Questions

The man seated before me looked to be in his mid-twenties, his brown hair tussled at the sides as his matching eyes ran over some of the papers in front of him. Unlike when I had seem him last night for the queen’s speech, he was not wearing the circlet crown or the formal clothing; now he was wearing a simple suit that seemed to make an attempt to constrain his paunch. As the door opened, he looked up from the papers and gave me a wide smile as he gestured to the two seats in front of the desk

“Is this him then Calendis?” he asks the slender man who fidgeted in the plush leather chair, apparently uncomfortable in such comfort

“Yes, your grace. This is Aucus, the one we talked about” he confirms, gesturing with one hand towards me as I sit in the other chair next to him.

The prince gives me a brief appraising look before letting his mouth twitch into another smile, “Well, it’s good to meet you Aucus. I’m going to be blunt here, Calendis has told me about the dark spirit” my heart races at the sound of those last two words. What? Who else knows? I start to panic internally as I glance towards Calendis

“Calm down, he hasn’t told anyone else” the prince says after letting me stew in my panic for a moment, “I don’t intend to tell anyone either, goddesses know that the vultures in this place will probably find a way to use it against my sister if they do find out”

“We’re not all that bad” Calendis says in a humorous tone

Orsat chuckles softly to himself, “You’re the exception Calendis, I wouldn’t trust the others with my toenail clippings” he moves around on the chair, clearly in his effort to take the foremost seat he hadn’t considered Calendis’ lack of appreciation of comfort.

“Anyway” he sighs as he turns back to me, “Can I see it, the spirit I mean” I look to Calendis who gives me a nod. I reach out to summon my spirit, the purple energy fills the room and in moments it resolves into the black figure of a raven. It plods across the desk for a moment before coming to a rest at the edge, its head moving from me, to Calendis, to Orsat.

The prince looks at the spirit, visibly discomforted as he unconsciously moves away from it, I watch as he swallows a lump down his throat and nods his head. “Ahem… yes, you can dismiss it now” he says. I let it linger for a moment longer before reaching out to the raven and telling it through our bond that it can leave. The raven disappears in the same purple light that it came in, the two others in the room remain silent as they look at the spot on the desk where the spirit had been standing.

“Tell me Aucus, what do you know about the thousand wars?” he says at last after recovering from the fluster that the spirit had put him through

I shrug my shoulders, “About as much as anyone, I guess. About nine hundred years ago there were a lot of wars against the monster armies that destroyed nearly everything. In the end the humans, dwarves, and elves united and killed all of the monsters, forcing them into dungeons and dark corners of the world” I summarise everything that I had heard in stories and the books that I had read.

The prince nods his head, “That is the story that the Citadel has encouraged since the wars ended, and it is close to the truth. However, the main enemy of the wars were not monsters but the devils. Yes, people know that they were involved and exterminated but we have certainly downplayed the threat that they posed” he says as his hands pull the chair into the desk. “The records that we have hidden, show that dark spirits were about as common as any other. Some were bonded to humans, some to dwarves and elves as well, however they were the only type of spirit that would bond to the devils”

“Wait, are you saying that devils were adventurers as well?” I ask inquisitively as I take in this new information

“Of sorts, I suppose. The records aren’t as clear as we wish they would be, but it does seem that they had abilities and bonded to their spirits like adventurers do. Beyond that, even the hidden records are unclear” Orsat elaborates, I look at Calendis, from his expression it seems he has heard this before.

“Most of the world was destroyed in the thousand wars, cities were turned to rubble, monuments brought to the ground, the ground itself shifted across the world. Because of this, very little information remains from those times, but we think that the devils attempted to destroy the entire world” he goes on, resting his arms on the table as he shuffles in the chair. “We still don’t know why, or how they did it, but we think that the dark spirits played a part in it”

I nod my head, listening to the story, I should really be more surprised by the revelations, but it seems to make sense. Monsters had never been all that organised, let alone enough to form an army strong enough to threaten the world. It made sense that devils would have led them in their attacks. As for dark spirits, well they were always a mystery in and of themselves.

“The thousand wars ended when the combined might of the righteous struck against the devil army and forced them into the shadow gates, locking them within for the past nine hundred years” he stops, apparently having finished the tale. I think on what he has told me, Calendis had mentioned devils yesterday, but they still didn’t feel real to me. Now though, the prince of the kingdom was talking about them like they were the dirty secret that they kept locked in a closet.

“What has this got to do with my dark spirit though?” I ask, sitting up as I slip down the chair, having relaxed too much into its comfort. “I mean if the devils have been locked in the shadow gates since then, why do I have a dark spirit now? Have there been others since then?”

“No, as far as I’m aware you are the first person to bond a dark spirit since then” he pauses, building up to what he has to say next, “But before I say anything else, I need to make sure that you’re not in league with the devils”

My eyes widen at the suggestion, and I leap to defend myself, “No, no of course not. I wouldn’t even know how to be in league with them” Orsat looks to Calendis who gives him a subtle nod. I look from one to the other, wondering what the nod between them had meant

Orsat explains, “Calendis here has the seer ability, he can tell when people are lying. One of the reasons we keep him around, eh” he says, chuckling a little as he gives the man a humorous look. “But yes, there is something that may be the reason that you have a dark spirit” he sighs, clearly finding it difficult to say the next part. “The shadow gates have opened”

I almost choke on my breath as I hear the words, “What? You mean that the devils are free again?” I ask, a sense of fear rising within me. Will they try to destroy the world again?

“No, not quite. The gates have only opened a crack, hardly big enough for anything to escape, I think. Though it is worrying, they are more open now than they have ever been since they were sealed. We dispatched a number of adventurers a couple of days ago to guard the gates and to observe them in case the crack widens” he sighs as he clasps his hands together, looking down for a moment before he returns my gaze, “we should be safe for the time being, one of the adventurers that was set was bonded to the light spirit. Between them they should be able to handle a few devils.”

“Okay, but how long can that last?” I start to panic at the idea of devils flooding into the world, “will the world be able to survive another thousand wars?”

The prince looks at me with a grim expression, “My sister has sent word to the kings of the dwarven and elven kingdoms, already preparations for war are being made ready. In secret of course, it wouldn’t do to cause panic at this stage” I nod my head as I receive these reassurances. “My concern however is that we know little about the capabilities of devils, the gates have been watched since the opening was reported. It is possible that some devils may have escaped before we secured the site” as he stops a quiet sense of unease settles over the room

Calendis clears his throat, “Yes, well of course we don’t know that for sure” he says pointedly as he looks at Orsat, “And if they have, a few devils are nothing compared to the thousands of adventurers that our kingdoms boast” he tries to assure us

“Yes, yes of course” Orsat quickly agrees, “I would suggest that you don’t speak with my sister about your dark spirit though. She has a lot to deal with, what with the war preparations and even at the best of times she can be rather… rash” he smiles to himself, apparently having had a different word in mind, “I don’t think she would harm you because of it, though I wouldn’t want to risk it if I were you”

I nod my head, so there may be devils in the world who almost destroyed the world once before, and if I mention my dark spirit to the queen then there is a chance that she would take rash measures, oh and someone had probably tried to kill me already. I had always hoped that my life would become more interesting after I became an adventurer, but this… this is too much for me.

I lay my hands on the table, “Okay, your grace. Well, thanks for telling me all this but I don’t know what you want me to do. I already have a lot to worry about without this, I don’t know if you heard but a lot of the other adventurers would be happy to kill me just to please the new lion spirit” I shut my mouth quickly as I realise who I had been laying my frustration upon, “uh, sorry your grace. I didn’t mean…” I trail off

The prince looks at me with a frown before chuckling, “Ha, I like him Calendis. No, I didn’t know about your problems, but what makes you think that they want to kill you?” he asks

I blush and look to Calendis before answering, “Well, I woke up covered in blood last night. A lot of it”

Calendis looks at me with a frown, “That is… disconcerting to say the least. I’ll look into it and see who was responsible”

Orsat nods his head in agreement, “Yes, we should certainly do that. As for what I want you to do, well I think we should fight fire with fire. You have a dark spirit, and the devils have dark spirits. They are more powerful than our adventurers, so I want you to become as powerful as you can, and if the time comes, I want you to fight them with us. We’ll need all the help we can get if we go to war with them”

“Of course I’ll help fight them, I mean that’s what adventurers do right? Kill monsters” I say, a sense of patriotism suddenly coming over me as the prince asks me for my help.

“That’s right” Orsat says with a pleased chuckle, “You’re a good lad Aucus, I’ll have to ask that you keep all of this between us though. For obvious reasons” an expectant pause fills the room

“Yes, yes of course. I won’t tell anyone else” I say reassuringly. Orsat looks at Calendis who gives him a nod.

The prince loudly slams his hands against the table as he stands from his chair, “Well that will be all for today, if there is anything else I will have Calendis summon you” he puts a playful note on the word summon, “It’s been a pleasure meeting you Aucus, I trust we can have a fruitful relationship” he says, stretching the discomfort of Calendis’ chair from his joints as he walks towards the door and leaves

I look at Calendis as the door closes behind the prince. “I suppose I did ask you to tell me if you found anything else out about the spirit” I groan, “I just wish it had been good news”

The gaunt man gives me a comforting smile as he rises from his chair, “yes, I suppose that would have been more serendipitous. But this is the world we live in” he walks over to his seat on the other side of the desk, smiling as he lowers himself into the uncomfortable chair. “You can go now Aucus, I’ll keep you appraised of anything else that we find out” he nods to me as he picks up his quill and turns to his papers.

I get up from my seat as well, “Well thank you for everything Calendis, and please try to find out who wants to kill me” I say before turning to the door and hearing a soft chuckle coming from the desk behind me. I open the door and step out.

With my meeting with Calendis done, I returned to my groups’ quarters. Stepping into the rooms I was met with the sound of conversation; they were talking about how hard the training had been with Sara complaining about the soreness in her muscles. Surprisingly Sybil made a comment on Orion’s looks, though this set Korin off on his many criticisms of the man.

Cleo excitedly invited me to join them, and I accepted, sitting on one of the sofas next to Sara as we talked about the day of training. Rayall asked me about the book that I still had gripped in my hands, and I told him that it was something that Anoir had given to me, thinking it would be useful. When they commented on my lateness this morning, I reluctantly told them about what had happened to me last night, with Korin adding what he had seen too. Based on their reactions I didn’t think that any of them had been responsible and was able to relax some more, especially with their assurances that they would watch out for anyone trying to come in at night in case they try it again.

Eventually the day’s exhaustion had caught up with us and we decided to depart to our rooms, though with some uneasiness considering the news I had just given to them. I stay in the living chamber for a moment, indulging myself on the food that had been brought to the room as the others closed their respective doors.

As I am about to go to my room, I hear the sound of scuffing on the stone outside. My heart races as I worry that someone has returned to finish whatever happened last night. Carefully, I step softly across the floor towards the door, lowering my hand to the handle and securing my grip on it before yanking the door open quickly.

I am surprised by what I see, almost as surprised as the person on the other side of the door who had jumped backwards as the door opened. Kira was there, looking unusually nervous. She had always been quite confident in Blue-Rock, hanging out with Clen and his friends, she had been one of the prettiest girls in the village and had been more than willing to flaunt her beauty. Now though, she hardly looks like the same girl, a startled look on her face and behind that a sadness in her eyes with shame mixed into it.

“Kira?” I focus on her, looking at the expression in her eyes “What do you want? Did Zarin send you?” I ask as she remains silent. She fidgets as she stands in the doorway, looking as though she wants to say something but maintains her silence. “Kira?”

Finally, she speaks up. “Can I come in Aucus?” I give her a curious look but allow her to enter, stepping aside and closing the door behind her after I poke my head into the hallway to see if there was anybody else there. The blonde-haired girl takes a seat on one of the sofas, shuffling around as though to become more comfortable.

“What is it?” I ask as I join her on the sofa and look at the sad expression on her face, “what’s wrong”

A silence settles over her for a moment before she speaks, “we need to talk. About Blue-Rock. About what happened after you left”

I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading this story and a special thank you to everyone who has liked the chapters so far. The next few chapters will tell the story of what happened in Blue-Rock after Aucus was forced to flee, I'll either write it in third person or make sure you know whose perspective the story is being written from. I have also finished getting some pictures for the characters introduced in part 2, so I just need to write some descriptions for them. The character sheet should be updated in the next few days, I'll be sure to put a note on one of the chapters when it is done. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story