Swords of the Secret Son

Chapter 1 - Jay Nex

500 YEARS LATER 

In the first region of humans, men spread their greed and power, illegally trading and selling wonders such as unicorn horns and dragon scales.

In the second region of ogres, humans enslaved the ogre race and turned the second region into a solemn keep of forced labor.

In the third region of dwarves, the race of miners thrived and survived on their sheer abundance of coal.

In the fourth region of giants, the large mountain dwellers lived in peace and solitude, mostly left alone by Vision.

In the fifth region of merpeople, the most elegant aquatic creatures of Whitewood resided in the depths of the sea.

In the sixth region of elves, the clever race crafted weapons and developed ways of nature.

In the seventh region of fairies, millions of tiny, selfish creatures maintained their limited domain.

The forests of Celienth were home to thousands of other nymphs and creatures who were clever enough not to sign the contract of Whitewood that has enslaved the other seven races. Unfortunately, we elves were among those idiotic seven species who were now under Queen Arwen's reign.

Queen Arwen, the illegitimate child of an elf and a human, giving her unnatural powers. Queen Arwen, the dictator of our lives. Queen Arwen, the first leader of Whitewood to lead her people with lies. Queen Arwen, the leader of the army who spread terror throughout the regions. Queen Arwen, the one who created the seven regions that trapped us in our own towns. Queen Arwen, the murderer of our king.

We elves were usually left alone. With our own region to ourselves, Queen Arwen even being half one of us, we were generally allowed to roam as we pleased in our picturesque region. When Vision began drafting the elves, we had to comply. We weren't used to fighting with swords, only making them. All the elves in battle perished that year, including my brother Clarence.

I missed him so much! What kind of person was I without him? He was my second half. His maple syrup smell that would linger in a room after he left, his radiant, piercing blue eyes, his little mustache that Mother objected to... I sighed. He was a truly wonderful person, one who the world was no longer blessed to have among us.

"I'll be home in December, Mother. Only eight months away. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." Those were his last words to us before he got on the train to the military base in the third region. As soon as we got the telegram that November, we knew. It would be too good to be true if Clarence made it home. He was so close.

Clarence was always my best friend. He teased me for being such a bookworm, but he would always help me steal more books. He disapproved of me skipping school, but he would always help enforce my cover story. He didn't like the stunts I pulled, but in the end, he would always help keep Vision away and protect me.

I loved him. And he was gone. So I made it my own personal mission to find him wherever he was and bring him home.

Did you know that even if you're seconds away from death, you still don't enter the afterlife? I guess you really have to die first. I just had gotten out of the sixth region make-shift hospital. After attempting to prove that an afterlife does exist for two years now, I decided that it would be best if I did a physical experiment.

I jumped off a bridge. My goal wasn't to die. Just to get close to death for my research. It turned out that if there was an afterlife, you really had to die. That wasn't exactly my idea of a fun time.

"Mother! Where's my book?" I yelled down the hall of our one story home that smelled of freshly crushed pine needles.

No response. I should've known. Stomping down the hall half naked, I went on a mission to find my hexes and jinxes book. I had decided to take responsibility of my own education after I realized that everything the teachers taught us at the "mandatory" school was complete lies. It was all the government's propaganda. One thing that came in handy that I learned in that awful, tyrannical school is that Queen Arwen ruled Whitewood with lies. Enough said.

My father had found journals, passed down to me and my brother, filled with the true account of King Ryedaen's death and the battle that caused it. They spoke of a brave wizard named Rehnnyn who nearly died protecting the king. And Queen Arwen spoke of none of it.

"J-Jay, dear, be a doll and f-fetch me some honey for my t-tea?" Mother timidly creeped out of the tiny kitchen as squeaky as a mouse. Ever since Clarence died, she had always been that way. Mentally damaged, you could say, after she lost both her husband and her son.

She was the complete opposite of me, both physically and with her outlook on the world. Her dark brown eyes and dirty blond hair did not compliment her frail body. She was a sack of skin and bones that happened to be stacked in the form of a human body.

"I -" I began.

"Y-you don't have to, of course, if you d-don't want to, b-but - I-I - m-my -"

"I'll get it," I sighed.

"Th-thank..." she said, trailing off so I couldn't hear the rest of what she was saying. That was my wonderful, responsible mother for you.

Without the heart to tell my poor mother that we hadn't had the money for honey in years, I decided to keep from hearing her pathetic stuttering, make her day, and use our special stash of elvish sweetener. It was less gooey than honey, but it worked all the same.

Tossing the "honey" for my mother into her tea pot and stirring, sprinkling some of my grandfather's original seasoning, I delivered the clay mug and returned to my bedroom for my personal studies.

"Open up! We have orders from Her Highness!" I was interrupted by a gruff sounding voice coming through the flimsy front door. If the men outside knocked any harder, it could come down. I could hear the door squeaked open and Mother's thin voice echoed through the empty halls. I snuck downstairs, peeking around the corner.

"Is this the Nex household?" inquired what looked like the leader of Queen Arwen Larke's allies, advisers, and army, formally known as Vision.

"Y-Yes," Mother said, pursing her lips.

"Are you Jay Nex?" the military man asked again.

"N-No," she replied quietly. "I'm her m-m-mother, Devenawyn."

"Of course. This old hag isn't seventeen!" one of the younger men snickered, nudging his coworkers with his elbow and smirking like a fool. I could see the insult processing through Mother's worn out, tired head.

"Stop muttering, woman! Step aside," the leader ordered again, ignoring his soldiers' impudence. "We have a warrant to search the place!" Like they needed one. They could go anywhere, anytime; there was no one to stop them.

That was my cue to quietly throw on some pants and escape Vision out the back window. Due to the queen's selfishness, no matter where I was in the house, I could always escape from a window that was no more than three feet above the ground. What a design flaw in her part. Thank you, Queen Arwen. For once she had made my life better.

I crept out of the window with my brother's old armor from the war on. If only I had something as powerful and thick as dragon scales. With my father's sword on my belt and a sack on my back filled with some daggers, books, and basic necessities, Clarence's old pocket watch hanging down from around my neck, I heard shouting from my bedroom.

"Where is the damn girl?" the general exclaimed and more silence followed.

"Here! Her Majesty was correct, as usual. The journals are here! Burn them. Burn them all."

"Mr. Ardmare, sir!" One of the leader's soldier saluted him. "She must be taken in for interrogation," he hissed.

"Goodbye, Jay," I thought I heard coming from the window. I turned back and saw Mother walking away, whimpering slightly.

"You're going to have to come with us, elf." A soldier grabbed my mother by the arms and tied her hands together. "Everyone out!"

"Goodbye, Mother," I whispered, crossing out of my dead yard into the lively forest of Celienth. It was time to rid the world of the queen before her unnaturally long half-elf lifespan didn't catch up with her first.

"Good luck," I swear I could hear her say as I watched the carriage door slam shut as my only home I had ever known burst into flames.