Chapter 1: Shadows of Destiny (Page 1)

Istanbul, 1852 

...

The autumn air carried the scent of the burning leaves through the bustling streets of Istanbul, where the golden domes of the city glowed under the fading sun. Two boys are unaware of the weight history would one day place upon thier shoulders, stepped out of the imperial school, thier paths briefly interwining before destiny would pull them apart. 

One was Abdülhamid, an eleven year old prince with solemn eyes, his mind still lingering on the morning's lessons. The other, a bright and restless Theodor Herzl who newly arrived in the Ottoman Empire, marveled at the whirl of merchants, soldiers and scholars that filled that square. They did not speak, did not even glance at one another. The threads of fate had already begun to weave. 

That afternoon, as the boys wandered the city's heart, Abdülhamid watched the world with quiet intensity. The call to prayer came from the minarets and the laughter of street vendors mixed with the clatter of horse-drawn carriages, it gets closer and closer from behind and it stops near to him. 

Suddenly he recognized the color of the carriage and then he realized that they came from the Yildiz Palace. Before the two soldiers even came out, he recognized them and got in. They were the palace guards he always saw standing guard on his floor. When the palace guards finally escorted him back to Yildiz Palace, the illusion shattered. The halls, usually alive with whispers of courtiers, stood in suffocating silence. A servant knelt before him, lips trembling. 

"Sehzadem ... your mother..."