The pieces thinned out, Cid taking his and Bennam's from the board as they clashed. Finally Cid halted, remembering the moment Bennam conceded defeat.
Cid looked at the board in awe, ‘Bennam very deliberately stopped the game five moves from checkmate,’ making a final adjustment on the chessboard.
Drissil crossed his arms. ‘A fine game I'm sure, but what does this mean for us?’
Vanapha stepped closer in shock, looking at the pieces and the way they were arranged in their final state, seeing a pattern in them by looking directly down on them. ‘That is the symbol of the Kingslayer! As the moons undoubtedly will arrange soon enough!’
Cid nodded. ‘Bennam knew. He wanted to warn me that someone will come after the King the way they had come after him.’
A murmur broke out in the tent, the mood suddenly grim.
‘Guess that settles it, we're off to Asheva aren't we?’ asked Alex.
‘The King will need our protection,’ agreed Olexion.
Brunick and Vanapha said nothing.
‘I had hoped all of this is over,’ said Elmira worryingly.
‘I'm afraid since Bennam's death matters have grown increasingly dire, love,’ said Cid, stretching his hand out and taking hers.
Cid swung his head at Vanapha.
‘What are your plans Valkyrie?’ asked Cid.
‘I wanted to go Durandal from the very beginning, remember? I have to admit though, there is no point in me pursuing my past, especially not on such a capricious whim as I've entertained until now. I don't need Farsight to know that the Fallen agenda is mobilizing to a far greater extent than in the past. If the King is danger, I'd much rather come with you. If the King is the Fallen's great target, then I want help you.’
Cid smiled gratefully at her.
‘Let us make arrangements then with the rest of the army. Colonel Drissil I would very much like it if you could take charge in marching the Lanston men back home. The rest of us, we must return to Kingdom borders with haste. We'll rest properly along the way, but the faster we get going the better!’ said Olexion, and everyone knew that he was right.
When everyone had gone outside again, Brunick waited for Cid at the pavilion exit.
‘That's not the way the game played out, was it?’ asked Brunick.
Cid snapped his head toward the Mason in surprise. Brunick looked angered.
‘I know that you made up all of that. That chess match. You and Olexion. You hatched this plan by his request.’
Cid was stunned, and didn't know what to say to Brunick.
‘It's not that I don't believe that you can remember every single move that night, or that Bennam didn't have the guile. But for him to have orchestrated a match that finely would mean that he would have to play a game better than you. I know he couldn't beat you. And I know you Cid, I know when you are uncomfortable.
‘Duplicity does not come easy to you. And abandoning someone is even less characteristic of you; both you and Olexion know that Yarea was not captured by just any group of bandits, but extracted by agents of Bennam himself. Olexion himself cares for Yarea, so I knew something was up when he didn't raise regrets about turning back to the Kingdom. Bennam never wanted to save the king - if he really is in trouble - he wanted us to go to Durandal after winning the war and bring the stone to Yarea, and with her powers added to ours, we were supposed to cripple the Fallen beyond recovery. That was Bennam's mission,’ said Brunick, laying it out exactly like it was.
‘I believe that the King really is in trouble. Bennam made reference to it that night - for real. And he was wrong to think he could manipulate everyone to march blindly to Durandal, said Cid, ‘and is what I'm doing so different from his kind of manipulation?’
‘The old Commander set everything aside - his life - to give us a chance to strike at the heart of enemy. He wanted you, nobody else, to do this!’ said Brunick
‘And he condemns the king to death?’
‘Whose king Cid? Ours? The same politicians who have prohibited us from winning this war over and over again? No. Lanston is the might of the realm. Not Asheva. You have everything you need to rule. Once our mission was done, no one would command more power than you. The head of the eastern armies. The best of it is, no one is going to stop you from marrying Elmira.’
Cid was dumbstruck. ‘I'm not an administrator of cities Brunick. I am a general. We cannot live under martial law because I deem the land's kings to be weak.’
‘What about going after Yarea?’
Cid looked at his feet.
‘You say Bennam gave us this chance. I don't see it Brunick. We'll have to go to Durandal without the Rangers. We have very little hope of survival.’
‘So we are condemning Yarea to whatever fate awaits her?’
Cid wiped a solitary tear from his eye. ‘She is going to be alright.’
‘But not returned to her former self. As dumb and ignorant as the Fallen.’
‘Quiet down Brunick. It's not the same. I won't play Bennam's games. Not when he all but lied to me. If we save the sovereign rather, Elmira and I will be married. Olexion... Olexion has a lot of influence. I have to believe that. It is not just her either; I'm not going to risk your safety or the others'. And, I'm not going to risk my life with Elmira. I have waited long enough Brunick. I want my wife. You have to understand that if Yarea was just beyond the next hill, I would have chased after her. But we don't know is waiting for us in Durandal.
Brunick sighed. ‘You sure that spear isn't already weighing too heavily on you?’
Cid shook his head. ‘This is all me. Don't tell the others. Whatever wrongs I'm doing means someone like Vanapha won't go running north just to put herself in danger. We need Vanapha to come with us as I am sure you know. If we are going to chase a Kingslayer no one's abilities will be more important.’
‘I won't tell the others. I will however not be part of this. I will be going home.’
‘What? Wait, no Brunick. We'll still need good soldiers! With you at my side-
‘Sorry Cid, it is time anyways. It's been a long time for me and I want to see my family. I would much rather do that than go on a mission that I don't believe in.’
Cid was quiet for awhile. ‘I understand. Go well. I... there is no one I value at my side more than you. Come back soon. You have to marry me and Elmira anyhow, remember?’
Brunick nodded with a faint smile, which gladdened Cid, for a moment he had thought his trickery was going to cost him his friendship. But there was something else nagging at Cid now, something else he saw in Brunick's demeanour.
‘Your home is much farther away than you care to admit, isn't it?’ asked Cid, knowing he was right, but realizing he still knew very little about the Masons.
‘I'll be back. Maybe sooner than you think,’ reassured Brunick.
The day became slow and dreary. Great pyres were erected for all the dead. They moved away from it before day's end, from a battlefield beset by fires, camping in the canyon before the great trek back home. The battle was won by Lanston but operation Biridian was certainly over before it really began. A compromised mission like this would never be allowed to endure.
Cid kept the Alder stone, turning it over and over. He had made a silent promise to himself that should there ever come a time that Lanston could start a campaign on Durandal that he would seek out and rescue Yarea. More than that, he could not shake the feeling that Yarea, with her memories restored by an Alder stone, would hold Bennam's closest secrets. That made him think that he was making a mistake not going after her. One day I will come for you. Strange then, Cid felt that come what may, whatever direction life took, he would go to Durandal eventually. It was unavoidable. One day... and when that day came, he, and whoever went with him, would be in for the fight of their lives.
Epilogue
The petite woman finished the large room, the new broom in her hands already taking a beating by the scope of her work. Her efforts would not survive th
e end of the day, the many men who used the lounge careless and unruly. She never complained. She never questioned what the men here occupied themselves with. And there were many men here, coming and going, like a hideout of sorts, or a den of thieves, so many weapons and liquor doing rounds here. Prostitutes too sometimes.
Given the types roaming the place, she was surprised to live here without fear, despite her not being allowed to leave the premises.
They treated her very well, much better than anyone in her position she had ever heard off. This city was the Mecca of slave trade, most women sold here used for sex even when they were meant for menial labour like herself. The men here did bring prostitutes in every now and then, but she was left alone.
The men here did not make such advances on her, except one, who had tried to pin her down one evening. She had screamed, and the master of the house had come storming in, gabbing the man from behind, and twisted his neck with a savage snap. After that, the people here seemed to give her even more space and courtesy than before. She didn't understand their treatment of her, but she was incredibly grateful for it. The only thing the master ever asked for was that she helped keep the place tidy. To her it was a small price to pay.
Her boss, her master, despite his good treatment of his personnel, was a man everyone feared she had realized not long after they had come here. One thing the woman knew; he was not fully human, even when he appeared so to the casual observer. There was something bestial about him, even when he tried to hide it, often wearing cloaks and gloves.
For some reason he did not talk with her other than a few words at a time, even though she had seen him be quite jovial when drinking with his men. He was so serious when he encountered her and so she suspected that he knew something about her that she didn't. She of course had not mustered up the courage to ask him. She didn't want to disturb the way things were. Not yet.
She had discovered to herself to be in Durandal; how she had come here, or what her previous life was like, she did not know. She could not remember a thing. She had a name she was sure, but it escaped her, fragments of memories never coming together even when she could almost taste them.
In her private moments, when she looked at herself in the mirror, she thought that hints of her past life came back to her, however very fleeting. Add to that, it made her feel as though she had lived a life that belonged to someone much older than she was. She didn't like that at all, wanting to feel as young as she looked, and hence didn't vest too much energy on remembering. It would come back to her or it wouldn't, and she had a feeling that something significant would have to come along to allow her to remember fully. She did however wonder if she had left behind family.
Those were her darkest moments, when she thought about what family she might've lost, and yet she couldn't even remember them. She thought that something terrible must have happened when she was captured for her to forget everything the way she had, something traumatic maybe. She wanted to turn her anger on her captors, but something wasn't quite right - somehow she knew that they wouldn't be involved in any atrocity if there was one. They treated her too well for that.
In the long run, this was not a city to stay in, being the crime capital of the world and all. She imagined that one day she would escape it, maybe, but she would not entertain any idea of rebellion as long as her current situation remained the same.
She did not complain. She was safe. She could not ask for more than that. She was however, only after a weeks here, extremely bored. She sometimes had the strangest dreams, dreams where the most fantastic feats of nature happened all around her, and more often than not, it felt it was as if she were the one causing them. What to make of the dreams she did not know, but she was convinced that her boredom here was sending her mind into strange places during the nights.
She liked spending her spare time in the building's courtyard or on the balcony, getting a little sun, the balcony in particular looking out at the more affluent areas of the city. Up here she saw the mansion of the ruling Dauflon just beyond the city borders, perched on a hill. Whenever she looked at the mansion she felt something very familiar, as though that feeling of great power that surfaced in her dreams seemed to resonate with whatever was held inside that great big building.
One night, she had studied the mansion under the cover of nightfall. It was quite a sight. All the many windows of the building showed well-lit rooms, except this one room, but had the faintest sheen of purple, ebbing from deep within the room. Somehow, she felt it. She felt its power. It scared her, and she turned away, her heart racing frantically, for a moment grappling with a fear that felt as though it came a long way, a fear she did not have a name for, from a past as dark as it could be. She did not look at that window again. She sincerely hoped that whatever darkness waited in that mansion, never visited this already dark city.
The trip back was harder than Stelinger remembered, longer too, with the shadow of defeat hanging heavily over him and his retinue. They had ridden almost non-stop, pushing the horses mercilessly and not taking proper rest. Two weeks after their war with Lanston they came home, a place yet to be recognized as the home of some of the most darkest souls on Angaria.
Coming up to the mansion Stelinger considered running away for one last time. The idea had little merit - there was no escaping his Master.
Past the gates and inside the giant halls, Stelinger’s knock was slight on the heavy door of the audience chamber, his anticipation great.
‘Enter,’ came the Master’s voice.
Stelinger held his breath as he opened the door, revealing a dark room, a faint purple fire in the hearth. Stelinger’s first footfall was met with a creaking as though his body was laden heavy with his failure, yet it was the entirety of the room that cramped and shuddered, and did so in complete accordance with the Master’s displeasure, the magicks’ effervescent presence unbearable.
Stelinger felt his sword respond to his state of mind, recognizing him, telling him what he was facing.
It was terror.
Glossary
Angaria - The name of the earth, used but seldom.
Alon - Bennam's family line.
Asheva - The capital city of the eastern Kingdom. Also used as the collective name of the seven cities comprising the kingdom.
Conclave - referring to the mysterious home and organization of the Summoners within Asheva. They are ruled and commander by both the King and Tabacher.
Adalophrites- Related to Calophrites, these greater strands of magical energy appear only in certain groups of highly magical individuals. The souls of Summoners seemed to be made only of these strands. While Adalophrites cannot be used as diversely as Calophrites, they do give set abilities in the individuals wherein they surface.
Alder Stone - a crystalline gem forged with incredible care. Its design makes it very powerful, drawing power through its density rather than its size. In the east these stones are used to store the powers and memories of Summoners.
Alparack Valley - Refers to the greater valley surrounding the Fafriv canyon. It is a area typically claimed by no one, and has seen many wars. A no man's land.
Arrhua- spiritual beings lurking in the very elements of Angaria. Thought of as having a primitive consciousness.
Astalus - The titan star. A lifeless planet of enormous size, comprised mostly of metals. The planets bizarre core temperature fluctuations cause the planet to expand either to the point of fragmenting or shrink to an incredibly dense state. These two extremes create great discrepancies on it gravitational forces its exerts on heavenly bodies around it, sometimes become so weak that it loses its moons to the influence of Angaria, and then at other times taking some of these moons back when its pull is strong again.
Autemisciour - a well-known and widely used plant for medicinal purposes. Interacts well with magic.
Bajural - a sport played with a leather ball. There are many variations of the sport around the world. The pronunciation of t
he word also differs from area to area. An official league exists and is played between the seven cities of Asheva.
Basin - a natural stretch of flat land, low-laying with cliff walls surrounding it at the end of Fafriv canyon. Essentially a lake without water.
Benevolence - Resident to Asheva, sleeping in the Great Vault for all eternity. Dreams perpetually, his powers working far and wide to sustain all of Angaria.
Biridian - a mighty tree with branches and boles so thick and far reaching as to creating some of the most impressive canopies to be seen wherever they may grow.
Black armours - a different name for the Fallen, but more specifically referring to their heavily armoured soldiers used in wars.
Calophrites - Magical strands of energy, said to be the building block of the human soul. When the human soul and the undesignated Calophrites interact or communicate, magic becomes possible. Not all humans can use magic however.
Castilleon - the sapphire moon. Its cycle is very long, often taking two years or more.
Crystal- a substance prevalent in matters of magical natures
Dauflon - A name given to the ruler of one of the seven cities. The title carries the same power as would a Duke.
Diamond box - network of stars used as a frame of reference to interpret the movement of moons. At midnight, the Valkyrie take stock where the moons are located and predict future happenings based on their position within the Diamond box.
Dey'illumra - the cult name of the Shadow Priests working under Arumcas.
Durandal - a city loyal only to itself. Known as the crime capital of the world. Escapes the wrath of the Fallen by doing trade with them, and supplying them with crucial resources.
Fafriv - the name for one of the most famous of canyons. This great scar through the earth divides the forest of Alparack, and is virtually the road between the Kingdom and the Fallen forces. Fafriv has also been known to be mined for minerals and metals in the past.
Fainkin- A material created by a industry of the same name. Known for its strength and flexibility. Used by the Lanston military as ropes or coils for their siege engines.
Remnant Pages Spearhead Page 43