“Aaaaahhh!!” A scream of fear and desperation was heard in the middle of the night, inside the castle, more specifically in Ketsual’s room.

  He was sitting on his bed, agitated and drenched in sweat. He touched his chest with his right hand, feeling very clearly the intense beats of his heart.

  “It was… another nightmare.” He uttered those words in order to calm his mind and body, but it had no effect.

  Indeed, it was another nightmare from a series of them, which he had suffered every day for an entire week.

  The nightmares were not very different from the first one he had; all of them were about battles, plagues, natural disasters, human disasters, epidemics, all the evils that a human being can think of, he dreamed them.

  Additionally, in those dreams twisted shadows appeared several times, but with a shape similar to a human, usually with a horrible laugh or smile.

  He had to suffer all those images every night. The first times he thought it was strange, but he did not pay much attention to it. But suffering it every night, it did not stop unsettling him.

  Ketsual, with trembling legs, got down from his bed and headed to his furniture under the window. It was still night, but the moons illuminated the room.

  There was a jug of water and a glass. Ketsual took the jug, but his hand would not stop trembling, the agitation of his hand caused part of the water from the jug to spill onto the furniture.

  With frustration, Ketsual put the jug back on the furniture, and once again lay down on his bed, unable to close his eyes.

  He feared that if he closed them again, the horrible images he had seen would return to his sight.

  So he covered his entire body with his blanket, imitating the darkness when he closed his eyes, trying to deceive his mind and thus be able to rest. Which he actually managed, being able to rest a little more…

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  “If you look carefully at the map of our kingdom, you will be able to see the composition of the Golden Kingdom, sharing borders with nine kingdoms, and the spaces not marked in colors are territories without rulers, and that are mainly controlled by barbarian forc… Prince Ketsual?”

  Milto asked, noticing that Ketsual had his gaze lowered, and his eyes closed. He approached his side, taking his shoulder and shaking it a little, causing Ketsual to wake up.

  “Prince, what is happening to you? Lately I have noticed that you look tired… more than usual.”

  “Huh? No… it’s nothing, it’s just that lately I’ve been having trouble sleeping,” Ketsual said, clearly letting out a lie. Despite having suffered nightmares for an entire week, he did not want to bother anyone, and much less worry his mother, who was surely very busy managing the kingdom left by his father.

  “Is that so? Then it would be best to consult the doctors of the castle—”

  “No,” Ketsual interrupted him. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

  “But what are you saying? You are the prince of the Golden Kingdom, everything that happens to you is something serious. I insist, I think it would be better if the doctors examined you and help you.”

  Ketsual remained silent, accepting Milto’s words. He was not just anyone, he was the successor of a kingdom, and one of his duties is always to prioritize his health.

  Milto looked at him for a moment before turning around and starting to clean the blackboard. “We will end the class for today.” Ketsual was surprised by Milto’s words, and he continued, “You may rest a little, I will call the doctors and ask them to examine you after the meal and prescribe something for you… but I will not say anything to Her Majesty.”

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  Ketsual was surprised by the latter, and he could see a small look of complicity from Milto, understanding that he could see his concern.

  Ketsual thanked Milto for the gesture and left the classroom.

  His steps moved away from there, and headed toward the exit of the castle, as Ketsual wished to see and play with Popuro.

  He arrived near one of the exits of the castle, the one closest to the stables. He went out from there, and the blue sky and the sunlight struck him from above, but there was something else. Ketsual felt something higher up, and when he directed his gaze to the sky, he could see a great light of black and red color, with a vague circular shape and, around it, several elongated and twisted things that imitated the tentacles of an octopus.

  Ketsual was perplexed by such a figure; it was the first time he had seen something like that, but what came after was worse. Inside that dark sphere, which absorbed his gaze, he could see images, visions, the nightmares he had seen, and then, as an effect of fatigue and of this event, Ketsual fell unconscious.

  A guard who was nearby could see the moment of Ketsual’s fainting, running quickly to help him, carrying him in his arms, and running straight to the castle in search of help.

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  In one of the halls of the castle, the bustle among several people was audible even outside. Among them were great figures of the Golden Kingdom: counselors, high-ranking military officers, the most important merchants, among others.

  And among all of them, at the head of the large table at which everyone was seated, was Her Highness Maya, being the main figure of the place.

  “We cannot continue like this!” protested a somewhat chubby little man with a curious mustache. “The Golden Kingdom must have the King and the Queen present in order to function, but where is the King?”

  “I share the same opinion as my colleague,” said a thin man as he stood up, whose body showed noticeable parts of his skeleton, and who had a beard similar to that of a goat. “What have we known about the King for three years? Nothing. All contact with him was lost, and we do not know what became of him.”

  “Do not be insolent!” shouted angrily a man from the opposite side of the table. “We know what happened, planetary wars are like that. The scale is so large and so intense that disappearances in combat are common due to a lack of communication and transportation resources. It is also common for them to appear years later.”

  “You are the insolent one,” replied the thin man. “Perhaps with captains or commanders who are in planetary wars what you say is true, but we are talking about a king. He is the most important person of our kingdom. Communication with His Highness cannot simply be lost like that, and for three years.”

  Before the man could reply, a short man at the end of the table stood up. “We are straying from the topic. We do not know what has happened to our king, but we do know the consequence of this. If the other kingdoms were to learn of the King’s disappearance, the supreme commander of the Golden Kingdom, even if this information were to spread within our kingdom, the consequences would be abysmal: attempts at conquest, revolutions… it would simply be disastrous.”

  The people in the hall began speaking all at once, interrupting one another, making any reply, supposed solution, or even a call for calm, be drowned out by the noise.

  The only one not participating was Queen Maya, observing how these men carried out a verbal battle. She said nothing, as she could not find any solution; the situation was difficult for everyone.

  But that noise was interrupted by the sudden opening of the door. All those present turned their gaze in surprise at such an event; the door of the hall was never supposed to be opened, only in the case of a serious situation.

  At the door stood a soldier, sweating and agitated, and with a strong voice he said, “Prince Ketsual has fainted!”

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  In a room, Ketsual was sitting on a bed, being examined by the doctors of the royal family.

  Suddenly, the door of the room opened and a shout of concern was heard: “Ketsual!! Son!” It was Queen Maya, who, upon seeing her son lying down, ran to hug him and look at him closely. “What happened to you?!! Are you okay?!! Is it serious?!!”

  After she entered, several people who had been in the hall before entered the room, with similarly concerned faces.

  But Ketsual had not noticed that his room now held a crowd; he could only watch as his mother held him tightly and looked at him with tears in her eyes. Her arrival and his state had surprised Ketsual, and he did not know what to say.

  “Oh, by the gods!! My son has gone mute!!” said Maya, frightened and worried, but a doctor, with great delicacy, drew her attention by touching her on the shoulder.

  “Your Highness Maya, your son has not gone mute, nor is he in a serious condition.”

  At such statements, Maya looked at the doctor and then at her son. “Is that true?”

  Ketsual had recovered a little from the previous shock. “Eh, yes, it’s true.”

  Upon hearing him, Maya let out a sigh of relief.

  “With the examinations and the responses the prince has given us, we conclude that it was only a fainting due to fatigue and sleepiness.”

  “Fatigue and sleepiness?” Maya asked incredulously. “You haven’t been able to sleep, my love?”

  “No… I haven’t been able to.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to be a bother,” Ketsual said sadly.

  Maya shed a few tears and stroked his hair with a delicate smile. “My love, you will never be a bother.”

  Those caresses gave warmth to Ketsual’s heart, giving him a small taste of the immense love his mother had for him.

  Maya turned her gaze to her vassals in the room. “Leave the room; my son needs air and his mother’s company. Also, bring the food here.” After that, she returned to pampering her son.

  The somewhat chubby little man from the hall stepped forward. “Excuse me, Your Highness, but I think it is urgent that you be present for the—”

  The little man stopped speaking upon seeing the angry look on Maya’s face. “Nothing is more urgent than my son’s well-being; everything else can wait,” Maya replied.

  At such a declaration, the little man stepped back, causing everyone to leave the room, leaving only Maya and Ketsual, mother and son.

  Ketsual watched in surprise as everyone left, occasionally forgetting that his mother was the queen.

  Maya looked at Ketsual with a smile. “Just rest, my son. Remember that you are my most precious being… and if anything were to happen to you, I…” She fell silent, lowering her head to hide her tearful eyes.

  Seeing that image gave Ketsual a pang of pain, realizing that, even if he tried not to be a burden, a mother will always be worried about her child.

  Maya raised her face again, showing that motherly smile once more.

  And it was that smile that encouraged him to say the following: “Mother, I have to tell you something…”