Under His Red Wings
Chapter One: Dark Hemisphere
…and so, Keldor became an outcast. Wandering throughout Eternia, alone and without purpose.
Exiled from Eternos City for the attempted murder of his brother, Keldor was only allowed to take what could be carried. Either by Keldor himself, or loaded on the back of his familiar, the Dylinx, Panthor. He was not given lands to oversee or an income from the crown, but was instead cast out in shame, a black spot on the name of his House.
Keldor bartered for passage on a ship that was already voyaging to barter goods from the Dark Hemisphere. The ship carrying him over the Harmony Sea and away from the Plains.
Standing on the deck, he watched the fertile green coast shrink away. The day was bright and sunny, the water peaceful. Perfect weather for the ship to set sail. But inside, Keldor neither peaceful nor bright. He was convinced that his brother conspired to steal his crown from him. That Randor had stolen the future of his House and usurped the birthright that was meant for him. But he would have his revenge. Keldor vowed it.
As he stood there, leaning against the taffrail of the ship, watching the Plains -and the throne of Eternos- draw farther and farther away from him, Keldor vowed that he would make Randor feel the exact same loss that he felt.
The journey was equally as peaceful as their departure. The Harmony Sea was very accurately named. The tides were steady, the currents calm, the winds consistent.
They reached their destination a short two days after setting sail.
Coming to dock on the curve of a continent, where the landscape coiled into a natural harbor. They tied off at a small birth belonging to an even smaller town on the between the Dunes of Doom to the south, and the Burning Sands to the north.
There wasn't much on the Dunes of Doom. Unlike the Harmony Sea, their name was inaccurate. The Dunes of Doom weren't dunes at all, but a range of hard sharp hills, more rock and soil, with razor sharp peaks that slanted upwards like the blades of a thousand earthly words. It was hard land. Impossible to farm.
But not impossible to mine. That was the only reason anyone even bothered to try settling the Dunes of Doom. For the mines. Mostly gold. Something merchants were always happy to move.
The Burning sands was an accurate name. Pockets of gas trapped under the shifting landscape building in pressure until it burst up through the sand in a jet. The highly volatile gas was ignited by the desert's heat the moment it broke the surface, sending plumes of fire into the air. Burning Sands, very accurate.
It was impossible to farm the Burning Sands too. But the highly volatile gas was valuable as a fuel for Wind Raiders and Sky Sleds.
The ship unloaded crates of foodstuffs from the plains. Barley, wheat, vegetables, and fruits, herbs for teas, and spices for flavor. In exchange, they expected to full their hulls with raw gold ore, or already smelted bricks, and cannisters of harvested gas, to be traded up north for silks and velvets that could be taken back to the plains and sold in Eternos.
Keldor got off in the small town.
"Carful out there." One of the crew called to him, as Keldor was leading Panthor down the gangplank.
Keeping a tight hand on the lead more for the comfort of those around him rather than any fear that Panthor could not behave in a crowded harbor. Keldor looked up at the crewman shouting at him and saw it was the First Mate, a Beastmen with a boar's tusks and a fox's triangle ears. He, Keldor, and one insignificant cabin boy were the only non-humans on the voyage.
"Old Gods stalk the wastes of the Dark Hemisphere." They finished.
"There's no such thing as 'old gods'!" Shouted a young deck cadet with clipboard that was tallying the cargo as it was unloaded. They were human, pale skinned and golden haired. Probably from Eternos, or somewhere else on the Plains, if their accent was anything to go on. "There's only the one Goddess. All other gods are just her different Aspects, or else were representations of her before we became advanced enough to comprehend her true nature."
The First Mate shot them a dirty look. "Fancy words for a cadet! Why don't you go become a priest then!"
Keldor walked away.
He did not care about the Goddess, or Old Gods, whatever other superstitious nonsense people believed. He was a sorcerer and understood that there was powerful magic in Eternia. The very atmosphere of the planet was infused with power. The aether in the air. But there was no intelligence behind it. No divine hand that moved it. The Goddess was an idea that brought people comfort, but that's all gods were. Something people made up to tell each other in the dark and feel less afraid.
Keldor did not stop in the small port town. He pressed on, heading north east, threading his way between the Burning Sands and Dunes of Doom, not wanting to cross either, but also wanting to cover as much ground as he could before night fall.
Upon its first impressions, the Dark Hemisphere was a little disappointing and did not live up to its name. It was not a lifeless wasteland. The port town Keldor just left not withstanding, there were tiny patches of scrub grass here and there, and every now and again, Keldor would see a sudden movement in the grass or here a hiss in the sand. Tiny creatures slithering to get out from under his boots. There was life in the Dark Hemisphere.
And it wasn't even that dark. Just a little overcast. A light gray haze lingering over the land like the sky before a rain.
Except it did not rain.
There was no water in the hazy clouds. They were ash clouds, rolling over the land from any one of the multiple volcanos that dotted the continent.
It was lucky that they weren't rain clouds, because when night did fall, they made camp in an abandoned hut. It's support beams collapsed by time and its roof caved in. But the four walls remained solid enough. Keldor slept with his back propped up against one wall, his cape wrapped around him for warmth, Panthor curled up next to him.
He was halfway between sleep and waking when he heard something, not quite a voice, but a whispering on the air. Beckoning, as if wanting to lead him somewhere. But Keldor didn't heed it. He had another destination in mind when coming to the Dark Hemisphere, and when he woke, he assumed the beckoning feeling in the dark was nothing more than a dream.
He continued heading east, making his way around the Dunes of Doom. The Dunes ran the whole length of the southern coast, until they finally ended at an active volcano. Black smoke billowed from its peak, and glowing red lava slithered down its slopes.
Keldor tore pieces off of his cape, wrapping one over his own nose and mouth, and the other over Panthor's nose to keep from breathing in the black smoke.
As they passed the volcano, moving around its northern slope, Keldor felt the becoming again. Some magical call sent through the aether, making him wonder if where he was going was really worth crossing the harsh landscape of the Dark Hemisphere to get there. Things were so harsh to the east. Why not come back west, and more north. The land is easier to cross and there might be rewards to those that are bold enough to earn them.
But Keldor pressed on. It wasn't just a place he was heading to. It was a person. One specific person. The only person he knew in the Dark Hemisphere. His only reason for coming to his hellish wasteland.
Keldor could see the desert of Zalesia by the time he reached the bank of the Blood River.
It was an expanse of rolling sand, and oddly sunny for the Dark Hemisphere. The winds blowing in from the Ocean of Gnarl blew all the soot and noxious smoke of the volcanos to the west and away from the desert. The sun shone bright on the sands of Zalesia just on the other side of the river.
And somewhere in those sunny sands were the ruins of the city of Zalesia, and in those ruins was Evelyn Powers.
Keldor and Panthor camped again on the banks of the Blood River, deciding to find a way to cross it after they were both rested.
There were no bridges built across it, nor where there any ferries that could be paid to carry them across. There was not much in the way of civilization in the Dark Hemisphere. Finally, Keldor had to come to the conclusion that he and Panthor would have to ford it.
They walked the length of the river until they found a segment where the water flowed slowly and smoothly to cross.
After that, it was not hard to find the ruins of Zalesia.
Once he was actually in the desert, the currents of aether ebbed and flowed, spiraling around the only place of true power in the shifting sands.
From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a gigantic ram's head rising up out of the sands. As Keldor drew closer, he could see a gate concealed just below the ram's chin. A double gate, big enough for carts or other large vehicles to pass through. Clearly the main gate into the city when it still thrived.
Keldor forced the gate open and slipped inside out of the heat.
Inside it was very dark. Only the ram's head gate seemed to be above ground. The rest of the city being buried underground by time and the winds shoveling sand on top of it.
Keldor stroked Panthor's violet fur. The cat's vision would be better than his own in the dark ruins. Not just his eyes, but his nose too.
"Find Lyn for me." Keldor commanded the cat.
The Dylinx gave a feline chirp of acknowledgment then hopped off through the corridors. He remembered what Master's mate smelled like. He could find her.
Conjuring a ball of witchlight to illuminate the path for him, Keldor also delved into the ruins. Though much more slowly than his cat. Testing each step on the ancient stairs before putting his weight on it.
Keldor just reached the base of his first flight of stairs when a specter appeared before him.
Tall, its head almost reaching up to the passage's ceiling. A white head devoid of a face or hair, just a blank whiteness with slight indentations where the eyes used to be, and a low slope that at one time had been his nose. The apparition was wreathed in curling mists, and held a staff. An ancient looking staff with a decorative ram's skull atop it, the horns tinted gold and spiraling out from the sides. The apparition blocked Keldor's path, preventing him from delving deeper into the ruins of Zalesia.
"Who dares trespass in the ancient and forbidden city of Zalesia!?" It bellowed at him.
Keldor did take a step back, but out of surprise, not fear. Lyn had told him about her father. "You must be King Nikolas."
"I-! No one has called me that in a thousand years." The specter informed him, sounding oddly annoyed and decidedly less intimidating because of it. "I am the Faceless One, stripped of my identity and cursed with immortality for commanding the gods and razing cities, I-"
Keldor started picking at his nails, not impressed. He felt like he heard all this before, although this was his first time ever coming to Zalesia. But he was married to the Faceless One's daughter, and he was exactly as she described him. Given to hamming up the drama.
"Is Lyn here?" Keldor decided to cut the ghost off mid-monologue. "I came to see her."
The curling mists coiling around the specter receded, and the Faceless One shrank down to the average height of a human male on Eternia. The indents where his eyes used to be were now on the same level as Keldor's own eyes. His face remained non-existent and blank. Just the impression of where a face had once been, features washed away like the desert sands against stone. The Faceless One glared at the intruder, as if trying to burn a hole through him with the intensity of newfound dislike alone.
"You must be Keldor." The Faceless One finally concluded. "Lyn told me about you."
"So, she is here." Keldor concluded.
The Faceless One growled, a low feral sound from the back of his throat (assuming he still had a throat), the mists coiling around him again, slithering between them, making Keldor feel inexplicably cold.
"My daughter does not want to see you." The Faceless One informed him, voice a low warning. Just to be sure the message was clear, the Faceless One tipped his staff so that the ram's head was poised, the skull glaring directly at Keldor. At this close range, it was impossible for any spell to miss.
"I would prefer it if Lyn told me herself." Keldor tapped a finger against the ram's forehead, tracing it down the snout of the skull, refusing to be intimidated. "Is this the Havoc Staff? It's not quite as grand as Lyn described. I wonder if it's even as powerful."
"Powerful enough to wipe you off the face of Eternia." The Faceless One promised him.
He seemed serious. Very eager for Keldor to give him a reason to erase him from the face of the planet.
Keldor was debating calling the Faceless One's bluff when Panthor came running back up to him, Lyn not far behind the large cat. "What are you doing here, Keldor?"
His face broke into a smile. His first real smile since leaving Eternos. His first real smile since trying to kill Randor. They might have their problems, but she was his partner and Keldor was genuinely happy to see her.
"Lyn!" He tried to push past the Faceless One to get close to her, but the specter just planted his feet and banged the end of his staff on the step, blocking his path.
"Lyn," began the Faceless One, "do you want to see him?"
For half a second, in the dim light, it looked as if Ly was going to say 'no' she did not want to see him. Keldor crossed an entire content, more than half of the Dark Hemisphere to get to her. He didn't know what he'd do if she turned him away. Probably react badly. He'd been reacting badly to everything since him crow was taken from him.
But then Lyn heaved a sigh. As if already exasperated with him. "Might as well hear what he has to say."
Lyn waved her father off.
The Faceless One turned another eyeless glare at Keldor, the featureless indents where his eyes used to be meeting Keldor's own eyes.
"Not a thing transpires within Zalesia that I do not know about." He warned. Then the Faceless One vanished in a swirl of mists and a puff of cool air.
Keldor and Lyn stood there, staring at each other for a moment longer.
Then Panthor rubbed his feline face against Lyn, registering his pleasure at seeing her again, and making sure that his affection for her was known. Panthor might be Keldor's familiar and steed, but aside from Keldor, Evelyn Powers was his favorite two-legger.
Lyn scratched the sides of his face and under his chin, making sure that the giant cat understood that she appreciated his fuzzy affections. Her nails raking through his fur. Master's mate always gave the best scratchies.
"Lyn-" Keldor began, trying to pull her attention back to him.
"C'mon, we can talk in the library." She led him farther down into the buried ruins. Down uneven stairs and through narrow corridors. Until she pushed open a door with a ram's head over the frame.
The room was lit with witchlight, the soft pale glow illuminating walls of bookshelves. Ancient tomes, all first additions, some the only additions and never read by anyone but the Faceless One or his daughter. There was a pentagonal table in the middle of the room, also carved with the head of a ram. An earthenware teapot sat on the table with only one teacup next to it, and an open book rested beside a chair that had been pushed away.
Apparently, Keldor's arrival had interrupted Lyn's reading.
She sat back down at her chair in front of her book and did not call in a second teacup for him. Her way of subtly indicating that she did not intend for him to stay.
"Well, have you found him?" She asked.
Keldor froze in the doorway, his held tilting downward in shame. He was speaking more to the ram hooves of the table legs when he admitted. "Still no trace."
Lyn turned her back to him, her attention seemingly fixing back on her book, but she was not actually reading. "Then why are you here?"
"Lyn, I need you." He told her, repeating his same words from when she left him in the first place. Just hours before he tried to murder his brother, she left him. Just minutes after his father took his crown from him, she left him. "I've been exiled from Eternos."
She did look up at that. Turning back around to face him, fixing him with her violet eyes that flashed with sudden confusion, then flashed with suspicion. "You can't be exiled from Eternos, you're the future King."
"I was the future King." He admitted. "But because of- -what happened, Father stripped me of my title and named Randor heir over me. I'm sure Randor meant it that way. I'm sure he's the one responsible. He did this to us, Lyn! I know it! He took everything from me -us! I need you to help me take our revenge. Randor has to pay for this! He has to pay for our- He has to pay."
The corners of Lyn's mouth turned down in a frown. She got to know Keldor's brother fairly well when they were in Eternos. He was a loud, enthusiastic man, and did not hesitate to share his thoughts or opinions. Randor did not strike her as the type to scheme secret conspiracies or harm and betray his immediate family. It was easy for Keldor to lay their troubles at his brother's feet. Randor benefitted from their tragedy, and Randor was tangible. But Lyn was sure Randor was not the source of their fall from power.
"So not only have you not found him, but you're no longer going to be King. So you have nothing to offer me." Lyn concluded.
Their partnership was, after all, just a partnership. A contract of equal exchange. She gave him what he wanted from her in their partnership. When he was King and ruler of Eternia, he was supposed to give her a throne of her own. To rule beside him as his Queen. The throne was big enough for too, and Evelyn desired power. But if Keldor was no longer going to become King, then he could no longer hold up his end of the bargain. He had nothing to offer her. She had no use for him.
Turning back around, Lyn faced her book. Once again pretending to read. "I've heard what you came here to say. You may go now."
"But, Lyn, you-" Keldor began to protest.
But he stopped when he felt a gust of cold air on the back of his neck and curling mist coiled around his shoulders. Keldor turned around to see that the Faceless One had materialized behind him, holding the ram's head Havoc Staff in his hand.
"She said she's done with you." The Faceless One repeated. "It's time for you to leave."
Panthor growled.
"And your familiar as well." Added the Faceless One. "My daughter doesn't want you here. You will never be allowed back within Zalesia unless you are invited."
To punctuate this statement, the Faceless One tapped his staff on the ground, and the ruins answered. Each stone giving a little rumble, rolling out from the point where the staff hit, and echoing throughout the chambers and corridors of Zalesia.
The rolling echo hadn't even died down before Keldor felt a change in the air. A distinct tang in the aether within Zalesia that made Keldor feel uncomfortable. Like he did not belong in the ancient city.
"Now, will you leave on your own, or shall I escort you out." Asked the Faceless One.
Keldor turned to Lyn, but her back was to him again. She was done and had no further use for him. He could no longer give her the power she desired. Before he could have her back at his side, he needed more power. Power that he could offer her.
Reluctantly, he brushed past the Faceless one, beckoning to Panthor to follow him.
The Faceless One escorted him out of Zalesia anyway. Following Keldor back up the stairs, making sure he took the correct passages, all the way back to the ram's head gate.
The Faceless One could not cross the stone. He couldn't set foot outside Zalesia. He stopped just inside the gate, still wreathed in the shadows of the passage.
Outside, the sky had faded from sunny and cloudless blue, to the muted lavender of twilight. The sun going down over the Blood River to the west. Keldor could see the haze of the volcanos rolling over the land. The winds of the Gnarl Ocean pushed the clouds and vapors inland, making a wall of dark clouds to block out the sunset. It was already dark on that side of the continent.
"Be careful, Keldor."
He turned around to look at the specter still lurking within the gate. His tone did not imply concern, but rather was taunting.
"The rest of the world might have marched on and forgotten, but here in the Dark Hemisphere, the old powers flow wild, and old villains are not as dead and gone as your histories might teach you."
The warning had a similar ring to it as the one the superstitious First Mate of the ship gave him. But issuing from the mouthless head of an immortal King from the Preternia era, it sounded far less silly. There were old things that still lingered in the Dark Hemisphere, the Faceless One was an example of just one.
Looking out over the shadowed landscape, growing darker with the setting sun, Keldor wondered what other forgotten and ancient powers he might find in the Dark Hemisphere.
And Keldor could still feel that whisper through the air. A beckoning in the aether, calling him to some other place. Somewhere near. In the Dark Hemisphere. Not Zalesia. Stronger. Darker. More powerful.
Keldor needed power.
Since Lyn did not want him anymore, there was nothing for him in Zalesia. And he didn't know of anywhere else in the Dark Hemisphere. Following the power that was literally calling for him seemed like the best option available.
"I will be back for Lyn." He promised the Faceless One.
"Only if she wishes you to come back for her." The Faceless One reminded him.
Keldor just continued to glare at that featureless landscape where a face used to be. The Faceless One might be immortal, but it was a curse of immortality. Not immortality born from power. The Faceless One's only real power that his staff. That ram's skull with its gold-tinted spiral horns.
"Perhaps when I return, I'll take your Havoc Staff with me as well." Keldor added.
There was a beat of silence between them. The wind shifted the sand between them.
Then, "Lyn was right. I don't like you." The Faceless One turned. The ram's head gate slamming shut behind him. The city closed and sealed to Keldor.
He turned his back to the gate, climbed up on Panthor, and headed back north. Following that call he felt in the aether.
…