text: Edit: The copy/paste from my original doc didn't come out right. Should be okay now. \ At the heart of the Zhou Dynasty was a temple towering over an inlet. It was the tallest building the nation's best architects could conjure, yet even they could not best the world's largest waterfall afore which it was built. It was thanks to the waterfall, which long ago they'd named Nia Zha, and other such wonders of the world that the Zhou revered nature. When they exited the temple, Aro and his father Quin Zhou meandered the winding stone paths through the inlet. They could hear the persistent rumbling in the distance, of water crashing down on water. They could see the fish, coy of all colors - golden and brown, and red, and grey, and a shade of orange like cream. "You're turning out to be a fine successor," said Aro's father. He'd noticed his son's journey had taken him far, something he could tell by his son's regal posture. "As a successor to the throne," he continued, "one must act as one would upon it." "Yes, emperor," Aro said after a pause. The stone walkway spiraled upward nearer to the falling streams. It lead to an alcove atop a boulder, upon which lay a garden. On this garden was one tree, of the most exotic kind found on their lands. Aro neared this tree and placed his hand upon it with his eyes closed and head tilted downward. It was only for a moment he did so, but he sighed and neared the floating garden's edge where Quin Zhou had already found his place. Aro sat down on the cloth mat cross-legged. He tried to imitate his father's posture, though no one, he thought, could ever posture himself as straight and regal as an emperor but the emperor himself. He hardly recognized him as his father, hardly ever did. He was a symbol, a protector of his people. The memory came back to him once of calling him father, and it brought fear that urged him never again to make it. It seemed that, for a moment, in the calmness of falling water and the absence of voices, the emperor's shoulders lowered and his gaze softened. "Aro..." "Yes, fa-... emperor?" "Do you know why I brought you here?" "Was it something I did? Did I err somehow, emperor?" "No, Aro." Quin Zhou took a breath, heavy and focused. The emperor's son yet remembered what his father had said that day, and every time he did his mind flowed back and forth between that memory and another - one much more gruesome. The words he'd said were, "As my successor, you will know only war." Then his thoughts shifted to another memory, one more recent of the emperor's face touching the ground with deadened eyes. And the memory shifted again. "War, Aro. Do you know what it means?" the emperor continued. "Death," Aro replied. Again his memory flickered. "That is so. And what will you do when that time comes as emperor?" "I shall conquer in your memory," Aro recited. "Good." Occasions Aro felt close to emperor Quin Zhou he did recall, but even in such circumstances the man would not once turn to face him. The Zhou had known since times of old that the high caste were holy people, and as such the unworthy should not look upon them. This is what Aro had learned, that those who looked upon the emperor's visage without his direct command of it must be sent to die. The memory continued, "You must understand, Aro, that you must always act upon the emperor's will, and the emperor's will is holy and absolute. Holy and absolute." "The emperor's will is holy and absolute." "Yes." The emperor paused. "You know your duties well. And that is why you are not ready." The words made Aro break from his posture entirely, so much so he stood up and faced Quin Zhou. "What?! But fa-! You said-!" "Silence!" Aro looked to the floor in shame and disgust. "You have not the stomach to rule," the emperor continued, "I have always known this, as have you." He looked to his mind, which told him that he knew the emperor was right. That he should have felt the hot shame washing down his face, and that his reaction was exactly why he was not worthy. "Even still, you are my only successor. You may be a good successor, but a successor is all that you are. The gods have told me I'll not have the time to turn you into a proper ruler, and you shall not become one of your own volition. A successor is all you'll ever be." Then the memory shifted once more. Aro saw the emperor again on the floor, where the light had escaped his eyes, and then back to the last line he'd ever told him. The one he'd always remember since then. "And the dynasty shall fall with you at its head." Ever since that day beside the waterfall, upon the floating garden, he'd never attempted to call him father again. And up until the moment of Quin Zhou's death, he never did. When Aro Zhou sat upon the red-cloved throne for the first time, he remembered those words. And on the day of his coronation was that his father's prophecy would come true. Through the Zhou Temple's gates afore the natural majesty of Nia Zha came a young man, not much older than he was. "I've one thing to say and one only. I urge you heed me, loyal servants of Zhou, for I am the one true heir to the throne. My name is Jano, and I am the emperor's lost son!" And it was on that day that Aro Zhou lost his way.