...the first time.

Memories of that day filled Artemis' thoughts as his mind took a reminiscent stroll 21 into the past...

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

The grey clouds that covered the sky above the Palace of Calico seemed to never fade, a perpetual eternal gloom hanging from the highest point in Calico City. It had been 2 years since the Princess Ajua had departed this world. It was a tragedy that tore the heart of the entire kingdom and left those who remained among the living with a deep despair, the deepest pain felt within her family. Her mother, the Empress Athena, her father, the Emperor Kosuda, and her beloved twin brother, the young prince, Artemis endured the loss with a keen feeling of grief, but for Artemis in particular, the pain was nearly unbearable.

Artemis and Ajua were the only children born into Athena and Kosuda. As such, the twins were not only siblings, they were each other's best friend...their only friend. Being born of royal blood, they spent their entire lives sheltered behind the palace walls, secluded from society. Unlike the commoner children in the city who were blessed with the gift of freedom, the young prince and princess were trapped behind a barrier of stone, glass, and tradition. Simply put, royalty did not mingle with peasants. It was not arrogance, no, it was ignorance...and that made the pair of monarchs prisoners in their own home.


*Author's note: the years that had passed between Alder and Artemis getting along, to when Alder adopted an emotion akin to hatred toward his father was 16, not 19. Sorry about that, I was looking at an old timeline that hadn't been updated. (I promise I'm good at math! ^_^) I don't know if these numbers are important to you guys, but for this specific moment in time, that error would have made Artemis kind of a monster. ^_^: I corrected that error and aligned the passage of time to the most recent timeline, not an older one, so we should be all good.

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