Chapter 2 An Eternal Vow

  All four are walking to the place where the occasion will take place. With Vanilla cradling, Unicus' sister in her arms. Unicus has been staring at her for a while with mixed feelings.

  Wait. So let's put this in order. I've been in a coma for like 2 years?

  His thoughts revolve around all that has been told to him. Considering how he has been laying limp on the bed for days, his parents might have realised he is a lost cause?

  Well. That does make sense. But even so, moving on like that while I …

  The fingers coil around the doll in his hands. For some reason Unicus decided to bring Kira along with him. Mellona walks behind him, bringing a box full of something strapped behind her back, watching over the family.

  As they walk in silence, they have reached the location in the blink of an eye.

  As soon as Unicus arrived there however, everyone's gaze turned to him. Their eyes all carried varying amounts of emotions towards him. Feeling uncomfortable from all the attention, he hides behind Mellona.

  “There is no need to hide, Unicus. Look, the villagers are happy to see you. Or would you rather stay in the back playing with the doll you brought like one of the shy girls?”

  Her tease didn't go unnoticed as Unicus immediately returned her words in kind.

  “Unlike you brute, Mellona. I actually have what's known as modesty, of course I'd feel shy when people give me this much attention. What were you expecting?”

  Mellona's lips curl up in frustration as she immediately strikes back with, “I'll show you what this brute can do.” And proceeds to pull his cheeks and he writhes in pain. Unicus pulls on her hands, but her grip is quite strong for him to shove off.

  “Fine. Hands off me, or I'll curse you to death …”

  She stops but smiles smugly, which only irritates him. As they were starting to engage in their daily routine. A person interrupted them.

  “I'm sorry to intrude on your private moment, but can I exchange a few words with Unicus?”

  Hearing that their gaze turns over to him. Mellona quickly recognised the man and followed to greet him.

  “It's good to see that you are in good health. Of course, you aren't interrupting us, Renly the dragon knight.”

  She emphasized on the dragon knight part, hoping Unicus might pick up that he is quite an important figure. As she hoped, he picked up on it and Introduced himself to him.

  “I already know about you, my daughter Lacia told me everything, plus I'm your father's best friend, no need to be all formal with me, Unicus.”

  “No, I could never be disrespectful to the brave knights who protect us from dangers. As you are a dragon knight, I'll treat you with respect, appropriate for your station.”

  “Wise beyond years aren't you? Hard to believe you are only 6 years old, That's quite interesting. Talking to you, somehow makes me think I'm not talking to a child.”

  “If that's all you wish to discuss, I'm afraid I have business to take care of … if you excuse me.”

  “No, there is a lot to discuss with you. But most importantly, I'm tasked with the duty to deliver this letter to you as soon as you wake up from your slumber. ”

  Unicus gets the letter and turns it around and checks it out a few times before asking the obvious question.

  “Who sent this letter to me? Don't they consider it rude to send their letter through a middle man?”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  His question was answered by Mellona who has been staring at the crest used to seal the letter. That crest – serpent coiling around a sword.

  “Unicus, stop being rude. Isn't that the seal of the royal family? Why would they send a letter to him?”

  “Well Unicus it seems like the magic you used that day, it's quite unusual as there are no records of anyone using magic like that. So the royal family is very much interested in inviting you to have a cup of tea with them in the palace.”

  Unicus is speechless as he can't recall using any unusual magic.

  “I'm afraid this must be some kind of misunderstanding… I have no recollection of using any unusual magic…”

  But Renly smiles at him, “Well, I couldn't care less. My job is to deliver the letter, what you do with it is entirely up to you.”

  Then his face turns menacing for a moment, as he carefully evaluates him for a moment.

  “As smart as you are, I believe you don't need someone else saying why it's important to reply curtly and attend the royal summons. Anyway, I'll only offer you one piece of advice considering how you are the son of my best friend, ‘This is not something you can brush off easily.’ Well think about it carefully before giving me the reply letter okay, you have a week to respond …”

  With that he takes his leave, walking nonchalant as always. Unicus watches the man, as his face twists in annoyance. He sides the letter into his pocket and pushes the letter out of his mind temporarily.

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  Time flies as many villagers come to greet Unicus and Mellona, he doesn't understand why they are thanking him. But he doesn't voice any complaints, he silently accepts everything but waits for the right moment to question Mellona about what's going on.

  When he saw an opportunity, he dragged Mellona off her feet, pulling her hand.

  Mellona is surprised that he is dragging her out, but just follows silently, all the while wondering why might he do that?

  After Unicus and Mellona reach a place devoid of people, he clears his throat before questioning her.

  “Mellona. I have to ask, why are the villagers taking turns thanking us? Compared to you who fought off Airy that … I couldn't see any reason why they would thank me as well?”

  “You don't remember? …” She takes a moment to process this sudden revelation, her eyes narrowed, deep in thought. It's interrupted by Unicus calling out to her.

  “Ohh … I'm sorry for dazing off like that. It's just that, you help us quite a bit yourself remember. You threw around whatever you could get your hands on, chairs, quilts, ink, you name it. No one was expecting you to do all that and plus …”

  Her words trail off at the end. A brief expression of regret flashes over her face as she considers how to tell him. Stealing her resolve, she breaks the news.

  “I'm not sure what magic you used, but you saved me that day … of which I'm really grateful for. But …”

  Yet again she is struggling with words to express what happened that day.

  “What's wrong Mellona? You have to tell me everything, I for some reason can't recall what happened that day. I only remember, running towards you … I saw you getting pinned on the floor by Airy but everything afterwards is a big blur like someone just edited me like a video?…”

  Noticing how Mellona looks confused by the word he used to compare his state of mind, he realises that people here aren't familiar with the concept of video.

  “I'm sorry it's hard to explain, Mellona”

  “No no. It's just that, for a moment you looked older… like a man”

  She strains her brain for details, forehead wrinkling in frustration.

  “Unicus, you looked different. Like you were wearing some unfamiliar white clothes … your hair was brown and you were wearing glasses and …”

  She goes on to explain everything she remembers, Unicus nodded in response, hearing her words, processing them in silence.

  “ – After all the fighting was done, your body glowed as you collapsed unconscious to the floor, then you turned back to a child …”

  Unicus searched his vast reserves of memories and he finds that appearance she describes, perfectly matches Orzic. But even in his past life, Unicus is definitely sure he didn't have a triskelion pattern in his eyes.

  As he continues to search his memories, a sudden pain courses through his veins.

  He crumpled to the ground, his body rigid with agony. The pain surged through him like molten fire, coursing through every fiber of his being, each wave of it sharper than the last.

  A bright purple rune appears slightly above his hip behind him. Its glow increases in intensity proportional to how hard Unicus tries to remember the past, the stronger he tries, stronger the pain gets.

  The pain wasn’t just physical; it reached into the deepest corners of his mind, unraveling it thread by thread. His chest heaved with each ragged breath, but it felt as though his lungs were being squeezed in a vice, the air refusing to fill him.

  His thoughts scattered, torn apart by the relentless torment, like his very soul was being pulled apart, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but endless, suffocating pain. His hands clawed at his head, as if he could somehow hold himself together, but nothing could stem the tide of destruction sweeping through him.

  His vision blurred, the edges of reality warping as his mind threatened to fracture completely under the weight of the agony.

  He collapsed to the floor, falling unconscious under the effect of such mind numbing pain.

  Mellona rushed to his side, “What is happening to you Unicus… hey say something.”

  ◇ ◇ ◇

  As Unicus awakened the first that he saw was a crowd of people huddled into front of him, looking worried and slightly on edge.

  “Why is everyone looking at me like I'm a dying animal? …”

  Unicus woke up, clutching his head in daze. Everyone realised how uncomfortable it is for Unicus and few of them walked away from there.

  Some tried to put on a facade like they were talking to each other and silently asking him to ignore them. As he was looking around, wondering how to make them disappear, suddenly his father talked to him.

  “Unicus. How are you feeling? Better I believe … your mother was so worried that you might fall into yet another long slumber …”

  Russell's eyes were slightly teary as he tried his best to make a presentable face.

  “Do you realise how much she is worried about you? …”

  And he proceeds to give him fatherly advice, but Unicus for the most part was just sitting in a daze, so he didn't listen fully.

  Mellona arrived in time with Vanilla and Russell stopped talking for a moment. Unicus asks the important questions,

  “Nice timing Mellona, why did I faint? …”

  Mellona uses two mirrors, one behind him and one in front of him. It reflects the rune – a writing of some kind.

  “Wha… that's like someone scribbled over my body. Disgusting!”

  Mellona puts the mirrors away, Vanilla with a worried expression comes closer to him. Her eyes darted all over him, searching for any signs of anomalies within him.

  “I have used the most potent healing spell that i can use right now but it didn't react to anything … it's like you didn't have any injury to heal.”

  She answers with her eyes downcast worried, Unicus still has no idea how to interact with her. He just tries to speak but he just … finds it difficult. Especially after the reveal about the sister, eventually he goes silent.

  The air immediately turns thick with tension, the silence was broken by Mellona.

  “Come on, Unicus. Everyone, haven't we gathered her to celebrate Unicus's awakening? What happened today doesn't change anything … let's continue as discussed before”

  And so everyone resumes, some immediately start running around setting up things left and right, the gathered crowd disperses and hurriedly starts working to make up for the lost time.