Young Writers Society

The Nyshiniak Stone

This is part of one of the prequels I plan to write to the Fire Princess. This story is set around one thousand eight hundred years before my novel that I am writing and gives a detailed account of where certain things came from in the story. This is a simplified version of what i plan to write in the future, i thought i'd give an insight into some of the background folklore and so i conjured up this in half an hour.

Far within the depths of Rhushar in eastern Rhuhnar that is the northern realm of Nyshuhr there gathered a cult of robed men. They wore black and red gowns with golden masks which covered their faces. The masks only had small slits for the eyes but the majority of the face was adorned with a pattern of swirls which interweaved. Daggers hung at their sides, gold blades and black hilts. The only light which came was from above was from a round hole in the top of the stone dome which they stood under. All around plants grew from the ground which was mostly earth and soil with paths cutting between them. The trees wrapped themselves around the pillars which held up the dome and up the walls of the cold hall. Only the smell of slight burning came from the dark passages which crept away from the circle.

The cult stood atop a round stone floor where the slabs were not all of the same size and plants grew between them. in the centre was a black metal object which lay directly below the beam of light which flooded through the hole and dust drifted through it yet it did not bother those who gathered around such an object. Upon the object were five rods which spiralled in and up forming a conical shape and at the top they flared out and beheld another small item. It was part black and part silver and had a very rough edge. It was a small rock which in the emerging light sparkled and seemed to have a presence of its own. Slowly the group around it moved in and bowed down to the stone.

They then spoke in the tongue of the ancient Arinalgarin language which was spoken upon the stone’s finding two hundred years before and in Barthorin tongue it said;

“Here we behold this stone to our deity Riath whose spirit lingers within this world yet no flame or cinders can set them free for their body has died but their soul has passed into anew. Hereby we commemorate this stone, chalice of Nyshi-niak, sun child of the west, to be boiled in the fires which taint such spirits and to be forged into four items whereby they will be used only by the sun child of the ages to come.”

They then stood and took out their daggers with their left hands and gently hovered them over the right. Quickly they pressed in, drawing blood which dripped onto the floor and they made no movement as they cut their own flesh. The cult then stood and walked over to the black object which held the stone and turned their cut hands over it and allowed the blood to drip onto the metal.

They were the cult of Riath Niak. Riath was a sun child who existed before the days of ages and before the pre-age era. His world was wiped out upon the eruption of Mount Viara in Halvero which still smokes to this day. The stone had come from the skies upon a red dawn and the King of ancient Arzorna sent his brother to retrieve it from Erivania, the lands of fields and forests. Upon returning he overthrew his brother and became king of the old mountain kingdom. Upon the birth of his children the world lay in fear for they had the same abilities to control the flame that Riath did two thousand years previous. They were twins, brother and sister and one left Arzorna to conquer the western lands of Argar where she brought around the up rise of Nyshuhr. Ever since her death after warring her own brother the stone she had gotten her power from, just like Riath, was kept within the depths of the city upon the sea of Ahrndorn, Rhushar it was called.

The old tale tells of the events which happened;

‘The red dawn came and powers found.

Of two children who lived upon the mound

The slopes were high, easy to slip,

Overlooked by a tower built at its tip.

Years had passed and the children grew,

Their powers equal and split in two.

The bells rung as one child went,

Into the seas where the settlers were sent.

Far back in the east where the brother dwelt,

A growing darkness was soon felt.

Years had passed and the sister arose

The brother looked up at a sky of crows.

They flew from the river which flowed by,

As great ships came many he knew many would die.

Upon the mound the two children duelled,

Their wrath was great and fires fuelled.

The battle was long and the fire spread,

Over ground where blood was shed.

The flames were tall and their might unravelled,

And the sister was stronger since she travelled.

The brother fell and his crown broke.

His sister now queen and loud she spoke.

She claimed lands and enslaved the people,

Soon taken into war with an attempt feeble.

The armies perished and the sun child alone

In her homelands she was killed and left an empty throne.’

Riath was worshipped as a god for what he did in his time, but the re-arrival of the sun children had weakened the faith of those who followed him, part from the Cult of Riath Niak who soon after heralded the stone before them in a golden box. Far they took it into the caverns below the Rhushar Vanar and within a furnace it was thrown where through smoke and fire emerged a golden liquid which was poured into four castings; a sword, a ring, a crown and an amulet. All were called the Nyshiniak items or sun vaults by others. They were to be given to the sun children who were to come so that the stone’s power still was able to give them their abilities. What no one knew was that one member of the cult took with him a small crumb of the stone, but that is for another story, far in the future upon the fifth age.