Broken Crowns {Book 1}

Chapter Three: Elias

**TRIGGER WARNING: this chapter has talks of domestic abuse**

Prince Elias pursed his lips in annoyance at his adviser's words. It was not Bayram's fault the people were protesting outside the palace. The fault was on no one but the king, who was currently ill with pneumonia and bedridden, practically knocking on Death's door. The citizens of Lavania did not know or care that the prince was nothing like his father as they blamed him for the king's actions. All the people knew was that the king was dying, and his young son had to be a tyrant, just as his father was. Elias did have his father's dark waves and green eyes, but their resemblances stopped there.

"What do you plan to do, Your Highness?" Bayram asked. He was short in comparison to Elias, thick curls of blond hair poking out in every direction on top of his head.

King Silas had made Prince Elias the face of the country while he was ill, but every executive decision was still left to the king. Though Elias had little to no say in any of the decisions his father made, he was still the one to take the fall with the people.

Prince Elias stopped pacing, something he did when he was thinking. He was surprised he had not worn the carpet by now with all his walking back and forth. "I'm going to talk to them," he said suddenly. The idea had been weighing on his mind for months, ever since his father had first fallen ill. The only way for the people to get to know him was if he put forth the effort.

Bayram's eyes grew wide as saucers. "Talk to them?" he asked Elias, the tone of his voice insinuating the prince had lost his marbles. "They hate you. What if you're attacked?"

Elias clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at his friend. "Do you hate me, Bayram? Speak freely. Speak honestly."

"Of course not."

"Why do you not hate me, Bayram?"

"Because you are kind and smart, and you do not treat me like a servant or even an adviser, you treat me as a friend," Bayram said.

Elias smiled. "You are my friend. And you don't hate me because you have had the chance to know me. I just have to give the people of Lavania that chance as well."

Bayram nodded once, but Elias could tell that he still was not convinced. However, Bayram knew that once Prince Elias made up his mind about something, there was no changing it. He was going to go out and show the people of the Lavalands that he was not like his father at all. His father was a cold and crass man, a man who only cared for himself and what people could give him. Elias had lived his life by one promise to himself: that he would be nothing like the king. He intended to keep that promise.

"Ready the horses," Prince Elias said.

Bayram seemed surprised. "We're going now?"

Elias smiled. "No time like the present."

The walls of the palace were of black stone. The dark walls, paired with the eerie silence of the palace, gave the place a melancholic feeling. With the king bedridden, the servants, the guards, and even the royal family were always more on edge. The king's infamous temper kept everyone silent, worried they might disturb him. Prince Elias was no different; he rarely spoke outside of his own quarters. Dinner, meetings, nearly every waking moment was spent in his quarters, on the opposite side of the palace from his parents' room. There was rarely any use for the rest of the palace without the king's booming voice correcting someone at every turn or yelling at some unfortunate soul who had unwittingly overstepped.

As for Elias' mother, the queen, she stayed by her husband's side. Elias had never understood it. Perhaps the action was to keep up appearances, though everyone in the palace knew of the king's abuse to his wife and eldest son. The other explanation was that Elias' mother truly did love his father and wanted to remain by the man's side while he was on his deathbed. Elias, himself, rarely spoke to his father these days. To say he hated the man was an understatement.