AEONS: THE GODS ARE DAMNED

Chapter 14

They both walked briskly through the halls; they reached a room door, a male servant walked past, greeting them as he walked. Haemir opened the door to reveal a master bedroom. Chase walked in with his jaw open.
“I take it that you like it” Haemir said as he rested on the doorframe
“This is a room fit for a king” Chase marveled as he looked round the huge room, a big poster bed at a side, a huge bathtub behind a screen and several other room accessories.
“ ‘tis a room fit for a prince” Haemir said as he walked in. “If you ever need anything, let your personal servant know”
Chase whirled to face him, “Personal servant?”
“Sir,” a voice answered at the door, it was an older boy
“I will leave you both of you to get acquainted” Haemir said as he turned and left.
Chase felt awkward as the servant stood waiting for orders.
“Should I prepare your bath, My lord” The boy asked
“Yes, but you can just call me Chase, I hate the ‘my lord’ title you guys through around here” Chase said as he sat on the bed’s edge
“Yes, my lord”
“Don’t…”
“Forgive me…” the servant quickly apologized, “Lord Chase” He lowered his head
“New rule, No Lord, no my lord, My name is Chase, do we have an understanding…erm… I forgot to ask your name”
“Eschallus, My…” Chase raises a brow “…Chase” Eschallus quickly added
“Thanks Eschallus, but I will be calling you by a shorter form of your name, does Challus sound nice?” Chase asked
“It is agreeable on, Chase”
“You can get the bath now” Chase said with a smile and Challus hurried to work.
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The screams could be heard through the town of Southvern; Orcs raided the town. A girl was back slapped and she fell like a doll, the assailant- a hunchback Orc- with rotten teeth, wielding a club. It roared and closed in on the girl.
She scrambled backwards but soon her back hit the wooden wall of a house. As the orc raised his club to strike, a whip of energy curled round his neck and severed his head. Behind the fallen beast was an old man holding a staff, the wrinkles on his face showed that he was very old.
It was Xetrus, the oldest Mage in the town.
"Are you going to stay there, child, or are you going to run" The old man-Xetrus- said.
"Behind you" the girl shouted.
He whirled on his heel, "Expellipate Zorus" he shouted and several threads of green energy burst out of his hand into the air, walking its way into several orcs killing them, leaving nothing but rotten corpse.
"Watch out" the girl shouted.
Xetrus faced his right, a huge orc was swinging a chain and aimed at Xetrus but Xetrus was faster, "Fulminus Mactia". A bolt of lightning shot out of thin air and blasted a hole through the orc, the beast fell, face first.
"Run," Xetrus commanded and they both ran towards the stables.
*
They ran into the stables with two orcs gaining on them. As he entered into the stable he spun round, “apparentus clypeusis” a shield erected itself in front of the door stopping the orcs from entering, they banged against the invisible shield and roared.
“Imbecile creatures” Xetrus said in disgust as he turned and walked deeper into the stable. The girl was hiding behind a huge pile of hay; she stepped out when he arrived.
“Are they gone?” she asked
“No, but we need to leave, the town has fallen but we haven’t, we need to flee with our lives” Xetrus said
“And how do we get past the countless numbers of orcs outside?” the girl lamented
“We won’t need to” He said “we will teleport”, he looked around and saw many women and children hiding in various parts of the stable with few men as well, “I will need to use a spell that covers a wide area, shift back” he said before he started chanting, “Uagi illuci videntura, Uagi illuci videntura” a mighty wind blew and shook the stables with increasing speed, the stable was whisked away, through space and time. With a thud and billow of dust, the stable appeared at Rivleam. Within its walls, safe from the orc assault miles away.
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Before sunrise, the door burst open and guards swarmed into his room, before he could even reason with them, they already gagged him and threw a sack over his head and bonded his hands together with skin-searing ropes.
They carried him out of his room and Chase could feel that they were taking him out of the castle, with the way they moved, he knew they weren’t kidnapping him, the guards moved with confidence and their steps was careless. Soon he felt the harsh cold wind blow against his skin. After several minutes, he felt them enter the forest closest to the castle. Chase tried to map the path with his mind but the guards took too many turns that he just gave up.
After a couple of minutes, they stopped; they threw him on the snow and left him, he struggled to sit up and soon the sack was removed; Ralnor’s face greeted him with a smirk.
“First day of training, and you were caught unaware” he removed the gag from Chase’s mouth
“Maybe if your men spared me the indignation of tying me up or disturbing my sleep, then I will be a better student” Chase snapped
Ralnor stood, with a twitch of his finger the bonds fell off. “Today I will train you on how to stay alive and later on, we can deal with more tasking parts” he said as he walked towards a rack of weapons
Chase now had a better view of the surrounding, the castle was far off- that was weird, it seems like the guards might have taken a shortcut- 10 guards lined the sides, 5 on each side. In front was, Ralnor picking up a sword from the rack and several other weapons on the rack.
“What weapon do you prefer?” He asked Chase and turned to face him, “Do you think you can stay alive with a sword or a spear?”
“I think I will go with the sword” Chase said
“Good, the sword will entice the Aeonic part of you to show itself; as you might have seen against the screechers” he threw the sword towards Chase and it falls on the snow. “Pick it up”
Chase picks it up but as he looks at Ralnor again, he couldn’t find him.
Suddenly he heard his voice behind him, “Defend yourself” he quickly spinned round at lifted the sword, both swords met with a clang.
“Seriously? What if I wasn’t fast enough” Chase asked in fear
“You die” With a swift movement he hits Chase’s hand with his, and the sword falls, before Chase could move the tip of Ralnor’s sword was at his throat. “You have to learn how to survive, by crook if the need be”
“You cheated, so I don’t take that as a loss” Chase said
Ralnor smiled, “Pick your sword,” Chase picks it up, “Now… attack me”
Chase strikes vertically but before the sword could start its downward path, Ralnor already sliced Chase’s leg and he fell dropping the sword in pain.
“Your moves are too slow and very predictable” Ralnor said and walked past him
“Argh, what is the point? I never lifted a sword till I got to this goddamn realm”
“Today, I only wanted to see your will to survive” he returned both swords to the rack and the rack disappeared. He turned to Chase, “Now, you will prove that you can survive, these woods is known for its high wolf population, you must get back to the castle alive”
“What!? With injured bleeding legs, am nothing but a beacon for every damn predator in the woods”
Ralnor smiled, “you are a survivor, you survived a screecher attack, wolves nothing in comparison” He nods to the guards and they all teleported using a runic symbol, leaving just Ralnor and Chase alone.
“I can’t do this”
“I don’t believe in ‘can’ts’, get home alive to get that treated, I hope you get back before noon though, Eldrin hates being kept waiting” he said and walked past him before disappearing.
“No!” Chase cried but Ralnor already left; as he struggled to sit up he heard howls, “Wolves, oh God”
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