The Cadre of Embers

Epilogue

 The sky was dark, and misty, the air swirling to form morning clouds around the large picture windows that surrounded the Palatium, or Palace of Ice as some called it. Audaxus Gaius hadn't slept a wink the night before, or for the past week in fact, though when you're nearly immortal as he was, not sleeping for long periods of time wasn't as severe as it was for ordinary humans. His head had started to ache slightly in his skull though. Not due to his lack of rest, but because she had escaped. Althea Lezant as she went by in this lifetime. And with one of his highest trained aevum, Arsalan. The idea that they had disappeared and left no trail behind them had plagued him for over a week now as he sent every last one of his hounds out to search for them. The hounds were the variety of the cadre that developed a skill set for scenting out magic. He knew he should have brought her here sooner, Audaxus had wanted to bring her here from the first time that blonde haired wench had spoken of the fire in her eyes. But instead, he had opted to wait for solidified proof.

In the past, the daft girl, Monique, had given him a fabled tale of information which resulted in him wasting his time... so this time around he had been waiting until someone he trusted more, someone less... dim witted, gave him more sustainable information. Someone like Arsalan. Arsalan who he had trusted, Arsalan who had been by his side for the past five years, helping him with various tasks and never asking too many questions. Audaxus gripped the arm of his large, upholstered chair. Arsalan who had betrayed him, who had betrayed the entire cadre. He was the cause of all of this. Audaxus could have had her, he could have slaughtered her and released that power within her, sending it scurrying back to where it belonged. He had scoured this drab, mundane planet thrice for that wretched curse, sending his hounds to search every crevice for that ancient, potent magic. The hounds were able to distinguish who or what wielded magic, what kind of magic it was, how old it was and if it had been used for good, evil, or never used at all. And yet three times over, there was no sign of that ancient flame.

Until now. Until her.

A faint glow illuminated through his room at the top of the Palatium. He stood from his seat finally, turning away from the dim light of dawn. Before he did though, he took a second to stare down upon the black and silver metropolis below. The city of Skyworth. Where he used to see his gleaming silver city, he now saw a cramped cluster of buildings piled atop one another. This place no longer satisfied his taste for a kingdom.

He turned around, to face the large slate and sable suite with its flowing stone fountain situated before the elevated bed. It had served as more of a throne to him than the engraved royal seat at which he had taken his place for nearly three millennia now. His bed had always been his sanctuary. It was where he dreamt of the ways he would reunite this world with the one he'd been born to, a world that was vast and never ending. When this cadre had formed two thousand, six-hundred and fifty four years ago, he had still been young, naive in his thinking. He aimlessly followed the ways of the other five original members. They had said then that the world of magic was despicable, that this world should be cleansed, only to contain a fragment of magic from those who were birthed from its core, derived only from its purity. And these magic wielders were to be kept away from the eyes of humans, never to make these abilities known to them. Unlike the time before the spell had been cast, these pure magic wielders, as they were called, did not assume any of the attributes of the power that came before them. They aged as humans did, and looked like humans did, perfect for blending in, like sheep in a herd. But Audaxus was tired of hiding up here amongst the clouds, watching the mundane trash of the human world down below, so full of weakness, disease and violence. It was pathetic really, to watch them. They considered themselves so superior to everything around them, and from what he had glimpsed of the future, that complex of superiority of their species was only to grow until they all eventually turned on one another and died anyway, so why not speed up the process by breaking that bond?

The bond which was the flame. That ancient spell that had separated this human dimension and the magic dimension which were once joined together as one realm. Audaxus sought to break that bond and allow the beasts, that once tormented the humans, to rein free and extinguish their species from this world altogether, for they would only do it themselves in the coming centuries anyway. Four of the five other members had pledged their loyalty to he and his cause in secret from the fifth, Valeria. She had made her stance on humans clear, that they were an innocent species in need of protection. She couldn't be any more ignorant. So seventy-five years ago, Audaxus and the others had locked her away in one of the old bared chambers they once used for their Lacerta Avis before the last of them went extinct. They would have killed her, but yet another downfall of this dreaded curse was its binding between the six original cadre members, the Board of the Ageless. If any of them purposely inflicted harm resulting in the death of one of the original six, they were all to die as one. But he needn't kill Valeria... for when his plan succeeded, and it would in due time, she could finally be amongst the human scum she so dearly loved... nothing but a pile of bones, as all the humans would be when he was finished. And as for Althea Lezant... He had found her once, and he would find her again... and when he did, there would be no escaping him again.

The End of Book 1

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Thank you so much for reading! This is only a draft of my first book in the "The Cadre of Embers" series. It is my hope to self-publish the polished version with some added scenes this year (2024), and to release the rest of the books in the series soon after since I am currently drafting book 3. I will add an update after this chapter when Book 1 is published! Again thank you for reading, and if you enjoyed this story, please share with your friends and vote! Thanks!