《Faerwald - Rise Above》 Prologue 0 - Beginning of Worlds, a creation story //Hey guys, Broderick here. This is my first fiction on Royal Road. Please leave comments and critiques so far. I¡¯m just setting up and creating some history and world building. Also thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. Prologue Beginning of Worlds, a creation story In the beginning, there was nothing. Space and time formed the cosmos by giving it matter and antimatter. Vaster than the mind can imagine, matter formed the countless number of galaxies with links as complex as time itself. Earth was started formed in such a way, that an immensely dense form of matter coated in Mana grew into layers of upon layers of its rocks. As with all planets, Mana soaked the surface creating water and a magical seed for life. However, its development was cut short. The cruel hands of fate ripped from Earth its planetary potential. Inadvertently, creating an identical planet formed millions of light years away in a completely different solar system. This planet was D¡¯lrow, a duplicate of Earth on the outside except for one major difference. It had Earth¡¯s missing Mana. A cruel fated connection linked these twin planets, but each adapted to their own fates. Before its cruel destiny unfolded, Earth¡¯s stolen seed of life spawned a multitude of lower life forms which populated Earth¡¯s surfaces and depths. Eventually these microbes, over hundreds of thousands of years, would evolve into a complex intelligent life form, humans. Though an absence of Mana meant these poor life forms would never weave the beautiful motions of magic that permeated every planet but the blue orb they called home. And so, they adapted to the mana weak environment of Earth, creating tools to survive and evolve. The lack of magic created a wealth of strength along with the multitude of other lower life forms which populated Earth¡¯s surfaces and depths. Meanwhile D¡¯lrow was a mana rich environment, so high was the mana content that in the beginning four life forms were created fully aware and fully intelligent. Along with a parallel ethereal plane to the surface. Mana gates peppered the surface of the planet and linked the ethereal plane to it, allowing only those beings of great power to pass through. These four beings were the first and only powerful gods, dwellers of the ethereal plane and patrons of power. A gigantic titan dwarfing mountains with dominating eyes and teeth that blended into the night, Broderick was the first great power formed. His Azure red eyes with fathomless depths lied beneath a third eye. When closed this eye was invisible, but when he opened it, dark red shades of light surrounded him and within this eye the universe was visible. He awakened and rose from the depths of the D¡¯lrow¡¯s rock, wielding his great magic he crafted pure mana pants, by ripping it from the air itself. Foreseeing nothing of interest he ascended to the ethereal plane and began to craft his domain. A place of wonder seen by no-one. Neither Broderick nor his domain was seen since the beginning of time. A hundred years passed before Asteria and Kallista the twin elementals awoke. Asteria rose from the depths of the oceans and exploded out from under the water¡¯s surface. Her shimmering blue hair gently fluttered in the wind behind her and her bright green eyes glowed illuminating her porcelain skin.She clothed her supple body in pure white gossamer robes made from the Mana that coated the seas floor. Immediately after birth, Asteria brought into the air tons upon tons of water, then began to form it into ice. Compacting and re-compacting, she fashioned a staff of solid ice, harder and more faceted than diamond, it conducted the mana around her into a glowing orb of blue mana compliant to her will. At the very same time on the opposite side of the globe, a volcano erupted with the heat of a million suns, launched a figure hundreds of meters into the air. A trail of fire and smoke followed behind as it crashed into a mountain. The figure entered one side of the mountain and broke through the other side. Still tumbling through the air it unfurled its wings, twenty feet wide and coated blood red, Kallista opened her eyes and landed on the crumbling ruins of the mountain she broke through. Feeling the power of her counterpart, she shot through the air, zoning in towards Kallista on the other side of D''lrow. Her enormous wings gathering mana and propelling her through the air at a phenomenal speed. Plumes of black smoke forming from the volcano had enveloped her smooth body, and her midnight black hair blew back in the air as she flew. Flying forward towards her twin, Kallista¡¯s full-rose lips pursed, while her violet eyes were squinting, she felt a disturbance on the moral plane she was in. In the hours that it took Kallista to reach her twin the final all powerful being was formed. Standing on the peak of a gargantuan mountain was a tall yet well-built. Bright gold hair hung down to his waist on his fully naked body. Parser the god of ingenuity grinned as he waited for the other two Gods still in the mortal plane.
As time went on many races came to be. All of which littered the face of the planet¡¯s surface. In addition, many monsters where created, powerful and weak, intelligent and senseless, they populated all areas, plaguing on the on the D¡¯lrows¡¯ superior races. As such, D¡¯lrow was still immersed in its infancy. A million years after the formation of the planet, the kingdom of Antaria was formed where the Asian continent lay on Earth. The humans of Antaria where strong willed but a physically weak like the rest of their race. This didn¡¯t remain a fact for long. The early mages of the Antaria created the most powerful magic language ever seen. Using scrolls and papyrus inscribed with the magic language, they banished the monsters from their lands and formed a peaceful nation. After an era passed Antaria underwent a civil war. Left in crumbling ruins, the great nation split into four vassal states on the Human continent. The thriving Antarian¡¯s language along with its nation¡¯s glory belonged only to forgotten memories. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Centuries passed, the Humans discovered the Beast Race through a casual foray into foreign lands. The Beast Race¡¯s continent would have occupied Africa on Earth. The area was full of arid desserts as well as cool oases. Many tribes populated the continent, some were extremely beast like but the stronger tribes had greater resemblance to humans. The civilization was forged in the fires of war and they were extremely strong, only limited by their smaller capacity for mana or magic. Beast races were all controlled by strength of the capital Oorst. The allied human vassal states forward force was decimated by the powerful Beast Races armies, leading to the ¡®Two Year Hundred¡¯ war, a bitter affair between the two nations. Opposing side of Oorst and the Allied human army sent their best generals into war one after the other. Entire bloodlines were destroyed, and the countries weakened. Great hate and prejudice was generated between the Humans and Beasts, before a truce of sorts was formed. The final two races where the elder races, Draconians and the Elves. Dragons where not a commonplace existence in D¡¯lrow, a hundred years of after the formation of the Gods the scaly reptiles came into existence. Their scales represented the colour of their flames, and the bigger they were, the stronger the fire magic was. Expelling gas formed in their gullet, the magic circles in their mouths ignited it into a raging inferno which incinerated their enemies. This coupled with their keen intelligence made them the most fearsome beings on the planet. However, Dragons had become increasingly rare as the centuries went by, instead weaker forms of them began to appear. Much smaller, these beings where almost human except for the inherited ability to breathe fire and other secret arts unique to their race. Draconians were an all-encompassing term which described the sub-race. Usually solitary beings, they were scattered across D¡¯lrow only a couple tribes appeared where the pure dragons lorded over them weaker members of their race. Most Draconians were nomadic creatures and left alone in fear of their immense powers. The second elder race was the Elves and based their kingdom to the west of the Human and Beast Races continents. Elves occupied two continents which were, albeit, not as populated as the other continents. The Elven nation, Mirrennia, was a fantastical place full of impossibly magical nature and wonderful villages and Kingdoms. However, it possessed the strongest monsters in the realm. To be able to live in contention with the monsters of the top tier, Elves developed their innate magical strength, becoming the most magically proficient race, yet unknown race, after the Humans lost the Antarian language. Their race didn¡¯t conform to one aesthetic group, but comprised of many different sub-species. High elves were the pure breed and eldest of the race, holding positions of power and strength across their continents. While Half-elves were the by-products of different racial parents. Dark-elves were a more sinister brand of the eleven species, dealing in soul magic death. Many other races populated Mirrenia and the rest of D¡¯lrow After many centuries, being a peace loving race, the Officials of Mirrenia sent high ranking Elven mages and advisors in envoys to explore the unknown. As such the Mirrenians explored the far reaches of the world before making homes in Human and Beast Races kingdoms. Over time countless more races came to be as history progressed and filled D¡¯lrow.
As years turned into decades, decades turned into centuries, and centuries turned into millennium the Gods observed the rise of the four races. The three Gods had travelled to and from the ethereal plane multiple times forming their own domains, but found true pleasure in observing the four races. In peaceful uneventful times they instigated wars, such as the ¡°Two Hundred Year War¡±, otherwise they just witnessed the rise and fall of kingdoms. Asteria, Kallista and Parser showed no restraint in interfering with mortals and created religions and fanatics bestowed with rare appearances to chosen mortals. Only Broderick chose not to appear to mortals or even descend from the ethereal plane, he slowly faded into obscurity, his existence known only by the Gods themselves. The other three Gods bestowed on those who piqued their interest a powerful blessing, regardless of race, those who accepted the blessing became mighty warriors and potent leaders. The Gods came to be known patrons for the powerful. Those who received Asteria¡¯s blessing became attuned to the greatest water magic possible, beyond mortal compare. The chosen individual¡¯s eyes changed to a bright green which were, of course, not as stunning or ambient as the patron god, but similar in nature. Kallista blessed became attuned to the highest forms of fire and wind magic. Additionally those individuals would sprout small set of wings which folded into their backs. These wings acted as lighting rods to Mana increasing the power of the individual by leaps and bounds. The beings blessed by Parser were less revealing of their powers compare to the others. They had only physical change of an increase in strength. Although, some speculated an increase in mind meld, and thought controlled magic¡¯s. Huge amounts of Mana had sucked from the linked planet to allow these furious events to take place, yet to the normal inhabitants of the realm, the Mana dense environment was but the norm. The Gods were aware of the abnormality, but believed in its long-lasting stability. They were wrong. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Map of D¡¯lrow for reference. Map Also, next chapter might be a little longer as the mc is introduced on top of some other interesting things. Heheh. Please read and comment. EDIT: Pr''ed by Tasear. Home Chapter 1 - From Humble Beginnings //Hey guys, Broderick here. Again comment below on any mistakes I make and tell me what you think about it. Thanks for reading, please review. This chapter is a bit longer that I expected and I hope you enjoy it. Next chapter will get into the juicy part of the story hehe. Chapter1 From Humble Beginnings Lewis Fitzwilliam stared into the cracked mirror of a shabby room in outskirts of London. He wore his best clothes; a blue vest with silver plated buttons with a full sleeved white shirt underneath and coffee coloured breeches. Keen, blue eyes stared back at him with an intense gaze which showed his wilful and intelligent personality. A gleeful smile lit up his face. Finally, they were moving to central London, even if it was the poorer part of the great city he couldn¡¯t wait to go back. It was the most exciting day of Lewis¡¯s short sixteen years of life, and on his birthday no less. It was cold winter, but nothing could thaw his excitement. ¡°Lew,hurry up, the carriage is waiting¡±, his mother called from outside. ¡°Coming mother¡± Lewis opened the secret compartment inside his breeches and pocketed his savings from underneath the carpet, a measly 23 shillings seemed like a fortune to him at the time. Sparing one last cursory glance to his room, he picked up his bags and ran out the front door to his waiting father and mother. Annabeth and Charles Fitzwilliam were doting parents and Lewis their only child. Growing up was tough for Lewis, all his relatives had died in the Great Fire of London. The family barely escaped the fire, fleeing to the outskirts of London with their lives. Lewis was left with a nasty charred black burn on the underside of his hands, a constant reminder of when the family lost every one. Yet Lewis was adamant they move back, he spent too much time alone and so they decided to comply with his wish. Annabeth tousled Lewis¡¯ strawberry blond hair. ¡°Stop it¡±, Lewis trying to stop his mother, everybody loved to tousle his hair and he hated it. ¡°Lew, are you ready to leave¡±, he vigorously nodded his head, chuckling his father adjusted his spectacles and pulled an envelope out of his pants while putting his newspaper in the crook of his arm. ¡±Okay son, today it a big day, your birthday and our big day as a family as well. So here, open it when we reach the house¡±. Charles handed his son the envelope smiled and turned to his wife; ¡°Do we have the house writ?¡± ¡°Offcourse darling, I have it let us set off¡± she lovingly proclaimed while waving the letter around. Meanwhile Lewis tucked the faded yellow envelope into the growing secret compartment under his breaches with anticipation to open its contents later. Eyeing the writ joyously he couldn¡¯t believe his father procured one. The council of housing department which King Charles II had just instated required it. The King made sure all the inhabitants of his beloved city had a proper permit to live, after the great fire London became quite the mess. Without one they would be rejected at the various gates and become paupers of the street. The family got into the horse drawn carriage and set off, towards their new future.
After hours in the trundling carriage with light hearted chatter between the family, the tell-tale sound of wood on cobble stone filled the carriage. Lewis perked up and looked out the window, taking the surrounding houses of Southwark. They still had to cross the River Thames and make their way to new house in Whitehall. Finally the barge came into site and Charles stopped and payed the driver a half crown. Lewis and his mother where terrified of the bridges decided to hire a ship which ferried travellers across the river. Seeing the lines of massive seafarers and smaller riverboats getting ready to head off, they hurriedly found the only vessel with space, ¡®The Rose of the Sea¡¯. ¡°Morning good sir, may we enquire if there is a space we can fill on your ship¡± Charles shouted to a heavy set man shouting orders to crewmates milling across the deck of the ship carrying cargo and checking ropes. Coming down the ramp he said; ¡°You¡¯re quite late, we can accept you at the price of a guinea and three shillings¡±, the waterman smiled showing his yellowed teeth. Charles knew it was a steep price, but the next ships would only depart tomorrow and they¡¯re rapidly depleting funds could not take another beating at the hands of a local inn and the devious man knew it. He nodded and handed the coin over to the sailor. Flourishing, the man introduced himself; ¡°Good morning good sirs and lady, this is my humble riverboat the ¡®Rose of the Sea¡¯, we set of in a minute so get aboard¡±. Turning on his heel he went back onto the ship. Lewis helped his father with the bags, and went aboard. Each step caused a creaking shudder which reverberated around the ships hull, and Lewis had second thoughts on making his family take the ship across the Thames. Lewis settled on the bow of the ship and stared at the city across the river and a weathered sailor walked up and copied him on wooden railing next to him. He lifted his scarred hands and tousled the boy hair. Lewis forgave him; he was lost in his growing excitement. ¡°First time in going to London¡± ¡°No my family left after the fire destroyed our house¡±. Lewis grimaced. ¡°Sorry to here that my boy, maybe you¡¯ll have a better time, this time, Kane be by name¡±. ¡°Lewis¡± ¡°Oii, Kane get your lazy arse over here we¡¯re moving¡±, yelled the captain. The creaking ship moved and Lewis was certain that it wasn¡¯t as rosy as the captain insisted it to be. It certainly wasn¡¯t sea worthy as the other ships they saw although it was, just a small riverboat. The ships rocking caused gradual shudder as they sailed past the bustling ships next to them. Charles saw his boy looking out at the sea and stood behind him with his hand around his wife¡¯s waist and awaited their arrival feeling the cold winds that blew onto the deck.
¡°Starboard, to starboard, we need to clear it, we need to bloody clear them¡± yelled the frantic captain, high pitch and desperate. The crewmates ran across deck with urgency they didn¡¯t show before. Lewis looked to where the captain was faced and saw another ship on a crash course with they¡¯re own. This ship was huge, towering a good five meters above they¡¯re own, it was no rose, it was a monster. It would be obvious which ship would come out better in the exchange. Looking up at his father with horror he saw the same expression mirrored on his face. Charles grabbed his wife and son and ran to the port of the ship, the side that wasn¡¯t going to be pulverised by the oncoming ship. Covering them he grabbed the railing of the ship and braced with the rest of the crew. Boom, the impact sent splinters the size of stakes across the surface of ¡®The rose of the Sea¡¯, spearing the ship mate next to him through the heart. The vessel tipped and Charles lost his grip and began to slide across the deck, into the churning river below which was slowly swallowed the damaged?? of the side of the ship. Lewis cried out and grabbed onto his father in process dislodging his mother, she slid down into the water falling into the unforgivable ice cold depths of the water. ¡°MOTHER, MOTHER¡± ¡±ANNABETH¡± yelled broken family. ¡°LEWIS¡±, she yelled hands outstretched, falling further away from her son and husband. Lewis gained speed and slid in the wake of his mother with his father falling first. Tears slid down his face as he scrambled to find a purchase.
The Kane fumbled and frantically reached for a handhold feeling his body move down the raft boards, feet first in to the gurgling river which claimed half the crew and passengers already. Slowly yet surely, the weight of his own body dragged him down into the frosty water. His nails cracked on the planks as he slid. He managed grab a hold of jutting plank and haul himself a couple meters upwards as a woman went sliding past, screams of anguish following in her wake. Looking up he saw a boy of maybe sixteen holding onto his father as they tumbled. As they fell past he managed to grab the boy with his free hand. Kane knew that he couldn¡¯t hold onto both the boy and his father, feeling the plank that they were holding on for their dear lives shift, he had to either let go of the boy and his father or make the boy let go of his father. Seeing the fathers look of recognition as he stared down and said; ¡°You have to let go boy¡± ¡°No, no,no,n-o¡± Lewis cried as tears streamed down his face. He desperately clutched onto the hands of Kane above him and his father below him. ¡°I can¡¯t let go, I can¡¯t¡±. ¡°Lewis my boy, you have to be strong, survive¡± Charles exclaimed. ¡°No, please don¡¯t leave me, please¡± Lewis shouts turned into sobs. Charles sighed and smiled a smile full of sadness that even Kane could feel and let go of his sons¡¯ hand. He fell into the turbulent and violent waters below where the other boat was still grinding into the ¡®rose¡¯. Lewis fainted and fell limp. Not a second later a rope was thrown down and Kane levered himself out of the water with the limp boy in his arms. Dragging himself onto the deck off the huge ship he dumped the boy and threw up sea water. Crawling to the bow he saw the buildings and houses of Whitehall and realised they crashed right before reaching their destination and began to laugh. They where the only survivors of the crash, hysterical he fished out his waterman¡¯s licence and got of the ship they crashed into. Kane got walked down the plank board extending across ship and waited in line to enter the gates of Whitehall. Laboriously he got closer to the front in the line and saw an obscenely overweight man, his huge stomach jiggled under the bright garb he wore as he shouted. Grease lined his numerous shins and spittle flew at the poor sod in front of him. Kane was not looking forward to this. Next in line he took out his writ. ¡°Your permit writ.¡± The fat gates keeper accepted it and read through. As much as it hurt him to do so he had to be civil to the fat bastard, he wanted to get the boy in the orphanage, at least there he¡¯d be taken care of unlike the kids in the back-alleys and sewers of London. ¡°Sir, we''ve just crashed, me and the boy are the only survivors¡±, Kane said. ¡°So¡± ¡°He needs to be put in the orphanage¡±, getting slightly annoyed. ¡°The orphanage is for kids of London, not the scum in the backwater outskirts¡± Outraged Kane shouted;¡± Listen here you fat bastard, the boy has just lost his parents and is in every definition of the word an orphan. If you can¡¯t see that you pompous cur, you¡¯re fat and stupid¡±. Shit, instantly Kane thought, he knew this would spell disaster for the boy, and he was right. ¡°Officer, seize the boy and throw him into that back alley there¡± pointing to a particular dark alley, while smiling. The officer was a member of the Bow Street Runners, vicious guards of London who dished out death penalties and hangings like it was nothing. He ran to the boat and up the plank, lofted the unconscious boy onto his shoulders and went to the alley dumping the boy in the filth that covered its floors. Kane couldn''t do anything for the boy now. Being forced through the proper gates into the city he turned back and offered a prayer to God for him in the way of an apology, it was going to be a cold winter.
Lewis slowly came too, awakening to his own stomach grumbling in protest. He paused and turned in the filth and couldn¡¯t understand where he was. What was he doing on the floor covered in filth, where are his parents, why was he feeling empty. The reality of his situation hit him with a speed of a steam train, he couldn''t breathe. Lewis looked down at his body covered in grime and saw that his vest, hat, shoes and happiness had been stolen. Clenching and unclenching, he stood up shakily and threw up adding to the back-alley mess. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.Lewis could barely feel his body everything was numb, his heart was on the verge of breaking and bruises covered his legs and hands. Feeling something digging into legs, he realised that his parent¡¯s letter was still with him inside the compartment behind his breeches, along with the savings he placed into them. It felt like a lifetime ago. Reaching in and unsealing the letter Lewis began to read the last words he would ever receive from his parents.
¡°To Our son, Lewis We have watched you grow from a babe to almost a man, and this is our grand gesture of love on your special day. We saw you persevere through going to the outskirts of London and we¡¯re proud of you strength. I hope this year you learn to be even braver. Seventeen, next year you become a man. And though the climb is far from over, we just want you to know how impressed we are by your courage and intelligence. The inevitability of things changing greatly wears down even us; however you convinced us we could handle going back to London. Never change as you light our lives up and give us our purpose. Even though we don¡¯t say this much, we need you to know we will always be by your side. There is nothing we can¡¯t say here that we can¡¯t tell you in person. So we give you this hoping you cherish today and everyday from now on. Stay true to yourself; keep your integrity and inner solidity. From your parents Charles and Annabeth who will love you now, and forever."
Lewis slid a golden necklace out of the envelope with the letter. Inside was a faded black and white image of his parent smiling and an engraving on the other side. ¡°Be strong.¡± He fell to his knees clutching the golden present and cried the second time that day. He lost everything that and now he had to survive in the rough cold dark hell which existed for the street kids and poor of London.
The small fortune Lewis had in his pockets dwindled fast, the first time he attempted to buy an apple he almost lost the small amount of money that he did have. The vendor selling fruits and liquors on the street screamed thief as soon as he saw Lewis. Scrambling back he picked an apple running into the alleys dodging all the grabbing hands while his bare feet got lacerated continuously. Lewis had to evolve and so he did. He learned many things those first few months in London. He learned which inns and restaurants threw away food and when to eat it. After eating a rotten piece of meat he lay in an alley for a day rolling around throwing up and his stomach giving him piercing pains, he never at rotten food again if he could help it. He learned the vastness of London. It was a combination of many areas each with their own dangers. If you stood on the tallest building looking down you still could not comprehend its vastness, even if you lived your whole life there you would never know all its parts. But Lewis identified two basic pieces of the city. Poor and rich. Whitehall, where he was dumped, and all the surrounding areas were poor, less Bow Street Runners and more thieves, beggars, and average people. As you approached closer to the residence of the king you found more and more politicians and nobles. Places like Essex and Middle Hall where rich and had more Bow Street Runners patrolling the area. To survive, he learned how to slit purses and deftly steel its contents without the owner even hearing a jingle. Fighting was a necessity, fending of other street kids and gang members were a daily occurrence. So even though his growth was hindered by staying hungry every night, his gangly body gained muscle, and even better, his survival instinct became ingrained. But the most important this he learned was to hide. Lewis had a secret place, a place no one had ever been and would ever see. Atop an abandoned collapsed old mill, Lewis had found a small space only accessible by a small opening. It protected him the rain, wind and other dangers of the night. Covered by a tanned canvas it was almost invisible and formed his refuge. It held the only solid piece of his past he had, the gold necklace from his parents, so he took every precaution to keep it safe. And so Lewis survived in the unforgiving conditions of London for almost an entire year until the winter approached. He survived longer then he should have, but the unforgiving winter began to destroy everything he learnt. His safe spot was no longer safe, the freezing air prevented him from sleeping and stiffened his fingers until he could no longer slit purses and steal. The restaurant and inns stopped serving as often and so Lewis went hungry.
He was desperate, the last time he ate was to days ago, and a head of a fish at that. He tried to beg but the residents around Whitehall could barely survive the winter themselves and he became not a shilling richer and even hungrier then when he started. ¡°So hungry, I can¡¯t even breathe properly¡± he said to the wall inside his hidey hole which didn¡¯t reply back. Maybe he could try his luck in the rich sides of London. Making a split decision he put his necklace in the secret compartment of the tattered remains of his old breeches and set off, braving the icy gusts towards Essex. Emerging from the alley Lewis was immediately struck by the difference in atmosphere from where he came. The nobles and rich residents could afford a winter coat and so came out of their houses. Shop owners wrung their hands and sweated even though it was cold, when negotiating prices higher they remained overly polite. It seemed to Lewis that he had stumbled into a royal court room. Everything was clean, he felt like he was polluting the area with his old clothes tattered and filthy. Looking around he was emboldened by his prospective targets. He saw an old lady in silk green dress covered in her thick winter coat. Stepping into the light of the road, she looked down at him and he heard her as surprised breath in, as a hand went to her mouth. Lewis didn¡¯t need to act as he held out his trembling hands from the cold. ¡°Spare a shilling ma¡¯am, please¡± Lewis looked up feeling every bit as vulnerable and shamed as he felt. ¡°Of course, you poor boy,¡± her eyes teared up and she fumbled with her purse drawing out guinea, and placed it in my outstretched hands. A whole guinea, I won¡¯t starve for a month. This is plenty rewarding, he definitely was doing this more often. So he continued doing so, begging and occasionally hiding when he saw anything threatening, a large man with a musket on his side marched through and nobles with cold gazes. While pleading to young woman, Lewis felt heavy scrutiny on the back of his neck. He turned as saw clean shaven bow street runner, this one was different commanding and intimidating. Lewis could feel his killing intent from where he was standing. Backing up into the alleyway the young woman was surprised, but he didn''t care he ran. Heavy boots of the guard came from behind him as he ran, his breath burned in his chest while he jumped over obstacles in the alley. Lewis didn¡¯t know this part of the city and eventually found himself stuck in a dead end. As he turned around a wooden baton came swinging down. Crack. It exploded on his shoulder blades and his head hit the ground. He got pulled up mercilessly by his hair as the world was spinning and blurring. ¡°Are you stupid boy? You should know better than to come here¡± he panted while shaking the Lewis violently. Pressing the boy against the stone wall. He said; ¡°Well, are you stupid?¡± ¡°No¡± in a daze he replied. ¡°NO? Well then if you¡¯re not stupid you need a lesson¡±. The infuriated man threw him onto the floor. Sliding and slipping the gravel opened up his back and his hands, the black scar on his hands dyed red. There was a whistle as the baton landed again on his back. ¡°Never come here again. Do you understand? Everything past Sussex it is off-limits to you whores¡¯ son¡± and he slapped the boy onto the floor. Lewis mind went blank and he slowly rose. ¡°Don¡¯t you talk about my MOTHER¡± he yelled and charged at the man. Bang, the guards¡¯ knee blew his head back and teeth flew everywhere. Collapsing onto the floor he curled up into a ball. ¡°Don¡¯t.Bloody.Come.Back.Here.Again.You.Scum¡± each blow punctuated by a vicious kick. ¡°Understand?¡± After the reign of blows finished he laughed while walking away. Lewis passed out and when he came too, the darkness has swallowed the light and the cold had chilled him to his very bones. The ground around him was full of dried blood and his left eye swollen shut. Hands on the ground kneeling on the floor he felt around for the money he had gotten from begging. Clutching onto the solidness of the one guinea he found, he leveraged himself onto the wall and started to drag himself towards the small space he called home. He now realised why the beggars never strayed pass Whitehall into Essex. His broken ankle and shattered ribs made moving immensely hard. Each step caused a thousand flames of agony to dance through his body. Passing in and out of conscious he reached the inn a hundred meters from his safe spot. Reaching two girls standing in the kitchen doorway. Not noticing the heavily injured boy leaning upon the wall until he was upon them they gasped. ¡°Can you give me some bandages? I have money, see.¡± Offering the guinea in his outstretched hands The girls disappeared and the boy sighed, the door swang open and the sounds of conversation, laughter and music spilled out. The sound was a memory of family and warm happiness. Surprisingly they came out with bandages a coat and some wine, they accepted the coin in his still outstretched hands. The sounds brought a longing deep inside him he thought he had buried, hugging the coat to his chest, his hand trembled. ¡°You can come inside and warm up besides the fireplace¡± she began to take his hand thick with dried blood. ¡°No¡± he lurched back ¡°Don¡¯t touch me¡± Lewis was shaking. Staggering against the wall he said; ¡°I¡¯ll be okay, I have somewhere to be¡± as he dragged himself away. He could hear the muffled sobs of the girls behind him as he left as fast as he could go. Lewis didn''t know what he was fleeing from. Dragging himself forward for an age, he reached safety and he collapsed in front of the canvas which covered the entrance of his little hidden dwelling. The wine bottle cracked, embedding his body with glass as he fell, opening even more wounds on his body. The bandages and coat got drenched with the blood-wine solution, and he fell flat onto his back. Lewis pulled from within his breeches the time piece from a time ago and realised it had been a year since he was orphaned. Fate is cruel to let him die on his birthday and lose everything again. He just wasn¡¯t strong enough. Lewis felt the cold arms of deaths embrace him as his vision faded into darkness.
Just a Reference for the reader on currency in London in the time Shillings: 12 pence = 1 shilling; ?¡ê1 = 20 shillings Florins: 2 shillings = 1 florin Half-crowns: 2 shillings and sixpence = 1 half-crown Guineas: 21 shillings = 1 guinea Also a map Map of London at this time Home Chapter 2 - Awake but not Awoken //Hey fellow penguins. Another chapter. I would really appreciate any comments, rating votes and most of all critiques. This is my first fiction and I¡¯m trying to improve my writing. Well enjoy. ? //also just a side note, italics means it¡¯s a thought.
Chapter 2 Awake but not Awoken ¡°For if the soul is strong enough the body will be reborn¡± The boy awoke, his eyes shot open and he convulsed. Coughing blood, spittle and some strange light, Lewis feels around in the darkness he found himself in. The ground was cold to the touch but littered with pieces of stone. Lewis didn¡¯t know where he was, maybe he was in a prison somewhere. Or maybe this is where they throw the bodies of dead street kids, but why are there no bodies, and why is he alive. A sobering though came to him. This could be the where orphaned go, imprisoned in an eternal darkness and left to rot. Slowly dying from the hunger pangs and going insane from being alone for so long. He was only 17, and wanted to live. Lewis had his life in front of him, he needed to get back to London and become strong and survive, and he needed to make himself the man his father and mother expected him to be. He slowly got up feeling his blood soaked clothes stick to his chest. Wait, where are my wounds gone. Lewis felt his mouth and he had all his teeth. He bent down and felt his ankles and none of the burning fire that he felt when he broke it arose. Even the cuts from the glass had disappeared. Only the tattered clothes remained. In fact he felt much stronger, liberated in fact. Almost like before the air he walked through was filled with invisible sludge and now his body is free. ¡°What is going on?¡± Slowly, he felt the floor and walked himself to the side of room he was imprisoned in and stood up. Painstakingly feeling every inch of the wall he moved covering the side he was on. Etchings covered the walls, Lewis thought they were some kind of glyph. Then the next wall, finally he felt some loose rocks lying behind was he thought was moss. Pushing with all his might the wall started to creak. Light began to stream in to the room in single streams, then as the wall began to cave and fall, the whole room was illuminated. What on earth, Lewis thought, as he looked down at the wall he had just pushed over. It was half a meter thick. ¡°Must have rotted, this place looks pretty old anyway¡± The light came from above. Looking up the boy saw the curved ceiling thousands of meters up, holes with sand slowly pouring through was where the light came in. But they didn¡¯t detract from the sheer size of the place the boy found himself in. Looking round he could see the glyphs from the room surrounded him. They were everywhere, even rising to the ceiling, thousands upon thousands of them filled up the huge walls and ceilings, so dense the touched each other. Some of the walls like the ceiling had started to decay, holes in the marble walls breaking the glyphs continuity. This must have taken years to build. Ambling through the wondrous ancient ruins after many twists and turns he turns into another huge room the ceiling higher than the other room, although it had a raised altar in the centre. The marble had not rotted and moss hadn¡¯t clung onto the surface of the stone like the other places he had seen. It was pure white and had an almost celestial feel to it, light danced across its surface illuminating the huge glyphs which covered the floor in a circle around its base. ¡°Why is it so clean?¡± Apprehensively he crept forward, cautious of the mysterious untouchable nature of the altar. Upon reaching the perimeter of the large glyphs, he could see even smaller ones inside the curves of the larger ones, and inside those even smaller ones. ¡°Maybe if I had super sight I could see more glyphs inside of them¡±. Looking up, Lewis realised there was an old book lying closed on the altar. It was covered by huge scales which shone iridescently in the light. I¡¯ve never seen those before, what kind of animal has those kind of scales, he thought. He put one foot on the circle of glyphs, nothing. He put a second foot in the glyphs, nothing. Slowly he moved through the glyphs into the circle, his curiosity getting the better of him. Silence. He looked around and realised nothing had happened and strode up to the book, flipping it open. Suddenly a loud chiming filled the air the glyphs shone with a bright blue light filling the entire room. Lewis fell the floor blinded, tears streaming down his face. ¡°So you have arrived¡± a deep voice rang out. Still unable to see Lewis scrabbled to the altar and took cover. Waiting for his eyesight to recover, he called out. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to break it.¡± Slowly the tears dried and he could see, rubbing his eyes, he looked around the altar and saw no-one. ¡°Hahaha, broke what?¡± a deep chuckle rang out. Confused, Lewis searched the surroundings and still saw no-one. Standing up he cried; ¡°Show yourself, who are you¡±. ¡°I¡¯m right here, Faerwald. As to who I am, well if you¡¯re willing to listen I will tell you everything.¡± Looking down in surprise, he realised the book was open and a transparent, miniature wizened old man floating above the book was the source of the voice. He backpedalled in shock, how is this possible. How can, this¡­ ¡°You must be wondering how this is possible¡± picking the thoughts out of Lewis¡¯ head. ¡°Well, my boy, the most barebones explanation is magic¡± Magic, it exists? ¡°Magic is real enough alright. As, for who I am, I am Auraleos Rasina the last and greatest mage of the Antarian culture. And you are the first and last Faerwald. ¡° ¡°Faer..what? How can magic exist? Where am I?¡± Lewis shot out question after question. ¡°Relax, slow down, I¡¯m not going anywhere. Well, actually that¡¯s a lie, I am. I liked it better when you were stunned. Well first, Magic can and does exist. Many types of magic exist, inherent magic which gurgle forth from the dragons mouth, powerful spoken magic of the elves, mind magic, blood magic, there¡¯s plenty. What I use, or used to use, since I have kept my consciousness in this soul book for thousands of years, is Antarian rune magic. It used to be the most powerful magic in my era, but now I don¡¯t know what is happening on the surface, and that my boy, leads us to where you are. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. You are in the ruins of the Antarian capital or more specifically under it. The city which housed the greatest human race in existence. Capital of the human force which possessed the greatest magical language in history. And now the birthplace of a unique existence. The Faerwald. Although now humans are probably a husk of what they used to be.¡± Lewis was stunned; ¡°elves, dragons and magic, unbelievable. Unbelievable.¡± Auraleous laughed. ¡°The best, or worst depending on the perspective, is yet to come. The final question is what a Faerwald is¡± The young boy held his breath. ¡°Faerwald in ancient Antarian glyphs means world traveller. You, young man, are now in the fantastical planet of D¡¯lrow, an immeasurable distance from your home planet Earth, home of Gods, monsters and great races and minor races alike.¡± Lewis still hadn¡¯t released his breath. Dammit, what the hell. Why does it have to be me, I want to go back to my family. I want to see, my father¡¯s face Wait. ¡°Why I my memories of my family leaving me¡± Lewis breathed. ¡°Why can¡¯t I remember their faces, my own father¡¯s face, why can I remember them? I can still hear their screams but not remember their faces? WHY¡±. His voice builds into a shout. ¡°Ah yes to the crux of the matter. You see the Antarian mages thousands of years ago discovered a secret that the Gods themselves probably did not know. What is it you ask? Well you. You see, before the stirrings of the civil war, us mages discovered an area under our great city which was so unstable that it warped and condensed the mana around it. I could obviously feel such tremors under my own feet, even if they lasted for only a second, so I took an expedition of our greatest mages, the greatest of the world, and journeyed into the belly of our city. There we found strange cards and papers, we knew instantly they were from another world.¡± ¡°How could you possibly know that, quickly¡± Lewis thought out loud trying to distance himself from the fact that he was trapped in a new world with slowly fading memories of his old one. ¡°Patience, patience. The best stories have the most interesting beginnings you know.¡± Floating down he sat on the open pages of the book on the altar. ¡°As I was saying, we knew it was from a different world since everything has mana. Even the rocks and water you drink. However the objects which materialised were void of mana. Slowly they developed large amounts of it and shattered or exploded from the incompatibility.¡± Shit, that can¡¯t be good. ¡°We realised that the space we found was what we called a ¡®break¡¯. An interspatial connection gate between our worlds, we calculated the time it would take for a human or animal to come through before the mana around the gate would be eaten and realised it was far beyond our mortal life spans. Worse, above us the Antarian civil war had blossomed into full scale war, houses devouring each other and mages destroying each other¡¯s armies. We knew we could not entrust this boundless task to our kin, we could possibly have none after the war finished. So we slaved away building this sanctuary around the gate. You materialised in the stabilising room we built. The etchings on all the walls, ceilings and floors are the work of all of the greatest Antarian magic minds put together. They contain almost every glyph ever created. I was chosen as the greatest and wisest of them all to stay behind in this soul tome, to serve as a storage for you memories among other things. As soon as you materialised into this world, our glyphs siphoned a copy of your memories into this very tome before they de-constructed in your brain.¡± ¡°Shit. So I¡¯m losing my mind. I¡¯m just going to de-construct like those pieces of junk you found. I just want to go back, how the hell do I get back¡± Lewis howled in desperation. ¡°Calm yourself boy, they were inanimate objects, incapable of adapting to a mana rich environment. You are a human with control over your body, the moment you gain mana control your body will stabilise and you will begin to grow a mage force. Not only that, you already are a powerful warrior, I¡¯m sure you felt some strength in your body. The world you came from must have created in the absence of mana, well that¡¯s what we speculated all those years ago, although I¡¯m sure you and your elk never realised, since you all had the same strength, even the materials and animals of your world had the same strength. As your strength increases memories will unlock from me and you will remember things. As for getting back, well if you¡¯re strong enough to subdue the gods maybe you can. Oh yeah, I can only come out when you unlock your memories. Goodbye for now!¡± With that Auraleous was sucked into the tome which then slammed closed and shot towards his chest. Passing through is clothes is disappeared. Ripping open his the tattered pieces of his shirt he looked down and saw yet another glyph, but engrained on his chest glowing a deep blue colour. ¡°Hey,hey, you didn''t teach me how to control my mana!¡± Shit. The young Faerwald looked up and saw glyphs everywhere beginning to shift. All of them glowed red and returned to their original state, but one shifted completely.
????
slowly began to shift and transform. The glyphs form morphed and changed finally he could see the word Fire. It''s in English! Seems like that¡¯s the only one I have enough power to use, but I don¡¯t know what would happen if I did use it. He could already feel his body de-constructing from the lack of mana circulation, chest constricting and a raging headache. He coughed up more blood. Looking up he could see the final exit of the entire underground sanctuary which felt like a labyrinth. Dragging himself to the light he finally reached the opening and felt his legs buckle. Falling on his back he saw the opening slam shut as stones materialised and sand covered it up. It seems he found himself in a desert and the Antarian ruins exit disappeared like it was never there in the first place. He feebly looked up and saw the dark night sky and realised there were two moons. I really am in a different world,he thought as he slowly faded into unconsciousness.
//Yaay, hoped you liked it and picked up on the reference to a recent movie heeheheh. Chapter 3 - A Colourful Companion //Another chapter has arrived, huzzah!! //I would love it if you could leave a rating, comment favourite or critique. Anything is welcome. //also just a side note, italics means it¡¯s a thought. //just a heads up I begin with a shift in perspective so do be alarmed. Chapter 3 A Colourful Companion Maia loosened the weighty reigns of the two Rawls. The two huge tamed monster birds had been pulling her and the cart across the Dessert of Antaria for months. Sitting back in her seat she grinned, and watched the birds huge claws sink into the hot desert sand and step forward almost effortlessly. ¡°This month¡¯s haul is gonna be the best Ripa and Rapa. The goods we brought this time are going to stock our gold supplies for years to come. I even got some mana and health potions and balms for once, stupid weak human mages. They sell the darn thing so overpriced it¡¯s a joke. An entire gold for one, it¡¯s a bloody rip off. But don¡¯t you worry, I¡¯m gonna resell these babies so high the profits will be through the roof. Hahahah!!¡± Maia boasted to the unintelligent monster pulling the travelling market cart she ran. She relaxed and sunk into the wooden seat on top of the cart, spitting a lick of fire into air. ¡°Wooow, the weathers great, right Ripa. So hot and dusty, just the way us Draconians like it. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m sad because I¡¯m too weak to live in a dragon settlement and too strong to live in a human one. Not to mention, not human. Rapa and I are best of friends, we don¡¯t need anyone or anything but gold, it¡¯s the traveller¡¯s life for us.¡± Rapa chose that moment to give a strong snort, almost as if he agreed with his mastered frequent rants about being impervious to the solitude of her life. In reality, if the two beasts had any intelligence, they would have lost it by the more than constant yammering of their owner. Slowly Maia and her companions travelled forwards, eating up the miles to Denari as the day passed. She had stocked up on supplies and goods in the merchant city of Masin, one of the four human cities, and began her travels the day before. The cart slowed down and reached a cliff which plateaued into a cliff. ¡°The famed ¡®Peak of Destruction¡¯¡± Maia murmured. She passed through here many times on her travels and never got used to the heavy atmosphere of the place. This is where the Antarian culture supposedly used to reside, and met its doom. Preparing her flight magic she looked down the hundred meter drop on the ground below and got ready to jump. ¡°Look, Ripa and Rapa. Can you see that,¡± spying a body lying face up on the ground with suspicious glow, she focused with her powerful draconian eyes. Not seeing any movement or the source of the suspicious glow she got ready to fly down. ¡°Doesn¡¯t look like it¡¯s a human desert raider trap. Regardless we can¡¯t abandon a poor kid in such a condition without checking it out.¡± She spoke the words of the human magic she had learned and cast it over the cart and everything.
?F!¨ªgHt?
Slowly she rose into the air lifting the yellow sand. The dust swirled under her monster feet as the also rose. ¡°Here we gooooooo!!¡± Maia began to scream like a mad woman as she descended down the cliff with a rising speed. As the ground began to rapidly rise, the twin Rawls began to screech. Suddenly the cart slowed and hovered safely on the sandy floor. Maia deactivates the magic and the cart falls onto the ground jostling the many potions and goods. ¡°You would think you scaredy birds would get used to it by now, I always do that, and your monster birds for Kallista¡¯s sakes.¡± (Authors note: Please read the prologue if you don¡¯t get this!) Jumping lithely off the driving seat of the cart she inspects the body on the desert floor. It was a young boy, his clothes in tattered and blood running down his mouth and nose. She looked around and saw not a figure for miles. Where could he have come from? There¡¯s nothing around here for miles. She made the decision to take him with her. ¡°Can¡¯t have him die on my watch¡± she says as she picks him up almost effortlessly and sets him in the back of her cart. Shifting the various skins bottles and mysterious objects around Maia, laid down the limp body onto the wooden floor gently. ¡°Nothing but skin and bones aren¡¯t ya, wherever ya came from looks like you haven¡¯t eaten for a month.¡±
A burning sensation deep in Lewis chest woke him up and he lay on the floor feeling the rhythmic bouncing of a moving carriage for a minute. Slowly he opened his eyes, staring down at him where a pair of strikingly bright gold eyes. Scrambling back against the wooden floor he backed up till he felt wooden boards behind him. Looking around in fright he saw he was in a carriage going at a high speed. They even have horses on this world. ¡°Your finally awake, I didn¡¯t think you would die, after all I used some expensive potions on you. What¡¯s your name?¡± Seeing his questioner and his eyes widened. She had pale white skin, voluminous hair and a shapely body which gave her an exotic beauty. But this was not what surprised him, what surprised him were the deep purple scales which started under her eyes and were very small. They grew in size towards her temple and continued behind her ears. She had dark luscious hair which didn¡¯t grow where the scales did and so it almost looked as if she had half purple half black hair. Rising of the floor Lewis saw she had scales around her hands as well. In fact, only her index fingers on both hands formed deep purple claws at the end. ¡°Well, can you hear me?¡± Well, surprisingly I can understand what she is saying. I can¡¯t tell her I¡¯m from another world and I can¡¯t keep my name Lewis. I can only recall fleeting moments of sadness the year I spent on the streets let alone my family¡¯s death. I hardly even know who I am anymore, all I can remember is that I was weak. ¡°Faerwald, my names Faerwald¡± ¡°Ohh, sounds slightly different to most human names I¡¯ve heard. I¡¯m Maia, the great draconian travelling merchant.¡± ¡°Thankyou for saving me, may I ask you why you did so?¡± Faerwald was suspicious, after all he could be walking directly into a trap and she could have lied about using important potions on me, not knowing Maia also thought the same thing upon seeing him. ¡°I haven¡¯t talked to anyone in the 3 days of travel so I thought you could be a good conversation.¡± Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Come, let¡¯s continue our talk outside in the comfort of the heat after you changed¡± Maia gets up and knocks on the wooden doors of the carriage, shouting ¡°Ripa, Rapa we are stopping¡±. Must be well trained horses , Faerwald thinks following Maia back with his eyes as she steps through the back of the carriage. Faerwald looks down and sees his fully tattered shirt and blushes as he realised how bad he must have looked the entire time. After pulling the blue silk shirt Maia had left on the floor next to him over his head and looking into the mirror he was surprised. He realised he was quite handsome, chiselled face, piercing blue eyes stared back at him framed by his long blonde hair. Faerwald felt some d¨¦j¨¤ vu, he must have done this same thing not too long ago in the past. (Authors note: Although If you can¡¯t remember take a gander at chapter 1) Turning on his heel, he gets out and climbs the steps to the top of the carriage where the reigns are taking a seat next to Maia. Finally seeing the monsters which pull the cart his face pales. ¡°You ok, humans don¡¯t like the heat do they?¡± Shaking his head, Faerwald can¡¯t help but imagine what other powerful monsters exist if such powerful creatures pull Maia¡¯s carriage.
¡°I found my-self in your carriage, I can only think that I must have fallen from that cliff you found me under and lost it¡±. ¡°I see, so that¡¯s how you have forgotten your memories and so you couldn¡¯t possibly know how you got into the middle of the Antarian desert¡± says Maia. Nodding his head up and down, Faerwald is secretly amazed at the gullibility of his rescuer. Who on Earth, I mean D¡¯lrow, would believe such an unbelievable story. Even though I did water it down the story a whole lot, it¡¯s still basically the truth. After an hour of random conversation the topic came up off how he found himself in the middle of the Antarian desert. Although sweating profusely, after hours of talking Faerwald comes to understand the nature of the beauty and enjoy her simpleness. ¡°Lady Maia, may I ask you what you are?¡± Faerwald trying not to be disrespectful, his curiosity overwhelms his caution and wants to know what kind of being she is. ¡°Maia is just fine, hehe. Well, I am a Draconian as I said earlier. Do you at least remember what a dragon is?¡± Wiping the sweat from his brow, Faerwald nods his head and says; ¡°For some reason I can still remember some things but other things, I cannot.¡± He looks down, Faerwald still can¡¯t recall his own parent¡¯s faces. ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡± Maia visibly looks sad after seeing the young boy¡¯s expression, but then brightens, ¡°Well, dragons are part of the Draconian race. Although I¡¯m way too weak to even live near an actual dragon, I still possess some draconian magic.¡± Then proceeding to breathe fire out of her mouth, she looks over at her new companions face. Faerwald eyes widened and jaw fell open, and could not stop the look of amazement from taking over his face. Chuckling, Maia was secretly happy she cheered the boy up and said; ¡°Not only that, I¡¯ve been a travelling merchant for many years and already learned intermediate class human magic.¡± ¡°There are classes of magic. Wow, you already know human magic as well! Amazing¡± ¡°Don¡¯t praise me to much¡± chuckling she downplays her power by saying, ¡°Actually for a Draconian I am still considered weak, since my Draconian magic is weak. But enough of that, it is already becoming dark, we must set up camp¡±.
Journeying for another hour they come across a relatively flat piece of land covered in sand and stop the cart. They both step down from the side of the carriage and Maia raises her two hands, squints her eyes and begins to activate another type magic.
?ChAng¨¦
Faerwald slowly witnesses the carriage change. The wheels begin to retract, lowering the whole carriage onto the floor. A solid bed of wood pops out from the top of the carriage and in the front where Ripa and Rapa the monster Rawls complacently wait, shoots out a number of shifting wooden boards. They eventually form a shelter for the birds. While Faerwald stands in shocked silence, Maia gathers wood from the back of the carriage and throws them onto the ground. ¡°Although the days are comfortable, the Nights in the Antarian desert are extremely cold for a Draconian like me¡±.
Faerwald and Maia sipped the herbal tea they had brewed and relaxed on the wooden logs they hadn''t burnt yet. They had comfortable lull of their almost constant conversation. Faerwald had an otherworldly quality about him, and didn''t think in the same way that most beings Maia had come across. ¡°So if you met an overwhelmingly powerful magician you would not bow your head even though you are sick, but if you met a beast that was overwhelmingly powerful you would try to escape, why?¡± ¡°Magicians can maintain reasoning and probably admire a wilful person but a beast probably would attack me on the spot since they have no restraint!¡± Faerwald exclaims. ¡°Actually..¡± begins Maia, but before she could finish two thing happen simultaneously. Faerwald drops his cup and falls backward onto the floor convulsing and spewing blue light and blood from his mouth into the air again. Maia starts forward coming to his side almost instantaneously, but as soon as she does a roar echoes across the dessert. Slowly a large figure approaches from the west side of the camp site of the travellers. As it approaches the fire a pair of gleaming red eyes are visible followed by two massive gleaming fangs and a white horn. Faerwald fit resides for a second and he can make out the beasts appearance. It is almost identical to a lions, except almost twice the size with a blood red mane and eyes, vicious fangs and a gleaming pure white horn. Pure terror takes over his body and the boy cannot take the pain of the mysterious fit and the pressure of the mysterious animal so he succumbs to unconsciousness. The monster Rawls begin to screech feeling a killing intent directed towards their master. Maia spins around and stares the huge figure in the eyes and resolutely stands firm. //Hey guys another chapter done, sorry for the later than I expected release. My internet is pretty pathetic and drops in and out and I have up on editing and submitting after the fifth try. //Hope you follow, favourite, comment and support me in this story if you enjoy it. //The next chapter is going to have some ¡®developments¡¯ in terms of Faerwald. Hehe. //apologies if there are any mistakes,twas a little rushed :( Chapter 4 - 1 - Stirrings of Power Chapter 4 part 1 Stirrings of Power An eerie silence fills the air as they lock eyes. The beasts¡¯ body rumbles as it lets out a low growl filling the air with a malignant aura. The killing intent could be felt in waves emitted from the body of the great beast. Each wave attacking the spirit of the weaker combatant. Maia rocks back on the balls of her heels, legs as tight as a spring and focus stretched to the maximum. If the beast shifted a muscle her eyes would easily perceive it, even though the body of the beast was barely illuminated by the camp fire. The beast blood red eyes flash and so do the bright orange of the young Draconian as she senses a shift in the atmosphere. The beast disappeared in a blur appearing right besides Maia. Ready for the move, she had already began to dodge barely missing the viscous white horn sweeping in diagonally from her blind spot. Even though ready, she was surprised at the apparent agility of the monster. No doubt about it, that¡¯s definitely a Triple Threat Blood Lion. Glancing the two fangs, pure white horns and hulking figure, Maia shuddered. What the hell is a Master class monster doing here, there¡¯s nothing in the desert for it to eat and next to nothing to drink. It¡¯s growling intensified as it failed to kill its prey, and the Blood Lion began to circle round feeling the slow terror encroaching his target. Maia, bent at her slightly shaking knees, moved round in the opposite direction. Before she could take another step the Lion suddenly shot towards her left, again in her blind spot. Maia ready to dodge, eyes widened as she realised it was a feint. The beasts¡¯ thick back legs pushed against the soft desert sand and its front legs reached towards her. In an instant it was beside her on her right. Still facing the other way she couldn¡¯t even move her eyes to face her demise. Three gashes opened on her side, splitting her skin open to the bone and cracking her beautiful purple scales. The Blood Lions fangs and horn were covered in blood. Slowly the blood on its horn was absorbed and it returned to its pure white appearance. Falling to her knees, Maia looked up and despite her gut wrenching pain saw this happen and lost all hope. I¡¯m done for, it¡¯s taken so much of my blood . The horn and the two fangs were not why the fearsome being was called a Triple Threat Blood Lion, rather the third and final threat was what happened after it feasted upon it opponents blood. The red mane of the beast began to swell, ripple and grow. Even more changes were taking place on the body of the beast. Its muscles bulged, legs growing even thicker and fangs growing longer. Finally its horn grew over two meters and curved over its head. Suddenly looking behind the severely injured woman and the body to her left, it tensed and shot of into the night. Sand blew into the air leaving an empty space where the certain demise of Maia stood a second ago. Shocked she looked behind her where the monster stared of and saw nothing. What could scare a monster as great as this one? Whatever, never look a gift horse in the mouth, or in this case lion.She chuckled weakly while dragging her body towards the carts where her precious good were stored. A huge amount of her blood stained the yellow sand of the desert floor red, as she rummaged around the back of the carriage. Finding her expensive health potion, Maia popped the lid and downed it in one gulp. Falling back on the floor of the desert, she collapsed against the side of the carriage. Too weak to even take care of the unconscious boy or the crackling fire she also sluggishly faded into darkness. Feeling the cool streams of energy find their way to the deathly wounds on her side she thought; Looks like my losses are only increasing. Come what may, if the bastard returns, so be it. That¡¯s how it was meant to be.
(Authors Note: *cough* lots of dialogue *cough*) Groaning, Faerwald shifted and opened his eyes a crack. The morning sun and its accompanying bright sunlight momentarily blinded him. Remembering the antics he went through, Faerwald¡¯s throat tightened while he pushed up of the ground. ¡°So you¡¯re awake,¡± a weak voice came from behind him. Turning around he looked behind him as saw his companion in a sorry state. The entire side of her body wasn¡¯t visible. It was covered in a pulsing blue and red crystallised mass, it encased her so much of her that she couldn¡¯t move at all. Random sparks of blue light travelled across the surface. Rushing to her side Faerwald exclaimed; ¡°Are you okay!¡± ¡°Shh, not so loud, it vibrates and breaks the healing formation¡± ¡°What is it¡± he said looking positively stunned. It looked as if she had been half frozen. ¡°It¡¯s a healing formation, unique to some Draconians. Shouldn¡¯t you be asking about the danger we just faced, during which you conveniently decided to have a seizure¡± Maia playfully responded, although it came out as pitiful with her body in such a condition. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t really control them and they come and go whenever they please. What was that thing anyway? Did you kill it?¡± Looking around for the body he was still mystified. Hysterical laughter burst forth from her mouth and broke into a deep cough, wet with blood. ¡°Beat it. That was a master class beast and a Triple Threat Blood Lion at that! But of course you wouldn¡¯t know that, you¡¯re like a baby you know Faerwald¡± A sudden light brightened Maia¡¯s face, and a dazzling smile lit up her face only marred slightly by the dried blood on her chin.That¡¯s it, of course, like a baby. How could I not thought of this sooner. ¡°A Blood Lion?Master Class? Anyways, are you okay Maia,¡± Faerwald said worriedly. Has her mind broken from the pain, unless she¡¯s an unbelievably optimistic being no-one would smile in that much pain. ¡°Faerwald, I realised why you are having these seizures¡± still smiling brightly. I also know why, that shit-face old Auraleos told me to gain power otherwise my body and soul would deteriorate , Faerwald grimaced while rubbing his chest where the soul tome mysteriously entered. To bad he didn¡¯t say why. Obviously I can¡¯t say that , so instead he replied in an enthusiastic voice; ¡°Really, thank god, the pain felt like it was destroying me!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not surprised. Even babies are taught how to control their internal mana otherwise the body wouldn¡¯t be able to adapt to mana and survive. Eventually decomposing to nothingness, in fact, some babies do! Luckily even I know such simple techniques, and can teach you on one condition.¡± This time real enthusiasm and slight disbelief coloured his voice; ¡°Done¡± He couldn''t care less about the condition. Even if became a slave, which he doubted Maia would do to him, it would be a significantly better fate than dying. And he still remembered the warning of Auraleos from inside of the soul tome;
...As your strength increases, memories will unlock from me and you will remember things. As for getting back, well if you¡¯re strong enough to subdue the gods maybe you can...
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. I can at least fulfil the first requirement, Faerwald thought. ¡°Well, I lost so much money during this trip with the potion I used on the both of us, I need help gaining the money back. So I¡¯ll teach you the human magic I know, if and when you reach intermediate stage. In return you can help me sell and buy things in Denari.¡± Pausing with a smile that resembled more of a grimace. ¡°Now, go and get me one of those expensive healing potions from the carriage and help me heal while losing money.¡±
A short while later Maia sat cross legged still leaning on the carriage, but looking significantly better. The healing formation had shattered leaving her with mostly healed, but still raw wounds. A great feat in Faerwald¡¯s opinion. ¡°I¡¯m going to begin to teach you the basics of human magic to what I know, which is intermediate class. Like I said before, babies are taught how to control their internal mana, albeit, in very simple ways. Some babies die from not being having sufficient talent in control, even though it is quite easy. Most humans call this ¡®culling¡¯. Quite a brutal name for quite a brutal way of dying. Not given the chance to live even a moment after seeing their mothers face. Maybe magic is actually curse in the guise of a blessing. Faerwald thought. ¡°Since I need to rest soon, I will explain some basic knowledge that even a beggar on the streets of Denari would know. After that, the basic internal control techniques that even babies know¡±. Taking a big breath she began to explain. ¡°To start off, let me explain the two questions you had. What was the beast that attacked us last night and why I named it master class. Well, most systems of magic have the same ranking system developed by the ancient Antarian nation mages.¡± So that old man wasn''t lying when he said their magic culture was the greatest. ¡°It ranks monsters and humans slightly differently. In the lower tier of magic for humans and other beings we have beginner, intermediate and advanced.¡± With a little bit of a giggle Maia said; ¡°You would actually be less than beginner since you don¡¯t have any control over magic at all and don¡¯t have a mana well like all things on this planet, even inanimate objects. While I am ranked intermediate. Even though each rank system is only one step away, to get to the next level gets progressively harder, and in most cases being one step higher has an infinite advantage. For example, a beginner would find it extremely hard to beat an intermediate and almost impossible to even scratch a fully-fledged advance ranked mage. Whereas the lower tier ranking of beasts is quite simple. It goes; common, pack, fierce. For example a common beast could be found roaming anywhere in D¡¯lrow, like the abundance of two tongued lizards in this desert. Pack class beasts are like Ripa and Rapa, my two Rawls. Rawls are used to pull carts and are low class pack beasts, most beasts in the pack class are just transport animals. While fierce class monsters are stronger more dangerous types of animals. But the monster we faced was a master class. Even though most people interchange monster for beasts, they are basically the same thing. Anything that isn¡¯t overly intelligent and uses strength or magic without casting. This changes with rank in the top tier however. The top tier of the monster and magic are the same rankings; master, sage and God. If you see a top tier class monster, run. Not only are they intelligent unlike low tier monster, they have much more advanced magic. If you see a top tier class mage, be extremely respectful. Not only could they kill you as easily as their monster counterparts, they are always in positions of power. The four human kingdoms offer all types of positions to these mages depending on the class in the top tier. The more power you have, the higher the position. Maybe if a god class mage appeared, all four kingdoms would unite with the magician an the emperor. But a god class mage hasn''t appeared in anyone¡¯s memory apart from the first Gods, but a few God class beasts do exist, so none of the different races can become too complacent. After all, if one of those beings decided to destroy an entire race, nothing could stop them. Any ways, the beast from last night was of master class rank, so we would''ve died had it not left for some reason. That brings us to teaching you how to control and use magic. Most spells are just sequences pre-made on scrolls of magicians. Unlike the great Antarian language of old that possessed the true name of elements and hence made it the most powerful. Current magic is just normal language imbued with mana. My ?ChAng¨¦ spell is just a sequence of other mana imbued magical words I practised which transform the carriage into resting state. If not stopped, any spell could eat all your mana away and kill you! Therefore, Faerwald, always remember to cancel a magic spell by imbuing mana in the word cancel and thinking about the -spell, okay?¡± ¡°Okay¡± echoed Faerwald, thoroughly absorbed in the massive influx of information. He had deeply engraved the different systems of the world and theories in his mind. I¡¯m going to have to check with Auraleos if the system is the same with only the glyphs swapped in for words. I only saw the glyph for fire and not cancel. Maia continued once she was Faerwald understood; ¡°Now onto the basic mana control technique. I¡¯m not going to teach you how to imbue words until you¡¯re ready, but this is relatively simple. All you have to do is breathe¡± ¡°What, I¡¯ve been breathing this entire time¡± Faerwald retorted angrily. After all, he had being going through intense pains and couldn''t hold back his sudden frustration. Immediately he felt regret looking at his teachers hurt face. ¡°I''m sorry, I''m just frustrated¡±. ¡°Y..you don¡¯t just breathe normally. You have to close of all your senses and breathe, feeling the mana around you. Then draw it into your own mana well.¡± Regaining her previous flow. ¡°Babies have their eyes closed when they are born in D¡¯lrow until they do this. Then they begin to cry.¡± ¡°I see, I¡¯m sorry¡± ¡°That¡¯s okay, now just go practice this while I rest. I expect to see a creation of your mana well and some mana intake when I wake up.¡± Maia promptly closed her eyes and began to snore in loud snorts not befitting her beauty. She must have been in a lot of pain, but she still gave me such a lengthy explanation Faerwald mused as he stared upon Maia¡¯s sleeping form with an admiring light in is eyes.
Faerwald closed his eyes and began to breathe. //Hey this is p1 of ch4 since I had wanted to progress the story a lot and it ended up bigger than expected //Apart from that, Faerwald-Rise Above reached above 10 followers. Hurray!! (Confetti and clapping).Thankyou to everyone that followed and favourites. You have my heartfelt thanks! //p2 is in the works and will be done some time this month Ps:I count it as a chapter in my 2 chapter per month scheme Pps:s should I?
My apologies for the double post earlier. RRL went physco and my draft didn''t save or post when I tried so I had to rewrite a bigger portion of it, then it actually posted so I deleted one. :( :( Brroderic Chapter 4 - 2 - Stirrings of Power Chapter 4 part 2 Stirrings of Power Faerwald sat cross legged in meditative state, with his eyes firmly shut. After a short time of balanced breathing he began to feel oddities that circulated in the air around him. Even though his eyes are closed he could feel them throbbing; brightening then dimming in a constant pattern. Faerwald instinctively felt their faceted nature; multi-coloured and great in number. As the particles began to become clearer to him, they drifted closer to him. The more he saw, the more they approached. Closer and closer they came. His mind perceived a bright blue particle extremely close to his face. It drifted nearer to him until it gently brushed against his nose. Suddenly the mysterious magical sense expanded into his own body. Faerwald¡¯s sense began at his head. He saw flashes and sparks around his entire brain. The sense starts to descend, seeking the region of heat and light he could feel in his chest. He goes deeper still, down into his neck and sees a world of pure force. Lines of energy ran down into the heart of his magical body. It wasn¡¯t the flesh and blood heart that throbbed in his physical body. Rather it was a rotating blue sun, pocked and spewing its own blue flares. Faerwald realised it was this ¡®heart¡¯ that attracted the particles in the air. These particles must be the mana. This sun must be beginning the formation of my mana well, so beautiful! The speed of its rotations increased and he watched in awe as the particles were drawn from the outside and devoured. All colours were absorbed and the sun flashed like a rainbow showing no signs of slowing. Like a baby yearning for its mother milk, the sun yearned for the mana in the surroundings. It formed a rotational vortex as the mana particles were sucked into its centre. A shimmering glow enveloped Faerwald and his surroundings. Faerwald opened his eyes and the sense began to fade. He could still feel the mysterious sun taking in mana particles at a phenomenal rate unhindered by its host opening its eyes. I can already feel my body recovering. Faerwald thought as slivers of the decomposition pains began to recede and his otherworldly strength flooded in to replace it. I even feel lighter on my feet, I guess Auraleos was being serious when he said I¡¯d be stronger than your average human. He shivered and looked around feeling a pair of eyes on him, he looked around until he settled on a familiar soul tome hovering in front of him. An even more familiar small old magician sat on top of it. Speak of the devil, or in this case the annoying old mage man, and he shall appear. ¡°Well, hello again. Luckily you managed to create a mana well before you died, and a rather big one at that. It still hasn¡¯t ended its absorption phase, quite a natural talent for magic. Congratulations. The young lady you were taught by seems to be an adept teacher, or had some very good teachers. Very succinct.¡± Auraleos drawled completely relaxed. ¡°Wait, you can see everything that¡¯s happening to me¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m not inside you soul tome for nothing.¡± There goes any privacy I thought I had. ¡°What did you think, you could understand all languages in this world by yourself!¡±Auraleos continued, ¡°you speak in the universal tongue that the Antarian mages developed. It converts everything to the language of your home world. ¡± So I can understand Maia because of that, no wonder, I thought she was speaking in English. ¡°I see. Does it not work for all the glyphs in the ruins I was reincarnated into¡± Faerwald replied. ¡°We restricted the different Antarian glyphs you can understand. They are too powerful for you to use, the amount of mana required would kill you. However, you did unlock two more Antarian glyphs. You can probably channel mana into the glyphs without the tutelage of your little compatriot. After all, they are much stronger than current magic of the D¡¯lrow from what I can tell, she¡¯s just an intermediate mage.¡± ¡°So all I have to do is call out the glyph like Maia does?¡± Faerwald questioned. ¡°Figure it out yourself, if you can¡¯t get stronger by yourself you¡¯ll never complete your memories or even return home. Besides, your powers too weak to keep me in physical form for more than a minute, or even unlock much of your memories.¡± Without even a murmur off goodbye, the old man sank into the open soul tome. Great, now I need to figure out how to use the glyph I saw without Maia¡¯s help. (Authors note: He only reveals what he remembers next chapter!!)
Faerwald finally felt his mana well settle. The perplexing sun had dissolved and a vast ¡®well¡¯ was left in its place. He got up and checked Maia had not awoken.If she saw that little spectacle, she would get the shock of a lifetime. Luckily she was still resting in a deep recovery sleep, the mana healing crystal formation slowly growing over her side again. I better look through and see what kind of new glyphs appeared. Feeling the glow on his chest he realised the glow only appeared when the soul tome was out. I must find out how to summon the soul tome at will, otherwise I¡¯ll be stuck helpless in the middle of a battle. Looking at the first page of the book he realised that these were the glyphs from the walls in the Ancient Antarian ruins. Luckily, I won¡¯t be limited to just the one spell.
????
-still shifted to fire allowing him to understand it. Most of the others flickered, their letters morphing but staying the same. There¡¯s two more that have changed to the universal language according to Auraleos Faerwald thought excitedly, as he closed the tome. He still saw Maia resting. I better go somewhere Maia can¡¯t see me, I¡¯m not sure what these glyphs could do. Finally picking himself of the ground Faerwald began to walk westward, the opposite direction of where the master class beast appeared a night ago. The closed soul tome still glowed and floated in front of him while he walked. Sweat began to pour down his body and the sun scorched his head. I think this is far enough ,stopping from the heat. Looking around he could barely see the carriage. Finally, I can check the other two glyphs. Faerwald opened the tome and saw that under fire, two more glyphs had indeed morphed so that he could understand it.
???????? -------summon ??????-----heal
Now he had three glyphs he could understand, fire, summon and heal. I wonder what summon does. I definitely know what the others do, I better try those first, before trying summon. ¡°Fire¡± Faerwald spoke the word. Nothing happened, the soul tome remained idle and he couldn''t feel any changes in his mana well. Laughing, Faerwald thought; Well, it couldn''t be that easy. I don¡¯t want to mention the word fire in a sentence and catch on fire. ¡°Didn¡¯t Maia say to imbue the words with mana when casting magic, although it isn¡¯t for Antarian magic, it¡¯s probably the same concept.¡± Faerwald began to fall in the same trance when forming his mana well, breathing deeply he opened his internal senses. He began to practice moving the mana itself around. Wow, this is pretty hard . After attempting to move the mana around he could only illicit ripples across the surface. After many attempts he began to move the mana and separate it from the well. As soon as it separated Faerwald could easily move it to wherever he wanted inside his body. Where should I bring the mana, I can¡¯t really infuse words with the mana until I speak . A sudden breath escaped his mouth and he began to move the mana upwards through his chest and even higher. He kept moving it until it reached his mouth. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
????
He spoke expecting the word to come out in a semblance of English. Instead his voice became layered with multiple voices. Some were deep and some were high all imposed onto each other. The result was a loud unsettling voice. As soon as the word finished leaving his mouth, a huge wave of fire blew out of his mouth. Exploding into the desert air and savagely burning his mouth. " auuughhhhjuu " A high pitched primal scream burst from his mouth. Tottering on his heels, he fell on his back writhing in pain. Bringing up the mana from his well he tried to infuse the mana and invoke the heal glyph on his mouth. " hegyeal " Faerwald sputtered. His tongue was destroyed by the blast. I can¡¯t form words, in English or Antarian. The pain making him lose his grip on reality, he almost let himself fade into a blissful state if unconsciousness. In a last ditch effort, Faerwald traced the glyph on to the ground. ?????? Channelling the mana through his hands he touched the ground and allowed the mana to flow through into the floor. The floor began to glow an ethereal white light. Faerwald willed his mouth to heal and watched in amazement, but still in pain, as tendrils of the ethereal light began to snake towards his mouth. They touched his lips and they healed. Slowly, but surely his entire mouth was filled by the light. Faerwald sagged in relief and exhaustion. The heal had almost taken his entire mana well to invoke, even with its unusual size.
Faerwald lay in wait, his stomach grumbling and the soul tome still floating beside him. Hiding behind a crop of rocks he patiently tracked the movement of the Two Tongued Lizard. Maia really wasn''t joking, there really are so many crawling around the desert. He began to hunt the lizards to improve his skill and get rid of the hunger from almost draining his mana well. I can feel about 60 % of my mana. Maybe enough for a couple more fire blasts. I had to wait so long just for it to regenerate. The lizard crawled forward over some markings on the floor. Faerwald tensed and activated the mana he stored on fire glyph traced on the sand earlier. The sand erupted with fire and roasted the beast, killing it instantly. Faerwald jumped up with punching both hands in the air in celebration. "Yes" He walked over the smoking body of the lizard and waited for it to cool. Taking a seat on the hot sand he began to dig in, ripping into the flesh of the recently slain monster. I thought this would be disgusting, but it¡¯s surprisingly is delicious. But then again, that could just be my extreme hunger. Faerwald could feel his mana well start to re-fill. Seeing the floating soul tome in-front of him he decided to try the last spell in his tome. I learned my lesson now, I better trace it like before. Maia can probably use fire because she''s Draconian and has some resistance fire." he deliberated, tracing the glyph into the ground and infusing mana into it. Walking to the rock again, he hid behind the rock and activated the dormant mana. Faerwald waited for a full minute without anything happening. I definitely felt a change in my power. Something did happen. Standing up he could see no apparent changes and he carefully approached the patch he drew on. It had disappeared! The glyph definitely activated, it even consumed the actual glyph. I must not have seen the heal glyph disappear before because of the pain. Faerwald had a peculiar feeling, he knew he was missing something. Trying again he called the spell through his voice, again the unnerving, unsettling voice rang out.
????????
Feeling something shift in his peripheral vision he glanced down and saw his floating soul tome. Could it be? Invoking it again the glyph on his chest glowed and the tome sunk into the chest. I see, it just summons my tome. I was hoping it was a beast of some sort. No matter, at least I won¡¯t have a suspicious book floating in front of me all the time. Finally Faerwald began to walk back to the camp.
¡°Amazing, you already formed your well, and such a large one at that!" Maia exclaimed. She had finished resting and packing up when Faerwald appeared from the desert and then told her that he had finished the formation. I''ll probably wait till she teaches me some magic before using any if the glyph magic I know. I felt that it was pretty big, but I figured everyone¡¯s must be that big. ¡°Is it really that large?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s not that big compared to a higher level mage. But for a beginner it¡¯s quite sizeable, you must''ve been a talented magician before loosing your memories!¡± Suddenly as if realising her mistake she started to apologize. "I''m sorry, I didn''t mean it like that". "It''s fin...." Faerwald was interrupted by a deep rumbling. The floor began to shake, shocked both Faerwald and Maia frantically searched for the source of the rumbling. Seeing a cloud of sand rising in the distance they could make out a procession of carriages led by two large identical Triple Threat Blood Lions. ¡°What a coincidence, it¡¯s two of the monsters that attacked last night¡± Maia said worriedly. Noticing the crinkles on the face of his fair companion Faerwald enquired of her; ¡°Do you think that monster attacked us was from them?¡± ¡°No, that beast was definitely untamed. But having two master class beasts means that the owners be at least an insanely strong master class or even a sage class mage. But since those type of strong respectable mages usually travel in small groups or train in seclusion, they must be under the employ of very, very prominent noble family. We can¡¯t afford to offend them¡± Maia responded worriedly and began to wait for the approaching procession while wringing her hands. Oh, a noble. I¡¯ve never seen one before, this should be interesting. As the two beasts gradually became clearer, the splendour and quality of the carriages became apparent. Polished wood made the frames and gold inlay the corners, doors and patterns. Large intimidating pack beasts pulled each carriage in the procession and at the front, the two majestic Lions were reigned by a handsome young man. That must be the noble, must be a son of a big family. Behind the young man, Faerwald spotted two figures. One robust and well-muscled, well over 6 feet and lopsided smile on his face with flaming red hair down to his waist. The other was an older man with a staff and stern visage. The second looks like a mage, but the first doesn¡¯t really fit the bill. Faerwald thought just as Maia whispered under her breath. ¡°That¡¯s a warrior, could even be master class, first time I¡¯ve seen one.¡± ¡°Are they rare?¡± Faerwald whispered back looking at the approaching convoy. ¡°At that level of power, definitely. Warriors take much longer to get stronger and under much more pressure. At the same rank, they can defeat a magician counterpart of the same rank most of the time. That man is quite young, he must be a genius.¡± Faerwald studied the two men behind the noble, a new-found respect colouring his thoughts. The two beasts and the procession behind them halted in front of the travellers and a clear voice rang out¡­ //Part two done //Question for anyone who knows about formatting. I want to have the glyph calls in the window that doesn''t take the entire row only as much as the word. Anyone know how to do that? //Thanks for reading as always!!!!!!!!!!! Chapter 5 - Wager? Chapter 5 Wager? "You stand in the presence of Tobias Frejer heir to the Fejer Consortium of the Merchant City Masin. Son to the advisor of Masin¡¯s king, a noble far above your station. What is your purpose in the Antarian Desert? " The young man observed them with his nose tilted upwards. He¡¯s a quite a high ranking noble and arrogant bastard. Obviously we are traveling merchants Faerwald thought, realising the man was trying to provoke them. Slightly agitated, Maia responded;" as you can see good sir, we are travelling to sell our wares in Denari." "I can see that, you common merchants. All merchants are required to pay a fee to the Frejer Consortium to travel the trade route." Faerwald noticed Maia was becoming increasingly angry with the noble. ¡°This route is a toll-free route and has been for 100 years," Maia said while whispering under her breath; ''be calm, be calm''. I think that¡¯s more for herself than for me. "Used to be! We purchased the rights to the trade route for merchants two days ago." Not bothering to hide his full blown smile anymore he said; "don''t worry, for a small fee of 50 gold you can be on your way." Maia began fuming; " You scoundrel, that price is too much. We won''t be able to pay for entrance in the gates of Denari". So much for staying calm Faerwald thought at the tone of his companion. Disdain filled the face of the young noble. He began to raise his voice. ¡°You WILL pay. In return for the small fee, merchants are given full protection along the travelling route. A full fighting force roam the route. Temporarily including even two master class combatants. They hunt monsters along this road so scum like you can travel in peace. If you can''t comply with the requirements of our recent trade agreement we will relinquish you of all your items and gold." Deciding to speak out, Faerwald added; ¡°You haven''t even protected us, we were just attacked by a master class beast a night ago!" The nobleman¡¯s eyes widened, surprised that they managed to survive. At that point a deep calm voice interrupted the heated argument. It was the mage. ¡°Did it happen to be a Triple Threat blood Lion, like these two", pointing to the two Lions reined in by Tobias. The man showed no deference to his employer and ignored the look he received from the man for interrupting him "Yes, it was." Maia''s shoulders sank, she realised she had no choice if the mage or the young warrior got involved. Even the nobleman couldn¡¯t boss the two top class combatants around, after all, any other kingdom would gladly have them. "Unfortunately, that would be our fault. Tobias wanted to add the beast to his little collection of master class Lions. This one was strong enough to resist completely submitting, even to us. You don''t have to pay anything and we will escort you to Denari..." The mage was cut short by an indignant shout. "That''s their own fault. We only hunted it because it was on the trade route anyway. We are going to detain them under my authority as the ..". Tobias began to escalate the consequences in anger. The warrior spoke out for the first time. ¡°You will do nothing of the sort. We hold all the authority in this envoy. I, the great Red Flame can easily leave your employ and join the Denari kingdom. The very place we travel to. What will the adviser to the Masinian* king, your father, say when you tell him that you lost him his most renowned fighter, let alone his greatest mage?" (Authors Note: Masinian, the people of Masin; The Merchant City) The young man¡¯s face paled at the threat and realised he had to concede to the two men. A short strained "fine" burst out of his mouth, he turned around and ordered the procession to begin moving again. As he turned back Faerwald caught his gaze, his cheeks red, humiliation and a fire clouding his eyes. This is definitely not over.
It had been two days since the two travellers had joined the procession, which functioned as an escort to Denari. After an unknown beast hidden in the cover of darkness was scared off by the master mage using scroll magic, progress had halted and the traveller¡¯s had stopped to rest. Maia and Faerwald sat together under the night sky and close to the fire, laughing at the two Rawls, Ripa and Rapa. Faerwald was surprised to discover that they were in mating season and watched their antics. The Rawls had found some males in the procession. The two female birds preened their feathers and nuzzled against them, while their handlers watched on angrily. They had given up on chasing away the birds or asking Maia for help. Every time the birds would run back, she and Faerwald would burst into laughing fits. The two birds had become attached the young boy as they travelled and began to gravitate towards him until they became - preoccupied. However the travelling and other distractions didn''t stop Faerwald from practicing mana control with Maia. He realised he had no problem using the current magic system and decided to try and convince Maia to allow him to use Antarian glyphs, under the guise of scroll magic. After the laughing had subsided into a comfortable silence, he broached the topic. "Maia, how did that master mage make the scroll use magic?" Referring to the chasing of the beast just before. Maia turned to him and laughed. " It wasn''t the scroll using magic, it was the master. The concept is pretty simple. The caster has to imbue magic into a scroll and then activate it when he wants. At a certain skill level, you can leave a scroll to activate it after a period of time, but that eats away at the mana in the scroll. Sounds easy right?" Maia asked Faerwald. "Yeah, not too hard.¡± I thought so, all I had to do was write the glyph and imbue it with mana, almost exactly what I did. "Wrong, it takes a lot of mana precision. On top of having the advantage of creating traps and other uses, if written on high-class scrolls it will amplify the spell. If it was that easy, all mages would be using them. Your magic might be large for a beginner, but you probably lack the control to do such a feat." If using Antarian glyphs with sand is for me, I must have some talent in the field. I still haven¡¯t convinced Maia, well there¡¯s no harm in asking to try scroll magic. ¡°Can¡¯t I try it.¡± Faerwald pleaded, looking his friend in the eyes. Sighing, Maia shook her head. ¡°Of course you can try, but there¡¯s no guarantee that you will be able to. Most people lack the talent to use such fine control at beginner level. So don¡¯t be disheartened when you aren¡¯t able to use it.¡± At that moment three figures emerged from darkness. Tobias, the noble, approached them with an arrogant smile plastered all over his face. At his sides were two twin gorgeous attendants, dressed in all white robes. They faced him his he spoke out, directing his scorn towards Faerwald. "You can always try, but a peasant beginner like you would never be able to perform such high class magic." Not giving Faerwald the chance to utter a rebuke, Maia threw caution to the wind and responded. "You don¡¯t need noble blood use scroll magic. I see you don¡¯t even have any magic to speak of. You can only rely on your father¡¯s expensive guards to tame those beasts you seem so proud of." Tobias laughed. ¡°You think you can insult me baby dragon? At least I can use my father¡¯s authority. What about you?" Strangely, Maia became even more agitated at the quip and jumped up. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.What is that about? Does the noble have some connection to Maia''s father, Faerwald thought while looking up at Maia who had her fists clenched. Responding with an equal fire she said; ¡°You just watch, Faerwald will easily be able to perform the magic." Now she had a smug look on her face her arms crossed over her chest. Still a spectator to the ongoing argument, Faerwald smiled. Did she just forget what she just told me? Scroll magic is supposed to be an extremely hard form of magic. I¡¯m not worried, I already know I can do it, but it¡¯s still funny to see her so worked up. Faerwald saw another side his usually jovial friend, looking at Maia''s downturned lips. "So you¡¯re saying you have confidence in your friend¡¯s ability. Then you wouldn¡¯t mind conducting a little wager on if he can or can¡¯t use scroll magic? Each side can set three conditions." Tobias smirks. Maia''s eyes widen as she realises that she was lured her into a trap, and begins to refuse. "Ok!" Faerwald speaks out. Maia turns to him in shock and begins to shake her head, turning back to Tobias obviously trying to stop the wager from continuing. ¡°It¡¯s too late to back down now, you have to accept the wager unless you are honourless as well as a peasant. State your conditions and name, then I will state mine, and we will bind the wager with magic. We will limit it to three conditions." Defiantly staring back Faerwald laughed internally. Tobias¡¯s petty taunting did not make him accept the wager. I¡¯m sure he¡¯s going to state some crazy terms to get over his misguided anger. Fortunately, it is impossible for him to win in this wager, even if it is bound by magic. Why not go big on my own conditions? ¡°My first condition is that upon winning the wager, you have to pay us 1,000 gold pieces as soon as I win. Second you cannot harm us after the wager is over. Third you must get on your knees and apologize for your behaviour in front you entire envoy. ¡± The two attendants and Maia gasped. Not only was the amount of money so exorbitant that only someone the position of Tobias could agree, it would further humiliate the proud noble. Not even fazed he confidently responded. ¡°That¡¯s it? State your name, peasant, so I can show you what real conditions mean!¡± Perturbed that he didn¡¯t get a reaction out of the conceited man, a thought came unbidden to his mind and he had to stop himself from blurting it out. So that was the memory I unlocked when I created my mana pool, my name. Lewis Fitzwilliam. If only I could remember my parents instead. ¡°Faerwald¡± he said, deciding to keep on using the name he obtained*. ¡°My first condition is that you become a slave to me for interminable amount of time. Second every waking moment you spend is in pain. Third you are unable to harm me. My name is Tobias Frejer.¡± Smiling he nodded to the twin on his right, and she began chanting under her breath. ¡°You see, Alise and her sister here are intermediate magicians, despite their obvious beauty. Alise specialises in contract magic. Her contracts are so strong that you will physically not be able to disobey the conditions set upon you. Of course that will also apply to me, but it won¡¯t matter since you will never win.¡± The attendant magician finished and spoke the final words of the contract.
?N?m¨¨s F?nd, Cond¨¬t¨¬ons Bind?
" The bet begins at sunrise tomorrow before we depart." Tobias turned on his heels and left without another word, his attendants trailing after him. Maia sat down with her hands on her head. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I made you do that. What was I thinking? I am an intermediate level mage and I tried for two years to perform scroll magic without success. You¡¯re just a beginner.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Maia. I think I¡¯ll be able to do it. I have a secret, you don¡¯t have to worry about tomorrow!¡± Faerwald smiled knowingly. Looking up from her downcast position she responded with the beginnings of hope. ¡°What is it? Do you have the support of the master class magician? He will be able to break that contract magic for sure.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll tell you my secret if you tell me what the nobleman meant about you father.¡± Faerwald said. Maia¡¯s face stiffened and she responded with silence, unwilling to tell her friend about her father, but still perplexed on how to stop him from losing a bet with such horrible terms.
The two master class combatants shifted uncomfortably around the makeshift circle surrounding the young merchant boy. Although they made a show of being in control, they both knew that it was impossible to resist the young master¡¯s father. Cero Maine looked at the warrior combatant and sighed. Although they had the most power of all the forces the advisor had in his possession, they could not rebel. After all, not only were both their villages patrolled by the advisors loyal officers. Their loved ones where kept under lock and key, treated well, but imprisoned all the same. In most cases master class mages and warriors would be treated with respect, especially warriors since they were much rarer. Unfortunately that was only on the surface in Cero¡¯s case. He had come home from a day of meditation to find officers in his house and his family missing. They told him of the conditions to get them back and emphasised he would never see them again if he would become violent. Of course he slaughtered them all, why wouldn¡¯t he. He was the one of the twenty master class magicians in the Masinian kingdom. There existed some sage¡¯s but they were too powerful to be trifled with, he was not a sage. His son was killed and wife blinded, only his daughter was unharmed. Cero realised, to get back his broken family he would have to obey. So Cero went under the employ of the advisor to the king. The advisor could not easily reveal his machinations to the other high nobles of the kingdom. It wouldn¡¯t damn him in anyway, only make him lose face to his colleagues who had sons or relatives with advanced rank power. After all, to a noble, a powerful commoner was still a commoner. Not long after he was assigned to guard the man¡¯s son as he travelled to Denari, as well as guard the trade route. It wasn¡¯t from the beasts as it appeared, but to guard it from possible competition to the trade agreement. How bad he wanted to kill the boy and get revenge, but his two attendants were loyal to the advisor. One false move and a report would go magically and his family would be slaughtered. He could kill them of course, he was much more powerful than two mere intermediate level mages. But if contact to the advisor got cut off, they would get slaughtered. No matter what he did, if he didn¡¯t stay in line, he would not keep his family. So he walked the thin line between having pseudo-control and being a servile retainer. Cero was able to control the devil that the advisor had for a son, until the boy realised he was just a pawn to his father. He had to maintain control, if he couldn¡¯t save the boy he would have to watch as the boy become a slave. Cero doubted the boy could use scroll magic. Clenching his hands he observed the boy writing on the top quality scroll that even he could not obtain, and waited. //I hope you enjoyed the chapter. //Please show your support by commenting, following and all that!! //Apologies for any mistakes I couldn''t go through the chapter as much as I would like. //Until the next Chapter!! Paused :( Hi everybody, I''m truly sorry to announce that I will be pausing writing this (not quite hiatus). I started a new series which I feel is much more interesting (for me to write), and I felt I wasn''t going anywhere with this fiction in terms of color. I did have a basic plot, till a considerable amount in the future, but got hooked on writing this new fiction. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.I will link here once I release, but I plan to write at least ten to 15 chapters before I do so. Link : Am I released yet? Apologies in advance, Broderick :( :( :(