Death, And Therefore Rebirth

Vow, And Therefore Theft

“Finally, I obtained this burning desire
by stealing it and placing law on its funeral pyre.”

           Ifer Maren II regretted his wife’s murder very much. Instead of turning to alcohol as many men would do in his situation, he made himself think about it every day. Ifer never wanted to forget what he did to Valea, so as to torture himself with the memory. He married again and had two more sons, but this was only to strengthen the dynasty in case something happened to Juren. Ifer became extremely protective of Juren and his older sisters, Valisa and Jurea--the only things he had left of Valea. He also became protective of the truth, and chose to never divulge it. He and the Hernals were the only people who knew the truth about Valea’s demise, and the Hernals were extinct; he’d made sure of that. Or so he thought.

             Viteu Hernal (1074-1139), the son of Irene Feren and Æliet Hernal, was the sole survivor of Ifer’s familicide. The hunting down and killing of the Hernals lasted for seven months, beginning with the confrontation of Teren Hernal XIV, Iren of Arene, in the capital city of Irtera on the fortieth of Brya, 1086. There, at night, Ifer confessed to killing Valea. Teren admitted why he had spread the rumour, but did not mention that Irene was involved. The conversation ended with Ifer impaling Teren on his sword.

           Ifer also tried to kill Alan Vilder (817-), Teren’s guard, but he survived with injuries to his right hand and left leg. This did not hinder him, though: his job was to protect the Iren, who was now Æliet. He predicted that Ifer would go to Alvitie, Arene’s second-largest city. Alvitie was the capital of Alvitetha, a duchy and province in southern Arene. By Arenian tradition, Alvitetha belonged to the Iren’s second son. Æliet was the second son of Eleu Hernal (997-1045) and Terene Rena (1017-1053,) and Alan guessed that Ifer would go for him next because he was now the Iren. 

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           Indeed, that was where Ifer was headed. Teren’s death at his hand did not heal the gaping wound in his soul. Instead, it caused it to fester, drowning Ifer in a fresh wave of guilt and depression. In the eye of his emotional cyclone, there was a spark of anger at Teren for spreading the rumour and himself for believing it. How could he,
ruler of Nurea, descendant of Amera, have been so easily tricked by a Hernal? They were hedonistic primitives who shied away from technology and preferred love to war. When they were on the battlefield, they danced on it half-naked in lieu of fighting like a man. How could they have gotten the best of him? The Hernals were more primitive than that family of mages in Aralyn, for crying out loud! Hatred of that wretched name, hatred of how he fell for Teren’s words like a ton of bricks, made him want to exterminate them all, and fanned that spark into flame.

            An hour after Teren had been killed, Ifer arrived outside Æliet’s palace in Alvitie. When Æliet and Irene learned of his presence with in the city, they rushed outside to meet with him. Ifer began the conversation in the most gracious manner one could ever imagine.

          “Teren’s dead,” he said in a gruff voice. He kicked the dirt with his steel-toed boot as he said this, but as soon as he stopped speaking, he looked up at their faces to see how they reacted to the news. Æliet’s face turned white, and he was too stunned to speak. Irene had begun to tremble.

           “You--you killed him, didn't you?” she asked him. Her brother-in-law nodded solemnly.

            “Are you here to kill me?” Irene said, her voice a half octave higher than normal. With a shaking finger, she pointed to her breast, her blue eyes wide with fear. Her resemblance to Valea was striking, Ifer thought, except Valea’s eyes were brown.