The Chronicles of Bael

The Chronicles of Bael Part 5

Freezeday, Stasis Week, Storm Season, 1599

I was a boy of twelve years when my uncle came to my mother's house in Nochet City and took me to be his apprentice. It was not the design that my father had for me. My father had been one of the greatest warriors in all of Esrolia, commander of the Select Guard of the House of Norinel. As his only son he had hoped that I too would become a great warrior. Instead my mother chose a different path for me. It is not a custom that I have found outside of my homeland, but in Esrolia it is women who rule the land and the household. That day my Uncle Bhagar Bar, second son of the House of Norinel became my Master.

My mother and my uncle had always shared one thing in common; they had both displeased my grandmother Queen Hendira ruler of the House Norinel. My uncle had done so by choosing the wrong God to worship, and my mother had done so by choosing the wrong man to love. As great a warrior as my father was, and as lofty as the rank he had earned, he had been born the son of a blacksmith, and my grandmother would never allow her blood to mingle with that of a common man. For years my mother and father had concealed their love from all in the palace, but when my father lost his leg fighting Wolf pirates and was compelled to retire from the Select and leave the palace, they could no longer be near each other. Unable to ply his trade as a warrior, my father had returned to his father's craft as a blacksmith and my mother fled the palace never to return.

Perhaps it was for the best that I was taken by my Uncle as his apprentice, my eldest sister would one day inherit the smithy and I had always dreamed of greater things. Till the day my Uncle arrived to take me from my home I had never questioned why I, rather than my sisters should be subjected to hours of tutoring by various initiates of the Temple of the Pharaoh each week, other than to feel the natural resentment of youth. That my Uncle was my sponsor was revealed to me only that day, that his designs had reached back to my birth speaks firmly of his bond with my mother.