Albwin thought he should remember.

Remember as he had once, the blood that would not allow itself to be cleaned off his skin plaguing him. Death everywhere. The doubts he had had then. But those dreams never came now. They belonged to a past that could not harm him anymore.

He sometimes dreamt of the lands to the north. Those dreams could be curiously strange, though they never quite crossed the boundary that would qualify them as nightmares. It was a compelling mix of darkness and light, much as he himself was.

He recalled the harbours of the First City, merchant ships bringing in their goods and putting them up for sale from the moment their gangplank hit the quayside. Fine, magnificently coloured fabrics and spicy scents, books written in every tongue imaginable, sketches of places so beautiful it was almost impossible to fathom. And yet it was nothing compared to the great marketplace that the city itself was.

It was the capital of the Territories that he dreamt of most often. He had learned much there, about himself and about others. Coming back to the South Palace was supposedly a step forward; he was the ruler returned from victorious war, blessed by the deities, prophesised bringer of peace. But why did it feel like it had been a step back?

In a way the images brought him some peace. They were habitually as he remembered them, all the places he used to frequent at the time, but there were instances in which he saw something entirely new, unconsciously added by his mind.

He wondered if he would have done better to remain in the north. Even if he had not been happy there, neither was he content here. In his heart, he silently hoped that the only reason behind his return south was to make him realise he did not belong here. He was not as his ancestors had been. According to Arandîr, he was not supposed to be. Indeed, if these dreams were telling him anything, it was that what he searched for was there; in the dark alleys and labyrinthine ways of the First City.

He thought he had seen her eyes once...

A king here, yes, but to rule an empire, to take the first step towards attaining that which his forefathers had never been able to achieve, had just dreamed of incessantly, he would have to go back there.

True power lay there, and only there. And if she were anywhere, the veiled woman who he chased in his dreams, she would be there also.
 

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