Karis groaned and sprawled in his chair. His whole body ached. Narin had worked him hard that day, relentlessly driving him until he’d been ready to collapse. He knew he needed to work on his assignment from the scholar, a man whose name he still didn’t know, but all he wanted to do was curl up and pass out.

He reached one aching arm over and grabbed his pad. He flicked it on and started reading. There was a chime that let him know someone wanted in. He groaned again and got up. He set his pad down and limped over to the door. He opened it and was surprised to see a well-dressed nobleman standing there. “Your Imperial Highness, I am Lord Vasco, a member of your father’s council.” The man favored him with an unctuous smile.

“How can I help you, Lord Vasco?” Karis asked cautiously. His mother had warned him not to trust any of the nobility because there would be even odds if they would be his allies or would be out to kill him.

“I was wondering if Your Imperial Highness might be able to put a rumor to rest for me.” The Imperial guards looked tense and were watching Vasco closely. This then was a man that could not be trusted in their eyes, which meant Karis immediately did not trust him.

“I am not certain I can help you with that, but I am happy to see what I can do.” Karis altered his speech patterns to sound more like the nobility as his father had instructed him through his servant.

Vasco again smiled that unctuous smile. “There is a rumor making the rounds, Your Imperial Highness, that the scholar who devotes so much time and attention to you is teaching you the barest basics. It is believed that you can neither read nor write.”

Karis paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “I am quite literate, Lord Vasco. The scholar feels I am on par with where you would expect a child of my age to be as far as my studies go.”

“That is good to hear, Your Imperial Highness. I will be very happy to put that rumor to rest. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me this evening.” Vasco bowed and left.

“Do not trust that man, Your Imperial Highness,” one of the guards warned him. “It’s rumored he killed his father and his older brother when he was just a few years older than you. He has a very unsavory reputation.”

“I do not trust anyone.” Karis watched Vasco disappear around the corner. “Except the Imperial guard. I only told him the most basic truth. I did not give him the whole story.”

“An excellent policy, Your Imperial Highness,” the second guard told him approvingly. “Keep to that with all courtiers and you’ll be fine.”

“I will remember that.” Karis went back to his chair and his work.

The next day the scholar arrived and began his lessons as usual. “You seem distracted today, Your Imperial Highness,” the man remarked after he had to bring Karis’ attention back to the lessons a third time.

“I am sorry.” Karis rubbed the back of his neck. “I am worried about what Trainer Wil is going to subject me to today.”

“I can appreciate you’re concerned about that, Your Imperial Highness, but we can’t let your physical training dominate your life,” the scholar chided. “You mustn’t let yourself fall behind in your scholastic studies or your father will be very unhappy.”

“No, you are right.” Karis turned his attention back to his pad. “I just need to focus more.”

“Now, shall we continue?” the scholar asked.

“Yes.” Karis tried to focus on what the scholar was teaching him.

The scholar left him with extra work because of his lack of focus. Karis ate lunch and followed the Imperial guards out of the room. Instead of taking him to the usual practice grounds they led him to a different room. This one held a climbing wall, some different machines, and what looked like odd-looking targets of some kind.

Narin grinned at him. “New training starts today, Your Imperial Highness. But we’re going to start with the usual. Five laps, full speed. And then your stretches.”

“Yes Trainer Wil.” He started running.

After the usual beginning, Narin set him to lifting weights for the next set. Then she pointed to the climbing wall. “All right, Your Imperial Highness. Start climbing. I want you up at the top as fast as you can get there. Don’t take too many risks because I don’t want you to fall and break your neck. But I do want to see how fast you can climb.”

“Would it not be better for me to be wearing a safety harness in case I do fall?” Karis swallowed hard as he looked at the tall wall.

“The floors are padded. As long as you’re careful you won’t be too badly injured,” Narin said. “Now quit talking and start climbing.”

Karis’ hands shook. He didn’t like heights, and the wall was very tall. He’d scaled the trees in the courtesan wing, but those weren’t very tall, and he hadn’t felt too insecure climbing them. This wall was a good four meters high, and he had to get to the top. Narin gave him a sharp nudge, and he reluctantly went up to the wall.

He started climbing, testing where he was placing his hands and feet and tried not to look down. He was a good climber and made his way up the wall at what he hoped was a good pace. He reached the top and was startled to see his father waiting for him.

“Father.” Karis tried to catch his breath.

Without warning, Vespasian attacked Karis, knocking him off the wall. Karis tried desperately to catch hold of something, but his hands caught only air. He plummeted the four meters and struck the mats below. His breath was knocked out of him, and he felt something crack in his back.

“Prince Karis,” Narin cried out in horror. She ran over to him, calling over her shoulder, “Call for a doctor. Now!”

“Is he dead?” Vespasian called from the top of the wall.

“Your Imperial Majesty? Did you throw him off of the top?” Narin glared up at him. “Were you trying to kill him? He’s still breathing but he’s been severely injured.”

“He is too soft,” Vespasian growled. “He should have fought back.”

“I was planning on starting him on fighting training today, Your Imperial Majesty. Now that’s going to have to be put on hold while the doctors tend to him.” Narin put a hand on Karis’ arm. “Don’t try to move, Prince Karis. Wait for the doctors to come.”

“Get him on his feet. He cannot be that badly injured.” Vespasian sounded as dismissive and scornful as he usually did of Karis.

“I’ll let the doctors tell us how badly he’s injured, Your Imperial Majesty.” Narin was angry and Karis could hear it in her voice. “Not a man who just tried to murder his own son.”

A doctor came in at that point and ran a scanner over him. “Broken back, cracked pelvis. This boy needs regenerators and to be immobilized while he’s being tended to, or he won’t recover fully.”

“He should not have a broken back.” Vespasian glared down from where he stood at the top of the climbing wall. “It was not that much of a fall.”

“Your Imperial Majesty, if he fell from the top of that wall, I’m surprised he didn’t break his neck,” the doctor told him severely. “Three of his vertebrae are broken. His pelvis is also cracked and could be a serious impediment to his walking and performing his daily activities if not tended to properly.”

“His Imperial Majesty saw fit to throw his son off the top of the wall to test his reflexes. Now he must deal with the repercussions of that action. Immobilize His Imperial Highness and get those regenerators on him.” Her voice was stern and crackled with rage.

“Yes, Trainer Wil.” The doctor spoke into his comm unit and a few minutes later several other doctors entered the training room. A forcefield was erected around Karis and he found he couldn’t even blink. He was lifted onto an anti-gravity stretcher and carried out of the room.

Karis was taken to a med lab and laid down on a bed. The forcefield wasn’t removed, though it was weakened slightly so Karis found he could blink again. He still couldn’t move any of his extremities. He was lifted and rotated onto his side. Two regenerators were slapped onto his back and his hip.

He was left in that position for a few hours, with only the sound of the regenerators for company. When the regenerators beeped, a doctor came over and removed the regenerators and released him from the forcefield. He went limp, still aching where his back and pelvis had been broken.

“You still need some rest, Your Imperial Highness.” The doctor adjusted one of the screens over his bed. “We’ll keep you here overnight. But by tomorrow you should be back to normal.”

“Thank you.” Karis winced as he shifted his position slightly.

“Is there anything we can bring you?” the doctor asked.

“My pad? I know I must not do much, but I can at least read and work on my schooling while I am here.” Anything was better than just staring at the walls.

“An excellent idea, Your Imperial Highness.” The doctor smiled. “I’ll have one of the guards go and get it for you.”

A short while later, the doctor handed Karis his pad and he set to work on his studies. When he finished the work the scholar had given him, he read until they brought him something to eat. He ate and resumed reading.

Narin came in to check on him a short while later. “How are you doing, Your Imperial Highness?” She glanced up at the readouts on the screen above him.

“I hurt, but I should be able to resume my regular activities tomorrow.” Karis tried to smile at her, but it probably came out as more of a grimace given his current mood.

“That’s good to hear. His Imperial Majesty gave me an earful for not starting you on fighting training before now, but I told him I wasn’t going to rush you into something you weren’t ready for. I still don’t think you’re ready for fighting training but he’s insistent that you learn, which is why I was planning on starting today. We’ll start it tomorrow.” From the look on her face, Karis had a suspicion she’d given his father an earful herself.

“As long as I am not required to climb that wall again.” Karis shuddered. He didn’t think he’d be able to climb that wall for a long time without panicking.

“No, I don’t think I’ll have you do that for a while. I can’t trust His Imperial Majesty won’t be waiting at the top to do this again.” She looked more than a little angry at this.

“His Imperial Majesty is the reason His Imperial Highness had a broken back?” the doctor tending to Karis asked with some surprise.

“He is. He threw him off the four meter high climbing wall to test his reflexes.” Narin was practically growling, and Karis got the feeling she was just as angry as he was.

“That’s insane.” The doctor shook his head. “He’s a twelve year old boy. There’s no chance he’d have the reflexes to withstand an attack from someone like His Imperial Majesty.”

“You know that. I know that. His Imperial Majesty has some skewed sense of what his son should be, and no one can convince him of anything different.” Narin scowled. “I’ve just spent the past hour trying. I think I’ve managed to get His Imperial Majesty to back off for a while, but it’s anyone’s guess how long that will last.”

“His Imperial Majesty is too hard on the boy.” The doctor frowned. “He’s still a child.”

“Not in His Imperial Majesty’s eyes.” Narin sighed. “He’s twelve so he’s more than old enough to learn a man’s skills.”

“Where does His Imperial Majesty get that idea?” The doctor stared at her, horrified.

“From his own father. Emperor Aelius was hard on his son and expected him to perform to a man’s level of expertise when His Imperial Majesty was only a boy. His Imperial Majesty expects the same from His Imperial Highness.” Narin shook her head.

“What happened to my grandfather?” Karis was curious because the history books didn’t talk much about how his grandfather had died.

“He died after contracting an illness we’d never seen before,” the doctor told him. “When His Imperial Majesty was only nineteen. People theorized it was poison for months, but it really was a strange virus. We’ve seen it crop up a couple of other times in various members of the court and it’s proved fatal each time.”

“Could it be a manufactured virus? Used by assassins to kill specific targets?” Karis asked. “I read about that being done in the early empire in a history book.”

The doctor looked thoughtful. “I don’t think we ever considered it could be manufactured. We still have samples of it on file. We’ll have to take a look at it. Thank you for that suggestion, Your Imperial Highness.”

“I just read a lot.” Karis blushed. “I have a good memory for what I read.”

“If only His Imperial Majesty put as much value in being a scholar as he does in being a fighter.” Narin sighed.

“I would be better off if he did,” Karis grumbled.

“Yes, you would. However, we’re going to have to work with what we’ve got, Your Imperial Highness.” Narin patted his arm.

“I know, and since he is the emperor, everyone must obey him.” Karis fought the urge to roll his eyes.

“That’s right. That includes you, Your Imperial Highness.” Narin was right. Unfortunately, obeying his father was one of his duties as crown prince.

“I know. I suppose I will be back at the physical training tomorrow then.” Karis didn’t like the idea, but it was a part of his lessons, and he knew his father would be harder on him for avoiding them than he was now for not living up to his skewed notion of what he should be.

“We’ll be working on your fighting skills tomorrow, so expect to get roughed up.” Narin gave him a look that told him he was not going to enjoy the next several weeks.

“I am not looking forward to it.” Karis grimaced.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Your Imperial Highness.” Narin turned and left.

Karis read until the doctors made him go to bed. The next morning the guards moved him back to his room in time for him to shower, eat breakfast, and meet with his scholar teacher. He was pleased to see that Karis had completed all his tasks and set him to work on some new studies. Karis managed to stay focused on his lessons so he didn’t end up with any extra work, though he was given a few assignments to work on later that evening.

After lunch, the guards took him to the same small training room with the climbing wall he’d been to the previous day. Narin was waiting for him. “Five laps, full speed, and then do your stretches. Then we’ll get started.”

“Yes Trainer Wil.” He ran full speed around the room five times and then did his stretches. When he was done, he faced her and waited for what was next.

She guided him over to a set of mats. “First thing we’re going to teach you is basic hand to hand fighting techniques. Do what I do.” She showed him the first basic move. Karis tried to copy her. She corrected him with sharp blows and had him try again. When she was satisfied he had the first one down, she moved on to the second.

The entire afternoon, Karis learned hand to hand fighting techniques. Narin was brutal and Karis got more than one blow to correct a wrongly placed arm or leg. By the time he was done, he was sweating profusely, was bruised from shoulder to knee, and felt ready to drop.

“You’re not hopeless.” Narin smiled at him. “You’re picking up the basics fairly quickly. Quicker than I expected you would. We may be able to please His Imperial Majesty by moving you into the intermediate level training sooner rather than later. It’ll all depend on if you retain what you’ve learned today. We’ll test you tomorrow on that.”

“Yes Trainer Wil.”

“Go on, we’re through for the day.” She sent him off with his guards.

Karis returned to his room and showered. He ate his dinner and started working on his schoolwork. He idly wondered if he was going to survive the fighting practice. If the basics were this brutal, how bad were the higher levels going to be? And he still had to learn to fight with a vibroblade. How many times was he going to get sliced up before he managed to please Narin? Or his father? Karis groaned and pulled his mind back to work on his studies. At least he could manage this.

The next day his morning went well. After lunch he went back to the practice room and waited for Narin. She just looked at him. “What?” He was confused.

“You should know the routine by now, Your Imperial Highness.”

“Right. Five laps, full speed, and then my stretches.”

“No slowing down.” He waved a hand to show he’d heard her.

He ran the five laps and did his stretches. He went over to the mats without being prompted and waited for her. “I suppose it is time to see how much I remember from yesterday.”

“Yes it is.” Narin ran him through the basic moves, correcting his mistakes with sharp blows on the offending limbs. “Not bad. Not perfect, but not bad.”

“I expect perfection from my son. I am not pleased to hear he is not performing perfectly.” Vespasian stalked into the room, scowling at Karis.

“He just learned these moves yesterday, Your Imperial Majesty,” Narin told him. “He’ll gain proficiency with a little more practice. You can’t tell me you yourself were perfect the day after you learned the moves.”

Vespasian didn’t speak but from the look on his face he didn’t appreciate Narin’s reminder that he himself had not been perfect at the moves. “I expect progress, Narin,” Vespasian growled.

“He’s making progress, Your Imperial Majesty,” Narin assured him. “I expect it’ll only be a few more days before I start him on something more advanced than these basic moves.”

“I expect to see him sparring with the Imperial guard before the month is out,” Vespasian told her.

“Out of the question, Your Imperial Majesty,” Narin snapped. “With the ordinary guards, I’ll accept that. But no one but another Imperial guard spars with the Imperial guards. You didn’t even spar with the Imperial guards during your training. With their genetically modified bodies, His Imperial Highness would be badly injured in a training session with them without them meaning to do it. Unless you are, once again, trying to murder your only heir.”

Vespasian glared at Narin. “I am trying to toughen the boy up, Narin. He was coddled and babied in the courtesan wing and that needs to be beaten out of him. You are not doing him any favors by being soft on him.”

“I am never soft on anyone, Your Imperial Majesty,” Narin shot back. “I am not being soft on him now. I am training him at the limits of what a twelve year old’s body will tolerate. Unless you want to cripple him for life, you will have to accept that he cannot perform to the limits of a grown man. He is still a child. He has a child’s limitations. The doctors have explained this to you. I’ve explained this to you. I will keep explaining this to you as often as I have to.”

Vespasian glared at her for several moments before stalking out of the room. Karis watched him go with a sullen expression on his face. “I do not understand him. I perform to the best of my abilities, but it is never good enough for him.”

“Get used to that, Your Imperial Highness.” Narin sighed. “His Imperial Majesty is never pleased by anyone or anything. Not even his courtesans please him, though he was at least somewhat satisfied by your mother for a period of time.”

“Why is he such a hard man?” Karis looked at her. “Surely you do not need to be cold and cruel to be an emperor.”

“He is the way he is because it is how his father raised him to be. It is how he expects you to be.” Narin gave him a sober look.

“I will never be like him.”  Karis glared at the doorway.

“You’ll be at odds with him for the rest of his life then, Your Imperial Highness,” Narin cautioned him. “He expects perfection, and for you to emulate what he has become.”

“Then we will be at odds for the rest of his life because I refuse to become what he is,” Karis all but growled. “I have never believed that being emperor means you have to be cold and cruel. There have been several successful emperors that were compassionate and kind. I have read about them in my history books.”

“You’re in for a hard time, but I commend you for sticking to your beliefs, Your Imperial Highness. Now, let’s go over those basics again. The sooner we have you moving on the happier he’ll be.” Narin motioned for him to take up his position again.

“Yes Trainer Wil.” Karis resumed his lesson.

That evening his servant was waiting for him when he got back to his rooms. “Your Imperial Highness, His Imperial Majesty has commanded that you will join him and the rest of the court for dinner tonight,” the man told him pompously as soon as Karis appeared.

“When do I have to be there?” Karis didn’t like the man and hadn’t the entire time he’d been assigned to serve him.

The servant blinked at Karis’ nonchalant response. “You have two hours to get ready. I’m to prepare you.”

“Well, you can wait until I have had a shower.” Karis walked past the spluttering man and into the bathroom.

He took a quick shower and dried off before walking back out into his bedroom. He saw the servant standing there with one of his formal outfits in his hand. “This will take some time to get you into.”

“Not really.” Karis proved the man wrong by dressing himself in a matter of minutes. “You were saying?”

The servant stared at him. “You need to do something about your hair, Your Imperial Highness.”

Karis combed it back in a similar style to his father’s. “Is that appropriate?”

The servant stared again. “I believe so, Your Imperial Highness.” Karis slipped the crown prince’s coronet onto his head from where it had sat unused for several weeks.

“Is there anything else I need to do?” Karis gave the man a bland look.

“No, Your Imperial Highness.” The servant scowled. “The guards will escort you to the dining hall at the appropriate time.”

“Excellent. Then I believe you can go now.” The servant bowed and walked out. One of the guards looked like he was trying not to laugh at the disgruntled expression on the man’s face. Karis sat down and worked on his schoolwork until the guards told him it was time to leave for the dining hall.

Karis set his pad aside, straightened his shirt, and followed the guards out. He walked at a brisk pace, grateful for Narin’s constant insistence on running at full speed because he arrived without being out of breath.

The guards escorted to the antechamber used by the Imperial family to wait for dinner to begin. He was joined by his father and the two entered the great hall. They took their seats and soon the high lords and then the rest of the court were seated. Karis ate and kept his comments to the few people who spoke to him strictly neutral. Once the last dishes had been cleared away, his guards arrived to escort him back to his rooms.

“His Imperial Majesty didn’t seem displeased by your performance,” one of the guards remarked.

“I have attended high feasts with the courtesans since I was eight.” Karis shrugged. “My mother made sure I was taught proper manners. I was the only one allowed to talk to the courtiers at those feasts, and she encouraged it knowing I would have to do it when father called for me.” He sighed. “At least there is one thing I can do that somewhat pleases my father.”

“He’s a hard man, Your Imperial Highness,” the second guard advised. “Don’t let it bother you if he doesn’t show that you’ve pleased him. He rarely ever shows any emotion other than impatience or displeasure.”

“Good to know.” Karis filed that information away.

They returned to his rooms and Karis changed into one of his more casual outfits. He resumed working on his schoolwork and then read until it was time to sleep. The next morning, a new servant was waiting on him. He grinned cheerfully at the young prince.

“You annoyed Sebastien so much that he requested a transfer,” the young man explained. “He said you acted as if you didn’t need a servant, and you certainly didn’t understand the proper way of doing things because it should have taken two hours to prepare you for dinner last night and you did it in just a few minutes.”

“Why waste time when I can be more efficient about it?” Karis asked.

“That’s what I asked.” The young man snorted. “Sebastien told me I obviously didn’t understand, and I asked him what there was to understand. You knew more about dressing for dinner than he did if you could do it in less time than he could. He just stomped off, muttering under his breath. I got the assignment this morning. So I’m your new servant.”

“You are definitely chattier than Sebastien.” Karis grinned. “Even after all this time I still did not even know his name.”

“Oh, I know I am.” The servant shrugged. “And Sebastien is a bit stuck up. No one really likes him, except maybe one of the female servants who’s trying to get in his bed. I’m Adem, Your Imperial Highness.”

Karis laughed and swung his legs out of bed. “Well, Adem, I do not often need a great deal of help, but when I do need it you will be much appreciated.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Your Imperial Highness.” Adem grinned. “Let me tell you, the court was buzzing about you last night.”

“Oh?” Karis looked at his servant with some interest.

“They all expected you to make a fool of yourself at the dinner table.” Adem laughed. “Their servants all were talking about how impressed they were with how intelligent you were, and with how good your manners were.”

“They never paid attention to the courtesan table at the high feasts, did they?” Karis laughed even harder. “I have been at every high feast for the past four years. I would have been in serious trouble if I did not learn how to act at a court meal.”

“No one pays attention to the courtesan table, Your Imperial Highness.” Adem laughed with him. “Except maybe His Imperial Majesty. Even his servants said he was suitably impressed with your deportment at the table.”

“At least I impressed him with something.” Karis stood up. “I am getting in the shower. Can you please pull out the blue and gray outfit for me today?”

“Of course, Your Imperial Highness.” Adem went over to the closet.

Karis took his shower and came out to find Adem had pulled out the outfit he’d requested. Karis got dressed and combed his hair out of his face. “The servants should be by with my breakfast any time now, so I think I am all set.”

“Just ring for me if you need something.” Adem gave a cheerful wave and left.

Karis settled in to wait for his breakfast. He was looking forward to his morning lessons and dreading his afternoon ones. That seemed to be typical of his days. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his hands. Life as an Imperial prince was nothing like he’d expected it to be. He wondered how his mother was doing and if she missed him. He certainly missed her. He sighed again and picked up his pad. He could at least read until his breakfast came.

A/N: Keep the questions coming! I’m building a list for the 10th video and I love all the questions I’ve already received. You can leave them as comments here or over on YouTube. I hope you’re enjoying the story so far!