Within seconds, the battle was over.
The Masked Man's fist punctured Esah's stomach, tearing a hole right through it. The Masked Man sniggered, staring deeply into Esah's eyes as they began to fade.
But fading wasn't the only thing Esah's eyes did. And it wasn't just Esah's eyes that started doing something strange. It was the rest of his body, too.
Noticeably, no blood poured out of his stomach or covered the hand of the Masked Man. Despite the fatal blow that he had received, Esah's face made no expression. It appeared as though he had eaten the pain with ease, but that couldn't be the case. Though divine, Hakimis couldn't escape the fact that they were still part human. A gaping hole in their stomach was something even they couldn't possibly survive.
As the Masked Man removed his hand and turned his head to the side with intrigue, Esah's body began to dissipate, crumbling to dust right before him. Most of it dropped to the floor, forming a pile right by the Masked Man's feet while some of the particles were taken by the wind. The Masked Man's eyes followed the dust that hovered away, as he angrily groaned.
"How foolish of me. I should've seen that coming. Either way…it doesn't matter. Killing them all together will make for a better show."
*****
The triplets stood waiting in a hallway within the palace, all holding visibly bored expressions. They looked around the area, doing whatever they could to pass the time. Hamid looked at the floor and didn't move, while Karim walked in circles and whistled as Amin leaned against the wall and counted how many doors were on the left side of the hallway.
Seemingly tired of counting and increasingly agitated by Karim's whistling, Amin spoke, sounding impatient as ever. "Where is he? He told us to meet here, and we came on time. Why does he always do this?"
Karim stopped whistling and turned his attention to Amin. "Stop moaning. Just be patient. I'm sure he'll be here any moment now."
"Fine. But only if you stop that annoying whistling."
Amin looked away from Karim as Hamid continued to look at the floor. Karim had stopped whistling, but he couldn't help himself from tapping his foot on the ground.
They waited. And waited. And waited a little longer. Until they were all caught off guard. "Good morning, my dear Princes."
"Arghhh! Don't scare us like that, old man!"
An old man appeared around the corner, his face beaming with a great smile as his yellow teeth shone almost as bright as the golden walls that surrounded them. His long, grey hair was neatly tied up and he held a walking stick beside him for balance. He wore an overgrown white gown that covered every part of his body, the fabric trailing softly behind him whenever he walked.
For the first time in a while, Hamid's face bore a grin, and he spoke with a rather condescending tone. "You know, if we did that to you, you would probably die, right?"
Amin and Karim chuckled, doing what they could to get in on the joke. "Yeah," Karim spurted out as he laughed, "What are you, like a thousand years old?"
Amin tried to butt in, but he couldn't quite contain his laughter. The old man, however, continued to smile, uttering loudly enough under his breath, "I'm old enough to not get scared by a bunch of rats like you."
The triplets' laughing came to a sudden halt, their faces looking unwelcoming once again having been outwitted by the old man.
"Hey…" Karim said, sounding a little hurt.
"Not cool," Hamid followed.
"And haven't I told you to stop calling me 'old man'? You know my name is Fazere, so please, respect me as I do you three."
Amin loudly cleared his throat, looking and sounding more impatient than earlier. "So, what type of training are we doing today?"
Hamid and Karim jolted into a state of excitement, leaning toward Fazere with a convincingly cute look on their faces.
"Learning to make the biggest wave of fire?!" Karim exclaimed.
"Showing us how to combine our powers to make an ultra-attack," Hamid wishfully shouted.
As Amin stood awaiting a more boring answer, the other two remained poised and excited. Fazere slowly raised his finger, smiling yet again, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, knowing the boys were not going to like his answer.
"Meditation."
"Boring!"
"What!"
"Ugh, great," Amin scoffed.
"I don't want to hear any more complaints. Meditation is good for you. Only a man who is at one with his mind can truly understand the extent of his power." Fazere opened out his arms as he attempted to reason with the triplets. "You've all now achieved your Second Blood Link. Doesn't that fact make you want to break into your third?" All three of them groaned, but that didn't stop Fazere from finishing his speech. "Meditation is a key part of your training. And…besides, your father ordered that this is what we do."
Karim wrapped his arm around Fazere's shoulder, and pulled him close to his face. "But can't we just tell our father we meditated. He will never know what we actually did."
"I will never know what?"
Ibraheem, much like Fazere, suddenly appeared from behind the corner, speaking with a commanding tone and frowning as he stared through Karim's soul. Even Amin, who still leaned firmly on the wall on his side, appeared scared. Karim quickly took his arm off of Fazere and backed off slowly, the nervousness obvious from the jittering steps he was taking.
"Hehe…nothing, father. We were just saying how excited we are to go and meditate, that's all."
Ibraheem thrust his left arm in the air in response and he turned away, his powerful voice erupting once again. "Then stop standing around and get on with it. We only have so many years to live with these decaying bodies. You shouldn't be wasting valuable time like this…ever!"
The three boys bowed as their father left them. Fazere still smiled, waving goodbye to Ibraheem.
"Alright. Time to go."
The triplets followed Fazere.
They walked down the enormous steps of the Palace, moving through the city's marketplace that only became loud once the four of them entered it. The sight was familiar to the three boys, but they always enjoyed observing the fresh fruit and sparkling jewelry that was being sold at the few stools lined along the stone pathways, their colours catching the light like scattered gemstones. The merchants didn't call out in practiced rhythms or hardened cries. They sat patiently, waiting for someone to be enticed by the flavourful smell of their fruits or the eye-catching colours of their jewellery.
Lost in the beautiful sight, Fazere led them onward, further than they had expected.
"How come we are going this far from the palace?" Amin asked.
"Did father say we could go this far?" Hamid said worriedly.
Fazere didn't respond.
Karim scowled, and marched toward Fazere and shouted in his ear. "Hey, old man! Can't you hear us?"
Fazere grinned, looked forward and refused to stop as he finally spoke. "Of course he has. I wouldn't take you this far without his permission."
The triplets looked at one another, shrugging their shoulders and all chose not to ask further questions. They understood the risk that Fazere was taking if he was telling lies, and so they followed him.
They soon came close to the brooding, tall gates which were the only way out of the Inner Capital — for regular people at least. Guarded as always, the gates remained closed and were not to be opened. However, at its feet lay regular-sized doors that provided a simple means of passage for people.
Fazere and the boys approached the guards at the door, not before he turned to them and firmly said, "Just let me do the talking."
"Fazere, what brings you here today?" asked one of the guards.
"King Ibraheem has asked me to take the boys out of the city for meditation purposes."
Startled, the guard pulled Fazere close to him, looking somewhat worried. "B–But this is the first time they'll go outside the walls since they were children. Will you even be able to contain them? What if they run away? What if they see something they shouldn't see? Wait." The guard hesitantly looked around, making sure no one else could hear him. "Are you sure these are orders from the King?"
Fazere nonchalantly laughed, brushing the guard aside and said, "Don't worry, I won't tell him that you questioned his word."
And with that, the guard promptly let them pass.
The area just beyond the walls was as beautiful as the triplets remembered. The grass a luscious green and the nearby forest a stunning sign of nature that they rarely ever saw. But what grabbed their attention most vividly was an abnormally steep hill that sat in the distance. Hamid pointed towards it, shocked at its size.
"Wow. It's almost as tall as the Palace."
As Hamid and Karim remained silent while they approached it, Amin turned to Fazere, confused about the whole situation. "What are we doing here, anyway?"
"You said you wanted a bit of 'proper training', right? So, I thought before your meditation, you could climb this large hill. Once you've done that, you can meditate with a nice view. What do you think?"
Karim's mouth dropped. "Man, you really know how to get under our skin, don't you?"
Fazere ignored Karim's complaint and gave the boys important instructions before letting them go. "Start meditating once you reach the top. Your goal is to complete your meditation before I get up there myself."
Amin chuckled, turned to Karim, and said, as he covered his mouth, "I guess that means we have unlimited time then. Perfect for Hamid, I guess."
Karim took the opportunity to sprint off first, trying to do what he could to beat Amin to the top. Amin and Hamid immediately followed, their feet shredding the grass as they raced toward the peak.
Amin gradually took the lead. Karim stayed close as they drifted further and further away from Hamid. Hamid moved more steadily, not because he wanted to, but because that was the best he could.
By the time he reached the top, his breaths getting heavier by the second, he found the other two already seated, eyes closed, silence surrounding them. He looked into the distance, but quickly averted his gaze, remembering it wasn't time to admire the view.
He frowned, then exhaled. Sitting beside them, Hamid closed his eyes. At that moment, everything went quiet and his meditation began.