A City ablaze. Flames, flames everywhere. Swords rushing through the flesh of terrified civilians. Blood flowing like a river in the Spring. All one could see was death, death by fire and steel. The two moons, Blemini the Blue Moon, and Maticrea, the Creator’s Eye, were overlooking this nocturnal massacre.
Armithris was burning; at last. Many would consider this divine retribution, as they tried to rebel against the Pantheon, though it was in vain. The ‘War of Liberations’, as it was called by the Armithrians or the ‘Armithrian Revolt’ as it was called by the forces of the Coalition was nearing its end. As the armies led by the infamous Herakles, the leader of the Sacred Flames of Agrevis, were rampaging across the city, burning every “infidels” on their way.
Amidst all this chaos were people trying their best to survive the onslaught. One of those was a child who turned ten only a month ago, and his mother. Solkyr’s right hand was gripped tight by his mother, as the two of them were running as fast they could from the deluge of knights burning and killing everything in their way. Solkyr didn’t have the time to look behind him as he could only hear the cries of pain and terror as well as the as the sharp hollow sound of hooves getting closer and closer.
Solkyr and his mom ran as fast as they could but Solkyr was starting to become exhausted and he was slowing up. As his mother turned around to try and get him to run again at full speed, she tripped on the pavement and she fell. A sound of cracking bones could be heard as Solkyr’s mom held her knee in pain, yet showing determination on her face.
“You must continue to run, don’t stop, don’t look back !” she said to Solkyr, with a tint of despair in her eye and tears flowing down her cheeks.
Solkyr stood still for a few seconds before his mother shouted at him once again and he started running. Solkyr started to run but he didn’t heed his mother’s advice and he looked back.
When he looked at his mother directions, he saw three knights in magnificent fiery armours surrounding her, one of them was speaking loudly while invoking fire in one of his hands.
“For rebellion against the Pantheon, and for your sinful beliefs, you are sentenced to death ! Die by the flames of our Lord and Savior, Agrevis !” the Knight said in a broken Armithrian, as his flaming hand met with the face of the woman he considered a heretic.
Her wail of pain could barely be heard as the knight’s hand covered her whole face, only her body’s reaction could be seen as she tried to get free, to no avail.
Once again, Solkyr stood there, watching the whole scene. One could not guess whether he was shocked or apathetic to what he was seeing. He stayed there, motionless, and quickly enough, after his mother’s body stopped moving, the knights continued and surrounded the young child.
The same knight who burned his mother to death got down from his horse and stood before Solkyr. Before today, Solkyr only heard stories of brave and noble knights, such as Gyneas the “Loving Knight” or Lauretis “Goldenspear”. The Knight before he was surely brave but he was certainly not noble nor gallant. Solkyr looked up and his eyes met the zealous gaze of the Knight.
The Knight of Agrevis grabbed his neck, his hand still hot from when he burned the woman seconds earlier. The heat made Solkyr snapped out of his motionless trance as he tried to struggle and free himself.
“You must be the child of the witch we just burned, keep in mind this is but the consequences of your actions, of what your wretched people have done. Let me teach you a lesson, you pitiful Armithrian” the Knight said as he tightened his grip around Solkyr’s neck, the young child was starting to choke.
With his other hand, he invoked a magical flame, and he moved his hand slowly toward the child’s face who was panicking and struggling like a wild beast about to be killed. The glow of the flame could be seen in Solkyr’s green eyes, and each second that passed, the glow became bigger and bigger, a sign of his impending doom.
Soon, the flame was centimetres away from his face and the Knight finally laid his hand on the right side of his face. At the beginning, Solkyr didn’t feel anything, but quickly, he felt his skin started to burn as well as his right eye. He felt like his face was some kind of metal, being melted down. The pain he felt was like none other he could have possibly felt before, it was imprinted directly on his face. After what felt like an eternity, the Knight finally let go of his neck, and he fell on the ground, motionless and barely conscious. He watched the Knight mount back on his horse and he heard his last words.
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“Remember this, Infidel child, remember the name of Gavecht “Fireaxe”, repent and…”
Suddenly, as he was talking, what looked like a spear pierced through his throat and blood began to spurt everywhere. These were the last things Solkyr saw and heard before falling unconscious.
[A number of hours later]
Solkyr suddenly screamed as he woke up from what he felt was a terrible nightmare, or was it ? As he looked at his surroundings, everything seemed very strange and unfamiliar and the only light came from a lantern situated on the desk. He also felt a sharp burning pain on the right side of his face but when he tried to touch there, he felt some piece of cloth covering his “wound”.
“It … it was real, it was not a nightmare …” thought the young child, as he tried to stand up from the bed he was in with a lot of difficulty.
After some time, he finally managed to get up and started to look around. He was in a small chamber with only a bed, a small desk, and a chair as furniture. He felt the room was rocking as if he was on a boat. As he looked around the small room, the door opened and from it emerged a Qiuren, a draconic humanoid from the Jade Empire, the most powerful empire of Seylenthea. Their scales were magnificent, with a sky blue colour, they were wearing beautiful and ample traditional Qiuren clothes, cyan in colour.
“So, you are awake it seems, you are a resilient one” the Qiuren said in a male voice, and in a perfect Armithrian.
“What happened to your city is truly terrible, I wish we could have done more, but … well. You can call me Zhu, I know humans have a hard time pronouncing our names, so don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first few times. What is your name, young one ?”
The young child looked at the Qiuren, but he was avoiding looking into his eyes, as he still had the gaze of the knight imprinted into his brain. He looked down, and started to speak.
“Me … my name is Solkyr … Where am I ? What happened to me ? What are you going to do to me ?!” said the child in a growingly fearful tone.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry. We won’t do anything to you except helping you. I found you when I was fleeing to the Qiuren District in Armithris, I couldn’t in good conscience abandon you. We are on a ship going to Renmen, and then to the Jade Empire. You are not the only Armithrian here, we have other refugees with us. We thought it would be better for you all to go away from Armithris, this is the best we could do.”
“As for what happened to you, half of your face was burned. We were able to save you with healing magic, but I’m afraid the right side of your face is … in a bad state to say the least.”
A few seconds passed without anyone talking as Solkyr was seemingly thinking about something and his fear started to dissipate.
“I must say, for a child, you are a strange one. You’re scared, yet you’re also way calmer than some other adults we accepted on this boat.” Zhu said as he went near Solkyr. He then lowered himself to try to look Solkyr into the eyes, or more accurately, the eye.
Solkyr went out of his daze and looked Zhu into the eyes. His crystal blue eyes were brimming with curiosity toward the child he rescued.
“I … I don’t know. I don’t think I’m special or strange, I am what I am. My father died during the war, my mother died trying to save me. I don’t understand why I didn’t die, am I of any use, what should I do. I don’t know, I don’t understand …” said Solkyr in an apathetic tone.
Zhu harboured a more serious look as he heard the child words, and he started to ponder what he should do with him. He put his right hand on the young one’s left shoulder and he spoke.
“Every beings have a purpose, whether you know it or not, whether you understand it or not. This is what we, Qiuren, think. This is what the Celestial Dragons taught us. I think it is no accident that we met each other, that I saved you. Come with me and try to discover your purpose in this world.”
“My purpose … you say ? You truly think I have one ?” said Solkyr in the same apathetic tone.
“Tchh, didn’t you hear what I said” Zhu said as he gently tapped on his head.
“You are a child, you can cry, you can be weak, you can be lost, don’t worry, as long as I’m here I will protect you.” Zhu said as he hugged Solkyr, maybe in an attempt to give him comfort.
At first, Solkyr remained motionless, but he hugged Zhu back, as tears started to roll down his eye, and as the tension gathered in his body began to release. Zhu stopped hugging him and took his right hand.
“I think we should go to the bridge, it is always nice to breath the fresh air of the sea and looking at the sky can sometimes be relaxing.”
Following the words of Zhu, the duo left the room and started to walk toward the bridge. Quickly enough, both of them arrived there and Solkyr was able to admire the beauty of the Jade Bay, or the Elrak Sea as the humans called it.
“You know, when I was a child like you and I was sad, I always looked at this sea, which from my perspective always seemed infinite. When I was met with difficulties, I looked at the sea. When I was met with victories, I looked at the sea. In a sense, It has always been my sea of hope.”
End of Chapter 1