Yunan & Sinbad Snippet

"Yunan?" I asked, surprised to see that he has not aged a single day since our last meeting.

"It was a mistake," He looked at me with a strange look in his eyes, it took me minutes to realize why that weird gaze was familiar: it was Fear.

"What was a mistake?" I asked - why was he looking at me? Was he afraid of me? But why?

"Telling you to be a King. You were exceptional My King, a level of Magecraft few could match, Charisma to make enemies into loyal generals, the Will to carry on despite pain and grief. You are too Perfect."

A slap to the face would've been kinder. "Isn't that good? Wouldn't people want a good King?"

"Not like you - You warp people. Even without meaning to, you snare and entrapped people to your will, even if it destroys them, they are glad to do anything to get your approval. Even the Djinns who do not share lightly had complied to joint-servitude so freely. If you were a remote King who kept himself from the people - this would not be so bad, but you walk among them, you empathize with them, they see you as their Friend and Father-Figure, your kindness is a slow poison that will kill all those dazzled by your presence."

"But - I cannot pull myself away from people. No one can live in isolation."

"Yes, but you act as a friend, your heart bleeds and ache like an ordinary man, but you have started to think like a King - you don't befriend people on a whim, you befriend them by how useful they are to your goals. Even if you don't realize it yet."

"That's a Lie! I would never-"

"And your Will - in less then seven years - a Thriving Kingdom, One of the Most Prosperous Trade Ports in this corner of the world on an island deemed useless. It's an act impossible for anyone else. I now fear what may happen if you bear it all on the world at large."

"Yunan - I have no intentions of ever going to War." I started, finding myself trembling with rage, my hands balling into fists. How dare he! He was the one who inspired me to reach beyond the horizon, who taught me magic!

"Do you think China or Byzantine, or the Kingdom of Jerusalem, or any eager Nation would not take a chance at claiming this place? You will fight - you will win, but they have the numbers to try to win by Attrition. I know you, King - You will tire of playing the defensive war, You know very well a young country will lose such a game. You will use your economic powress to force nations to be your allies, or choke others into ruins. You will seek to cripple your enemies, you will drive them from your shoes and to their own. You will throw your Magecraft at them to confuse and scatter them even though many of your enemies are ordinary humans. Your People will follow you to the ends of the earth, mowing down all who do you wrong.

And others will fight, thousands will die. The moment you start to preemptively defend Sindria is the moment you spark a great and terrible war that could destroy whole countries. Once you set your course, you never give up. Your stubborn desire to set things to what you think is "right" will drive you to atrocity.

That is why I said you were a mistake." A knife to the back would have been kinder. Suddenly, he turned and walked away - I reached but grasp nothing.

"Yunan! Wait!"

And he was gone, as if he was never there. I knew right then I would not see him again.