Everett

No matter how many times I grasped to wipe it away I couldn’t shake the growing joyful grin that plastered across my lips. With wide glistening eyes, I watched as the elders’ strength marvelled my soul. Somewhere deep inside there was far more than simple admiration or respect for her strength, but a growing urge, the exhilarating feeling of blood pounding beneath my skin as if a vast and hungry power threatened to leap out in response to her display.

It wasn't the usual warm feeling of zoi soothing your bones but more like a deep rage making me wheeze as the ominous feeling hindered my breathing. The endless void-like hole grew beneath my chest as it yearned for battle.

A hole that yearned to be filled.

“House Dragemyre you say,” the Captain exalted as all the arbitrators gasped in unison. “Quite a frightening name indeed,” he sheathed his sword. However, there was no trace of fear or retreat in his voice.

“So tell me... Why is it that I Bayard, the Monarchy’s 4th squadron Captain, must fear you... A banished.”

‘house Dragemyre, why does that sound so familiar?’ I prodded internally.

Bayard’s lustrous amour glimmered as he strode towards the elder, he gestured outwards with his arms as if to speak over the mass of villagers and not the elder.

“For a noble of the highest order to be reduced to that of a mere commoner. No, you’re even lower than that,” Bayard grinned as his tone deepened. “In the eyes of a commoner you, a noble living the easy life committed a grave crime. A crime that would normally warrant the eradication of an entire bloodline however, high nobles are exempt from such laws.”

Bayard spun as if to speak to the rest of the crowd behind him. Walking over his companion who still knelt in fear, her spirit broken, Bayard walked in what was almost a straight line towards me as his corruptive sense of pride appeared to ooze from his eyes.

“A noble who had it all reduced to a commoner who should have died for her crimes. It’s no wonder you’re hiding all the way out by the frontier, a village full of warmongers. I suppose they only tolerate you for your unique prowess. Isn't that right... Helga the Hallowed,” he boomed.

I was shaking. Even with my memories scattered and lost my body knew what it meant. Cayden’s eyes had widened peering out from behind her staff. If only for a brief second. Considering her earlier display I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that she has such a high honour rank but Hallowed! Most Rifters could train for a lifetime and never attain such power.

‘I wonder, did my father ever reach such heights?’

“ENOUGH,” the elder finally broke. “Bayard of house Remington,” she continued. The captain’s face lit up in astonishment and confusion as his mouth dropped open. However, no words came out.

“You were always a weak and frail child,” she pressed on. “Even after 8 years in Thalrion, Ravaryn’s greatest Zoimantus academy, you still couldn’t ascend past the rank of Aegis.” The elder’s half-moon eyes pierce deep matching her words, causing Bayard to shutter.

“Unfortunately your intellect is also lacking,” the elder hobbled forward using her staff for support until she was only inches from the ‘captain's bitter and menacing face.

“Banished or not, what do you think will happen when House Dragemyre learns that I, a former Dragemyre and one with the honour of Hallowed no less, fell victim to a mere search squad.”

It’s a rattling point indeed. Although my memory of Ravaryn is limited from what I have gathered the nobles, especially the high nobles would do anything to protect their pride and their perfect record, and by that logic, It wouldn’t surprise me for the Dragemyre house to wipe Bayard and his entire squad from the face of Ravaryn. Or worse.

Leaning even closer the elder crained her neck to speak directly into Bayard’s ear. I couldn’t hear the words, and I was doubtful even Cayden could. However, the moment the elder’s lips finally stopped, the towering captain fell to one knee.

In a deep sigh of contempt, the elder turned for the last time as she returned her staff to the queasy space-warping realm that she drew it from. She then gave Cayden a knowing nod and a pat on the shoulder before passing through the crowd and out of sight.

Bayard clenched his jaw and his brows furrowed with rage. Cayden and I both readied in our stance as we both suspected him to act out or attack however much to our surprise he instead gritted his teeth and simply hauled his companion to her feet.

Captain Bayard

Raising my arm in the air I gave a single twirl with my index finger. I sign of retreat. A directive is only ever shown in a pitiful defeat. I turned away from the young village chief refusing to look him in the eye.

My eyes bulged and stung as I stared blankly into the sludgy ground. With my jaw still clenched shut, I began my defeated march towards the town gate, which my companions followed. The glowing and refined amour that adhered to my body was no longer a sign of pride nor a declaration of power. The sword that I earned from my years of hard work has, at this moment, become nothing more than a heavy burden weighing on my hip. A glamorous symbol of my incompetence and a reminder that I had failed a simple recon mission.

The villagers moved aside creating a path through to the exit. Contrary to when we arrived, the people’s eyes were fixated directly on me, and I dared not to look. Their arms were folded and their heads were held high. Even without looking up at their faces, I could see it. The disgust, the hatred, and the pitying sense of superiority in their stance.

It was a gaze I knew far too well. The same look that I had received my entire life. I wonder what “they” would say when their worthless son returns home after failing a search mission on the outskirts of the frontier.

I will be exiled.

No probably worse, I shivered.

Amidst the crowd of cocky villagers was an almighty aura that I had only ever felt once before. A gaze that demands your attention. A gaze with the supreme power to freeze one in place.

My knees began to buckle and my head turned involuntarily to my left.

Instead of the ominous and cold feeling that once remembered, I was instead met with a warm almost earthly stare from a pair of bright emerald orbs that traced onto my face. Locks of dirty blonde hair waved from under a tattered hood, framing a face of unnaturally milky and youthful skin that was only half visible in the depths of shadows.

“bahahahaha,” I erupted, as the boy vanished within the crowd, his overwhelming stare no longer holding me in place.

‘It’s him.’

‘This boy. He’s the one they’re searching for,’ I discerned.

The bitter sense of loss that consumed me subsided. My failure was no longer unredeemable.

‘I swear when they hear of this you will all be reduced to ash, when I return it will be with an army, and by the grace of Chronos I will come back for that boy’s head.

I grinned. To think my very fate would lay in the hands of a mere child. Just by killing him, the Monarch himself will promote me to that of a first-rate.

The look on their faces when their son. The failure returns with an honour far greater than their own. I can’t wait to see how they will crumble with inferiority, just as I have.

“The tides are shifting Father.” 

For anyone who has read this far, I would love for you to comment or email me with advice or genuine ideas regarding this series. I am very open-minded about the quality of my writing and want nothing more than to progressively improve.

My email is here: theodoor.dy@gmail.com

My greatest thanks,

Theo