Chapter 15: The Laurel Crown
Their destiny was hand-drawn. This hand wasn't God's. They were the children God couldn't take care of. They grew up. As they grew, each had the string of their cause wrapped around their wrist, yet none realized the string had turned into shackles. They were prisoners of their fate. They weren't the first prisoners of this captivity, nor would they be the last. Because no one, ever, would realize the cycle of this bondage. Even if they did, the thought of a freer order beyond this captivity wouldn't cross their minds.
Knowledge and justice tell the story:
I straightened up on my elbows, where she had pushed me moments ago, and watched her hurry into the coffin with a smile. I knew she wouldn’t see this expression because, in her arrogance, she wouldn’t turn to look at me one last time. Just like how I was sure she wouldn’t think I could fight back during our scuffle a few seconds ago.
With the laughter of a victory not yet secured, she said, “The irony that you can never escape being last…” as she closed the lid of the coffin. Once I was sure she was gone, I stood up. Calmly dusting myself off and fixing my disheveled hair, I wasn’t going to rush. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, feeling the fatigue on my shoulders lessen gradually.
Without my sister around to mimic my gestures and expressions, I listened again to the riddle echoing through the curtain.
"Two arrows were shot:
One of love,
The other of hate.
Hate took root,
Love counted it as a victory."
The primary nanny took care of the eldest child's education for the future ruler. The first lesson my nanny gave me was related to this. "If the road is rough, walk without fear, knowing what you may face," she said. "If the road is clear and the action to take comes to mind quickly, stop; think about how they might cut you off, identify where the danger may come from."
My first thought in this riddle was Eva and Hesna, which was an easy answer. It's peculiar how the two individuals who withdrew from the duel had their powers derived from the emotions mentioned in the riddle. "A well-deserved method of deception..." I murmured.
As my steps slowly circled the curtain, I took my time to think. The answer to the first riddle is the Earth, now I'm in the curtain, and it's telling me about the clash of hate and love. My lips curved into a brittle smile. My slow steps quickened, and I stood in front of the coffin my sister used for her travel. Pushing the lid open, I entered the coffin to go to the birthplace of love and hate, closing the lid over me.
A few seconds later, I was not in the coffin but under the earth. Straining, I moved my shoulders and worked to move the earth above me. It didn’t take much effort since I wasn’t buried deep. It only took me seven minutes to shake the Earth's soil off me.
Standing and dusting myself off, I looked around. Being quite far from the art-filled city centers of Ancient Greece was good for me. I was in the forest where Apollo saw Daphne, elements of the story we heard from the scholars of the palace when we were little kids.
The golden arrow shot at Apollo made him fall in love with Daphne. The lead arrow shot at Daphne made her hate Apollo. Apollo pursued, Daphne fled. One day, tired of being chased by the man she hated, Daphne asked her father for help to escape from Apollo. Her father, Peneus, turned her into a tree to save her. But Apollo was pleased. Because now, the laurel tree before me was the woman he loved, and he could visit her whenever he wished.
Hate taking root had become a victory for love. The answer to the second riddle was the laurel tree.
When I lifted my right hand and touched the trunk of the tree, a beam of light was born, grew, and spread. It wrapped around my wrist. As the light slowly faded, the laurel crown, a symbol of peace and victory, thus awarded to winners and kings during the Olympics, appeared on my wrist. I pulled my hand away from the tree and held the wide ring on my wrist with my fingers, smiling. The laurel crown, placed on the ruler during the coronation in Elysian, was in my hand.
The main character of my favorite childhood story was in my hand...
When my nanny woke me up, the Sun hadn’t risen yet. The palace was quieter and darker than ever. "I’m going to take you somewhere you’ll love..." she had said.
I saw her more than my family; she knew me well, and I knew this. So, despite my sleep being disturbed, I excitedly asked, "Where are we going, nanny?" Looking at her nightgown, I realized we would be inside the palace and started to think about the places in the palace I loved.
When she lifted me from the bed by my armpits and whispered, "Surprise," in my ear.
While my nanny picked the prettiest of the small dresses from my wardrobe, I continued to wonder about the palace with childlike curiosity. My mind wasn’t filled with toys or fun colors because I hadn’t been, and wouldn’t be, acquainted with any of them.
After dressing me as if for a celebration, she took me to the throne room. Every time I entered this room, I’d look at the throne with admiration and murmur, "So beautiful..." The person who instructed me to do this was my nanny. That day, as we secretly entered the room and looked at the throne, we both said in unison, "So beautiful..."
My nanny, whose experience showed as wrinkles on her face and always styled her white hair in a bun, asked in a mischievous tone, "Would you like to sit on the throne?" I widened my eyes in panic. "But that’s my father's place!" Even though I protested, deep down I was screaming yes.
"But it will be yours after your father," she enticed me into committing the act. My child mind, believing my nanny knew everything right, couldn’t resist this tempting offer of mischief for long.
When I sat on the throne, she took out the laurel crown she had hidden in the sash of her dress. With the same astonishment, I whispered-shouted, "That’s my father’s crown!" and she laughed.
"Your father did something he shouldn’t have; he left his crown lying around." Both the little me and the me who has lived for centuries knew my father would never do such a thing, and so did my nanny. Yet, she placed the laurel crown on my head, allowing me to experience that legendary feeling. She saluted me as if I were a ruler and fulfilled all the commands I gave her from the big throne I sat on with my small body.
As she put me back to bed, she said, "You’ll face many obstacles on your path, but in the end, you’ll sit on this throne again."
The throne I sat on as a child, I was definitely going to sit on it again, and this time, the only power that could
remove me would be death.
Now that I had reached the answer in Elysian, my dear sister suddenly appeared in front of me, diverting my attention from the laurel crown. She was flustered by the sudden change of location, looking around in confusion. When her eyes landed on me, the question marks in her mind seemed to multiply. When she saw the crown dangling from the tip of my fingers, her eyebrows furrowed. She looked at the tree. She probably remembered the story and faced her defeat.
"H-how?" she said, still in shock.
"You’ve always been too hasty, sister. Always focused on winning, yet you never could."
Her gaze was shaky. The disappointment made it quite hard for her to grasp the situation. She was too sensitive. Struggling to accept, terrified of making mistakes.
When she could speak, she pointed at the tree and yelled, "It’s impossible for you to think of this!"
"You can’t accept defeat, but when you win, you can easily gloat. That’s ignorance, sister."
"This duel was planned for you to win!" She didn’t listen, finding an excuse for her defeat, to which I laughed dismissively. "That’s why Hesna and Eva withdrew. You deceived me!"
"They tried to deceive us both, you were deceived," I corrected her.
“No!” she screamed, her actions trying to convince herself of her own truths. “Hasn’t it always been like this? Every game we played, every competition, wasn’t it planned for you to win?”
“That’s not true,” I said, in a much calmer tone than my sister.
“They always favored the eldest child who would be the ruler!” she continued to provide evidence for her theory. “But things have changed now! Everything has changed! I will be the ruler, the heir is mine!” She screamed mindlessly, bringing her hands to her hair, her reddened eyes fixed on the crown in my hand. As she snarled and laughed like a mad dog, drool dripped from the corner of her mouth onto the collar of her dress. "He was right!" I didn’t know whom she was referring to. "He was right, those I trusted are harming me!" she screamed crazily.
“No...” I continued in a calm tone, unlike her. "You just lost, and if you don't learn to accept it, you'll lose even more."
"I won't lose!" she said fiercely. Her bloodshot eyes widened, taking on the color of her puffy, red hair on both sides of her face. She looked terrible. "My father gave me this responsibility," she whispered in a dangerous tone. "I am suitable for this, and I won’t disappoint my father."
She wasn’t suitable for rulership. Not just lacking in weakness wasn't enough to be a ruler, as my father thought. Actually, I was sure my father knew this too. Sending us to Earth wasn't to choose a ruler without weakness, he didn’t want me to be the ruler, and I wouldn’t bow to this injustice.
As my sister took three large steps towards me, reaching out to take the crown, we were teleported again. This time we were in Elysian, and the applause, cheers, and congratulatory words from the people were for me. Unable to digest this, my sister teleported away, disappearing from sight.
This wouldn’t be the last time I angered her. As I sat on my throne, enjoying what was rightfully mine, I would watch her rage again.
