Twenty-six years before resurgence – King's Sanctuary

  . . .

  It was nearly midnight when the captain heard a shrill voice in his ears. It was an unusual voice, spoken by a member of the Order, and he had already been seen multiple times the past week. Aurien assumed he was an emissary of some kind, for he wore the usual attire. The helm on his head was one of the ancient designs – it was a ceremonial headdress, meant for kings to wear, and it was alarming. Whatever the reason Aurien's subconscious mind had for unnerving him, the captain knew something was off.

  It was not as though there'd been any attack. He hadn't experienced any major battles yet in his short career. He hadn't even used his weapons in the current campaign against the natives, but of course, his company battalion had been moved at the whims of the Ruler Kaill, a man called Raiya Karien. Aurien hated those of the royal line, and feared them. He suspected his subconscious mind again of warning him. About something – still, the dread had saved his life in his teenage years. Now, it might have been helping him again. The training was enough: long lasting, arduous, and strict.

  The emissary was in the courtyard, by the fountain. He was yelling in words Aurien could not comprehend.

  “Commander? What is happening?”

  The leader of Aurien's squad said nothing to him, but attempted to listen to the extremely irate man in front of him.

  “Master Iranda,” said Aurien, hoping to get an answer again. The black-armored commander snarled and beckoned, while walking off toward the barracks. Aurien went with him, the emissary close behind them, looking afraid for his life.

  Aurien followed, knowing something awful had happened after all. “Terrific.”

  It took nearly ten minutes to calm the priest. Aurien realized where he was from when he bowed and recited the usual customary greeting. He also kept saying a word which meant 'fire' in the Raiiya tongue. Aurien knew there was a monastery to the south of them, and some distance east, though he'd never been to it. The army's local contingent were billeted currently in a quiet town on the north shores of an inland sea. He recalled the name of the sea, Asairuun, and made a mental note to study up on the place. Aurien also knew certain men there were called priests.

  “No, lord, no. There are black fires. They have to be spell users – I know the Raiiya employ fire-wielders. It is not as in the age before the Cataclysm. Spell users are not often found in my land! It has to be one of your own. Some rebel or other, perhaps? Then you must aid me.”

  The commander threw down his pipe onto the stone bricks. An aide rushed over and picked it up, and moved aside. “The insolence. We will check! Yes, we shall go and see whether or not it is one of us. I do not believe you. I will send a few squads. You will be imprisoned if this is some plot or other to distract us, and my men are injured or wounded because of this absurd report. We do not follow after your rites and beliefs. Now come.”

  Commander Iranda stormed off and signaled two of the men from his close protection team; these went to the priest and performed the usual niceties, and led him off to the barracks for the evening. Aurien followed.

  The night went on, six hours passing before any news came his way. Planning was taking place, but it was nearer to dawn than the priest liked. Aurien knew how he felt. Combat was new to him, and the anticipation was nerve-wracking. “Grim bastard,” he whispered. “Never thought I'd actually meet one of these men.”

  The priest came up to him, astonishing the captain, who wondered if the man had heard him. He worried about the others also, for fear of a report by any with a possible grudge against him. Aurien knew the laws. “I am not really supposed to speak to you, Master – ah, I do not know what you are called.”

  “Some call me Rivelas – relic, in your tongue, I believe?”

  Aurien's face went pale. The priest tilted his head and worry came upon his own face. “I did not mean to frighten you, if I have? But why would you be?”

  The captain did not know. He was afraid, certainly, but he did not know why, exactly. He also could not shake the feeling he was being watched from afar, as though some cruel being was playing with his life. 'Ridiculous notion', he thought, but he said nothing of it.

  “Absurd reasons, nothing important. Rivelas, then. Relic. . . I think. . .I think you are correct. Yes, the the three glyphs are familiar to me. So then, you know our tongue fluently. Very interesting.”

  The priest shook his head, slowly. “No, young one, only some words I find easier to pronounce. I am afraid I am not here on official business, as you might say. I am no courier, either. My people were quite adamant for me to leave it be.”

  Aurien grimaced, but said nothing for a moment. He recalled a law against commoners, and even Raiiya soldiers, talking with foreign spellcasters. Aurien looked over at the commander's cluttered desk at the end of the hall. Iranda was not there, of course. Aurien glanced at a few of the other occupied cots, also – most of the men were sleeping. Others were cleaning weapons or armor. Some of the older men were busy adjusting their crossbows – Aurien wanted one of the tools for himself. He had to make do with a pitiful longbow he'd made after the fashion of the natives he'd met once in his childhood. It served him as well he could make it. Aurien turned his gaze back to the priest, satisfied he was not being listened to or monitored by any others.

  “How, if I may ask, do they usually deal with their problems? Any other recent attacks? Surely they have some help.”

  The priest sat in a chair beside Aurien's cot and wrote in a battered notebook while they spoke to one another. “Never. There hasn't been a problem at the monastery since the war. Surely, a soldier would know the enemy was completely destroyed?”

  Aurien stared across the room, wondering how the priest escaped whatever battle was happening at the monastery. “Completely? We never say completely. There are some who did not surrender. Still, maybe the war is starting up again.”

  “Have you fought in many, then?” said the priest.

  Aurien did not get to answer. He leapt up from his place as he had been ingrained to do along with all the other men, and the priest, as though he'd done this proper thing many times, stood up and bowed. Commander Iranda had come in. He checked where everyone was in the room. Yet, there was something peculiar in his expression. The scouts with him were covered in some dust or ash, and the commander himself had a scratch on his face.

  “Do not ask, Captain. Captain! How, I wonder. Well, now is the time to prove your worth to my garrison – how you got your ranking, I was not told. Gather your belongings. Priest? You are going with us. We've been fighting skirmishers along the town's outer wall. Bastards sent scouts – you were followed, you damn fool. Come now, hurry up and get prepared for the journey.”

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  It did not take long. Aurien had his armor ready at all times, exactly as everyone else did, and it was not difficult to deal with the harnesses and plates. His weapon was new, and very sharp, and clean. Aurien followed Iranda past the arched doorway and into the main hall. Others were waiting. Seven squads in all were prepared, surprising the captain. It could not have been a minor raid. They were fully armored, and all were armed with many types of weapons.

  But who raids a monastery? And with spell-casting?

  It was not long before Aurien had his answer. He re-checked his saber and the other tools on his belt, and followed after the rest of his squad on his loaned horse. By the second time they made an encampment and crossed the river, they could see the fires. It appeared to be normal fire, after all. Red, and hot. Aurien looked for the priest, and did not find him. Iranda called after them and began riding again. He'd stopped to survey the area. Whatever was happening at the monastery, the raiders hadn't destroyed the bridge leading to it. Aurien went on, and passed into the camp that scouts and another squad had set up. There was a dirt road leading across the sloping plain towards the monastery. He dismounted and led his horse over to a servant, then took his allotment. One of the armorers was in front of the tent containing most of his squad's supplies. Aurien readied himself, and ate, and followed silently after the others. Iranda was angry. The captain could see him arguing with someone, and heard him mutter the word 'priest' twice.

  The other squads went onto the grounds and searched with their crossbows out, searching many outer buildings; there were full storehouses which had surprisingly not been looted; many of the smaller houses for the lesser residents were locked. After managing to rouse them, a few men inside said nothing important, but made desperate warnings for the soldiers to flee. They warned of phantoms and evil beasts wandering the beleaguered land at night. Iranda ignored the warning. He ordered them to evacuate, but none heeded his words. The commander left Aurien's squad to search ahead, and went to another part of the compound.

  Aurien gazed up at the lofty towers. The stone buildings were all about him like a maze. Their thatch roofs were not ablaze anymore. What they'd been told was not happening any longer. Rivelas had either lied, or they were too late.

  We are here a day later. Then again. . . maybe the rebels got what they needed. There are no women here, surely? A 'monastery'? These people usually make vows of poverty – and charity, among others.

  Still, either way, there were no signs of battle, and after nearly half an hour's worth of searching, the fires above them were extinguished. Aurien guessed the sensations he'd felt had to be something to do with the blazes, if the fires had been real. He may have been wrong, but there was still his uncanny feeling of being watched. The man made sure his quiver was tied securely to his belt; he fingered the shaft of an arrow after stringing his bow, and continued onward on to another side road. The place might have been quite lovely during the day. He'd never been this far southeast.

  There weren't many signs of life, but a flicker drew his eyes toward a building nearby. It was coming from a window in a long building surrounded by porches with many pillars. It must have belonged to someone important. The building had glass windows in it, and was rather tall, with two stories, and the wing had three, plus a tall tower, with a chimney on the side of it. The flickering continued. Aurien signalled his squad leader and went over to the wall to watch the twisting lane, which led downward. The lower level of the monastery was another meter or so away, but there was a wide channel of rushing water between the two sides, and a small bridge going over it.

  Aurien watched for bandits, suspicious of the metal grating with a gate in it. There was another on the opposite side of the channel. The water was clean, but he still wondered if men could hide in the tunnel on the other end. Aurien's squad checked the house, finding nothing, not even a source for the flickering light, only sleeping men and a few boys his brother's age; there was also a ward for the ill, and visitors who'd come to be healed – the man who answered the doors was wearing a common garb known to be healer's wear. He also had a vial of some kind of black grains in his hand. They were at one of the infirmary wards belonging to a local healing House.

  Aurien whispered to the warrior next to him, and pointed down into the other part of the grounds. There were lights in the window of another house now. It was also flickering rapidly. Aurien went down the stairway to the next row, calling for another knight to follow after him. Two came up with their crossbows and led the way. Aurien looked up at towards a three-story structure in the distance. A shape darted down a passage in front of it, moved to the left and vanished quickly from his line of sight, but one of the windows was open, and the door. A flash of light drew Aurien's attention – the window closed seconds after it went out.

  There were more people than the residents of the monastery, and they were signalling to each other. He realized their plight much too late. A flare shot up from somewhere behind a row of houses in front of him, and exploded into a blast of white light. Then, bandits began exiting the houses, shooting bows towards the mercenaries, and there were even two spellcasters with them, holding staffs emitting wards.

  Aurien shot three men with his bow who had the misfortune of being farthest from a quickfooted spellian master, who was seemingly the leader of the horrid, emaciated wretches around him. His speech was almost song-like, and Aurien could not tell what the man's words meant. He shot at the man's hands, which were holding a book he was reading from, but Aurien missed. There were only five spellcasters, most of them projecting barriers. The spokesman he was hearing seemed to be in the wear of a loremaster, not unlike the few Aurien had met in the local towns, or else he was only disguised as one. Aurien found himself instinctively ducking behind the wall with each of his shots. Blasts came up and some of them shot over the wall.

  One of the spellcasters seemed to be able to use combative spells. Aurien whispered words in his native language; at first, nothing happened. He touched his hand to one of the arrows he stuck in the mud by his side; all four glowed bright for a second, and the captain nocked one. An enemy rushed towards the building to his left over the wall, to seek cover. The bandit tried to drop back hesitantly when he saw the soldier shoot. Yet even as he did, Aurien's arrow hit its mark, and exploded into a small fire sending embers in every direction. His target burned, screaming as he perished.

  Aurien nocked another arrow and attempted to shoot another enemy, but this one was armored better and with a wave of the hand, cast a barrier before the eyes of those who could assail him. Aurien tried again, raising his bow skyward and shooting. Bright flames from Aurien's spellwork illuminated their surroundings. His allies were still struggling, but they held out. Aurien's arrow landed in the dirt and caused another fire that spread quickly. The song-speech stopped suddenly: three of another squad attempted a flank and all but one of the nearest bandits died at their hands. There was a large brute of a man with darker flesh, left standing.

  His armor was the Raiiya made cuirass, but the bandit had on his arms and legs a foreign type of armor, perhaps a set of gear stolen out of the storm country. In the light of his spell fire, Aurien saw, beyond the line of buildings, a man in a full set of black armor slip across a lane, nearly councealed by the cloud of dust and smoke surrounding him. Torn between aiding his allies and following, the captain hesitated, but he still readied another arrow, shot it and caused another blast to erupt from the ground when it struck the earth in the distance. Large portions of rock and mud flew, dirtying and pelting retreating enemies around it. The remaining bandit was subdued and restrained by Aurien's compatriots.

  Aurien clambered down the steps towards them, received his orders, and went with three others after telling Iranda about the man in black armor. The captain looked down at the loremaster's corpse when he passed the alley where he'd been slain. His spellcasting allies were also there, being moved into a row by a dead tree. The leader of the second unit broke each of the staffs and burned them along with the black book the loremaster had been reciting from. Aurien wondered about the language he heard, as he went on. The crackling of burning flesh, and the smell, disturbed him, as did the unusual, chilling song-speech he recalled. He shivered as he searched the dark lanes and each of the houses one by one with his squad.

  One of the two others caught up as they were searching down the final row before the inner wall of the monastery. Two gates were in it on each end of the wall, and one's iron bars were melted and bent aside, perhaps for a way of unlocking the barrier. It would not budge – the gate had been locked. The second squad leader waved his hand over it and gave a stifled gasp.

  “Damn it. It hurt me to try removing the barrier – can't dispel the heat. . . Captain, go to the other one and try to get through.”

  Aurien obeyed, and followed along the wall; he tried the gate. Surprisingly, it opened, without even a creak. He glanced back at the other squad, who were waiting; their leader was trying to stop the spell placed on the gate, again. He nodded, and lifted his hand to signal Aurien to continue. The counter-spell worked at last; the squadleader winced as he grasped the bars of the gate and snatched his hand away, but the gate swung open with his first, tentative movement. They entered. Aurien passed the gate at his own location, and stumbled into a nightmarish looking place full of dead bodies.

  さようなら! ????