An Unabridged Memoir - Final Part

Final Part – The Epilogue of a King

But of course, nothing could happen if everyone remained in such devastated state after Lady Freiya’s untimely death. After two weeks, although still wrecked by his sudden loss, Lord Ban quickly picked up momentum and he began such active involvement within Revelia’s court as to discuss the future of the kingdom, with its heirless state of the moment. The only available and legit heirs were still too young, the twin aptly named Mikhael and Hariel with not much of other option available. I was present within all the meetings, for as of then, I have gotten used to being among the statesmen and people of the upper ruling class, while them had all received me quite well for being the ‘son’ of the late queen and her husband. Of course, during one of those few days when my late mother queen was absent, I have had my fair shares of running the meeting, attending an event, and even acted as the kingdom’s representative to other kingdom every time she wasn’t available. I was seventeen, quickly turning eighteen, and at a point where my mind finally began to mature, my emotion slowly stabilizing and my bodily growth at its peak and getting involved in such stately task of representing Lady Freiya since such an early age gave birth to a new me. I’d never thought of how much things had changed, but when Lord Seth Harris le Beaumont almost could not recognize me when I greeted him and Lord Ban at the harbour upon their arrival, it simply hit my head. When he said ‘You are looking more like a Crown Prince now that you’ve shed your outer skin, young Gabriel,’ jokingly, I know, but perhaps that was what gave Lord Ban the idea to actually nominate the idea of having me, as he said ‘my and my late queen’s son’ to replace Lady Freiya and ultimately ascend directly into prince hood, and later, kinghood. I was late by half an hour to the meeting due to my call of duty at the Sanctuary where I was appointed as a houseman, but when I arrived and entered the hall through a small door leading to the audience’s seating instead of heading directly to my own designated place, every of the kingdom ministers, including Lord Ban who was smiling brilliantly that it looked suspicious. When the ministers bowed, I had the shock of my life and when Lord Ban gingerly announced ‘Welcome back, Heir of Revelia’ my heart stopped for a few moment as my mouth automatically yelled, ‘WHAT?’ so loud that it echoed badly inside the room. Lord Michael Parsat, with his mouthful smile, took the liberty of announcing, ‘it has been decided that you will lead us, this kingdom, in our late queen’s steed and memory, as the first prince of King Admarith and Queen Freiya. No one else, not a single soul, could we agree upon to take this role and lead this kingdom into further prosperity, for a better future, but you, Lord Gabriel Admarith,’ and my heart, for a moment stopped beating at the mention of something I would definitely call absurd. Yes. It was indeed absurd.

That statement eventually gave birth to a debate between me who was standing on the audience’s balcony; against the entire assemble of the kingdom’s ministers and personnel. I defended the fact that I am not a royal born, definitely not the true-blood of the kingdom’s line of ruler and that I deserve not the seat of king. However the court had their reasons, and they made good use of it. In the end we reached one simple agreement – that I shall sit on the throne in substitute to the twins until they were old enough to lead the kingdom. It was also then that Hariel was decidedly made the candidate for the throne, after me, of which I consider as a ‘caretaker’. It was my part’s condition, but the court, so that they would agree on this one condition, made me promise and swore not to reject the title they will be bestowing on me, as a preparation to my ‘coronation’. It was then that I formally became a ‘prince’, for my father is a king and my late mother was a queen. I made a pact with the kingdom’s court when they stated that as a preparation for the so called coronation, I must abandon the family name that I was born with and had been carrying for all my life – Montgomery and will carry on the name Noel, which belongs exclusively to Norath’s royal family. It was history in the making, of course, for I am, not by birth or by blood, was I related to Lord Ban, and not in any way I am joined to him by the means of race. I became his son, and I am a human. This matter was written in great detail in both kingdoms’ history even though it wasn’t asked for. In the history of Norath’s royal family, I eventually became the only human all along the family’s bloodline, and my name was written in their family tree under Lord Ban as his eldest son. It was great honour, although I deeply felt it was unnecessary. In the pact, I boldly stated that should I one day decided to step down the throne of Revelia and hand it to the righteous bloodline, I must be allowed again to use my early given name. The court agreed, but countered that I shall not, in any way, remove the name Admarith. I agreed, and that dispute regarding name was among the twenty-five two-way agreement between me and the court in regard of their decision to hail me as their king. The signing ceremony was held seven days after the court announced their desire. Seven day from since, I was knighted and elevated into prince-hood, under the name Gabriel Admarith, directly making me the Crown Prince. My coronation into kinghood was scheduled to happen in 100 days time, and it was during those 100 days I was trained, personally, by Lord Ban, on the finer side of the art of ruling a kingdom. I learned what I was expected to do, as a king and as a man, how to dress (for my former days as a houseman at the Sanctuary I was more comfortable with casual attire) and the sheer elegance of horse-riding and such of the noble-blood. It wasn’t really that hard for the years I’ve spent with Lord Ban during my younger days was always laced with such things, but it was also during these days that I found my life slowly being subjected to countless protocols and peering eyes. I had my first public appearance the day I was elevated into prince-hood and I was shocked beyond words at the rate of reception I received by the public, particularly from young girls. The amount of flower left at the palace’s gate, mainly red roses was overwhelming. Lord Ban joked about how I won’t need to go far looking for suitors for they all seemed to be coming at me, and the palace servants gossiped about us whenever they thought I wasn’t looking and reporters tried to record my action every time they can. Suddenly I became an object of focus, appearing on newspaper’s main spread and inside magazines. I had interviews and such, painters requested for me to hire them to paint my formal portrait. The people who usually ignored me back in the Sanctuary started looking at me the unusual way whenever I walked along the halls, and my journey to and fro the palace to my workplace was always accompanied. My life took a 180 degree turn with the elevation and ladies at the formal upper society began to turn their head to look at me whenever I was around. Funny how a single title could change everything and everyone’s view on someone in a single blink of an eye…the work of human’s mind and heart was indeed one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

The court had requested that I retire from my work as a doctor at the Sanctuary but I insisted that they at least let me continue my work before my coronation. They agreed. It was a sad truth, actually, since my dream had always been becoming a doctor and serves the public, helping the needy and curing the sick. It had also been my late father’s dream, to see at least one of his sons graduating from the Academy and I had earlier made it my lifelong purpose to live my life as how my father would’ve wished. But destiny had something bigger waiting for me, a bigger responsibility to fulfil, and broader scope to care for. Those 100 days, I spent with all dedication, with all my might, and all my heart. I bid farewell to my workplace on the 99th day with such heavy heart for bigger responsibility than one boy from a small village at the outskirt of the city could never ever imagine. The coronation went on smoothly, and I was given the title Gabriel the Peacekeeper by the court and I am to be addressed as King Gabriel. And of course, Lord Ban remained for the first month of my days as a king, becoming my trusted tutor and above all, a father. After he was satisfied that I did well, he left, together with the twins, but he did not leave with me alone on my own. He set Lord Seth Harris as my tutor, but Lord Seth Harris himself, after staying in Revelia for a full year after Lord Ban left for his kingdom, too set sail for Norath. The rumour of how his heart was thoroughly shattered by Revelia was certified by this, for he, in my sincere observation, was much pained by the fact that he must remain in the kingdom far longer than he would’ve anticipated it. I did not blame him, and in fact, I couldn’t, for he was nothing but a victim of Darius’ ugly ambition and baseless hatred. Willingly I let him return, and continued my responsibility as the new king, in confide of Seth Frederich, of whom I had grown so fond he eventually became a very good friend of mine. He helped me tremendously, especially during the earlier years, and he diligently and full-heartedly assisted me in running the kingdom during those times when great burden befall me. But above all, what astonished me so much was the fact that despite his involvement, he displayed not any desire for real power, nor fame, or recognition and sort. To this I was obliged to honour him, and I did so when he married Lady Cecil Jarden, the daughter of the Defence Minister of the Revelia when he turned 28. To commemorate this as well as to honour his tremendous effort and unchanging loyalty, I awarded him with the title Count, and a piece of land not far from my birth place. The award came to him as a shock, but he accepted it with a smile. He remained close to me forever more from since.

The younger twin, Hariel, returned and permanently settled in Revelia the moment he turned twelve. What I feared earlier at the thought of we might never bond as brothers did not happen as he turned out to be such a happy child. Apparently the few meetings we had along his earlier life in Norath did not stop him from feeling awkward around me, and fitting for his future role as the king of this kingdom, he was the sort of extrovert that was greatly welcomed by people around me. To hear him calling me brother without a single doubt made me happy endlessly and to see him smile brightly every morning over breakfast eased a great amount of pressure in my system for running this kingdom. The fact that we never really shared the same blood yet he full-hearted and honestly accepted me as his older sibling remedied the brittle relationship that could’ve shattered anytime. Hariel eventually became my light, and he, in every manner, finally made me able to forgive myself for the fact of Lady Freiya’s death. Hariel, no matter of his young age, taught me what it feels like to be alive again. Living and running a kingdom (as put by Seth Frederich) on a contract-base sapped away a huge chunk of my life, and I, subconsciously, began harbouring such gloomy view on life. He commented (Seth Frederich) that I had changed, in which from a calm, reserved child into an outspoken, rather short-tempered adult. I denied him, but with Hariel, he managed to tell that to my face AND make me accept as well as realize it. It was only with his arrival that things began to change again, and it then, headed for a better good…

It wasn’t, though, soon that I finally found the last missing puzzle in my life. Eight years after Hariel’s return to Revelia, finally, for the first time in my life, a woman managed to capture a small moment of interest in me. Her name was Adora Luisa Simonnel, Lady, and a grandniece of a bordering kingdom’s king. The way in which she first caught my attention was so peculiar; I sincerely doubt I’ll ever forget it. She first began by pushing me into the lake during an extremely cold late autumn night, later beating me at hunting and of course, smitten me by just being her. She was 17 years my junior. I was 36, she was 19. It was an awful lot of age differences, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love with her. Two years of courtship, at the point when Hariel turned twenty-two, I decided it was time for me to step down the throne and finally hand it to Hariel who truly deserves the crown left by his mother. I was quite sure Adora will turn my proposal down should I even ask once she knew I will soon no longer be king, but she surprised me by saying yes. In all, I thought she had been harbouring feelings toward Hariel, since Hariel himself seemed to have some affection toward her too, but things spiralled down into something…into this… a year later I stepped off the throne, finally returning the crown to its rightful owner and soon after Hariel’s coronation we were married. Adora kept her words of promise to love me even without the crown I had been wearing for over twenty years, and together we were blessed with five children of three sons and two daughters. After stepping down, I moved back into the small village where I came from, and Hariel, as a token of appreciation, awarded me the title ‘Duke’ and a piece of land that contains within it the village where I was born, sitting border to border with Seth Frederich’s own piece of land. Hariel insisted that I continue to assist him in court and I gladly do so. Life continued for me, blissfully, as I watch my children grow, watched Hariel thrived as the new king as he ushered Revelia into a new age of greatness, continuing what his mother started and securing the long-awaited, hard earned peace. We finally succeeded in opening the entire barriers that kept Norath and Revelia apart, and it was during these years that the border between the races of elf and human slowly died. Now elves lives peacefully among humans, and humans had begun to initiate their travels to Norath. A great moment of peace, toleration and understanding, and there was nothing more I could ever as for…

“Gabriel, being the eldest of my three children, had always kept his talent to himself, quietly, for he is too timid and too forgiving to actually fit in scenes so lively such as those at the royal courts. But the sequence of event forced him to come out of his cocoon, make himself very noticeable, and eventually bloomed into a highly-respected man whose wisdom surpasses his age, dedication and love rivaled his years. If it weren’t for his clever pact with the court to only rule the kingdom until his younger brother came to an age where he is ready to take over the kingdom, I would’ve wanted for him to continue sitting on the throne and held on to the crown until the end of his time…but that, of course, will never happen. Revelia, after all, was lucky to for once have such understanding civilian as their king, even if it was for a short period of time…”

-    Admarith Noel

“My brother Gabriel is a strong, wise, intelligent, forgiving, honest and kind man. It came to me as a regret when he stepped down from the throne and handed it to me when I turned twenty-two, for I would really love to live my life freely for a little longer. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded if he stayed steadfast as a king until time says he could no longer serve our people, but his sense of his actual identity as an adopted son of my father was too strong, he could not stop himself from indulging in great guilty to let him stay and be king forever. This truth, I shall and will never blame him upon, and with his marriage to Lady Adora, I pray that he finds the happiness he had long lost. He had suffered so much under the pressure of his conscience and humbleness, I shall take the crown that once sit snugly on his head and let him rest, let him find his own life, if that means he will be happy and finally able to forgive himself for the countless feeling he harboured…”

-    Hariel Admarith Noel

“I feel, it is my duty to keep this story alive, a tale of countless sort of love that sprouted, most notably, from a man and a woman. They are too dear to me, too dear that even on my deathbed; I will never learn to forget this…”

-    Gabriel Phillip Admarith Noel-Montgomery

Author’s note:

WHEW. I hope you enjoy it, this is the final part to wrap things up. It took more than a year to complete this piece, specifically written for a dear friend.  And in case any of you out there had ever read the very short piece titled ‘The Untitled Encounter’, I must say that this particular Gabriel is NOT related to THAT Gabriel. Lets just say I’m infatuated by the name.

And no, this piece wasn’t influenced by LOTR or anything. It was a pure imagination, based on a set rule for a universe I often use for period comic/prose.

Thank you, for reading…