I have been invisible my entire life. I’m the twelfth son of the Lord of Mars.
That’s right – I’m real Martian royalty.
You might think it would be
cool having Lord Inric as your father. Wealth. Power. Prestige. But I’ve enjoyed
none of that. Honestly, I’m not even sure why my father kept me as a son. He’s
only ever spoken to me once and that was to tell me to leave Mars and to never
return.
Do you know what it’s like being the twelfth son of a monarch?
Well I can tell you. Nobody cared about me or paid any attention to me. Nobody.
My eldest brother received all of the attention as the heir to the throne. I
think they just kept me around as some worst-case-scenario insurance policy.
Being socially invisible did have its advantages, however. Growing up,
my father’s advisers thought nothing of speaking freely when I was in earshot. I
was beneath their notice. But I heard everything. All of it. The corruption. The
blood. The greed. I realized my father was a despotic ruler and an evil man.
I wanted to see what the world my father ruled was like outside of my
high palace walls. I had worked for years to personalize the invisibility
technology used hide our Martian cities from the eyes of aliens such as you
humans. Nobody noticed my absence as I began to use this technology to routinely
sneak out into the countryside. What I found there was abhorrent. While those in
the palace lived in luxury my father’s subjects nearly worked themselves to
death to pay his tax collectors.
I revealed myself to them and… they
actually noticed me. It felt so strange. I quickly made many great friends in
the village and I would bring them the leftovers from our royal feasts. Over
many months they told me their shocking and sad life stories and I knew that I
had to help them. The only way I could see to do that was to kill my father.
Then the system could be changed so it would be fair to all Martians.
I
planned on striking during the Feast of Phobos. I used my invisibility device to
hide on a balcony in the banquet hall overlooking the dining area. The entire
royal court attends the Feast of Phobos and all would be in attendance and would
witness my father’s downfall. I planned on triumphantly proclaiming that the era
of inequity was at an end.
But it all went horribly wrong. When I
released that invisible arrow its path was true… but my mother, the lovely Queen
Isadora, leaned forward to whisper to my father at the last second and the arrow
struck her down. In shock, my invisibility fell and I was revealed to all in
attendance there. My father cradled his wife in his arms but looked directly at
me. I withered under his forceful gaze. “Beloved son,” He said with great grief
in his voice, “What brought you to this treachery? Have I not watched and
admired you from afar, providing for your every need so that you might one day
become great?” I staggered at his damning words. Before turning to comfort my
dying mother he dismissed me , saying, “Begone. Mars is no home to you now. The
day you breathe Martian air again is the day you die.”
The weight of the
sincere regret in his voice caused me to turn and blindly flee to the rocket
bay. With tears in my eyes I launched. The trip is a blur of remorse. Somehow I
found myself on Earth. Weeks passed as I remained invisible to hide from
detection by the humans.
And then I came to the realization that,
although I can’t undo what I had done I can still try to redeem myself. I could
fight injustices and corruption here on Earth just as I had attempted to do on
Mars.
With a new-found purpose, I set myself to the task of being
humanity’s unseen protector. The Invisible Martian Archer.
Just kidding.
1 comment:
Very well done! Thank you very much!
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