It was a joyous occasion for house Avorian, Count Valerian's wife was about to give birth to a new child, every servant was anxious about whether it was a boy or a girl
Inside a room where only the Count's most trusted subjects were allowed, Count Valerian sat in a chair by the bed holding his wife's hand; next to him two little boys stood worriedly looking at their mother's pained expression.
"Push my lady, push!" A handmaiden stood in front of Count Valerian's wife, giving incentives to her mistress but by the pained expression on her face, the handmaid knows she is trying as hard as she can.
A few moments later, the cries of an infant could be heard from the room, signaling the start of a new life.
"Give him to me" The handmaiden, obeying her mistress' order carefully placed the small child in his mother's arms.
"My boy, my little darling boy..." Count Valerian's wife had a blissful expression on her face as she gazed at the little body in her arms, even though she had already given birth twice it still gave her pride looking at the adorable thing she and her husband had made.
"Your name shall be... how about Jeyvan? You like it, little one?" She looked at the little boy who had a small smile on his face and then passed him to his father, Count Valerian.
"My son, i have great hopes for you" As he looked at the little boy in his arms, his third son, he started thinking about how much care and love he would put into him and how his family would be perfect as long as he had his wife and sons.
Suddenly his daydreams were shattered by a cough, it came from his wife who had her hand in front of mouth. Her flawless white face was now devoid of color. Her coughs didn't stop instead they seemed to start becoming worse until he saw her spit out blood which into the white sheets, staining them red.
"Handmaiden, what's wrong with my wife!?" Count Valerian bellowed while cradling the small boy in his arms, the boy who was now crying loudly as though he knew something was wrong with his mother.
The handmaiden tried everything she had ever learned to assist her mistress however she was coughing blood nonstop, the sheets now looked more like a bizarre painting which used red as it's only color.
More coughs could be heard from the room until silence overtook them, at that moment the only sound that could be heard was the loud cry of a baby.
...
Seven years later
...
A small boy slowly walked through the halls of the giant mansion he called home; he was heading towards the mansion's library where his private tutor was waiting for him.
Though it was called a library it could not be compared with the ones in the cities as this one only had a few bookshelves, though they were all filled to the brim with books of different topics, from common geography to basic cooking.
The small boy had pale white skin, almost sickly looking, with a headful of black hair and sky blue eyes.
The small boy had noticed that every servant seemed to comment on how much he looked like his mother and what a tragedy it was that happened seven years ago. His father, however, didn't think of that as something to be appreciated and it instead angered him more as he saw the very child that killed his beloved wife with each passing day look more and more similar to his mother. So, in order to take out his frustrations about his wife's death, he delivered them upon the child who killed her on the form of mistreatment and beatings.
The servants all knew the late mistress was sickly and had a weak body so birthing three boys took too much of a toll on her making her sucumb to her disease, so the servants didn't blame the boy though his father and brother's liked to ignore the part about her being sick and just blame him for her death.
As the boy sighted the large double doors to the library, he hurried his footsteps just a little bit. The time he spent with his tutor was one of the only times he could truly be himself, not the third son of the illustrous Avorian family.
The young boy exerted himself to open one of the large doors slighty so he could slip through, he inherited his mother's weak physique and since young has been riddle with many diseases, once inside the library he leaned back against the heavy door, letting his body weight do the work of closing it.
The opening and closing of the door seemed to startle an old man sitting on the only table, a large one in the middle of the room surrounded by the few bookshelves, who had his nose on a document.
As he saw it was the young boy he let out a sigh of relief, he too didn't like the count all that much and was only here because of his fondness for the boy.
"Young Jeyvan, you are finally here. Come, come, sit down and i'll go get the books." The old man closed the document he was reading and put it in his robes inner pocket after which with expertise he selected a few books from the bookshelves and put them down on the table. Meanwhile, Jeyvan had already sat on the chair opposite the one the old man was sitting on.
"So, how was your day? Have you done or seen anything interesting?" Asked the old man as he opened the books he had picked, four, into certain pages with walls and walls of text, as Jeyvan looked at that he winced.
"No, it was the same as all other days, father still didn't let me go outside the mansion" As Jeyvan responded he was inwardly feeling glad the old man prefered to discuss the topics he was teaching instead of just reading the long pages of text, which would be horrendously boring, and with their discussions Jeyvan learned that there were many wonders in the world, from places full of endless water called oceans, plains completely filled with sand called deserts, Jeyvan truly wished to one day see these amazing sights, yet his father didn't even let him exit the mansion grounds.
"I see, i see, so if i recall correctly we were talking about the rise of the empire, did i get that right?" The old man asked as he surveyed the pages of the books that were on top of the table.
"Yes, you were talking about how Emperor Claudius, at the time Prince Claudius, ran away from the capital after his father's death and went to the Order" Jeyvan now had shining eyes, the Order, every man knew about it, it is the greatest academy in the world where the talented and the gifted go to learn how to be knights, the most noble profession in the continent. Every boy wishes to attend the academy as it will give you an almost guarenteed future.
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"Indeed, Prince Claudius ran from the political strife amongst the other four Princes who were battling for their late father's throne and instead decided to head to the academy, a place where ranks in the outside world don't matter and only your abilities and talents give you privileges" The old man, too seemed to enjoy talking about the academy with Jeyvan.
"Once Prince Claudius arrived there he hid his identity and attended the academy as a commoner, however, even without being a prince just his sheer talent allowed him to quickly raise through the ranks in the academy and he was considered the most talented person to have appeared in a thousand years!" The old man had awe in his voice and who wouldn't? The founding father of the empire, Claudius I was a known legendary figure and mothers would sing his tale to make their children sleep.
"Twenty years after arriving at the academy he was already one of the highest ranked persons in the Order and with the contacts he had made through the years and the army he made from the students of the academy, almost 12000 students, he returned to his homeland and subdued the other four Princes, declaring himself king and making the Order his royal guards."
"Under his guidance the kingdom entered a golden age of prosperity and peace, the other kingdoms didn't dare to attack because of their fear of the Order. That period of time was known as 'The Ascension' of the kingdom of Varrous into the empire we are today!" With that the old man ended his passionate speech, giving time to Jeyvan to digest all that information.
In fact, Jeyvan wasn't that much in awe, he instead thought that the tale was over dramatized, how would it be possible for 12000 students against the four Prince's armies which together accounted for over 240000 soldiers? So instead of keeping it to himself he asked the old man.
"Isn't that impossible? They were just students and the Prince's armies combined were over twenty times their numbers!" Jeyvan really couldn't understand how Claudius could have won the war.
"That's where you're wrong, the Order's students are special in the fact that each of their students can at the very least defeat ten grown men. And did you really think they fought 240000 in a single battle? No way would the princes ally themselves with each other, Claudius knew that so he used guerrila tactics to slay the unguarded prince's forces and in less than ten day, ten days i tell you, the princes were grovelling at Claudius' feet. Can you believe it, a war that lasted for twenty years ended in less that ten days, they were the biggest joke at the time!" The old man still laughed once in a while as he thought of how easily Claudius won, it just proved even more how much of a good leader and commander he was.
However, Jeyvan was persistent with his questions. "Wasn't the order neutral? Why would they suddenly help Claudius?"
The old man cracked a smile, he enjoyed these times where Jeyvan would question and he would answer, the boy was the smartest kid he had ever met "Claudius is the most charismatic leader we have records of, it was said by one of his generals that he could charm into bed with but a few words. That, however, is not the true reason as to why Claudius got the support of the Order" Jeyvan blushed at the first part but was then paying attention to the old man's every word.
"The Order is frequented by people from all across the continent, from the Eribha Republic's Mermen to the Varrian Council's elfs; all kinds of people come to it. As long as you can prove your talent you will be allowed to attend the academy as a student. As soon as you join, you will become a 'Novice' in the Order, after a year or two you will further your classes and become an 'Apprentice', also for one or two years. These two are the ranks that are free to all, if you wish to further advance your studies in the Order you will have to make a pledge that consits that after becoming a knight you will work for them for ten years doing all kind of quests."
Jeyvan listened with rapt attention, most of what he was being told wasn't known by the general populace and only those who had connections in the academy or actually attended the academy knew about it.
"After making the pledge you will become an 'Adept' for two years after which you can become a squire to a knight, or grand knight, who will teach you in exchange for you doing tasks for them such as cleaning their blades and armor."
"After five years of serving your knight and learning what he teaches you, you will become a knight yourself. If you distinguish yourself, you may be promoted to a grand knight which have more privileges than a normal knight. No matter which one you are though, after two years you will be given the rights to command law within the Order's grounds as an adjudicator. If you think your skills are being wasted as a mere adjudicator you can apply for a promotion to become a guardian."
"The guardians are the personal force of the academy and they will almost never exit the Order's grounds, they also receive monetary reward from the academy. After a year as a guardian you may once again take a test to become a grand guardian which is the highest ranked member of the order."
Seeing the man finished talking, Jeyvan travelled into his daydreams and imagined himself as a grand guardian, slaying dragons and other magical beasts, which made him start smilling happily but was broken out of his thoughts by the old man's voice.
"However" Said the old man "There is a rank above grand guardian, which is almost impossible to obtain, only the most prestigious amongst grand knights may even dream about it. Claudius managed to reach this rank which was what made him able to command the students in order to make himself Emperor."
Jeyvan sat there, mouth open and eyes unblinking waiting for what the old man was about to say.
“Almost no people know about this rank and even most amongst The Order don’t know about it; however there are twelve individuals that protect The Order from the shadows and they are the most elite of warriors in the world, these people we call Paragons, and they are the reason no nation dares attack the empire” The old man had a smirk on his face as though saying, look at me I’m so knowledgeable
Jeyvan sat there, astonished until he started firing question after question that the old man somehow managed to answer
This was how most of the lessons with the old man ended up; they would go totally off-topic with the many amazing things his tutor knew
...
Hours later
...
Jeyvan walked along the barely lit hallway, he had lost track of time while talking with his tutor and learning many things until he felt hungry and noticed it was already night, after saying goodbye to the old man he started heading towards his room.
On his way to his room he passed through a large set of intricate doors which would lead into the dining hall when he heard the noise coming from inside and he stopped.
There was laughter, chatter and other noises coming from inside the room, along the hallway jeyvan walked to a a small window and looked outside and saw that various carriages were parked in the courtyard.
He paused to think for a moment and came to the conclusion that most likely his father was holding a feast to improve relations with the other nobles.
He was not invited but he was already used to that, to his father he didn’t exist, he was an inconvenience, a mistake he made that he wished he could erase.To his father he was the one that killed his beautiful wife, and to his brothers he was the demon that slayed their mother so they all pretended he didn’t exist and none dare mention the third son of Count Valerian
Somehow, to Jeyvan, that was just fine. He didn’t bother them and they didn’t bother him so they could all lead their lives in peace, in the occasional meeting they had on the hallways he would bow while they would pass through him as though he didn’t exist or throw in a few insults and leave, lest he give them some sort of disease.
Ignoring the noises coming from the feast, he started once more on the path towards his room and once there he went inside.
Some may think his room would be befitting of a noble, with intricate paintings on the walls and a bed that spanned the whole room but there was nothing like that in there.
His bed was simply in a corner of the room with grey sheets and a white pillow, no paintings or anything at all to decorate the walls of the room; they were simply painted a dull white. He didn’t have any wardrobe or anything like that, his father didn’t allow that lest he try to make a rope with the clothes to escape through the window. That would be a disgrace so every morning his servants brought him his clothes for the day and made him presentable, so he won't sully the image of house Avorian.
On the nightstand next to his bed was a tray with a meal, most likely prepared by the servants who were the only ones who didn’t pretend he didn’t exist and instead tried to help him. He believed if they didn’t bring him food his father would let him starve without dinner, too busy entertaining his guests to care about his son.
He ate satisfyingly and left the tray on the nightstand, in the morning while he wasn’t in the room a servant would come to take it away
As soon as he finished eating he laid on the bed to sleep, maybe tomorrow something would change for the better…