Chapter 46 - The Army That Remembered HimThe army outside Asterwyn did not attack.
It waited.
Ten thousand soldiers stood across the northern plain, their dark banners moving in the morning wind.
Every banner displayed the same silver symbol.
A twelve-year-old boy beneath a seven-pointed crown.
Ethan watched from the battlements.
"Why are they using my face?"
Captain Rowan stood beside him.
"Because they believe you're their rightful king."
"That's ridiculous."
"Not to them."
A rider separated from the army.
He carried a white flag.
King Aldric ordered the gates opened.
The messenger entered the courtyard without resistance.
He was an elderly knight with a long white beard and a scar running down his left cheek.
When he saw Ethan, he dropped to one knee.
"My king."
Ethan backed away.
"I'm not your king."
The knight removed his helmet.
"Your Majesty, we have waited four hundred years for your return."
Aldric stepped forward.
"Who sent you?"
"The people of the Forgotten March."
The knight looked at Ethan again.
"You gave us freedom. You promised you would come back when the seventh bell sounded."
Ethan shook his head.
"I don't remember any of that."
The old knight smiled sadly.
"You told us you wouldn't."
He reached into his cloak and produced a small wooden box.
Inside lay a ring made of black iron.
Ethan recognized the symbol engraved upon it.
A broken clock.
The knight held out the ring.
"Your final command was that we deliver this when the boy arrived again."
Ethan slipped it onto his finger.
A memory exploded through his mind.
He stood on a battlefield beneath a red sky.
Thousands of soldiers knelt before him.
He was older.
Perhaps twenty-five.
A woman in silver armor held his hand.
"Promise me you'll remember," she whispered.
He could not see her face.
Then everything changed.
He stood before an enormous gate, holding a child in his arms.
The child had his own face.
Ethan collapsed.
Rowan caught him.
The vision vanished.
"What did you see?" Aldric asked urgently.
Ethan looked at the king.
For the first time, he remembered something that had not happened in his present life.
"I had a son."
Aldric closed his eyes.
May you like
Ethan slowly rose.
"And I think that son became the Forgotten King."
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