You can read chapter one of the story here.

People always said that when you die you finally feel at peace. You are no longer bound by your obligations in the mortal realm. Can those people tell me why I still have a headache, and my neck still hurts? I just got executed. Where is my glorious newfound peace? Why do I still not know the answer to the meaning of life? 

I look around, and I’m sitting in La Leche de la Luna. There’s no smell of stale beer. The wood is dark and smooth. There are no crude carvings of Diana, the owner’s wife under the bar. I smelled roses, and my stomach hurt. I look up and see my mother polishing a glass with a simple white cloth. She looks different from when she passed away. Her hair was curly now and flowed down her back. She always kept it straight and it reached to her chin. Her light blue eyes which they shared, had no wrinkles around them. They were smooth as she smiled at him. 

“Kiyoshi, you look so much like your father,” She says, and something inside me breaks as I jump over the bar. I hug her and bury my head into her chest.  

I haven’t used the name Kiyoshi in years. Whether it was out of physical protection, or a way to cope with my parents’ death, I wasn’t sure. I hold my mother and breathe in the smell of roses. The scent that has reminded me of the worst day of my life for as long as I can remember. 

“I’ve missed you. Mila’s wild, I’m sorry I did the best I could,” I mumble into her stomach. 

I feel a smack to the back of my head, but it doesn’t hurt. “Rest now, We’re together again,” Mom says.  I feel my pain fade away the longer I am in her arms. I’m content to stay like this forever. I’ll stay with mom. We’ll track down dad, and bide our time til Mila decides to grace us with her presence. 

Then I hear a heartbreaking shrill in my mind. I tense and focus on that shrill. I see two guards dressed in the typical silver and sapphire uniforms of the kingdom holding Selena Coventina. They have her by the wrists as she kneels on the ground with tears running down her beautiful dark-skinned face. Her hair is in a thick bun on top of her head. 

The silver sand that surrounded the execution pit where my body falls forward, my head in a wicker basket stains her rose-colored dress. She pulls her wrists away from the guards. She brushes the sand off, and with the fluid grace of someone who knew their way around a sword, she walks up and cradles my head in her arms as if she were holding a baby. 

“I love you,” Selena says, before putting my head back inside the basket carefully, and walks back towards the castle. No more tears in her eyes. Then she is gone.

I let go of my mother. “I have to go back,” I say, my throat suddenly dry. I can’t leave her. 

She smiles sadly and strokes my cheek. “It’ll get better. She’ll move on. ” She says as she holds me close. 

I don’t want her to move on. I put up with all of her casual touches, and the ladies who talk to me not feeling very conversational when she was around. She thinks I don’t notice the way she watches me at parties. Her bright green eyes scanning the room as they pick up every hand, and sensual smile sent in my direction. The other night wasn’t just some frustration being handled poorly. It was why he left her asleep in bed when he heard two guards laughing that the stupid pirate just wanted to be captured. He had risked everything to free her father. She was going to move on? 

”I’m sorry, mommy. I have to go. ” I say as I pull away from her, and head for the door. She looks concerned as I smile at her, and push open the front door. I stop as I take in the tall, muscular form of Prince Daisuke. His normal tan skin glowing like he swallowed a star. His shoulder-length light brown hair lays on his broad shoulders. He wears wore the typical sapphire robe that hides his feet. 

“She sent you?” I ask taking in his bored demeanor. 

“Selena almost broke my wrist when I tried to comfort her,” Dai says as he examines his nails. I smile as I imagine Dai trying to wrap his arms around her, and Selena flipping him on his ass, the emerald fire burning in her eyes.  

Then I see my charge, Princess Ana. She has long brown hair and brown eyes knocking him out of the way with her hip as she held Selena.

“Are you willing to do whatever it takes to get back?” Dai asks bringing my attention back to the matter at hand. 

I nod, and a silver cloud swirls around us.