An Axe in the Flames

King Herrod

The twilight sky danced with clouds of soft reds and deep yellows, as dark gray clouds stood out amongst them like bruises on a pale face. Those were the signs of winter, those darker clouds. The snow would soon begin to fall at the Emerald Castle, most likely within the next day or two, which could both help and hurt the defenses. Standing on the main keep's northern tower, Herrod surveyed the lands beyond his castle, with the wind whipping and gnashing at him. The Emerald Flag, solid green with golden swords crossed over a white eye, lashed and slapped at the wind behind the King. He pulled tighter his white fur coat and slid his hood over his head. Keeping his gray and thinning hair from thrashing around his face. In the distance, he could make out small flickers of firelight, and he knew that was the Thanish army. Part of it, at least, he expected the other part to come from the east, while if rumors were true. The Flame Sect would attack from the south, but Herrod knew Lucan. He knew him as a strategist and a deceptor. He wouldn't attack from only one direction, he would attack from multiple at once and only after the Emerald army had been engaged with the Thanish.

He turned to the South, where the wind was calmer and the tall trees of pine and fur faded into low-hanging weeping trees of the saltland deserts. He could see the tip of the golden tower of the Flame Sect castle, just barely over the horizon, catching the dying remnants of the sun like a man gasping for his last breath as his throat is slit. Lucan had once been beloved by Herrod and the kingdom, but men change with power. Sometimes they become monsters, bloodthirsty and crazed, or they get driven mad by the need to accumulate as much wealth as possible or to have as much land as possible. Some succumbed to wanting to have everything be there's, Lucan had become driven by power to gain more and more and had attacked innocent farm villages. His legion had raped and pillaged well after the war was won, and Herrod had to punish him. He felt for him though, as if he had helped create the monster he became, by making him the youngest Captain in his army and having him lead the charges through enemy territory. His hand was forced though, and he had to act as a King would. So he exiled his nephew and sent his men south to the salt deserts, but unbeknownst to most, he had sent Lucan with plenty of money for him and his men.

Herrod hadn't expected Lucan to create an army and then become the murderer he had transformed into. Children, thousands of them, were slaughtered in the Feral Wilds and Herrod was powerless to do anything. His army had grown old and grown stale. No new magics had produced in the offspring of any soldier, and what the Emerald Army had, was exactly what they had. Only Guardians remained, and that magic was limited to only protecting. The scouts and Nail had talked of fire magics, conjuring magics, and magics that turned the dirt into weapons. These things had never existed before in the history of Bree, at least not for men and women. The Gods that roamed the continents before had always had magic, they had created the storms and the lightning, the oceans and the tidal waves, the earthquakes and tornadoes. The wildfires that ravaged the salt lands and the mountains that made the great frozen north. What had caused the children of the Feral Wilds to begin producing these magics now, and why was it only happening in the Wilds?

Boots scraped the steps that led to the tower top and broke the King from his thoughts, Tuskar appeared at the top of the steps and smiled as his hair tangled around his face and beard from the heavy wind.

"My King, I apologize for interrupting your private time." Tuskar said as he gave a bow.

"Nonsense my friend, you are always a welcoming presence. Especially in times such as these."

Tuskar crossed the tower and grasped Herrod by the forearm. Herrod turned to the north and pointed towards the fires on the treeline.

"Thanish soldiers, setting up camp."

Tuskar squinted and nodded, "Aye, we knew they'd be out there. Have you seen any signs of the rest or Flame Sect?"

Herrod slowly shook his head, "Not as of yet. Though my old eyes don't see nearly as good as yours."