BEARERS IN DARKNESS- SE1/ EP1

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BEARERS IN DARKNESS EPISODE 1:

MAPS OF THE LANDS:

EPISODE 1- TORKUEL

Common folk was gathered on the village square to welcome the messengers. It was a rare occasion in this country to have outsiders coming because the country was surrounded by nearly impenetrable mountains. Torkuel knew that there were paths that provide a passage to the outside as well as the inside of the mountains, but it was kept a secret among the highborn society which Torkuel was not among. He was the son of a warrior for peace, not son of a highborn lord that has thousands of years of heritage. Anyways, it was a bright day and he saw three groups coming from the mountains. He saw the symbols of their banners: Golden scales of Lorbatiyant, screaming man of Miramandat and eight trees of The Trees Of the Eight. Those were the main banners for the three most powerful countries in Morkantik, he knew. There were also the Dragon Folk and the Country of Oranantos but he would be surprised to see their messengers since they barely contacted the other countries.

First group to arrive was the ship from Lorbatiyant, then Miramandat and then The Trees of the Eight. Their passenger, each a messenger from their kingdoms, passed the crowd. They were headed towards a rock where Wizard standed, waiting for them to arrive. First, envoy from Lorbatiyant talked:

- "I came to this very land from my own country as the prince of Lorbatiyant to represent and talk on behalf of my king and my dad. My dad sent his regards and apologized for not being present here. But he wanted me to tell you the exact words I am going to transmit to you right now.

‘ From the King of Lorbatiyant, the first kingdom of Morkantik, to the representative of the Kingdom Dorintaw,

I, Peter Rongordia, want to let you know our country’s sadness for the latest events that occurred in your country. We were shocked when we heard the betrayal of the Light Bearers. We would have never assumed such a pitiful attempt to gain the throne of this very kingdom to come from the Light Bearers which we thought were peacekeepers. And we are mourning over the pass of your king, Ribero Nichola, who lost his life defending his country against those filthy so called warriors." Torkuel listened as the two other messengers repeated the exact same words the first ones said as a parrot. One of them was from the kings guard of Miramandat and the other was just a council member of the Trees of Eight. Lorbatiyant brought presents while Miramandat sent soldiers to hunt the rest of the Light Bearers down. The Wizard listened to them patiently and then talked:

- "We are glad for your offer of help to our folk and we would gladly accept them. We would also accept the help of soldiers from Miramandat to hunt down the rest of the Bearers. It was dark what happened in our country. But our folk should know that they will get what they deserve in time: A better future, a brighter day after this darkness. I will work as a protector of our lands to achieve those dreams and do not rest until they are achieved..."

An applaud came from the crowd which shocked Torkuel. Have they forgotten what happened 2 nights ago? Have they forgotten the blood that was spilled? How was this possible? How could they applaud the man who brought doom to their country, leading to their king’s death? How could they believe the lies that came out of that twisted mouth? He was filled with anger but he knew better than to raise his voice after he saw what happened to the ones that did raise his voice. He suddenly felt a disgust for this land and filled with disappointment, Torkuel did not wait for The Wizard to finish his words and left the village square. He went to the Walking Fish Inn, the only place left operating in the village. This inn had its name on behalf of the village’s and Torkuel was able to find peace only in this place lately. He opened the door to the inn. The hall was empty since everyone was listening to the Wizard at the village square. There was only the innkeeper and three strangers inside. Torkuel wanted bread, nothing more since he was spending a lot of money to stay in the inn and he was not a rich person. After a while, his bread came and he ate it. Then he went to his room and lied on his bed, watching the smooth ceiling. After a while, he got up and went to the corner of his room. He opened his bag and searched for something inside. Then he felt the cold touch of steel. He took that out and inspected this sword. It was very sharp and made of a material rare found but it was enough for someone to take a look to understand that this sword once belonged to Knight Commanders of the Light Bearers. It belonged to his father. His father liked to name things, from his bed to the couch at the home, Torkuel knew. However, his sword was the only thing he did not name. He once said:

- " A steel which has a purpose of taking life should not be named."

Torkuel could still see his dad in front of him, lying on the ground, 20 corpses of Riders surrounded his body. He could still see the flames rising from homes. He could still hear children’s screams as their families died in front of them. He could still hear his dad’s whisper in his ears: “Take this sword and flee, you’re last hope”. Suddenly, tears came from Torkuel’s eyes. He was full of anger but he knew there was not anything he could’ve done. He was short with no ability at sword or at any weapons. He was only good at hiding and this is what he was doing right now, hiding from the Riders and The Wizard. He was thinking of his father when he realized that it had been night, outside. He suddenly felt tired and went to his bed. It did not last longer than 3 minutes before he closed his eyes and surrendered to sleep. When he woke up with a voice inside his room, it was long past midnight. He thought he heard some footsteps. He was as still as a rock in his bed. Then he heard someone breathing. Yes there was someone in his room. He went for his dagger that he always carried with him, even while sleeping, after events occurred. When he was going to make his move, a hand pressed him back to his bed, closing his mouth to prevent him from shouting. He could not breath but he could not do anything either because the person who was pressing him against his bed was very strong. Then suddenly, a voice came from the darkness:

“Leave the boy alone, you are going to choke him”. Then, hands on his mouth unwinded slowly. It was not seconds later that Torkuel took his dagger and tried to stab the nearest person. But before the blade reached the shadow, the shadow moved aside and dodged the blade easily.

- "Boy, easy. We are not here to hurt you. We are not assassins. We could’ve done it the moment we entered here. Now, answer me, are you the son of Brave Steel?"

Torkuel was shocked. It was his father’s nickname among the Light Bearers and nobody knew a Light Bearer’s nickname but a Light Bearer. But he was not sure if he could trust them just because of this.

-“ What if I am? What do you want? Who are you people?” He heard laughter. And someone talked in darkness:

-Now, this is the attitude appropriate for the son of Brave Steel. Loraq, light a candle. We need not to talk in darkness anymore.

Then, light came out of nowhere. He tried to locate the source and surprisingly he saw that it came from a sword. The guy who wanted Loraq to light a candle talked again:

-“My name is Bravort Firas. My friends are Loraq the Strong and Firaq the Clever. They are siblings, so their names are alike. We were close friends of your father and each of us were a commander in Light Bearers. I was commander of the Border Rangers legion as your father was Knight Commander of the Bearers. Right at the night of the attack, your father wanted us to retreat and leave him there. He wanted us to find you and get you to safety outside of the borders.” Torkuel was waiting assassins from the dark, not the Bearers of Light, not his father’s friends. He had lots of questions:

-“I… I… I do not know what to say. You say that you are to take me outside of Dorintaw but how? The path is only known by the highborns. And… and… how did you… you find me? I have…” Firaq answered him:

-“Look Torkuel. We know you have so many questions but there is not enough time to answer them. You will find answers to them, I promise but now is just not the right time. We have to move quickly before Riders track. Now, do you have your dad’s sword with you?”

Torkuel did not want to answer right away. How could he know if they are the real Light Bearers? They say that they were friends with his father but he never saw them in his life:

- “How can I trust you, I never saw any of you in my life.” When he said that, he saw the others smiling and this time it was Loraq who talked:

-“ Brave Steel thought you well. Now I will show you how you can trust us.” He reached into his pocket and took out a ring, then said “ I think you are familiar with these rings. Your father should’ve had one. It is given with a ceremony to the highest rank of Light Bearers. There are only 10 people who have this ring in Dorintaw. Now, you will say, can’t you take it from the corpse of my father? It is possible but if I did that I would not know how to open it because what is inside this ring is protected by a very powerful spell even the Wizard could not open this ring.” Then he did something on the ring that allowed three leaves on the ring to open and reveal some symbol inside them. Torkuel knew what it was before looking at it. It was the symbol of the Light Bearers. An arrow with three heads. He saw his father do the same thing over and over again so he knew what this meant. It meant that those guys were the real Light Bearers and people who he could trust. So he smiled and asked:

- When are we leaving?

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