As the ancient city of Orlea burns, a Broussa fishing fleet is patrolling the fertile fishing grounds about twenty miles south. Ships run an effective dragnet filling their hulls quickly. The men on the ships are from families that have been serving the Broussard’s for centuries. For at least twenty-five generations these waters have been bountiful for the southern coast cities. Ancient magic ensures that these honey holes are filled with high quality fish.
The ships are too far out to sea to know that their homes are being burnt to the ground. That all of their loved ones are trapped in the burning city with no way to escape. They have no idea that their boss Leonardo Broussard is dead and that his son Marco is burning his family’s legacy to the ground. To these men it’s just another day at work. Day three of their seven day trip.
Six ships float side by side with the nets collecting the bounty. As always, the sea is calm, the magic is strong here. The men work about the ships performing their monotonous tasks without a care in the world. If they only knew the horrors of home…
However, this day is not like the rest. This day is different. As the men focus on the fish, a sea dragon jumps out of the water and crashes down on the end ship, crushing it instantly. Before the other captains can even register what has happened, the sea dragon dives onto the next. Then it pokes its head out of the water in front of the next one and breathes fire onto the ship setting it ablaze.
Chaos ensues. The ship on fire crashes into the next one igniting the oaken ship. Then the sea dragon’s tail whips around the other side of those boats crashing into the other two, breaking them down the middle. In under two minutes all six ships are either sunken or fully engulfed in flames. Each man forgets everything and throws themselves into the water. No time for lifeboats or captain’s orders, panic has set in.
As the two ships continue to burn, the men are not safe as lion sharks begin taking the men one by one. Hundreds of men are at the mercy of the sea. Dozens of sharks go on a feeding frenzy. In a twisted sense of justice, the men who’s families have eaten the fish for generations have become food for that same sea.
The sea runs red with blood. Slowly the screams of the men die down. All voices are eliminated in a matter of minutes. All the men are dead, except one. As he floats in the ocean awaiting his fate, he is all too aware that the area has grown silent. He awaits the inevitable; but nothing happens. He floats for minutes on end. Eventually the current takes the blood soaked waters away, and he is just a man floating alone in a vast sea with circling sharks.
After an hour or so the sea dragon pops its head out of the water towering over the man. Dozens of lion shark heads poke out the water all around him. They just stare blankly. The man is terrified. Slowly the sea dragon lowers its head beside the man. Without hesitation, perhaps on some sort of innate instinct the man grabs ahold of a horn and allows himself to be pulled out of the water. The sea dragon sets the man on its back. Then the dragon and sharks all swim in the same direction.
The man stays on the sea dragon’s back for three days and three nights. The shock of it all weighs heavy on the man’s soul. Why didn’t they kill him too? Where are they taking him? He cannot figure out what is going on. He just believes it has something to do with magic but can’t be sure, lack of food and water has made him weak. Try as he might, he cannot rationalize what is happening.
On the fourth day his envoy carries him until dusk, then they stop. The sea dragon carefully rolls the man off its back and swims away. The lion sharks begin to circle him at a distance. Exhausted the man doesn’t try to escape. Faster and faster the sharks swim the circle. As they speed up it appears that the water inside their circle is being pulled away. The sea lowers as the man floats helplessly.
After several minutes, he is hundreds of feet lower than the circling sharks. He feels the sea floor below him and stands up. As he does, he notices that he is standing on dry land. Before him is a giant oyster which begins to open slowly to reveal an old woman unconscious inside. He steps forward to check on her. The lion Sharks roar above them.
She is awoken by the thundering roar that echoes off the magical sea wall.
“How long has it been?” she asks.
“I don’t know.” The man says confused.
“You don’t know how long ago the Great War was?”
“Oh, about a thousand years. I think, forgive me… I am not an educated man.” He offers reluctantly.
“We don’t have much time.” The old woman says as she tries to sit up.
“For what?”
“My body will collapse soon; my time is at an end.”
“Why?”
“The magic was to keep me alive in an unconscious state. Now that I am awake, my body will fail me soon.” She says as she finds what she is looking for inside the giant oyster goo beneath her.
She pulls out a trident of pure pearl. “This is Sol’s Trident of the Sea. It is one of the ancient wonders from before the war. Whoever holds it, controls all the Oceans on the planet. It has the power to give and take life, raise up and break down. Like a scale at the market, it measures both sides. With its power, the thrones of men could crumble.”
“And it’s mine?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It can only be wielded by a woman as per the ancient magic and the magician that formed it. A woman of virtue, who will use it for justice, who will stand against oppression of the weak, and discipline the principle powers of this world. You were chosen to live but a fleeting moment longer because you know such a woman.”
“Yes, my wife!” He exclaims as he imagines this woman’s viewed concept of time.
“If you didn’t know a woman worthy of this mantle then you would have been eaten.”
“Like all of my friends?”
The woman glances a knowing look without answering the question.
“Take this to your wife, for she is chosen. With Sol’s Trident she will rule over the sea. She can call upon the fish to give themselves up for harvest or to use the creatures of the sea to enforce her wrath. Take it, deliver it to your wife for she has a mighty part to play in the war to come. The other six Wonders must be revealed before the final reckoning of Paul’s World Order will be dismantled brick by brick.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Leo, it’s not your place to understand, it is just your job to place Sol’s Trident into her hands, and she will know what to do. Do you accept your task?”
“I do.” The man says as he takes the trident, shaken that this old woman knew his name.
“The creatures will take you home, the magic will guide them. Complete your mission as I have completed mine. I must rest… Go now!” The woman says as the oyster closes her up behind her.
The sea dragon pokes its head through the wall of water and the man grabs ahold. As soon as he is on the sharks stop circling and the empty hole closes up and the surround the sea dragon as before. The sea claims the old woman’s body in an instant.
This time on the creature’s back something is different. They take off at top speed as if they were attacking prey. The man lays upon the back of the sea dragon and finds himself unable to stay awake, exhaustion has set in. Sometime later… a few hours, a few days… he isn’t sure. The sea dragon awakens him with a nudge.
He raises his head to find that Orlea is smoldering before him. It’s dark but the dwindling fires still light the night sky. He hops off the creature’s back and frantically makes his way to shore. At the destroyed dock he arrives on land. No one is left alive. Thousands dead because of a citywide fire.
The streets are clear enough to navigate as the buildings continue to burn lazily from the days old fire. It’s hot, scorching hot next to the still burning areas. He is able to find his home or what’s left of it. The building must have been near the cause of the fire because the rubble is no longer burning. Frantically he goes about searching through it.
The smell of burning flesh is never far from him. In fact, in a strange way it guides him. He finds his children’s scorched bodies first. Then he found the completely charred body of his wife.
Why was he too late? How is this possible, he was chosen to deliver the trident to his bride…
Broken mentally, physically… he collapses.
As he lays next to what’s left of his wife, he is overcome with grief. But then there’s a whisper. “Place the trident in her hand.”
“What?” he says absently.
No one says anything. There’s no one here.
He gives up and returns to the dock to get away from his burnt family. He looks for a way out of the city along the edge of the shore.
“Put the trident in her hand.”
He looks up. That was an audible voice.
In the bay, the sea dragon stares at him with its head out of the water.
“Do it and give yourself up. You were chosen.” The sea dragon demands of him then disappears beneath the sea.
Reluctantly he returns to his home. He places the pearl trident into his wife’s hands.
Nothing happens.
He is overcome with grief. He was too late, he gives up. He leans in to kiss his wife’s forehead. His tears fall down on her burned body. He kisses her and fades away.
In that moment, the transfer of his lifeforce takes effect. He dies so that his wife may be reborn.
She screams as she is awoken in her still burnt body. The sea immediately rises throughout the city. Hundreds of sea creatures rush to her and surrender their lifeforce to her, healing her with each sacrifice.
She rises above the sea, trident in hand. Completely transformed. A pearl crown adorns her head as if it is coming from her own skull. Mystic fish scale armor of pale blue covers her body. It’s ancient from the time before the war. This woman that has done nothing more than the most honorable womanly calling of motherhood has been reformed into the Queen of the Sea and one of the most powerful forces on the planet.
She stands on top of the sea and walks out of the city. As she does so, creatures from the sea enter the flooded city and collect the charred dead. None are left behind. She walks out to the sea dragon and mounts his back. The procession of the dead follows her carried by octopuses, dolphins, giant crabs, and the like. Slowly they disappear into the night. No one was left to witness this strange ordeal.
Relics of the Old Age 