—IN THE EMPIRE OF AUSTER—
The Emperor was walking down the halls of his palace alone, this was a forbidden part of the palace and only he and a select few were allowed within. He followed the path that he knew so well in the maze of corridors to a certain wall. He then waved his hand and a secret door opened, closing flush with the wall once he stepped through, making it seem as if there was no door. Within was another tunnel, this one leading into the depths of Agleon. After fifteen minutes of walking, he stepped out into a secret underground city, the City of Silenda. This city was the city of the Satorians, their first and only city, created in the days when Darkness still walked upon Agleon. This city was personally made by him actually, as a gift to one of the first races he had chosen to make, the Satorians.
They were very intelligent and although not as long-lived as elves, they possessed, the ability to transfer memories to their young. As one of the prototype races that was created by Darkness, they lacked many of the things that Darkness learned to create in other creatures, although he blessed them with great intelligence. These intelligent creatures survived for a long time in secrecy, not having to sustain themselves with physical food, rather siphoning energy from their surroundings, feeding off of Agleon itself. They too could resort to violence to defend themselves but they would rather avoid using that option, they simply did not possess the stamina to keep up a long fight as they manipulated pure energy, energy that sustained them. This normally wouldn’t be a weakness but given the time Satorians spend just to gain enough energy to lift a single arm, a week, fighting was simply a waste of valuable energy.
That is why when the Council of Silenda decided that they must prepare for the eventual end of this world, they would need to build a great empire to serve as their weapon. So they waited, sending out scouts to find a race that they would be able to conquer with relative ease and yet would be able to aid them greatly in their ultimate goal. They soon despaired, the races that surrounded them were far too powerful to be conquered by the Satorians. Then a scout came and reported that he found the secretive race of the Loquimi. Once he spoke of their power and their weak bodies, the Satorians seized this god-given opportunity.
WIth the Loquimi at their side, the chosen Satorian to become Emperor bent the will of various leaders to his own, creating a massive empire in which all were loyal to him. Even so, this Emperor was but a figurehead for the Council of Silenda, the true rulers of Auster. Said Emperor was making his way to the Council now, he had a proposal for the Council.
He took a breath before he entered the Council Hall, he didn’t like the Elders but he knew that they were necessary. He opened the doors to the hall and stepped inside, walking to the center of the chamber before falling to one knee.
He said, “Elders of the Council, I have a proposition for you.”
The Eighth Elder spoke, “Welcome Regulus, let us hear this proposition of yours.”
The Emperor remained on his knees, “Elders, you remember the failure of our army against the savages of the West.”
The Fifth Elder spoke this time, “Yes, we remember. We had greatly underestimated those barbarians, we did not know that they possessed such great knowledge of the usage of Acror.”
The Emperor nodded and said, “Yes, and if there are more like the single acror wielder who stood against us, then it is unlikely that we will ever be able to conquer Occasus. So my proposition is to make an alliance with the barbarians, so that there will be peace between us and when the end of the world arrives, we can trust them to aid us to defend Agleon from the End.”
The Second Elder mused, “Interesting, instead of conquering, we extend our hand in friendship.”
The Seventh Elder added, “Yes, this would also keep our Empire stable for much longer, we cannot afford to overextend ourselves with the threat of the Saurians.”
But the Fourth Elder said, “But they must know that we attacked them, they would be fearful and would not accept an alliance with what they perceive to be an enemy.”
The Emperor spoke, “Then we give them no choice but to accept. We have already recovered and increased our numbers from the previous attempt. We only need to send more as a show of force.”
The Second and Seventh Elder agreed, “Yes, as long as we secure their support and ensure that they do not betray us when the time is right, our plan will flow smoothly.”
The Ninth Elder refused, “If we send a great army, they will fight back at first and although we will defeat them, the barbarian nation will be severely weakened and will be unable to help us to stave off the End.”
The Eight Elder seconded her opinion, “The Ninth is correct, we must approach this carefully. I propose only a single sky turtle with a hundred thousand Crimex as well as a thousand each of Avem, Ursus and Lacerta species. The majority of our forces will stay upon the sky turtle but one of each race will come down to defend the representing ambassador.”
The Fourth and Fifth Elder agreed, “Yes, this is the wisest course of action. What say you First?”
The First agreed with them as well, “I too believe that this is our best course of action. We just need to select an ambassador.”
The Third said, “It has to be someone who does not easily give in to anger.”
The Fourth added, “One who is wise enough to know his place.”
The Sixth finished, “And intelligent enough to pull of the negotiations without a hitch.”
All together, they said, “It has to be Gero.”
The Emperor nodded, “I shall inform him at once and gather his escort.”
The Elders nodded and dismissed the Emperor. He left the room and returned to the palace, sending a servant to summon Gero. He made his way to the throne room, awaiting the arrival of Gero. A few moments later, Gero arrived, entering through the gold-plated doors that led to the throne room. He was an old Lacerta, one of the lizard people, the lesser descendants of the dragons. They were looked down upon by the Saurians who were of course far more powerful than them and as the blood of the Lacerta was tainted, it was not pure dragon blood. The Saurians did not possess tainted blood, their dragon blood was just weakened as the first Saurians were banished dragons.
They were stripped of their wings and power, although still pure of blood. But the Lacerta were not to be underestimated, they were still the descendants of dragons and possessed a legendary control over acror. The strongest, wisest and humblest of their kind was Gero, the perfect choice for ambassador.
Anyways, Gero bowed before the Emperor and asked, “Your majesty, you have called and I am ready to serve.”
The Emperor nodded to him, saying, “I have called you here to be an ambassador, an ambassador to the barbarians of the West and make an alliance with them. With the prophets predicting that the End shall arrive within two years, we do not have the time to conquer them. We must achieve an alliance. You have been chosen for your wisdom and humility and I hope that you will achieve success.”
Gero kept his head bowed and said, “I will do as you command. When will I be setting out?”
The Emperor then explained to him that arrangements were already set in place and that once they have finished, Gero would set out immediately. After, that, Gero and the Emperor spoke on many things, the Emperor confiding the problems of ruling such a large empire. Gero supplied what advice he could, his wisdom only doing so much as although he once lead a tribe, he did not lead a great empire. But his words were helpful nonetheless and when it came time for Gero to go, the Emperor did so reluctantly, he had enjoyed his talk with Gero. He bid farewell to Gero as Gero left his throne room, Gero returning the platitude before following the servant.
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It was only a matter of minutes before Gero was in the skies on the sky turtle, followed by a retinue of a large army and five bodyguards. They then set out across the ocean, the shadow of the sky turtle once more tracing its path across the ocean to the site of Auster’s defeat.
Nothing of note happened on their four-day journey to Athera, much faster now that the sky turtle wasn’t burdened with the weight of half a million Crimex. Upon their arrival, Ieros was already waiting for them, having prepared an army of a fifty thousand stone soldiers, surprising all that were there. They had seen him create his stone soldiers of course but never in such large numbers. But Ieros was not yet finished, he created twenty thousand dragonrider units with the accompanying dragons. They were all in shock of Ieros who erected towers all along the beach for ten miles, arming them with a beam crystal. Beam crystals, as said in the name, were crystals that directed the energy channeled through them into a destructive beam, incinerating everything in its path.
Of course, Ieros knew that the Austerians were coming with peaceful intentions but it wouldn’t hurt to show them that he meant business as well. He also summoned the Teryo, they alone would have sufficed but the numbers that Ieros summoned were more for displaying his power. He wanted to make sure that Auster knew that at least he was not a force to be trifled with. He watched silently as the great sky turtle descended from the sky, landing on the water. But there wasn’t really a way for them to get down without jumping so Ieros decided to help them, creating a large bridge that allowed the Austerians to travel down to the ground with ease. Gero decided to use the bridge and walked down, his bodyguards following behind.
Five minutes of walking later, they were down upon the ground and was greeted by Ieros who spoke their language.
Surprised, Gero said, “I did not know-ss that there was-ss one among you who knew-ss our language.”
Ieros merely replied, “When you first came here, I took the liberty of taking prisoners and learning all I could of Auster from them.”
Gero asked, “And what happened-ss to thos-sse pris-ssoners-ss?”
Ieros answered, “They were killed. There was no way to return them nor could I set them free.”
The bodyguards tensed, especially the beastkin but Gero stopped them with a hand, “You are a very rational person, although it seems you lack in morals.”
Ieros replied, “Morals obstruct the way of progress. Therefore I gave up my morals in order to advance to greater heights.”
Gero was silent, he didn’t like Ieros, he would become a very powerful enemy if they were to present themselves as a danger to him and his progress.
Ieros then said, “Well let us go to the Imperial Palace, I’m sure the Emperor would like to speak with you.”
Ieros then created a gate and walked through, Gero and his guard unsure as to what to do. The Teryo merely gestured that they step through and with wary trepidation, they stepped through. Of course, this was no trap and they appeared inside the throne room of the Emperor, Ieros busy explaining the situation to him. Once the Emperor understood the gist of everything, he spoke but came to realize that Gero knew nothing of his language. This was easily solved by Ieros creating twin amulets and having Gero and the Emperor put them on. This would allow them to understand one another and speak without any problems. This was only possible due to Ieros’s understanding of the Austerian language, if he had no knowledge of it, then he would be unable to translate.
But as Ieros served no further purpose, he went to the side of the throne room and made a table and chair, enjoying some exotic tea while the Emperor and Gero spoke. Of course, he was ignored until the scent of the tea caught the attention of Gero who was an avid tea lover. Gero politely asked the Emperor if they could join Ieros for tea and the Emperor saw no reason to object. So Ieros moved the table to the center of the room, made it larger and made chairs for the two of them.
Gero and the Emperor quietly sipped tea for a few moments, savoring the strange but delicious taste of the tea, Gero asking, “Where did-ss you procure this-ss tea?”
Ieros replied, “I met with a wandering elf who gave me some tea leaves. I replicated them and continue to use them.”
Gero was unfamiliar with what an elf was and asked for clarification.
Ieros gave it to him and Gero looked wistfully at the tea, saying, “I would very much like to meet these people. It seems that they poss-ssess-ss very delicious-ss tea.”
This time the Emperor spoke, “You really like tea it seems.”
Gero nodded, “Of cours-sse”
Gero finally started, “Your majes-ssty, I have come here on the behalf-ss of my Emperor. He would like-ss an alliance-ss between our two nations-ss. Truth be told, my Empire once-ss attacked yours-ss, although we were utterly defeated by one of your acror-wielders-ss.”
The Emperor asked, “Acror wielder?”
This time Ieros said, “It is their equivalent of a mage.”
The Emperor nodded and said, “Well I have no knowledge of this invasion of yours, Ieros here has been in charge of the East for the past five years and he has never mentioned anything about an invasion.”
Gero looked at Ieros with confusion, “You did-ss not tell him of the invas-ssion?”
Ieros was silent, sipping tea first before answering, “I had no reason to.”
The Emperor exclaimed, “No reason!? An invasion seems important enough in and of itself to provide a reason!”
Ieros sipped some tea once more before saying, “Your majesty, I did so because I do not want to be noticed. I am powerful but according to how I have portrayed myself, I am no more powerful than any of the other Archmages. I have kept it that way for five years and I’d like to keep it a secret for at least a few more years.”
The Emperor asked, “Just how powerful are you?”
Ieros said, “I’m afraid that I can’t tell you, secrets if told will be found out one way or another.”
Gero agreed, “Yes, secrets are kept secret if they are never spoken of. But I too can’t help but be curious about your strength, I’ve heard from the sole survivor of five million soldiers that you wielded a strange and powerful spell, one which covered the skies like the branches of a gigantic tree.”
Ieros was silent, finally saying, “That is perhaps the greatest piece of magic I ever wielded, although such magic came at a great cost. I lost a portion of my life force and had to rely upon constructs which looked exactly like me to take care of my duties while I recovered.”
The Emperor burst out, “So you mean to say that all those jobs I had you do were a construct!?”
Ieros nodded, “Of course, I myself was far too weak to do those things. But, I think I will now take my leave. I see that I’m only serving to be a distraction for the two of you and negotiations for peace are not things to be interrupted. The teapot is self-filling so you need not worry, drink as much as you like.”
Ieros then dismissed himself from their company, Gero and the Emperor speaking a bit more on the subject of the invasion before they turned to negotiations, all the while sipping the delicious tea from the teapot.