Prologue
A war between two swords of epic power has raged timelessly. Warriors and pacifists, kings and commoners, good and evil have all fallen under their enticing spell. Wielders have risen and fallen ceaselessly and the land has had enough. A new player has entered the game between the two spirit swords, one that threatens to tip the scales of power. The land has given its champion, the stage finally set, awaiting to see if it shall reach damnation or salvation.
Chapter 1: A JourneyBegins
Sunlight filtered through the leaves of the ancient forest, casting a golden-green shade between the shadows. Deer and rabbits grazed on the grass as insects lazily buzzed in the air. The songs of dozens of birds filled the air, creating a seeming utopia. A being in large blue plate armour with red eyes glared. "Souls, I need souls!" It bellowed loudly and slammed huge rustic red and brown sword into the ground. The blade shivered and shook as a large black eye snapped wide open. A pulse of energy rocked the earth for miles, killing everything in its path. Balls of glowing light from the sword's victims were drained into the sword, refreshing its wielder. "Souls," it proclaimed, "More souls." The creature lumbered through the wasteland it had created in its quest for more souls.
A young man with a scar running down his right eye looked into the sky. Heavy white plate armour clanked as he stopped. The man was large and brawny, flowing blonde hair behind him. "Nightmare," he whispered fiercely and placed a hand on the hilt of a large two-handed claymore. The sword glowed light cyan and turned into a crystal-like blade forked in the middle. The man felt a sudden gust of wind in the still day and smelled evil. He stood ready, looking straight into the wind as it whipped by. "This ends," the man said and walked against the wind.
The tower was dark and dusty, with only a few rays of light shining through slits in the ceiling. Shelves lined the walls, each packed to the brink with filth-covered books. In the shadows, a figure pulled a book off its shelf and released a cloud, causing it to sneeze. "Damn dust," the figure coughed in a young man's voice as it waved its arm. He stepped into the light, the sun's rays streaking across dark brown hair and one of his deep hunter green eyes. The man pulled up the bottom of his faded green woven shirt and wiped the grime from the centuries old book telling the tales of a long since dead traveler.
"And in the distance, I saw the castle of Ostrheinsburg and saw from it a being of indescribable evil. A monster in heavy purple plate armour with eyes of red like Hellfire. In its monstrous three fingered claw it held a blade that looked more alive than an object. The creature stopped and looked down, not at me but past. Behind, I saw a young man with blonde hair and a blue crystal sword that radiated good." The man blinked and squinted before growing annoyed at the darkness. Opting to throw open the lone window, blinding bright light flooded the tower's small room and forced the young man to cover his eyes and turn away. His skinny frame leaned back against an opposite wall to read more, brushing aside of a crop of his messy hair from his eyes. Dark brown woven slacks held by a leather belt tucked into a large and sturdy pair of boots. Across the room on the lone small table, a sheathed broadsword with an emerald in the pommel rested.
"That is so much better," the young man said and continued his reading aloud. "The two beings, one a knight of justice, the other a creature of evil, crashed their swords together. The force was momentous and through the smoke I saw..." He blinked and flipped the page to a blank. He flipped back and forth, furrowing his eyebrows. "This can't be all," he said to himself, flipping more pages. He looked at each blank page carefully and even pages already written on to find any hidden text. "Damn," he said to himself in quiet short fashion and sighed before placing the book back on the shelf. He leaned his head against the shelf frame in deep thought, looking up at the book's spine quizzically. "Why? Why does it end there? He wrote three other books before passing away, each after that one." The man pushed himself from the frame and sat in the lone chair beside the small table. "I need to know what happened."
He leaned his head back and covered his eyes with his hand, listening to boards creak as he rocked on the chair under him. They seemed to call his name with each moan, soothing but faintly growing louder. "Tenlo.. Tenlo.. TENLO!" The last shout startled him and caused Tenlo to lean back to far. His head crashed to the floor, sending a swirling cloud of dust out the tower window in a glimmer of sunlight. "Tenlo! Are you okay in there!?" a voice he knew immediately that was most assuredly not the boards creaking.
With a soft moan Tenlo rubbed the back of his head before stumbling in a daze to the window. Down below, seeming like a small speck from his vantage was an older woman he knew at once. "Your Majesty!" he shouted quickly and tapped his head twice and heart once in salute and respect. "I did not realize you called milady. I will be down with haste!" Tenlo turned and buckled his sword to the left side of his waist, looking back once at where the journal rested. "I will know your secrets," he said quietly before descending the stairs. Four flights later and slightly out of breath he walked out to face a woman in her mid-forties. He bowed, unbuckling and planting the sheath of his sword into the ground in front of him like a cross. "Your highness," he murmured lowly, "a pleasure as always my queen."
The queen stifled a giggle and her slim figure shook with mirth. She stopped and adjusted her golden head band, smoothing back her brown hair that flowed to her mid back. Her eyes, an alarming pale grey green, transfixed on Tenlo's with a caring but authoritative stare that momentarily stunned him into her complete submission. Her thin lips parted in a smile revealing pearly white teeth. "Something caught your senses noble Tenlo?" she said in a false mocking tone and placed a hand on her hip. Tenlo shook his head in both denial and an attempt to regain some composure. He stood up, taking the modest hips and bust under a royal navy dress that Tenlo was well aware drew suitors wild. He and others often towered over her 5'10" petite frame at 6'1", but smiled with the love of a kin. The woman smiled back with her own small grin. "I've told you before, when it is you and I you of all people do not have to call me Queen. Now I am sorry to disturb your readings, but you have official business."
Tenlo looked at the Queen's right hand and saw a small roll of parchment tied closed with a string of purple ribbon. "A lettered?" he questioned with a cocked eyebrow. "Isn't that the duties or our runner messengers?"
The Queen's look was solemn as she placed the parchment into his hand. "Read what it says."
Tenlo carefully unrolled the parchment and read under his breath. 'By royal decree... to the French Empire... sending supplies and TROOPS!" he exclaimed loudly in surprised and sending a flew birds fluttering from their perches. "Signed Queen Lilian Despard, of the Nehelion Kingdom." He stood quietly, rereading the document thrice to be sure he was right. "This must be a serious matter if you are choosing your full title and tying with a purple ribbon. But why am I leading men to the French Empire?"
"It appears his highness believes there to be a great evil rising and he has called our debt after his aide in the war."
"What aide!" Tenlo barked with a brief though agitated smile. "We pushed back Saladin's Army to our borders through the blood sweat and tears of mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters of Nehel and the paltry show of force King Henry IV thinks he sent was what pushed them over and back into his country? We had no need of his assistance, treating the battle of Adamahara as his own private theatre for his and his army's enjoyment."
"I know Tenlo, I know," Queen Lilian soothed. "But Henry IV did make contributions, "she stopped upon hearing Tenlo's grumble of meagerness and repeated again louder. "Contributions! And placed our country in their debt, small as we may believe it to be," she finished with emphasis in both beginning and end. She sighed quietly and took one of Tenlo's worn hands, seeing not for the first time the small scars dotting its landscape. "Please Tenlo, just take 100 troops and a soldiers rations for 300. You may personally pick you take, though try and present a gracious offering to fulfill our country's debt."
Tenlo squeezed her hand gently and nodded. 'Yes ma'am. I will stay only a season, and not a day more, then I shall return with as many troops the King allows." He smiled thinly at the woman almost twenty years his senior, the same woman he looked to as a second mother for the past seven years. "What troubles you, you seem so tired?"
Lilian wiped her moistening eyes with a small tissue and shook her head. "I only fear Henry IV's words are true. Reports from every Empire and Kingdom across the world all point to some similar threat. Even the Sultan Ayham is concerned enough to bridge an armistice between our two nations." She looked up at Tenlo with soulfully deep eyes that welled worry and concern and stared into his. "I fear neither you or this kingdom can survive another war."
Tenlo's hand instinctively moved to the large scar running up and to the right of his back that had almost ended his military career, and more importantly his life. He realized his movement and placed both hands around Lilian's. With a kiss on the back of her hands he reassured her soothingly. "Do not fret my lady. This country and I are similar. We are young, strong, experienced, and will never fall under your reign. I promise you on my honor, my life, and my sword I will return shortly. Then you will see all will be well and you will feel foolish as to have worried and fretted yourself into growing gray."
Lilian looked up at him and smiled in spite of herself. "Please do so as soon as you can. And be safe in doing so." Tenlo bowed again and walked to ready for his journey, a firm hand clasping the decree as the winds changed and began blowing against his back.
