All are playthings of Fate until they bond together |
The blog of an idealistic FE fan
All are playthings of Fate until they bond together |
I apologize for the hiatus... again :\ BUT! I do have the next chapter to the story, and while it is brief, it means I no longer have heavy writer's block, only light writer's block! Yay! Here is my latest addition to the story.
As the party of Taren, Tyken, Tenn, Annika, and the king's deployed squadron, along with mercenaries Ramona and Simon, reach the entrance to the Forest of Whispers, a man runs out with bloody cuts and bruises. He trembles in pain, and then collapses unto the ground. Annika rushes to his aid and heals him. As his wounds seal up slowly, he rises and begins to panic. He exclaims something about a rebellion getting powerful tools from men inside the forest, and Schall recalls that there was a stave recently stolen from the royal sage that allowed him to heal an entire army at once. Tyken suggests that they do not pursue the enemy and travel through the forest without provoking anyone, because they do not know the capabilities of their opponent, nor do they know the forest like the dangerous thieves that gather there. Simon blows Tyken off, telling him that the staff is too valuable and cannot be placed in the hands of whatever is coming toward the Northern border. Taren contemplates her possible courses of action, and with Gill's advice to consider the possible casualties in a fight with an enemy they know nothing about, she decides they will enter the forest without looking for the thieves. When they enter the forest, however, they are immediately ambushed. Ramona grabs Simon's arm and tries to run as soon as she sees their leader, whom she recognized as Petrean. Petrean hired her for more jobs than anyone else, and the jobs he assigned often required a strong stomach and a cold heart. Karti blocks her exit and reminds them of Tyken's ultimatum: they must either help the group or be sent to prison. Ramona curses, then releases Simon, hoping and praying that Petrean won't try to kill her or Simon after her last mission, where she failed to finish off a vital target. Petrean claims that Ramona stole his pouch after she reported to him that she had not eliminated one of the people she was instructed to. He demands it back, but Ramona tells Taren that she spent it on food. Taren tells Petrean that it probably wasn't his anyway, and he becomes angry, siccing his men on the party. The now healed man calling himself Hemn requests to join them and help out, and Tenn quickly grants him good luck and rushes the enemy.
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In Paparisha, the Northwestern sector of Nykos, Taguel and Wolfskin cheered hysterically as Leoppold presented himself on a balcony with Tarana, the general in charge of the district. Tarana stood frozen. She was beyond horrified, she was about to be publicly executed and she could not move a muscle. Every fiber of her body demanded obedience toward this man. This stranger had whispered in her ear a command her mind did not wish to follow, yet she followed without any opposition, her heart had led her blindly. "Become a part of something greater, be a symbol of a new age, Tarana."
Yorke stared at at Leoppold, starstruck by his air of dignity and grace, even in the face of such excitement, bitter hatred, and rebellion. There was something about him that just magnified praise and admiration, he was an unstoppable god with no regard for earthly resistance. He had taken the most powerful woman in the locality and had brought her to her knees. And there she was, defenseless. Though most men would boast at this accomplishment, not even a grin passed across Leoppold's face. He had an initiative. He had the capacity to achieve his goal. And he would do that just as he was about to do this. Without a single hint of remorse. Yorke's eyes widened as Leoppold cried out to the people below the blue sky, "Behold, the first of many!" Tarana's eyes finally lost their cold glaze and she screamed as Leoppold shot her through her stomach with his light tome and then tossed her body to the crowd. "There will be a new order! We will march through this continent and reform these heathens through the same methods they used to abuse us! We will eliminate this bigotry through war, we will march to Lyrouche and use the Empirion to wipe out the stain known as man!" Leoppold noted Yorke's clear respect for him from his deep gaze to his sheer joy at watching Tarana fall from the balcony. He approached Yorke and pulled him from the bloodthirsty crowd that desecrated Tarana's corpse. Yorke was visibly teary-eyed, and knelt before Leoppold, "Use me, please. I'll do anything you want. You have performed a service I cannot repay, I am eternally grateful to you." Leoppold replied, "Do not kneel to me. We are equals, acolyte of change. We will rally the troops in the morn." And Yorke simply stared as Leoppold walked away. While the four villagers voiced their concerns, Firos was distracted by the notion that these kids had fought off bandits without any real combat experience. He ignored the rest of what they said and contemplated sending them to the Northern border with Gill and a small party. There were rumors that an entire army of beast men were marching down the Western coast of Seinara and leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. At first, he thought the idea of sending a small group was ludicrous, especially because Gill was a royal guard, and he would not be willing to leave his post to scout the border, but the more he thought about it, the more he decided it was the best course of action. The villagers were expendable, and it was only a scouting job, they would return after checking on the border guards.
After the villagers had finished their spiel, Firos crafted a proposal. In exchange for the kingdom's better protection over Hawkinson, and other villages like it, despite the minimal amount of tax money the kingdom received from these villages, the villagers would have to travel with Gill and Schall to the northern border and assure the safety of the guards. Taren agreed, to the awe of the others, who did not like the idea of leaving their village and putting themselves in danger. She reassured them that they most likely would not face too much danger, and that they had two guards to protect them, and they reluctantly allowed her to persuade them into agreement. Gill was not happy with the king's order, but had enough faith in the guards around the castle and the remaining royal guard to go and return without too much worry, although he always was anxious about the state of the princess, of whom Gill considered like his own daughter. Karti, a hunter raised by Gill, determined to be the best sniper on the continent, accompanies them with Gill's permission. Gill's other ally, Schall, is perceived by the villagers to be goofy and a little awkward, but they keep to themselves instead of questioning how he became a royal guard himself. The group exits the castle and proceeds down a dirt road, where quickly they are attacked by two teenagers, a boy and a girl, that attempt to rob them. The two robbers realize they are vastly outnumbered and that two of their opponents are royal guards, and then attempt to flee, but Gill knocks them down. The girl identifies herself and the boy, her brother, as orphans named Simon and Ramona, and that they are forced to steal due to their poverty. As they beg not to be sent to prison, Tyken suggests that they may be useful, as he notes Simon's Flux tome in his satchel, and states that the two of them may join their party or go straight to jail. The two of them oblige, as long as they have food and water, they don't care what they have to do, although Ramona has bigger plans for how to take care of herself and her brother. Near the capital of the country Lyrouche, there is a village called Hawkinson. There are few residents, and many of them are the remains of families that await their missing members return from the military. Triplets Taren, Tenn, and Tyken have recently said goodbye to their father so that "he may serve the king in a time of dire need", as he put it. Their mother left them when they were very young, and so the three of them have no one but each other, their close family friend Reyanne, and Reyanne's daughter Annika. None of the other villagers have children left in their homes, they have also at one point or another decided to go to the capital and serve. Taren wonders what it would be like to serve in the army, while Tenn says it would be terrifying and Annika and Tyken agree that war is glorified so that people will throw their lives away instead of trying to work things out peacefully, Taren believes that war is necessary in a world so stuck on selfishness.
When the village is struck by bandits a few days later, the triplets and Annika defend their home to the best of their ability. Though they are successful in driving the bandits away, the damage to the village is substantial, and the four of them know they must ask the king for help in reparations and also reassurance that the government still tries to defends those outside the capital. When they arrive at the capital, Tyken notes how much more intimidating it is than he thought it would be. The walls around the capital are very high and clearly filled with guards. The doors open once the teens identify themselves, and the one who opens the gate recognizes them as children of Sir Turner, who is well respected by the king and is considered one of the military's strongest generals. He escorts them to the castle and tells the castle guards of their lineage, and they too recognize the name and allow the humble villagers passage. They are brought to Firos, and despite his disinterest, he hears their case. Yorke and his family were captured on the edge of Western Riese, the third time they had tried to escape Nykos captivity and return to their home in Tryst. This was the farthest they had ever gotten, and they refused to give up. The troupe of five (a young Yorke, his two brothers, and his mother and father) resisted as best they could, but they were brutally beaten and transported back to Nykos, muzzled and broken.
Yorke hated to see his wolfskin family yearning for freedom so badly, and he used every opportunity he had to show he hated his master, including refusing to do labor, until one day his master had enough, and he forced Yorke to watch as he whipped his youngest brother Ashe to the brink of death. Yorke became completely submissive to prevent any more whipping, and he pent up bitterness and frustration year by year, watching Nykos men and women mock them and throw things at them while they dug wells for water. He snapped when a group of women spit on him and called him filth. He attacked them, but the women were saved by a powerful general named Tarana (Nykos’ military is primarily noble females, their culture trains high rank girls from a young age, I may post on Nykos culture some other time). Tarana became Yorke’s target, and he built up a force of other bitter wolfskin and taguel who did not belong in such an arid and hot climate and wanted escape. They planned to intimidating their owners into freeing them by killing Tarana, the local enforcer of law. Yorke was planning on having more than her blood on his hands, but he did not tell the others. One of the shifters sold out the others, however, and the slaves were all brutally beaten. Just as they began to give up hope for escape, their province was visited by an angel... The country of Lyrouche has the countries Riese, Tryst, and Shurca closest to it. Kestra, the country above Riese, and Riese are allied with each other, and are both wealthy, have medium sized populations, and are aristocratic. Shurca is well-off, has a medium population, and works a system of direct democracy. Tryst is a small farming country where there are few people, but they farm and don't really play well with others, making that area an anarchy, because no government has been established. Ciran, the other country directly above Riese, is a monarchy. Maya is a desert filled with bandits and hostiles, and it is also an anarchy, similar to Tryst.
The country below Lyrouche, Nicholas, used to be a part of the area below Nicholas, called Vein. Vein is a resource filled area near the water that Lyrouche fought with Nykos to keep. However, Nykos lost the territory because of the time and difficulty of the journey Nykos troops had to make to get to the battlefield. When Vein was surveyed by Lyrouche, however, they found a species of angel like creatures that had inhabited the area. They called themselves Graciel, and their leader was a man named Leoppold. Leoppold and his new wife, Diana, were expecting a son, and Leoppold feared that these new people would attempt to take their home. Graciel had the power of limited hyper-suasion, which meant with their native tongue, the Graciel could make someone do anything they wanted. Their limit was that there had to be some sort of desire to take advantage of. (For example, let's say me and hypothetical person A wanted to steal from the cookie jar, but A knew it was wrong. If I wanted him to get me a cookie and I didn't want to get in trouble, I could persuade A to steal a cookie for me and a cookie for him. However, if A did not want a cookie, I would have a much harder time getting him to steal a cookie for me, because he doesn't have any desire to have a cookie.) Leoppold used this power to get the generals to sign a temporary pact: the soldiers would not step foot in Vein for ten years, and when the Lyrouchi army returned, the Graciel would leave the colony to them. The army left the area and then captured the massive chunk of land between Lyrouche and the southeast corner of Vein where the Graciel resided. Leoppold did not use the ten years to prepare his people for abandoning their home. Instead, he used his wife Diana, after she gave birth to their son, Michael, to train the able Graciel people in defending themselves. Their child, Michael, was half-human and did not have wings, but Leoppold doted on him and ignored Ambrosia, his daughter, for he loved his son for being the offspring of a union he chose to take part in. Not even ten years of battle training could not save them from the onslaught that was to come. Lyrouchi forces were led by a man named Sir Vernon. Vernon was a merciless man, and was not fond of the king, who suspected that Vernon was conspiring against him and sent him away while he used spies to investigate the possibility of a coup (Vernon was a conspirator, but did not take part in the plan to steal the Empirion, he thought it would backfire). Sir Vernon hated that the Graciel had the nerve to remain in Vein, and used dirty tactics to keep them grounded. Women and children's wings were shot by snipers as they tried to fly away, and trained men had to defend their spouses and offspring on the ground. Leoppold was instructed to leave Vein, as he was the most valued of their people, and Leoppold flew off, carrying Diana with him. Ambrosia followed, carrying Michael. Just as they thought they had escaped, Vernon fired his last arrow and shot Michael out of Ambrosia's arms. Leoppold screamed and Ambrosia tried to catch him, but Michael plummeted into the waters below, a ten year old boy lost in the waves. Leoppold, Diana, and Ambrosia landed in Daeryn (a freezing, damp, rainy/snowy, crammed, mess of a monarchy), where the towering temple of the pure goddess Ancia stood tall, and Leoppold fasted for days, praying that his son be returned to him. Diana and Ambrosia watched as he unraveled, and they eventually began to bring him small rations of food, as he would not leave the top of the temple. He quivered and sobbed, begged, pleaded, choked, screamed for mercy, for his own death if it meant the life of his son. It didn't happen. His son never came back, and Leoppold was forced to abandon hope. But he never truly recovered... The king of Lyrouche, Firos, and his advisors have dinner on a night like any other, unaware that one of the advisors, Sir Gerald, has betrayed him and put poison in the royal sage's drink, in preparation for the heist of the princess and the powerful crystal the sage guards. Princess Syllish of Lyrouche is kidnapped by conspirators, including Judas, to release the energy of the Empirion, a massive purple crystal, because only those with royal blood can use it and direct its strength.
The conspirators plan to overthrow the king, who they view as incompetent. However, when Syllish touches the crystal, she can't control its power, for she's too young, and a massive burst of power kills all of the conspirators and puts Syllish in a coma, turning her hair and eyes a soft, eerie purple. The royal sage's son, Pim, takes his father's place, but he is inexperienced and very young, and he is ridiculed by the court for not only being unable to cure the princess, but also for not even being capable of simple magic because he has not been trained. Pim takes this as a challenge, and becomes completely absorbed in the world of magic literature and practice. Meanwhile, the king realizes that Pim has become so absorbed that he has ignored his physical well-being, and he enlists a prisoner of war as a slave to Pim, a native of Nykos, Lyrouche's rival country, named Bergundy. Pim is disgusted by the idea of slavery, and requests that Bergundy be dismissed, but Bergundy expresses gratitude for his freedom, and then declines it, saying that he would rather serve Pim. |
AuthorI am a recent high school grad who really should have better things to do. I have a passion for world building, video games (especially FE), and writing. I also enjoy music, doodling, and avoiding socializing :\ Archives
February 2018
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