Chapter 008 – Test

[287 AC]

Inside the Starfall castle at the training grounds, five veteran soldiers in full armor could be seen. They all wore the sigil of House Dayne and their primary weapon was a wooden longsword.

They stood in a circle around a young boy with his eyes closed, who looked to be twelve years of age. The boy only wore thin clothes and was also armed with a wooden longsword.

The sun shone down cruelly on all six combatants, making the soldiers sweat profusely. Still, the primary reason for their sweating was nervousness and a tinge of fear, directed at the boy.

To the sides stood a small tent, shielding those under it from the direct sunlight. A tall handsome man, with black hair and pale lilac eyes, stood next to a gorgeous dark haired beauty with deep amethyst coloured eyes.

The man wore a bright coloured tunic, while the woman wore a light green combo made out of a tight top, that clung to her chest and shoulders and a loose pair of pants with long slits to the sides. Her hair was put in a long braided pony tail.

A middle-aged maester stood a fair distance away from them under a different tent, along with a few servants.

While another fifteen veteran swordsman also stood to the side in full armour with a wooden longsword.

"Begin."

It was the tall man in the main tent, who gave the start signal in a low tone.

The five man directly advanced towards the boy, knowing from experience that they couldn't allow him take the initiative.

The boy however was very fast and the moment that they attacked, he had already appeared in front of the closest adversary to him.

Dodging the over-head slash with a simple side step, while stepping into the personal space of his opponent and laying his hand on his armour. Tensing the muscles in his legs, waist, torso and shoulder, the boy used the gathered power to blow his opponent out of bounds with a simple push of his palm.

Spinning low an evading a slash, he felled another soldier with his sweeping legs, before diving forward into the middle of the ring, dodging two slashes, but not before taking the sword of his fallen opponent.

Standing tall with a longsword in each of his hands, the boy finally opened his eyes, revealing his amethyst colored irises. A small smile danced around his lips, while an excited glint could be seen in his eyes.

The four remaining soldiers stood to one side, carefully observing the boy, while the one who had lost his weapon to the boy, had already gotten himself another sword from one of the servants standing to the side.

"Enough playing around."

As the boy uttered these words, his opponents tensed up even further, as they realised that he had defeated one and disarmed another one, while not even taking them seriously.

Still, they didn't become angry at this revelation only more anxious. Suddenly the boy advanced towards them rapidly, resembling a storm of swords.

They tried to block and counter him, but he was simply unstoppable, each blow to their armour felt like a horse had kicked them, while his precision was simply without equal.

His body moved with a flexibilty that made it impossible to land a blow on him, while he even dodged blows outside his vision, as if he had eyes on his back.

They couldn't even scratch the hem of his shirt and a few short seconds later, they all laid defeated and groaning in the dirt.

The servants to the side were fast in pulling them from the battlefield, as the rest of the veteran soldiers went into the sparring ring – all fifteen of them at once.

They attacked with a desperation only their fellow comrades could understand. It was the knowledge about the futility of their resistance that gave them a boost in bravery.

Like a soldier on the battlefield, when surrounded by enemies and knowing that surrender would be futile. They fought with everything they had. Their goal wasn't even to land a blow on the boy, maybe in the past that had been the case, but now all they allowed themselves to hope to achieve was to endure for as many blows as possible.

They had even bet on how many blows they could withstand. Until now, there hadn't been anyone to stand up again after three of the boy's blows though.

Roughly a minute later these fifteen veterans also laid in the dirt, groaning and whimpering from pain, while the boy stood in the middle of them, perfectly calm and not even out of breath.

His two orignial wooden swords had long since shattered from the force of his blows, but it had been an easy thing for him to switch them out for his fallen opponent's weapons.

Stepping around the defeated soldiers, the boy approached the tent with the tall man and the woman.

The woman gave the boy a proud smile, while approaching him and pulling him into a deep hug.

"Amazingly done, my little firestar. Though you are still growing up too fast for my taste.", Allyria sighed, as she brushed back the hair on her son's face. Turning around, she looked at the man next to her, as she asked, "What do you think brother? Phenex is worthy of the sword, is he not?"

The tall man also stepped closer, while looking at the boy with a serious expression, though it relaxed with the following words. Sighing audibly, he addressed the small boy: "You are an even better swordsman than your Uncle Arthur was, and you are only seven years old, Phenex. Who would believe such a thing without seeing it with their own eyes?"

"Luckily Allyria, you pushed me to order for wooden swords to be used, otherwise the best soldiers of House Dayne would probably be heavily crippled or at least unable to battle for months.", the man remarked.

"Well, of course I pushed for it, I know what my son is capable of. Still, are you going to do it, or should he first duel you too, Anton?", Allyria asked with a mischievous look on her face.

"No no, I don't think any further proof is necessary.", Anton replied hurriedly, before composing himself with a fake cough and addresing the boy again, "Phenex, and you too sister, come with me."

Phenex and his mother followed his uncle Anton Dayne, Lord of Starfall, through the sidedoor, back into the castle, while the Maester and servants took care of the injured men.

After walking through many corridors and staircases, they arrived in a bright and nearly empty room. The only object in the room was a stone altar with a longsword on top. The blade was different from normal steel and even Valyrian steel, as it had a bright matt white colour.

"Go on, try and take it from the altar.", Anton gestured to Phenex.

"Don't hestitate, it's in your blood.", Allyria whispered into his ear, leaving a kiss on his forehead, as she pushed him forward.

He knew that his mother's cryptic words hinted at the origin of the sword with her words.

Phenex knew that the sword itself wouldn't accept just anyone as its wielder, but as the phoenix himself, he also knew that the sword simply couldn't reject him.

Walking up to the altar and wrapping his hands around the handle of the sword, he could feel the ancient magic in the sword and the altar, inspecting and judging him.

Phenex allowed it, even though he could simply force the magic in the sword to submit.

It wasn't necessary though, as he could feel the magic 'falling in place' and linking him to the blade only a moment later. Letting him lift it off the altar easily, while the blade glowed in a dim white light shortly, declaring its acceptance of its new wielder.

"Of course he wou-", the Lord of Starfall sighed, before his words halted, as something even more incredible happened before his eyes, "Wh-what in the Lord of Light's name..?"

A blinding light suddenly exploded out from Dawn.

"Firestar.", Allyria whispered looking at her son, suddenly being bathed in light.