Like The Sky, part 4

But the prince. The prince of Hatill. When I woke, I was staring into his eyes. His eyes...reminded me of something, but of course by that point I had no idea where or what I was. I looked at the prince, and I thought, I'm still falling. But of course, I was laying in a field somewhere. The prince--his name is Callan--he picked me up and took me back to the castle, where I was tended to by the king's personal physicians. That was when I first began to gain fame. My wounds healed quickly. Too quickly, I think, because it made people notice how different I was from them.

The prince and I became great friends. I spent my mornings learning the ways of the royals from a bold, brazen woman the king had hired for me, but my afternoons were spent more enjoyably; in the prince's wing. I never entered his personal quarters, but I spent a lot of time in the living room--the largest room in his wing. He taught me more than my 'tutor' ever managed to beat into me. I learned to write the language of Hatill, I learned to speak to the servants with respect, and I learned of the prince's disdain for his father. Callan told me that his father was starving the common people to build his empire and his army. "If another nation doesn't attack us soon, my father will go out of his way to start a war," he told me.

The prince revealed his heart to me over and again. He told me that he loved the commoners, but because he was the son of the worst king ever (in their opinions), he was hated nearly as much as his father. Callan left the castle often, but every time he had an elaborate costume and a back story to deflect attention. The people that met him when he was Hassan, his common name, loved him completely, but he didn't dare to reveal himself to them. I was the only one who knew of the prince's other self...but I still never saw him smile. I got through the steel, but the wall that remained was impenetrable.