The light stones in the room were dimmed and the fire was turned up in the fire place as Arthur began narrating the Lord’s story.

“Elf, the Great Lord of Lavias is no ordinary man. He has ruled over this city for more than 200 summer.” Arthur began orating the story as all master story tellers would. His ability was so great that the images of day and night reversing actually flashed before Weed.

“What!” Weed exclaimed in shock. ‘Two hundred summers would mean the Lord is over two hundread years old…yet he looks so young!’

Weed looked at the Lord to say something however when he noticed the Lord was not going to speak, he turned his attention to Arthur. Weed wondered whether these two were still joking around with him…

‘..you can never know with these two...’ Weed thought. Just to be sure he politely asked, “Sure you must be joking?”

“Is that some mistake?” Weed asked again, finding it hard to believe.

“I would never insult my lord by lying about his age or mistake it.” Arthur shot back. “Listen to the story before interrupting it curious elf!”

Weed hid inside the armchair, hoping to escape the scolding.

“My lord was not always like this. He was just an ordinary man before…much much before..before becoming Lord of Lavias, he reigned as crown prince of much smaller estates.”

Once again images flashed in front of Weed. Weed could clearly see a younger lord and small farming estates in the background. Weed could tell by the countours and color of the scenary in the background that the smaller estates weren’t located in Lavias. Weed knew the lands, hills and mountains of Lavias well.

“Long long ago, the land Lavias as we know it today was riddled with darkness. The beautiful forests you see were plagued with evil and darkness. These lands were originally home of monsters. Our young lord was an ambitious soul who grew unsatisfied by the day with his small estates. Our Lord was young and thirsty for adventure. He seeked more lands for himself and greater power. Thus our Lord decided to journey into the forbidden lands as these were called back in the day and bring light & harmony to the damned.”

Weed could see a lone young lord, climbing on to a white steed and venturing into darker lands, where the light did not reach. He could see the lord gallop on his horse crossing rotting twisted trees, slaying monsters as he sped along.

“It was our lord who brought the light to these lands with his sheer courage and power alone. He slayed monsters after monsters. Emptied dungeons and monster stronghold’s alone. Many wondered if our Lord did not understand the fear of dying? They initially called him a fool for risking his life everyday. However, slowly people noticed that the Lord was completely invincible. There was no monster that could hold its ground against the Lord. Monsters came in all shapes, sizes, powers and numbers. Our lord defeated them all. Many men began gather under my Lord’s sword. They realized that under the sword of the Lord they had a chance of expelling the darkness that plagued the lands.”

Weed could see initially one or two people joined after awhile there tens of people joining and a bit later hundreds joined. The young Lord had grown and matured and now commanded several vast armies under him. Weed was impressed; he wondered what the level of the Lord was. Everytime he tried to use his identify skill it would only show ???. ‘Tch…his level is far too above mine for me to know how high it is…’

“Some say the elves lent the Lord a hand. Do not trust those stories they are but an embellishment of the truth intending to reduce the true glory our Lord garnered. It is true that the elves lived in these lands much before the lord occupied them, but they did not mind the darkness. The darkness could not taint their hearts, minds or souls. Hence, the chose not to do anything about it. Few creatures are foolish to encourage the wrath of the elves…”

Weed could see vivid images flickering that whilst the Lord fought along side his armies against legions of monsters, the elves would drop by for a picnic and bask in the entertainment.

“Within this story lies another story…this story took place one hundred and sixty summers ago. On the night of the first winter for that year, a foolish foot soldier from the now forgotten sixth infantry unit was enraptured by the beauty of a foolish female elf. The female elf had decided to watch the long painful march of our soldiers for her pleasure. While we humans struggle to walk in snow, the elves can merrily skip and dance on it with no difficulty…this female elf was no different. She laughed and giggled as she danced around the tired soldiers. She teased them as she went about like this. Elves don’t behave like this normally, this was but a youngling…unaware that her little stunt enamoured the hearts of the soldiers…”

Arthur paused as he sipped some bottled water that lay next to him. The Lord and his eyes were looking at something in the distant past and remained silent.

“And then?” Weed asked impatiently. He was most curious to know what happened. He could guess that the soldier did something to the elf but he wanted to hear it from Arthur’s mouth which had the ability to bring up visual images.

“It has long been said that humans must never lay sight on the doings of elves or meddle in their affairs for the consequences are always rivers human blood. Humans are meddlesome creatures, we may aren’t just satisfied playing politics amongst ourselves and usually interfere with everyone’s one elses affairs. The only exception to this rule are the elves. Elves are a race not to be trifled with and that tradition has been set in stone. Yet, this foolish soldier forced himself upon an elven woman. It is a vile crime forbidden even amongst humans. The young female elf was strong she and she was easily able to resist the foolish soldier’s advances. However, she could not resist the vile man after this fiendish comrades joined hands in the act. They deflowered her and cast her aside as one throws away chewed chicken bones… their misdeeds went unnoticed and kept a secret from the Lord. Those foolish men’s savage hunger brought the wrath of the elven race upon the entire army…Doomed! We all were doomed! A complete massacre.” Arthur shivered slighted as he recalled that night.

“Wait then how did the lord survive?” Weed interrupted. He wasn’t interested in the verbose drivel of the orator.

Arthur crossed his eyes, he disliked being disturbed. “The first night marked the night of crimison full moon. Cries of creatures rung throughout the forest and a cold breeze began to pick pace. We dismissed the howling and the chills for the ordinary…but truth be told, the wind began to freeze each man to the bones. We were stopped dead in our tracks. We knew something was wrong, even the treacherous darkness was receding for it feared something much greater than us. Our Lord took notice of this unnatural behavior and decided to set camp. He sent many scouts into the forest but none returned. He sent many messangers to request for reinforcement but none returned. Our Lord, was suspicious but he held his silence for he did not want his soldiers to panic.”

Weed began to feel the chilly wind as Arthur explained it. After a bit, he even saw snow falling. There were hundreds of thousands of men rubbing their arms as they tried to keep warm.

“The snow fell harder and faster. The winds became colder and more violent. Our tents either collapsed under the weight of the snow or were blown away. Our breath was crystalizing before our very eyes and fogging our own vision. We decided to trudge on so that the exercise would heat our bodies but to no avail. With barely any visibility we all were soon separated.”

There were images of soldiers walking in small groups or alone. There was literally zero visibility as a thick blanket of snowfall blocked the soldier’s vision.

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“And then?” Weed asked. He was completely absorbed in the story.

“Then?...Then the elves struck. Vengenance burned in their hearts, taste for human blood was all they craved for and their swords reflected not an inkling of mercy. They were swift and fatally silent. One by one, men of the sixth infantry fell. The only traces of their corpses vanished along with their souls as the snow buried them. Slowly but surely we all sensed the danger lurking above our heads. We knew our comrades were falling and there was little we could do. My lord grew bitterer and bitterer as he cursed and swore to slaughter those responsible. But even my lord did not know it was the doing of the elves or the undoing of the foolish soldiers. At long last, it was just my lord and I. Even the Lord’s personal guards had been killed before the lord’s very own eyes.”

Weed sat at the edge of his seat. He could see that soldiers were simply collapsing to the ground as if their legs gave away.

“They were killed with arrows. My Lord knew that the creatures to have shot arrows in such a storm could be no ordinary creature. If any ordinary human shot an arrow in such a gusty storm his arrow would have surely danced with the winds but this was different. The arrows that killed the personal guards of the Lord were elite soldiers; these arrows flew straight even such harsh winds to kill them. It was then that my Lord had guessed it was the work of elves. Only they had the power to pull of such stunts. At long last my Lord unsheathed his holy sword, Exodus and I unsheathed the Excalibur.”

Weed’s eyes gleamed at the mention of the sword names. Their names resonated with the power that they were hiding.

“Like my lord, these were no ordinary swords. Twin blades forged of the same dragon scale in the southern territories of the fire kingdom by the great blacksmiths Van Stagh Ivaldi and his apprentice Utmiz Balkan.”

“Ivaldi! Utmiz Balkan!” Weed blurted out at the mention of the names. He had the scroll of the Sons of Ivaldi and Theodore Balkan was the son of Utmiz Balkan…Weed grew excited, in the most unlikely of places he found a connection to his master and a clue to the Ivaldi Society.

Arthur simply ignored Weed’s interruption and continued. “Dragon Blades are the most powerful ones in all of Versailles for they contain within them the residue of the dragon from which they are forged.”

An image of the Lord and Arthur unsheating their swords flashed in front of Weed.

“Our blades resonated as we pulled them out. Imbued with mysterious powers, the elves dared not approach us. They may have been daring with our men but exerted complete caution with us. That was the power of fright that our mighty blades carried. At first the elves fired arrows but we easily dodged those or cut them down. Then some dared to lunge themselves at us but we fended them off. First, they challenged us in ones, then in twos and then threes. However, my Lord who has been bless by His Grace could easily hold his own against an army of elves. The elves grew frustrated and they mixed in arrows with their swordplay. Nonetheless, my lord and I held our ground and prevailed.”

“How?” Weed asked in astonishment. ‘If elves are such a powerful race then a mere human cannot by any means pose a challenge to them…’

“To begin with we were no ordinary soldiers. My lord has always been beyond ordinary, his exceptional sword skill and lightening reflexes surpasses those that is possessed by the elf. There is no explanation for this that my Lord can give but if old granny’s rumors are to believed it is said that the Lord’s mother acquired the blessing’s of His Grace for her son, the lord.”

Weed wondered what was meant by the blessing… ‘If I could get my hands on those blessings…’

“I am not so exceptional but have been trained by the Lord personally. I may not surpass an elf but I am surely on par with them.” Arthur continued. “Then in addition to our inhuman poweress there is our swords which grants us abilities beyond any human’s wildest imaginations…”

Weed’s eyes were nearly bulging out of their sockets. He was desperate to acquire power given his low level and neutral affinity. The thought of a sword holding power beyond the comprehension of a human’s imagination had him drooling. If he had not met the lord in these circumstances, he would have surely robbed the lord of his sword.

“I digress…” Arthur said as he noticed Weed’s mouth drooling with temptation. “…when the elves realized that they could not defeat us they dropped the charade. The snow, the winds everything chaotic came to a stop. It was then that an high elf approached us with a group of wood elves surrounding him. They carried with them the lifeless body of the young female elf.”

A group of elves in silver armour appeared before Weed. There were two lines of six elves each and in the center stoof an elf taller than the rest in a white gown carrying an elven corpse.

“My lord then understood the reasons for their anger. He reasoned with them that the judgement had been carried with the decimation of the entire sixth infantary but the wood elves would not listen. They reasoned that a parent is responsible for how its seed turns out to be. Therefore, it must be that the Lord had to take responsibility. However, my lord was much too ambitious to surrender his life, he instead offered the Exodus to the elves.”

Weed mouth dangled open in horror. The sword he hoped to steal or acquire by any means was handed over to the elves!

“The elven eyes gleamed in greed. They were quick to have forgotten the purpose they originally fought for and each eyed the dragon blade hungrily. They quickly took the blade for themselves and then demanded my life as well to settle the matter! Elves no matter how noble from the outside are a devious scheming bunch from the inside. We resisted with more reasoning but without his blade my Lord was in no position to bargain.”

Arthur choked slightly and turned teary as he recalled the events.

“My lord instead offered himself. He did not care for ambitions when weighing the value of his student. The high elf was stirred by such a gesture and unlike the wood elves he was not moved by the greed to acquire the blade for himself. Thus, he took it upon himself to pass the judgement. Firstly, he confiscated both blades and sealed their powers with his. When we received back the twin blades they had been reduced to mere ordinary blades. This upset the wood elves who had wanted the blades for themselves. The high elf would not be moved by their wimps; with their lust for the blades gone they became easier to reason with. Just as we thought our punishment had been handed the high elf put one last curse on us…”

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Authors Note:

1. Happy Reading!

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