In a dim room atop a tall stone tower the light of the sun squeezes in a half covered window around a pair of dusty drapes. Out there, beyond the glass, it fuelled Prasus on the docks merchants sweated under it, in the manufactories smiths held their crafts up to it, in a thousand homes it was welcomed and here in this old room it seemed to catch the dust that spun in the air and make it dance like golden sand.
Or that's what I thought as I stared at the window in our school room with the obsessive interest of someone bored out of their mind. At the head of the room Terrance Choir my tutor was droning on about the history of Atylia[32] again. Once I had found its ancient empires and bloody coups as exciting an escape as any from my obligations but it pales in comparison to rooftop sword fights and magical daring do.
“...The so-called Dark Empire[33] was the earliest and to this day the largest empire in the history of our world.” His voice was old nasal and pedantic. It was a voice designed to whine and complain with.
I remember another voice so alike to it belonging to a squeaking little duke. He screamed about the unfairness as we raided his mansion. He stood on the roof far above us and whined and roared and moaned and wept as we cut down his guards, broke open his vaults and stole his precious treasure. His howls of rage sang out after us as we dashed away across the rooftop like our own personal victory hymn.
“The Dark Empire was the largest military power ever recorded in history with literally millions of men under arms at any one time, it had real exports, no trade, not even any significant capacity for the manufacturing of items instead it used its unparalleled military might to tax all the other nations of the world in exchange for a stay of its attentions. Those that refused or that had particularly valuable resources were invaded and annexed in short order increasing its power further each time.”
He paused and looked at the three seated students before him, pushing his string grey hair from his eyes with one hand and rubbing the front of his robe down flat with the other. “I am sure you are asking how is this possible, how could one single empire cause such terror as to hold the entire world hostage? The answer was blasphemous magic...”
Even though we both had magic neither of us liked to use it, if even a rumour slipped out that we were mages the entire city noble and peasant alike would unite in its hatred of us, hound us down, beat us to a pulp and hand us over to the Inquisition. But sometimes we had no other choice. We were fighting a huge copper golem with fists like hammers. Our weapons were useless as we darted around it like mosquitoes and then; there was a patch of oil. I remember slipping, the golems shadow falling across me, I saw its hand upraised to crush me and then... light. Cast by a whip of liquid flame that sprang from Blood's hand and blew the golem away from me. Its cogs melted, its boiler burst, in seconds it was reduced from a lethal automaton to a puddle of molten brass. Blasphemous magic indeed, I have never seen anything as beautiful as Bloods magic.
“...Some historians have even gone so far as to claim that the Empire was a human civilization only in name,” here he stopped and sycophantically winked at us, “as if any other species has the mental capacity to create such a force. Regardless these few unaccredited scholars claim it was in actuality ruled from behind the scenes by members of the Shaitan race, beings of vast magical and physical power,” at this he paused and nodded as if agreeing heartily with his own rhetoric (nobody else was going to), “however no evidence of this puppet rule has ever been found nor I will add has it ever been proved that the Shaitan species really exist,” taking a deep breath he pointed at a huge towering pile of half read books sat on his desk. “It is the considered opinion of current age scholar such as myself that the vile mages ruling over the land were so utterly corrupted in soul by magic that their flesh had warped in sympathy causing their original forms and even species to be lost and perverted and leading to them being called the Shaitan.”
I sighed inwardly at that. I was bright enough to recognise a lead in question when I heard it and to not give him the satisfaction of playing along but the rest of my family not so much.
On queue I heard my brother Roland pipe up. “But sir why would that...?”
“Excellent question young master Roland,” exploded Terrance, his dry cold voice livened up by a chance to bore again, “the word actually has an extremely interesting origin. Shaitan entered our tongue from an ancient Carlijian dialect and is in fact a bastardization...” At this point he paused and glared at us, daring one of us to crack a smile. “...originally it was two separate words Shattia Anan which were combined together into Shaitan by our ancestors, the original meaning however was kept unchanged Shattia Anan literally means beings of corruption.”
As he said these last three words he wrote them painstakingly on the blackboard. Then he paused and waved a hand dismissively at us. “Some claim the translation is truly champions of change or however these are assertions made by foreign scholars who have not passed the rigorous examination and accreditation process that the Arch-Doge demands for those of us who wish to publish within Prasus. The Arch-Doge set these standards personally in order to ensure the correct education of the younger generation, that is to say, you.”
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The Arch-Doge was the reason we ran, the reason for all our pain and fear. The people loved him, the Order nearly worshipped him, the nobles followed him like loyal dogs and the Tribunal answered to him and him alone. He had so much power but we liked to prove he wasn't all powerful. We found out about a banquet he was holding for the elite of the elite, his personal yes-men and toddies. The centrepiece was a cask of two thousand eon old sextuple X grade fire berry brandy, we found the shipping company that had delivered it, we found their private warehouse and we emptied the cask down a drain then refilled it with sea water and red dye I wish my father had taken me, I would have loved to see the noble’s faces as they tried to praise a glass of salt water and ink.
“At its height the Dark Empire spanned nearly the entire known world. They possessed vast power of all kinds from the military to monetary; they had unbeatable armies, incomparable raw resources, endless vaults of treasure and obviously the most territory of any nation or people. But all of this bounty was tainted by the corrupting influence of magic and so it fell. Corruption is the fate of all who would meddle with magic.”
Corrupt? That's what they’ve always used as an excuse. Magic is corrupt, magic is evil, but using my magic has never hurt me, never changed who I am. It does hurt Blood though. Once we had to fight our way out of a private bank in the heart of a noble quarter, all the way from the vault to the foyer. In the end she got us out, she blew an unobserved wall apart with a barrage of fireballs. But her magic uses her blood, the actual blood in her veins, as a catalyst... as fuel. I didn't understand that at first but any use of her power hurts her the more she uses the worse the damage, She was unconscious afterwards. I carried her back to the hideout in my arms, she’s so light iIt was scary, like carrying a child or a ghost.
The old man coughs a dry hacking cough into his balled fist as the faint breath of wind stirs the dust in the room. As he does so he grabs a sheaf of papers off the table with his free arm and waves it expansively. “My theory, currently under examination by the truth of the past examination board, postulates that their reliance on magic led to the mysterious collapse of their vast empire. At its height it spanned fully three quarters of the world with one hundred million men under arms and yet it vanished from mind and memory in less than a day.”
I barely wake up for the day anymore, I can’t explain why but it's only during the night when the sisters rise high, when I’m with Blood, when my magic sings in my veins, that when I wake up. That’s when I feel alive.
Roland took the bait again. “A whole empire? That can't be right sir can it? They can't have just... gone?”
The ancient tutor coughs and hacks for a second with glee before nodding, “you are right my boy you are right... if it was an empire of technology but theirs was tainted by magic,” even as I watched agitation was colouring his pale dead skin and giving it the hue of life again, “they were primitives, savages, they didn't even understand the wheel! All their war machines, their sculptures, their paintings, their weapons... even their sewage system! All of it was forged by and from magic and magic alone, no Koth blessed metal or purifying steam, eventually their reliance on the abominable caught up with them and ground their empire to dust,” he frowned. “I... we believe... that is...”
He paused and looked around at us then sighed and ran a hand through his hair distractedly. “You must understand that this was tens of thousands of eons ago, no direct evidence exists of the actual causes of their civilizations collapse. In fact all we have are the accounts of their neighbours, slaves and enemies who arrived to trade, serve or war one day and found the entire empire, from its buildings to its citizenry, just... gone.”
As the old man droned on I slumped down in my chair and yawned widely, my mind lost in reveries of the past. Suddenly a huge book slammed down onto the table in front of me with a deafening boom. I jumped backwards with a loud gasp and looked up at the now grinning face of Terrance.
“Well mistress Dutair it seems we are boring you, I must apologise,” he sneered. “If you are so sleepy I shall accelerate the lesson. Name me all of the sisters of the sun please.”
I scrambled inside my head for an answer as under the table my left hand unwound from my boot knife. I wasn’t the best student during the day or night but Blood was a surprisingly good teacher, far better than this old crone. “Uhhhhhh... well...,” I knew this question was far too easy but I still couldn't see the trap in it, “Lato, Laria and Lanan.... uhmmmm...” I trailed off and looked up at him with mute defiance.
He sniffed loudly and sneered. “Well that is indeed the most common three however, if you had bothered to do the reading I assigned you last cycle, you would remember the name of the fourth sister; the red pariah who rises only once a decade Sanguina.”
I looked down at my desk and muttered something noncommittal. He grunted with evil amusement and pointed at the new book on my desk. “Please read and memorise this by next Wednesday Mistress Dutair, classical astronomy is important.”
Behind me I heard Roland giggle and felt Allegra’s grin on my skin.... it's a twin thing.
Turning back to his board Terrance began to mutter and mumble again droning on and on about the red sister. I just sighed and stared out of the half covered window at the distant rooftops dreaming of running free Blood beside me, ravens behind me and my mace in hand.