---

Knocks reverberated through the heavy wooden door, the sound echoing through the halls of the palace of the Ninth Blood Prince. Startled awake, U’il-šanad sat upright in his bed, eyeing the silent door to his bedchamber. Yet, stillness followed, and the prince laid down to rest once more, believing it must have been a mere dream. Closing his eyes, he thought, I have truly had too much on my mind as of late, if even my dreams won’t let me remain idle.

He inhaled deeply, letting the fatigue of the previous day overtake him, and with an exhale, he allowed his body to relax into the warmth of his blankets.

“Your Royal Highness!”

The prince’s lashes fluttered at the muffled call. He opened his eyes once more when the knocks persisted, falling heavy on the wood. With each hammer on the solid surface echoing, he grew more irritable about his disturbed sleep. After several loud bangs, he swept his beloved blanket aside and flung his legs over the edge of the bed ungraciously.

Using the limited light from the glow of the small brazier in the corner of his bedchamber, he felt his way to the racks where he found an outer robe that felt thick enough for some semblance of decency.

Seeing as no one had yet to answer the door to his chambers, it could be naught but an ungodly hour. If Kasrei was not even up yet, then U’il-šanad had surely not even slept for the full hour.

Who has the gall to dare to awaken me at such an absurd hour?! he wondered as he opened left his inner chamber.

As he placed his hand on the handle of the door to his chamber, the chambermaid scrambled out of her adjacent room, holding a lantern in one hand and securing her skirts with a decorated belt using the other. He gave her a glance as he pulled the door open to see the guard dressed in green brocade and with a bronze token at his waist. The dark leather wrist guards were embellished with butterflies, while his chest had a medallion of confronted winged tigers; one the symbol of the Ninth Blood Prince’s bodyguards, the other the proof of the Imperial Bodyguards.

“What’s so urgent at these early hours of the morn?” he asked, his voice laced with the frustration os someone deprived of his greatest pleasure. He looked the bodyguard up and down, taking in the familiar appearance of the bodyguard, and added with further displeasure, bordering on sounding cold, “And why exactly is it you?”

Nür had the mind to look ever so slightly offended by the prince’s obvious dissatisfaction with it being him specifically, but thought the better of commenting on it.

“Your Royal Highness!” the bodyguard repeated urgently in lieu of a proper greeting. “I cannot find the Captain anywhere!”

U’il-šanad’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, as looked at Nür like the man had sprouted a second head. “Did you truly think you would find him in my bedchamber so late at night?” he asked, his voice incredulous.

“No…” Nür hesitantly began, then hurried to add, “But, Your Royal Highness, what I say is that the Captain is nowhere within the walls of your royal self’s palace!”

Now the prince looked at his bodyguard as if he had sprouted yet another three heads. “Züčan does not reside here. He has his own estates. Why would he be here at all?”

Now it was Nür’s turn to look at This Royal Highness in front of him as if he had grown more than one head. Perhaps even a tail or two as well.

Excuse this insolent fool, but if the Captain does not reside within the walls of Fragrant Breeze Palace, why does he only return to his own estates once or twice a moon cycle and remain at the palace the remaining days of the month? Why has Your Royal Highness the Ninth Blood Prince seen fit yo assign a room for the Captain specifically, instead of making him sleep with the rest of us bodyguards?

If Kasrei hadn’t stood behind U’il-šanad and glared fiercely at Nür, perhaps he might have even voiced those thoughts aloud.

“I am aware,” Nür squeezed out, his voice choked.

“Well then, go seek him out at his private abode,” U’il-šanad told him in exasperation.

Nür opened his mouth to speak, but close it as running steps quickly approached.

“Your Royal Highness!” another familiar voice called out.

U’il-šanad looked past Nür to see Židad run through the corridor with a palace guard carrying a lantern, barely keeping up.

“What is it now?” the prince couldn’t help but ask.

Židad instantly stopped in his step and placed his fist over his heart. “My apologies for disturbing Your Royal Highness so late at night, when i am aware that Your Royal Highness’s sacred hours of sleep are from early morning to late midday,” the guard bowed respectfully, his chest heaving up and down, “but I received word that the Captain was taken to a healer somewhere in the Outer City, although I have yet to find out which one. What would Your Royal Highness like—”

“Why even ask?!”

Both of the lieutenants winced at the uncharacteristic way that the prince snapped at Židad. U’il-šanad himself took a deep breath, realising his mistake as well.

“Find out where Züčan is immediately!” he ordered Židad, and then turned to Nür, “Make yourself useful for once and call for an Imperial Physician! One who will not blabber about my estate’s matters to the others.”

“As you command, Your Royal Highness!” the two bodyguards spoke in unison, moving with the haste and discipline that had been instilled by them from the Captain’s strictness and expectancy of immediate action.

Kasrei, understanding her master’s unspoken intention, had already quietly sent a maid to wake up the steward and the prince’s closest attendant. As the Prince returned to his inner chamber, she brought robes better suited for the occasion. She put them to the side as she lit a couple of lanterns more and gathered the prince’s bronze mirror and comb. She wordlessly helped U’il-šanad to remove the robe he had hurriedly put on and quietly began to comb his dishevelled hair, knowing better than to voice her thoughts.

The prince would not be able to rest at ease before he saw that the Captain was well or received what care the man may need to be so.

He quietly wondered how it could have turned out this way. While Çetžak’s bodyguards naturally were not on par with the Imperial Bodyguards that the Captain commanded, they were still not to be underestimated. Yet, despite this fact, now it seemed not even they knew with certainty where exactly the man had disappeared to. Their failure to protect the Captain was as unprecedented as it was alarming.

When U’il-šanad emerged from his chambers, he was clad in a military-styled robe in a dark brocade with silver embroidery along the lapel and the standing collar. His hair had been put up in a simple bun, unlike his usual half-updos, fastened with a silver crown and indigo ribbon. The narrow sleeves of the knee-length robe were tucked in a pair of decorative silver wrist guards and his waist was cinched by a narrow sash and a bronze and glass belt. The earrings were simple hoops in silver with a handful of beads from green gems and bone and the identity token at his waist had been changed to silver to make the prince less inconspicuous as well.

The usual mischievousness in his eyes had dimmed, and his expression looked grim. He seemed nothing akin to the prince who idled his day away with reading poetry or painting. Erian hurried over to U’il-šanad and presented him with a silver and wood-framed fan. The prince took it in hand and studied the painted silk as he grimly asked, “Any word from Nür or Židad yet?”

The bodyguard closest to U’il-šanad shook his head solemnly.

---

---

Author’s Note

This story is set in the canonical alternate historical universe, but the plot is not part of Blood of Destinies Rewritten. I wanted to write about Çetžak not remembering U’il and what that means for both of them.

Çetžak Züčan’s name isn’t revealed in the first arc of BoDR, and he’s not Captain in that arc either, so chronologically, this happens an unspecified amount of time after chapter 75 or something like that, but there’s not really anything that would spoil the main plot of the original, so you can read it just fine. without much spoilers offered whatsoever.

I originally always wrote U’il-šanad as Prince U’il, but I started changing that to conlang a while back because I felt it was better. He’s still a prince (šanad), it’s just that when it’s not the title (Ninth Blood Prince) but used with his name, it uses the conlang suffix instead.

Also, for those really into worldbuilding, some additional information for context that isn’t super relevant:

• A captain in the Imperial Bodyguards is a very high station. Military ranks go from first (such as the High General of the army under the Emperor’s direct orders) to tenth. A Captain in the Imperial Bodyguards is basically two and a half, and it’s called an honoured third rank. That is, third rank with the material benefits and social status of second rank (most army generals), but military power and status of third (like a general of a division in an army). The Commander (and Vice Commander) of the Imperial Bodyguards would be a Captain’s direct superior.
• U’il in conlang translated to “butterfly” and is his imperial name, not his birth name. An imperal name is given by the Emperor in lieu of a divined name. You can’t have both a divined and an imperial name. He’s the youngest of the Emperor’s 9 children. He’s referred to “Royal Highness” by his own servants and guards for reasons I won’t explain here. You just need to know that his older brothers are never referred to that way, and in official settings U’il generally is referred to “Imperial Highness” as well.
• Züčan in Çetžak Züčan translated to “strength”, and is his divined name. A divined name is given through divination and is considered a blessing given by the deities. They’re alwas a word with a meaning, and act as a guide to a good fate, sometimes determining what path someone ends up taking in odd ways.
• Nür translates to “light” or “sun”. Židad means “darkness”. They’re Çetžak’s direct subordinates and only take orders from him, usually. They are the ones who take over if Çetžak’s not on duty and they generally rotate shifts. Židad is older than the Captain, and Nür is younger, and they have different skills and backgrounds.
• U’il has a chambermaid (Kasrei), not a chamberlain, because U’il has no third-gender servants, and was assigned a chambermaid when he was thirteen. The steward wasn’t named here, but it’s Kakir. Erian is his favoured attendant. Kasrei and Kakir means “to dress lavishly”, and “scroll” (noun) respectively. Erian is a foreign name and has no meaning, because he’s a foreigner.