Building a kingdom in the dark

Talks

From how the chattering of the place echoed in the room, Stephen assumed it was probably a place with a high roof, tall windows as well since he could feel the warm light of the sun warming his skin. 

He heard someone standing, their chair moving with an almost silent noise as he could hear their footsteps getting near. Again, judging by their cadance and their pace he assumed that a girl was walking towards him and her sister. 

"Good morning father" Arika said, the name of his sister not really clicking inside the boy's head yet. 

According to his extremely lacking knowledge of royalties; they were in the presence of the king since his sister had called him father and she was a princess. Though, while bowing shouldn't be required as they still were royalties and his children; he definitely had to say something nevertheless.

"I wish you a good morning as well father" Stephen said firmly, a fake hint of tenderness added to his tone to make everything sound more; polite.

Honestly, rephrasing the words of his sister hadn't been such a hard task, he thought; as he decided to simply repeat everything his sibling was going to say until he didn't understand how to act; he felt a presence extremely near him all of sudden.

Stopping himself from showing his discomfort he got a little more rigid, trying to exactly figure out who was near. 

"Mother, let me go" Arika whined as she struggled near him, a smile almost got painted on his lips as he let his legs carry him to where he was supposed to sit.

Getting toyed with by their own parents; it definitely was a feeling he could relate to and still don't exactly know, honestly, his parents didn't really messed with him too much physically, that was the job of his grandma; playing with his hairs and cheeks was definitely an hobby of hers.

Sitting on a comfortable and soft chair, he didn't really look around; it wouldn't really change much yet, the impulse to do it was strong. It was like breaking the same rule over and over again, because of habits. 

"How did you sleep Stephen?" a voice asked, without even realizing; he found his head turned to the right in front of him. The voice was extremely polite and cold but had hidden a faint sense of care in it, something only someone he was supposed to know was able to perform. His internet friend, Nate.

"I've slept well Nathaniel," Stephen answered carelessly, without even thinking about what he was saying. 

"Are you sure?" the so called "Nathaniel" asked as he heard his movements stopping; realizing what had just happened, Stephen could've sworn to feel his own mind curl up and die in shame and fear of what else could happen now. In dreams people don't die right?

"Why are you asking?" He questioned back, stopping himself from cutting something that had been served on his plate. Probably something warm since he could feel sort of clearly the boiling heat of the plate. 

"Well, you're eating an egg with a spoon and a fork; and, you never call me by my second name" The voice said, and well; he was definitely going to be mistook as an imposter and killed now right?

He placed down what he originally thought were the correct silverwaves and proceeded to take something else and hope for the best. How was he supposed to even know what was he holding?

Those things weighed approximately all the same and he couldn't even see them or touch them around in fear of being suspicious. Why was being blind so hard?

He could feel his face burn up as he automatically looked down, this wasn't definitely a good situation; in fact, with all the pressure he was getting over himself, that could be considered a situation perfect for panic attacks, meltdowns and generally crying. 

"Yeah yeah big brother Herman doesn't like his long names because they're the same of evil kings" Arika snickered near Stephen, trying her best to help him out while also acting like the bratty princess she was supposed to be. 

"That's definitely not true; and you should also treat me with more respect since I'm older than you," Herman replied with a tone so cold to send chills down the spine of both his siblings. 

"Well, and you shouldn't shame your big brother as well" Arika replied hastily, probably wondering why on earth she had decided to talk with him. 

So, Herman was the middle son, definitely not a desirable position yet acted way more mature for his actual age, wondering how old he could be; Stephen realized that he didn't know his own age, it didn't matter too much though, right? 

"Come on now kids, don't get too worked up on matters like this" A soft beautiful and melodic voice said. It was so perfect and full of emotion to drive people almost insane, or at least, that's what he thought about it. 

"...yeah sure whatever. Have a good day mother, father; I will head to the piano room, the lesson should start in an hour and I have to get ready" Arika said coldly and annoyed as he could hear her chair sliding over the soft carpet. He could've almost felt pity for her, but something kept him from feeling anything strongly enough to show it.

The food tasted extremely vivid, he didn't think his dreams could get so realistic over things that he couldn't see and didn't exist in general. 

Maybe though, that wasn't a dream; the voice of reason, hidden deep inside his mind was screaming him to listen to his thoughts saying everything was real. Yet he pushed everything away. The idea of being in another world for seemingly no reason at all, wasn't something to think about while having breakfast with a bunch of people that could've killed him in the exact moment as well as being complete strangers.

Eating with guys he didn't know and that could be potential murderers was so reassuring.

Eating as fast as he could while still holding that mask of fake elegance, he finished breakfast in a matter of minutes.

"I can see that you're in optimal form my child" His mother said; was it even correct to call her mother?

She was just a thing made from his own mind, his real mother voice was far different; she was always somewhat cold, and her voice was really really less armonic. Almost toneless and a little deeper than the person he was speaking with. 

He preferred this one, it reminded him of affection that asian children with strict parents don't get that often.

"I agree with you mother, how are you instead?" Stephen asked, smiling softly as he turned his head towards the woman, placing down the knife and fork that he was hopefully holding; and pondered if stuffing his mouth with something more. 

"I'm good Stephen dear, would you like to join me after lunch time in my garden perhaps?" She asked softly, her voice changing to an even softer tone, he loved it.

"Certainly mother, now though; I'm afraid I must go" He said softly as he stood up, taking his cane at the first attempt luckily. It would have been so embarrassing if he missed.

"go where?" The king said, in a tone that made him almost jump in fear. He had completely forgotten that the man was still there. His tone was the same as before, loud, energic but a bit cold.

"In the library father, yesterday I found an interesting topic I would like to study more" Stephen said calmly, feeling a strange calm taking over him. Everything was going fine right? He was hoping that the person he was acting as was studious. The other Stephen; he could call it like that.

He walked out of the dining room, his cane serving the purpose of a walking stick as he still didn't really understood how to use it.

As soon as the guards, he supposed were there, closed the door; he stopped. 

Standing in front of a probably big and thick wood door. Like all the doors in medieval times, it was probably decorated too he assumed; after all, since his father was a king; he was currently in a castle, and castles had doors that are decorated.

Standing in front of the door, ignoring the feeling of the guards staring at him, he stood still; listening closely to what was being said inside.

"Stephen... happier... strange, Herman... mistaking... blind but.... unusual... sick looking..." He couldn't hear it clearly, what was being said inside the dining room was muffled by the door and only part of it was audible.

Only his mother was talking, or maybe it was his father though; he couldn't really tell the two voice apart from outside the room. Still; he felt as if he had royally messed up.

All the mistakes he had accidentally done had been noticed by his not so real parents. It didn't matter too much though right? He was going to wake up soon anyway so it wasn't going to matter once he would wake up. 

If he was going to, that's it.

So, the other Stephen, the prince; wasn't a happy person overall, maybe he was just as cold as Herman or maybe was more silent than a wall. The spoon and fork error didn't go unnoticed as well, and lastly; like Arika had said, he looked pale. The motive of that? Totally unknown

He sighed as he started to walk away, the sound of his steps echoing in the hall. Breakfast had been extremely useful as well as being rather... uncomfortable. It's not like he could've avoided it anyway...still, it burned as if someone had insulted his mother.

Which would've been extremely pleasant if it happened, like; Stephen himself insulted his mother happily. But this wasn't the point.

As he let his legs bring him to the library which Arika said existed, he let his mind run free.

By being actually unable to see, he was directly able to prove what his teacher had said a long time ago.

So, the fact that blind people are able to hear better than normal people was actually true; or at least, normally he was unable to hear things he was normally unable to.

Normally, in his life, living in the darkness of his home; he could hardly hear what happened outside his house; having the room always filled with the noises of his computers. But now, everything was louder and sounded as clear as the light of the day. It was both beautiful and sort of amusing. To be able to hear between doors and walls without too much problems was a good thing in a medieval kingdom right?

As he faintly heard the sound of piano playing in the distance, he stopped in his tracks, remembering that Arika had mentioned something about her playing piano, he decided to reach her as soon as he would finish his little trip to the library.

Quickly walking down the hall, he hurried himself to reach the room. Eventually, he stopped in front of a door; or at least, he supposed it was a door because of the similar texture of his cane and the decorations over it.

Leaving his hand to wander over it, tracing the decorations, he found the door handle and stepped inside.

 As he entered, he felt a warm sensation filling him, that room felt so familiar and intimate he felt as if he had lived there for all his life somehow. 

The place had the characteristic scent of dusty old books and ancient paper left untouched for years, he could almost feel the spiders laying their web in the empty spaces between the books and the shelf.

The room probably had high windows as well, as he could feel the warm light of the sun warming his clothes and face. Maybe , it was something his father enjoyed; having unnecessary tall windows everywhere. 

He almost stopped in his tracks towards some shelf; his... father? What was he saying? 

That man wasn't even as near as similar as his actual dad. 

The king was loud, energic and didn't seem to despise talking to him. While his real father was a quiet person and didn't even try hiding his coldness towards the son. 

It was basically like a stranger, leaving everything concerning him to Stephen's mother with no regret or whatsoever.

Still though, he had a childhood; he had been able to go to kindergarten to the park and once or twice to the beach.

So, even if his parents weren't that caring they were probably perfect parental figures. Not that he had someone to confront his parents with.

Either way, calling the king of a medieval kingdom that he was dreaming of; father, was wrong. It felt right but was still wrong.

For example, not sleeping for a week felt extremely right and a really good idea to Stephen, still; he knew that it was a bad thing so forced himself to sleep every one or two days. 

Stephen walked blindly on a straight line, hoping to don't bump into anything.

Since his instinct was completely silent in that moment, he had no clue on how the room was, he was conscious that there were tall windows and shelves to hold the books. But he knew that manly because of deduction and logical thinking rather than instinct alone. 

His hopes shattered though as he bumped into what seemed to be a long, tall and heavy table full of God knows what. 

Feeling a dull pain around his stomach, he heard the sound of various things falling. 

He sighed deeply, as he passed a hand through his hairs in exasperation. For god sake being blind was so annoying he could go and kick a kid in frustration. 

The first annoying thing was that he always had no clue of what people were doing around him, second thing is that he also had no clue on what his surroundings are. And third, he simply hated it. There was no actual reason for his hate, still; he definitely didn't like being unable to see at all.

As he picked up a book which had fallen on the ground when he had bumped into it, he examined the cover.

It was a rather thick book, one of those with around a hundred pages. 

He passed his hand where he supposed the title was just to find a string of words written in braille. Thing is that while he consciously was unable to understand anything of it; he understood what was written anyway. 

It didn't make any sense though; he had never learned how to read braille because he didn't need it in the real world. So, how in the world was he able to know something like that inside a dream?

He decided to don't overthink about it, it was foolish to question the logic of dreams as it was common knowledge that dreams had no logic and were a sort of remix of reality and directly were a bunch of random events with no meaning. 

So why thinking about something like that? 

As he kicked out of his brain how something was possible or not, he grabbed the book and his cane, walking outside the library while heading towards the room where Arika was playing the piano.

Music had always been a good background noise, something that delighted him and helped him think. He wasn't going there to run away from a library because he couldn't understand how he was able to read and understand braille and languages he knew nothing about. Definitely not the case.