"Personal ambition is a quality no ruler should possess in abundance. The only man who should be king is the man who doesn’t want to be king." - Sebastian I of the House of Corvin
The Canticle of the King
By Lucas Ithsarryn
Forging off the beaten trail
An outlaw on a dusty road,
Knightly allies, without fail,
Carry on, a lightened load
Taken, stolen far from me,
Tortured, wounded callously,
Trial, in a darkened sea,
Triumph, to the fight with thee
A city, a jewel carved from pain,
A palace, a mirror gilt with gold,
A throne, glorifying his name,
A land, resist the iron fist's hold
Settle dust, clear the smoke,
Wipe away the debris of malice
All unite in one voice and invoke
A new king, a new city, Talus
Sebastian awoke in a dank, cold cell with his arms shackled to the wall above his head. He felt unnaturally groggy and his mind was clouded and dull. Far above him, through a roof of heavy brick, he heard a muffled, regular tapping sound, like metal striking stone. A hard, open-handed slap whipped his head sharply to the side and small flashes of light danced before his eyes.
"Look at me." A low, angry voice commanded him.
He lifted his head and opened his eyes, squinting against the harsh, unwelcome light of a lantern. The face was different than he remembered and blurred around the edges but he knew the man. He hadn´t seen him in ten years, but he recognized him instantly.
"Kavas." He croaked with a vague, bitter smile.
"I´m pleased that you remember me, Corvin." He growled, "You've been a very busy man since last we met. Very busy."
Sebastian did his best to focus and fixed the young Adderly with a defiant glare.
"But I've been busy, too." Kavas continued, "Do you know where you are? Do you know what that sound is? It is the sound of a new Age."
Sebastian intentionally forced his expression to become disinterested. He had a strong impression that he already knew where he was and, if he was correct, his situation was dire indeed. But that didn't mean he was any more willing to listen to the son of Lord Adderly gloat about it.
"Our city will be complete within the year. Adderton will be the center of my father's kingdom." He leaned in close, avarice glowing like dark embers in his eyes, "My kingdom."
Kavas reached outside Sebastian's limited field of vision and held up a long, iron tine, its tip glowing angry orange. He grinned cruelly, holding the searing tip just under Sebastian's nose. The air around it wavered from the intense heat, distorting in thin lines.
"I told you you'd regret humiliating me." He snarled, jamming the burning iron into Sebastian's side and holding it.
Muscles seized in agony, Sebastian twisted, straining against his manacles and screaming until his throat became raw. The torture continued for hours, involving a variety of implements, until unconsciousness returned once again to set him free.
Over the course of the next five months, Sebastian attempted to escape seven times. Each time, he was recaptured and subjected to hours of brutal punishment which left him just shy of the brink of death thanks to judicious and miserly use of healing magic by one of Kavas' servants. They wanted to keep him alive long enough to witness the completion of Adderton, to see the rise of the monarchy that he and his father had been so set against. As punishment for his seventh escape attempt, Kavas and his guards broke Sebastian's hands and then his legs. After that, he stopped trying to escape.
Time lost meaning as Sebastian's existence became an endless unchanging haze of suffering and delirium. For the better part of a year, his world shrank down to a single, cramped cell surrounded by the deadened sounds of a city under construction and punctuated by periods of excruciating torment at Kavas' hands. It became a struggle not to lose himself, to remember what he believed in and the things he fought for. Every day, it felt like another piece of who he was slipped away.
During his most recent waking period (as concepts such as day and night had long since lost meaning) a startling realization settled over him. The sounds had stopped. No ring of hammer on stone or grind of saw chewing through wood reverberated against the walls of his prison. When he strained his ear, only a dull, constant thrumming greeted him, like hundreds of boots against a cobbled street. Adderton was complete and, with it, the one reason the Adderlys had kept him alive was now gone.
He had imagined this day many times, assuming the end would come for him as a merciful release, but now that it had arrived, he realized he couldn't have been more wrong. Outrage and denial burned in his blood and a renewed desire for vengeance thundered in his heart. He gripped the chains which kept him bound to the wall and braced his feet. When Kavas came for him today, he would fight harder than he had ever fought before. Death did not matter, it was a given. But he would see to it that Kavas would never inherit his despot's throne.
He waited with his head bowed and his eyes closed, his long, unkempt hair and scraggly beard hiding his features entirely. The sounds outside changed, punctuated with tiny pings of metal striking metal, and he thought he heard an occasional scream or shouting voice above the thrumming blood in his ears.
A slight click heralded the opening of his cell door and he went quickly still as soft footsteps approached. Kavas had come alone, he realized, most likely to gloat and perhaps to show more courage than he ever had before and murder Sebastian with his own hands. Very subtly, Sebastian shifted his weight and prepared to spring within his limited range. Just a little closer . . .
"Sebastian?" a familiar, whispered voice called his name.
The reminder of his identity startled him and he instinctively lifted his head, forgetting his ruse entirely. A travel-worn and lightly bearded Lucas dressed in the livery of an Adderton servant gaped at him in shock, dropping his favorite set of lock picks at his feet.
"Gods, man." He exclaimed, retrieving his tools and hastily working to unlatch the manacles, "What did they do to you? I'm sorry. The plan was to have you out of here already, but things have gotten hectic. It took me two days just to arrange a way in."
Once free, Sebastian collapsed forward, feeling like the entire weight of Adderton itself had been lifted from his shoulders. After a few ragged, grateful breaths, he rose unsteadily to his feet and stood for the first time in months.
"They told me you were dead." he said, gripping Lucas by the shoulders as if to ensure that he was real.
Lucas placed his hands on Sebastian's arms and allowed a flow of magical healing energy to pass through them, erasing months of abuse and filling his body with renewed strength.
"They didn't last long after that first charge, killed a few too many for their liking, I think." The Red Order priest explained, "When we found out they took you, Marielle and I chased them for days, but they knew the land well and lost us. We've been looking for you ever since."
Sebastian Corvin, Son of Raen
An impact shook the building and tiny streams of dislodged grit poured down from the ceiling. Lucas shot a quick, nervous glance to the roof and urged Sebastian toward the door.
"What's going on?" Sebastian asked, following haltingly.
"Adderton is under siege." He explained, "Today was supposed to be Edran's coronation day. That's why the Orders couldn't hold off the attack any longer. We have to get you out of here."
"The Orders are attacking the city?"
"Yes. Along with a handful of the braver lords. But that's not important right now. We really need to get you to safety."
Sebastian stopped and turned around, back toward the interior of the building, "But we have to help them."
"What?" Lucas spun around, "No, wait, I have to get you out of here. There's more at risk than you think."
Sebastian regarded his old friend with stalwart determination in his eyes and Lucas realized there was no longer any point in arguing. If a battle raged against Lord Adderly, Sebastian would be a part of it.
"Fine." He relented reluctantly, "Let's find you some weapons. But, stay by me. Marielle will never forgive me if I let you get killed."
Equipped with basic weapons and armor from a guardsman supply room, Sebastian and Lucas emerged onto a high stairwell which overlooked much of Adderton. Sebastian squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright, late-day sun that spilled like rose-hued blood across the city. The expansive reach of its newly-built walls was stunning. Brickwork buildings radiated out from the center of the city in uniform rows, all connected to Adderton's greatest achievement. The palace, what had been originally proposed as a council meet for all the lords of Larocia and later developed into the seat of its would-be king. Great towers of gleaming gold reached into the skies, surrounded by spiraling staircases of lacquered ivory slats. Intricate inlays of lapis lazuli along the base of the palace depicted great accomplishments of House Adderly, all stylized and presented with legendary license, and the main courtyard had been paved with panels of polished white marble.
Sebastian stood aghast. How cowed must the other lords have become to allow this travesty? How much suffering had the people of their towns endured to pay for such decadence? He thought of all the years of extortionist taxes and organized raids by Adderly's personal retinue of marauders and still his heart paled at how much more it must have cost to create this obscenity.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Lucas commented, standing next to him and squinting into of the orange-pink light.
Sebastian did not reply, breaking into a sprint for the palace. While soldiers fought in the streets and at the walls, he knew the one he really wanted to find would be holed up safely away from combat. Lucas followed as well as he could, weaving nimbly through neatly planted hedges and jumping over low, wrought-iron fences to keep up with the driven man.
* * *
Within the inner throne room of Adderton palace, Edran stormed about, shouting at a room full of gathered lords. All of them watched him fearfully, some even flinching at his approach. Gray-haired and bearded, the man was getting on in years, not much of a physical threat, but more than formidable in his ruthlessness.
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"How dare they, those arrogant ingrates!!" he roared, singling out one of the servile lords and shaking his fist in the man's face, "What gives them the right to challenge me here?! And why is it that you have not given me more men to defend my city?"
The man, a small, mousy individual, shrank back as the lord of Fort Davas closed on him.
"I - I have no more . . . milord . . ." he hesitated, "With the new taxes you demanded, I've hardly been able to afford the house guard."
Kavas sat scowling in annoyance, toying absently with an unloaded crossbow as he watched the man cower before his father.
"They are peasantry, milord." He agreed derisively, sighting down the weapon at an ornate, stained-glass window, "No matter what they claim, the Orders have never been more than destitute charity groups with a following of outcasts and vagabonds."
"And what of the reports of other lords joining in their cause?" Edran demanded angrily, wide eyes casting hateful glares at both his son and the assembled lords, "How else would they have managed to assemble enough soldiers to move against us?"
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Kavas sighed, continuing unperturbed, "What strength does Harborview have left? Or Hopdale? Or Merriton for that matter? We have crushed their trade routes and kept them weak for years now."
"But they are here! They have breached the gate and even now press toward us!" the would-be king snarled.
"Rabble." Kavas yawned, "Even if we weren't better equipped and better supplied, our soldiers would destroy them. We will destroy them."
Edran stalked to the throne room's main exit and shoved the large, double doors wide, "I prefer not to rely on blind confidence."
As his foot crossed the threshold, a slim blade dipped out and perched just under his chin and he immediately stopped, mid-step. The blade pushed forward and the Lord of Fort Davas gingerly edged back into the room in shock, leading both the weapon and its wielder with him. With Lucas standing protectively at his side, Sebastian walked in, maintaining an exact distance to keep Lord Adderly mere inches from death.
Half a dozen pike-wielding guards scrambled from their positions along the perimeter of the room and moved in, but after a warning prod of the sword tip, Adderly motioned for them to hold. Sebastian eyed the attending lords with disdain.
"Tadere, Kathan, Melliar." He greeted the closest three in succession, "I see now why you refused to listen to me."
Kavas rose from his high-backed chair and very deliberately loaded a bolt into his crossbow.
"You should have just run back into the forest and hid again, Corvin." He sneered, raising the weapon and taking aim.
Sebastian backed Lord Adderly up against a table and pressed the sword against his throat with enough force to draw a thin line of blood. Kavas laughed at the warning, a harsh, braying sound, devoid of warmth or mirth.
"Go ahead." He taunted with a hungry grin, "Will I shoot you before you can kill my father or will I be crowned king instead of him? Either way, I win and you die."
All eyes turned to Kavas, including those of his father, who only now realized how well he had cultivated the young man's ambition.
As Kavas languidly took aim, slowly tightening his finger around the trigger, a stark shadow crossed over the main entryway and a man dressed in glittering, night-black robes stepped into the room. The man swept his hand in a wide arc as he walked, palm flattened and facing out toward the pikemen who moved to intercept him. As the arc encompassed them, one by one, the soldiers released their weapons and sank to the floor, soundly asleep.
"That will be enough, young Adderly." He said, fixing Kavas with a stern stare and aiming a magical gesture at the crossbow with his opposite hand.
The wooden stock of the weapon darkened and began to rot, crumbling into dry, mealy splinters in a matter of moments. Kavas dropped the remains of the crossbow as if it had caught on fire and staggered back away from it.
"Who are you?" he gaped in horror, his eyes still locked to the sundered crossbow.
"I am the Master of the Eternal Stars, Speaker for the council of Zalmira." The man announced, his voice taking on a formal, practiced tone.
Edran attempted to slip aside from under Sebastian's sword but stopped when the younger man matched his move with a pressed blade and a warning glare.
"Zalmira is but a tale, nothing more." He spat, keeping a nervous eye on Sebastian, "Tell me who you really are."
"A tale perhaps to those who have no interest in truthful history." The Master replied with thinly-veiled distaste, "But I have already explained who I am and will not do so again. I have come to assist in the crowning of a king."
Kavas broke into a relieved and disbelieving smile, "You're here to help us?"
The Master's severe gray-black brows arched high on his forehead, "How foolishly short-sighted. We in Zalmira have predicted the outcome of today's events. No Adderly will ever become king."
Edran struggled anew, his jaw clenched and teeth bared, "I am king!"
"No." the sorcerer shook his head with exaggerated slowness, as if attempting to educate a dull-witted child, "Your forces would have held out, but in the end they would have faltered and Adderton would have been lost. We of Zalmira have decided to shift the balance more decisively, both to the advantage of the new king and, eventually, to ourselves."
The blood drained from Edran's face and his mouth sagged open.
"What have you done?" he gasped.
"Zalmiran sorcerers have joined the armies of the three Orders and those few lords who did not bend to your intimidation. The city will be theirs within a few short hours." He explained simply, turning to face Sebastian, "At that time, they will choose their king rather than accept one who would force himself upon them. They will choose you, Sebastian."
"What?" Sebastian, Edran and Kavas all echoed one another.
The Master of the Eternal Stars stepped over a sleeping guard and approached Sebastian.
"We have foreseen many possible futures for you, Sebastian, son of Raen." He said somberly, "But none so great as the one that stands before you. The decision is all but complete. Will you accept the Orders' choice and become king of all Larocia?"
Sebastian looked from the sorcerer, to Edran Adderly, and finally, settled his gaze on Lucas.
"Is this the added risk you warned me about?" he asked, stunned but mildly amused, "Did you know about this?"
"Sorry." Lucas shrugged apologetically, "The Orders all agreed that you were the best choice, considering the situation. You're of noble blood and people trust you. And I really did mean to have you out of here before the battle ever started."
The Master of the Eternal Stars crossed his arms and considered Sebastian with his dark, stern eyes.
"I would hear your decision, young Lord Corvin." He prompted, "We of Zalmira have much to decide based on your answer."
Sebastian met the man´s gaze and held it, carefully weighing the choice. He never wanted to be king. His father had impressed on him very early on that to rule was a privilege of trust, given by one free person to another. But the Orders had undoubtedly chosen him for just that reason and the people of Larocia were in need of strong leadership. The possibilities and consequences spiraled out infinitely in his mind until his decision became as clear as if he had always known it. He wanted to make a difference, to make his land a better place for all who chose to support it.
"I will accept." He declared resolutely, triggering a sigh of relief from Lucas and a slight, approving nod from the Master of the Eternal Stars.
"For two-hundred and twenty five years Larocia has floundered without unified rule." He stated ominously, "We shall see if you are up to the task."
Sebastian was crowned king nine days later on the 4th day of Winter, AC 132, and went on to establish a monarchy that was directly tied to the needs of its people. Aided by the White, Red and Blue Orders, King Sebastian went to work repairing damage to the country from long-past years of neglect and more recent abuse by Edran Adderly. As his first official declaration, he abolished lordships entirely and instated a system of elected mayors in the towns who, in turn, were beholden to the throne. After the first round of elections, each mayor was tasked with identifying the most pressing concern for his or her region, whether it was road access, trade, health or population issues. Sebastian then prioritized these concerns and tackled them one by one.
To help fund the massive-scale improvements, Sebastian had Adderly's golden palace torn down and sold off all its extravagant building materials. In its place, he built a large temple complex for the three Orders and officially tied them to the monarchy on the 38th day of Spring, AC 135. Their functions were expanded in accordance with their traditional goals and they became integral to the continued growth of the country, subsidized by the throne. The White Order saw to the general health and well-being of Larocia's people, much as they always had, only now on a larger and much more organized scale. The Blue Order took over responsibility for much of the low-level law-making and also the enforcement of those laws. Education and entertainment fell to the Red Order who established great archives of culture and history.
Piece by piece, the old city was brought to the ground and a new capital grew to replace it. Talus, named for the hilly remains upon which it was built, became a center of learning, religion and benevolent rule for centuries thereafter.
- From the Book of Sebastian |
