Swords of Cinder

Chapter 5: Apprentice of Chaos

Chapter 5: Apprentice of Chaos

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I had never been more bored. It had been a week since I fell in the river, and I had been stuck in the infirmary by myself. I was dreading going back to training because I knew that I probably was really behind.

Gaël had noticed my lack of participation in the training exercises and had gone out of his way to supplement it with a stack of heavy leather bound books. A stack of books so heavy that he had to tow all three boxes of them in a wagon. I counted twenty-seven, and they consisted of topics from the History of Needlepoint to the Mechanics of Sailboats. Gaël was particularly adamant about the Art of Arithmetic. To say I was thrilled would be an understatement.

Luckily, there were a few titles that caught my interest. Ever since I had seen the Geisthunds in one of the buildings of the training arena, I had been increasingly curious about where they came from. Stacked underneath several of the other books was a dusty, worn book bound in wrinkled black leather. The gold letters instantly caught my attention: The History of Mourira. I flipped through the thin, fragile pages carefully and began to read.

Mourira, the northern kingdom, is a dry, brittle wasteland covered in ice. The environment is incredibly hostile, and it comes second to Zja in kingdoms with the most unlivable climates. It is also home to the Sol, people with necromancy abilities which range from manipulating minds to bringing the dead back to life. They are soulless creatures with black eyes, gray skin, and cannibalistic tendencies.

I stopped reading. I had heard about the Sol. They used to be part of the Elite, but after they allied with the Empire of Zja in the Burning Wars, they had been wiped out. I flipped through the book to try to find some information on the Burning Wars, and I was almost at the end of the book when I found the passage.

The First Burning War: The corrupt tyrant of Mourira summoned an army of the dead and attacked Levenia in a territory grab. The northern regions of Arya and Levenia were demolished as the dead king laid siege on the cities. He slaughtered women, men, and children, and wherever he walked death would fall like plague upon the land.

It was only until the Council summoned the forces of the Sage Guard that the Mouriran forces met resistance. It was a futile struggle. The more the dead king killed, the stronger he became. The souls he collected cast him in an iron armor of immortality.

The Council surrendered their forces, and the four other leaders joined together to destroy the dead king. Emperor Matthias of Zja: fire, Queen Audra of Arya: air, Queen Darya of Hali: water, and King Cephas of Levenia: earth. All, but Matthias died in the struggle, and the dead king became imprisoned in a crypt of stone.

I frowned. I was surprised that I had never heard about the First Burning War. The second one was often a more popular tale, especially since it was so recent. It had happened less than two decades ago, while hardly anyone really remembered the First Burning War. I guess it made sense since the results of the war in the book built up for the following war.

In the Second Burning War, people became fearful of Mourira once again, and there were rumors of the dead king's resurrection. The Sol were targeted, and within a few years, they were completely wiped out. Emperor Matthias declared it a genocide, and he pulled Zja from the alliance. This betrayal marked the beginning of the Second Burning War. Zja became a haven to Mouriran refugees, but it was a futile effort. The combined efforts of Arya, Levenia, and Hali led by General Cypress resulted in the collapse of the Zjan empire and the ultimate death of Emperor Matthias.

The way Maryssa told the story was very different than what the book described. She had always made it seem like Matthias was a hero who resisted the fearful appetite of war. The excerpt on the Second Burning War indicated Matthias was a traitor motivated by the destruction of Levenia. From the ashes, General Cypress rose. His sword, a beacon of light, that struck down the power-hungry king and illuminated the darkness of his reign. Matthias was brought to justice for the crimes, and the war that he ensued crumbled like his corrupt Empire. The Zjan people, manipulated by this tyrant, refused defeat, so they, too, embraced the ashes of their kingdom.