It is believed that Volkar had a similar philosophy to the School of the Desert Moon. Volkarians likely believed that understanding the world around them would let them better navigate and survive in the dangerous world that they found themselves living in and this evolved into their Concepts. With their Concepts, they understand the world around them on such a fundamental level that Shinian academics have acknowledged their inferiority to the Volkarians.
Excerpt: A History of Magic – Galen Cletus
Ashe’s lip was quivering, and his eyes were beginning to water. Sammath sighed, moving over to Ashe and patting him on the back, “Is she right? Did you know that she was going to go as soon as her mission was over?”
“I did.” Sammath didn’t say anything else; justification would only make it worse.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Accusation crouched under Ashe’s tone and Sammath had to think for a second about how to phrase his reply.
“Because I didn’t want to hurt you and, if I did, it would only harm our burgeoning teamwork right before we did something dangerous and stupid enough that we’d need every bit of teamwork we could get. It was better to wait until after the mission to tell you, when it would hurt but it wouldn’t risk your life…” Sammath trailed off before admitting something he hadn’t even admitted to himself, “Plus, I was hoping she’d decide to stick around. Fighting together builds bonds that are hard to break.”
Ashe’s tone had softened slightly, but the pain was still clear, “That wasn’t your choice to make. I may still be young, but I’m not a kid anymore. I haven’t been for a while.”
“I know.” Sammath did know that, in fact. Ashe’s childhood had clearly been very hard. He’d been hunted from town to town, forced to flee for his life nearly everywhere he went, but… Ashe had a mental fortitude that Sammath hadn’t seen in very many people. Despite everything that he’d been through and despite his maturity, he still had the brain of a child and he’d somehow managed to retain the ability to just… be a child, no matter what Ashe said. While it hadn’t been readily apparent when Sammath had first met Ashe, Sammath’s antics had slowly brought Ashe’s ability to be a child out and Sammath hadn’t wanted to hurt that.
“But you made the choice anyway.”
“I did.” Sammath did regret hurting Ashe, and the pain that Ashe’s gaze held tugged at Sammath’s heart, but he didn’t regret trying to keep the information from Ashe. For the time that he hadn’t known, Ashe had been light; happy, at times, despite the threat of being hunted down by the guards and killed; and Sammath didn’t regret keeping Ashe happy for that time.
“And you’d do it again?”
“I would.”
Ashe looked away, “We need to go get a room, now. But after that, I want some time to myself. I… need to think.”
“I… understand. I’ll give you some alone time when you ask.”
Ashe turned around, facing away from Sammath and striding forward. It was obvious that he was trying to keep himself together, but it wasn’t really working. They needed to find the inn, and fast, or Ashe was going to break down in the street and cause a scene. Sammath looked around, but no one met his gaze, going about their own business. Why was everyone so unfriendly here? In Volkar, no matter how important your task was, you’d at least wave a friendly hello to people you walked past before hurrying on. Sammath’s eyes darted about until, eventually, he decided to pat Ashe on the back, “Wait here. I’ll ask someone.”
Ashe stopped, and Sammath ducked into the nearest shop, the bell on the inside of the door ringing as he ducked into a bakery. Bread in various shapes lined the counter, rolls, loaves, long sticks of bread, and more. Pastries filled with colourful jams and spreads sat on the other side of the bench, their sweetness tantalisingly close. Sammath’s mouth watered and he suddenly found his stomach grumbling at the scent of baked bread, which pervaded the shop even if it had been baked hours ago.
Behind the wooden counter, a portly man in a stained apron and a hat perched on top of his head, obscuring any hair he might still have. Grey stubble had worked its way onto his ruddy face and kindly, blue eyes shone merrily. His simple shirt had its sleeves rolled up, exposing his muscular forearms. All that was needed for the man to fit the stereotypical image of a baker was a rolling pin in his hand. He spoke up, asking something in Arikaran that Sammath couldn’t understand. When Sammath didn’t respond, the baker switched to Shinian.
“What can I do yer for?”
Sammath was practically drooling, but he swallowed his saliva, “As tempting as it is, I’m not here to get anything at the moment. When I can get some money from my friend, I’ll come back to these… these fragments of edible divinity, but I actually just came in to ask for directions.”
The baker chuckled lightly, “Well, that’s some high praise considering yer’ve only smelt my treats. But I’ll tell yer what. I still have a few hours to go, and it doesn’t look like I’m going to sell everything today, so I’ll give ye a treat, if ye promise to come back and get something tomorrow. As fer the directions… where’re yer headed?”
“Really? I’d love a treat, right now. Thank you so much. I’ll definitely come back tomorrow. And I need to get to the Blue Sail Inn. I’m meeting my friend their later.”
Moving with practiced ease, the baker scooped a treat off the counter and slid it onto the bench in front of him for Sammath to pick up. “If ye turn left outta the store, keep following the road and take the third turn on the right. If ye keep going straight from there, ye’ll be able to find the Blue Sail Inn easy enough. Here’s yer treat.”
“Thank you so much.” Sammath waved to the baker, smiling at the interaction, Finally! Someone who’s actually friendly. Sammath’s smile quickly faded as he remembered why he’d gone into the store in the first place, Ashe waiting just outside the store. “I know how to get to the Inn from here. Let’s go.”
Sammath looked at the treat in his hand, sighed, and then offered it to Ashe, “Here. Take it.” Ashe took the proffered treat and immediately began devouring the delectable smelling pastry, much to Sammath’s dismay. Sammath took the lead this time, letting Ashe fall in behind him as he made his way down the road, following the directions that the baker gave him. It took a few minutes, but they were quickly standing in front of the Inn.
Built entirely from stone and with huge, tinted glass windows letting in the light from outside but blocking anyone from seeing inside, the Inn took up the same amount of space as at least five buildings and had two storeys, like most other buildings on the street. A small side-road ran down the back of the building and, from what he’d heard of inns, Sammath assumed that was where the animals were kept. A large signboard outside the inn depicted a small yacht with a blue sail above the arched doorway, which was made from stones stacked into an arch. Sammath opened the door, a sturdy oak-wood thing with a ring-shaped doorhandle made from burnished bronze.
Stepping into the building, Sammath was half-expecting to walk into a gloomy room, but the massive, tinted windows did a good job at letting in light without letting anyone see anything from outside. From what little Sammath knew, he guessed that the glass was enchanted. Sammath’s feet treaded lightly on the dark wood of the floor, which gleamed as though it had been polished that morning. Sammath felt no give from the floors, and there was no creaking from the boards. Comfortable, overly cushioned sofas and armchairs covered in pastel fabrics sat either side of the doorway, placed strategically around a table. Tasselled rugs covered the wood beneath the seating and beautiful paintings hung from the panelled wooden walls.
Further into the room, there was some empty floor space that acted as a walkway between the tall, arched doorways that led out of the room to each side, and at the far end of the room was a bench. A smartly dressed Arikaran man, with brown hair, pale skin, and a tidy red uniform stood in a fashion resembling military attention. As Sammath drew closer, he could see that the man was quite mundane-looking aside from his large nose and narrow, pinched face. Brown eyes looked down the bridge of his nose at Sammath, despite the two being roughly the same height.
“Are you in the right place, sir?”
“This is the Blue Sail Inn, right?”
“It is, Sir.”
“Then I am in the right place.” Sammath looked behind him and gestured to Ashe to come up, “My friend told us to book a room for the night.”
“Pardon me, sir, but… are you sure your friend said the Blue Sail Inn. Based on your attire, I do believe that you would be better served going to one of the less expensive establishments nearby.”
“I’m very certain she said the Blue Sail Inn now, are you going to let us in, or what?” While Sammath was normally a patient man, his patience did not extend to discrimination in any form.
“Very well, Sir. As a policy, we require payment upfront unless you have some form identification on you. Will you be paying upfront, today?”
This time, Ashe took over speaking, “Yes. We will.”
Leaning over the desk, the concierge looked down his nose at Ashe, whose head only just poked above the edge of the wood. “To whom am I meant to be speaking?”
The question was directed at Sammath, and Sammath nearly rolled his eyes, “Talk to him, right now. He’s the one that has the money on him.”
“Very well, sir.” Shifting his gaze back to Ashe once more, who was standing on his toes to make sure that his face could be seen over the counter, the man looked down his beak-like nose, “And will you be paying up front or giving us identification and be paying after the fact.”
“Up front.” Ashe said as he pulled out the coins that Erin had given him, silver spilling out of his hand and onto the counter.
Looking down at the coins, the man didn’t even bother to count. “I’m sorry, sir but that’s not enough for a night here.”
“What do you mean?” Ashe seemed incredulous, “We were told that it would be.”
“Well, then, I’m sorry but you’ve been misinformed. We require three gold for each night here. This is clearly not enough.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Ashe exclaimed, and Sammath felt like the concierge was intentionally raising the price.
Sammath didn’t know much about money or the value of items, but Ashe’s reaction told him all he needed to know. Grabbing the coins before the man could take any for himself, Sammath jerked his head, “Come on, Ashe. Let’s wait for Erin to deal with this. A pissed noblewoman, even if she isn’t self-entitled, is something that I don’t want to get in the way of.”
Sammath strode over to the seating in the lobby, but was stopped from sitting down by the man calling out, “I’m sorry, sir, but the seating is only for customers. If you’re not going to pay to stay, please take your business outside.” Taking a deep breath in, Sammath refrained from glaring at the man and marched out of the door, leaning against the stone wall of the Blue Sail Inn, just out of the way of the door.
Ashe sat down next to him, his back to the rough stone and his head lolling back against the window, “I’m going to enjoy it when Erin comes back and rips that guy to shreds.”
Sammath glanced down at Ashe, I hope he means that metaphorically, otherwise Cab might be taking over, “I agree. I look forward to her coming and sorting that man out.”
Sammath and Ashe both felt silent, Sammath because he knew Ashe wouldn’t want to talk and Ashe presumably because he didn’t want to talk. Standing against the outside of the Blue Sail Inn in silence for nearly half an hour, some excitement finally came in the form of a young noble.
A gaudy, ostentatious carriage made of wood and metal, blended together into something that resembled art more than a practical carriage, rolled down the street and stopped in front of the Blue Sail Inn. Pulled by four large, thoroughbred horses with gleaming coats, people moved out of the way of the carriage as it rolled down the road and avoided any pavement remotely close to the vehicle. When the young man inside stepped out of the carriage, with the aid of the carriage driver, everyone in the street either found their way indoors or looked directly at the ground and hurried on past.
Dressed in blue livery that was lined with gold, the young man’s clothing looked more like a military uniform than what Sammath had seen in that store, and Sammath presumed that the relatively practical wear was the young noble’s ‘travelling clothes’. Simple, blue pants and tall, black riding boots only reinforced that guess. Luckily for the young noble, at least, he wasn’t wearing anything that was ridiculous, besides the bright blue colours of his clothing, so Sammath didn’t feel the need to ridicule him.
Unfortunately, though, Sammath found the fact that the driver was getting down to help a teenager out of a carriage was ridiculous. Sammath exhaled slightly, a small snort at the ridiculousness of having to rely on someone’s help to step down to the ground. “Nobles,” Sammath muttered under his breath, shaking his head.
Ashe’s head jerked up, “Shut up.” He hissed, “We don’t need his attention right now. Let’s just wait for Erin.”
The young noble’s driver leant in and whispered something in the noble’s ear. Immediately, he began to frown and his faced turned red. Marching right up to Sammath, the noble boy glared into Sammath’s eyes, having to crane his neck to look the taller Volkarian in the eyes. Quite frankly, it made for a ridiculous sight as the posturing noble boy tried to intimidate Sammath.
“Your name.” Demanded the boy, first in Arikaran and then in Shinian when he saw Sammath hadn’t understood.
“Jorm.” Sammath off-handedly threw out a name, smiling internally and hoping the noble would take the bait.
“And your family name, Jorm. Unless you want me to call you Jorm the Nameless.”
“Uther.”
“Very well, then.” The noble boy turned around and faced his driver, “Gael, please take note that I’ll be having you act as my challenger against Jorm Uther in the arena to settle the slight he has committed against me.”
Sammath grinned at that, showing his pearly white teeth, “You’d make your own guard challenge his mother in the arena? What a poor employer you are. If I were him, I’d leave.” Ashe snickered slightly.
Sputtering and even more furious, the noble boy turned around, “Your name isn’t Jorm Uther? Tell me your name now or face my wrath.”
“Nah.”
“And what’s your last name, Nah?”
“Nah. I’m not going to tell you my name.”
Somehow, the boy’s face turned so red that Sammath thought he was about to burst, “Gael take care of him.” The driver stood still, even at the beckoning of his young master. When Sammath’s face wasn’t pounded into the ground immediately by the driver, the blue-clothed boy turned around again, “What are you doing?!” He practically shrieked, “I told you to get them.”
Bowing apologetically, the driver kept his cool remarkably well, at least in Sammath’s perspective, “I apologise, Young Master, but I cannot. Assaulting him now would be against the law and, even should I wish to break the law, we are not somewhere that we could get away with it. Look around, Young Master, and you’ll see that you’re attracting a lot of attention. I believe it would be best to just challenge the man and move inside.”
“Fine.” Snarled the young nobleman, “I challenge you.”
“I refuse.” Sammath shrugged.
“Wha-? What do you mean you refuse?” The young nobleman’s wind left his sails and he was left floundering as his anger turned to incredulity. “What do you mean you refuse? You can’t refuse. I challenged you.”
“And I refuse the proffered challenge.”
“Bu- wha- But this challenge is for your reputation. You can’t refuse or you’ll destroy it.”
Sammath shrugged, “I don’t really care. Why should I care what others think of me. I’m not going to go and ‘fight you for honour’,” Sammath waved his hands around, making quotation marks and speaking in a mocking tone in an attempt to indicate how stupid he thought the practice was, “especially if you’re not going to fight me yourself and just send your servant to beat me to a pulp.”
“Fine, then. I order you to accept my challenge.” The young noble’s face was beginning to redden again, and Sammath nearly laughed at the absurdity of the young boy, who must have only been about 15, trying to order him to fight his servant and get beaten up.
“I refuse.”
“I’m a nobleman. You can’t refuse me!”
“Well, actually, I can. I’m Volkarian. I’m not a citizen of Arikar. Even if I was, I’m pretty sure there’s some law that says you can’t order me to fight you ‘cause you felt like your fragile sense of honour was challenged by a word or two. Plus, you aren’t even a nobleman. I don’t know much about your stupid system, which is based more on lineage than merit, but I do know that you don’t get anything until your daddy or mummy are dead and usually only if you’re a firstborn. So, well, you actually aren’t a noble.” Sammath leaned in, briefly, debating how smart it was to antagonise the boy before discarding the thought; it sounded fun to do, so he’d do it and worry about the consequences later. Sammath’s face loomed closer to the noble’s, making the boy lean away and letting Sammath lean even further, until the boy was teetering on the edge of falling over. “Even if neither of those things were true, I give so little fucks about you and what you want to do that I could get my virginity back.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Now, the noble was just getting mad and stomped back to their carriage, “Take the carriage out back. I’ll wait for you inside to check in.”
With that said, the young noble made his way indoors, stomping past Sammath and slamming the door. Ashe looked up at Sammath, shaking his head, “What?” Sammath held his hands out, innocently, “What did I do?”
“You just had to provoke the noble, didn’t you?”
“He provoked me first,” Sammath tried to claim, but Ashe had heard Sammath mumble under his breath and knew the truth. Instead of doing anything, though, Ashe just shook his head and looked back down. After a few minutes, the noble’s servant came back around the front and took the door inside. Sammath tried to listen in on the conversation that the man was having with the clerk, but found that he wasn’t able to through the thick walls. Only a few minutes later, Sammath spotted Erin walking down the street, and he smiled, things were about to get good.
“Why are you standing outside the Inn?” Erin immediately got to the point and Sammath frowned.
Ashe spoke up from the paved road, “They weren’t letting us in. The clerk at the counter tried to tell us that staying one night was three gold. Pretty sure he was trying to get us to leave, but if we did pay it he was going to just pocket the extra himself.” Erin’s face darkened considerably, like a storm arriving right as the sun disappeared over the edge of the horizon.
Erin reached for the door, “Hold on.” Sammath told her. Mid-way through her reach, Erin turned and glared at Sammath.
“What?” She asked, her tone was hard, but Sammath didn’t take it personally; she was pissed at the Inn and her anger was bleeding through.
“Some noble kid tried to challenge me ‘for honour’ or something stupid a few minutes before you came. I refused and he got stroppy. Now, normally I wouldn’t care but he tried to order me to do stuff and seemed to think he was above everything. I don’t like people who think they’re better than others. So, with you here, I’m going to go and accept his challenge.
“Fine.” Erin gestured for Sammath to go ahead and Sammath took the lead, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. Jauntily whistling, Sammath positively bounced into the Blue Sail Inn.
“Hey!” The young noble exclaimed, a cup half-filled with tea preventing him from waving his hands about, “What are you doing in here, peasant. You obviously can’t afford this place and you’re dirtying the floor. Get out!”
Behind him, Sammath knew that Erin had just frowned, and her eyes had steeled. Looking up at the commotion, the concierge spotted Sammath, “Sir, I believe I explicitly told you to leave the premises unless you were going to pay for a room here.”
“Yep,” Sammath held up a hand to the concierge, “I’ll be getting a room and we’ll deal with you soon enough. Right now, though…” Sammath turned his smile to the young noble, “I believe you said you wanted to challenge me. Is that challenge still open?” Sammath’s grin had turned shark-like as he mimicked the large fish as best he could. Shrinking back from the smile, the young noble opened his mouth, but Sammath interrupted him, “Unless, of course, you’re a coward.”
“I’m no coward.” The young noble angrily stated, “The challenge is still open.”
“Then, since you want to nominate a champion, I’m assuming I can nominate one as well.”
“Of course. I would not be seen as unfair. Nominate whomever you want, so long as they’re at the second stage or below, like my champion.”
“Perfect,” Sammath’s wolfish grin immediately became blindingly happy, “Then I nominate…” Sammath waved his finger around the room.
“Sammath, no.” Erin tried to interject, seeing what Sammath was about to do but helpless to do anything without drawing attention to herself. She was annoyed at the noble, but not so much that she wanted to jeopardize her mission. Sammath, however, had no such qualms.
Sammath’s finger landed on Erin, whose red hair cascaded from the top of her head in loose ringlets and over her plain clothing. Erin’s gaze flashed red with fire, but Sammath ignored the warning as he locked eyes with the young nobleman, “Erin Dawnblaze.”
“You fucking idiot, Sammath.” Erin’s curse seemed to grate on the air. When Sammath had proclaimed Erin’s identity, what little motion there was in the room had stopped. Spitting his drink out in coughing hacks, the young noble’s eyes seemed to pop out of his skull as he paled considerably. At the counter, both the concierge and servant had immediately frozen, their eyes drawn to Erin as they assessed her.
Trying to regain his composure, the young noble spoke up, “There’s no way that she’s Erin Dawnblaze. Someone of her stature wouldn’t be caught with the likes of you, let alone dressed like that.”
“Looks like I underestimated your importance, princess, but it doesn’t matter now. Give them proof.” Sammath received an icy glare that nearly made him flinch as he suddenly realised that there would be very real, very painful repercussions for his actions. Her cover completely ruined, though, Erin suddenly blazed with fire even as she murdered Sammath with her gaze.
“That’s not proof. Any member of the Dawnblaze family could do that.” The young noble was on the back foot now, trying to erect some semblance of resistance to Sammath. He immediately lost all traction, though, when Erin retracted her flames and a shaft of solidified moonlight extended from her hand.
“How soon do you think the city’s arena could be ready for a challenge, Erin?” Sammath posited the question to Erin, trying to remain in control even though he actually had no idea.
Thankfully, Erin decided not to undermine him, “They could be ready the day after tomorrow for a noble’s honour match.”
“Uh, uh.” Sammath wagged his fingers, “An honour match between two nobles.” If Erin’s gaze was murderous before, it seemed that Sammath had just been resurrected for the express purpose of dying again. Sammath held his hands up innocently, “What? You think the city will remember that this started with little old me, once they hear you’re involved? Think again. Now, this is between you and him.” Sammath looked over to the concierge, “Oh, and unless you want your boss to hear you tried charging Erin, here three gold for a single night, we’ll be getting a room for a week.”
“O-o-of course, sir. Right away.” Immediately, the concierge stopped talking with the servant and grabbed a key, which he proceeded to place in Sammath’s proffered hand.
Erin took the lead, walking out of the room and to the left, where Sammath found a dining room waiting for them. Taking the doors on the right side of the room, furthest from the windows leading out to the street, Erin led the pair of them to a wide, heavily carpeted hallway. Right next to them was a set of stairs that led to the second storey of the Inn. Glancing at the key, Erin led the two of them upstairs. Stopping in front of the room, Erin gave the key to Ashe and told him to check the room out.
Taking the hint, Ashe unlocked the room and went inside. Erin stood outside the panelled door as Sammath carefully, slowly, stepped backwards. That didn’t seem to matter as, before Sammath could even react, Erin’s arm shot backwards and her hand wrapped itself around Sammath’s neck, smashing him into the wooden wall with a dull thud. Thankfully, the place was either made of decent materials or was enchanted, probably both, because it managed to hold up under the force.
Erin slowly turned to face Sammath, her feet moving to point at the boy even as she lifted him higher up the wall, “Ooohh, kinky. I wouldn’t usually go for girls but, considering this looks fun, I suppose I could erk-”
“Shut up, Sammath.” Erin pressed a knife to Sammath’s neck, “You just went too far, Sammath. You just put my mission in jeopardy. Give me a reason why I shouldn’t just kill you, right now.”
“Because you’re not going to.” Sammath managed to speak as Erin loosened her hand slightly.
Erin pressed her knife into Sammath’s throat, a small line of blood dribbling out of his neck, the small pain and the feeling of the running blood being Sammath’s indicators that it had broken skin, “That’s not a reason, Sammath. I told you to give me a reason.”
For the first time, Sammath’s eyes flashed, widening slightly in fear, “Because the people would notice, and you’d be arrested for murder. This isn’t self-defence, after all.”
“You said it yourself, Sammath. The people won’t notice. As soon as they find out about the honour duel, it’ll be seen as noble against noble. The person who started that duel will be largely forgotten. Plus, like you seem to hate, being a noble has its unfair advantages and I’ve also been licensed to kill when I’m on a mission, all of which means I would face very little backlash.”
“Because as much is Ashe is angry at me, he still wouldn’t just let you get away with killing me. Ashe would bargain with Cab to kill you, and neither of us know if he’d succeed with that.”
“Why does that matter?” Erin cocked her head, “Why should I care if Ashe tries to kill me. Yes, Cab would likely succeed but, if I killed you now and then ran with all my abilities, Ashe would have to spend some time bargaining with the demon and, by that time, I may be able to get back to a King or Queen Stage who can protect me.
“Three reasons; one, you don’t like uncertainty and you don’t know if you would be able to get away. Two, you don’t know what Ashe would offer and if he’d compromise his ideals for this, letting Cab kill whomever he wants and endangering Arikar. Three, you don’t know if that King or Queen Stage would be able to kill Cab and stop the demon from potentially killing more people, either in the battle or if point two comes to pass. Plus, you’ve already thought of all this, or you wouldn’t be threatening me.”
“You’re right,” Erin admitted, “but I don’t say that as any reason why I shouldn’t make sure you remember not to do this again because, consequences be damned, if you continue to jeopardize my mission, I will kill you.” Erin moved her knife downward, trailing over Sammath’s clothes and down to a very sensitive spot.
“Now, hold on, Erin.” Sammath felt his Adam’s apple bob up and his throat tightened in fear. Reflexively, he tried to pull away from the blade but found, unfortunately, that the wall his back was pressed against was in his way, “Don’t do anything too drastic.”
“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t make sure you remember.”
“Because I can be useful, and I’ll remember that you did it.”
“That is the point,” Erin tapped the knife against Sammath’s pants to emphasise the knife, “Give me a real reason.”
“What I meant was that, if you do this, I’ll remember and resent you. Every time I could help, while I won’t actively hinder you for fear of reprisal, I certainly won’t help you of my own volition.”
Erin pulled the knife away, tapping it against her chin and Sammath watched it intently. “You’re right. But if you didn’t come to the conclusion on your own, the lesson wouldn’t stick.” Sammath was dropped to the floor, his straightened legs barely absorbing any impact and hurting his knees slightly.
Erin turned away from Sammath, the knife already away… somewhere, and knocked on the door. Sammath felt around his neck, the thin line of blood having already started congealing, and caught a flash of teeth from Erin, “Wait… you weren’t actually going to do it, were you? You were just doing that because you could?” Sammath clutched at his privates, “You’re sick, Erin. Threatening a man’s balls like that… just for fun… that’s out of line.”
Erin turned around, her face grim and sombre, “I assure you. I meant every word.”
The door opened and Erin walked inside. Sammath thought he caught another tiny glimpse of teeth, but he couldn’t be sure, “Wait. Erin. Hold on. I’d rather you were kidding. Erin.” Erin chose not to answer, walking deeper into the room, “Erin, tell me you were kidding.” No response was forthcoming and Sammath stood in the doorway, clutching at his pants.
Ashe glared lightly at Sammath, “Are you coming in or are you going to stay in the hallway?”
“I’ll come in.” Sammath immediately moved into the room, letting go of his grip as he did so. “Thanks.” Sammath automatically said to Ashe, who reflexively replied by telling Sammath that he was welcome.
“I’m going to go to a room. I need some time to myself.” Ashe moved off, leaving Sammath alone… with Erin.
Deciding to take the initiative, Sammath pre-emptively steered the conversation to something that had remained on his mind for the last hour or so, something that Erin had brought up again when she’d threatened Sammath, “Erin.” She looked over, her red hair bobbing slightly, “I meant it when I asked if some marriages were forbidden for nobles.”
“Not anymore.” Erin shook her head, frowning, “They used to be, though, and there’s still a lot of pressure placed on nobles to marry into other nobility or to marry someone else with their bloodline.”
“That’s horrible. I don’t really like the idea of nobility; of people being raised to think that others are better than them or that they’re better than others; but being forced to marry someone whom you might not love is horrible, and if they’re related to you that’s disgusting as well as horrible. Wouldn’t there be issues with people being born with disfigurements?”
“I’ll answer the second part of that first, because it actually has an answer. The other part is a little more morally grey. In short, no there wouldn’t be issues with birth defects or physical issues. Yes, stuff like that can happen in Arikar and it does, but… most of them aren’t permanent. Our Bloodline powers correct our bodies, both as we grow older and as we grow them stronger. For people at the Key or Dawn stages, which are where most teenagers are, this is barely noticeable but it’s why Arikar’s average height, physical abilities, and health tend to be greater than nearly any other power. Only body cultivators tend to surpass our natural abilities, in those areas. Just like how things such as acne or small blemishes are often quickly corrected by our Bloodlines, birth defects can be completely eradicated if you put enough time and effort into growing stronger.
“Now, keep in mind that this could have been an evolutionary necessity of Bloodlines. All of the original Bloodlines came from small areas, with very few people and, in order to maintain the Bloodline; the thing that kept people either safe or healthy; people had to breed with others who had their Bloodline. It was only much later, a little before the Arikaran Kingdom was united into one power and true trade and travel began to spread and a few people began to mix Bloodlines. At this time, however, keeping the Bloodline pure was an idea that had existed for thousands of years, and had become so ingrained into traditional Arikaran culture that it carries through to this day, even thousands of years later. Because of the prolific inbreeding, the Bloodline’s ability to correct birth defects arose and the normal issues with incest and inbreeding were completely eradicated.
“This links back in to the first part of what you said about forced marriage. In order to maintain their Bloodlines, even after their world began to expand, people continued to breed with others of the same Bloodline. Now, when their children began associating with others of different Bloodlines and began to express interest in people of other Bloodlines, their parents forbid those relationships and made arrangements with others of the same Bloodline who, by that point, could be distantly related enough that there was very little risk of birth defects, even without Bloodlines. With the common people, this didn’t last very long as there were very little consequences for disobeying parents. With nobles, however, there was far more to risk for disobeying the arrangements, and this comes back to the purpose for which nobility was invented.
“Contrary to what you may believe, nobility was never intended to grow the way it has. When the first King, Arikar Bloodletter, took power over all of the kingdom of Arikar, he did so by travelling across the kingdom, which was more like a series of feudal states at the time, and defeating the warlords and chiefs that had taken over small sections of Arikar. For clarity, I’ll refer to the kingdom as Arikar and Arikar Bloodletter as the King. With each group of people that he defeated, he asked the people to elect someone to be placed in charge of them; someone that they trusted with all their hearts would be able to manage and lead them effectively; the noblest of the region. These people became the first barons of Arikar.
“Now, please keep in mind that the strongest of the people back then were at the Count Stage. Arikar is a huge place, and back then it seemed far bigger without enchanted vehicles to drive around and teleporters. The smallest of baronies is about 90,000 square kilometres, which is massive, but there is a total of 676 baronies in Arikar. By the time that he’d managed to take over the bottom left of the kingdom, the King had dozens of barons reporting to him and he realised that he couldn’t manage them all. With that, he gathered all of the barons and had them vote for the best amongst them to be raised to a viscount. As there grew to be too many viscounts, the King made the counts and countesses, to which marchionesses and marquesses were also appended.”
“Hold on, what’s the difference between those?”
“Marchionesses and marquesses protect the borders of the country. They’re given more responsibility than counts and tend to be stronger, even when they’re the same rank. With each increase in rank, the expectations and duties of the nobles increased and, to counter that, the benefits of the role also increased. After the counts and countesses, the dukes and duchesses, then archdukes and archduchesses were added. The King promoted some of the people that he trusted most, his brother and sister, to archduke and archduchess and gave them the title of Grand Prince and Grand Princess. As such, the archdukes were said to be the noblest and most responsible people in all of Arikar and, with his trust placed in his nobles, the king managed to push all the way to the fifth stage – the Archduke stage – before old age prohibited him from getting any stronger.
“As this was hundreds of years into the King’s reign, the King could no longer move around Arikar himself, so he raised his three most trusted advisors into a special noble position; the Grand Dukes and Duchesses. These grand dukes and duchesses were the King’s general, the King’s head of national security, and the man in charge of ensuring the Kingdom’s most basic supply requirements were met. Each of these advisors were amongst the best and most powerful of all the King’s subordinates and were given jurisdiction second only to the King themselves, but no land to rule over so that they would have the time and ability to travel around manage the country in addition to their other duties.”
“But what does this have to do with forced marriage?” Sammath was genuinely confused because, as much as what Erin was saying was interesting, it ultimately meant nothing to him.
“Hold on, I’m getting to that. So, by this point in time, almost every noble was at least at the Dusk stage, with increasingly small groups at each successive stage in power, but there were none of the original nobles still alive and, at the very least, their children were in power, and, in many cases, a number of generations had passed. This meant that many of the nobility weren’t nearly as noble as their ancestors and weren’t as well-regarded. None of them had fallen into depravity, like we’ve seen under the reigns of some monarchs, but they were afraid of losing the benefits that their ancestors had been granted. In order to retain them, each of the nobles decided to keep building up their family’s strength so that others couldn’t challenge them. In order to do so, each noble family restricted the marriage of their children to others of the same Bloodline, so that the future nobility of the kingdom would receive all the knowledge about their Bloodline that all of their ancestors had collected before them, giving specialised training that would make them stronger and progress through the stages faster. Getting training like this made the nobles far harder to usurp for any of the common people, who didn’t have the same information and training with their own Bloodlines, and also ensured that the noble families would continue to remain too useful with their power for the ruler of Arikar to replace easily.
“When added to the social pressure that people already experienced to keep their Bloodlines ‘pure’, this meant that marrying outside of your Bloodline was almost unheard of. By the time the first ruler reached the seventh stage, a law had been implemented that you weren’t allowed to marry outside of your Bloodline, so that each successive generation could further improve and refine the abilities of their ancestors, building up the strength of Arikar so that it could compete with other rising powers like the Order and the School. It was at this point that the minimum stages one needed to be to gain a noble rank was established; a baron needed to be stage one, so it was called the Baron stage, a Viscount needed to be stage 2, so it was called the Viscount stage, and so on. With these requirements in place, the need to keep Bloodlines pure and refine training techniques and information further was greater than ever so, even if the law had been abolished, almost no family would have risked breeding outside of the Bloodline.
“The law regarding marrying outside of Bloodlines was finally removed just before the current Queen’s great grandfather abdicated the throne, about 2000 years ago. By this time, thousands of years had passed and two or three people were reaching the seventh and final stage under each ruler, so it was deemed that Arikar knew enough about Bloodlines and how to train them that it didn’t matter if your Bloodline was completely pure or if it was mixed, because you’d be able to reach the strength you needed, despite not necessarily having thousands of years of collated knowledge about your Bloodline available to you.
“For the first 500 years or so, no nobles had children outside of their Bloodlines as many of the noble children had direct ancestors, either their parents or grandparents, who had lived during the time in which Bloodline marriages were the only legal union between nobles. Now, even after another 1500 years, only a small percentage of nobles will have children with someone who doesn’t wield the same Bloodline as them, and I’ve only heard of one direct heir who did so. Their position was immediately given to their younger sibling because of the younger sibling’s ‘greater prospects’. An immense social pressure to breed with another of the same Bloodline is still felt by nearly every noble, and only minor nobles such as Barons and Counts are beginning to have the pressure lightened, as they don’t have any ancestors that were alive in those 500 or so years, but they still feel the pressure from more important nobles, like dukes, who tend to set the standards of nobility.”
“But what about you? You’re pretty high up, aren’t you?”
“I am… unique in that regard as I am the child of the head of the Dawnblaze house and the sister of the head of the House of the Crescent Blade. The two houses – which have been enemies for nearly as long as Arikar has been a kingdom – decided that a political marriage to tie the houses together was best for the kingdom’s unity going forward. I am not the heir of either house, despite being the only child of my father, and will likely never be.”
“So, what you’re saying is that, while the marriages aren’t forbidden legally, there is a lot of stigma around the marriages that limit them to very few nobles?”
“Yes.”
“So, I can still trick a dumb, noble hunk into falling for me and pampering me, so I never have to do anything for myself ever again? Phew.” Sammath exaggerated wiping sweat off his brow, “That was a close call.”
A small smile twitched at the edges of Erin’s mouth, but she quickly drew it back down into a scowl, “Yes, you can still get a dumb, noble hunk to fall for you. Be wary of his parents or grandparents, though. They may not be so welcoming.”
Sammath waved Erin off, “That’s fine. I’ve always thought that my parents in law were going to hate me anyway.”
“Oh, of course. Nobles especially. If the Volkarian complete disregard of all authority didn’t do it, they’d be blaming you for not producing any heirs.”
“Come now, Erin.” Sammath grinned, “I could just adopt. I’m sure a personality as sparkling as mine would be able to convince them to accept at least that much.”