So here the Prince stood, at the edge of life and death. Aptly named now was the Tower of Death, atop which he precariously perched. A frigid wind blustered about, jostling him as though urging him to leap off the scaffolding into the wintry sky. The Tower's rotating Fresnel lense lit the Prince up every ten seconds - he had been counting by now. How had he cornered himself like this?
But of course he knew how. He had trusted the one man he ought never have trusted. He had betrayed his kingdom, but what surprise lay in that? He was already branded a traitor. But now, this was truly the end.
Again the wind howled and from within the Tower the Prince heard numerous bangs and booms. He took a deep breath of the icy air and said to himself: "Almost time." He reflected on his life, brief though it had been - twenty-three seemed a young age to die, but as Arlen had said, no one has the right to choose their time. He thought of his friend Malachi, mistreated and misunderstood, and of Lena. The Prince knew he would always love them both. Just as he knew he wanted to apologize to them for all that had happened. Another sigh. Of course, in his final moments he was bound to make all of the most important changes in his personality. He reflected on all of the events that had happened to lead him here, starting with finding that acursed gauntlet, to his assignment at the Tower. Everything that happened after was caused by that decision - a foolhardy act on the King's part.
The Prince closed his eyes, his mind returning to the warmer days of August, and the difficult days that were soon to follow. As he did so, he heard the creak of a door opening not far below him, and from his feet he heard a deep, angry (and did he detect a little fear in there too?) voice shout: "Zero!"
Zero. Yes, Zero was his name now. He scoffed. He had never been able to hang onto that nickname that people had given him. Yet, is a nickname really a nickname when it belongs to a nameless man? Xealos Rodan, he had once been called. It was more than four months since he had last heard it. So strange it was to even think the name. The door slammed shut and it triggered in Zero's memory the sound of the gavel that took away his name, his title and his freedom. And in a flash, he was back in the courtroom, on that fateful August afternoon.
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