Origin of Legends

Beginning: The Orphaned Spider Pt.1

"Comb the halls! Find the Royal Family! We leave none to escape tonight!" screamed the Captain as he charged in with the rest of our platoon. I sighed glancing behind me at the city that was on fire. I'm just glad I wasn't one of the squads who got assigned to handling the citizenry. Taking them prisoner would be difficult. The king stood atop his war horse, in full armor as he calmly watched the destruction. Shaking my head I turned to face the Castle.

It was ornate, with two large statues of Spider Knights with their spears pointing at the steps. The architecture was similar to elven stonework I'd seen as a child but something was different, the walls had webs etched into the stonework but the various phases of the moon surrounded the doorframe. It was beautiful. I wish I had seen it at least once before it was bathed in the firelight.

I took the rear guard of my squad as we took the steps up, my knees seeming to crackle as I ran up the steps. The younger men were eager for the fight and I didn't want to get in their way. Hearing metal on metal I brought up my blade only to see an armored knight fall in front of me from the floor above. Blood began pooling underneath him, and I kicked him for good measure. He made some small movements, his eyes fading as his soul waited to be plucked by whatever sad God they followed.

The young soldiers were on him in seconds, pulling him up against the wall and ripping his helmet off. Underneath was the face of a young looking Drow, looking no older than his early 20s but for all we knew he'd been around before my great grandfather was a twinkle in his father's eye. His hair was dark gray, his skin the lightest shade of purple you could get before calling it white. I got a good look at his eyes as he stared me down as he died, they were bright, almost white eyes. Seeing the light inside them go out still was gut wrenching.

"Are you just gonna stand there Sergeant? We need to keep moving."

I tore my eyes away from the corpse and stared up at he stairs. Glancing back at my small squad of what seemed like kids I sighed. The king was scraping deep into the barrel for this war, they barely counted as adults.

"We are gonna take it slow. We go to the third floor, Hammon take point with Banor and Jensen while Cax and Han take the rear guard. I'll follow a bit further behind."

Hammon have that indisputable smirk before asking, "Guessing you're hoping to avoid those aches and pains of exertion old man."

Motioning up the stairs I said, "My age has nothing to do with wanting to save energy to make sure you can scrub the floors clean once we all make it back home Hammon."

With a grunt he shook his head, turning around and slipping into formation. That should get the kid to shut up for a little bit I thought to myself smugly.

We took a simple defensive formation as we ran up to the third floor, being passed by other squads heading to the royal chamber. Jensen mumbled something about being close to Hammon and I hushed him to keep myself from laughing.

Making it to the third floor I glanced down both hallways. Down the right another squad was grabbing people, servants being protected by swordsmen it seemed and dragging them into the hallway to be swarmed before moving to the next room. The hallway to the left seemed like it led to a storage room so I motioned for the squad to head down that way.

As we passed a window I looked outside and immediately regretted it. The entire city was ablaze it seemed. The streets ran with blood flowing down them in rivers from the corpses that littered the pavement. The king was in the courtyard, his hands moving as he directed a small group of soldiers to...

"Oh Lord Tempus and Bahamut please forgive me for my unknowing part in this horror." I prayed silently.

The King, with his helmet off and a smile plastered on his face were putting people on Pikes, placed into the ground before setting them ablaze. This was no longer war, no longer just.