The moon’s light illuminated the night sky over
the Imperial Capital as a great parade marched throughout the streets. Dressed
in their lavishing attire and ornamented jewelry, many of its denizens cheered
for the floats that were passing by on the cobblestone roads, symbolizing the
prosperity and wealth the Empire had obtained in the last seven hundred years
while tents stood erect throughout the streets, serving food and games for every
patron. Many of them watched on the streets, waving their hands with awe and
amazement while others watched through the windows of their homes made of gray
stone and mortar. This was the parade celebrating the coming of the Summer
Solstice, which was a time that brought luck and fortune to the Imperium.
Within the center of the city lay a palace that
stood 20 meters in height with its square structure stretching 3 miles in its
area. The roof was covered in blue tiles while the walls were the color of ivory
with the windows arched and the sashes made of gold.
Walking down the hallway, the vizier passed
through oak door after door, ignoring the decorated walls that were covered in
magnificent portraits of each member of the imperial family, until he reached
into the throne room where he saw the emperor gazing out at the window and
watching the spectacle that occurred below.
He was a tall, burly man in his middle age,
having short black hair with gray sideburns, pinkish skin with crows’ feet and
wrinkles, and brown eyes. He was dressed in red, wearing a long cape with white
fur on the back and a gold crown covered in jewels.
“Marvelous, is it not? Better than last year, I
do believe,” the emperor commented. Hand on his back and a smile on his face,
he didn’t bother to turn and face his vizier to know he was present.
Nodding his head, the vizier confirmed as he
adjusted the frames of his glasses. He replied, “Indeed, your majesty. However,
I fear that this might diminish our budget in the treasury to a certain degree.
The taxes are wading thin and the empire hasn’t had a war in quite some time.
So, we have to be cautious with how much we’re putting into this festival.”
Then he heard the emperor laugh.
Turning around, his majesty walked up and patted
his vizier on the shoulder. “You must relax, old friend! This is a time of
peace. We shouldn’t be thinking of war,” the emperor remarked in a jocular
manner, laughing with his shoulders shaking.
“Pardon my intrusion, your majesty.”
The emperor and the vizier turned to the door
and saw the great oracle Cassandra sauntering in.
She was a young woman with long violet hair and
fair peach skin. She wore nothing but a white translucent leotard made of veils
that were held together by three gold rings and a pair of white slashes each
tied by her wrists and ankles at the end. On her face, she wore a green visor
with the temples attached to a small metallic square that was connected to the
sides of her head.
Stopped in the center of the room and bowed her
head in the presence of his imperialness. Then she continued, “I must have a
word with you.”
“What the hell do you think you are doing here,
witch?! You dare have the audacity to demand an audience with the emperor
without his highness’s permission is just plain arrogance!” the vizier admonished.
Cassandra remained still, unmoved by the advisor’s words, as she remained
indifferent.
However, before he could continue on, the
emperor raised his hand and silenced his advisor. “That is enough, Roland. If
the oracle has come uninvited, then it means that she has a message of the
utmost importance,” he stated. He remained calm and firm. His face changed from
a smile to a stoic demeanor.
“Indeed, sire. I have come baring bad tidings
for I have received a premonition that our greatest fears will once again rise
from the ashes. The metal monsters are returning,” said the oracle. Her tone
changed from calm to sorrowful in a heartbeat.
The emperors’ face dropped into dismay and so
did the vizier’s as well. Beads of sweat fell from his face as his hands
started to shake in fear.
“How can that be possible?! The ancients
destroyed them in the war!”
Then the vizier smiled, breaking his shocked
expression with a laugh, “Calm yourself, my liege. The metal monsters are but
an old fairy tale told to teach little children to behave. This witch is merely
frightening us to go into mass hysteria, probably for some nefarious purpose of
her own!” His voice soon rose at the end while pointing an accusing finger at
the oracle.
Gritting her teeth, Cassandra became furious as
she growled. Taking a step forward, she hissed in anguish, “Bite your tongue,
boor! All that I say is true and what possible outcome would I gain from
deceiving the emperor?! My body and soul belong only to the imperi…”
Suddenly, she gasped and collapsed onto the
ground, wreathing in agony as her body contorted. The emperor and vizier stood
out of the way, albeit shocked and perplexed by the sight. However, they knew
what was occurring before their eyes and they made sure not to disturb the
oracle. Suddenly, like a marionette, the oracle stood up and danced. She
twirled and twisted her body while panting excessively for air. Finally, she
passed out on her back onto the oriental carpet; the green vision from her
visors faded into black, but while in her comatose state, she spoke the most
profound prophecy ever heard.
As darkness falls and
iron rises, kingdoms will burn and all will suffer as the dragon of silver
ascends from the ashes. Fate will soon cast a judgmental hand on man, yet from
darkness will come light and a savior will come to shine. He will have hair as
black as the night sky, eyes as green as agates, and on his back will be a
dark-red raven with its wings stretched as far to his shoulders.
Cassandra ceased and laid motionless. The
emperor immediately called for the guards and they carefully escorted the
oracle back to her quarters. Alone with the vizier, once more, the emperor
pondered on the situation with his hand caressing his beard and his eyes
scowling into deep thought.
“What do we do now, your majesty? If that
witch’s prediction is true and the metal monsters are returning, then we must
take evasive action on the matter,” the vizier pointed out with widened eyes.
Placing his arms down, the emperor took a deep
breath and exhaled. Furrowing his brow, he ordered in the most earnest
demeanor, “Round up the paladins of the church and bring them to me. The oracle
has given us our savior’s description. So, they will be sure to find him
posthaste, either within the imperium or outside of it.”
------------------------
Morning sun began to rise across the valley with
its light caressing the wheat that encompassed the fields. It stretched
unevenly from the flat surface to the downward slopes, something that would be
seen as unusual for a normal farmer, and had stopped at the local river stream
that flowed down through the rocky area until halting inside of the thick
forests that surrounded the grasslands up north of the terrain.
A scythe in hand and a heavy swing, Gabriel Yu had
already started working on the harvest as he descended further into the fields,
only stopping to pick up the stalks and tie threat around them into blocks. For
being a young man, Gabriel was surprisingly enduring. His agate green eyes
remained focus on his work as he retained a calm, diligent exterior that
refused to break under the heat of the sun. He felt the wind blew against his
face at such a powerful gust, causing his tanned tunic to flap as his black
hair flowed against the breeze, yet he continued to work.
Suddenly, the blade of his scythe broke off and
flew three feet away before hitting the dirt. Looking at the end, Gabriel’s
teeth gritted before driving it into the ground.
“God dammit! Not again! That’s the third time this
week!” he shouted.
“Gabriel, what have I told you about cursing the
lord’s name in vain?” Turning his left, he saw his father standing behind him
with his hazel eyes staring daggers at him. Compared to his son, he was the
only one that remained calm at the moment.
He held a plow in one hand while throwing a
handful of seeds in another after making a new patch. He continued, “You need
to have patience, son. No matter how many times we patch it up, that scythe is
old and was bound to break eventually.”
Letting out a sigh, the boy managed to calm
down. Then he replied, “I know that, father. It’s just so frustrating that it
keeps breaking at the wrong time.” Gabriel sat down next to the stick and
dragged his hands across his face. Then he added, ‘I just wish we had more
money to buy some new farming equipment.”
“I think the same as you. Unfortunately, with
patching up leaky roofs, feeding the family, and paying the lord of these lands,
getting new farm equipment would be difficult to acquire at the moment,” he
stated with a sigh. Putting the hoe and bag of seeds down, Gabriel’s father
walked up and pried the pole out of the ground.
He motioned over and picked up the blade before
walking away, saying, “Why don’t you take over replanting the seeds, son. I’ll
be at the barn batching this damn thing back together.”
After his father left, Gabriel resumed his
father’s job as he sauntered over to the second field and began seeding the
soil before moving on to the third and last one. Suddenly, when he drove the
hoe into the ground, he heard something clanking against the steel.
“What the hell is that?”
The boy reached down and dug through with his
hands until he found something metallic protruding out of the ground. He stuck
his hand in and grabbed the handle, pulling as hard as he could with all his
might. Finally, he managed to pull it out while staggering to maintain balance,
but what he discovered was something unusual.
“It looks like a sword. What is a sword doing in
the fields?” he examined.
Stretching about 60 inches in length and heavier
than anything he had ever held, the sword resembled a silver claymore with a blue
orb embedded at the hilt. Tracing throughout the blade were small lines that
didn’t appear to be breaking apart, but looked to have been put together
piece-by-piece like a puzzle game.
“Gabriel! Have you finished with the east
fields?!”
The boy became alert when he heard his father’s
voice. He carefully hid the sword into the seed bag and went back to tilling
the soil.
“Yes, father! I’m almost finished!”
Once he finished, he grabbed the bag and
proceeded to the next field until the sun disappeared under the horizon and
nightfall took its place.
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