Cruor History

"What did Prince Edward want?" Dion asked as soon as Regan had left, escorting the eldest prince and his men out of the Corporali wing of the palace.

"Shut the door." Nicholas hissed, his temper clear in his tone.

For some reason, despite knowing the need to remain weak and feeble in the eyes of his brothers, Nicholas was offended by the fact that they saw him as weak.

He was in conflict with himself as he snapped at his uncle and chief minister who was taken aback by his reaction.

Dion knew not to question the prince in public, since the door was not sealed the prince would consider it as a public spectacle.

The chief minister quickly ordered the guards to shut the door and seal it. Leaving him alone with the temperamental prince.

"It is shut, your highness." Dion said as he bowed at the prince.

"Thank you, uncle." Nicholas said as he slowly calmed down. Around him blue dust fell on the ground, causing small sparks of Cruor magic.

"Do you want to go to your private training grounds, you might need to let off some steam." Dion suggested in a small voice as he feared what would happen if Nicholas lost his temper with him.

"No, I'm fine." Nicholas said, shaking his head.

For some reason he could feel as memories once more struggled to come to the surface, only to give him a headache and die out as soon as he reached for them.

"My brother wants me to command the Corporali Mages to help him win the crown." Nicholas announced as he laughed at the proposal.

"What did he offer you in return?" Dion moved closer as he eagerly waited for Nicholas' answer.

"He told me that I would be allowed to live longer and better." Nicholas calmly explained as he got a better grip of his emotions.

"Did you accept?" Dion asked, wanting to find out every detail of the meeting after they had been sent out.

"I said I would consider, but I allowed him to assume that I would accept in time." Nicholas explained to his chief minister as he raised his sleeve to check his mana mark.

"There is no harm in my brother thinking I will help him." Nicholas added as he observed how his mana mark was barely diminished after his recent outburst. "It will be good for us if he thinks we are his ally."

Dion did not immediately respond as he carefully thought of what could happen if Prince Nicholas told Prince Edward that he would ally himself for a longer life.

"Who do you think he will go after first once father dies?" Nicholas asked as he carefully considered how things would play out in the future.

Nicholas knew that when it came to the matter of politics and political scheming, Dion knew more. He had been in the service of the King even before his sister, Nicholas' mother married the king and had Nicholas.

"Do you remember why all other Corporali Princes need to be killed for a king to be crowned?" Dion asked Nicholas.

Nicholas shook his head, that was one of the memories that refused to return. Nicholas would be lying if he said that he was not curious as to why all other princes must be killed before a king was named.

Dion stood up and plucked a book from the shelves behind Nicholas.

It looked old and had a thick leather cover with inlaid gems and gold on the cover, it was clearly a valuable book.

"The Chronicles of Merlen." Dion sighed as he placed the book on the table. "I had always hoped that the next time this book would have to come out was when you were king."

Nicholas touched the cover of the book, he could feel a unique power coming from it, one beyond his understanding.

"We have used this book to teach every single Corporali Prince since the beginning of the Cruor reign." Dion explained. "Each chief minister adds to his accounts of history."

"I can feel some sort of power in it." Nicholas said as he pulled his hand away and placed it and continued to eye the book.

"Every fiber on every page of this book is intertwined with Cruor Magic, no one can destroy it." Dion explained as he opened the book to show Nicholas a page filled with ancient writing and drawings.

"Over time our language has evolved, but our history has not changed, and no king can change it." Dion said as he turned the page.

"The first Cruor king was crowned when he did something no other mage had managed to do, use pure energy as magic." Dion explained as Nicholas touched the image of the first Cruor King, a distant ancestor of his.

"When the King was in search of a wife the different clans began to fight over which clan would provide a woman to be his queen. That was when it was decided that the King would have a wife from each clan, a fair deal that all the leaders accepted." Dion continued to tell Nicholas as he turned the page to show an intricate drawing of the different clan heads together with women that they had chosen for the king.

"The first wives." Nicholas said as he looked at each of the women, they were all beautiful and unique in their own way.

"The clan leaders knew that the wives that they needed to send to the king needed to be fertile, beautiful, powerful, and most of all cunning." Dion explained. "I'm sure you understand why."

Nicholas nodded.

"Now when the first princes were born, the king could have as many children with each wife as he wanted. The result was over a hundred princes and princesses running around the palace." Dion explained as he turned the page.

On it were a list of names, the first was of the king with a line drawn connected to the first wife, a Bellator mage. Under theirs were at least ten names, most of which had names drawn across, signifying marriage.

One of the names stood out, it had a golden crown drawn next to it.

"Prince Maximillian, later known as King Maximillian I, the first king that was not a pure Cruor." Dion told Nicholas. "When he came to the throne he encountered a problem, he did not have the same Cruor magic as his father. As a matter of fact it was much weaker than the first king's."

"That's why we must kill the other princes?" Nicholas asked as he stared at Maximillian's name. He had a hundred siblings. How could have murdered and gone after every single one of them?

"It is." Dion said with a nod as he turned the page to show an image of King Maximillian with a crown coated in black liquid.

"The Cruor Crown." Nicholas said as he pointed at the image that looked nothing like it's glistening counterpart that sat atop his father's head.

"The moment King Maximillian tried to put it on his head it turned black and dark slime began to ooze from it." Dion told the prince. "That was the first sign of how bad things were about to become."