The Fall of Vequera

Chapter twenty-three | Vasily

TW MENTIONS OF: DOMESTIC ABUSE, SUICIDAL INTENTIONS OR THOUGHTS, VERBAL ABUSE

LOCATION: ARCADIOS, VEQUERA

YEAR: 621 C.E

VASILY NEVER KNEW MUCH ABOUT LIFE BEFORE HIS FATHER SHIPPED HIM OFF TO VEQUERA.

He had only been nineteen at the time. The only thing he knew was that Azoz and Vequera needed to strengthen their alliance. Over the past twenty-six years, he's been stuck, trapped. He rarely ever got to see his brother and his family. He missed his brother's coronation, the birth of his nephew, and his father's funeral. He thought about them often when he wanted to feel something other than the numbness that came with being in this palace. A palace that had grown tainted as of recent with the marriage of his son and his wife, Amren. Their relationship if one could call Nikolai neglectfulness of her a relationship.

'He is turning out to be just like his mother. Maybe even worse.' He remembered what he had told his brother in his most recent letter to him. The words stained his heart. Valia's name long forgot in the palace. No one spoke of her or her death. Her life was a short one, but he tried his best to remember. He could not remember her face or how her voice sounded.

"My King, you have been standing in garden unmoving for an hour?" His sworn guard, Anson, pulled him out his thoughts.

Anson was a commoner's first-born son. Commissioned to his position by Lady Damebury of Emberfell. Despite not being a well-known family, House Damebury paved the way with their wealth and castles scattered over Emberfell. For nearly three hundred years, House Damebury had been sworn to house Bartel as they were in control of the region.

"I'm alright, Ser Anson." He was not alright. Far from it. These last five months have been nothing but hell. Aeyar had forsaken him to this hell until his dying days. He was so tired. Eye bags dressed his aging face. At only five and forty, Vasily had grown to understand how the world of House Lamonia worked and it was not for people like him or Amren.

House Lamonia controlled everything in Vequera except for the Koridar and the ones under him. But for the last twenty or so years, the Koridar and the crown have been on good terms. Until Nikolai began to act out. The Koridar does not think Nikolai is fit to be king. He even compared him to Aeron, the cruel. Nikolai and Valia's great grandsire. Vasily would hear tales of his crimes. A bastard fathered by King Eddard. He had been the first born and had been promised the throne by his father, but he had a true born son, prince Andres. Essentially being the cause of The Bastard Rebellion. Eddard passed before he could fulfill his promise to his bastard son.

A bastard on the throne was not what any of the nobles desired. As a result, at the age of five and ten, they all positioned Prince Andres to become King. Aeron thought the throne was his birthright. Although Andres had previously been married off, neither he nor Andres was ever named heir to the crown. He had a stronger claim than Aeron did. He believed that his throne had been taken from him. He, not Andres, was the first child. And the throne was always supposed to go to the firstborn and in this case, if Aeron wanted the throne, he would have to kill his kid brother.

The bastard rebellion started a year later. In the year 500, Aeron recklessly claimed a dragon, ignoring the sacred practice a Lamonia must do to bond with a dragon. On a winter day of eleventh month, he mounted Bafann and began to burn any city and village in sight. It didn't take long for the nobles and King Andres to surrender the crown, but Aeron wasn't finished with cruelty. He killed Andres in front of his wife, Mary Bartel and executed her. And sent her head back to Emberfell. Luckily, they had not had any children at the time because they would've suffered the same fate. He had forced a marriage on Mary's sister, Helena.