One week after the catastrophic Red Mist army laid waste to Avalon, another disaster had struck. Though the councils and the Royal family tried to hide it and play it off, tension was running higher than ever. Everyone was scheming their plans; everyone was afraid of each other. The night before, the thunder had spoken, and it mentioned a prize to a true heir to the throne. Not even finished settling the aftermath of war, the heads of Avalon were already set for another war.
Of course, the news quickly spread like wildfire; even a poor beggar on the street knew about the story. The king, Henry Leon, immediately ordered that nobody could pursue this any further except for him and the Royal family themself. For the human, it was very simple; from what they could understand, what those words meant was
“You find the treasure, and you’ll be king !”
That was something Azar failed to understand, why just a few words could cause such chaos to a nation. So he came right to the woman of the moment, the one that everyone was looking for, Sasha Olivera. She was the one wielding the legendary sword that was kept by the stone all this time. And everyone expected that either it meant the sword was the real treasure or the key to the treasure. But whatever it was, Sasha was now in a lot of unwanted attention and danger.
Just that morning, when the news barely broke out, he spotted three councilmen personally coming and meeting with Sasha. Undoubtedly, they wanted to talk about the sword she wielded and if she knew anything. However, there was one problem, Sasha did not know how to activate the sword. That time, when she faced the Red Mist, it was a one-time thing; she could not replicate it ever since. And without it, the legendary sword was just a normal old steel weapon, nothing special, no matter how many times they checked it. Azar found a rare moment in the day when she was completely alone after her training and got a secret chat with her.
They snuck their way out of the castle and met at the back of the church, where Sasha knew they would be safe.
“It’s pure chaos right now !” Sasha frustratingly said, “ The council's members are going crazy for the treasure. Some even sent me encrypted messages after the king had ordered everyone to stop looking into this.”
“That’s what I’m wondering. What is the treasure ? How did you know !?”
Sasha came prepared. She opened a history book and showed Azar
“On the stone, there is a clear symbol of the Holy Grail.” Sasha pointed at an old drawing of a golden cup with some colorful jewels decorated on its sides.
“So … !??!”
“The Grail was said to have the ability to grant internal youth, basically immortality. Just like what was promised on the stone, IMMORTALITY.” Sasha’s eyes got more intense by the second “It promises that the one who finds it shall become king. And now …”
“Everyone is going for glory.” Azar laughed ironically. But this time, Sasha wasn’t feeling any of it. Instead, she just quietly stared at Azar until he too became quiet.
“Why are you asking about this ?” Sasha’s eyes were like a raging storm, looking deep into Azar’s heart.
“I have no interest whatever that treasure is ...” Azar firmly replied, “I’m just curious, what exactly was written on the stone ?”
Sasha sighed, after a few moments of hesitation and finally told Azar the whole story.
After hearing the full story, Azar just laughed out loud to himself.
“A true immortality that only a king can have” Azar laughed like a madman. “Oh, you greedy fools … None of you can have it.”
“Wait, What ?!?!” Sasha instantly responded, “Isn’t it the Holy Grail !?!”
Azar just shook his head and walked away. Sasha grabbed him by the arm and asked.
“And you know what it is ?!!”
“I don’t know for sure. But if I am right, we are in for a hell of a ride ….”
Azar ended their talk about the mysterious prophecy and walked Sasha back to the castle.
“Do you have any desire for the prize, Sasha?” Azar softly asked her in his husky voice.
“I don’t want to even entertain the thought !” Sasha coldly replied.
“Not even the throne and power is enough for you,” Azar chuckled. “Just think about how much good you can do with that power.”
Sasha stood still quietly, seemingly in deep thought about what Aza had just said. Then she gave Azar the 'Death’s stare.'
“If I remember correctly, Azar. You were the one that wanted the opportunity to change the world” Sasha’s incriminating gaze pierced through Azar’s soul. “Now such an opportunity comes along, and you suddenly urge me to participate ?...”
“I won’t be anybody’s puppet !!!” She whispered into Azar’s ear, “Remember that !”
“Commander Sasha !” Two human male interrupted their conversation. Both were wealthy; Azar could tell just by the number of rings on their fingers. But more than that, the way they walked and the tone of their voice told Azar that these two were very likely coming from Avalon’s high council.
“May we have a word with you ?” their voice may sound low and weak; however, it was difficult to erase that bit of commanding and arrogance from their everyday life.
“I have work to do !” Sasha brushed them off. Just like what she told Azar, Sasha did not want any part of this madness. But it did not matter if she wanted to or not; the fact was, she was the only one that could wield the sword, and they would drag her in one way or the other.
Sasha walked past right through them without a second thought,
“Wait, Miss _” One of the men reached out. But Azar stepped between them and Sasha.
“Rude …” he stopped them of any intention of advancing forward.
“Those two look quite familiar …” Azar softly told Sasha.
“They should be. You have met them before” Sasha glared back at the two middle-aged men. “They were with you on the high tower.”
“None of them made any impression on me,” Azar shrugged.
“The one on the left, thin hair, white tunic with a big fat ruby ring, is Kelvin Phillip. He is mainly in charge of our financial decisions, trading, taxes, and so on... Oh and you completely humiliated his son Harry Phillip one that day !”
“The little brat had it coming ...” blunt and harsh as ever, coming from Azar.
“And on the right, tall, skinny, blond, blue rope with the shifty eyes, he is Solomon Rivian, the headmaster of the Elite Academy ...”
“ Ohh ?! …” Azar could not believe his luck. “You don’t seem very fond of your old headmaster. That’s to be expected.”
“What is there to like, under his hand, the Elite Academy is as rotten as can be” Sasha's eyes flicker with ember within her frosty piercing blue eyes. “But the thing that I most worry about is, those two should never be seen together. As far as I can remember, they have been sworn enemies.”
A faint smile on Azar’s cheeks “ So, either they just joined an alliance, or they were on each other's throats trying to see what the other knows. And either way, it is going to get messy ….”
“They think that it has something to do with the sword. But I don’t know, the sword looks normal, there isn’t even a carving on the handle, not to mention the blade.”
Sasha’s words hit Azar like a bolt of lightning.
“May I have a look at the sword then, please ?” Azar reached out with a kind smile on his face.
After a second of thought, Sasha shrugged and showed him the Sword of Avalon.
“It’s so obvious….” Azar thought to himself.
“You’re right, Sasha. The blade is clean and simple. No carving or inscription whatsoever.” he touched the blade and waited for Sasha’s reaction.
“Yeah … I know that already” Sasha’s eyes went curious and suspicious. She noticed that Azar wasn’t looking at the blade, but rather, he was watching her. So she knew that Azar had lied again; he had no interest in the sword. The only question was, why?
Azar gave Sasha her sword back and said his farewell.
“Now I just need to figure out what those words mean.”
It was irritatingly obvious to Azar that he had made a mistake the first time he examined the sword. He had totally brushed off the weird unknown human words on the blade. Azar could not sense any magic in it, so he assumed that it was normal inscriptions on the blade and everyone could see it. However, it was magic after all, and only those with special abilities such as himself could see it with their naked eyes. That realization just gave Azar even more headaches when digging back into memories. The inscriptions were always there, at least through Azar’s eyes, from when it was just a normal steel blade or when Sasha unleashed her power and the sword was on fire. The question on Azar’s mind was, could the human see the inscription when its power was shown in its true form. Most of them were too far away to see it or too busy focusing on something else; even Sasha did not seem to notice.
Azar walked back to the church alone. When he stepped foot inside the main hall, there was only the sound of silence. No one was there except for him and the giant stone statue of God.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Carl …” Azar spoke to the statue. “Promising them power ?!? What are you thinking ?!!”
“This can only end badly and you know it !”
“One disaster after another, this will destroy Avalon ! Is this what you have in mind !?!”
Azar sat there and stared at the stone statue. He did not know what he was expecting when he did this. Azar had never been able to meet God by himself.
“Bloody hell Carl … you sure have a strange way to show that you care ….”
Suddenly, from the corner of his ears, a light footstep was reaching him.
“I never thought I would see someone like you here.” Mary, the older nun, called out to Azar.
“And you probably never will again. This … thing doesn’t work at all.”
“He always listens to what you say, Azar. It's just that when time gets hard, it becomes more difficult for us to hear what he replies.”
“How can you people still have so much faith, even when so much horror is happening? Have you ever questioned, where is God ? Or why did he let so much carnage rain down on you ?”
“I believe that it was what God wanted, and it was all part of a plan.”
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Azar sneered. “I know he has a plan. But why do you people think that he has a good plan !?”
Mary just smiled kindly and shook her head slightly. “And how do you know that he doesn’t have a good plan?”
“Just look around you. Look at the blood stains on the streets. Look at all the grieving people. Look at the result, how is that a good plan ?”
“And how do you know that he is finished ?” Mary replied with a rather cheeky smile. “We are always rushing to a conclusion, Azar. But life is like a work of art. We can only judge how good it is until it is finished.”
Azar sighed longly and gave it a few seconds to take it all in before finally.
“And what about all those who died on that day. What was God's plan for them? For them to die young and in horror ? They only have one life to give, so is that fair ?”
That moment of silence lingered in the church until Azar decided to walk away.
“Sometimes, people need someone to believe in, someone more powerful than themself. To lead them through the darkness, to guide them through harsh times. And it’s faith that helps them through all of them. It doesn’t really matter if you truly believe he exists or not.” Mary called out to Azar.
Azar turned his head and gave her the cold and restless eyes. “ I don’t care what you believe or what God you pray to. But if all you do is pray and wait for a miracle to happen, this is how it would end ….”
***********************
“Ok, let's see what we got …” Azar spent his time in Tolemac’s massive library, trying to decipher the strange language. It was one of the few buildings fortunate enough to be spared in the war. Hours passed by, and dozens of old and dusty books later, Azar still couldn’t translate what those words meant. The moon was already high, and the young librarian had asked him to leave for the third time now. But Azar wasn’t moving an inch. So, in the end, they just left him there, alone in the library and locked the door. Throughout the night, Azar kept searching for all the books he could find. He looked for any similarity, any symbol that matched what he saw, … but nothing came up. When the light shined through the library's colored glass windows, and the people walked through the front door, they still saw Azar there. The number of books he had taken almost reached three figures, yet his focused, intelligent eyes still looked restless. It was uncommon for those humans to witness someone like Azar spend so much time reading just books in general. Azar had made a name for himself as a strong and brave fighter, and his physic added clearly showed. Normally, men like him would rarely be caught holding a book. Many couldn’t even read. But in Azar, they saw that thirst for knowledge that could only be seen in old scholars. As the number of books kept growing, Azar started to notice the number of humans inside the library started to grow, and many were just there to look at him. Soon enough, the chattering of the humans broke the once peaceful silence library. And if he thought that the librarians would help, … they were the ones that talked the loudest. They wondered why a man like him was there in the first place. They were curious about what he was reading. And for a handful of human females, they were just there to feed their eyes on him. He wasn’t going to get an answer from here. After putting all the books back in their place, Azar swiftly got out of there.
Azar must have read through over 100 books in that library. But none of them mentioned any lost ancient language or had anything similar to what he saw.
“Maybe this language doesn’t belong to Avalon ?”
Humans had hundreds of current and forgotten languages spread all over the world. If Azar did not even know where to start, it would take a long while. Luckily for him, Azar did know a person who had traveled the human world quite frequently.
**************************
“Munir, I may need to borrow you and your father for a moment.” Azar had another meeting in Munir’s residence.
Just like the last time, Munir poured the both of them a cup of wine
“My father might be too busy to meet you right now. Is there anything I can help ?”
“Yeah, maybe …” Azar gave him a small leather sheet. “Have you ever seen any language like this before ?”
Munir examined the strange language carefully.
“It does look kinda … familiar …” Munir scratched his head.
“Hello master Azar !” a warm and cheerful voice broke Munir’s flow of thought.
“Father ??!!”
Munir’s adopted father, Salazar Barbossa, the Desert Falcon guide master. Tall, charming, and with deep brown intelligence eyes, Salazar was truly a cut above the rest when it came to class. He reached out and shook Azar’s hand.
“Humh ?….”
Azar felt quite a grip on the human hand. If not for the slight wrinkle on his forehead or a few gray hairs on his curly raven hair, Azar would have never guessed Salazar was a relatively old human.
“Please, let me introduce myself. I’m Salazar Barbossa, Munir's adopted father.”.
Azar nodded slightly. “Azar, I’m the guy who saved your son back in the day.”
“You are a very inclusive man, master Azar. Pardon my speculation but, you’re not the kind of man who swings by just for a visit, are you ?”
Munir gave his father the piece of leather.
“Can you translate this for me ?” Azar asked.
Salazar narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin. “How do you get your hands on something like this !??”
“I saw it in a book I read today. Just want to know what it means, that’s all….”
Salazar gave Azar a faint smile and the eyes that spoke, ‘I know you’re lying.
“I can’t give you a good translation, but it roughly says, “At the highest tower, where mortals could touch the cloud, it is where you can see the treasure.”
“Thank you” Azar swiftly stood up and left in a hurry. No word needed to exchange, but Azar and Salazar knew the other party was on to them.
“Father, where did you learn that from ???”
“That is the ancient, nearly forgotten language from Arcane. It is only meant to be used for engraving on the tombstone of the old kings. Not something one would find in a random book ….”
“Arcane ?! You mean the words of the warlocks ?!? So, Azar lied … ?”
“And he knows that I know. That’s why he decided to leave so soon.”
“The highest tower …”. Azar wandered across Tolemac. But he could only do so much as a human. Tolemac was too huge for a mere human to cover in a day. So when darkness took over the sky, Azar flew up to the cloud and watched from above.
Only a handful of buildings were noticeably taller than the rest, besides some of the obvious such as The Citlali or the castle, places where Azar doubted the so-called Holy Grail was kept. However, Azar was quick to tell that all of them were fairly new and based on the strange language, it was old and ancient and so should be where it was hidden.
“I’m still missing something ….”
And the only way for him to figure it out was more research. So Azar buried himself in the library again; this time, at least he got a better clue of what he should look for.
*************************
“Why does the king summon us so early ?” Munir and his father hastily went to the council's hall.
“I think I know why …” Salazar sighed.
Behind the door, the king was waiting for the two of them.
“Greeting, your highness.” They bowed respectfully.
“It has come to my attention that you both have come into contact with Azar recently.” Henry went straight to the point. “Is there anything we should know ?”.
It was as Salazar expected; Azar was tailed. Perhaps Azar still had not fully recognized his position at the time, but he had made a name for himself. So something like spending a whole day reading through hundreds of books would certainly raise some eyebrows, especially in a time like this.
“Did you tail him ?” Munir bluntly raised his voice.
However, neither the king, his father, nor the councils replied to him. They just brushed him off, and in a way, that was their answer.
“Nothing, he just came in for a quick visit with my son.” Salazar tried to shrug it off like nothing was going on. “You know, boys. They came back, had a little drink, probably after fooling around with some young women ….”
“How about you can tell us the truth, Salazar” Henry’s voice grew more intense after every word. “You know, the Desert Falcon and Avalon have a great relationship so far. It would be such a shame if a small misunderstanding like this would lead to all that effort and time being thrown away.”
“Like my father said, he just came for a visit _.”
“Your highness, ... General !” A group of soldiers suddenly entered the council's hall. “We found something !”. They brought the piece of leather with them.
“So this is why you summon us out of the blue !!!” Salazar glared.
“That's a clear violation of our _ !!!”
“You’re lucky I don’t pursue your involvement any further !” Henry examined the strange language himself before. “What does this mean ?”
“We don’t know,” Salazar replied. Munir gave his father a particular glance before quickly adding.
“He came in, asked if we could help him, and we couldn't, so he left. That’s all there is to it.”
“If you’re lying, you will be directly helping a foreign force and shall be deemed responsible for whatever happens next. You should know that.”
“Like I said, we don’t know anything about it" Salazar bowed lightly and walked out. “ If we ‘re done here, and you’re not going to threaten one of your biggest contributors any further, we will take our leaves.”
“If you tell anybody about _.”
“We won’t tell a soul. The Desert Falcon doesn’t want anything to do with whatever this is.”
“Father, you lied …!” Munir and his father came back home, where the king’s soldiers had just turned upside down.
“In times like this, Munir, it’s best to stay neutral. Of course, we don’t want to betray the current king. But helping him would mean directly turning on Azar. And we both know that we don’t want a man like him to be our enemy. Besides, with the current state, we don’t even know for sure if the crown would remain on his head after this.”
**************************
Henry wanted this to remain a secret, but how could he entrust his fate to the hands of two foreigners like Munir and Salazar. So, he called for some of his most trusted hands to decipher the leather in the end. But not an hour later, the first wave of chaos hit Tolemac and Azar witnessed it in its full glory. He was just about to come back to the library until
“What books did he read !?!” A human male in full armor grabbed one of the librarians by the collar, not too harsh to make it obvious that he was threatening her, but just enough to intimidate her. The librarians stuttered and started to talk gibberish.
“We have an order from our lord to borrow all of them !”
Azar peeked inside the library from a good distance away, Azar peeked inside the library. … Chaos.
It seemed like there was more than one faction at work. There was no coordination. The humans were rushing to gather everything they could get their hands on. His dragon’s hearing also picked up on some threatening exchanges that the other librarian was facing. The people wearing uniforms inside were more like bandits than soldiers. The only thing to draw the line was physical confrontations; other than that, it was a free for all. Just less than a minute, some had rushed out with at least a dozen books in their arms. Forgoing the cries of the librarians, they took everything they wanted.
When the Royal Guards got there, it was almost too late; hundreds of books must have been taken away from the library already. The king and the general were there personally, and they ordered the library to shut down until further notice. And the following hours were the most eventful time Tolemac had ever had since the Red Mist. The king ordered his soldiers to search every house of the noble families for any books they might have stolen from the library. The king promised that if they handed it over, they wouldn’t be searched… that was a lie. Even those who handed over the books were still being searched thoroughly. Any book that they might find would be destroyed.
Azar watched that night alongside Munir and Sasha as the soldiers entered every noble's residence and took away every book they could find. Then, they gathered them all together in the middle of the city and burned all the books. That night, the fire from the books lit the city up while the smell of burned leather and old wood filled the nostrils of thousands of citizens who stood and witnessed the whole procedure. The king did not sentence any punishment to the nobles. He just punished the books and the library instead. The only reason for that was he did not know who really stole those books and who was innocent. But from how strongly the human king reacted, Azar understood that Henry was on the edge of insanity, and the next incident wouldn’t go away so peacefully.
“The city is literally descending into fire …” Munir whispered.
Sasha turned to Azar
“If you know how to end this madness, please ….”
“Why do you people think I have all the answer to everything _” At that exact moment, a piece of paper flew away from the pile of burning books and landed right on Azar’s face
“Fucking _” Azar grabbed that piece of paper while Sasha and Munir contained themself from bursting with laughter. But then they saw Azar’s eyes go into deep focus. He didn’t even finish cursing.
“Azar ?!?” Munir called out.
“Uhhhh … gotta go !!!” Azar left in a hurry.
Sasha and Munir looked at each other with clear confusion written all over their faces. Munir sighed longly
“Sasha, I didn’t want to ask you this, but …” Munir gave him a small piece of paper, “Have you ever seen anything like this before ?”
The second Sasha saw it, her sword started to glow.
“Wow .. What !”. The Durandal blade was burning bright with the fire from the Sun.
“Shit turn it off !!!” Munir cried out.
“I can’t !!!”
The flaming sword immediately grabbed everyone's attention; not every day they could see the legendary sword in its full power. However, Munir and Sasha soon found out the real reason why they were so amazed by the sword.
“Sasha, on the blade !”
It wasn’t there before. Sasha could swear on her life. But now, on the blade, written the exact strange language she just saw. Munir managed to pull his focus away from the flaming sword and notice the other. A chilling sensation ran down his spine; every noble recognized those symbols as well ... They all participated in the library incident. They were all going for the throne.
“Oh ... Shit !”. Munir knew exactly how this was going to end up.