "As I was saying, since my daughter is interested in you, I'm gonna make you an exception and not put you to death...but you must do something for me. In exchange for doing what I have told you to do, I will give my daughter to you and you can both leave the Fire Kingdom together. In other words, I will let her go free." I was already pissed off with this arrogant and self-righteous king and asked him with gritted teeth, "What is it that you want?"
"I want the Enchridion," he said. "That book contains immense magical powers that I want for myself, you see...for personal reasons." He smiled at me and interlocked his hands together. "But let me ask you, human. Why do you think that I locked my daughter in this lamp? Is it because I'm cruel and selfish?" He paused for a moment before continuing. " You see, when Phoebe was born, my wife had died in childbirth and I found myself mourning over the loss of my beloved wife, and hence felt the need to take care of her as a living memory of my wife. But then, a problem cropped up. My daughter, when she was still a child was...volatile and rowdy, to say the least. And upon hearing from oracles in the kingdom that she could be even more powerful than me, I became worried that one day she might leverage upon this aspect to overthrow me once she became older."
"So as a protective measure, I asked a messenger to send her away from the kingdom and out of my sight. Of course, she caused a whole lot of trouble due to her uncontrollable nature in the land of Ooo on where this kingdom is, for your information. The Candy Kingdom became involved and hence its leader, Princess Bubblegum,nagged me to keep my child in control or else she would do it herself. And that's why in the end, I locked her up in this lamp." He chuckled and got up from his throne, walking towards me before stopping a distance away from me. "Do you now see why my daughter is in that lamp? It is to prevent Ooo from falling into chaos and to preserve my throne from an uprising. And that's also why I need the Enchridion: to make sure she never becomes more powerful than I am. All this I have done with well-meaning and wise intentions."
I looked up and saw that Phoebe was looking at her father with resentment. Honestly I could relate, as I had a taste of her father's arrogance and wrath already. "So, as I honestly don't want my daughter to be in this kingdom any more, here's the deal: find the Enchiridion within the year or never come back here, because the moment you come back crawling without the book, your head will roll. Got that? You better prove you are not the weak and useless human I think you are, unless you want to back down now and get out of my sight." He said it sarcastically, obviously thinking I was not up to the task and expecting me to beg to be freed. The nobles were already giggling with delight at the Fire King's insult in agreement. I kept my tongue from flabbing despite my anger and stayed where I was kneeling. When, after a while, he observed I had not refused his request, he sighed. "I guess you really want to be with my daughter after all, don't you?" He folded his arms, obviously disappointed that I did not back down but amused that I wanted to carry out his request.
"Flambo, my daughter's companion and friend, will later give you the supplies you need for your journey. He's the one who gave you that blue covering or Flame Shield on your skin to protect you from the intense heat of our kingdom." He then went up a flight of stairs to a platform near the lantern and pushed a lever on the platform that caused the lantern to lower down to the ground, and one of its sides opened, allowing Phoebe to get out, rushing to my side.
The guards beside me made me stand up and Phoebe accompanied them as we walked out of the palace. Before we got out, the Fire King shouted to me, "Good luck, human, because you're going to need it. BADLY!" before laughing out sadistically, with the other nobles as well joining in. I had to keep telling myself, Don't listen to them, Michael. They can't hurt you. Just show them that you are not the weak person they think you are. And you can surely accomplish the mission being tasked to you and free Phoebe from this hell, because God is with me.