He pushed the door open with his arcan while on his approach. There was push-back, but Nikali was stronger for the moment. He needed to appear strong with his arcan abilities, even if it meant using much of it upfront. He couldn’t let on that his power was in short supply, not to the Blood Beauties. His knowledge from the books would help him capitalize every bit of power he had in his body before it was expunged.
Nikali entered the room of the Blood Beauties. The door slammed closed behind him. The flames of the candles along the wall and hanging from the ceiling rose and fell to the rhythm of Nikali’s breathing.
In the center of the room were three overweight men. They were stripped naked and cuts were scattered throughout their bodies. The men did not move. They only turned their heads to look at Nikali.
“What do you want?” the men said in unison.
“I came to speak with the Blood Beauties,” said Nikali. “Directly.”
“Then speak,” said the men.
“I have had it with your messengers,” said Nikali. “I am the Emperor of Eluan. You will come out and speak to me!”
“Your authority is not recognized here,” said the men.
“I would rethink that,” advised Nikali. He pumped arcan into the flames on the candles. The room lit up brighter than ever before. The room was still decorated with discarded items from the Capitol. The Blood Beauties were in the far corner of the room, no longer hidden by the shadows.
“I won’t hurt you,” toyed Nikali.
“Leave us!” the men scolded.
Nikali glared at the three men sitting on dusty couches in the center of the room. Food, feces, and filth surrounded them.
“We do not fear you,” the men continued. “Our power is great. You can not hurt us. We… sta… ss…”
The men could no longer talk. Their tongues had blistered white. Lesions swelled in their mouths. As they tried to continue talking the blisters busted opened. Blood and pus drooled out of their mouths. Nikali could not contain his smile on his handy work.
“Oh, keep going. I insist,” teased Nikali. But the men could no longer speak. Their tongues were incapacitated. They were now voiceless and paralyzed with pain.
“What do you want?” said the Blood Beauty with black hair.
“That’s better,” said Nikali. “I have a proposition.”
The Blood Beauties looked at each other. Then they stared back at Nikali. “Alright. Continue.”
Nikali clapped his hands together in celebration. He skipped over to one of the couches and dusted off the empty seat. Then he sat down next to the naked man writhing in pain. Nikali was nearing the end of his arcan energy.
“Honestly, I’m impressed,” said Nikali. “And it has me curious. What is your source?”
The Beauty with black hair, Mareen, spit in Nikali’s direction. She did not need words to answer his question.
“I’m not here to merely take from you,” said Nikali. “I have something for you in return. You see, I think we can help one another. You have raw power that I have barely seen. I’ll admit I rarely achieved what you can do with just arcan and emotion alone.
“But raw power won’t get you very far. Sure, take over a few blocks of my empire. I can live without it. Because I have something better. I have knowledge. I have books on how to control arcan, and expand our powers. All I need is a stronger source.
“That’s where you fine ladies come in. You provide a more powerful source. I provide the instructions to using it. Together, nobody will stop us. Forget about the Talons. Take the entire city. We can bring down the infrastructure of torment and hypocrisy that this city is built on. We will revel in their pain.”
The Blood Beauties once again looked back at one another. Nikali could hear whispers, but he could not hear what they were saying. Their thoughts were blocked off, and he could not invade their minds. They were far more powerful than him now. He was not lying about their raw power.
Mareen approached Nikali on the couch. She held a knife in her hand. Nikali sat up in his seat. His eyes held steady on the blade.
“You will give us the city?” the Blood Beauty asked.
“More,” said Nikali. “We can take the world. Then we can take the land across the canyon. Because over there, is even sweeter power.”
“Or we can kill you right here. You have no power,” said Mareen.
“Crows bask under the sun. Tigers relax.”
The Blood Beauty raised her knife in the air. Then she swung it across the throat of the man sitting next to Nikali. Blood gushed out of the wound down the man’s neck and chest.
Nikali sat back in shock and wonder. He watched as the Blood Beauty bent down and cupped her hands underneath the man’s opened neck. Blood filled her cupped palms.
She offered the drink to Nikali. He looked at Mareen then back at her hands of blood. She smiled at him with red teeth. Then Nikali took her hands and drank.
He could feel the tingle return to his spine. It danced at his hips and made him feel loose in the legs. Nikali spasmed from the ecstasy of the arcan swirling into his body.
The Black Haired Beauty leaned in and whispered into Nikali’s ear.
“This is only the beginning,” she said. “There will be more, but first you must harvest for us.”
Chapter 19
Francesco de Seres stood at the railing of his balcony overlooking the main street of Myrus. He was dressed in ceremonial regalia. Myrus’ grand outdoor auditorium was nearly finished and the city was celebrating with its first show in over two years. Seres couldn’t help but take pride in the city that he had rebuilt.
The recent invasion from Tcher was the best thing that ever happened to Seres. He still had pleasant dreams about the night of Tcher’s defeat.
The scar on the back of Seres’ neck was a constant reminder of what Tcher had done to him years ago. After only a couple of seasons in the Eluan military a small band of Tcher rebels made their way to the main land and laid siege onto New Salid. Seres was stationed there at the time. His regiment was taken prisoner.
Seres was forced to watch as his fellow soldiers were executed one by one by Tcher’s executioner. They laid each soldier down and rested their heads on the chopping block. Heads rolled off the stage and into the crowd of prisoners waiting for their turn.
Out in the distance Seres could hear another battle raging forward. Reinforcements from Umbre had arrived and were fighting their way into the fishing village. Despite the attack Tcher continued with the executions. The struggling Eluan army outside the city made the Tcher soldiers laugh. They mocked their begging prisoners, allowing them to cry out for help and tease them about their allies being too late to save them.
One soldier after another was killed by the executioner’s sword. After several soldiers the blade was growing dull. In the early stages of the line the executioner would stop to re-sharpen his tool. But as the day grew longer and the sounds of battle grew closer the executioner bypassed his prep stage and began to hack away at their Eluan prisoners.
The prisoners screamed and cried out in pain as the blade chopped away at their necks. Seres watched as the heads started to simply pile up on the stage with no momentum to roll away.
Finally, Seres’ turn had arrived. He was escorted up the stage to the chopping block. Seres tried to struggle but his hands and feet were chained together. He had no free movement to truly fight back.
As he walked up the steps he looked out toward the buildings in the city. Smoke and fire was beginning to spread. The Eluan army had broken through the Tcher defenses. Seres smiled.
He slowed his pace. Every step had to be forced by the Tcher guards, just enough that they wouldn’t carry him to the chopping block. Seres just needed to buy a few more precious seconds.
Seres was forced to his knees and the Tcher executioner slammed Seres down onto the chopping block. Seres kept his head up. He watched as the battle started to break into the streets ahead of them. He could see the Eluan army on their a
pproach, but they were still too far away. The Tcher prison guards started to take their posts around the camp. The Eluan prisoners cheered for their savior, but the executions continued on as planned.
The executioner raised his blade high into the air. Seres waited for death to embrace him. Time slipped into a crawl. He could hear the soldiers getting the order to charge through the Tcher prison camp. The threat of the blade all but disappeared, as Seres smiled even bigger upon the sight of the Eluan army breaking into the camp.
Then the cut of the executioner’s sword pierced into Seres’ neck. Seres spasmed uncontrollably, but he was still alive. The blade had become too dull. The executioner was going to have to strike several more times to kill Seres.
But it was too late for that. The Eluan army swarmed through the camp. The Tcher prison guards were no match for the Eluan numbers now. The executioner was struck down by several Eluan soldiers coming to the rescue.
Seres was unconscious, but he was alive. His head hung awkwardly low over the chopping block. Blood sprinkled from the open gash on the back of his neck. As the soldiers went to pick him up and get him to the medic they noticed one thing about him. His smile was as wide as his wound.
Now, Seres rubbed the scar that had formed on the back of his neck. It was a constant reminder of what he could survive and what the Eluan army was capable of. He vowed vengeance against Tcher.
During the war last year Seres waited eagerly for the Tcher army to attack Myrus, but the time never came. The tale of Myrus’ destruction had made it out even to the End Sea. The Tcher army went directly to the Capitol.
It did not matter though. Seres found a way. Tcher had underestimated Seres’ determination. His army was strong and not afraid. Seres was more than happy to volunteer to not only help the Capitol defend its walls after the infiltration, but also attack Tcher directly.
Plus, Seres’ generosity gave him and Ellen Caning one more piece of leverage on the Royal Council. That was twice now that Seres had saved the Capitol. Even Emperor Heric could not ignore that.
After he saved the Capitol from the avadon horde Seres wanted a seat at the Royal Council, but it was Ellen that suggested they take Myrus. She said Seres was going to need followers not a title. She was right.
Seres was the leader of the city, even if he wasn’t a member of the Royal Council. The people that lived in Myrus saw Seres as their savior. Then after the Capitol’s destruction even more people flocked to the second city.
The recent events in the Capitol only helped solidify Seres’ legitimacy. While much of the burrow housing the royal class had been abandoned there were still a handful of residents in the area that saw Seres’ heroic actions against the Tcher terrorist. Word spread quickly of his tale and soon members of the royal class across all of Eluan had heard about the bravery and determination that Seres displayed. They were starting to come around to the idea that Seres had plenty to offer not only from himself, but from his city.
Myrus had grown twice as fast as the previous year once the influx of immigrants came over. Everybody was looking for one thing: a home. Seres put the people to work in rebuilding Myrus and restoring the city to its once former glory. Even the sky was beginning to glitter once again with jasmine dust from the unburied mines.
Seres turned around on his balcony and looked inside to see Ellen Caning looking as stunning as ever. She had a good thirty years on him, but he did not care. Ellen offered him everything he needed: companionship, love, desire, and the pursuit for power.
“Are you ready?” she asked Seres. Her dress sparkled against the sunset. The fabric was woven with dust from the jasmine mines. The jasmine had become rarer over the past couple of years, and Ellen knew she would be the center of attention at the celebration.
The Myrus power couple was welcomed out of their carriage at the front gates of the auditorium. Heads turned as Ellen’s dress predictably caught the attention of everyone around them. There was a greeting of applause as Seres and Ellen walked through the crowd toward the grand stage.
A servant of the auditorium was tasked at escorting Seres and Ellen to their seats. Seres was offered some of the best seats in the house by the house managers. They weren’t quite as good as the seats reserved for the Royal Council or even the senators from across the Eluan Empire, but the view was still breathtaking.
Their balcony was up to the left. It only missed out on a few sight-lines, but the acoustics were wonderful. They wouldn’t struggle to hear a thing unlike the audience in the general seating. And they wouldn’t get wet. The show was an interactive experience they were warned.
Seres nodded his head and thanked the house managers for their generosity upon the news. It would do nothing for Seres to reproach such an insulting gift. The play was about the recent Tcher war. Seres was a character in the show. He was one of the main characters he was told. That should warrant the best seat in the house, Seres believed. Nonetheless, he was offered second best and would have to take it with a smile. One day it would not be like that. Ellen reminded him to be patient.
The show started off well. Heric was portrayed as a near fool in the Emperor’s throne. He sent soldiers off to battles that he knew they would not win. He did not care. Heric just wanted the glory of battle. The naval battles were accompanied by buckets of water thrown onto the audience in the general seating. They hooped and hollered in wet clothes as the Eluan army went to war.
Meanwhile, Nikali was a drunk fool on the road to redemption. The actor portraying Nikali was using actual arcan for the show. The play began to follow more heavily on Nikali as he came to the rescue of Eluan when he and his team went into the Cylo Forest in search of Aldrin, and the Empress.
Seres had to sit through several acts before his character finally appeared. After the destruction of the Capitol, Heric was out of ideas, but Nikali emerged with a plan to save the day.
Seres leaned in his seat as the play made him grow curious. There had been some liberties taken in the story already, but things were starting to go off into straight fiction.
Nikali instructed Heric to get an army together and they would storm the beaches of Tcher with his powerful arcan. They would be unstoppable.
Seres grew disgusted at the story’s development. When Seres’ character arrived on stage that disgust grew into resentment. Seres was not a main character. He was nothing. He was just the commander of Nikali’s army.
Seres became so distracted by the play that he had not noticed a guest arriving in their balcony section. The man was dressed down and his face was concealed by his formal jacket and low riding hat.
It was Ellen that was the first to notice their visitor. “Can I help you?” she asked. Her voice was firm. It was not intended to be a question of concern.
“I would like to have a word with Francesco. Alone, please,” said the man. Now, Seres’ ears perked up. He turned away from the offensive play and toward the mystery man.
“What is this regarding?” Seres asked.
“Something of the utmost importance,” said the man. “Ellen, if you would please excuse us.”
“No,” said Ellen. “What Francesco is told can be told to me as well.”
The man turned to Seres. “Sir, I would suggest you have her leave. This conversation is no place for her.”
Seres looked over at Ellen then back at their disguised visitor.
“She can stay,” said Seres. “What is it that you want?”
As Seres spoke his hand nonchalantly lowered to his ceremonial sword. It wasn’t just for show this time around. Seres would not be caught off guard again.
“We are in need of your services,” said the man. “You have the strongest army available in all of Eluan. You are being called to duty.”
“By whom?” Seres asked.
“What are your feelings toward Emperor Nikali?” the man asked, ignoring Seres’ question.
Seres turned to look at Ellen, Nikali’s mother. Before Seres could reply Ellen spoke up.
&n
bsp; “What has he done now?” Ellen asked. “Has his play for Emperor failed fast enough we need to bail him out already?”
“Not exactly,” said the visitor. Ellen’s response made her more welcoming in his eyes. “But he is causing a lot of trouble.”
“I’m still amazed the Royal Council let him take control as easily as he did,” said Seres. “They did not put up any kind of fight.”
The visitor chuckled. “That is why I am here. We need to fight back against Nikali.”
Seres sat up straight in his chair. His eyes darted back and forth between Ellen and the visitor. He could see Ellen was surprised and intrigued by what the man was saying.
Thoughts rolled through Seres’ mind from almost three years ago. There were whispers in Myrus of an uprising. It was more than just a rebellion, soldiers and commanders were getting involved. Seres was almost brought in. Something was coming then just like that the idea died. Heric took control of Eluan and everything fell apart.
Seres could not help but smile. The idea that another chance was coming to challenge the Caning’s for power was too much to pass up.
“Who are you?” Seres asked.
“Will you lead your army against Nikali?” the man asked.
“Even if I did, the Royal Council could gather a larger one,” said Seres. “We would not win. Not with just me.”
Then the visitor leaned forward in his chair. Seres could see the man was wearing a fake mustache and his hat covered much of his face. Secrets were important to the man. “We are handling the situation,” said the stranger.
Seres tried to hide his excitement. Ellen got to her feet. She turned away from the stranger and looked over the balcony and the audience below her. The play was still going. She watched the actor playing her son as they were on the beach with the arcan door being opened. Nikali opened the door for Seres and his army to begin the attack on Tcher. As the army marched through the door the stage rotated on a platform. On one side was the beach at the End Sea. On the other were the islands of Tcher. Nikali was laughing triumphantly as his plan was working. He was leading the Eluan army to victory.
Eluan Falls: A Whisper of Fate Page 10