Nearing Oblation

"What is the meaning of this? Why is there no mention of undead in any and all tales I've ever heard?" Edel turns around and faces the High Priest, who offers him a knowing, sly smile.

"Perhaps because we have no reason to spread stories that are not our own? Besides old art like these don't have to be taken too literally, the walking corpses could simply mean wherever she went, dead followed" the priest walks up to Edel and stands next to him, their eyes crossing for a moment before he focuses on the stone mural "but after what you have revealed, I guess whoever made these meant them in a more literal manner than they were taken"

"Are there more of them?"

the High Priest's smile grows a little bit more "I suppose there are, but like this one, they must be hidden beneath a church of the Lightbringer, the oldest we know about belongs to the Dominion"

Edel begins to put together what is the old man's intention "I won't order the King's soldiers to cross the border and seize their temple, even if I wanted, we don't have the men or permission from the King"

"I'm well aware of our regretful limitations, but after the schism, only Braunners are allowed to set foot in there. So unless we get exclusive permission from their neglected clergy or take control of the temple by force, we won't know what else did the ancient ones tried to tell us about"

"We know enough" Edel turns around, his heavy footing echoing throughout the wide dome as he walks away.

"Leaving so soon?"

"I must see to the strengthening of our men, knowing is not an isolated case, the Kingdom may face a dangerous war in the near future"

"Wouldn't you like to know where that man will strike again?" Edel stops in his tracks, and the priest takes a few steps forward, waving his hand glowing with yellow energy and one of the many squares on the ground raise several feet revealing a stone tablet with something that is written on its surface "Luckily for us, they knew leaving a written record would be more helpful than easily misinterpreted stonework"

Soon, several other squares raise from the ground, ten in total, all around the dome.

"Then don't drag this on anymore and tell me what I need to know"

"Of course" the priest bows lightly and then approaches one of the tablets"Here is the first one, written in a very, very crude Geradosian. In the city watching over the endless sea, rebirthed recently by a mage's fire, our vision fades when the harbinger of death arrives...a crow raises its wings as it lands on the crown" the High priest finishes reading and glances at the puzzled general.

"Their vision fades? So they don't see all the future?"

"Sadly, it would seem so. All tablets end in the same way"

"The last one, what does it say?"

"Are you sure you want to hear the last thing they wrote?"

"We are here already, so tell me"

"Very well" the High Priest begins walking to a far away tablet, clearly different from the other ones, its edges decorated with golden lines and made out of green stone, jade "It's not something you will like..."

"More reasons to see it now" the two of them stand in front of the imposing tablet, a symbol of what looks like a sun is at the top of the tablet, but it's black "What did they saw?"

"When half the world lays dead, and the banners of the Lion burn as they hang from the walls of the scorched city, our vision fades when The Necromancer lets out its last breath and the whole world holds theirs in anticipation of the foretold coming of the chosen one...a cub lost, a dog struggles to keep the crown from falling to the abyss and a monster will be celebrated as a hero" a crow stands at the end of the tablet.

Edel doesn't show it, but the prediction of the tablets is enough to make him feel at the very least, uncomfortable.

"From all the tablets, this is the most abstract of them all, after centuries we think to have understood some of its words, but most remain a complete mystery for us...are you satisfied?"

"Does the King know of this?"

"He will do as soon as the letter reaches him"

"It's clear that these tablets speak of his Kingdom's near demise, why not tell him sooner?" his question, is more of a threat.

"I had tried to let him know before, but he dismissed it as, Rambling words of maddened fanatics...it was shocking to me that he wasn't as devout as we thought, but maybe he was just too busy with his expansionistic war at the time"

After a brief moment of silence, Edel turns around and makes his way to the gates, the High Priest waves his hand and they open, letting him go through and closing behind him.

"So cunning and yet..." with a snap of his fingers, the large light ball vanishes, and the murals light up with blue glowing writings on the walls, messages left for anyone walking into the dome for the first time "so short sighed"

Edel makes his way out of the sanctuary, practically shoving aside anyone on his path to his horse, the guards quickly shoo away the young ladies flirting with them as they get on top of their stallions and they ride back to the palace.

The wooden doors slam open making Adrel jump in surprise, even when she already knew he was coming by the loud metallic sound of his steel boots.

"Welcome back, my knight," she says with great displeasure, bowing lightly.

The room where Edel left her is now clean and organized, earning a simple nod from the man as he rushes to one of the nearby stacked scrolls "Get me detailed maps of our kingdom's entire south borders" he orders, and Adrel raises an eyebrow but rushes out of the room with a single glance from her knight.

Edel takes out a large scroll and stretches it on the table, showing a detailed map of Gerados, his finger drags from the capital to the bottom of the map, where he scours for a connection with the sea, but all of the southern borders collides directly with either the Dominion of the Braunners or the living forests of the Baumnners.

"We don't have any place with a view of the sea in our entire kingdom...let alone a place as big as a city," he thinks.

He turns around and grabs a stack of scrolls, stretching each one on the table at different times, they show individual layouts of cities and more detailed images of supply lines, yet nothing related to a coast. So his mind turns to the other part of the cryptic message.

"...rebirthed recently by mage's fire"

His eye twitches a the sole mention of the word "Of course they would have something to do with this" he thinks, clenching his fist in anger.

Sitting down on the large wooden chair, he goes through every and any information in his head that may provide an answer or a clue to where must he go. But a mage's fire...it slowly grows in his mind, occupying every thought until it's all he can remember.

Mage's fire.

"Edel!" his father screams as he runs through the forests.

And he raises from the grass he was resting on, much younger, barely a teen.

"Father?!" Edel runs to where the shouting comes from, leaving someone else behind.

"Edel! Your mother and sister, have you seen them?!" The thin, bearded man dressed in humble garments grabs his son by the shoulders, his face devoid of color, sweaty and his mouth agape as he breaths heavily.

"No? Why?" scared, the child responds looking around nervously.

"Oh no no no, your mother came looking for you, she must have taken Sanft with her because she isn't home!" he lets go of Edel and anxiously runs his fingers through his hair.

"W-Why? what is going on?"

"A mage has gone insane and they aren't anywhere in town!"

Edel's heart stops and his face mimics his father's.

For hours, they run around the woods shouting their names, Sanft, his little sister, and his mother, Isigquila. The town guard and most of the able men of the town join in the search.

"Please don't harm him! he doesn't know what he's doing!" a grown woman yells at the crowd, only to be brutally punched in the face by someone.

"He almost burned the town down screaming a bunch of nonsense!! your husband is a fucking monster and both of you should have never come here!" the man that punched her shouts at her, kicking her on the ground but quickly being restrained by nearby men.

"Calm down!" one of the shouts.

"Calm down my ASS! My son got his arm burnt by that thing!"

"The priests can heal him, he will be fine"

"But the memory? what about the pain and fear he felt? can the priests make that go away?!" he manages to shove everyone away "Your husband hurt my boy!"

"He liked to do, tricks with the fire" the woman struggles to say as she stands up, wiping the blood from her face " change colors, make shapes, he often showed it to kids, you know he is kind and charitable, a virtuous man!"

Her words resonate within some of the oldest men in the group, who avoid meeting her eyes.

"It doesn't matter, he is a menace" the man who punched her points at her but is restrained once again by the group "Like every one of his kind"

Edel stares at the discussion while his father, almost out of breath, holds a torch as he ventures deeper inside the woods, the sun dying out as the night threatens to swallow it all, only making the people more anxious.

But suddenly, the sky lights up momentarily, and everyone looks up through the rustling leaves at large colorful fireballs that are shoot up and explode.

"There, HE IS THERE!" Edel's father exclaims as he gains strength from deep within and runs at full speed, being followed by everyone else.

Edel runs behind his father, then behind them all, as he is out of breath and young, until he loses sight of them for a moment, hearing only a lighting strike, followed by the ear-splitting agonizing scream of his father, that makes him run faster than ever before.

Until finally, he seas the back of the group, some looking away, most, directly in front of them. They stand inside a little clearing, filled with flowers.

He tries to make his way through the crowd but they stop him, holding him back as they shout something that he doesn't hear.

His ears have shut down, all he can do is see, see clearly and fully, the burning corpses of his mother and little sister, rainbow fire dancing from their bodies, while a ghostly image of two bodies dancing together on the flower field made out of the same fire move joyfully, images of his mother and sister.

His father was pushed on the ground by a few men, as he desperately cries, watching with the same distraught eyes Edel has.

Many days went by, and the mage simply vanished from existence. He would often sit on the ground, far away from the tied woman on the pole, now barely recognizable after countless stonings and starvation. He watched her, his heart aching and mind broken.

May had been October, but the days seemed darker, and cloudier for a long time.

Until one day, he came.

"People of Holzkante, your lord has surrendered and now you will all be beneath the merciful shadow of Lord Lowin!" a knight announces raising the banner of the lion.

And like a sign from above, Lowin himself appears on top of his mighty warhorse, clad in a worn but still functional steel armor, the light pierced through the dark clouds to shine down on him, as he raises the head of the mage that had gotten away and throws it at the feet of the almost dead woman.

"Justice and peace will now dominate this town and everyone that follows him on his holy quest, to unite this land!"

The townsfolk cheer in unison and approach him, stretching their hands as he takes out his left gauntlet and lets everyone touch his bare hand. Edel too stands up and runs past the grieving woman tied on the pole, making his way through the crowd only to be picked up by some of the nearby men and taken to the front of the crowd.

The king looks at him, and Edel grabs his hand with both hands, placing his forehead against it, making everyone cheer even harder.

Edel lets out a tired sigh, his temper made calmer after recalling the first time he saw the King.

The door opens and Adrel rushes in with a few scrolls in hand. Immidetly throwing them on the table and Edel stretches a few of them until he finds what he was looking for.

"Here," he says, pointing at the map, making the curious Adrel try to take a peek next to him "He will attack here"

Edel points at the duchy of Stolzerspeer, the only place with a direct connection to the sea, and only one town next to it.