Roasa and Rain
On the road to Gilbertown, the royal envoy just restarted after stopping for midday lunch. The two members of the Queen’s personal guard ride atop her carriage. Rain is on alert, ever committed to her job. Roasa is bored.
“It must be hard being back in the Capital. Are you okay?” Roasa asks.
“Why would it be hard? I am protecting the Queen; it is a huge honor.” Rain responds.
“Rain, you were the Queen, now you’re protecting your replacement.”
“I was not the queen. I gave birth to a child by the King to maintain the unity between the royals and my people. It was just an assignment.”
“What about now? Is this an assignment? I’ve thought of you as a friend… are you telling me that everything we have been through was you just doing your duty?”
“Friends? Bellumi do not have friends. Bellumi has fellow warriors, you are a fellow warrior.”
“So I am the same as one of the infantrymen, say that one over there?” Roasa asks as she points to a random Bellumi soldier marching in line.
“No, I do not know that soldier, but I have a history with you. We have fought beside each other, we have protected each other and confided in each other on the pathway.”
“That’s what friends do. I know you say that Bellumi people don’t do a lot of things, but most of them are things that you do. You are not the same as the average Bellumi, your path took you on a journey that no other Bellumi has been on. Queen, guide to a prince in a foreign land, protector of the Royal Family, my friend.”
“If we are friends, Roasa, you must answer a question for me.”
“Anything.”
“Why do you look at the King the way you do?”
“What? How? Rain, you know I have taken a vow of celibacy until the evil that killed my Jose is driven from the land!”
“I cannot help but notice the way you look at him… the way he looks at you.”
“I’m not in love with him if that’s what you’re wondering.” Roasa says with that famous Durrie temper rising.
“I do not think that I just know it’s different.”
“The King buried my Jose while Stephan and Matthew rode off to find those evil bastards who killed him. His kindness helped me through those hellish days. I feel connected to him, like I was supposed to be found by him. I think he feels it too, when I went to visit him in his cell in Meego… he said that the next time we spoke, that he needed to tell me something. But the Queen’s father never let me return. I think he was going to tell me something along those lines.”
“What is the connection like?”
“It’s weird, I’ve tried to deny it, but I can’t shake it. It’s like we were meant to be together, not like romantically… but at the same time, I have this feeling that if it were a different time we could have been. I don’t feel that it was just he and I that were brought together, but the Queen, David and Stephan, Matthew, and my friend, Rain.”
Rain looks away to hide the tear that formed in her eye. She doesn’t understand this feeling. Bellumi don’t cry.
Ser Robert
At an undisclosed location somewhere in the kingdom, Ser Robert sits in his cell. He has been here for months but doesn’t understand why. Aero spared his life and turned him over to a stranger. A stranger that he hasn’t seen since arriving here. He is lost and hungry, sweating and freezing, he is exhausted and ready to burst out of his cell. The knight is full of contradiction. This place, whatever it is has broken the once proud royal official.
A rattle at the door, must mean it’s feeding time. In walks a young mid-teen girl with ratty clothes. She places a plate in the floor without looking at the disgruntled man.
“Where did you come from?” the man asks.
The girl doesn’t pay him any attention. She begins cleaning his cage as if he wasn’t there. At one time, the man wouldn’t take this indignity, but all these months of confusion and mental abuse have broken him.
“Please, I haven’t seen a girl in months. Will you tell me your name?” He asks sheepishly.
The girl stops what’s she is doing and turns toward the man. She looks to his eyes. Her gaze pierces his… one blue eye and one brown.
Ser Robert’s heart sinks, he has seen these eyes in dozens of people over these past months. He begins to tear up as he whispers “Gyn.”
The girl turns back to her duties.
Ser Robert weeps. “Please… Gyn… I’ve talked, I am no value to you. Why keep me here?”
“You live to serve the us now.” She says as she walks out of the cell and slams the door.
“Who are you?”
“You thought the Whispering Owls is a secret society, we watch them and the rest of the kingdom. To know our name is death to anyone who isn’t a member.”
“Does Aero know the name?”
“Of course.” The girl says as she leaves the room.
Once again Ser Robert is alone with his splintered mind. What horrors await him at the hands of the ever-changing Gyn?
Ser Matthew
Matthew and his Bellumi force have been pinned down in the corner as Orlea burned since he was ambushed by Marco. After the first night, the cries died down. The honor bound knight has been forced to standby as genocide rages in the city. The city is silent as it still burns at first light on the third morning. Out in the distance a group of riders approach at a distance. By Matthew’s estimation he is outnumbered three to one not counting the archers above them. Once again, he is facing impossible odds.
“Ser Matthew! You may approach.” A man yells out from the riders.
Matthew steps out cautiously. Several of the Bellumi leaders follow a few steps behind. As soon as they step out of the shadows of the wall, the archers on the wall strike them all down.
“Just you knight.” One of archer yells.
Matthew is tired of all the senseless death of his Bellumi companions. He is exhausted from days of staying alert ensuring that no one stepped out of the boundary of safety. Arrows hit around Matthew’s feet trying to force him on.
“Move!” The archer yells.
Matthew steps forward, as he does three riders leave the rest of their group. They meet in the middle ground.
“Look boys, the Captain of the Guard. The man who took my job and saw fit to strip us of our knighthoods.” Oliver says as his horse stops before Matthew.
“This is him Ser Oliver? The dolphin rider chose him? What a disgrace. We should kill him now.” Says the other man.
“Ser Carlisle, King Marco gave us direct order, we deliver his gift now and kill him later.” Oliver says.
“However, if this outlaw were to do something stupid, we will have to defend ourselves.” The third man adds.
They all laugh.
“No, Ser James. I know that you have a knack for finding an angle to bend the rules of engagement for our entertainment but the King gave strict orders. Just look the man in the eyes and know that we will kill him very slowly and painfully soon.” Oliver rebukes.
“And publicly.” Carlisle threatens.
Matthew stands quietly taking in all the indignities these three false knights throw at him.
Oliver dismounts and pulls a small wooden box with an owl carved into it.
“Ser Matthew, King Marco has chosen to allow you to live today to serve his purpose. Perhaps completing this task will grant you mercy. The King commands you to remove John Henry’s body from the gate and take it along with this box to your king.” Oliver says as he places the box at Matthew’s feet. “Just so you know, it has the blade that Marco used to kill John Henry in it. It’s the blade that he took from Aero last year. He don’t need it anymore.”
Matthew bends down and picks up the box. He opens it to see that Oliver was telling the truth.
“Go now, you have a three-day ride to Gilbertown.” Oliver says as he mounts his horse.
Matthew’s eyes widen “How did you…”
“You were kept here for three days so that you couldn’t reach Aero in time. Marco wanted you to know that we know Aero’s on his way to try to find allies with the Gilbert’s. But for fun, he wanted to have you wait here long enough that you would never be able to reach them in time. Because King Marco has already secured the loyalty of the Gilbert’s, Aero and his entire royal court is walking into a trap. Maybe my math is off. Perhaps you can make that journey in time if you hurry, but you won’t do it with horses, you will walk The archers will kill every horse you have left. We will see you soon. Be sure to take John Henry with you or every Bellumi soldier you have left will be cut down by the archers!”
Matthew sprints back to the gate, he must hurry…
Jackson vs M’hel
In the wilderness of the northwest territory somewhere east of the Iron Mountains, M’hel is chanting again. His soldier stands at attention ever watchful over his master. Suddenly, something catches his eye. A young woman walks directly toward the camp.
“Hello, may I approach?” the woman asks.
M’hel stops chanting and takes a breath. “No you may not, Jax’n. Stay there or I will unleash my Abaddon upon you.”
“You know he is no threat to me; I go by Jackson these days.”
‘Why hide your mystic name? We are the gods of this world; these people are mere bugs beneath our feet.”
“The old ways must not return; you must not succeed.”
I have my champion, the general of my legion but you came here alone. You don’t have a champion. You’re just a weak old man, a shell of your former self.”
“Interesting that you should use those words.” Jackson says as he reaches out his hand toward Abaddon. He begins chanting in the ancient tongue, white light races out of his hand striking M’hel’s monster.
M’hel instinctively lashes out with a similar lightshow, the same black light from the Night of the Black Sky.
Abaddon stands motionless as the two sorcerer’s wage mystical battle upon his body.
Jackson swiftly holds his opposite hand up toward M’hel sending out a blinding light into his glowing black eyes. M’hel’s magic faulters for the briefest of seconds. Just enough time for Jackson to complete his mission.
His light pulls Nunley out of the blackness. He collapses upon the ground, the moment that he does, Jackson grabs him and blinks both of them away.
M’hel regains his sight to find Abaddon still standing before him. He laughs, all Jax’n has done is removed the weakness from his minion. He made him even stronger by purging any conscious that was locked inside him.
About a hundred miles away, Jax’n and Nunley blink into a small cave.
“What happened?” Nunley asked.
“You have been removed from M’hel’s monster.”
“But I was the monster, are you saying that it lives without me?”
“M’hel’s Abaddon was brought about by increasing all of your negative personality traits while suppressing everything else. I was able to strip away everything that M’hel suppressed.”
“So I am not truly me anymore?”
“You are a new you, one that doesn’t possess the violent rage, and sadism. You will be noble, and just, a true knight of the realm. You will be my champion against M’hel.”
“I… I am a murderer. The things I have done… I deserve… death.”
“No, my friend, the guilt you feel is of crimes committed by everything left behind in the monster. Instead of feeling guilt, dedicate your life to defeating evil. The evil that was once in you is gone; you are now pure. Become the sword of justice and bring salvation to this land. This is your destiny, that’s why I warned you at Village Harbor and why I came for you now.”
“Yes… I swear my life to protecting the land from the darkness that rises!”
Relics of the Old Age 