A Sounder Lesson Was Never Taught

Torsten sat in the window seat in his bedroom. Half of the stained glass window was flung open and sitting so near the window, he gave the whole court something to see. His beauty was rare and rich as he was the youngest son of the King and Queen. He was a prince. However, he had a very different fate from the other princes of the kingdom.He shook out his blond hair, blinked his coppery eyes, and hated everyone so thoroughly it should have melted the glass in front of his eyes and burned the seat under his bottom. The hate flared through him so utterly that it should have caused him to spit acid, breathe fire, and puke poison.However, nothing happened.Instead, he sat there and the world stayed the same around him. The world did not care if it was unfair to him. The wind still blew, the sun still shone, and flecks of dust hung in the air like time stood still. For everyone else, it was an ordinary day, but not for him.For him... it might be the last night he slept in his bedroom.Ever since Torsten was a little boy, he had known he was different from his older brothers. They were trained to fight as knights, and given lessons in strategy so that they might lead armies. In contrast, Torsten was taken with his sisters to have his hands groomed.When he was little, he thought it was because he was too young to engage in warfare, but as he grew older, his schedule didn’t change. Instead of being taught how to sharpen a sword, he was taught how to read and write. Not just the basics, but how to read aloud well and how to write in long curling letters.