There once was a prosperous kingdom called Aquitainia. It was ruled by the good King Magnus and his kind Queen Elena. Both rulers cared deeply for their subjects and treated them with generosity and fairness.
When the Queen became pregnant, the people celebrated in great hope that the beloved royal lineage would continue for many generations to come.
Queen Elena gave birth to twins, Prince Pyrus and Princess Phosphora, and all the people rejoiced.
Shortly after the children were born, the wicked King Dragu attacked Aquitainia with the full force of his army. He even called upon the powers of darkness to support his evil intentions.
While the Aquitainian army was dispatched to meet the attacking force, a group of bandits took advantage of the situation and kidnapped the Prince and Princess during a raid on the lightly defended royal residence.
When the bandits had returned to their lair with the twins, they sent a messenge to King Dragu offering the royal children for a high price. Dragu refused to pay what they were asking. The leader of the thieves, Aplist, decided to switch tactics and seek his high ransom from the infants’ parents. But when one of his lieutenants, Kratus, caught wind of the change of plans, he leveraged the other thieves’ lust for even greater wealth and power into a successful mutiny.
Kratus had a deep hunger, not just for wealth but for power. His successful coup emboldened him to seek territory and treasure for himself as the two kingdoms continued to wage war against each other. Kratus liked the idea of the royal twins becoming his servants. And so, the developing children were indoctrinated to become his fearful and faithful slaves. Every thief was forbidden to speak of the childrens’ royal heritage. Anyone who whispered it was quickly put to death.
Kratus conditioned the Prince and Princess to think of themselves as worthless and undeserving. They were told that they had been abandoned by their mother, who didn’t even know who their father was. They were told that Kratus, in his great pity for them, accepted them as his adopted children. The children waited upon Kratus as if he were royalty. The siblings wore rags and were constantly harassed and degraded so that they wouldn’t consider themselves to be more than disgusting scum.
From the very moment of the twins’ kidnapping, the King, Queen, court, and everyone throughout Aquitainia who could be spared from the war effort searched far and wide for the royal heirs. The royal couple offered a reward equal to the value of their kingdom to anyone who could lead them to their precious children. Everywhere the searchers went, messages of the reward and of the royal couple’s great and undying love for their children were broadcast using every possible means.
Over the years, the story of the king and queen who desperately searched for their lost children spread through every nation. The story even found its way into the damp air of the thieves’ underground lair. The twins, who were now teenagers, found a faint hope in hearing the story. That glimmer led them to work out a plan to escape together before the beginning of another horrible day of thankless servitude.
When the moment came, the twins escaped without detection. They quickly put as much distance between themselves and their master as they could. After making the long and dangerous trek to Aquitainia, the youths were finally reunited with their parents. All the people of Aquitainia rejoiced greatly that the lost heirs had returned home.
The facts of their childrens’ upbringing by bandits, their ages and appearance convinced King Magnus and Queen Elena that the adolescents were indeed their beloved children.
The Prince and Princess (who eventually became the beloved rulers of Aquitainia with the passing of their parents) went to their graves refusing to believe that they were actually related to the King and Queen through royal blood.
The twins had only gone to Aquitainia because they were convinced that any parents who loved their children as much as the stories suggested might be willing to offer them safety from Kratus within their realm. The once lost and found children could not accept the possibility that they had ever been the King and Queen’s flesh and blood children.
Secrets of the Story
When I consider this story, I think of the twin royals as being like each of us. We are the progeny of the Divine Source, the most powerful and benevolent Ultimate Reality, and yet, how many of us actually feel, think, believe, and act like we are Divinity’s own precious and beloved children?
We are the ones who have been “kidnapped” by the harshness of the fabricated world of human invention. We are the ones who have been exiled and enslaved by systems and institutions that lie, steal, and diminish our very lives.
Like the twins, we have been lied to about our true lineage, our regal heritage, and the life force that flows through our beings. Like the stolen twins, we have been separated from the truth of who we are, and we have come to accept and believe the lies we’ve been told.
Even when we hear stories of our divine origins, even when we are told how much we are loved and cherished by the One from Whom We Come, we refuse to accept the truth. Instead, we choose to accept the lie that we are unloved and abandoned. We feel that we deserve the rags we wear and the scraps falling from our master’s table. Like the royal twins, we take frequent beatings by those who claim authority over us as they tell us lies. We continue to believe that we deserve our chains and burdens. We refuse to embody the power of love and truth that is our divinely ordained birthright.
It’s time for us to believe the unbelievable tales of who we really are, where we actually come from, and what we’re truly capable of. It’s time for us to release the great bundles of lies we’ve carried like heavy burdens upon our backs. It’s time to allow ourselves to accept the truth of who we are and from whom we come. It’s well past time to accept the mantle of freedom, power, and responsibility we have inherited to make a meaningful difference in this world.
We are the lost royal heirs. May we accept the truth of our origins and our divine destiny.
And, like the royal children of the story, even if we refuse to accept our true identity, may we at least do our best to play our part well.