Robert awoke with a startle, thrashing his hands on instinct. He had a splitting headache and the room was rather bright but his eyes were adjusting. He felt like he had just been hit by a truck. His mind was foggy and he could barely think straight. His stomach was doing backflips, though he managed to keep his wife’s breakfast down.

  He could feel the heat of sunlight on his forehead, though it was helping tremendously with his headache, which was a boon. Then the heat faded. His senses slowly began returning to him. He blinked the oil and gunk out of his eyes a few times before he looked up from his bed.

  He was lying down in a bed that looked, dare he say, more ornate than the bed he had woken up in at the Blair House. The room was certainly no hospital room. “What the fu-” he began until the woman sitting next to him startled him. He wasn’t expecting to have company.

  She wore slate black folded robes with white trimming around the hems. There was a red and golden crest embroidered on the sleeves. The thing that really stood out were the tips of her ears pointing farther out to the sides than he was used to.

  “I would strongly advise caution against any sudden movements, Sire.” She looked away as she set a glowing stone down on a bed-side table to her left.

  “W-where am I?” His voice was course.

  “You’re in the medical ward, my lord. Someone will be in soon to brief you. For the time being, however, I advise you rest. You just went through a debilitating experience, no doubt.”

  Robert didn’t know what to say to that. His memory was still foggy but bits and pieces were slowly beginning to come back.Moments from his morning waking up with Meghan. Eating breakfast with her and Hilly. Hilly gawking at the bust of Lincoln in the central rotunda of the White House.

  Then it came rushing back at him. The wasted time in the meeting room. The conversation with Richard before heading out the doors to the West Front of the Capitol. The shot. The pain.

  “Goodness, are you alright, Sire?” The woman began wiping away the tears from Robert’s face before he even realized they were there. He abruptly looked down at his chest, clawing the gown away so he could see. “What did I just tell you?” She grabbed his wrists in an attempt to settle him.

  There was no entry wound, or exit wound? Maybe he was shot from behind? He didn’t see where the shot had come from and by the time he registered what had actually happened, he woke up here.

  “Where's my wife and kid?” He panicked. The last he saw them, they were crawling toward him while people screamed and ran. Blood had stained his daughter’s dress. He couldn’t get the blotches of dark purple out of his mind. He was visibly shaken now.

  “I’m afraid you’re the only one here, Sire.”

  “Please, you have to find them.” He was pleading with her now, “I have to know they’re safe!”

  “Sire, please, you must calm down.” She wore a worried look, “you won’t find them here.”

  Robert’s mind immediately jumped to the worst. The bullet must have gone through him and her. Helly must have been injured too if she’s not here. Hopefully Meghan was with her…

  He forced himself out of bed and began to make his way for the door. He immediately collapsed but picked himself up off the floor and trudged to the door despite every bone in his body screaming at him to lay back down in the massive bed. His adrenaline was carrying him beyond the pain at this point.

  “Helly! Meghan! Where are you!?” He began screaming as he fought his way through the door. There was a tall armored guard standing just outside the door who was preparing to enter but stopped abruptly as he emerged. “Please, where is my child?” He gave him a deer-in-the-headlights look and he took off down the hallway before he could be ushered back inside.

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  Heads began to poke themselves out of the various rooms dotted along the walls of the long stoney corridor. Robert pushed on in an overwhelmed stupor until he was stopped by another woman; taller than him, hair pulled back tight with glasses.

  “Sire, please calm down and tell me how I can help you.” She looked at him with concern as she cautiously approached him, as if approaching a scared animal.

  “M-m-my child,” he was hysterical with tears streaming down his face, “I have to know if she’s okay.”

  The woman was silent at first, then “It’s hard to say, if I’m being entirely forthright with you, Sire.” She gently touched the sides of his arm.

  “Is she dead?” He was a blubbering mess by now, a far cry from the man he was a few hours ago.

  “Not exactly.”

  He wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but that still wasn’t any clearer, “What do you mean, not exactly dead?”

  “Well,” she began, “you were plucked from the aether. So unless she was there too, it would be impossible for her to be here as well. That said, we have no way of telling.”

  He understood the words but heard gibberish nonetheless, “I was... where?”

  “The aether, it’s the place every living thing’s soul goes after death.”

  “So I’m… dead.”

  “Correct, though you’ve been given a new lease on life, so to speak.” She began leading him back to his room.

  He quietly absorbed the gravity of his situation. He was dead, supposedly. It was impossible for Helly to be here, allegedly. There was no way to know what’s going on with her, reportedly. He was completely cut off from his family. From everything. Nothing around him looked familiar. The people didn’t even sound familiar. They had accents but were different than any he had heard before.

  He immediately felt a crushing loneliness and the waterworks began again. His heart was being squeezed by an unending torrent of emotions and chemical compounds made by his brain.

  “I think it’s best you rest for a while. We can-” He stopped in his tracks, putting his hand in front of her to stop her too.

  “Where the hell am I?”

  “You are at the Royal Palace of Cartegna, the capital city of the Kingdom of Luxoria.”

  “Luxoria, huh?” What the veritable fuck is going on, he questioned to himself, “and how exactly did I get here?”

  “As I said, you were summoned from the aether, then transported here to recover.” She said as they finally approached his room again. He fell back into bed, relaxing his exhausted muscles.

  “You say that as if you expect me to know what that means.”

  “Oh, of course. My apologies, Sire. Let me explain.”

  According to the woman, a special kind of ancient magic was used to summon a being, him, from the afterlife in hopes of reviving the royal blood line.

  “Each ruling member of the royal bloodline must contain blood of an Aetheren. It has been a part of Luxoria’s royal traditions for hundreds of years.”

  “You seriously summon an outsider to act as your ruler every time?”

  “Not every time. For the most part, their kin carry on for generations after them. Our last one, however, had died in battle with no children to speak of, so alas, you have been summoned to fill the role.”

  He was summoned from beyond the grave to become a king? Nothing out of this woman’s mouth was making a lick of sense. The more she spoke, the more questions he had. His mind was so overwhelmed from everything going on that he just couldn’t listen to her anymore.

  “I’m sorry, Ma’am…” He looked at her expectantly.

  “Apologies, Sire. I am Royal Housemaster Telra of the Hasken Household. I serve as the royal family’s personal advisor and manager of the household; though I am currently acting as the royal regent.” She bowed deeply as she introduced herself, “if I may ask for your name in return, Sire.”

  “Robert Pope. I’m sorry, Ma’am but I think I need some time alone, if that’s alright.”

  “Oh, that’s quite alright, Mr. Pope. Please, feel free to sleep the remainder of the day. It’s best you rest up so we can begin briefing you in earnest tomorrow.” With that, she left the room.

  “I’m sorry, Sire. I’m sure this is a lot to take in," the other woman was still seated next to the bed, "Just rest for now and we’ll take things one day at a time, yeah?” Her soothing voice had worked to calm him down. The adrenaline was fading, as was his consciousness. He nodded in response and she got up and left too. He was finally left by himself.

  The crushing loneliness came back. He could still feel Helly’s warmth against him as he huddled over her while people ran in all directions. His ears still rang with the screams and cries. His hands were clean now, but he could still feel the warm blood on them. His blood, he hoped.

  This had to have just been some horrible nightmare. Some trick his brain was playing on him. Any minute now, he would wake up next to his wife again, ready to begin the day for real. He wished that would be the case but he had a sneaking suspicion that this was reality and he was fucked.

  His whole life, completely gone. He’d never be able to see Meghan and Hilly ever again. Nor would they ever see him again. She’d grow up without a father. No more father daughter dances. No more game nights on Sundays. He’d never get a chance to walk her down the aisle.

  The grief and loss of his family carried him in to a deep slumber.