Prince Terin sat in the chair beside their father. A round spectacle rested on his chubby cheek reflecting the light of the gold candle stand that sat on the table. His curly hair looked like tongues of flames to Jabin. His clothes stretched tight on his already thick frame. He would be as thick as their father. Or thicker. Jabin came to a stop resting his hands on the back of the polished high-back chair. A familiar servant walked past. Evalin, was it? She was always blushing when she brought him his breakfast in the mornings. Jabin smiled to himself; she was watching him right now.

His father, the king, cleared his throat and nodded for Jabin to sit down. His father kept his black hair and beard trimmed short. He wore silk shirts at all times with a black vest and gold buttons with the family crest embossed on them. His large hands rested on the table each finger decorated with large gold and jeweled rings. Black hair even coated the backs of his fingers. Jabin and Terin inherited their light hair and complexion from their foreign mother. An arranged marriage that had profited the king’s two sons. It had profited the kingdom with a trade alliance and plenty of luxuries for the Tarsh nobles. The King tapped the table with his thick forefinger and cleared his throat louder.

Jabin took the hint and sat down at the table. Evalin appeared at his side and poured him a glass of wine. Jabin stared at the red wine as it swirled in his golden cup. He looked up and winked at her just to see her cheeks burn. She slipped back into the background and Jabin looked back at his glass prolonging the serious mood of the room.

He picked up the wine and took a sip as he looked at each of the old Vaish priests sitting around the table on each side of his father and brother. Each of them looked as if they might cough and collapse at the table at any moment. Every one of them had large ears and noses common in the exceptionally old. Their skin looked almost translucent.

It made Jabin shift in his seat with each of them looking not at his father but at him. “I do not zealously follow the same faith as my father,” Jabin said eager to break the ominous silence and get his argument out in the open.

The Vaish looked to the oldest man that sat in the center of them all. He had long white eyebrows that curled down nearly in his eyes. He nodded and swallowed before leaning forward. His dull green eyes looked right into Jabin’s. “We know how you feel about the Vaish. We’ve known you since you were a boy. You have always been quite vocal about your opinions of us. We had hoped that age would have made you wise enough to at least respect the elderly enough to pay us the respect of hearing us out.” He said each word slowly taking frequent breaths. “I’m Rashie. I was sent by your father to find the answers to why your father’s kingdom's demise is written in the stars. After years of searching the ancient scrolls of the seven kingdoms we have returned to present our answer.”

“I’m not the King,” Jabin interrupted, “I’m not even the first prince. Terin is. Why are you bringing me into this? Is it a military matter?”

“Jabin Aron Tarsh. Respect your elders' boy!” The King boomed.

Jabin sat back in his chair and bristled. “Excuse me.” He sat quietly as Rashie took a drink of water and refocused on Jabin. Evalin appeared again and set some flowers in the vase before Jabin. A multicolored bouquet sparkling with dew in the candlelight. She set the flowers off the center of the table just within grasp of Jabin. Jabin instinctively reached up to touch them.

“No, Jabin.” Baron’s voice was quiet but firm. Jabin sighed. He loved the vigor of drawing the light from the plants. Life light was amazing. Also forbidden by his father.

Rashie leaned forward to catch Jabin’s eyes. “On the night you were born the stars played a trick on the eyes of men. They betrayed their places in the sky. The great warrior and the dragon traded places for one night. Then the red star of the west fell from its place in the west and turned night into day for several moments. When the brightness faded a new star appeared in the east. It started off as a lone yellow star and then changed to the brilliant white that it still shines today. It was a puzzling event that did not go unnoticed by the Vaish of course nor your father and brother.” Rashie continued to speak slowly and deliberately breathing heavily through his large round nose after each sentence.

“We searched the libraries of your father for years trying to find an answer for the strange event. We searched the histories. Exasperated and unable to find the answers your father wanted we set out on a quest to discover whether any of the other kingdoms had any answers. No other Kingdom recorded these events. It appears that it only was seen from here. Only two notable events were recorded on that night other than the stars. Two births. Yours and that of a Crull boy. Born on the same night at two ends of this kingdom. One or both of you are tied to this troubling and baffling event of the stars. That is how the Vaish began in this kingdom. Put together that night, by your father, to find answers.”

Jabin sat in stunned silence. He had always presumed the Vaish had searched out his father in pursuit of power and wealth. Instead, the King had started the Vaish himself. He looked at his father and brother. His father sat as if he were holding his breath. His forehead wrinkled tight. Something weighed heavy in his thoughts. Terin had removed the spectacle from his eye and was using his shirt edge to clean it. Jabin looked with distaste at his portly brother. ‘Your penance is to protect your brother and his crown,’ as his father would say. Terin would be a weak king and Jabin was meant to fall on his own sword if it meant protecting him. Jabin looked away before anyone could read his expression. “So why is, the Crull boy, not here then?” Jabin veiled his contempt weakly as he spoke to Rashie. He loathed the way nobility said, Crull.

“His mother and stepfather left him as a boy, and he became one of the street children of Crull district as a boy.” Rashie took another sip of water. “We sent the King's Hand to find and retrieve him.”

“You sent the King's Hand to retrieve him, doesn’t sound like you just want to talk then,” Jabin smirked. “What are you going to do, kill the guy?”

An unsettling silence filled the room. Terin looked up at Jabin briefly ceasing to polish his eyeglass. The King clenched his hands together tighter his face growing red.

Rashie leaned back from the table and looked at the King as well.

“Why would you kill him?” Jabin spoke louder. “For being born under some spectacle of the stars? He didn't choose his day to be born or where he would be born any more than I did. Are you going to kill me too? It is my fault after all that mother is dead, right father?” Jabin asked taunting.

“Don't be ridiculous Benny.” Terin put his spectacle on his eye. Jabin glared at his brother. He hated when his brother called him that as if he were a toddler. “You were too young to understand what you were doing.”

Rashie took a breath jumping in to steer them back to the conversation at hand. “Look I have been an adviser since your father's father was King. I have never asked for any man to be killed. You can search the records of the kings. This is a necessary evil. You were born on the west side of the kingdom as the Crull boy was born on the east side, at the very same hour. You are the eastern star that fell from the sky. He is the west, the dragon if you will. You are the great warrior.”

“You think he is going to kill me?” Jabin attempted to follow the old man’s train of thought and arrive at the outcome quicker, impatient with the man’s slow speech.

Rashie exhaled. “That is what it seems. Although it is hard to be certain.”

“Then why even tell me now? Why not just kill the man and leave me in the dark as you have thus far all my life.” Jabin looked at the flowers on the table longing.

“We need you to stay in the castle, near the King and your brother. Among the King's Hand and the guard until the matter is handled. No more training with the men.”

Jabin looked over at his father incredulous. “I'm not going to stay cooped up in this old dusty castle like a piece of furniture. I can take care of myself father.”

“This is a serious matter, Jabin.” His father said sternly. “It is about more than just you. You are young and proud. Thick headed. You have to listen to sound counsel for once in your life boy.”

Jabin crossed his arms over his chest. He could not just lay about the castle reading old scrolls like his brother. He could not just hide in the stone walls of the castle. He would not.

“There is something else.” Rashie turned to the king and waited.

Jabin watched as his father squirmed in his seat. He cleared his throat and looked around to be sure all servants had left the room. “Nabal, the man we are speaking of, is your brother. He may have found this out by now. It would be reason enough to kill you and Terin.” The king stared at the table as he spoke neither looking up at Jabin or Terin. Terin did not appear surprised. King Baron had already informed the king in waiting of his indiscretion.

“Nabal is the Crull,” Jabin said his eyes slowly clearing, registering what his father was saying. “You slept with a Crull woman and left her there to survive on her own. With a child?” His tone was far too condemning, and he reined himself in, biting his tongue.

“We could not have a Crull with claim to the throne. Do you understand what that would do to Windal?”

“You mean what it would do to you.” Jabin’s upper lip tugged back. He was losing his battle to bridle his tongue. “You keep me from taking in Life Light because of what I did to my mother being born and you had betrayed her all along. What I did was an accident. You were fully aware of your action.”

“Watch how you speak to me boy.” Baron blasted out of his seat smashing both fists on the table. His teeth ground in his mouth. He took a deep breath to calm himself and straightened his shirt. “I am still your king, and he is not one of your pity projects boy.”

Jabin sat bolt upright his back locked tight as a rusted gate. His mind whirred at the thought of some innocent man being vanquished in the night over something he had no knowledge of. Jabin relaxed his features. He would not stand for this. It was no more evil for that Crull boy to be born than it was for him to draw Life Light. His father was irrational in his old age. Jabin forced on a submissive posture; he would not show what he was planning on his face. He would not stand idly by as an innocent man was murdered. He would nod and bow for but the first chance at flight and he would head straight for Crull district and warn the man, help him escape. Have a chance at a new life somewhere else. Larsa, Larsa would do. He would give the poor man enough coin to start over in Larsa. Even if he had to spend a month in the stocks. Jabin clenched his teeth and then forced his jaw to relax, bowing his head to his father.