The Spectre

Chapter Three - Truth And Revelation

Ivana awakens in a very well designed room, one fit for nobility. She looks around the room puzzled as to how she got there and where she was. She stood up and immediately checked to see if she still had her seal which she instantly realised that she did not.
She panicked and left the room quickly to find it but once she opened the door she saw the sage standing there looking towards the inner city. "Who are you and why am I here?" she asked, the sage looked back at her and answered "I am the sage in charge of protecting and governing this city, you are here because you passed out in the middle of town so we brought you back here to recover". Ivana then asked "that answers that, but tell me where is the item I had in my pocket". The sage smiled and replied "You mean the seal of cloaking? I have it right here with me, you can have it back now". Ivana took back her seal but started questioning how he could have possibly known what it was, or what type of seal it was to begin with. The sage saw her confusion and said "worry not, all will be revealed soon enough", as expected this answer was not nearly enough to satisfy Ivana's curiosity but she was on foreign land and could not risk any conflict and so she complied and did not inquire further.

The sage led her to a balcony overlooking the centre of the city, here they met up with two other residents of Coralyta who were waiting for them. After a proper greeting with them the sage then told Ivana, "I noticed that you have many questions, you feel lost and without hope, but now with the three of us here you can ask your questions and we will answer". And without hesitation Ivana began asking her questions, she began with "this city is ancient, how are there people still here? We were taught that Coralyta was abandoned when Malevor was created". The sage answered "You're not wrong the city was abandoned, but not everyone actually left, we remained here because this is our ancestral home, leaving here would mean abandoning where we came from".
The sage continued by asking Ivana "do you know how and why Malevor was formed?", Ivana did not have the answer for the city was created thousands of years ago and no one ever spoke of it, which triggered a realisation inside her head, why does no one ever speak about the creation of the country? This was truly strange. The sage spoke as if having read her mind "yes it is rather strange is it not? Well would you like to know the truth?". Ivana became startled, how could he know what she was thinking? And as such she became more alert, limiting her thoughts just to be sure.

The sage began by saying "first we should introduce ourselves, my name is Craven, the 1st son of Queen Coralyta", the second person continued "my name is Coral, the 2nd born child to Queen Coralyta", the third finished with "my name is Optis, last born son to Queen Coralyta". Ivana was struck with shock, she did not know much about the history what she did know was that Queen Coralyta lived ruled that city more than ten thousand years ago, and for those three to be her children would be impossible, how could they possibly have lived so long it's unheard of. And Ivana expressed this to them openly challenging their identity. Craven assured her it was all true but what they were going to tell her would be far more unbelievable so she had to prepare her mind. Struck with curiosity she just had to know the full truth. And so they bagan.

"Our mother was a wonderful ruler, she led the country with love and care, everyone looked up to her and as such we as her children had to live up to her example as her representatives. As the eldest child I Craven became king after her passing, we all were saddened that day for we had lost a mother and a perfect ruler but her final words stuck to our hearts "treat each other with care, for if the unity between siblings is ever broken, a darkness will begin to form and a void would be created".
"We followed her words and continued to rule the city with fairness and carried on her legacy, one day when our children were were of age, they were granted the roles as representatives". Craven, Coral and Optis all had one child each, these children all wanted the throne to themselves and competed to earn the title, even reaching the point where they'd planned to assassinate their parents and then double cross each other. Craven had forseen this plot and that night set a trap, which they walked into and were imprisoned within a chamber. Craven and his siblings felt dissapointed and betrayed but they simply couldn't kill their own kin, so the three were banished out of the city.

They journeyed to find a new home, after some time they spotted a large kingdom and infiltrated it, slowly weakening it until they were able to take over, they split the kingdom into three. Years later they each formed an alliance with a separate leader, and so the city was further split into six, though as the prophecy foretold, their greed only bred darkness, eventually forgetting their own family ties and only looking out for themselves, even to the point where their allied nations were also in conflict.

Coral continued by saying "we were heartbroken to see what our children had become, but thanks to Optis's seal of immortality we were all able to stay alive this long to watch over our city and prepare for the day Void arrived, we had hoped it would never happen but alas we were wrong, and now we have to do our duty and correct what we could not years ago, we must stop Void no matter what".

And so all three of them spoke "will you help us Ivana, you may just be the only hope we have of defeating the void, so what do you say?"