The Empire of Fate and Blood

It was weird being alone with nothing to do. Sacha only woke up a handful of times and seemed to be able to speak very few sentences before falling back asleep. A few times Sacha's wings managed to smack me in the face before folding back to his side.

I fell asleep a few times but every time I heard a sound, my body jolted awake and my hands went straight for the hilt of my swords. But when I realized nothing could get in here, I relaxed slightly and went back to sleep.

It was nice to actually rest. The last time I got a good amount of sleep was years ago when my parents were still alive. After that between my entire perspective on life changing, more thugs seemed to want to take advantage of my aunt. They never got far though. I started to mess with traps or hid in the shadows and ambushed them.

Auntie seemed worried that my innocence seemed to disappear but at the same time, it was the only reason our family wasn't being disturbed. But because I started at such a young age, trapping and hiding in the shadows became second nature. Makes me wonder if that is the reason why I got gifted with shadow magic.

I woke up one more time to use the bathroom, but surprisingly Sacha didn't wake up. It was hard to really move from the bed without waking him up. But maybe he was used to the room and didn't feel like he'd be in danger if I moved from the bed.

When I went to wash my hands, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I looked less tired than normal but something didn't feel right. It felt like a fog was on my brain. Maybe that's the side effect of catching up on sleep... I wandered back to bed where Sacha was burrowed under my comforter. My body curled around the little nest Sacha made while I was in the bathroom.

Once more I drifted back to sleep. I was standing in a royal office. Everything was accented gold while almost everything was made of dark oak and satin material. A man, who looked about my age, was sitting in the black leather chair by the fireplace. Looking at him was weird because it was like you could see him clearly but at the same time if you tried to focus on distinct features, his face seemed fuzzy like a bad picture.

He wore a plain white half-button-up shirt with black slacks and black boots. An attire for royal guards or military status of some sort. His black hair was slick back. He looked like he could be my size but it wasn't obvious to tell with him sitting. His, what I could tell, midnight purple eyes showed so much anxiety and confusion while he studied the flames.

"Hello?" I cautiously walked up to him, trying not to startle him as I approached the chair.

The man hesitantly looked at me. "Who are you?" He sounded panicked as his massive hands gripped the armrests.

I was slightly appalled with how a dream could have this type of setup and a confused man sitting in front of a fireplace. "Um, well, my name is Drex Foster. Who are you?" I felt dumb feeding into this dream but it was only a dream. What harm could happen?

He looked back at the fireplace like my question was a trick. His head shook in disbelief. "I- I don't know..." His eyes got glossy as he rubbed his face. Pain filled his eyes like a void.

That answer had goosebumps crawling up my skin for some odd reason. This man was slightly unhinged as his hands shook while gripping his chair. The more I looked at him, the more I wondered if he was the former emperor that killed himself. "Are you Emperor Osiris?" I asked, hoping I wasn't looking at a ghost.

The man shook his head as he started hyperventilating. "No. No. No. No!" He started to panic as he shot up from the chair, pacing around the room as he gripped his hair.

My fight response was triggered. Even though this was a dream; if this was a weird ghost dream, I didn't want there to be a way for this to affect my physical body. "Hey, calm down. Everything is okay." I tried to sound soothing as I held my hands up in surrender.