Two - Foundation Part One

Three weeks ago

Alyena, a slender young woman with long black hair, had a long night in the throne room to get through. This was her inauguration night, the night in which the new emperor or empress was deemed to pray to the gods so that they would bless the empire.

Many of the duties of an emperor, or in her case empress, she had already taken upon herself after her father had fallen ill. Still, it was difficult to live with the idea that she was now responsible for half the known world.

Only three days ago her father had been the emperor of Falwyn. But then the news from the border with the other empire had come. The eastern Empire, Chakra, had performed a surprise attack against their empire, Falwyn. The border army had been totally caught off guard and thousands of good soldiers had died. The supreme commander had also fallen while trying to save as many warriors as possible. The supreme commander had been the best friend of Alyena's father. His death had come as a heavy blow for the frail emperor and his had resulted in his heart giving out.

Two days later, on the last day of Winter, the old Emperor had been buried and the 22-year-old Alyena was crowned empress. From then on, she bore the responsibility for governing a country at war. And that while the whole border army had been decimated!

The only thing that she and her empire could do, was to try and delay the armies of Chakra until their own had recovered. Something that might take years, now that so many warriors had been killed.

Alyena concentrated on praying again. That was the only thing she could do at that time. And who knew, perhaps one of the gods would hear her prayers.

“Please, if you can hear me, help us. The armies of Chakra are advancing, their armies are enormous. Our warriors can’t stand up against odds of ten to one,” she prayed to all the gods that had ever been prayed to. “Please, whatever the price will be, I will pay it. I’ll do anything to make sure that my people will remain free.”

Suddenly a voice sounded like thunder through the dark throne room:

“SO IT SHALL BE.”

Alyena jumped a bit out of fright when she heard that voice.

But even while she came down from the adrenaline rush from the sound, a gust of wind flew through the hall.

When Alyena looked up, she saw that a hidden door had been opened behind the throne. With care she sneaked in the direction of the opening. In the corridor hung torches. How do I get those to ignite? She thought. Little by little she inched closer. When she finally stepped through the opening, she was startled again.

All the torches ignited out of nowhere! First the torch went at the entrance, after which the second began to burn as soon as the first gave real light, after which the third went on. She could see that the corridor ran at least a meter or ten.

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“Well, at least that solves the problem of lighting up the place,” she muttered gently against herself.

On the walls were signs that were known to her vaguely, but Alyena could not bring them home. She looked carefully again and saw the same kind of characters on the torch.

Suddenly she recognized the characters. This was called the old language. The language of the ancient Empire from which the two countries were born. A few years ago she had had some lessons about this. The word on the torch meant light!

Now that she recognized the language, she could, with some effort, understand what was written above the entrance. According to the signs this was a temple to an ancient god of war.

Cautiously, Alyena walked further down the hallway. At the end, she ended up in an open room. This was the room where the temple was supposed to be. And indeed, in the middle of the room was an altar, with a scroll on it.

After looking around for a while, she remarked to herself:

“I don't see anything else here.” After which Alyena picked up the scroll and carefully opened it. The language was the same as the one at the entrance. It seemed like some kind of story about the soldiers of the ancient empire and about a connection with a god called Mithras. In the ancient empire, this god was worshipped by all soldiers and warriors.

Why soldiers and warriors were called separate was a mystery to Alyena. Nowadays, the word 'soldier' was almost never used.

When Alyena was almost done with the first paragraph, she found something else that caught her attention. There was something about an arsenal and Niroma. This would mean that this arsenal would have to be located in the capital of the empire. The city where she was right now!

Slowly Alyena closed the scroll again. It was time to go back to praying. There would still be enough time to study the scroll later.

As Alyena walked back through the hallway to the crown room, the torches behind her went out one by one. Even the secret door closed on its own the moment she went through the opening. A moment later there was nothing left to see.

The next evening, Alyena studied the scroll some more. She would have liked to have done that before, but because of the coronation and everything that went with it, that hadn’t been possible. In the evening, however, she had taken a few hours for herself.

This stupid language doesn't make it any easier either, she thought. After two hours, she had only been able to translate half the scroll.

Fortunately, the second half went a bit faster. And little more than an hour later she had also translated the rest. The story stunned her with its implications. She quickly walked to the door to call an imperial guard.

“Harry, would you be so kind as to get Captain Cervik?” she asked. “I need a section of the guard tomorrow to figure something out.”

Only a few minutes later there was a knock on the door.

“Come in!” cried Alyena, and immediately Captain Cervik stepped inside.

The captain was a fairly short man with short sand-colored hair. At thirty-two years old, he was young for this important position. Yet his position was not one that could be bought. Even though the captain was of the nobility, his position had been given to him due to his exceptional talent.

“Ah, captain. I’m glad you could come so quickly. Tomorrow I will be looking at some of the old parts of the palace. Somewhere in there must be a secret section where we might find something to help us with the war. For that I will need a section of guards. I would also like it if you, as commander of the guard, would personally lead them.”

“But of course, your majesty. I am your humble servant.”

“Idiot, don't act like a moron.” Alyena could hardly contain her laughter. Sometimes the often stern captain had a strange sense of humor. She had known him since she was ten years old and he had joined her father's personal guard as the youngest palace guard in quite some time.

The next day, Alyena sent a note to her secretary to cancel all her appointments. Instead of consulting with various 'important' people, she went in search of the old arsenal. However, even before she had properly arrived at Captain Cervik's office to take the section of guards with her, her secretary had already found her.

“Your Majesty, a boy just came up to me and told me that all your appointments should be postponed. That can't be true, can it?”

“I'm afraid so, Titus. There's something I have to do today and I don't know how long it's going to take. It could take up the whole day.”

The secretary looked at Alyena in amazement.

“But your majesty, Count Griffith will arrive soon to discuss your ban on lifelong serfs. As you know, he has many lands and mines where he uses serfs. If you implement your ban, he will lose a lot of money. It is a very important consultation for him.”

Now Alyena is the one who looks a little surprised.

“I had indeed forgotten the count, Titus, but this is more important. Could you send the count a message that he can come by this afternoon? I will do my best to be back in time.”

The secretary sputtered for a moment, but left to draft the message to the count.