Aidar placed his hand in the fire which burnt with the calmness of an old oak tree in a windless pasture. A few instants later the flame wavered and became a dark purple and exploded. A ring of purple flames expanded and slammed Aidar into the stone wall and incinerated the former patriarch. The ring of fire continued to expand, passing through the deep purple stones, and melted the rocks which made up the mountain. The beautiful mint coloured grass left but carbon marks in the now-tattooed earth. The flames had no regards for any obstacles.
The ring continued to spread, yet instead of losing its intensity and withering out into nothingness, the flames grouped up into around forty fiery suns and ten thousand arrows. In all directions they travelled. Some found their way atop mountains with great names such as Mt. Olympus, the Mountains of the Moon, and the Himalayas. Others plunged into the Mariana trench or the San Andreas Fault system. And some, found their torches nestled in the treasuries of kings and emperors.
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Constantinople, Outer District, AD 847
“Gustave,” yelled Erik. “The emperor has a mission for us!”
I jumped out of my wooden chair. “What is it?” I asked, no doubt more than visibly agitated.
“A small force is being dispatched to push back nomads up north. We are to lead the men along the rivers.”
My heartbeat frantically. Finally, after having done odd jobs for the past year the emperor himself gave us a mission. Soon enough we could get in his good graces and be awash with gold and jewels.
“Let’s leave immediately. The faster we act the better he will think of us. Since when have we started to wait for death in rocking chairs? Blood is our water. Muster the men.”
Soon enough, my hundred men had gathered. They were those I had back in Itil, Erik’s men, and half of the late Ari’s warriors. Unfortunately, the rest of the executives wanted to follow Ari’s wish and returned to Sweden. Personally, the last thing I wanted to do was wallow in despair back home without my best friend.
And, although I know that he always intended to die next to his family. I couldn’t do so, nor face the chief and tell him that our dear Ari had died in his bed, his sword a mile from his hand. No, that was asking for far too much. Not to mention he was killed by the same being which reaped his son’s life. We had also cared and nurtured this monster for a couple of months. It was all too absurd.
Outside Constantinople’s great walls, two thousand men waited in silence for our arrival. These were the emperors’ men. We would walk north through the duchy of Moesia, amass men from the nobles in that region before pushing back what the Romans called barbarians.
I walked towards the commander’s camp. Posted outside, three armed soldiers stood guard.
I had been learning Latin and Greek. However, my conversational skills lagged behind my reading skills. And so, I pulled out the emperor’s edict, command, or whatever they called it and said a few words, “I’m Gustave, Varangian, called by the emperor to help in navigation.”
The guard, who looked rather smug even though he barely reached my chin ripped the paper from my hand, inspected its content before flicking up his chin and parting open the tent’s door. In all honesty I didn’t know how to deal with these guys, they were both too proud and stupid. Once in the battlefield I intended to accidentally stick an axe in some of their skulls. I didn’t care for their walls, nor did their churches inspire religious fervour within my soul. The only good thing these people had built was that giant iron chain which guarded their port.
I looked up the sky. Although the sun was out, the moon peaked above a few clouds. I couldn’t admire the moon like Ari, but I would try my best to do my part.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Gustave,” said Erik.
I looked down. “What is it?”
“Go in,” he whispered.
I stepped into the tent where a man in plated iron waited silently. Once I entered, he spoke in Latin, but the words flew well above my head. Thankfully, another man stood to his right and translated his words in simpler terms. It still took my full concentration to understand.
“You will follow us to the province of Modesia. There you will guide us up the Danubius River where the nomads have made—”
A strong wind blew, and the translator’s words were drowned under the tent’s frantic movement. I covered my head, unsure what happened or would happen.
The skies were clear a few instants earlier, I didn’t know what could produce such a force. Well, we wouldn’t need to think of this for too long as the tent, consumed in wind couldn’t help but be ripped out of the earth and flung into the sky. One of its metal rods plunged into a soldier’s chest, and blood squirted out onto his surrounding squad mates. However, none concerned themselves with his well-being. All eyes were drawn to the sky. A reddish-pink, and an orange light trail could be seen in the sky, following these our eyes were drawn down to Constantinople. At first nothing seemed out of the ordinary, however, soon enough a great pink flame pillar erupted into the sky, and a flowery bulb of orange flames exploded, setting aflame even the castle’s rock towers.
As we stared at the melting castle, a wave of heat washed upon us and scorched our exposed skin. The metal armour worn by the high-ranking Byzantine soldiers started to radiate heat. With haste they took off these slabs of metal, in the process burning the hands of those without leather gloves.
My mouth started to dry out, I closed it and turned to the commander. He still had his mouth wide open and didn’t seem to care that his armour was roasting him alive. I kicked his leg to wake him from his stupor. His face scrunched up; however, he didn’t yell or go into a frenzy, but waved at his attendant who quickly pulled the leather straps which held his armour together.
As soon as this was done, he pointed towards the castle and yelled to the men gathered. It was clear what he wanted done, and I too needed to know what had happened.
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3rd person POV
Two fireballs formed from the ever-expanding ring of fire. They rushed in the same direction with speeds surpassing that of sound. How they were not extinguished by the winds could only be explained by the property which kept these eternal flames burning, magic. However, that wasn’t something most would understand just yet. Say for those soon to be confronted by its brutality. Ones like Gustave and Flavius.
The flames continued to travel for thousands of kilometres, attracted by their rightful holders, the torch of singular dreams, in other words, the torch of the unicorns, and the torch of the red scaled Komodors. After an hour they reached the skies above the city of the world’s desire, Constantinople. In search of these artifacts, the flames bore through the walls of the great castle, incinerated the emperor and his advisors, ate their way through the marble floor, and melted the golden chalices hidden deep beneath the castle. All that was left intact were two torches, which now held two radiant flames. The coloured heat they emitted coiled down their shafts before it reached their bases and channelled their powers into the ground. A grand explosion occurred, a great pink pillar of flame and a bulb of orange fire took shape. From these, a purple and orange mist spread in all directions and suffocated the inhabitants of the city; their lungs, unable to process the massive amounts of mana.
As gold boiled, and stones continued to heat up and turn a bright orange, shapes started to come into existence. From the pink mist a unicorn came to be, and from the thicker and hotter orange mist a bipedal Komodo dragon with long and lanky arms formed.
The unicorn took in a large breath, only breathing in the densest clouds of pink mana. She turned to look at the other who was born next to her. “Who are you?” asked the unicorn the size of a Labrador.
Before answering, the Komodor lizard looked around. Seeing the warmth radiate from the boiling gold, he laid his back in it, let out a long and soft growl and spoke, “The Grand Komodor, the incarnation of the orange flames. And you?”
“The Queen of all unicorns. Do you know what happened?”
“You do not need to think. Rest, sleep, it is nice here,” said the Komodor with his eyes shut.
The Queen snorted and looked up; there she saw the sun. It beamed light onto her transparent, diamond horn. A wonderful rainbow emanated from it. She instinctively started to run up into the sky. As the full brunt of the sun shined on her an infinite number of rainbows radiated out of her horn and painted a picture of a kingdom made of multicolour clouds. The men who were running towards the city forgot the destruction they had witnessed. Even if their emperor had died, it did not matter for a heavenly being had descended upon their land.