An Unabridged Memoir - Part 05

Part 5 – The Sons

The capital was in ruin the moment we set foot on its ground. Injured, hungry and ruined life dotted the street. The once very peaceful and beautiful capital had turned into a nightmare town. Everywhere there was people fighting for a piece of bread, and children could be seen running around, begging for some food, any form of food. I threw up when we first entered the capital and my heart did not stop throbbing along the way when we were headed to the palace. It was on that very street that I finally met with the man that first lead me to Lady Freiya. He seemed fine physically, but we all could tell that he was suffering deep inside. By Lady Freiya and Lord Ladir’s consent we had a small talk, to which I discovered that the conspiracy was much fuelled by the nobles that opposed Lady Freiya and Lord Ban’s jointing, not when they, and Darius, had been planning to seize Norath and make it a territory of Revelia, completely eliminating elves along the way. When the late king refused to entertain to Darius’s idea, not especially when he threatened the Crown Prince to hand the throne to Lord Harrison that was Lady Freiya’s father instead and the entire family of Lord Harrison do not agree to Darius’ agenda. These ambitious souls devised a plan and managed to get someone from Norath to agree to their plan – assassinate both kingdoms’ king and create a mutual clash. Lord Ban eventually became their object of sacrifice, even more when he was directly related to Norath’s Royal Family. In Lady Freiya’s part, Darius had a major crush on her but it was unfortunate for him that she had chosen Lord Ban instead, thus her becoming a part of the sacrifice in devising his plan, all in the name of revenge. It was such a cruel discovery that the man cried when he spoke of the details he had known and learned, and our little meeting ended with him pleading that we save this beloved Revelia before it was too late. Our journey continued to the palace and I was disgusted at the sight that even with the citizens were fighting for food, the nobles and the royals lived such luxurious life free from fret and hunger. We did not do much but observe the situation and returned to our camp by nightfall. That very night, however, the same man that I talked to during the day visited and he brought with me three people; a man by the name Seth Frederich which happens to be Lord Seth Harris’s son, Jared de Blanc and another, Lord Michael Parsat who, interestingly, was Sir Joshua’s brother-in-law. They, from the first day of Darius’ ascension into kinghood, had been chased around by assassins sent by the corrupt king due to the fact that they knew the truth and refused to pledge loyalty to him, to which in return they had come to gather a group of young man who do not agree with Darius along with his corrupt court, creating, as they move by, a resistant forces of no min size which demands for Darius to step down the throne and hand the crown to the last remaining soul from the Royal Family – Lady Freiya. That night, in front of Lady Freiya, they pledged their loyalty and vowed to sacrifice their life if Lady Freiya could promised them that she will, in all her might, restore the collapsing order of the kingdom. That night we reached an agreement from both side, with Lady Freiya agreeing to try with all her capacity to fix the turmoil and the three leaders of the resistance force vowing to assist her in her endeavour. It was a glorious sight, as witnessed by the seas, smiled upon by the stars and the moon the long awaited union of human and elves, of whom had always been in each other’s bitterness as they vowed to join forces and make end the unfair turmoil that was the result of a single man’s ambition. It was something I’ve never dreamt of happening, not during my lifetime, not so close to me, not next to me. But God has made it so that I became, eventually, the very witness to the vow and the unification of the previously two feuding race, with Lady Freiya, a human, representing the elven side. That night, under such beautiful, glorious full moon, 45 days after I turned 15, marks the turn of a new era in both mankind and elven’s history. In history books, this event was referred to as the ‘New Night’, where all hatred and past vengeance died and peace between the two races materialized.

The attack on the capital’s central palace was planned to be two days after the night when they vowed to help and assist each other. Prior to the raid, the scene at the Norath army’s temporary base was something amazing, something I will never forget in my entire lifetime. It was a scene in which mankind and elves mingled with ease, without any barrier existing between them, laughing, chatting, talking and singing as if there had never been any form of dispute between the two races. The resistance fighter and the soldiers of Norath received each other so well, which, in my very limited experience, was a good sign. Lady Freiya herself was delighted to see the elvish soldier and the rebelled humankind sharing such peaceful moment that she tearfully said to me how she wished for Lord Ban to be able to witness it himself. Lord Ladir himself found great interest in Lord Michael Parsat, of whom prior to the ordeal that took his wife away, was a famous figure at the Crusader and Paladin’s Guild. For a man of his age, he possessed awfully lot amount of wisdom, and vision no normal human usually have. The young and charismatic Seth Frederich, being only three years older than I am was the easiest of all three leaders for me to understand and bond with. During those two nights prior to the raid, we became exceptionally close, and I learn in great, painful details about the death of his sisters, his mother, and his younger brother, how the place he used to call home was destroyed, how the servants hid him and the sacrifice of another stable boy who traded his life for Seth Frederich’s safety, becoming the one murdered in his stead in conjunction to Darius’ cruel decree. I couldn’t stop myself from crying at the thought of my family’s painful demise, but Seth Frederich never once cried and he harboured not a single hatred toward his father, who, rightfully, was the very reason his peaceful life ended the cruel way. Instead he was proud of his father, who took a path that was against all odds, for the sake of the justice he believed in. Needless to say, I knew, from that point on that Seth Frederich will one day grow into a great man. Faraway from the only father left I had on this world, Seth Frederich eventually became my inspiration. The other man, Jared le Blanc, was an intriguing specialist doctor. He always smiled and hesitated not to help anyone, be it men or elves. I remembered him being one of the tutors at the university, teaching the upper years in subjects regarding toxicology so being a junior of the medicine study I haven’t had the chance to get to know him at all. He seemed most comfortable around Lady Freiya, of who of late appeared pretty pale and tense. As the wife of my lord father, she had then become, in a way, my lady mother, yet I didn’t have any gut to ask her if she was fine, if she was okay or if she’s feeling well. The worrying part of me eventually did not get me anywhere, and before long the dawn of the day of the raid was scheduled arrived and I completely had forgotten of my concern that was Lady Freiya.

The raid was scheduled to take place an hour before midnight of the third day, in which the troops will surround the palace from four different direction while one small group was assigned to create a diversion while another group, led by the surprisingly agile Seth Frederich, will infiltrate the palace in search of the regent king, Lord Gregor Ivar, Darius’ most trusted aid and one of the masterminds behind Darius’ evil ambition. He had been living in the palace since Darius’ rule, acting as if he owned the place. It eventually got worse after Darius left for Norath that Gregor Ivar had eventually made the palace his own. Lavish parties were abundant, with overflowing liquor and food served in silver goblets and jewel-studded fork and spoon when the civilians suffered from hunger. I was among those assigned to assist Seth Frederich, and the scene that I witnessed during the quiet infiltration was so disgusting I swore I could’ve killed Gregor Ivar without any hesitation. The cooler-headed Seth Frederich perhaps noticed my anger that he repeatedly reminded me that our mission was to capture Gregor Ivar and few other ministers, who had been acting very errand and abused their power to their liking. It was hard to contain the rage, but I succeeded anyway.

In our part, the operation was unusually easy. The security was so lax, that even the guards and the servants, of whom, well, surprisingly, acquaintances of Seth Frederich, actually welcomed him into the palace ground, giving him instruction and tips that could help him with his mission. It came to me as a shock. Of all the time, the servants and the butlers, the guards and the keepers, had all along supported the resistance while they pretended to be loyal to Darius’ cruel ruling. They served as the resistance fighter’s dormant informant, becoming their closest spy in their bid trying to topple the hopeless and dictatorial rule of Revelia’s greedy personnel. In fact, to say that we were infiltrating the palace seemed so wrong, because our presence was so much celebrated by the servants and the guards we barely had to hide from them. Seth Frederich, extremely determine to play his part of revenge, was such an enigmatic presence that he apprehended three of the five high profile target without much problem. The fourth, a former portfolio secretary but was promoted to become the Minister of Trade once Darius came into power had come to put up much resistance. Seth Frederich barely flinched that he, without a single hesitation, stabbed the man’s leg and ordered that he be captured and sent to the resistance fighter’s headquarters immediately. He was merciless, and for once, it terrifies me, being in his company, for stood before me but a young man with such calm head and face but eyes burning with extremely intense heat of rage, anger, revenge. With his hand drenched in blood, his face stained, I sensed a form of mercilessness, devious, devilish presence; those I failed to notice along our short acquaintanceship. He was scarily determined, and seeing him dancing with his short sword, tearing his way through the marauding guards, making his mark in the form of slashes and stabs, I see nothing that would and could stop him from getting what I quietly guess to be revenge. For his sisters, for his mother, for his father, who was betrayed by the kingdom, by Darius, and of course, for all his servants who gave their life in protecting him, protecting justice. It was a just decision to put him in charge of infiltrating the palace. He carried his task flawlessly.

The infiltration, although, did not end without the cliché in which the hero finally gets to meet the final villain, abundance in countless epic tales passed down from generations, as told by fore-fathers to fathers and to their children, written in books and illustrated by painters, and this cliché did not lack a single bit of drama. This final villain in question couldn’t have been anyone else but Gregor Ivar, the said new ‘master’ of the palace, and ultimately, the kingdom itself. Despite being drunk, he put up quite a plausible act that managed to mess the seriousness of the air. It was an uncontrollable situation in which there was nothing we could do but laugh our heads off when he ran off to the balcony of the throne room that overlooked the city below and hollered for the ‘citizens’ to come to his aid and destroy ‘these devil from hell’. When his orders was answered instead by such hideous riot all around the palace where Norath and the rebellion’s army had ambushed them, he ran toward a gigantic new portrait of Darius, hung proudly behind the throne, snatched a sword and opened what looked like a defensive stance. What he screamed next was incredibly moronic, that we had such hard time trying to remain put and collected, calm and serious.

“By Darius’ watching eyes I command thee traitors to sheath thee swords and bow to his voice that came from me.”

Of course. Darius was never a God. He can never see things here, or talk through this piece of thrash. Needless to say, we ignored him, and Seth Frederich, in his entire huge, amused and tickled smile, gave a yes when I asked him if I could do the honour of apprehending a joke such as him that dreamt of taking this kingdom all for himself. What I told Gregor Ivar, with a sword pointed to him, was this;

“And in resonance to your watching eyes and commanding lips, I, in part of Lord Benjamin Admarith Noel, now King Admarith, has all come but to slay you o’ sin of Revalia, and take your head with us the angels of mercilessness back to Norath, where you will know hell before Hell.”

Nah. I did not think I was terribly scary, but Gregor Ivar somehow managed to piss himself, and lost conscious soon after screaming “O’ Angel of Death please forgive me,” over and over again. That actually surprised me as much as it surprised Seth Frederich. After much wondering we decided to bet it on either or both first, the excess alcohol and party drug in his veins that caused him to hallucinate, and secondly, the fact that I was wearing elvish leather armour with extreme splendour I must’ve looked like I’m headed to a coronation hall instead of embarking on a mission. Elves way with beauty, their crafts and taste exudates such otherworldly feel to it and it wasn’t at all surprising for someone like Gregor Ivar, whose mind was thoroughly messed up by drugs and alcohol to blindly hallucinate what his conscience wanted him to see – an angel of death. Such was the power of elven art, drugs, and yes, alcohol. We had a good laugh after we apprehended Gregor Ivar, to which we decided that we will leave the rest into the good hands of Sir Michael Parsat and Lord Ladir as we dragged Gregor Ivar to a designated place, where the final staging will take place. By the time we were escorting Gregor Ivar out of the palace the entire city had already been awoken by the fighting that engulfed every of the palace’s grounds, with curious citizens slowly gathering in the square just before the palace’s main gate. Despite the fierce fighting, the bloodbath and the sudden mass of foreign soldier attacking the grounds of the centre of Revelia’s capital, the citizens of the city remained as spectators, with confusion and disbelieving very obvious in their eyes. They couldn’t have jumped onto the attacker’s bandwagon joining in the action smashing and slashing the kingdom’s own army without knowing or understanding the situation, but in the other way, the kingdom in itself had not been kind to its blood-people, with the leaders being all but blood-sucking bastards that nearly tore this once very wealthy and prosperous kingdom into pieces, all but in the name of personal gain and satisfaction. Stuck between choices were the confused people of the capital, as they stood still, in the middle of the night, as they watched two sides of party battling each other in a miniature war right in the palace’s ground. It was ironic, I thought, that the once almost impossible to trespass palace’s ground was now under fierce attack by a group of men who gave not much effort when they first trespassed the boundaries. Compared to the kingdom’s original army, the attacking 900 men battalion was a miniscule number compared to the olden days. Seth Frederich told me how sad the scenery before us was, for he had terribly missed the golden days of the kingdom’s Royal Guards, and that golden days barely dates back to a year ago. In fact, all this thorough degrading came about merely weeks ago at the turning point in which the throne fell into Darius’ hand.