With beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, he swung his blade against his imaginary opponents. The blade cut through the air, its balance slightly off.

He wiped the sweat on his forehead with a disappointed grunt, sheathed his sword, then sat down by the edge of the courtyard. Leaning to the side, he dipped his hand in the lake and watched the ripples spreading on its surface from the disturbance he created.

The sun’s reflection blinded him. It had only recently dawned, and with it had the world woken up. The silence he revelled in during his practice shattered while the air filled the sounds of nature waking up. Birds began to chirp, deer stepped out of the forest for a sip of water, and the castle slowly began to stir to life as well.

With a tired sigh, he laid down on his back, watching the brightening sky. A raven circled the castle, and dark clouds clouded the horizon.

As much as he wanted to just stay there, he gathered his willpower and pushed himself back up on his feet. After wiping the dust and dirt off of himself, he headed back into the castle for breakfast, and for the day’s history class.

“As you know, Calador and Eldoria don’t have a particularly pleasant past.” Instructor Theodore explained with a grim expression. His usual cheerful demeanour was nowhere to be found. He paced the front of the classroom with his hands joined behind his back, and his gaze fixed to the ground as he continued speaking.

“The Kingdom of Calador is biggest nation – by the sheer amount of landmass it owns – south of the Golden Sands. We can’t speak for the northern parts of the world, since all communication has been cut off for centuries.” He paused momentarily to glance out the window before continuing.

“Calador is one of the first nations to be founded on Zamor. It already had a rich culture and history while Eldoria was unclaimed land, traversed by old tribes and covens of witches.” He pointed at the map on the wall. “One of the tribes – led by a young man named Damien Ardagh – eventually settled on top of a hill. The very hill where the old imperial palace in Bareon lies in ruins today. Damien Ardagh founded a village there before he died, which in time turned into a town, and then a bustling city. It was generations later that our nation was given a name, and the first emperor of the Ardagh bloodline rose to power.”

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Too many names had been lost to history, and to the Bareon Disaster. The fall of the Rose capital had destroyed too much knowledge on Eldoria’s history.

“Calador had never considered occupying the unclaimed lands around it until Eldoria was founded and claimed these lands.” Instructor Theodore paused to point at the border between the two nations, marked by a mountain range that nearly spanned the continent. “Eldoria lacks the fertile lands and the rick minerals of Calador – our natural resources are few and far between, which has fuelled our people’s drive to discover more about the veil – and to use the crystals and their power.”

He then pointed at the smaller nations down south. “Some tribes who refused the Ardagh rule moved down south, settling near the shores of Zamor, and founded their own nations, albeit none as large or powerful as Eldoria. We have remained amicable with them, our trade allowed both sides to prosper, and many research projects were completed together, by the cooperation of several nations’ institutes.”

He pursed his lips for a moment as his gaze turned to his students. “Eldoria never had such relations with Calador. Instead, we went into an arms race with them. One thing you should know about the Kingdom of Calador is that it’s not as unified as it would at first seem.” He paused for a split second. “I suppose recent events are proof of that – Calador always had a divide between the nobles and commoners, and that rift only started growing larger since the appointment of their current Chancellor.”

“Now, onto the conflicts Eldoria had with Calador…” Instructor Theodore began explaining the past conflicts in full. While Arwen and Willow vigorously took notes, Midhir and Alistair simply listened. Midhir already knew all of this – and more, and surely so did the young Orlein.

What Instructor Theodore neglected to mention was the fact that the Chancellor was of common birth, and he seemed to play the King like a fiddle. Calador’s policies had changed drastically since that man’s appointment – the nation was constantly churning out weapons and training more and more soldiers.

Calador had been preparing for war for decades now – and Midhir couldn’t help but doubt this civil war was the end goal. It made little sense for it to be, as rich and powerful the nobles were, they were vastly outnumbered. Even without such advanced weaponry, they would have little chances of winning while the Chancellor was in command of Calador’s resources.

No, this was at best a bump in the road, at worst, a part of the plan in large.

His gaze turned out the window, towards the dark clouds on the horizon. A raven circled the castle still.

Were these omens of what was to come?