Five years later
...
Jeyvan stood thoughtfully in front of his father's study room, just a day ago was his 12th birthday, an important age for children as it marks the time one could apprentice under a master to learn their craft which would define your future profession. If you chose to for example learn blacksmithing you may in the future become a weaponsmither or armorsmither, the 12th birthday was the time for children to grow up, become young adults and take their future into their own hands.
And on this time so important for Jeyvan, his father had summoned him for a talk, something he had never done before.
Yesterday during his birthday he had not even seen his father or brothers and only a few servants and the old man congratulated him.
There was no indication his father would summon him, his father usually avoided him and if he must meet him he would either ignore or insult Jeyvan.
He was broken out of his thoughts by the door in front of him, the one that led to his father's study, opening to reveal a man.
The man looked at Jeyvan and Jeyvan looked at the man. The man was tall, barely being able to pass the door without bumping his head, and muscular, not muscular like blacksmiths who used force to strike their hammers upon the iron, this man had muscles that were finely trained and sculpted to be used in battle. Jeyvan could see the man's muscles because he was not wearing a shirt, revealing his tanned skin that had the color of bronze. In fact the entire apparel of the man was very strange, he was only wearing a pair of loose pants and curved shoes, the pants were only held up by a belt where a sword rested within it's scabbard. The man's hair was long, reaching to his shoulders and it was a dark brown, almost black. What attracted Jeyvan the most were the man's eyes, they were completely white with no iris. The man was blind.
The man craned his head to look down upon Jeyvan and his eyes scanned up and down his body as though he could actually see him even though he was blind.
"Come in" Said the man as he held the door open. Jeyvan walked in and the man closed the door behind him. Jeyvan looked straight forward and saw his father sittiing opposite of him, looking at a document he had in his desk.
Jeyvan stood there next to the man and finally his father's eyes left the paper on the desk and came to rest upon him.
"Jeyvan" He spit out with disgust "I would like to introduce you to Ivan, Adjudicator of the Order. Ivan, meet Jeyvan, the one you will be taking to the academy."
It took a few moments for Jeyvan to understand what his father just said and when he did his eyes widened, his father kept talking as though he didn't realize or just didn't care about Jeyvan's state of mind.
"Jeyvan, Ivan will be taking you to academy where you will remain the necessary time until you become a grand knight, after achieving that goal you may either remain there or return home to serve as one of your brother's guards." Jeyvan zoned out of the rest of what his father was saying and instead focused on the part he had heard, his father had just told him he was being sent into the academy! He had read about this, about how unwanted sons of influential nobles would be sent to the academy as exiles, where they would be forced to remain. Jeyvan however didn't think he would be one of those, he had plans, things he wanted to do and places he wanted to go, he couldn't go to the academy!
For the very first time in his life, Jeyvan looked his father in the eye and spoke, cutting him off.
"Father, that's ridiculous! You can't send me to the academy as.. as a prisoner! I have plans for my future and that would ruin them all!"
Jeyvan watched as his father's face contorted into an ugly visage as he looked at him, watched as his face became red and he gritted his teeth in anger until he finally snapped in a loud voice.
"Who do you think you are to interrupt me you little shit?! You have lived off my home, off my food, my money... and now i ask you to do one think and you go against me! And what plans, plans with that crazy tutor of yours?! You think you are going to see magical places and slay fucking dragons?! As long as you carry my blood you will do as i say, do. you. understand?!" That made Jeyvan shut his mouth as his father continued spitting abuse and salive in his direction until finally he started panting. Jeyvan had heard that twelve years ago, before his mother's death his father was a handsome man, blond hair with blue eyes and a muscular body from wielding the sword. But now he was a memory of his former self, overweight and hair receding and panted from saying a few words.
"I will do as you say father." Jeyvan lowered his head, looking at the ground. The academy was not that bad, many things could be learned from it. The hard part would be how to explain that to the old man, he had made a promise that he would apprentice under him but now all that was ruined.
"Good, go back to your quarters and prepare, you will leave as soon as possible."
Jeyvan turned around and walked towards the door, what he didn't saw as he exited were that Ivan was looking straight at him with his white eyes and something within them seemed to have changed. something that astonished Ivan.
...
"You are leaving for the academy?" The old man sat opposite of him in the library, he had an astonished face as he looked at Jeyvan.
Jeyvan just nodded, still too shocked about his father's words. He was truly going to the academy.
The old man looked at Jeyvan who was looking at the table with unfocused eyes and he let a grin come to his face "That's excellent then, i also have business with the Order so i guess we can go together" Jeyvan looked from the table to the old man's grinning face "You are coming with us? That's great!"
His worries forgotten he instead focused on the old man in front of him.
“Indeed, I was actually planning to talk to you about this but I guess that will be unnecessary” The old man sipped from the tea in front of him, Jeyvan had no idea how he had tea, no servants were allowed in here while he was with the old man but he was used to the strangeness of the old man by now so he just ignored it.
"What kind of business could you have with the order?” Jeyvan looked at the old man with suspicion; he knew the old man had a lot of information that couldn’t be found on books but not many people in the world could boast to have connections with the order
Just something to discuss with a few old friends, maybe share gossip, nothing serious really.” The old man seemed to be telling the truth but Jeyvan was sure it couldn't be that simple however he let it go.
“Have you been there before? Can you tell me what it’s like?” Jeyvan looked at the old man with expectations, he wanted to suck out of the old man every bit of knowledge he could get before he arrived at the academy
“Well for starters the food is really nice” Both the old man and Jeyvan laughed at that.
…
As the first morning light rose above the horizon it also came to rest upon a carriage being pulled by four horses. The Carriage was nothing special, no unnecessary luxuries could be spotted on it, the only thing special about it was a sigil painted upon both of its sides
The carriage had the sigil of House Avorian, a rose within an intricate shield that was being held high by two couched lions, a sword piercing the shield from above.
Inside the unconspicious Carriage sat three individuals, a young boy, a tall man whose head almost touched the ceiling of the carriage and an old man reading a book, occasionally flipping pages.
The silence was broken by the young boy, Jeyvan, speaking to the tall man
“How are we getting to the Academy?” The old man too took his eyes off the book to look at the tall man, Ivan.
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“We will head to Janaros and from there we will catch a boat to the Academy” Said Ivan without opening his eyes for they were blind and would be as useful open as they were closed, though Jeyvan suspected they could somehow allow him to see.
‘Janaros’ was a city under the control of Count Valerian of house Avorrian, it was one of the most prosperous trading cities in the empire because it was adjacent to the ‘The Great river’ which went across all the empire.
“There was a boat that went to the academy from there? Interesting” Said the old man as he rubbed his white beard.
“It is new so most people don’t know about it, it was started about a year ago.” Said Ivan who after saying so went silent
The rest of the way was peaceful and noiseless until they heard the coachman yell at them from outside
“My lord, there are people blocking the way!”
“Stay here, I’ll go see what they want” said Ivan as he grabbed the sword that was in the seat next to him, and then exited the carriage.
Unable to contain himself, Jeyvan opened the window and put his head outside, watching as Ivan walked towards the men in front of the carriage.
The men were badly equipped, with most wearing animal furs and wielding wooden clubs with spikes upon them however the one in front of them all, likely the leader, was wearing an iron chest plate and had a mace on his right hand and a shield on his left hand, on his face could be seen a red bandana revealing only his eyes.
Ivan stopped a few meters away from the man and opened his eyes.
The man with the bandana looked skeptically at Ivan, through this skeptisism he still spoke loudly in the direction of the Carriage.
“We are the Brown Bear Bandits, hand over your valuables and we will let you keep your carriage and go free otherwise don’t blame us for being ruthless.” Said the bandit leader as he swung menacingly at the carriage Jeyvan was poking his head out from.
“Bandits in the main road, by the gods, what has the Count been doing these years?” Muttered the old man as he heard the loud voice coming from outside
Back outside, Ivan drew his sword from its scabbard, pointed the tip to the ground and spoke back to the Bandit leader.
“I suggest you run away now, I too can be ruthless towards others” Ivan’s eyes narrowed on the bandit leader and he started slowly walking towards the bandit group.
“Don’t blame me for this; go get them boys!” At the bandit leader’s shout, some of the bandits started charging at Ivan while the few others drew their bows.
The arrows arrived before the running men but just as the arrows were about to hit Ivan, his sword moved.
His sword drew an arc through the air towards the coming arrows, first one, then two, then three until finally all the fired arrows dropped to the ground split in half.
The charging bandits hesitated for a brief second but that was all it took, with amazing footwork Ivan suddenly covered the few meters between him and the bandit at the forefront of the group and with a single stroke that bandit’s head dropped to the ground, soon followed by his body.
The others, seeing their companion dying so easily, became terrified but they had seen their fair share of blood so they just kept their guard towards Ivan.
the archers at the back of the group had already drew their bows once again and this time, switching targets, they fired not towards Ivan but towards the carriage.
The last thing the coachman saw before he died were arrows flying towards him.
The old man looked up to see the head of an arrow passing through the front wall of the carriage, the only thing that stopped it from keeping it's path towards the interior was the sturdy wood the carriage was made of, the old man uncarringly went back to reading his book.
Ivan sent but a glance towards the carriage with his white eyes before he once more focused on the battle just in time to see a bandit raising his weapon, a sword.
The bandit raised it up high and sent it chopping down towards Ivan but he simply sidestepped and with a stroke of his wrist a line appeared on the bandit’s waist before he was cut in two.
Before the bandit’s upper body even fell to the ground Ivan was already in front of another and sent a thrust into the bandit’s throat, the sword exiting from the back.
Ivan pulled the sword from the bandit’s throat and he fell backwards into the ground, blood exiting out of his mouth.
A sideways slash came from a bandit at his right side and he blocked it and sent a kick towards the bandit’s stomach, making him bend over and while he was doing so with a single slash Ivan beheaded him.
Seeing their partners lying dead around Ivan, the cowardly archers ran away, leaving their leader to his own fate.
“Those damn cowards! I guess I’ll have to deal with you myself.” The bandit leader slowly started approaching Ivan, keeping his shield in front of him just letting the top of his head to be seen.
Ivan too started walking and soon they were circling each other until finally one of them moved, the one to do so was Ivan.
Holding his sword high up he sent an overhead chop towards the bandit leader however as he did so the bandit leader shoved his shield forward, knocking Ivan off balance.
Seeing an opportunity the bandit leader swung his mace but Ivan had borrowed the shove from the shield to roll backwards so he avoided it.
Once again they were back to circling each other but this time they didn’t attack instead it was Ivan that broke the silence
“I am Ivan Hiland, Adjudicator of the Order, who are you?” He spoke but this time there was respect on his voice.
“I used to be a knight to the emperor, but times change you know, so right now I’m just a mere bandit leader who just got deserted by his hirelings” There was the same respect in the Bandit leader’s voice as he answered Ivan’s question.
“So you don’t want to reveal yourself? That’s fine, but I would like to come to an agreement with you. Even if we both fight until one of us dies, the other would receive injuries that may never heal and there is no meaning to do so, so I suggest we call off our combat and head separate ways.”
“That would be fine by me Ivan Hiland, may we meet again” Without another word the bandit leader disappeared amongst the trees, leaving his minion’s bodies behind.
Ivan too head back to the carriage, pulling the dead coachman off and taking command over the carriage himself.
Before he could start he heard a door opening and closing and soon Jeyvan was sitting by his side, leaving the old man in the carriage alone.
Ivan urged the horses forward and soon they were at the same pace as before, with only the dead bodies behind them as proof anything actually happened.
“Why did you two stop fighting suddenly?” Jeyvan asked as he looked forward, towards the road they were travelling upon.
“It was not sudden, we both gauged the other’s strengths and understood that no good would come out of it so we stopped, simple as that.” Said Ivan as he cracked a smile, the young boy had been fidgeting where he sat, wanting to ask questions.
“How did you do that? I mean… you are blind, aren’t you? How did you fight so well?” This was the question that was bothering Jeyvan the most, it was clear the man was blind yet he could obviously somehow sense where other people were.
“Once you reach the academy you will learn many things, child. It is not for no reason the Order is considered the place where the strongest knights come from.” Jeyvan thought that didn’t answer his question but he didn’t say it, it was obvious the knight wouldn’t answer.
“So who would win between you and that guy?”
“Why, it would be me, of course. I might have had to sacrifice an arm or even both but I was sure I could win.” Ivan crack a smile. Though he said that Ivan himself wasn’t sure he could fight that man and walk out alive, it was no wonder the Imperial knights could boast to go head to head with the Order if they had men such as those.
…
“Look child, that is Janaros.” The Adjudicator pointed his finger towards a black spot in the horizon; almost nothing could be distinguished from it, even less that it was a city.
“We’re finally here, it was starting to get boring” Though he said that in his heart he was thinking about how can he only see a spot in the distance and the blind man knows it’s the city?
“You should stick close while we are inside, though it is one of the greatest cities for trading it is not exactly known for its security or lack of thieves.” The adjudicator urged the horses to go faster, it wouldn’t matter if they tire, they would have plenty of rest in the city stables.
Upon entering the city, a dense crowd of people could be seen and on each side of the street there were various stalls filled with various exotic goods and local specialties. The people amongst the crowd here were from many races, there were elves, dwarves and even some mermen were crawling around the street.
“Wow, so this is Janaros.” Jeyvan looked at everything around him with awe, he had never seen most of these things though they were sometimes illustrated or described in the books the old man made him read, though they couldn’t compare to the real thing.
“We will be catching the boat in a bit so don’t get lost” After saying that the Adjudicator started walking, his height and muscles easily split the crowd into two, most people willingly making way for the small giant.
“Let’s go Jeyvan, you can see the goods after we reach the ship.” The old man slightly pushed Jeyvan forward and he stumbled, the old man surprisingly had a lot of strength.
As he walked, Ivan in front and the old man behind him, he looked around and saw strange things, though everyone walking the streets looked well-fed and dressed, in the dark alleys he couldn’t really see well into people laid against the walls with dirt on their faces and bones showing through their ragged clothes, most were very dirty with barely a hint of their face being uncovered by mud or dirt
He also noticed all the people on the street seemed to ignore the existence of these individuals, as though they lived in two different worlds.
“Hey old man, why are they all dirty?” Jeyvan asked as he looked at the malnourished people, it was indeed odd how they didn’t try to ask for help.
The old man looked where Jeyvan’s face pointed to and as he saw those people he looked once more at Jeyvan and realization dawned. “Those are the unfortunate ones, Jeyvan.”
“What do you mean the unfortunate ones? Are they sick or something like that?” Jeyvan asked, puzzlement coating his face.
The old man looked at Jeyvan and his face softened; he explained in a low voice “They are the unfortunate, those cursed by fate to be a bit worse than everyone else and thusly judged by society to be unsuited to be amongst them.”
“But why would anyone do that? It isn’t their fault they were born that way, maybe if they were given a chance..!” Jeyvan started talking loudly and attracted a few gazes from the crowd around them, the old man’s face darkened before he cut him off abruptly.
“Enough!” He ordered “Just follow Ivan, once you reach the academy you will soon learn that the world is not as sugar-coated as you though it to be.” Without another word the old man hushed Jeyvan forward with a hand on his shoulder, taking his gaze off the men amongst the dark alleys.