LINESII- Into the Darkness- Part II
- Thread starter Lord_Iggy
- Start date
Silver Steak
The Ghost of SS
You know his name means Whiskey Glass in Finnish? 
]
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
One last story attempt before the update. I've got some really good story arcs in the works, but they'll probably be affected greatly by update events, so I'll hold off on those for now.
---
"All creatures experience pain, but only humans are granted the gift of suffering. A plant or an animal can feel pain, that raw impulse telling the body that something is amiss. But true suffering comes when a man experiences pain, and asks, 'Why?'"
-Peletarien, fragmented manuscripts, 720 P.D.
Stratikrator Xenophon crossed onto land, accepting and returning the salutes of the guards below. Absorbing them into his growing retinue, he walked towards the green, where horses awaited them. The harbor was small, but incredibly busy. Converted scouting galleys, long hulking transport barges, sleek triremes, and massive septaremes bristling with ballistae were all pulling up to the harbor, or sailing away to staging areas. On shore, quartermasters and Tacticas alike tried to bring order from the chaos of loading and unloading troops, supplies, and weapons. The entire harbor serviced the city of Salvation, temporary headquarters of the Legioni in all the west of Tellus.
Salvation, City of Flowers, his home. The air in Salvation had a special quality about it, perfumed from the blossoming fruit trees and gardens built in the Golden Ages, long past. It was a brilliant city, shining with green and white, silver and blue. And an ancient city, the ancestral second city of the Old Republic.
It was fortunate that so many things from the Greater Days could be saved here. The city itself was like an echo of a song. The original white marble walls had long since fallen into decay, but he saw them being repaired with sandstone, as blue-cloaked architects carefully oversaw their laboring work crews. The city, long since diminished from war and occupation, was once again thriving under the careful, efficient eyes of its soldier-governors.
The five round hills surrounding the city's center were each crowned with a temple, entrusted with the sacred task of cultivating the white roses that honored the One's purity, and the sacrifice of his Chosen. The Stratikrator knew that he had to reach the front lines immediately, to command the Urban Militia and Pelarioi battalions preparing the barricade. But there was something he had to do, first.
He signalled his aide, a young but promising Septilion named Vespasian. He pulled his skittish warhorse alongside his commander's.
"My lord?"
"Escort my guards on to the outer fortifications, and ensure that the army is set in preparation. I must speak with someone before I join you."
"As you wish."
Turning into the city, he made for the inner citadel. Salvation itself was never a military base, so the newly built ringed fortification loomed over the city center like an uncomfortable king perched on a blocky throne. But he turned his horse away from the gate, making for a tall columned building marked as the city's Hall of Knowledge.
The shelves were much greater than in his childhood, he remembered. Hidden scrolls and books had been returned, and a flow of exiled scholars from Lux and elsewhere brought many tomes with them. The man was waiting for him already, he saw with a start. Strange, that he would know the date of the Stratikrator's arrival in advance.
The elderly man stood in the center of the hall, warming his hands by the open fire pit in the center of the room. In his hands were the books spoken of.
"Aged master, I greet you," the Stratikrator said, performing the traditional bow. "While I truly wish that I might speak with you at length, I must reach the outer fortifications by nightfall."
Bowing humbly, the librarian smiled. "You need not say more, Xenophon. I knew you from the First Liberation, and will welcome a second. It would be good to see my books in Lux again, before my days end."
"And so you shall." He took the three books, carefully examining them. The first two, a biography of Strategius and some Crystalic rock-lore text, were inconsequential, but the third...yes, it was the one spoken of.
"So there were indeed three copies..." he mused.
"My lord?"
"Ah, it was nothing." Turning the slim, black book over in his hands, he shuddered thinking of what this knowledge might have done in another's grasp. He turned to leave, but thought better of it just before.
"Scholar, was there ever another that asked to see these?"
"Only one, a dark man out of the North. His Valin was strange, and his voice shadowed."
"My thanks. Endure these times well."
"A blessing upon you, commander."
He quickly paged through the thin book once more, and then tossed it on the fire, before the shocked eyes of the scholar.
Mounting his horse in the growing gloom outside, he made ready to ride to the outer fortifications. In his mind, his thoughts grew troubled. The war bothered him not at all...but this thing grew deeper. How much had been lost in the Stratikrator's Citadel and the Tomb, and how much remained to be discovered? Gregorian, he wondered, was this why you killed yourself?
---
"All creatures experience pain, but only humans are granted the gift of suffering. A plant or an animal can feel pain, that raw impulse telling the body that something is amiss. But true suffering comes when a man experiences pain, and asks, 'Why?'"
-Peletarien, fragmented manuscripts, 720 P.D.
Stratikrator Xenophon crossed onto land, accepting and returning the salutes of the guards below. Absorbing them into his growing retinue, he walked towards the green, where horses awaited them. The harbor was small, but incredibly busy. Converted scouting galleys, long hulking transport barges, sleek triremes, and massive septaremes bristling with ballistae were all pulling up to the harbor, or sailing away to staging areas. On shore, quartermasters and Tacticas alike tried to bring order from the chaos of loading and unloading troops, supplies, and weapons. The entire harbor serviced the city of Salvation, temporary headquarters of the Legioni in all the west of Tellus.
Salvation, City of Flowers, his home. The air in Salvation had a special quality about it, perfumed from the blossoming fruit trees and gardens built in the Golden Ages, long past. It was a brilliant city, shining with green and white, silver and blue. And an ancient city, the ancestral second city of the Old Republic.
It was fortunate that so many things from the Greater Days could be saved here. The city itself was like an echo of a song. The original white marble walls had long since fallen into decay, but he saw them being repaired with sandstone, as blue-cloaked architects carefully oversaw their laboring work crews. The city, long since diminished from war and occupation, was once again thriving under the careful, efficient eyes of its soldier-governors.
The five round hills surrounding the city's center were each crowned with a temple, entrusted with the sacred task of cultivating the white roses that honored the One's purity, and the sacrifice of his Chosen. The Stratikrator knew that he had to reach the front lines immediately, to command the Urban Militia and Pelarioi battalions preparing the barricade. But there was something he had to do, first.
He signalled his aide, a young but promising Septilion named Vespasian. He pulled his skittish warhorse alongside his commander's.
"My lord?"
"Escort my guards on to the outer fortifications, and ensure that the army is set in preparation. I must speak with someone before I join you."
"As you wish."
Turning into the city, he made for the inner citadel. Salvation itself was never a military base, so the newly built ringed fortification loomed over the city center like an uncomfortable king perched on a blocky throne. But he turned his horse away from the gate, making for a tall columned building marked as the city's Hall of Knowledge.
The shelves were much greater than in his childhood, he remembered. Hidden scrolls and books had been returned, and a flow of exiled scholars from Lux and elsewhere brought many tomes with them. The man was waiting for him already, he saw with a start. Strange, that he would know the date of the Stratikrator's arrival in advance.
The elderly man stood in the center of the hall, warming his hands by the open fire pit in the center of the room. In his hands were the books spoken of.
"Aged master, I greet you," the Stratikrator said, performing the traditional bow. "While I truly wish that I might speak with you at length, I must reach the outer fortifications by nightfall."
Bowing humbly, the librarian smiled. "You need not say more, Xenophon. I knew you from the First Liberation, and will welcome a second. It would be good to see my books in Lux again, before my days end."
"And so you shall." He took the three books, carefully examining them. The first two, a biography of Strategius and some Crystalic rock-lore text, were inconsequential, but the third...yes, it was the one spoken of.
"So there were indeed three copies..." he mused.
"My lord?"
"Ah, it was nothing." Turning the slim, black book over in his hands, he shuddered thinking of what this knowledge might have done in another's grasp. He turned to leave, but thought better of it just before.
"Scholar, was there ever another that asked to see these?"
"Only one, a dark man out of the North. His Valin was strange, and his voice shadowed."
"My thanks. Endure these times well."
"A blessing upon you, commander."
He quickly paged through the thin book once more, and then tossed it on the fire, before the shocked eyes of the scholar.
Mounting his horse in the growing gloom outside, he made ready to ride to the outer fortifications. In his mind, his thoughts grew troubled. The war bothered him not at all...but this thing grew deeper. How much had been lost in the Stratikrator's Citadel and the Tomb, and how much remained to be discovered? Gregorian, he wondered, was this why you killed yourself?
~Darkening~
Weep, Mother.
Tha cat was let out of the bag along time ago Iggy ;].
Yeah, I hate writing now.
Abaddon
Deity
*points and laughs at Iggy*
Kentharu
Zebra Commander
noooo!!!! *cries and starts melting*
Swissempire
Poet Jester
Kozmos
Jew Detective
Apparently, NESers have undertaken sacred oaths not to say crap
Do not tempt me Frodo!
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
Just for the record, the world would be so much a better place without the Bladeists, Valins, Davarians and the Gorinese 
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