Alaceia

Chapter Three

~The Great Hall~

The Great Hall was flooded with light coming from the huge, arched windows that were draped with pure white silk curtains that were laced with real gold. More than a thousand people were squished into the hall talking like a squirrels that just had coffee.

A deep booming male voice echoed throughout the large room. "Quiet!"

The chattering died down and the attention went to the tall man behind the podium.

"I know that you are all wondering what is going on but that will be enlightened soon. I shall now call upon the Nire elder, Gorma.

An old, withered man made his way through the vast crowd and up behind the podium. "Thank you, your Majesty!" Gorma's quavering voice said. "Artla, the shape shifting Nire has been, as you know, doing a special errand for me. Well, today I am going to tell you what that errand was. I was mixing some potions and looked out my window. I saw Artla shape shifting into a cow and I thought to myself that I should cook myself a beef steak. Then I-

"Get to the point, Gorma!" An impatient Nire from the audience called out.

"Ok, ok. Anyway after I ate the steak I walked out to Artla and long story short I have been training him. Yesterday I ordered him to fly around Alaceia to find a unique herb for my potion. As he was flying Artla saw a thick, black fog just over the borders of Alaceia. Since he is a teenage Nire he could not resist the urge to go and look at it. Once he was in the fog, he said that there was a black, gothic castle. Artla perched on one of the window ledges of the castle and saw two figures. A huge gust of wind crashed into Artla making him loose balance. He has a deep wound in his wing now causing him to have a broken arm. Artla flew back today and has told me the news. He is now resting so it would be highly appreciated if no one came to see him for the next couple of days. But that is besides the point. Artla described the two figures to me and we believe we know who they are."

Gorma took a deep breath and then continued.

"During the "Great War" there were many deaths as you know. The Nire army had successfully lured the Liser army into the old art gallery. The Nires were ready to destroy the art gallery with one huge blow of everyone's powers. Then I received word that there was a Nire family of four in the old art gallery. Not one Nire would kill some of our own but by that time I was too late. By the time I told our leader it was already done."

There was a moment of silence.

"That was a sad day for all of us as we thought that the family died, but now it seems that we were wrong because the people that Artla described to me sound very much like the two children in that family. We believe that the parents died but the children survived and there names are Morda and Aralie but it does not seem like they want a reunion with us. For I am afraid that Artla said that he heard the eldest one (Morda) scheming to destroy the Nires."

The crowd broke out into panicked chattering. "What are we going to do?"

The king's voice boomed over the top of the talking. "Calm down! Calm down!...Thank you. Now if you just let Gorma continue talking he will tell you what we are going to do.

Gorma bent down towards his satchel and pulled out a long scroll. He neatly placed his small spectacles on and started to talk. "This is the Acadurma Scroll. Yes, this is the scroll that tells the fortune of Alaceia.

The room was silent and all eyes were fixed on Gorma.

"The scroll says that a Nire will turn into a sorceress and rise up and destroy the Nire race. (That is obviously Morda) anyway it says the only way we can stop this from happening is to seek aid from a-"

Gorma paused and his eyes became as big as sausers. He adjusted his spectacles closer to his eyes to see if he was reading correctly.

Gorma took a deep breath and continued. "Seek aid from a human."

The crowd was outraged screaming and arguing. Gorma kept talking so the crowd quietened to hear what he was saying.

"One Nire will find the certain human and teach and train that human to defeat Morda."

"Thank you, Gorma." The king stepped behind the podium. "Volunteers for being the courageous Nire to find and train this human. Volunteers? Anyone?"

The hall was so silent that you could hear a pin drop. There were many awkward glances and staring at the floor while shuffling feet.

The king attempted again. "Anyone?"

Silence

"Hahahaha! Really! I can't believe it! Hahaha!"

Skyra and James burst through the doors laughing, still drenched hand in hand oblivious to the current situation in the hall. They dropped each other's hand and immediately silenced. A thousand eyes turned to stare at the couple in the doorway.

The king's voice was dangerously quiet. "Hello Skyra...James."

The two in the doorway were like rabbits in the headlights.

James bowed slightly and said "Your Majesty." Then he backed away.

Skyra gulped and spoke up. "Hello...Dad..."