Disclaimer: The only characters I own are mine, and all the rest belong to their creators, and or Sunrise.
Authors Note:
Well, here we are at the beginning, and I will
try with all my power to make this a better
go that the last.
Enter Destruction
Solar Flare
It looked like a normal day when the end began. Green gray clouds rolled above the great palace and a warm wind
blew sporadically around the crowd waiting before the palace. The crowd is what sticks out in my mind, they were
what made that day different from any other. Them, and the grim spectical they had come to see. The platform
was already prepared when I was brought to witness the traitors execution. His evilness had not yet arrived but
the doomed had been in their cadges since true night. My feet rang hollowly on the boards of the platform and
the doomed turned to look, to see who came. No recognition showed on their faces, we had said our goodbyes before
this final meeting and I did not want to be recognized. I did not want my teachers to know what part I had played
in there doom. One does not present your self to your former leaders as the pet priest of the lord who defeated
them after all. I stood before the semi circle of cages, in the black robes his evilness had ordered I wear and
with the double bladed battle axe chosen for this moment in hand. Four heads turned to look at me. Green, white,
black and blue hair lifted to reveal eyes that glared out at me and all I represented. Part of me turned away
from them then, my teachers and friends. Sekhmet, Dais, Kayura, Kale, there was no escape for them now, Kilcule
had made sure of that. I had helped him and they had suspected nothing, even at the end, but it seems I should
start at the beginning of the long road that led us all here to this traitor's execution.
I suppose the beginning of the road lies with Talpa, or rather with his defeat. I was already in the palace by
then. I grew up in those grim halls, under the eyes of grim warriors. The great lords I knew on sight and even
then I knew their power. Cruelty, Venom, Corruption, and Illusion, they were power beyond the scope of anything
I had ever seen but not beyond the scope of what I was to know. Destruction was my name, Lorelei, I was and am.
We were children, brought in by our master Talpa. He brought us to his palace to learn, to become shadows, human
blades, tailored to move at his will through the worlds he meant to make his own. I was not the only one of the
blade bound, we were many, and we were as moralistic as any sword. Then the unthinkable happened. Our great master,
the force that had dominated this dark realm for time out of mind was gone. Defeated, vanquished, never to return
to power, never to gather to his hands the blades that his will had forged. Without his hands to hold his realm
the old wars reared their heads, like treacherous serpents. The lesser warlords gathered their supporters around
themselves and prepared for a war of supremacy to take the empty thrown in the palace of the overlord. My world
had been held together only by the chains of hatred Talpa had laid on us, and those chains were strong and old,
but now they snapped. Into this backlash, when all were at each others throats, the Warlords returned from the
lost war for the world, Earth. They came changed, they were not as they had been, no longer did they follow the
road through evil. Lead by the lady Kayura they gathered what power they could and reached out to consolidate
the fighting lords again. Their goal was war no longer, peace became that which we fought for. The blades that
Talpa had forged for his use were turned to a new task by the warlords. We became the strength in the armies of
the Warlords. Venom, Corruption, and Illusion each went out and put down the rebellions where ever they found
them. I did not go to serve with my fellows, I stayed behind for special training. I had come under the lady's
notice, as being the youngest of the blades in training and so I was called to learn a new task. For me came the
lessons of a warrior priest, to Follow Lady Kayura as aid, and future replacement. Kayura understood what it meant
to be a blade, she had been the best of us for years beyond count after all. Under her I learned and under the
Warlords, once they returned, as well. They tried so hard to heal the Dynasty of the legacy of hate Talpa had
left it. They were not as successful as the thought. Hate is hard to unlearn, and we had been steeped in it for
time past the oldest memory of my people. Kayura saw the face of the Dynasty she wanted to see, the beautiful
one. She saw the rolling planes, the water lily fields, the strangely beautiful skies. I think the warlords saw
the hard face, barren rock, warlike peoples, hidden anger. None of them saw what I saw though. They didn't see
the rebellion forming, they didn't hear the whispers. I did.
I was approached by one of the most up and coming of the revolutionaries, or rather by one of his representatives.
They knew I would help them, Kilkoul, he knew where the hole in my armor lay, and he was not a fool to leave any
weakness unexploited. Never in what were to become long dealings was any words ever exchanged, but by certain
signs I was given to understand the destruction I would bring to a certain personage of a mutual acquaintance to
myself and his evilness. Officially I was promised position as high priestess and nearly unlimited independence
to pursue my own devices so long as I did not interfere. Unofficially it was made clear that any interference
would be taken out of my unfortunate friend in Kilkoul's keeping. Alone these terms might not have been sufficient,
but Kilkoul was one of the blades and blades worked together after all. He was not to know, however of my goals,
I knew power by that point, how could I not as a child of the dynasty, and blade of Talpa? I would have what I
wanted, and on that list was vengeance.
I spent a good deal of time after that sending plans of the palace out to Kilkoul's forces and providing them
with inside information about the inner workings of the whole compound. Then it came. The orders to prepare for
attack, the armies were marshaled, plans were finished, the rebellion was coming in. Kayura got the word at first
light, she summoned the Warlords to her and they laid the best plans they could in what little time they had left.
They knew it was over I think, there was a desperation in everything they did, everything they said. They knew
they had to try but I don't think they expected to win. They didn't, Kilkoul knew everything by then, and he left
them no way out. No way out for any of us, no way at all. He came with spells to hold the armors away from the
warlords, Dais was most unhappy to discover Kilkoul had gotten his hands on one of the attacks he himself had
used in the war for Earth. The fall was not swift but I will pass over that time of death and bloodshed that was
and look instead to the death that was to come. Kilkoul gained the castle at sunrise the next morning, and he
gathered what was left of his troops together for the last battle. He and the warlords fought at last in the throne
room and the foundations shook with their fighting, all in vain. All was ended by noon, without their armors the
warlords had been no mach for Kilkoul, who by the use of numbers, had finally overcome them all. By the night
we had a new overlord. I will say this now, I served him, and over time I came to respect his cunning, but never
did I like him, and never was I a willing helper in his deeds. I waited and I watched as he sentenced my teachers,
traitors he charged them,. And as traitors he condemned them. The first night of his rule would be their last
night in this world. They were taken to the cells arranged for them, and I was taken and invested as High Priestess
to a dark and evil lord. It was not the last thing I did that day. I was soon forgotten and once so freed I went
down, down to the courtyard where the cages of the doomed awaited, down to say a last farewell. They were waiting
for me, they knew I would come. It was like to a grave down there in the dark, but I had to go, and I had to take
the charge my lady left with me. "Keep these out of his hands." Kayura said to me that night, there
in the dark. "The armors are not for the likes of him, you have to find those who can take up the armors.
Promise me Lorelei, you are all that stands between this place and destruction." It was there, to the doomed,
that I made the second oath I could never break, would never break. I took the orbs from the warlords, one at
the time as I passed a moment before each cage. I could not see them but maybe they wanted it that way, then I
returned to Kayura and she gave me my final instructions. Then I was gone, I did not look back as I left them
there waiting for the morning that would bring the end. Morning came hard on the heels of night, and with it
the execution, I went, and I read the judgement that was passed for all who came to hear. There under the green
skies, before the hosts of evil I lost what innocence remained to me. These hands of mine are hands of a destroyer,
this blade that I carry still is the breath of death. With these hands and this blade, I completed my lords command.
I raised my blade that day, and cemented the rule of another demon over my people and my world, all for a solitary
oath and a single life.
