If they only knew what chaos they were causing at that moment. Chaos that would shake the very foundations of the world.
To: Title EoF
Chapter 16
"He did what?" the Keeper exploded from her desk, jumping to her feet only moments after taking her seat. Amelyn, her face pale, stepped back from the diminutive Keeper, rightfully fearing to be singled out by the Keeper's wrath for the bad news. The Keeper was notorious for punishing the messengers who were bearing bad news, and because of that, nobody wanted to be the one to break things to her. Not even members of the Council could escape such wrath.
The Keeper was in a foul mood. Her appointment at the court of King Erick had not gone well. Erick had men of learning around him to explain to him what the light from the Tower had been, and the legends of what it meant, and now he was starting to interfere with their plans. Erick wanted Tarrin, and he wanted him now. It was all the Keeper could do to remind the young, brash king, only two years on his throne, that the treaties between the Tower and the Crown could not be broken, nor could they be used to force the katzh-dashi to hand over their young charge. It had turned into a shouting match, much to the shock of the court, a shouting match where truly ugly threats of invasion and magical retribution flew between the Keeper and the young king freely. The Keeper had never liked Erick. He was a spoiled wastrel whose only talent was finding men capable enough to run the kingdom in his stead, while he spent vast amounts of the kingdom's money on horses, palaces, and debauched luxuries. He was lazy and hedonistic, interested only in his fortunes, his possessions, and his power as king. He was such a disappointment coming from the line of Aralon, which had put a long succession of outstanding kings and queens on the Lion Throne of Sulasia for six hundred years. Erick represented to the Keeper the end of the Aralon dynasty, and the noble houses of Sulasia were already beginning to jockey for position to succeed them. The nobles were as dissatisfied with Erick as the Keeper was, and the Keeper didn't forsee him surviving long on the throne. Erick wasn't stupid enough to understand this, and had managed to surround himself with competent people who were paid more than other noble houses could match, money that ensured their loyalty and his continued reign. Erick was mad for power, but only for power that he didn't have to dirty his own hands to acquire. That made Tarrin and the pending events very appealing to him.
What King wouldn't jump at the chance to gain the powers of a God?
It was already starting to look ugly. Reports from the Tower in Sharadar had arrived, and the news was grim. The Mage-King of Zakkar had already begun to mass his impressive array of army and navy, all reinforced by thousands of Warmages. The Emperor of Arak, the mightiest nation on the face of the world, was beginning to call in his legions from their war with the empire of Godan, which was itself a mighty kingdom on the continent of Godan-Nyr and Arak 's longest and most hated enemy. Nyr, the smallest of the Three Empires of Middle World, had remained carefully neutral through their larger neighbor's century-long war, but now it was massing its armies. Even among the smaller kingdoms of the West, there was activity. Arkis was building its own legions, and the mountain kingdom of Daltochan had closed its borders. Draconian knights had begun attacking Dal mining caravans around the Petal Lakes, and the Ungardt had begun to call in their warships.
It told Myriam Lar much. Most of those nations were not surprising to see preparing, but others were. The Ungardt had a dislike of magic, yet they seemed to know what was beginning to come to pass. So did Daltochan, but the Dals were a strange people, taciturn and introverted, so it was hard to know what was going on on the high plateaus of their mountain nation. But Arak, Zakkar, Godan, Nyr, Arkis, they all had mages in close attendance to the kings and emperors that ruled those kingdoms, and what had happened the night of the sign had sent magical shockwaves across the world that nobody who could command magic could miss.
It had begun. There was no disputing that now. And Tarrin was the key.
The world would descend into a war which would rival the titanic struggle against the Demons five thousand years before, a war to rival the Great Blood War. And it would be fought over the possession of one man, a simple young farmboy from Aldreth.
Tarrin was a Mi'Shara, a Man Who Once Was, and he was the key. Not since the Ancients walked the earth had someone of his raw, unprecendented power graced the Tower. Weavespinner, Were-cat, he fulfilled all the requirements set forth in the Book of Ages, before that ancient tome had disappeared. He was of noble blood, but his blood was not human. Nobody understood exactly what the term Mi'Shara meant, but it was a term from the Old Tongue that translated to mean He Who Was, or He Who Once Was. Gender irregularities in the Old Tongue could also allow it to be translated to mean She Who Was, or She Who Once Was as well, depending on the context in which the word was used. The strange thing was that the Book of Ages made no reference to his title, only to his requirements. He would be a non-human of noble blood, who had the power to wield Sorcery. Such beings were exceedingly rare. The Sha'Kar, the vanished race that had occupied the Tower with the Ancients, had been the only non-human race to demonstrate an aptitude for Sorcery. In a thousand years of searching, only two others had been found. Allia and Keritanima.
Nobody understood why these rare individuals were termed Mi'Shara. Nobody understood what "Once Was" meant, because nothing ever said what they had once been. All they had to work with was the passage in the Book of Ages that described them, nonhumans of noble blood who could wield Sorcery. Tarrin, however, did seem to fit that term better than his female companions, because he once was human.
What was even stranger was that it was written that the Mi'Shara were only the ones with the best chance of achieving the ultimate goal. Anyone who knew where to go and what to do could also reach the ultimate objective. That meant that half of the world would want to capture Mi'Shara, and Tarrin specifically, to get it for them. The other half would be seeking to kill Tarrin and all Mi'Shara to prevent them from getting it first.
It would have been much easier if it was written that only Mi'Shara could reach it. That would make it easier for the Tower to protect their assets from capture. It was much easier to protect someone from kidnapping than it was to protect someone from being killed.
The Book of Ages. If only she could hold that ancient, much treasured tome, if only once. In that book was written the entire history of the world up to the Breaking, the last known copy of the book that had once been known as Denthar's Compendium. The only book of ancient history that was not written in the indecipherable langauge of the Sha'Kar, for it had been scribed by the priests of Denthar, the god of knowledge and lore. All of the books had been destroyed during the Breaking, except for one. And that had been found in a trunk in a noble's manor just after the Sorcerers returned to the Tower. Very little was known of the world before the Breaking, a time known as the Age of Power, when magic was so prevelant that the common farmer often utilized enchanted tools, and the most average layman knew a cantrip or two. Before the Weave was torn. Much ground had they regained since that horrible time, both the Sorcerers and the world. The Weave had almost completely mended itself, though there were still a few places in the world where the Weave had not grown back. Magic-dead areas, called deadzones, peppered the Known World, and were often populated by people who had gotten on the bad side of a Wizard. Magic had returned to the world, but not as Sorcerers this time around. It was the Wizards who were the most common type of magician, mainly because so many Sorcerers had been killed in the Breaking, and unlike Wizardy, Sorcery was an inherited power rather than a learned skill.