Ascend Online

by Luke Chmilenko

“I agree.” I rubbed my tired eyes as I recalled Donovan’s expression when he first met Aldwin. “He seemed to have recognized you, however.”

  “Me?” Aldwin replied with some surprise. “It’s been a while since I was in the capital, but I am one of the few Knights of Eberia to actually survive The War. Perhaps he has a good memory for faces.”

  Amaranth commented from his spot on the floor, chin resting on his paws.

  “Perhaps,” I offered, as my mind mulled over Amaranth’s secret insight. “There is an issue I wanted to raise with you, however.”

  “Oh?”

  “Donovan let slip that his expedition was funded by proxy through the Mage’s Guild by House Denarius. They were searching for the Ley Line and indirectly the ruin that we had found today. At first glance, it appears to be a translocation hub, something that I believe could be used to greatly speed travel across the continent, or between here and Eberia.”

  I didn’t know what I expected Aldwin’s reaction to be when I told him of the House’s involvement, but him slamming both hands onto his desk and practically shouting, “What does that bitch have her hands in now?!” wasn’t high on my list.

  Okay, it wasn’t even on it at all.

  “Uh… what?” I asked, shocked by the Bann’s sudden outburst.

  “I am sorry, Lyrian.” The knight’s face was completely red with anger. “It appears that no matter how far we push the frontiers, Eberian politics are not far behind! Something I had thought I left for good.”

  “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on,” I offered calmly. “Then I can be appropriately outraged on your behalf as well. First of all, who is that bitch?”

  “That bitch happens to be Matriarch Emilia Denarius of House Denarius, the Dowager Queen, or the Queen Mother of Eberia,” Aldwin spoke evenly after taking a deep breath. “She is King Swain’s mother and the late Prince Rainier’s wife.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly, nodding at Aldwin to continue.

  “She and I have had a rather tumultuous history over the years…” The Bann seemed to be lost in thought as he spoke.

  “You knew the Queen?” I asked with a bit of surprise in my voice.

  “Aye, you could say that!” Aldwin scowled as he spoke. “I was forced to see that foul harpy nearly every day of my life for nearly twenty years! If it weren’t for the Prince. I’d of leaped off The Bulwark and prayed for a yard of steel in my gut!”

  “The Prince?” I leaned forward in my chair, waving hands up in a calming motion. “Aldwin… Fredrick. Calm down, you’re not making any sense!”

  “…I had hoped to find a fresh start here, as much as an old man like myself could find.” The Bann slumped back into his chair with a loud sigh, still clenching his fists. “But it seems like my past is determined to keep pace with me no matter where I go!”

  “Aldwin, help me out here,” I asked the knight. “Slow down, and start at the beginning.”

  “Are you sure? It is a long story,” Aldwin warned. “And involves a great deal of politics…”

  “I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on,” I replied, leaning back into my chair.

  “Okay…” Aldwin inhaled a deep breath before continuing. “…for the last… Twenty-seven years…”

  “…up until a year ago, I had the honor of being one of Prince Rainier’s bodyguards before he died.” Aldwin began to deflate as he spoke. “A Royal Knight charged with his safety.”

  “A Royal Knight?” I echoed in surprise. I suspected there was more to Aldwin’s past than he let on… but this?!

  “I first met him when he turned thirteen.” Aldwin nodded at me as he began to reminisce. “I was young, barely twenty-five, when they pulled me off the wall to assist in teaching the Prince the ways of war.”

  “In many ways, he was both the brother and son I’d never had.” The Bann continued to dig through his memories. “We became close friends, at least as much as the heir of a kingdom could be to one of his subjects.”

  “Years flew by, the Prince growing to become a fine young man, and a fierce commander against the Orc Invaders. But as King Cyril’s health declined, the nobility began to insist that the Prince be wed and ensure that the dynasty be preserved. Lest some tragedy befall both King and Prince and leave the kingdom in turmoil…”

  “Hmmm.” I nodded to show the Bann I was still following.

  “After a great deal of politicking, Emilia was chosen as the best candidate, largely in part because the Crown needed House Denarius’s coffers and magical backing to counterbalance the growing political discord the other Houses were displaying, in hopes of keeping the Kingdom unified.”

  “Unfortunately that meant Emilia had to be pulled from her study of magic at the Mage’s Guild in order to fulfill her role as a scion of her house. Once Emilia found out, she was… understandably… enraged. Instead of doing her duty, however, let’s just say, I’m certain Thaddeus, Emilia’s father, would have gladly bankrupted his House just to rid himself of that banshee at that point."

  “So, Emilia I take was difficult to get along with once she arrived at the palace?” I asked hesitantly.

  “Gods! If she were just merely difficult to get along with, it would have been an incalculable improvement over her true disposition.” Aldwin snorted with mock laughter. “She was a right terror to anyone who could not harness magic, believing them to be sub-sentient, little better than furniture. The idea that she would be married to a magicless, brute of a warrior was abhorrent to her. Within a month after the wedding, she had all but physically chased every courtier from the palace and alienated practically every other House.”

  “She didn’t want to marry the Prince just because he didn’t have magic?” I said with a bit of surprise. I could understand outrage at being torn from a world you loved, and a political marriage was far from ideal, but eventually becoming Queen had to count for something, especially to someone who grew up in a noble house and knew such things were possible.

  But hating people just because they didn’t have magic? That just sounds exhausting!

  “She did not want to marry at all!” Aldwin exclaimed. “Rainier made it abundantly clear she was able to pursue other romantic interests should she have wished. But for all the interest she showed in men, or women, she might as well had a fiery pit leading straight to Hell between her legs.”

  “I never knew the details, but I’m certain the better part of a brewery was needed to give Rainier the courage to bed her.” The Bann made a gesture with his hands implying the mechanics of the night. “Then, months later, barely after an hour after Swain was born, the woman had the nerve to test the child for magical aptitude.”

  “When the test showed no spark of magic within the new ball of life she held in her hands, she gave it away to a retainer, barely even deigning to look at the baby and ordered them to leave.”

  “She did not!” I exclaimed, shaking my head at the picture the Bann had painted. “What did she do with her time then? If she’d driven everyone away around her and didn’t even take interest in her child…”

  “She locked herself away in the Royal Apartments, studying whatever magic caught her fancy. Remember, Eberia itself is a ruin, from a civilization ages past. Even after all these years, hidden chambers and repositories are still being found somewhat regularly.” Aldwin shook his head at the digression. “At first we kept Swain nearby, hoping that she would reconsider her attitude towards the child. But one day, a relic she was researching activated, nearly consuming the infant. When pressed for details her only comment was to apologize that she had missed.”

  “The boy was kept separate after that and he never grew up right for it.” Aldwin sighed. “Rainier was too caught up in the war and shouldering his father’s duties to give the boy the proper attention he needed, and I’m saddened to say that young Swain took very much after his mother. He regards people as mere playthings and was far from ready to be Kin
g when Rainier died.”

  A silence fell upon the room as I slowly digested what Aldwin had just told me, the sudden revelation surprising me.

  “I was with him that day, not so long ago,” Aldwin said giving me a haunted look as tears gleamed in his eyes. “Our dreams were coming true all around us. For the first time in four decades, the Orc Tribes were in full retreat, the losses they had sustained large enough to keep them at bay for at least a generation, maybe two, until their numbers grew again. We would finally be able to see the lands the Orcs hid from us beyond the Ridge, to have a chance to explore.”

  “It was not meant to be…” A tear rolled down Aldwin’s face as he rubbed his face. “Four hundred men and women rode with the Prince’s Vanguard. Six of us returned to Eberia. Within a day of our return, three put themselves into a noose, another fell into the bottle, the last simply disappeared.”

  “And you made it here,” I said, if only to myself.

  “I did,” Aldwin affirmed as he wiped his hands on a handkerchief. “After a while…”

  “So…” I ventured carefully. “How did the Queen react?”

  “She departed from palace almost immediately after Rainier’s death, returning back to the House Denarius estates,” Aldwin replied, acknowledging my question. “I don’t know if young Swain threw her out, or if she left of her own accord, I didn’t care enough to find out, as King Cyril’s heart finally broke when he heard of Rainier’s death.”

  “Oh.” I sat up in my chair, remembering Sierra’s description of events a few days ago when they first arrived.

  “We celebrated the bitter end of a four-decade-long war by burying Father and Son together, the first, and second of the Royal line to lay within the Crypt of Kings.” Aldwin’s voice broke as he relived the events. “At the funeral, everywhere I looked, I saw eyes that resented my survival, wishing that I had traded places with the Prince. Were it possible, I would have.”

  “Within a week of the funeral, Thaddeus Denarius also conveniently passed away, the other scions of the House abdicating in favor of Emilia Denarius who was installed as Matriarch of the house at the ripe old age of thirty-nine. Her first action was to denounce the King, her very son, and distance herself from the throne.”

  Aldwin sat in silence for a moment as he lost himself in thought.

  “For a time, it seemed like we were going to descend into civil war. None of the Noble Houses stood directly with the Crown. Some were even pitted against one another as long buried feuds grew bloody. Without an external enemy to unify us, we quickly turned on one another.” Aldwin then indicated himself. “Then the rumors began, centering on me.”

  “You?” I said with some surprise. “Why?”

  “I don’t truly know…” Aldwin shrugged once again. “I had retired from active service. Content to wallow in my own grief and misery by myself. The rumors began harmless that I was secretly a bastard of this House or that House, laughable things really. Before long however, they turned darker, suggesting that I had been a paid assassin to infiltrate the royal guard, and to see the Prince dead if the opportunity presented itself.”

  “That’s insane!” I exclaimed with surprise. “You served your country to the best of your ability! How could they even think that?!”

  “I don’t know, Lyrian, but there were far too many rumors to rebuke, and before long I wasn’t even able to find a baker that would sell me a loaf of bread, no matter the coin I paid. Within a season, I found myself no longer welcome in Eberia.” I could hear the pain and frustration in Aldwin’s voice as he spoke. “Then one day, I received a letter, penned by Matriarch Denarius’s hand. She… berated me, for becoming such a divisive figure in Eberia, for allowing the Houses to use me as they pit themselves against one another in their feuds-”

  “What world does this woman live in?!” I interrupted the Bann, my heart roiling at the woman’s gall to accuse such a thing. “You were grieving! You didn’t allow anything!”

  “She was content to remain aloof while the other Houses squabbled, but once the feuds began to affect her House…” Aldwin mimed a chopping motion. “…she addressed the problem with a brutal finality. Terrifying the other Houses into compliance.”

  “So how did that affect you then?”

  “In her letter, she determined that I was a painful reminder of days lost.” It visibly pained Aldwin to say those words. “And that it would be better for everyone if I retired somewhere out of public sight to let the Kingdom heal in peace.”

  “It was promised that she would put a swift end to the rumors that plagued my name, then offered me a loan to secure a distant plot of land, far away from Eberia, along with a handful of tenants, villagers.”

  “So… you left,” I said stating the obvious.

  “Oh, I took her offer alright.” The Bann sounded angry at himself. “What choice did I have? I hadn’t eaten in days by the time her letter arrived. I couldn’t even leave my home without being beset by thugs. I was so angry by my Kingdom’s abandonment of me. I took the poisoned fruit she was offering and swallowed it whole!”

  “What were her terms?”

  “Surprisingly… fair, I was granted rights as the legal head of the settlement and the freedom to name it as I wished. I also secured the promise of additional settlers, with favorable dispositions to my leadership to come in about a month’s time from now, if the village was progressing adequately.” Aldwin recited softly. “Her requirements included a substantial return on her investment and the promise to never return to Eberia.”

  “So she exiled you, in all but name,” I said.

  “She did,” Aldwin affirmed with a bitter laugh. “It is ironic, all my life I had wondered what was over the Ridge to the north of Eberia, and now that I’m here.”

  He indicated the walls around him and sighed. “All I’m reminded about is Eberia.”

  We sat in companionable silence for a few minutes as Aldwin mulled through his memories, and I considered the day’s events.

  “What do you recommend we do about the ruin we found?” I asked Aldwin, after giving him a sympathetic nod. “Donovan wants to claim it for the Mage’s Guild, and House Denarius by extension. I am not so sure I wish to hand it over to them. If they discover a way to repair the Translocation Grid.”

  “You are right not to trust them. Emilia plays by rules us lesser mortals can barely understand. She had a chance to rule Eberia and found it not worth her time. If she has turned her gaze here, it is most certainly for her own benefit, not the Kingdom’s.” The Bann explained with a wave of his hand. “Donovan isn’t the one to negotiate with in this matter. He may be the titular head of this lost expedition, however, I am all but certain House Denarius has included an agent of their own that holds the true power. Emilia wouldn’t have sent such an expedition without including someone firmly in her camp.”

  “And with that mystery person potentially dead or captured by goblins?”

  “Then do nothing, until approached by the House. Or…” Aldwin face broke into a smile as an idea crossed his mind. “Claim it for yourself! Gods! That would piss her off to no end!”

  “Claim it?” I frowned. “Just with the seven of us to defend it? To what end? Even if we could repair it, how long would it stay in our hands?”

  Aldwin shook his head as if chiding a small child. “Lyrian… you think too small. I didn’t mean for you to claim it.”

  “I meant for you to form a Guild and claim it.”

  Chapter 33

  Saturday, February 9th, 2047 - 7:40 am

  Aldford

  Rhythmic pounding woke me up from a night of strange and disjointed dreams. Despite my exhaustion, I had stayed up longer than I had hoped thinking about Aldwin’s words. Creating and managing a guild was a difficult process on its own, but creating one and leaping headfirst into politics you didn’t quite understand?

  That was a recipe for trouble.

  I rubbed my eyes while collecting my wits, a broken dream of me chasing a Spide
rling wearing a golden crown surfacing in my mind. I vaguely recalled that it had stolen something from me, but couldn’t quite remember what. As I tried to catch it, a strange goblin carrying a jar of blue honey laughed at me, slowly disappearing as I chased the spider.

  “Ugh.” Catching up on missed sleep always gave me weird dreams, today being no exception. Considering how long the day was yesterday, my brain definitely needed the rest. What is that hammering noise? If we’re going to stay in Aldford any length of time, we really need to build our own house.

  A quick look around told me that the rest of the party was already up and out of bed and that I was the last one to wake. Standing up off my cot with a stretch, I peered around the blinds set up around the cots, spotting the skull of the Webwood Queen being held up high by three villagers on ladders, as Jenkins fastened it to the wall.

  “Morning.” I greeted the villagers as I made my way across the Town Hall, quickly smoothing down stray hairs as I crossed the room. “Need any help?”