Chapter 19: Dohta's Crime and Punishment
Dohta showed Ellie his childhood memories – of how he grew in the royal family witnessing his little siblings be born one after another, in his parents' attempt to give birth to a princess with blue or purple powers, or at least yellow ones, since those were strong energy colours while green was just a basic one which every Daluma had. However, their hopes were vain – the second child born to them did turn out a girl as Ethna Vaagard desired, but she was born with even weaker and more basic power than the green – she was a fragile child with light green hair, almost faded light green eyes, and barely glowing light green crystal spine. The chiefess fell into despair:
"I cannot possibly let such a weak child rule the Asteroid!"
Child Dohta was with his parents at that time, sadly watching their heated discussion. Since he was born, such tense arguments were quite frequent between his parents, and they pained his heart greatly every time. Both adult Dohta and Ellie, contemplating these memories, could fully undergo child Dohta's pains and joys, so they both could well sense his current sorrow. Ellie was in tears and had firmly clutched her guardian's burnt palm as if trying to find support and protection at his mighty hands.
"You can do nothing, it is the law that the first daughter should become the next chiefess," Hral Hadosh Vaagard coldly frowned at his wife.
"Nonsense! We shall try again, and if the next girl obtains other powers than the green, I shall choose her as my next heiress".
"You will be defying the tradition!"
"So what? I am the chiefess, I can make new rules".
"Then why don't you just let our boy rule..?"
"What did you say?" the chiefess' yellow eyes flashed with the inner wrath.
"I said – let our boy rule. It is time we men proved our worth on this rotten asteroid," the dark purple energy began to embrace Hadosh, pointing on his raging spirit.
"You insolent man, know your place!"
Ethna burst into yellow energy and dashed at the no less incensed Hral. An intense fight broke out, full of yellow, green, dark purple, and blue rays and orbs which the royal couple threw at each other. They were barely stopped by the servants, guards, and warriors on that day. Little Dohta, on his part, ran off to his room crying crystal tears.
The images ran through Ellie's eyes slowly and painfully: the birth of Dohta's next siblings – a dark-green-haired dark-green-eyed girl Hitha, and after some crystal-glow years (these peculiar giant crystals of the Asteroid glowed at different intervals and the Daluma used them to measure time), the twins – a green-haired boy Zehu and a likewise green-haired girl Zona. By then, both Dohta and his weak sister Yuma were grown enough. Noticing that none of the following children had taken up purple or blue powers and that yet another boy was born, Ethna gave up on all the hopes:
"It is useless... I guess I've got no choice – I must gather a council and decide whom to name my heiress".
Hadosh just sneered and walked off, taking his eldest son, Dohta, to train. Ethna retired in her private room, Princesses Yuma and Hitha were taken by their respective governesses, and the two new-born baby twins were left in the nurses' care.
Of course, since it was Dohta's memories, adult Dohta and Ellie followed Hadosh and child Dohta along. The imagery soon changed into Hral Hadosh's private training hall where he often went too hard on Dohta in order to forge him into a powerful warrior to hold the pride of the Ruht Clan. The child, not able to withstand such ferocious attacks, soon collapsed to the ground wounded and crying:
"Dad, please stop! I'm tired... I can't..."
"Don't go whining like some rotten crystal! Stand up and fight like a prince must do! Saying that men cannot rule or cannot fight... Screw all that hierarchy! No one thinks of men as weaklings on any other planet, yet these foolish crystal-heads believe we are weak?! Ridiculous! Get up and fight, or else I'll put an end to your worthless life myself!"
Thus scared to death by his own father, the child had no choice but to get up, even though he could barely stand on his feet, and continue struggling against the man's purple powers when he could use only blue ones (the blue powers were a lot weaker than the purple ones, since the blue was the colour of emotions and the purple responded to the strength of the mind). As he sobbed hysterically and his emotional state was quite unstable, he was unable to get a hold of his powers, hence, was receiving hit after hit from his fierce father who, incapable of standing up against his abusive wife the chiefess, let out all his rage on his elder son, since he could not touch any princess but was fully authorized to beat up the princes to his heart's content.
So passed the days, and Ellie could barely withhold tears while contemplating these memories. When Dohta's tiniest siblings – Zehu and Zona – grew enough to walk, talk, perform telepathy, and be trained, the council and the chiefess decided that since no younger siblings had inherited other powers than the green, the eldest daughter – Yuma – should become the heiress of the throne. Since that day, Yuma was separated from her siblings and trained by Chiefess Ethna and the strongest warrior women in private.
Meanwhile, Dohta continued to be trained by his father, and could already show some progress – his control of the blue powers was supreme. However, Hadosh, who was often laughed at by his own family – the Ruht Clan – that he was incapable of producing worthy heiresses to the chiefess hence was a total weakling and a failure, grew even more hateful towards all of his children, and did not get contented by Dohta showing progress only in the blue powers:
"You're a disgrace! Show me purple energy as well, you rotten crystal of a son!"
He hoped that if he nurtured his eldest son – the only one to have inherited his blue powers – to show the purple energy as well, the council would change their mind and let Dohta inherit the throne, for the first time in the entire Daluman history.
"I... I can't!"
Dohta tried the hardest he could, but the purple energy would not come out... When he saw there was no hope, Hadosh came up with a different plan:
"If you cannot let your mind generate its energy, I guess your feeble emotions should give it a boost".
Before Ellie and young Dohta could realise what these words and the man's hideous grin meant, Hadosh ordered Zehu to be brought to him.
"Why is he calling for your tiny brother?"
"He knew I had a special affection towards Zehu since he was my only brother, so he used it for his advantage".
The girl still couldn't quite understand, but when little Zehu was brought in, it all became clear – Hadosh grabbed the frightened kid and grew purple crystal claws on his other hand, ready to pierce his very chest:
"Now, will you save your brother, or will you let him die before your eyes?"
"No! Father, what are you doing? I... I will tell mom! Stop!"
"Tell your mother? She couldn't care less about you, two boys. You are both rotten crystal failures and she has no love for either of you! Only I can protect you, only I can care about you, so do what I say if you don't want to lose your little brother!"
"No! I beg you!"
"I don't see the purple energy!"
"I'm trying..."
"You're a weakling".
Hadosh's claws moved towards terrified Zehu, who had long begun to shriek and sob in hysteria, while Dohta's own eyes had gone red from hot tears:
"No!!!"
Purple, yellow, and blue energy currents burst right out of Dohta's fingers all at once, hit frightened Hadosh (who apparently had never expected his son to have inherited his wife's yellow energy as well), sent him off flying, and knocked him out.
"D... Dad?"
Both Zehu and Dohta ran up to him and shook him. He gave no voice.
It was a matter of seconds before both of the boys realised what Dohta had done. While bewildered Dohta shrilled in agony staring at his hands, terrified Zehu roared in tears and ran out of the hall:
"Dohta... Dohta has killed dad!"
The visions went blurred – apparently, at that very minute, child Dohta blacked out.
When the images reappeared before Ellie and her adult friend, young Dohta was already sitting in a cold cell. Shortly, he was taken out and brought before the council and the chiefess – his mother. The eldest princesses – Yuma and Hitha – presented in the hall, while the young twins were not allowed in.
"Dohta Vaagard, accused of brutally murdering Hral Hadosh Vaagard, is to be exiled from the Daluma Asteroid for eternity!"
The elder women of the council pronounced the sentence. Dohta glanced up at his mother and sisters with eyes full of blue crystal tears. Yuma, the eldest sister, averted her gaze from him, while Hitha watched him with pity and sorrow as tears streamed down her own cheeks. Ethna's countenance, on the other hand, expressed utter disappointment and scorn, nothing more.
"M-Mother, I am sorry! It was an accident! I did not mean to! I... Father aimed at Zehu and_"
"Shut up, for glowing crystal's sake!" Ethna's eyes flashed yellow as she slapped her son across the face so violently that his nose bled, "Just shut up and accept your punishment!"
"Insolent child!" the eldest councillor woman spoke, "You, men, are to shut your mouths and accept whatever fate has brought for you. Hral Vaagard died because he wanted to bite more than he could chew, wishing for men to be on the throne! How can you, men, ever learn to rule, when all you can think of is violence to solve all your problems? Your father vainly believed in you, and this is what he got – a brat who killed him with his own hands! All he ever wanted was for you to grow stronger to live up to his pride for you. Despite his good intentions, you still have the nerve to dare justify your villainous actions in front of us, and even blame him for injuring Prince Zehu, his own little son?"
Beholding his mother's raging yellow energy flicker around her body, and hearing the disgusting councillor women's scornful remarks, his late father's many words echoed through Dohta's mind:
"I said – let our boy rule. It is time we men proved our worth on this rotten asteroid..."
"Your mother couldn't care less about you, two boys. You are both rotten crystal failures and she has no love for either of you!"
He gave no more voice. Instead, he began to reflect upon his father's words, expressions, sadness, anguish... Now, his reproaches sounded a bit different as he recalled them:
"Stand up and fight like a prince must do! Saying that men cannot rule or cannot fight... Screw all that hierarchy! No one thinks of men as weaklings on any other planet, yet these foolish crystal-heads believe we are weak?! Ridiculous!"
His father always lamented that women ruled over men when these latter ones were just as powerful and dignified as the former ones. His father was truly so powerful, even stronger than his mother, yet never had a chance to showcase his full potential, just because he was a man. The Daluman men often turned out to be gifted with rare talents. He too possessed all the colours of his mother and father combined – green, blue, purple, and even yellow. None of his siblings had inherited any of these colours except green which was the basic one for everyone. Yuma as the next ruler? She couldn't even control her green powers normally! Didn't those books of the elders say that the Daluma Asteroid needed a mighty ruler in order to guide the whole asteroid path? Yuma would never be able to do that, and neither the other siblings would do. Only he was capable of such grand deeds. His father too, often used to say that he had big potential and being unable to showcase them was a shame, thus rendered him a failure. That was what he truly meant – that he was a failure as long as he couldn't call those hidden powers forth! But he did, and he killed his father in the process... He killed a Hral – the strongest man on the asteroid – at such a young age. He possessed the yellow energy which Hral Vaagard couldn't even dream of obtaining. He should be a genius! To come to think of it – father named him 'Dohta', which could be understood not just as 'the first', but as 'the genius' if the accent was put on the last syllable. Maybe father had indeed believed in him? If that was true, then he must indeed take the throne as the strongest. His weakling mother (who was unable to bring even a single change in these rotten rules no matter she was a chiefess – the most powerful entity on this land) and these disgraceful ladies did not deserve the throne. He told them the truth, yet they did not even wish to look into his memories and investigate the case further. They preferred to dispose of him just because he was a boy! They were unjust, thus unworthy. Only Hitha had noticed he was speaking the truth. She had always been a good child... If his mother and these hags did not wish to forgive him, then neither he was obliged to obey them! He had killed his father, yet this latter's blue and purple energy was thought to be higher than his mother's yellow one. He could surely kill her too if he so desired, and then, the throne would be his for sure. He should prove he was not to be looked down upon!
"I hear your sentence, but I shall not accept it!"
He snarled and dashed at all of them – his mother, his two terrified sisters, the astounded elders, the alarmed guards – and blew out the immense currents of blue, yellow, purple, and green energy combined.
"Ah, such power!"
"I've never seen anything like it!"
"This boy is a beast!"
The elder women could barely defend themselves with their green powers from the berserker prince. Horrified Ethna covered her two girls and blew out yellow energy, charging at her son:
"You monster! You are a threat to our whole civilization! You are not my son!"
"And you're a rotten crystal of a hag!"
No matter he yelled at his mother as if he didn't really care about her cruel words, his heart shattered to pieces on that day, never to be repaired again.
Of course, no matter his terrible rampage, he was still nothing but a simple prodigy with no prior experience, so he was soon subdued by the large crowd of guards and elders, led by his own mother the chiefess. He received a punishment far worse than he could imagine – he was burnt by his mother's yellow fire, to be left forever scarred both on the outside and on the very inside of his heart.
After such rampage, Dohta was deemed extremely dangerous to the Daluman society. Therefore, the elders urged his mother Ethna Vaagard to send him off to the most outrageous prison of the whole Raden Universe – The Star-Rover – where only the most terrible criminals were locked up for the rest of their lives.
Thus, the last memory that Dohta had been left of his homeland, was how he got disowned by his mother, burned by her hands, and exiled by her orders.
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