LINESII- Into the Darkness- Part II

Ky* Caplin a** Carstares, sworn member of the Royal Household and member of Hazim's Lifeguard, a group of warriors sworn to guard him to the death, knelt before Hazim himself. The King sat on his travelling throne, a massive object of amber and silver-work that happened to weigh only a third as much as the Sunset Throne in Sintonia City.

"Lord a Carstares, I am correct in the belief that you were able to observe the battle at Herim?" The King's leading general, Jakumiuk, asked.

The Ky's head raised slightly, so that he could look at the general. "You are correct."

"And, what was the outcome of the battle?"

"When we left, the Myococan relief was rounding up the Swade soldiers. We would have observed more, but I felt it prudent to leave before the Myococans question why we were with the Swade army."

"And why were you accompanying said army?"

"The army, by then, had encircled the city. The only way to get close enough to observe was with their permission. They were willing to grant it, as they expected a quick victory."

"Which they did not achieve, why?"

"They were forced to assault a fortified city, within a limited timeframe before the relief force arrived. They had left no option of surrender, and their attempts to overrun the fleeing Oneists had failed. Even untrained troops would be able to inflict heavy casualties in such a situation."

Jakumiuk turned to the King, who had remained silent on his throne.

"Your majesty, though the Myococans may have one the victory at Herim, such is not a good reflection of how a war between the two nations is likely to go. The War Council's advisement, that Sintonia would be best benefited by an alliance with the Swade Ascendency, stands. To make best use of-"

The King raised his hand, and fixed Jakumiuk with a short look that advised silence. He turned to A Carstares, still kneeling.

"What would the Lord a Carstares recommend in the course our royal body undertakes between our cousins in Myococa and Swade?"

Jakumiuk nervously tried to gain the King's attention, but Hazim's focus remained fixed on the Ky before him.

"Your majesty, I would recommend neutrality."

"And what would your brothers, who accompanied you to Herim?"

"Ky Khiri believes it is still possible for peace to be made between our northern cousins. Ky Stark believes that we have an obligation to aid Swade in ridding Myococa of Oneists."

The King leaned back, his neck molding with the shaped chair in which he sat. Carstares's face had never looked more haggard beneath his grayed moustache as he continued.

"The decision of the Ky, made between the Jen'e'tai*** upon word of hostilities between Swade and Myococa, was strict neutrality. Even if your royal majesty calls us, we cannot come."

"We are aware of the decision, and not pleased with it." The King, using the royal 'we' answered. "However, the Ky have had a long and proud service even before our house sat upon the throne, and so we shall allow it."

The King raised his voice, addressing the entire tent.

"Long have our advisors recommended that we support Swade, or else remain neutral. Is there any here who would have us support Myococa, who is wronged?"

There was silence throughout the tent, as the officers and the sprinkling of courtiers waited for someone else to state to their Majesty the obvious. It was Jakumiuk who spoke up in the end.

"Myococa, while wronged, is the lesser power." He said. "The less risk lies in support of Swade, who possess a larger army and navy then their less radical neighbors."

The King raised his hand again, having heard enough. Jakumiuk, already surprised at the king's unprecedented use of his authority, who before would have let his generals handle such things.

"Swade may be a mightier power. Swade may be the center of Bladeism. But Hazim, King of Sintonia, the Sunset Kingdom, is not a vulture to prey upon one who's defeat may already be assured. Myococa is in the right, and it's fields tread upon by the boots of Swade soldiers. It is our decision how Sintonia chooses to send it's armies. And we choose to send them into Swade, should war between it and Myococa erupt."

"Ky a Carstares, we charge you as our royal proxy in this matter. Go to Myococa, and if the armies march, tell us."

Carstares nodded, leaving the tent of his own will. None of the guards moved to stop him. They, the courtiers, and the officers of the army looked at the King with a newfound respect. Except for Jakumiuk, whom showed fear on his face.

Outside, thousands of swordsmen and archers bustled about, unknowing of how their foe had been decided in the tent at the center of the army. Some glanced towards the west, to the shared borders of Swade and Myococa's southern cities, which they were encamped near.
------------
To: Myococa, Swade
From: Ky a Carstares, emissary of King Hazim.

It is the decision of King Hazim that, should war erupt between your two nations, that he shall move his army in support of Myococa. It is their borders and people who have been despoiled, and they who shall swing their blades with the added force of righteousness.

*Ky: Knight
**a: meaning 'of'
***Jen'e'tai: Ranking member of the Ky

OOC: *Crosses fingers* Anything else I should do? Or do I just send the orders for the attack via PM?
 
orders sent,

I would like Herim to be an ancient abandoned tower from a lost civilization filled with mystery, but if it must be a real one, the fortress out west near the Swade border:)
 
To: Swade Ascendancy
From: The Royal Kingdom of Myocaca

You have defiled our lands. Your Bladeist games mock the dead upon the walls of Herim. War will come, it shall bring stars down to earth and brake the backs of legends and heroes will be made. Draw your sword Iv, for you have broken our covenant.

OOC: Personally speaking, I'm betting that the words "Royal Kingdom of Myocaca" are vital in this diplomacy. Since if wubba choses to overthrow the Kingdom of Myocaca in exchange for something that is more supportive of the Swades, I'm sure this declaration of war will mean nothing.

And have you also not noticed how quiet swiss has been about this? :p
 
*****​

Darkness covered him. Darkness cloaked him and kept him warm. Visions of that forsaken tribal village filled his head as the hoof beats rang out together with the weak beat of his heart.

*****​

"Oh Koke, where are you? Koke, please answer me!"

The sobs of a broken women echoed hollowly in his ear. Her death knoll was merely a shadow of the several others already dead around her. A small girl was reaching for a doll, but her bloody hand could not reach it.

Khorchi bent down upon his knee, scouping the doll into his hands. It was a simple thing, straw and a small bit of cloth. A string smile and dark eyes. Carefully, he put the doll into the girls hand, and closed her lifeless fist around her toy.

With slow steps, Khorchi made his way into the cheifs tent. The old man was dead, but he was clutching something close to his chest. Nimbly Khorchi unclenched the man's arms, and gasped in surprise at the obsidian mask that fell, and the broken hilt of a golden sword.

"These are...these are the holy relics of the Iron Face!" he spoke aloud, his voice trembling in anticipation at his find. It seemed that the old man was their keeper, and took them out after the Gorinese had left. How lucky that should fall into his hands! Quickly, he placed the mask upon his face, straping it to his helmet, and then procced to grab the golden blade.

He let loose an blood chilling scream as the blade began to glow red hot, and burn his hand. No matter what he did, he could not let it go.

"So, you are chosen then?"

Gasping for breath, Khorchi collasped to the ground, eyes wide in shock as a naked demonic girl walked towards him, speaking a strange tongue, which he somehow understood.

"Your father would be proud to see you this day, and I'm sure he'll thank you properly soon, my...prince," she purred, before jumping upon him. An intense pain burned inside his skull, and he lost consciousness. He awoke in the dead tribal village grasping the sword, and mask still upon his face, remembering nothing, and with a strange whisper echoing in his mind.


*****

A large bump, and Khorchi was suddenly awake. Attempting to rub the tiredness from his eyes, he winced in pain as the wound in his side protested such movement.

"It was just a dream," he told himself blearily, now wary of the sword he had forged.

You were just tired from your battle. Think nothing of these dreams.

But where did you come from, if not from there?


As I said, I was always with you, the village merely awakened me...

I'm not so sure I believe you...

Shaking off such concerns for the moment, Khorchi instead attempted to figure out where he was at the moment. Raising his body up despite the pain, he looked around him to find himself in a horse drawn cart, with various women all around him.

Blinking twice, he wondered if he'd gone to heaven. The pain in his torso reminded him not to get too exicited, and he grunted at the pain. The woman gaurding the cart turned to regard him, "Ah, you are awake. You recover pretty quickly for a man," she spoke, her Nkondian accent thick.

Hiding his disappointment at not being in Heaven, Khorchi gruffly responded, bluntly getting to the point, "How long was I out, and where the hell am I?"

The woman snorted, before answering irritated at his tone, "We found you three days ago, and this is a Nkondi raiding party. I don't know why your fellows abandoned you after defeating that Zealot band, but they probably had a good reason, with an attitude like that," she finished, smirking superiorly at him.

Ignoring his uneducated insults, Khorchi tried to stand, although his body protested it. The woman watched on uncaring, before finally moving to catch him as he tripped upon his unresponsive legs.

"Watch it, our leader has questions for you, and you can't go dying so soon after waking up, despite your rudeness. She has your possesions, and wanted to see you as soon as you woke."

Perhaps we should kill this wretch, and save the trouble for the Gorinese 'man' that gets the honor?

Perhaps, but I need my posessions back first.

"Then why don't you take me there," he spoke aloud snidely, smirked up at the woman. With a growl, she complied, and carried through the camp as it was being set up for the night. The completely woman raiding party looked in wonder at the lone, injured man being carried by the woman towards the commanders tent.

The woman merely nodded to the tent's guards, and Khorchi was thrown bodily into the tent. Yelping in pain, Khorchi looked up into the eyes of the young commander of the Nkondi, and gasped. It was the woman from his dream!

It...It can't be!

She's a mere physical representation, my prince. Ignore the resembalence for the moment...

The young woman herself was dark skinned, as most Nkondi are. She was quite obviously in her prime, with toned muscles hidden behind her loose steppe clothes. Her hair was long, tied in a ponytail at her back. Khorchi was struck dumb, but the woman was not.

"So, what was a Lengel doing about to be killed in a destroyed Zealot camp, with these in his possesion?" she said, throwing down the mask and the sword at his feet. Quickly recovering from his shock, Khorchi took his voice's advice, and ignored whatever sign this might have been.

"I was getting revenage," he stated simply, ignoring the question about the mask and blade. He had no intention of relieving that terrible dream, especially with this strangely familar woman in front of him.

"Revenge for what? We saw smoke in the distance from the Zealot camp, but all we found was a burned out forge, recently used. Nothing else exisisted. Only a ghost town," she finished, turning her back on him, looking at the map pinned upon the wall.

Khorchi's mouth opened in shock, the little girl looking up into the raining sky, the crying dead still fresh in his mind. There was nothing there? Than what did he feel, on what hallowed ground did he walk? Where did dreams fade, and reality begin? Where, indeed, did he get those possesions?

It was your birth right, prince...

Birth right for what? My father is a coward, and certainly not descended from the Lengelzai's. Only a pretender, hoping to spark the old ways...

You will meet your father soon, and then you will understand...


"So tell me, Lengel, where di you get the sword and mask? I have studied history well, and I know the story of the Obsidian mask, and the Golden sword. Holy relics of the Iron Faces, symbols of forgotten might. The True Lengels will even look to them now that the Gorin move to crush you, but where did you find them?"

Do not tell her prince!

"Why do you want to know? Any hope I can give my people is enough to let secrets go unquestioned," Khorchi spoke, a fire in his eyes.

The woman smiled at his defience, before bringing her eyes close to his, and speaking with a hint of steel, "I have been looking for such artifacts for a long time. I am descended from Lengelzai line, and I have wished to take up the mantle for myself," she said, before picking up the mask.

She placed it upon her face, but before it touched, she gasped in pain as it burned her face. Her hands spasmed, and she was forced to let go. The mask clattered to the floor, and she looked in shock at it.

"What sorcery is this?" she said fearfully, her tone frantic as she stared at Khorchi.

Only the worthy may wear the Mask...

"Only the worthy may wear the Mask," he repeated after Yesui, her words seeming fitting to him somehow. With these words, he picked up the mask, and placed it easily upon his face. It looked as if made for him, and the woman could not help but fell awed.

"Then, you are the sucessor to the Empire?" she asked, her voice disappointed and excitied at the same time.

"Yes," he said, raising himself to his feet, "I am Khorchi, chosen of Koke, and the true Khagan of the Iron Face Empire, and Lengelzai of all Lengels!"

Very good, my prince! Break her will with your power!

A power seemed to radiate from him, and the Nkondian woman was forced to her knees. She could not speak at first, but slowly regained her voice.

"I will, I will follow you, Khagan. I will serve you, as your blood is purer than mine, and you are the true heir to the Iron Face name," she said, her iron desire to be the sucessor shaped as if by magic into a desire to serve him.

"Tell me, what is your name?" he asked, his voice still exuding a sense of power.

"Yesui, my lord. My name is Yesui," she responded meekly, her eyes now avoiding his. His shock at the name being the same as the voice in his head was short lived. He was being to understand the forces at work here, and he knew undoubtly what was coming next.

"Then you will be my first wife, Yesui. Be pleased at such an honor," Khorchi spoke powerfully, before moving to sit and rest his tired body. There was journey now awaiting him, and it would be a long time before he could war against the Gorinese in earnest.

At last, my prince, you have begun to understood! My love, you have broken my physical shell, and now all that is left is for you to meet your father. Go to the mountain Temple of Koke, hidden deep on the edge of Gorinese lands. There you will learn fully of your destiny...

I have lived confused for long enough. It is time for me to claim my birthright...


*****
 
From Croyodon
To Lengels, Merhai, Citadel, Nkondi, Merhai, Fairhelt, Gamorrea, and Gorin


We purpose that a conference be held in the city of Nkondi to discuss a lasting peace in the north. The wars have been far too bloody and destructive over these lands. Main topics of discussion would include a Lengel state and the future over the Imperial lands of Northern Gorin. Other topics would including Gorin to tolerate all faiths and races in its borders. We ask Citadel help mediate the conference.

This conference requires for all parties currently at war to abide to a cease fire until the conference ends.

All powers will need to make sacrifices especially Gorin but considering the alternative of continued war this is the least costly solution.
 
OOC: Magnificent, simply magnificent contempt :D I would say that your story style is definitely improving, though your obsession with writing about one character remains ;)
 
OOC: Magnificent, simply magnificent contempt :D I would say that your story style is definitely improving, though your obsession with writing about one character remains ;)

Single characters are always the most interesting to explore. The climax of the story will come about soon, and don't worry, there's a perfect explanation for everything. Mainly, he's either delusional or the Chosen of God. I'll be letting you guys decide.
 
Oh yay, the world is really going to destroy itself...

:munches popcorn:
 
Contempt said:
Single characters are always the most interesting to explore. The climax of the story will come about soon, and don't worry, there's a perfect explanation for everything. Mainly, he's either delusional or the Chosen of God. I'll be letting you guys decide.

Probably both :o
 
Orders sent, by some miracle. This turn should be interesting to watch...

EDIT: We'll come to the conference. What about the Valin-Khmeri conflict, though?
 
This is just dealing with the Northern situation

though im not opposed to dealing with that conflict, it all depends on kal and thy and darken
 
Looking forward to it. This weekend we can debate the terms of peace while we wait for the update.

Gives us something to do instead of bugging Lord Iggy for the update everyday
 
Death at its Heart

“I swear eternal allegiance to the Dragon Throne of Guangfei. I swear to follows the laws of the Empire. I swear to take up arms in the defense of the Emperor and the Empire. I swear to forever fight and resist the enemies of the Emperor whether they are internal or external. Glory be to the Han! Empire Eternal!” –Lord Karsa of Labordina

It was amazing how quickly his mind had changed after meeting the Emperor. He was old, yet held a stately presence. He was well educated and did not seem at all repulsed by his Bladeists beliefs though like most he disliked vehemently what the Swades were doing. It was an awkward first meeting at best he was simply not prepared for how… cosmopolitan the Emperor was personally.

In the spur of the moment, in front of the whole Imperial Court, he fell upon his knee and offered to swear allegiance to the Dragon Empire. The hush fell upon the Court, as it seemed like every eye was upon the Emperor. To my shock, the old man I had saw sitting on the Throne came bursting to life.

He leaped off his Throne and drawing a ceremonial sword made of gold, anointed me a baronet, of which I would be a baron of. An insignificant county in the north along the Swade border I was later told, but it didn’t displease me at all. I was surprised, if not shocked at the trust that was so easily lavished on me. Later on, I found out that the Emperor had plans in place if I were to prove disloyal.

But there I went, to my baronet of Dajie. I settled down so to speak, becoming Sinified to my humorous mind. I did wonder many times during those happy days what my father would have thought of it. I, a Bladeist by birth, ended up dressed in fine silk cloth and carried around in a sedan chair in the cities while in the countryside dressed Han armor I rode around on horses.

It is of course well known that the Bladeist people in general cannot stand horses. It is in fact said that Wilipo himself was thrown off a horse, quite strange for a man that had almost been deified by the Swades. Of course, the Swades had their ramids and precious bigjaurs and while I would prefer not to insult them, they are a heinous people. My long dead father on his deathbed with a Han bolt in him cursed the Swades until his death.

It is probable that if the Swades weren’t as aggressive Guangfei would never have attacked and annexed the Twin Cities. It is also probable that if the Swades hadn’t went and committed genocide on a massive scale, I would not have been summoned to Guanzhong. When I returned, things had changed for the better. The large and bustling city had become larger and even more bustling.

There may have been war in the countries around Guangfei, but in Guanzhong, the City of Cities, there was no war. Peace, Prosperity and Progeny were words that the Han eagerly embraced and it was obvious everywhere one went. By now, I was as Bladeist as the hated Vandrios of the Valins. If my father could have seen me then, oh how he would have laughed.

I came from Dajie with my retainers in full military regalia. The splendid armor of the Imperial Han Army was comfortable, relatively light and useful. Entering the Imperial Palace, I found out what had happened that could have thrown the inhabitants of such a serene and peaceful place.

I had been appointed Interim Minister of the Imperial Complex under the now Dowager Empress and thus would be responsible for the succession.

Emperor Shun, was dead.
 
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