The village of Adachia was slowly being rebuilt. The women who, months ago, had lost their husbands and sons, and who only days before had seen their houses crushed before their eyes, sat with their forced Itruschian husbands and made adobe bricks. Others gathered straw and grass to build roofs. Even the Hunatian archers got down from their horses and helped.
Kassius fasted and recited the incantations every day to see visions of the future, particularly of Alana. He saw her, blurry like a dream, marching through the forest towards him. After a blink, he saw her in the desert, running and hiding behind yellowish stones. Where was she?
Kassius was perplexed by his fate, and many times thought that he was dreaming. What he had thought impossible happened before his eyes. Florianus, the terrorizer of his people, his oppressor and jailer, stood next to him, directing the reconstruction work. When the labor hours were over, Florianus instructed him in the Elder Script. However, Florianus had a priority. He would look at the Imperial Road, glancing from afar whenever he found a chance, awaiting news from the Capital. He even sent a rider to the West to deliver a letter that detailed the conditions and the attack, and even mentioned the truce that the Hunatians had made with the inhabitants.
Tor was the most dedicated when it came to redesigning buildings. There was not a lot of wood, but large stones were abundant on the hillside.
Kassius and Florianus had waited for days, waiting for the return of Alana and the messenger. One day, they saw him riding hastily from the West. The sentinels at the top of the hill alerted them, and both Kassius and Florianus went to meet him.
He came back with sweat on his forehead, a harbinger of bad omens. He pulled the reins, dismounted wearily, and Florianus said, “Hail the Holy Itruschian Empire,” bringing his fist to his chest. The soldier did not return the greeting; instead, he just bowed his head and looked at his commander with trembling eyebrows.
“My commander…” he panted. “The great… The great city...”
“What took you so long, Claius, you good-for-nothing?” Florianus asked, hands on his waist.
“It has been destroyed!” Claius the messenger cried, his voice turning into sobs and moans. Kassius also felt a shiver run down his spine, and Florianus’ face lost all color. “The giants, my commander. The giants came; the giants destroyed our great capital.”
Kassius gritted his teeth. And though the orders to destroy his people had come out of that city, he still felt connected to it through both blood and imagination. He had been there only as a child but remembered its sweet essence and glorious architecture, its pristine beauty and glory. However, Florianus looked as if a carriage had run over him.
“The senate was crushed while they were holding their daily meetings,” the messenger continued. “Sire, the consuls died. The senators too. Commander… It’s all gone.””Who’s in charge then?” Florianus asked. “Is it the military?”
“Senator Cladius was arriving, and now he is directing most of the relief effort… I left the letter with him, and he put it away. But sire… The city has been destroyed, people from other cities in the peninsula are sending help, but it’s not enough...”
“So, Cladius. That traitor,” he muttered through his clenched teeth. “Damn them! Damn these evil bastards.”
“The city… The city is in ruins, they’re rebuilding, but they’re doing worse than we are. It will take time.”
Florianus lowered his face.
“So I guess we can’t count on them. And Cladius… What was that fool doing directing the city? He is a danger to the Empire. He would turn it into a decadent commercial market, destroy the Empire’s warlike roots, and lose its internal cohesion.” He clenched his teeth. “I’ve got to get back and show them how it’s done.”
“Commander Florianus,” Kassius looked at him. “You have to stay here.’
“You don’t have the right to tell me what to do, boy. What’s left for me in this barbarous loo, let me ask you.”
“First, we have to learn how to deal with the giants. And I need you.”
“Fool! If we have a chance against them, it is through the Empire and its arms!”
“How so?” Kassius asked. “Tell me, commander, how is the Empire going to defeat them? Crossbows? Catapults? Let me remind you that all your catapults and ballistae couldn’t even scratch the giant. We need magic, and I know you also believe in it.”
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Florianus was about to answer, enraged, when the soldier interrupted them.
“My lord, there’s something else...”
“What is it?” Florianus scowled.
“The towns around… On the coasts of Dlamatia, on the shores right below the capital, even in New Odessos, close to the sea...”
“Were they destroyed too?” the commander asked.
“Nay, my lord, they have been visited too, but they say...”
“Visited?” Florianus pointed at the crushed buildings. “Do you call this a visit? What are they saying, Caius? What are they saying? Spit it out.”
“The giants… They are worshipping them.”
Florianus lifted his head, he remained silent and blinked in surprise.
“That was it? Is that how they defeated them? And I thought the boy here had something. So they knelt before the giants and they forgave them?”
“No, on the contrary, sir, they said the giants came with great gifts, with cattle, golden treasures, many things. They told them to worship their King.”
Florianus raised an eyebrow.
“Tell me more.”
“They only asked for one thing. The people asked what they should give to continue receiving all that, you know, the treasures, and… They promised peace. In exchange, they would take the brightest and most beautiful children.”
“Children?” Kassius raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, they did, they took hundreds of them, and the giant told them they were going to be raised with the gods in their courts, to the sides of the north.”
Florianus took a deep breath.”That is in the book, isn’t it?” he eyed Kassius. “Sorcerer, have you read that part?”
“I don’t know if it’s what you’re thinking about,” Kassius answered, narrowing his eyes.
“If it is, may the gods help us.”
***
Florianus and Kassius studied that afternoon, sitting across from each other, comparing both the Hellenian book and the one written in the East. The cuneiform was difficult, and Kassius had to keep up with Florianus.
“So the information of their King was missing, on mine,” Kassius said.
“Yours only deals with the giants and their power, not what happened before.”
“It is obvious,” Kassius scratched his chin. “This is the truth, he...”
“Say it, you fool. Are you afraid to speak the truth? I’ll read it out loud for you. The serpent king lives on. His food is the blood of the innocent, of children and of those who lived too long, whom he despises. He takes them as offerings, they bleed under his heel, and thus, their blood he drinks.”
Kassius clenched his fists. He felt his whole body and soul were covered in filth. The giants had risen because of him. That being, the one called the Serpent King, lived on because of him. Those horrible things were happening to innocent children because of him.
He wished the ground would swallow him up.
He lowered his head and ran his fingers through his locks of hair. He squeezed.
“It’s worse than I thought,” Kassius muttered, almost inaudibly.
“It is. Do you see?”
“We have to get Alana,” he said.
“Your barbarian wife? What does she have to do with this?”
“She was my partner when we created the sword.”
“When you awoke the giants? When you did it, and brought down the death of millions just for a whim?”
“I told you, it just had to happen… It was a line… I challenge the eternal evil,” Kassius said, trying to defend himself, but he could not flee from the guilt.
“You caused all of this.”
Those words, which he repeated in his mind, felt like a bucket of ice and water.
Kassius clenched his teeth.
“And yet, we’re the ones who can stop it. Tell me about the other sigils in your book.”
“It’s not all complete, but here you go,” Florianus went through the fragile pages of the tome and reached another sigil. “This text uses a word I don’t understand. Well, it says, the consecration of….”
“It must say something somewhere else in the text.”
“It just goes on about the story of how he was destroyed by the Hero.”
Kassius always believed the Great Warrior of the Parzhian text was the god Ares, or Hermes. It was intriguing how different groups, separated by thousands of miles, had similar stories, and yet, the way they told them was vastly different.
“You know what the worst thing is? Your sword doesn’t even have the magical powers it’s supposed to have,” Florianus snapped. “It’s like ordering a pie to find that it has no filling.”
Kassius gasped, lowering his head and wrapping his fingers around his hair.”Yes. I have been thinking about that, but I believe I know the answer to that.”
“Well, boy, you say you did the ritual. You even sacrificed her blood. It should have worked.”
“It does, but there’s something missing. It’s missing a gemstone. We have to find that. For now, we must search for powerful spells to use against them.”
“Spells? But how would we know they will work? If you stand in front of him, you’ll be mashed to a pulp, boy. Besides, imagine if you were to defeat them, imagine the surrounding villages, especially now that the empire is basically dissolved and out of central power. Imagine all of them gathering to fight us.”
“I know we can beat them, we just need to research more. There must be a spell or a sigil. We’re just one step away from finding it,” Kassius hissed.
“And what about those fools who are now licking the soles of those monsters? We’ll have to deal with them now.”
“We just have to tell the people the truth.”
“Listen kid, if all these years taught me anything, it’s just that there are two powers out there. You can play with them, you have to master them. In this case, they’ve outclassed us. The people, not you, nor the idealist, nor the warrior. I’m talking about regular people. They want a roof over their heads, they want their children to eat. Not to starve, at least. These bastards deliver. On the other hand, you have fear. I’ve used it. Widely. It works, but it will never be as powerful as the other.”
“We can teach them. They don’t want to lose their children, do they?”
“How can you prove it? They won’t believe you, kid.”
“The myths! They believe in them.”
“Nah,” he blurted. “We’re alone. We’re all alone. Got to find your magic. I believed the Empire was the only thing that could stand against the Evil. Now, I’m not even sure the Empire will stand.”