Daurandoff Ressei sat in solemn silence as the council chamber devolved into a word war upon each other. His mind echoed with the haunting image of his daughter’s disappointed gaze — a silent accusation that pierced deeper than any argument in the room. The weight of his own distrust settled heavily on his shoulders, a burden of regret that Moselei’s earlier words had painfully confirmed. Despite the lingering anger, the High Wizard acknowledged the uncomfortable truth spoken by the Imperial Diplomat.
His gaze shifted to his wife, who stood on the sidelines as she tried to calm herself down. Together, they shared the bitter sting of failure, a shared agony born of their inability to protect their only child.
“My noble brethren,” his voice cut through the fading turmoil in the council. “It is time for us to deliberate upon the summons from the Imperial Trasidar. Regardless of appearances, we must recognize the validity of their cause. We simply cannot dismiss this lightly,” he added.
“With all due respect, High Wizard, but I’m afraid we won’t be able to decide lightly until we discuss the source of their information regarding your daughter’s true identity,” the high councilor said.
“The high councilor is right. We have a spy in our midst. We cannot just let this pass, Daurandoff. Your daughter’s identity is a well-kept secret among the people in this room. Heck, the Elite Magisters that answer solely to you even guard us. So one of us is a spy,” another councilor pointed out.
“There’s no spy. That is impossible,” aired another councilor as he stood. “Look, we’ve already tried to address this in the past. Our history with the Trasidars goes way back. Eons. As the Imperial Diplomat put it. Ever since the establishment of the Trasidar Empire, knowledge has been shared between our people. Legends, stories, even myths. We just didn’t know how hungry the Imperial Scholars are for these kinds of myths,”
“Please, can we just acknowledge the fact that it is no longer a myth? It is real. And she appeared during our lifetimes!” an elderly councilor slammed her walking stick as she pointed out.
“But we have not yet proven if she really is what the legends foretold. With respect, councilor,” a young councilor pointed out, but the elder councilor suddenly hit him with her stick.
“The problem with you youngsters is that you rely too much on facts! Legends and myths came from something; you need to put that through your thick head!” The elderly councilor’s voice echoed through the chamber as she forcefully struck the young councilor once more, the others struggling to restrain her.
She then looked at Daurandoff. “You need to acknowledge that her magical ability is the same as those in the legends and myths. And with its arrival, means we are living in a pivotal moment of our history. You need to accept the fact that your daughter is a herald, Daurandoff,”
But he can’t accept it. He knew full well what this meant. As do the entire council as they lay silent after the elder councilor sat down.
“If she is the Grand Sage, then we have already failed her,” another councilor suddenly pointed out. “We failed to prepare her. To have her hone and perfect her magical abilities. Her powers will take control of her. She might even lose control at some point,”
“We don’t even know how to hone such skills, Councilor. The Grand Sage only appeared three times in our history. As the elder councilor has rightly pointed out, they only appeared in pivotal moments of our people’s time. We lack the knowledge and guidance needed to train such abilities, train her to control so much power even if we wanted to do that,” another councilor pointed out.
“Then we must decide,” he declared, getting the attention of everyone. The councilors, along with his wife, just looked at him.
“But Daurandoff,” another intervened. “We are talking about your daughter here. She is not ready. Nor she is prepared to cast offensive spells without hurting herself. She could die,” a councilor pointed out.
“As much as I hate to admit it, but the Imperial Diplomat is correct. I failed my daughter. Not just as a father, but also as her High Wizard. It was my responsibility in the first place to decide on this. We had years — I had years to tell her. But I didn’t. I didn’t even believe in her, even as the signs were as clear as day. I refused to believe it — even look at it. And now a nightmare has come that showed me my incompetence,” he said to everyone.
His heavy words already made his decision known, and the council equally felt the failure that they had ushered in. They just don’t have the heart to say it themselves, for they know they were not in the position to do so.
The council felt the heaviness in his voice. He then ordered the guards to bring the Imperial Diplomat back.
As he sat there quietly, he felt the slow but gentle touch of his wife. He looked at her and saw her holding back her tears.
“She’s not ready,” she uttered in a shaky voice.
He then held her hands and kissed it gently. “We have no choice. If this is happening now, then it is to be. Whether we like it or not, Sonya, we have to rely on and trust our daughter to be strong. And to do it fast,” he said as Sonya let out a muffled cry. She then went back as the doors of the council chambers creaked open.
The silence was broken once more by the creaking heavy doors. He took a deep breath as to compose himself, “I must say, I did not expect this decision to come this fast,” Moselei said as he entered the room and stood in the middle.
He looked at the Imperial diplomat. He stood up from his post and said. “If you are indeed aware of what my daughter is, then you must know the rest of the legend. Am I wrong to assume that?” he asked the diplomat first.
Moselei only sighed and answered his question. “I’m afraid so, my old friend. The Imperial Council believes that the threat is the Imperial Prince. That he may very well be a threat, not just to the Empire, but to all of us. I did try to warn them, however, of the legends and myths that surround this so-called herald, but they are reluctant to listen from a southerner like me,”
With a solemn resolve, he said “Then as High Wizard of the Great Council of the Orderian, I Daurandoff Ressei, hereby accept the order of the Imperial Trasidars, to put a stop to the Red Prince, Prince Tamiron Lluch,” he declared to the diplomat. “I leave my daughter in your care,” the shock on Moselei’s shocked expression showed he understood that this was beyond his diplomatic role.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I will make sure that your daughter is safe until her return,” Moselei said to him. He felt as though he was not speaking as a diplomat of the Trasidar Empire, but as a father to another.
“When will you leave, Moselei?” he asked as he sat back down.
“We shall leave a day after tomorrow, in the morning of aducegar,” the diplomat replied.
“But that’s too soon! Please give her more time with us at least,” Sonya pleaded, as she rushed towards the diplomat.
“I’m afraid, milady, we have no choice. A day lost is another victory for the Red Prince,” Moselei answered as Sonya cried once more.
“Then she will be ready by then. I will go tell her myself this evening. For now, I will have you escorted back to your quarters.”
The High Wizard dismissed the council after that, but he lingered, sitting quietly as he sat in front of the now empty chambers. He wondered how he will tell his daughter of what she will have to face. Wondering how he will prepare her at such a short time regarding what was coming. He sat there and wondered where he went wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everess laid in her bed, sleepless at the thought of what had transpired that afternoon. She couldn’t fathom why the Empire had chosen her for a mission, especially one that involved ending the life of the Imperial Prince. A task to end the life of Prince Tamiron Lluch.
She stared at the ceiling as the troubling thoughts replayed in her mind. Until she heard faint whispers reached her ears. Whispers that came just behind her door. She rose from her bed and approached the door silently, leaning in to catch the hushed tones of her parents engaged in a heated argument — an argument about her.
“I’m telling you, Daurandoff, she is not ready. She is not even fit for this task!” her mother argued.
Flabbergasted, it was the first time she heard her mother raised her voice against her father.
“We have no choice, Sonya. I’m telling you, this is the only way!” her father countered.
A sharp sound echoed, followed by her gasp. “Do not tell me that this is the only way! I’ve been telling you this all these years, yet you ignored what I have to say. You ignored me!” Sonya’s voice cut through after she slapped him. “It’s too late now. And because of you, I might lose our daughter, my daughter.”
Her mother’s cry reached her ears, and tears welled up as she heard the sorrowful sob. It shattered her heart.
“I know it’s my fault,” Daurandoff admitted. “But we really have no choice. Her manifestation means something, and we cannot ignore that.”
The door swung open swiftly. “Ignore what?” she suddenly asked, to the surprise of her parents.
“Everess, please—”
“Not a single word, father, until you answer my question. Ignore what exactly?” she demanded once more. “What am I, really?” Tears streamed down her face.
“Please, my daughter. Calm down. Let us talk inside,” Sonya attempted to soothe her, but she stepped back.
“You’ve been hiding something from me, didn’t you? You’ve been hiding why I’m like this,” she accused them, the expressions on her parents’ face said it all. “I knew it. My own parents lied to me,” she uttered as she broke down.
Sonya reached out to comfort her, but she pushed her mother away.
“And now what, you are just going to send me away to kill the Prince? Kill Tamiron? With what you and the council just did to me, I might as well join him!” she shouted at them, fueled by anger.
“Everess, please, we do not have much time. Right now, all you need to know is that being like you exists because you are a herald. What that entails, we do not know yet. But what we know is that it is your destiny,” Daurandoff attempted to explain.
“Destiny for what? To end a life? You’ve been teaching me our ways, the order of the world. And you want me to desecrate it by ending a man’s life? Tamiron’s life? How could you ask me of that? You, of all people, should know the weight of what you just asked me to do!” She argued with her father’s confusing words.
“I know it is hard to understand, but I need you to trust me now—”
“Trust you?” she cuts him off. “How can I do that when you lied to me about my identity all these years,” she desperately tried to hold back her tears. “You still won’t tell me what I am right now,”
Their conversation was abruptly interrupted as an explosion rocked their feet. She rushed to the balcony and saw an orange glow. She ran towards the balcony and there she saw some parts of the castle engulfed in flames.
Her father and mother rushed to her side to see what was going on as well when Daurandoff quickly pulled them both back inside.
“Everess, you need to stay here while I look into what happened. Sonya, you need to stay here with her as—”
“They will need me. I need to be with you,” Sonya said to Daurandoff, to which he nodded and looked back.
“Everess, stay here. After all of this. Before you leave. I will tell you. Right now, your mother and I will defend the castle from this attack.” Daurandoff said.
“Do you think it’s Tamiron?” she asked, as she was still in shock.
“If Tamiron is as bright as we know he is, then he knows you are the only one who can stop him right now. So stay here,” Daurandoff explained briefly. She hugged her father and mother before they left the room.
Her father smiled at her before they closed the door and barred it with magic.
She quickly calmed herself down and fixed herself up, and looked around her room. Herald? What do they mean by that? Why did this have to happen now? Were all the things that ran on her mind at that point. She has so many questions, and the current situation outside wasn’t helping her at all. She paced towards the balcony again when the castle was rocked with another explosion.
Concerned about her parents, she quickly thought that she could help. She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She walked back and took a deep breath. With both palms raised against the door, she quickly launched a projectile that destroyed the door, throwing her off her feet.
When the dust settled, she saw not only the door being blown off but the ceiling as well. She composed herself as fast as she could and went downstairs to help her parents, for she thought that if she destroyed her doors like how she did, she could help.
She ran towards the entrance to the castle as she passed some people working in the castle as they tended to the wounded.
The fire raged as it engulfed the courtyard. She could barely take the heat as she tried to look at the fiery wall of flames right in front of her. She cast a spell that tore through the wall of fire and there she saw her parents.
“Father! Mother!” she called to them.
“Everess, what are you doing here? Get out of here now!” Daurandoff shouted as he fended off a lightning attack from an unknown foe above.
She tried to look at their intruder, but she couldn’t see clearly.
“Everess, what are you still doing here?” Sonya grabbed her out of nowhere. “It is not safe here! Get out of here, go with Moselei and leave Sanctum now!” Sonya said as she tried to take her out of there, but was thrown off as a rogue fireball from the wall of flame struck Sonya. She tried to help her mother but got hit by another rogue fireball.
“Ourus Raveignon!” Daurandoff cast a blue fire spiral as tall as the wall of the opposing fire that quickly dispersed it.
“Sain’triet!” he quickly cast a lightning rod directly at their enemy but their foe absorbed the strike, and quickly redirected it to both Daurandoff and Sonya, quickly ending their lives.
She was stunned by what she just witnessed. She looked at both of her parents as smoke came out of them. Her heart beat fast, her hands trembled. Inside of her, an unknown power began to swell up.
“Mother! Father! No!” she cried out as she rushed towards them. Her vision became blurry, her surroundings appeared to have slowed down then her vision became darker and darker.
“Let the world feel my presence,”
A haunting, ethereal voice from her head said and as she heard the haunting voice, her surroundings turned to black, and all she felt was serenity.
End of Chapter III