SeVeN

Fourth, oh Fourth, biggest loser, biggest liar, wanted so much and achieved so little. Liar, thief, cheater, a ugly.... but after thinking about it, not the last one. Great loser but unfortunately my only real brother, if you have the same father and mother, who are you if not a real family.... hehe, maybe I would really smile if it wasn't for the taste of bitterness in my mouth when I always wanted to say that sentence out loud.

"The closest yet farthest, my worst enemy has always been the closest to me, a stupid mommy's son."

He looked similar to me, not in a perfect way as we were not twins, but similar enough to confuse us with each other, which he had dared to take advantage of more than once. At one point, I found myself shying away from asking why I should be punished for something I didn't do.

Also, he was probably the oldest of us all because he was born at the beginning of the year, and I was possibly the youngest as I came into this world at the end. Almost immediately after each other, almost. Still, I would sooner slit my wrists than call him big brother.

"The woman who brought us out into the world must be super fertile or have some ways to go, she is the only one who has managed to give birth to two princes."

Me and Fourth were similar but now no longer identical, different lifestyles, different behavior and what I carefully attempted different appearance, as much as I possibly could. He had clean cut short black hair pulled back to the side and deep blue eyes that tried to charm everyone. He also had a calm smile on his lips but if someone looked closely would notice a clenched bite.... I wonder why. Maybe he was expecting second place?

He had slightly darker skin tanned from the sun which made others realize that he spent a fair amount of time outside the palace.... I was not jealous at all. Even his height was above average placing him at the upper limit...

"May the teeth grinding not be heard by others."

And as for his uniqueness, I had assumptions, many, many assumptions. The first was that he was able to hide very well for what other way did he manage to achieve what he achieved. The second was that he had the gift of persuasion but on the level of living charisma like the First, just that he could convince others that he was right. By what other means did everyone always believe him and not me.... I didn't even want to think about another option, I would have burst into tears in front of everyone.

But most likely it was probably both, or maybe something in between, after all, no one told us that our gift had to be only one or involve one domain.

Liar approached the Fourth, he barely stopped, vaguely glanced at him for a few seconds and went on with nothing in mind. No grimace, no smile, no focus, only indifference was in his gaze. It was clear that someone had a favorite.

“Oh brother your smile is so sweet.”

Next in line, of course, was the Fifth though one could have guessed that if one had the ability to count.... just who didn't know how to do that. The Big Fifth, a giant among giants if one compared him to the smaller rest of us of course. In addition to being the tallest of us he was also, for the time being, the first non human or at least not for the most part.... it was complicated. Red skin as if scorched by fire, thick black hair and eyes with red where the whites of the eyes were and finished with brown in the middle. I don't know if I would surprise anyone if I said that his temperament in one word was impulsive, almost explosive. On top of that, he was built like a mountain of muscle.

The biggest and probably the strongest, plus it was enough to touch him badly and he immediately tried to punch someone. I always tried to avoid him, fortunately most of the time it wasn't too difficult as he could easily be heard at the other end of the hallway.

The father was known but the race of his mother remained a mystery to me, maybe she was some kind of demon or maybe a fire elemental or something like an ifrit. However, it was rather the last because even from here, I felt a wave of heat that reached the left side of my body, even one person away.

His gift, ability was completely unknown to me, I never wanted to have anything to do with him and so I still don't want to. Me from the future will worry about it if it already comes to that situation. A rough brute.

However, did I mention that there was fire coming from him... literal living fire appeared out of nowhere on his body, hands or even hair, but it didn't burn anything.

An adult man approached the living torch called the Fifth Prince, stood still for a second at a time, looked him over from top to bottom probably admiring each of his sinews and affirmatively nodded. Then he continued on to the next one for a quick inspection.

The Sixth, on the other hand, was completely different, in him instead of brutality there was aggression, to the eternal anger of the last was added cunning, and something along the lines of superiority entered his gaze. He was different from the Fifth but so similar more.... more animalistic, more dangerous.

His head was shrouded by a large clump of long brown hair, by far the longest in the room, yet it was pinned up, neatly and carefully arranged. What could not be said about the rest of his body. He was a mountain of muscle too, however unlike Fifth he was noticeably smaller, as if more compact. The muscles looked as if, instead of sheer strength, they could show more than one feat requiring considerable dexterity. His skin was dark, even brown, but not innately so, just burned from the sun. His eyes were somehow strange, ordinary, but with a small admixture of yellow or gold glinting in the center. Another of his unusual features was his hair, not on his head but on his skin, it was longer, longer than usual but also more adherent. They could not be seen through his skin color, but I noticed them precisely, there was more of them, much more. It was as if they were meant to serve a different role.... maybe protective?

It seemed that he had gotten more into his father than his mother, not that I ever met her but still. This was simply obvious at first glance. Yet he was not completely human, that's for sure. Just where did the other side of his pedigree lie?

His skill was as obscure as he was, not in the sense that I hadn't heard of it like Second's, only that I had heard of it but didn't understand it. He was shrouded in mystery, even it was strange that I only managed to meet him a couple of times, over such a period of time. Not that I'm complaining.

If I would call the Fifth an rough brute then the Sixth maybe.... a lurking dog or cat.

Liar approached the human animal and unexpectedly stopped. He gave it a lazy look but in his gaze I saw something I would never have expected.... surprise. Not disbelief but surprise, as if the recipient of his gaze was in a place he didn't expect. But as quickly as it appeared this emotion disappeared replaced again by the cold mask called indifference. The man walked on toward me.

What was to come came, but I did not expect it to come so quickly. His footsteps sounded to me like thunder that announced an impending disaster, but I had no chance to stop them.

The liar stood in front of me, he looked at me and began to stare at me. I felt his gaze, oh I felt it. It was as if his gaze made me pinned to the ground.

A sudden sense of pressure dented me to the ground, while my skin began to itch unpleasantly. If earlier stares wanted to look at my insides, now someone's gaze really had the power to make me feel naked, so naked.

With each passing moment the pressure only grew and grew, and my legs grew weaker and weaker. They almost reflexively bent under me while the only thing that stopped me from falling to the ground like a weakling was willpower which.... was diminishing.

"Endure, endure, ENDURE."

I lowered my head to the ground to relieve my suffering, it helped.... yet not enough for me to feel it in any way. Worse was that after that I could no longer lift it up, the tension and pressure was unbearable. And it only grew.

I didn't know how he acted, whether he was indifferent, joyful, concerned or maybe as usual unconcerned, I didn't know and it didn't bother me at all.

Standing under this pressure, it felt like years had passed when in reality it should have only been seconds, a shocking realization of perspective. I took a deep breath, focused my thoughts and I continued to look without revealing anything.

It was as if nothing had ever happened... yet the layer of sweat on my back told me otherwise.