1217-08-25
Gold Glacia:
As we exited the Strait of Eladona and entered the Tropas Sea, the water, and more importantly, the climate, became much warmer. The boat moved and swayed with the waves. I started to feel sick. Maybe it was the temperature change, or maybe it was the water. I felt awful.
It felt like my insides were twisting around. The winds of the sea pushed and pulled on the boat. More than I had expected. It was honestly my first time on a boat, and it was terrible. I leaned over the edge of the boat, my mouth beginning to open as they talked.
"We're almost there," Helm said, steering the ship around small islands that no one claimed.
"I can't wait," I sighed. "Why can't we just fly the dragons?"
"I highly doubt ice dragons would survive long enough to ride," Books smiled.
"Wow, you're really spoiled, like a princess," Helm teased.
"I was a princess," I said softly.
I don't think they heard me. The sounds of the sea covered my words, and they kept talking about the weather and the sea. Truthfully, I didn't hear much of what they said. My thoughts drifted, sinking like the sea before me.
I thought about my time in the palace. A grand palace. It was an experience I wasn't used to. I was used to small, cramped homes with my elderly mother.
King Milton visited my village. I was on the fence about joining him. My mother had been inflicted with blight, a rare disease that is extremely common in Sha'tar. As of now, there's no cure.
When my mother died, I went with Milton, following him to the palace.
I had his child.
I had his daughter.
But she never matched up to his true daughter.
Another noble woman in his harem had birthed him a perfect child, a perfect jewel, he called her. I always wondered what made her perfect, how she was different.
Norah was born exactly seven months after Amelia.
When I was finally able to have a child, he took one look at her and called her "imperfect."
I yelled at him. I wondered why my daughter wasn't as special as Isabella's child.
He told me a secret, one he told me never to repeat.
That he could see the souls of others, and with that, their futures. He said that her spirit would amount to nothing, and for that, she was imperfect.
When I told him that was unethical, when I told him she could still make a future for herself, he told me something I would never forget. He said my fate was sealed, that I would die fighting against him. I said that could never happen.
"I don't feel sorry for any of these people or dragons," he said. "They're all just tools to enhance my empire. I actually envy them. They get to suffer for a greater cause. They get to be a sacrifice so I can bring order to this chaotic world."
I stayed within the palace for a few years after that, though I never spoke to him or heard from him again. I faded into the background.
Amelia was given lavish gifts and parades, but my child was given nothing.
And Milton abandoned us.
Milton Maris.
Amelia Maris.
Names I had come to hate.
The rest is history.
As the water jostled us around, I hated them more and more.
This story… This story I would never tell my daughter.
A lie.
I had come up with a lie, one where her father was a Noran man who died fighting a corrupt king of Marano.
"Are you okay?" a voice called.
"Gold?"
I smiled. It was Leader. He leaned against the side of the boat. I could tell he was tired.
"What do you know?" he asked.
"About Marano?"
"For a fight," he said, "the holy knights will be our hardest battle."
"Holy knights?" Dara asked. "What's a holy knight?"
"Holy knights are protectors of Marano," I said. "But more importantly, protectors of Milton. They travel from country to country, attacking the innocent."
"I thought holy knights were a new thing," Dara said.
"They are," I began, but Helm interrupted me.
"They aren't a new thing."
"What?" I said. "When I was in the castle, I met Lucia, and she had recently become a holy knight."
"A strong one at that," Books said.
"She's a plot," Helm said. "Holy knights have been active for a long time. I was one," he continued. "They only became public recently."
"And how do you know this? You've been on this island longer than any of us."
"Though I've never met Lucia, I was a holy knight."
He unwrapped his hand that had been wrapped since the day I met him. A red rune, shaped like a dragon, was engraved in his skin. The rune looked dormant. The runes I had seen were pulsing with red, but this one was a deep red.
"Why is yours different?" I asked plainly.
"The people of Marano believe that dragons are their servants. Pacts are used to control them. A rune becomes like this when the dragon dies, or in a few other circumstances."
"I assume yours is the other circumstance."
Helm nodded his head.
"I was tasked with going to Ghar and killing their king."
"Ghar?" Dara asked. "What's a Ghar?"
"I have so much of the world I want to show you," he smiled at her. "Ghar is a primitive land to the south, ruled by nothing but conflict."
"You were tasked with killing Addo?" Books said.
"Yes," he said. "When I was 35, me and a small task force of other holy knights went, though only I survived."
"How are holy knights organized?" I asked.
"We could've all survived," he said, "but King Milton said we couldn't allow pacts to become public knowledge."
"Why was Addo so feared?" Books asked.
"I've read stories and heard many things, but why?"
"Addo was one of only two remaining of the 12 Laws, each known for their power."
"The twelve laws?" Dara asked.
"Each one a powerhouse, having a special ability that has since been lost to time." He paused. "Edicts."
"Edicts?" Dara repeated.
"An edict is a power that can reshape the world. Few activate it, and even fewer live to tell the tale of being in one."
"The Varvensi Agreement was made after these laws fought, destroying continents in their wake."
"How come I've never heard of it?" Books asked.
"11 of the twelve who discovered it outlawed these words. Still, two countries continue trying to rediscover them."
"Which countries?" I asked.
"Tobe and Rali," Helm said. "Tobe remains trying to rediscover it after Thorne Aido passed. Rali never outlawed the cultivation, though it was made into an ability only generals can use. They seem to have a method of cultivating it but refuse to use it."
As the boat rocked beneath us, I held Norah close, her tiny coo more comforting than the crash of the sea or the weight of the past.
"Aren't Rali and Khiz at war? Why would they use it?" Books said.
"What would happen if someone used one?" Dara asked.
"If anyone were to discover and edict, or worse, activate one, it would shake the power dynamics of the world," Helm said.
"If anyone were to activate one in the modern era, in the age of soldiers, there would be disastrous consequences."
"Depending on where they're born, they'd be killed before they could master it," he added.
"What if we cultivate some?" I asked. "We'd need every advantage we can get."
"You're right … I don't know how it happens. It seems random or in times of deep emotion."
"Anger," Books suggested.
"Fear, hatred, desperation," Helm added. "The words just comes to you."
"That doesn't make any sense," Books sighed. "Aldric Kudra only died 3 years ago. Why wouldn't he tell his son or daughter ?
"He was one of the people who agreed to outlaw it, to never cultivate it again."
"He's a warrior king. I'd think he'd want to fight," Books said.
"The history you know is made by the survivors," Helm said. "Almost everything about the Hundred Year War is fake."
"And how do you know this?" I asked.
"I was a general for 15 years, and a soldier for 5."
"You really are old," Dara smiled at him.
"I guess so," Helm smiled back.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"My name is Matthew. My last name doesn't matter," he smiled.
"When I was in the king's harem, I didn't hear anything about edicts. But I did hear of a few things you might know of."
"What's that?" he smiled.
"There were talks in the back halls of a summon, and more importantly, a mass sacrifice. Do you know how that could happen?"
"Probably the pacts," he said, his voice low.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Each dragon knight, along with Holy Knights and trusted nobles, must form a pact with a dragon. Each pact is overseen by the king. A part of his blood is placed in the rune when a pact is made. They tell students it's an elixir."
I cradled Norah in my arms as she began to coo. The sound was soothing—better than the heavy talk around me. My mind drifted back to when they gave me a rune, the one they placed on my stomach.
"I always wondered why," I said. "But …"
"At his command," Helm said, "he could kill everyone with a mark, thousands, no tens of thousands, that exist."
"Why would he do that?" Leader asked.
"No idea," Helm said. "But thousands of lives must be equal to something. A title, a power, an item, or a person."
"People," Books sighed, sharing a knowing smile with Helm.
A solemn smile.
"Good thing something like that is impossible," Dara said, trying to lighten the mood.