Aetherian(Part 1): A War Begins

Blake

"Why do you think you need to look after me?" Blake whined.

"Because you're dying," answered Julien.

"I thought I wouldn't start dying for two years."

"No, but the symptoms of the venom start appearing at two months after getting bit."

"And the symptoms are...?" asked Blake.

"Hallucinations, nausea, constant migraines and nosebleeds," answered Julien. "Do you want me to keep going?"

"Not really. I'm just saying that if I have two years, why do you insist on finding something for me now?" said Blake.

"Come on, Blake," said Julien. "You were with me in those ruins. You saw what I saw in there. The same exact thing has happened in the other five regions of Aetherian. We both know that something is coming, and this country needs every Guardian it can get. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's not a lot of Guardians left in the Sandlands. For all I know, we're the last ones, so please let me help you." Blake was touched by what he said. She was a complete stranger to Julien, but he didn't care. He was doing everything he could to save her life like a Guardian should, which actually began to remind her of Trevor.

"You sound like my Squad Captain," Blake admitted.

"I do?"

"It's mostly your stubbornness, but yeah."

"I'm stubborn?" asked Julien.

"You won't let me talk you out of wasting your time."

"Well, I don't think it's being wasted."

"And you're disagreeing with everything I say."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," said Julien, smiling. As they went further across the desert, they both caught a glint of light in the distance.

"Hey, do you see that?" asked Blake.

"Yeah," answered Julien. "A town?"

"Someone," said Blake. "We should check it out." They began to walk towards the reflected light, with the heat from the sun bouncing off of the desert sands. When they arrived at the source of the light, they were met with a sight that gave them dread. A village of a dozen buildings surrounded a small plaza of cobblestone, but the buildings were all burned to cinders and ashes. There wasn't a single person left alive, with the bodies of men, women, and children sprawled out in the sand, with either blood spilled from them, or burned so badly that their faces were unrecognizable.

"What happened here?" Julien asked. "Could it have been bandits or Orcs?"

"I don't think so," Blake answered, looking at a banner in the middle of the plaza. It was a crimson standard, with the sigil of a golden dragon with its wings spread.

"I've never seen that sigil before," said Julien.

"No one has," confirmed Blake. "Not for fourteen years. It's House Karvine."

"Karvine? The last royal house?" asked Julien. "I thought they were all dead." Blake knew better. As far as she knew, there was one last Karvine alive, but he would never slaughter a village like this. She didn't trust Julien enough to tell him about Trevor's origins, though.

"So, someone came and destroyed this village and put the banner here?" said Julien.

"Either that or not every last Karvine was killed."

"They didn't just burn it to the ground, they killed everyone."

"Maybe there are still survivors. Should we look around? For supplies?"