The divinest.

Chapter 1- Eric

My father used to tell me stories of those who lived long before me, who created temples and built up to the skies like they were gods. Then, he would always finish the story with how the gods punished them of their deeds, a warning of some sort. I've never really payed much heed to warnings. As a child they just felt like fathers way of trying to prove a point, or direct me in a path i didn't particularly want to follow as a freedom wanting little kid. However, looking back from where i am now I wonder if maybe i should of listened to more of his depressing endings to stories, and taken a moment to contemplate what they really might mean deeper then the surface.
Im thinking about this all, since only now do I wish i had a taken his advice. Only now my kingdom is dangerously close to, quite literally,collapsing in on itself. This place was my fathers pride and joy, so he named it himself. The 'urbem concitant' or upside down city. The everyday folk like to joke that its because of how crazy some of the people here can be, since there is little light. Though that might be half true that is not why my father named this place the upside down city, instead he named it this for the legend he tells all of the family.
The ancient ones have many names, the perfects, the all knowing, the divine. These people were the creators of all life, in every kingdom. Yet despite this, there was one section of land they did not deem good enough for their perfect world, one that would not grow crops, one which flowers always died, one where light did not want to touch. So, in their attempt to rid the world of their imperfection, they sent it below the most pure land they could, hoping that the divines and purity would leak down through it's roots and slowly but surely spread throughout the bad kingdom and make it fit in with the rest of their creations. Only on that day, did the ancients swear they would let the then purged land come back to the surface, back to the light. Yet, almost a thousand years later there has ben no sign of purity dripping down, only the now recent collapses in land like the ancients had planned our demise all along. Like we were never meant to come up.
Nadia's voice snaps me back to the present, crisp, clear and commanding. "Brother, you really must hurry along. The council is already waiting for you and want to know how your going to solve the collapse problem. I tried to keep them calm but they really are outraged. Idiots cant even see we can do quite literally nothing about it."
I smile at her hatred for the council, and in some ways i feel the same to. "Alright im coming do you really think i would be late to my own meeting? Goodness Nadia, please raise your standards of me." She shoots me a glare in response, and then gestures to the door as if commanding me to leave. I stop leaning on the balconies railing and head out the door.
The palace is like a maze of corridors and hallways, and im lucky to have grown up in it because there's no way an outsider could find their way around the place, but thats how i like it. It means no one can actually find my room for assassinations, and it feels like a secret that i have with the stones that make the walls and the walls that make the castle. Hanging paintings of past rulers of all the kingdoms stare at me with their picture perfect faces as if to remind me what's at sake here. I know what's at stake here, all the people who follow under my rule lives are at stake, my families lives are at stake, this entire land which my father fought so hard to protect is at stake. I'll do anything to stop harm from invading my lands, including if it means i have to ask for help from the person i despise the most. Alaida. Perfect, snobby bitch.
She rules the land of the kingdom above us, she's supposed to have the purest land of all but i don't think i hate anyone more. It definitely mostly is because of spite, yes, but i well and truly hate her. Stories of her and her lands still make me clench my jaw an tighten my first in anger and quickly leave the room. It's childish to be so jealous of someone but i don't care. When that woman's head is on the floor is when I'll stop being mad.
I walk into the meeting room, met with the long table and spiked arches around it. The moon shon threw the stained glass windows and the torches were really the only light source which we could have since the sun was stuck in the land above. 18 council men and woman sat before me with a hoping look. "I don't have a plan." They outburst at that, suggesting ludicrous ideas like casting protection spells and so forth. In their defence i did lie to them, but that doesn't stop their ideas from being so outrageous. I was going to go to the upper realms, beg Alaida for help to find the last remnant of the ancients and once i have it kill her and take her thrown aswell. Easy. Right?