Disclaimer: All the usual rules apply, if you are too young blah blah, shouldn't be reading this, etc etc but seriously, who is going to know! Also, this story may contain acts of a gay sexual nature so if this offends you:
- How the hell did you come to be reading this anyway? Is there something you want to tell me? 2) Don't be such a homophobe...we are still people! 3) I suggest you leave now and find help.
It has come to my attention that I made a bit of a boob in the first chapter! It would appear Jake actually started out being called Marcus and for this I must apologise! I got a bit confused!!! Also, some people have asked about the short segment at the very beginning of the story. This is a small taster of things to come and it will be explained eventually (I promise...no really, I will explain it, it might just take a little while!)
Also, I would like to thank Oberon and Cornelius for all their help with the proof reading. Thanks guys, I really appreciate it =).
End of chapter 6:
"Ah, very impressive. Ok, let's try hitting the target with a lightening bolt, using as much or as little power as you like."
"Desumo" said Jake in a slightly louder voice while pointing at the target. His aim was perfect. The centre of the target was nothing but a charred crater in the straw. Jake, however, looked a little confused.
"Hahaha, when I regenerated it, I reinforced the legs to stop it from falling over. Ok, repair it."
"Renovo (repair)" said Jake as he pointed at the target and instantly the crater disappeared.
"Excellent. I have one final test." Dominic pointed to the pile of pillows and they disappeared and then a huge pile of concrete appeared in their stead. "That," he said "is a block of the strongest, reinforced concrete that I could summon. Break it."
Jake looked at the block, thought for a second, looked at Dominic, smiled, pointed at the block and shouted "Sepelio per auctorita de incendia (destroy with power from fire)". A swirling inferno erupted from Jake's finger and engulfed the concrete. About forty seconds later the fire disappeared and all that was left was a puddle of grey liquid on the floor.
Chapter 7:
8 years ago:
"Kill them!" Ravnar's eyes shot towards the throne.
"My lady Angelique, I must object! These people merely stole a loaf of bread so they would not starve to death. That is hardly cause to have them executed. Surely a prison sentence would be more suitable." Angelique stared at the impudent commander before her.
"Commander Ravnar, do not think for one second that your superior abilities and close relationship with the heretics who used to rule here give you any right to argue with me! I am the Queen now and I am ordering you to kill them...NOW." Reluctantly Ravnar nodded to the guard behind the two children kneeling before him. Angelique spotted this and gave a wicked smile. "No Commander, I want you to do it" she said pointing directly at him. It was at that point that Ravnar knew he was fighting for the wrong side. He had heard many stories of the underground movement attempting to overthrow Angelique and of their elusive leader Dominic. He had even heard stories that they were trying to locate the true Heir to the Cornelian throne but he knew that was impossible, the royal family all died. "Commander! Get on with it."
Angelique was starting to get bored and that was when she got really dangerous. Ravnar walked up to the two children. They only looked about 13, a boy and a girl, and he had to kill them. He took a deep breath and wanted to talk to them, tell them it would be alright but he couldn't. He knew if he talked to them Angelique would get angry. Instead, he closed his eyes and drew his sword.
"Not here you idiot! I don't want blood on my floor. Take them down to the dungeons and do it there!" Inside Ravnar was screaming with glee but that was something else he knew he could not do, he simply turned towards Angelique, sheathed his sword and bowed before turning to the children and yanking them to their feet. He led them out of the throne room and along a series of corridors before he got to the dungeons. He dismissed the guard and took the children into a cell. With the door closed, he finally let out the breath he had been holding in since Angelique dismissed him. He quickly turned to the children who looked up at him, the terror obvious in their faces. That look was all it took, he made a conscious decision, but first he had to deal with these two. He drew his sword again and the girl started to weep.
"Please, don't cry. I am not going to hurt you. I have to try and get you out of here. Angelique has led through terror and despicable acts of genocide for too long." Ravnar had a far away look on his face as if he were remembering atrocities he had blocked from his memory. He shook himself out of his own memories to see the two children looking up at him, almost smiling. He turned to the door to check all was clear. "Damn...er...you there, guard. Come here." Ravnar was thinking fast, he hadn't expected to see anybody out here.
"Sir"
"Go and fetch a priest."
"A priest sir?"
"Yes, a priest. Everybody has the right to a final confession in this kingdom. Do it. NOW!" The soldier couldn't get away fast enough, after all, Commander Ravnar had a reputation that you didn't want to get on the wrong side of. Ravnar smiled to himself and went back to the children. They were standing in the middle of the room but they looked different somehow. More at peace. He wasn't especially surprised, after all, he had just told them he wasn't going to kill them!
"You have done well Commander. He was right about you" said the young boy.
"What on earth do you mean?" asked Ravnar.
"All is not as it appears. Go Marie, I will deal with this."
"What? Go! She can't, I am supposed to be killing her. What if someone sees her?"
"Do not worry," said Marie, "nobody will see me." With that she clasped her hands in front of her and was gone in a purple flash. Ravnar was flabbergasted.
"Wha...where...how did she do that?"
"Do not worry yourself with such things. My name is Triane. He sent me to find you. He believes you will join us."
"Who does? Who is `us'?"
"I cannot tell you these things yet. All you need know is that we oppose that tyrant Angelique and will do anything necessary to stop her. You must decide quickly, the soldier returns with another. Will you join us?" Just then the soldier returned with a priest but they were not alone. The guard had attracted the attention of his company while rushing around looking for the priest and there were now four armed guards with him. Ravnar was about to draw his sword to protect the child when all of the men, except the priest, fell to the ground, completely unconscious. Ravnar span round and saw a purple glow in Triane's hand.
"Do not worry Lord, they are merely asleep. They will awaken soon enough. Now, what have you decided?" Ravnar eyed the priest.
"Why did you not do it to this one?" he asked, pointing his sword directly at the priests heart.
"Because I am one of His agents. Triane is well aware of that."
"Oh." Ravnar blushed. "Is my security so inept that you were allowed to reside in the palace right under our noses and go completely unnoticed?" The priest smiled.
"I have been discovered many times Commander but He taught me a few tricks that work surprisingly well on the weak minded."
"Will you join us Lord? You must decide quickly."
"How would I leave here if I were to join you? I can hardly just walk out of the palace."
"Do not worry about that," replied Triane, "I will arrange your... transport."
"Very well, let us go. The longer we stay here, the more dangerous the situation becomes."
"Good, He will be pleased to hear it" said the priest, "now, go."
"Will you not come?"
"I must cover your tracks. Tell them you were kidnapped along with the children. She has seen the faces of two of our top agents. We cannot let her know this! Go now Triane, take him." Ravnar moved towards the door but Triane grabbed his arm and before he knew it a feeling of weightlessness washed over him.
When he woke up he was in a dark room. He could tell he was lying in a comfortable bed and he could just about make out a table over by the wall with a mirror above it. He got out of bed and went to the door. Expecting to find it locked, he tried the handle and was surprised when the door opened easily, revealing a much larger room full of household furniture. He definitely wasn't in the palace. He had arranged the security throughout the palace and he had never seen this room before. He walked out into the room and had a quick look around. As far as he could tell, he was in a 1 storey building with only two rooms. The one he had found himself in and this one. It was full of kitchenware with a roaring fire at one end. There was also an area piled high with books and a couple of large armchairs. Wherever he was, the owner obviously didn't have much money, or inclination to clean, judging by the layer of dust everywhere.
"Hello" he called. Nothing. "Is anybody here?" Still there was no response. It was just then that Ravnar realised that there were no external doors in this room, or even any windows. Had there been any in the other room? He thought to himself. He walked back through to the room where he had woken up but it was so dark he reasoned that there couldn't be any doors or windows or there would be some ambient light. He walked back out into the larger room but this time he was not alone.
Sitting by the fire at the other end of the room was an old man wearing a brown cloak under which Ravnar assumed he must be wearing a tunic of some description and clutching onto a walking stick. He had a long grey beard and his face was covered with wrinkles, mostly around his sunken, lifeless looking eyes.
"Excuse me. I was brought here to meet someone but I don't know his name." The man didn't move.
"Do you know Marie and Triane?" Still he didn't move. It was like he couldn't hear him. Rynor walked a little closer and tried again.
"Excuse me. I was brought here to meet someone referred to as `Him'." This caused the man to stir slightly so Ravnar persisted. "Marie and Triane came to test me. They told me what they do. I want to help, I want to rid this land of the plague that Angelique has become!" Upon hearing this, the old man turned his head towards Ravnar and smiled a smile so broad that life seemed to emanate from it and animate his whole face. Suddenly the wrinkles seemed to lessen and the lifeless grey eyes became a bright, vibrant blue.
"I am very glad to hear that Ravnar. Someone of your position will be most beneficial to our cause." The frail old man then sprang from his chair and swept over to Rynor, dropping his cloak in the process. Ravnar gasped when he saw what he was wearing underneath the cloak. The now not so old seeming man had revealed the long, dark green robes of a Royal Mage of the High Guard with the emblem of the Royal family in gold thread in the chest.
"You...you're...you're a Royal Mage? But, how. I thought Angelique had all those still loyal to the Royal Family executed."
"Her petty parlour tricks were not strong enough to discover my true allegiance. My name is Dominic but I have not always been named so. For the Royal Family I was known as High Commander Demitri." Ravnar's face blanched. High Commander was one of the most, if not the most feared man in all of the Cornelian armies. He was the most powerful, most influential man second only to the King and he had disappeared a week after Angelique took the throne. Ravnar quickly dropped to his knee in front of the High Commander but was pulled back up to his feet.
"I am not a High Commander anymore Ravnar and if you join us, you will cease to be a Commander. All within our organisation are equal, from the highest Mage to the newest recruit."
"There is no if Demi...Dominic. I will do whatever it takes to rid us of that evil tyrant."
"Excellent," said Dominic beaming, "then let us vacate this place and get back to Cornelia."
"Get back. What do you mean. Where are we now?"
"We are in the centre of a hill a few miles away from the palace. This is where we come when we are in trouble. Only those with certain abilities can access this room allowing us to remain completely safe."
"Where are we going?"
"You will be situated in a house in a village close to the palace. We will not have much use for you until certain events are set in motion but I will tell you more of this when we get there." Dominic grabbed Ravnar's arm and again the weightless feeling washed over him. Moments later he was standing outside another house in a row of identical other houses except that an ivy plant had been planted in the front and was starting to creep up the wall.
"Come, I don't want you to be seen yet." Dominic led him into the house and quickly produced a fire in the grate. "Are you hungry." Ravnar could only manage a nod.
After they had eaten, Dominic cleared away the plates and sat back down in front of Ravnar. "Do you know why we singled you out and pursued you?"
"No, I was hoping you would tell me."
"Normally we don't go after people. We let those loyal to the Royal Family find us. This reduces the chance of being betrayed. However, in your case, we made an exception. I did not know if you would join us but I know you are the right person for the task ahead. You see, when the royal family were brutally murdered on the foreign planet, whoever did it missed someone." Ravnar, who had been getting a little uncomfortable suddenly looked directly at Dominic. "You see, the Prince wasn't with his parents that day, but they had left him with the Queen's chamber maid. Obviously the assassins didn't know this as his body was never found. We sent many of our agents out onto the planet and found as many boys of the right age who were in the area and unaccompanied or with a nurse. Most of them are now in our care but many left to find their parents or other such futile quests. All we need do is wait and hopefully the true Heir to the throne will reveal himself."
"What does this have to do with me?"
"If and when one of our agents contacts me in the belief that they have the Prince, I will go and fetch him and bring him to you, if he is the right one of course. Your job is to teach him about his family, who he is and most importantly, how to use a sword."
"How will you know?"
"Pardon?"
"How will you know if he is the right one?"
"Ah, it is a bit complex but Cornelians have different brain patterns to the inhabitants of the planet he is on. I think it is called Arth or Earth or something like that. Anyway, when he matures his brain will develop and the agent should be able to detect the changes."
"And do we know when he will mature?"
"Well, that is hard to say but it should be in about four years. Do not worry, we will keep you fed and watered. You will just be a normal citizen until we call upon you."
"And what of my army ties?"
"Do not worry. I have many agents in the palace. Your kidnapping also turned out to be a murder by bandits from across the border. As far as everyone is concerned, you are dead. Hmm. I think you need to change your name. I find it helps in the beginning if it is something similar to your original name. I think maybe..."
"Rynor."
"Pardon?"
"Rynor...I want to be called Rynor."
Authors note: Ok, so just in case you didn't get it, this was a flash back about the origins of Rynor. Hope you enjoyed it. As usual all feedback (positive or negative) is welcome at magesofcornelia@hotmail.co.uk
Many thanks