[img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjg4LmE0YTVhMS5WR2hsSUVsdmJtbGhJRU52Ym1ac2FXTjAuMA,,/rampung.regular.png[/img] [hr] Just after dawn, Quay Eldani squatted beneath the vaulted ceiling of his solar and stuffed an old leather backpack with clothing that did not belong to him. Miniature paintings by great Eldanian masters hung from the walls, alive in swirls of color and thick-textured paint. Doors to his richly apportioned apartments stood ajar to his right and his left. The entrance to his balcony was open, and through it, he saw dark reds, oranges, and purples splashed across the bottom of a thickening band of cloud to the west. The clothing at his fingertips was drab, thick, woolen. Felt coarse against his skin compared to the silk and cotton to which he was used. Next to Quay, a red-haired, freckle-faced five-year-old stood and watched him pack. [color=tan]“You can help, if you want,”[/color] Quay said, and little Colin Galeni, wearing the green doublet of his house, knelt on the tiled floor and started stuffing white shirts and brown trousers into the pack. Two short swords in worn, frayed sheaths lay next to the clothes. So did a wooden case full of maps and a purse stuffed with coins. [color=Tan]“Did the washerwomen ask you why you needed the clothes?”[/color] Quay asked. Colin nodded. [color=Tan]“And what did you tell them?”[/color] The boy did not look up from his task. His eyes gleamed green in the low, gray light. “That I wanted to play a game.” [color=Tan]“And what will you say if they ask for them back?”[/color] “I lost them.” Quay smiled and tousled his cousin’s hair. [color=Tan]“Good man,”[/color] he said, and Colin beamed. Quay sat back and let his cousin stuff the clothes into the pack. His stomach was unsettled. Had been since he’d woken up that morning. He was the Prince of Eldan, and he had seen the end of his people near. He rubbed his chest and grimaced. Not just seen it, felt it—a darkness that had sat on his heart and smothered him until he had woken gasping for air. “Quay?” The prince looked down to find Colin sitting cross-legged on the floor, the clothes forgotten. “Why are you leaving?” Quay rubbed his cousin’s head again. [color=Tan]“Who told you I was leaving?”[/color] “I’m not stupid.” The prince smiled and stood. [color=Tan]“Come here,[/color] he sighed. He walked to a stone table in the center of the solar, upon which lay a charcoal-on-vellum drawing of two snakes eating one another’s tails. Quay lifted Colin up by the armpits and set him on a chair. [color=Tan]“Do you know where your brother is?”[/color] the prince asked. Colin nodded. [color=Tan]“He is fighting for you protection, for the protection of Eldan as a whole."[/color] “Why?” Colin had fixed his eyes on the snakes. He did that, sometimes, when he saw something new. [color=Tan]“The Axim.”[/color] Or so Aegelden Elpioni tells us. “Who are the Axim?” Quay shrugged. [color=Tan]“They’re crazy, a warmongering people who want our luxuries for thier own.”[/color] Colin frowned. “My father says the Axim are monsters.” Quay rolled up the drawing and slipped it into the map case near the pack. The Axim were no beasts, they were Eldan's worst nightmare. Hundreds of years back, three tribes settled not to far from one another, the Eld, settled near the Ironhearts, which in turn, granted them a boon of much needed resources. The Leto, settled to the south, right on the coast, which in turn granted them the wealth of the sea. But the Akgo settled in the north, a land with low crop yield so raising cattle and farming was extremely difficult. Over time, each tribe grew in thier respective lands, many migrating to the Eld's and Leto's vast resources, villages often creating ties with the larger villages for items of interest. But the Akgo were different, the Akgo was forced to seek help for its counterparts, without much else to give in return. While the Leto refused, the Eld gave them what they needed to survive. With resources like timber, stone, and many crops, Akgo was able to flourish in its own right. That is until Akgo took up the offensive, attacking the villages that settled near them, taking away thier freedom and taking half of any resources they gathered. In time the three tribes grew into towns, and respectively, kingdoms. The Eld evolved into the Eldan, and kingdom with close ties to many of its sister villages, the Leto evolved into Ionia, who became a sister nation to Eldan. Even Akgo, who became the Axim, grew in its own respective rights, but it grew to become a warmongering nation, often taking villages on the daily. Their tactics and sheer number struck fear in the Eldanins and Ionians, thus leading to The Pact, a treaty that kept each nation from attacking any village that proved loyal to them. For a time, this treaty held, and the Axim refrained from attacked Eldan vassals and Ionian vassals respectively, but Axim numbers grew as village farther north fell under thier military might. Soon, Ionia turned to Elden for additional protection, and created a secret pact between them, but the Ionians played both sides, and created a second secret pact of non-aggression with the Axim. This system of pacts, is what lead to the downfall of Ionia, and thier current situation. Axim came upon information that Eldan had formed a pact with Ionia against them, in retaliation for this betrayal, Ionia's ties with the Axim were broken. This brought tension to the region, but the mysterious loss of one village, Aleani, a vassal of Axim, set off a spark that caused them to declare war on Ionia, thus forcing Eldan into the conflict due to thier pact. Without warning, Axim invaded Ionia, and Elden sent warriors to help defend, thus setting the stage for the region's great conflict, the Ionia Conflict. “He said he’d heard it from god's highest themselves,” Colin continued. The boy climbed down from his chair and walked toward the two swords that lay by the pack. [color=Tan]“Don’t touch those,”[/color] Quay said, but Colin didn’t listen. He had one halfway out of its sheath before Quay reached him and slid it gently back in. [color=Tan]“When you’re older,”[/color] the prince said quietly. Colin nodded and walked toward a tall shelf of books and maps. A small, scroll, leaning, the boy straightened it up against its neighbors. [color=Tan]“Your father is a smart man,”[/color] Quay sighed. [color=Tan]“If god's highest says the Axim are monsters, then they are.”[/color] Colin was squinting at the glyphs on a second scroll. [color=Tan]“Can you read that?”[/color] Quay asked. The boy shook his head. [color=Tan]“When you can, I’ll lend it to you.”[/color] Colin nodded again, and Quay went back to the pack. “Quay?” Colin was looking at the swords again. “You didn’t tell me why you’re leaving yet.” With one hand on a scratchy set of trousers, the prince stopped and frowned. I cannot send you, his father had said. The walls in the palace had ears. It was all he could have said. But Quay had felt the brief goodbye in the touch on his shoulder, read the rest in his father’s eyes: I cannot send you, but you must go. [color=Tan]“Grown-up things,”[/color] Quay said. Colin screwed his face up and stamped his feet. Quay shook his head and went back to packing, but when he looked back a moment later, the boy was still pouting. [color=Tan]“Tell you what,”[/color] Quay said. He squatted down so he was eye-to-eye with his cousin. [color=Tan]“You tell your sister everything I said to you today, and don’t forget a thing, and maybe she’ll tell you why I have to go.”[/color] He wanted to take Misha Galeni with him. His wiry, sharp-eyed cousin was clever. She was loyal. She would understand what he had to do, and she could help him. But her father would never let her go, and if Quay took her without permission he would be followed. He would have to rely upon others. Colin’s face lit up. “Really?” Quay nodded. His cousin bounced in place for a second, then frowned again. “How will she know?” [color=Tan]“She’s your big sister. She knows a lot of things.”[/color] The prince looked out at the sun again. It was rising further toward the clouds. Quay carried the pack, the purse, and the swords into his bedroom and set them down behind the door, where no one would be able to see them from the solar. [color=Tan]“Time to go,[/color]” he said to Colin when he returned. The boy kicked a chair by the stone table petulantly, and Quay shook his head and dropped down to his level again. [color=Tan]“You promised,”[/color] he reminded him. [color=Tan]“What did you promise?”[/color] Colin looked at the floor. “That I would leave when you told me to.” [color=Tan]“And?”[/color] “And not a word to anyone.” Colin nodded and walked to the door. When he reached it, he paused, fingering the handle and scuffing his feet on the floor. “Quay?” he asked again, and the prince raised an eyebrow in response. “Be careful.” The door opened and shut, and then little Colin Galeni was gone and Quay took a deep breath. Careful, he thought. As if it is all that simple. He was going to war. Quay did not often feel afraid. Coolness was his birthright. The strength of the line of Eld for generations. It had led them through rebellion, infighting, and it would war. When their enemies grew emotional and made mistakes, the blood turned to ice in Eldani’s veins. It had to. There was no other way to rule. But Quay did not have a better word than fear to describe the uncertainty gnawing at his stomach. Quay stood with his hand on the door, breathing slowly. A ring of plain bronze hung from a chain around his neck, cool and slick against the skin of his chest. It had been a gift from his mother in a time long past, when the world had been simple and bright and the title of Prince of Eldan had sat on his brother’s broad shoulders. A semicircular balcony of gray stone hung from his rooms over the river valley that had nurtured his family for generations. For one last time, he strode through the airy curtains that covered it and gazed down at the hustle and bustle of the towns people in the distance. A curtain of rain swept toward him from across the river. Fresh, clean rain. Not too heavy, not yet. He welcomed the first drops as they hit his skin, then retreated to the shelter of the balcony arch. He stood, and he watched, and he waited. What he was about to do would be difficult. The kindness in him, the warmth, would have to be kept under lock and key to serve a greater good. It would not be pleasant, but he would do it. He would be strong. He would be cold. He would be hard. Yes, my prince, his people would say when he pushed them, even if not in as many words. It was what they had been taught for their whole lives to do. He was Quay Eldani, and he would do what no one else could, he would defeat the Axim. [center]***[/center] Deo ran. Using the tooth of the battlement as a stepping-stone, he launched himself at his master. Blade arcing, he landed in 'Water Upon the Rocks', an attack from above. Metal clanged upon metal, and his muscles strained against his master’s parry. Lex’s thin lips curved into a smile, making his peppered beard rustle. “Keep that up and you’ll have my title before long.” Eyeing him through the mesh of their blades, Deo smirked. [color=Brown]“It’s all yours.”[/color] Immediately, he realized his mistake, but it was too late. His pressure waned as his concentration slipped. Lex's heavy biceps flexed. Deo was blown back as if by a gust of wind, feet scraping along the stone floor. He threw a dusty foot to the ground in a Low Moon stance, his knees bent and back straight. At the same time, he tossed a hand to the same red sands . His palms scraped the stone and dust as he skidded to a halt. He looked up, only to find Lex's blade hurtling towards his face. Pressing against the ground, he vaulted backwards, diving beneath the blade’s tip. Landing on the balls of his feet, he peered through his brown hair. Lex rose to his full, impressive height. Despite the chill in the air, the man was bare- chested, wearing only his traditional leather belt adorned with pelts and feathers. His frame was tanned dark from the unforgiving sun. A long scar ran diagonally across his chest. A few more white lines marred his shoulders and arms. There was not a scrap of fat on him. Lit by the dawning sun, Lex stood in High Moon. His back leg was heavily bent, holding the majority of his weight, while his front foot rested lightly upon the ground. It was a stance most could learn, but few could ever master. Deo rose. [color=Brown]“You tricked me.”[/color] Lex broke High Moon. Hands clasping his head, he began to lounge. “Don’t listen to me then, or, better yet, don’t talk back. Besides, you should know my tools by now—tools which an Ionian should always have at his disposal.” He scoffed. [color=Brown]“Tools? They are clearly tricks and you know it.”[/color] His palms stung and he saw peeled callouses, raw and pink, like a shaved beet. [color=Brown]“And why do I always seem to get hurt around you?”[/color] Lex shrugged innocently. “Not sure, I don’t get hurt.” There was a subtle shift in the air, and Deo focused, becoming acutely aware of his surroundings. Sharpening his senses at will was a skill of the High Ionian soldier, harnessed over years of intense training. Brushing the dirt from his black tunic, he regained his balance and raised his blade. But Lex was looking away, gazing over the beautiful horizon and the bustling of thier people. Something weighed heavily on his master’s features. There were shadows in the man’s eyes. [color=Brown]"Is it true?”[/color] he asked. “Rumors are rumors, Deo. Besides, you should not concern yourself with it. As soldiers, we follow orders.” [color=Brown]“You’re avoiding the question. I want to know, the Eldan, do they plan on pulling back thier forces? Will they leave us to deal with…them?"[/color] Deo countered “Say their name. Only a fool fears a name.” [color=Brown]“I would rather not...”[/color] “Then I’ll say it for you.” [color=Brown]“Don't-[/color] “Axim,” Lex sighed, interrupting him. Deo's features twisted. His father, mother, two brothers and sisters, cousins, and his grandmother were all lost to the Axim, slaughtered without whim or cause. “Wake up!” Lex bellowed, and he was glad to see the years had shed from masters face. Lex's stance switched from High Moon to Low Moon, one leg sweeping back. Deo saw his opening, but kept his face blank. “So are you going to sight-see, or for once are you going to actually hit...” He didn’t let Lex finish and charged with a fierce cry, blade raised for Heron in the Reeds. Deo smiled as if he were waiting for it, blade flickering into Full Moon, covering his head. In the last moment, Deo gathered his meager power. Lex's blade appeared from nowhere, but he rolled beneath it, teeth clenched. As he landed, he twisted. Fisher in the Shallows. He lashed at Lex's legs, ready to retract the blow in victory. Lex had lost. Elation lanced through him. Abruptly, his master smirked and his hand smacked a hidden block of stone. Still moving, Deo hit the ground. Instinctively, he tucked and rolled on the hard stone. [color=Brown]"Are you kidding me!"[/color] he bellowed dragging himself up to dust his furs. Lex cackled, placing his 'Guraka' back in it sleuth. "I said tools all Ionian should have." he mocked, turning away from Deo. Mumbling curses under his breath, he rose, sometimes he found it difficult to take his master seriously. [color=Brown]“You still haven't answered my question!"[/color] he bellowed, causing Lex to turn slightly. All playfulness had left his eyes, and the eyes of a killer replaced them. "We leave for battle in four moons. In the meantime, I have a meeting with an old hermit" He said before leaving Deo to take in his masters parting words. [hider=Summary] So this is a story I've had sitting around for a few week. It was originally supposed to lead into Xerxes war path upon Amartía's return, but ultimately with the whole Logos thing, I shifted from that path. This was meant to be scrapped, but I wanted to see what I could do with it. (Bored) Essentially it starts with new/old character for those who remember him, named Quay, a prince in a medium sized kingdom type place, who is at war with another nation, attempting to protect another; they call this the Ionia Conflict. After a few words from him about leaving to help Ionia in secret, which is currently a mystery, we come to meet another young man named Deo, and Ionian soldier who is confused as to why Elden is pulling out of Ionia, and wants answers from his master, who dodges the question, and tells him that they will be deployed soon, and that he has to leave to find an old hermit….wink. [/hider]