Young Writers Society

Author's note: Lots of history and lots of description. Since this is my first real historical info dump I tried to make it entertaining and put in some of my Frux narration style of writing. I think it works well and Chapter 14 will tie the first piece of this part together. I put this as R because while it doesn't have anything too bad, the story as a whole is R.

At last we have the three color schemes of the Cardinal represented! Oh an yes, he is superficial and a bit naughty to have a personal harem. More on that to come later...but the end of this piece is supposed to be cute. On to the story!

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Chapter 13

In a nation of comprised entirely of two kinds of people, thinkers and laborers, the political arm of the Celestial Church had chosen an outcast for a singular purpose, to absorb the excess wealth generated by some three million fools. The vast wealth of Marham was directed into building towering spires, expansive palaces and vast libraries under Cardinal Cein's decree. Three hundred years of progress transformed the nation into a sprawling urban landscape dug into the very earth upon which it rests in eight spectacular divisions and three hundred more solidified its power.

Koenig Herdin's castle lay in the south east of Marham, enveloped in some of Frae's thick jungles and protected by the River Ruez. Herdin Castle was a bastion of five hundred foot high walls and a keep stretching nearly a mile high to dominate the landscape. Constructed as the first great project of Cardinal Cein it threw some two million laborers into a hundred year long task to build a throne worthy of the great imperial thrones of Gaea. Carved from the three great Towers of Marham, massive granite spires which rise up from the jungle, to create a labyrinth of corridors with internal killing points and sprawling storerooms for Marham's entire army and protection the royal family.

In times of war, a garrison of a hundred thousand troops fills the castle and delivers thousands of arrows and cannonballs down to the enemy as they attempt to cross the raging river Ruez. Herdin Castle is a fortress and choke point for those who would enter Marham's vast fertile hills and winding coast, the defense of the entire nation rested on this single structure from which victory proved time and time again to be impossible. For each battle Cardinal Cein, the master of Castle Herdin's construction witnessed its worth first hand, laughing manically with arms spread, ordering the troops, “Fire! Fire! FIRE! Let the rain of arrows and hail of our cannons crush their dreams. MARHAM IS ETERNAL!”

The most recent massacre fell upon Fegoria's Temple Knights and the Black Legion as half a million troops stormed Marham to rid Belrin of that damn tower which protected the wealth and power of so few. Thirty five years ago Marham was a different place when Herdin the Fifth came to power, after becoming king, edicts and merchant routes were tolled by Marham and taxation, land ownership and court matters became governed under their law if it dealt with any citizen of Marham. All for the good of his people, the young King Herdin the Fifth unwilling sparked war when the murderer of Aresi, the Black Guard General was found to have been one of King Herdin's ousted Imperial Knights. Blown up into conflict by politicians, Fegoria soon found itself on the march of war drums and in the cross hairs of Castle Herdin's cannons.

Martin, successor of Aresi and Brother of Peran, cousin of the Pinel Majesty, was first to cross the River Ruez at its shallowest depth of five feet. Using sheets of timber and his own troops to support a bridge, Fegoria rushed over the river without having to construct one under prolonged fire. A hundred thousand troops crossed the river in the span of just one night leading to a surprise attack on the castle, but it failed as the castle went into lock down and was destined to turn into a siege if it was not for the cannons and archers. Cannonballs, arrows and stone from the castle fell down on the unlucky troops below. Buckets of granite chunks thrown from the parapets killed men by the dozens during all hours, forcing troops to constantly keep wooden shields above their heads lest they fall prey to the stone rain. Cannon fire broke the ranks and destroyed the crucial supplies of food in blazing infernos.

After three days of constant hell the Black Legion managed to break through the granite entrance to the castle and take on the very well defended first floor of the central guardhouse. A valiant charge lead by Martin was channeled into the gun sights of Marham's skillfully constructed cannonades, long corridors where a single cannon could rip through several dozen men channeled into single file corridors. It was a kind of war so malicious and barbaric that only walls of the dead offered protection to the living few forced to take on this winding maze choked with the scent of death, sulfur and blood. It would be two more days and seven thousand more lives before the guardhouse was subdued, allowing the actual assault on the base of the keep to begin and by that point the battle was already lost.

Under Marham's constant barrage the five day battle had destroyed over sixteen weeks of rations and claimed over fifty thousand lives of Fegoria's troop. They were literally decimated, much of the command was hastily rallied under large battalions as the supposedly indiscriminate hail of fire had done all too well in killing officers as they tread back and forth across human bridges and rest in the rare blind spots of the towers. The voice of Cardinal Cein rang out at all hours as he directed focused attacks, most notably in the dead of night to locations blind to human eyes. Bound by law from taking action himself, his direction proved just as deadly as his own hand and Cardinal Belrusi hated him for it. The different values of the Cardinals had always put them against one another for even the slightest of reasons, but what angered Belrusi was that he was unable to act directly or indirectly Fegoria's forces as Cein did. Martin's command was strict and based on that one single moment where victory was wrenched from the jaws of defeat, a bloody and brutal strategy which devastated the army for the sake of this fleeting hope.

Three massive doors, weighing seventy or eighty tons each blocked the entrance to the first tower from which you could only reach the second and third towers to silence the cannons by crossing an easily destroyed connecting bridge from the peaks. To win was to know the complex layout of the castle or scale the cliffs under fire, both impossible tasks given the nature of Castle Herdin's ingenious and seemingly perfect defenses. No amount of gun powder explosives could destroy the stone doors and no scaffolding could be constructed under the hail of projectiles. Tunneling was an equally unsatisfying aspect because under the rich soil of the jungle was more thick granite which doomed any hope of passing under the castle, a tactic tried once by Frae.

It was no surprise when the retreat and surrender came just two weeks after the battle began, total losses of Fegoria was estimated at nearly 130,000 men to Marham's loss of three hundred and twenty six. A 400 to 1 kill ratio for the Marham defenders, but the true numbers of those killed upon the field of battle where inevitably far fewer then the nearly three hundred thousand injured or sickened soldiers from the battle and the poor conditions in which they fought in. Disease spread rapidly with the help of Marham's garrison freely launching their feces down below to further promote sickness. While considered to be dishonorable Marham had effectively poisoned the battlefield which they dominated and caused morale to plummet all the quicker. Before long the combination of losses, disease and hunger destroyed the largest and most well supplied army in Belrin's history. Martin himself was a victim of the battle, along with three quarters of his advisors, adjutants and nearly ninety percent of his assigned officers. A gruesome total of 4,720 officers out of a total of 5000 or so were killed, sending the military hierarchy into chaos from which it has yet to recover from.

Though Cardinal Cein's projects were not limited to Castle Herdin, but to the great naval docks and fleet of some five thousand warships. With nearly a quarter of Marham's people living on the coast the creation of the great docks at Abstalir, Nemal, Lalos, and Lalan provided the foundation for sea routes and fishers for the past four hundred years, including the famous Leviathan staging point of Nizarel. This own home was an underground palace which stretched for several miles under the mountains filled with gold and silver ore. Living like a king under the mountain he horded vast riches in chambers like that of mythical dragons and prided himself on a harem of young women which entertained him day and night while he was free from his duties. Even Koenig's Herdin's young daughter was given to him and she sat with him upon a throne within the Golden Palace and was surrounded by the wealth of a dozen kings.

The heart of the Golden Palace was a single room terribly carved out from within the mountain, a perfect sphere which tore away a five kilometer room, a constant reminder of Cein's immense divine power and the reason which barred all Cardinals from freely acting with mortals. The same power which Belrusi has, the same power which Wentz will come to know was a weapon which could annihilate mankind in an instant and the fewer to know it the better. Half of this perfect sphere was filled with giant stone pillars a hundred meters tall to comprise the twenty lower floors which held all that Cein had accumulated during his six hundred years as Cardinal. As beautiful as the Celestial Church of Belrin, it contained untold numbers of statues, paintings and furniture.

To glimpse at just at just the bed of Cein was to gaze upon a field of blue silk sheets covered lined with white chinchilla fur on top of a bed composed entirely of the chinchilla down and given form by satin. Dozens of soft pillows decorated the bed so he and his harem could sleep together as they will. Four gilded trees strung a thin canopy of silk over the bed, shielding the eyes from the light which flooded the chambers from innumerable lanterns of harnessed Canasops. Their light rivaled the sun in collective intensity, basking the Golden Palace in a never ending day, provided the flightless creatures were fed and given water daily. Thirty or so chosen girls operated the Golden Palace for Cein and kept the eternally young Cardinal company, more emotionally rather then physically, with the exception of Raina Herdin. For she was under the tutelage of Cardinal Cein to take her father's throne in the palace of a male heir.

Just twelve years old, she was a late blessing in the eyes of her father and mother, the only heir bestowed upon the two in their many years. A bright and healthy girl with a passion for politics and people, she took quickly to the child-like Cardinal Cein. When she left her father's side for Cein's, she was just six and remarked that the nine, maybe ten year old master she was to obey was too short to teach her anything. Raina grew in those six years and he did not, she had grown taller then he and yet every day the cherub faced boy imparted more of his wisdom to her. He always made remarks about her choice of blue dress in reflection to his and how it simply did not work well with her short blond and rather boyish hair. She also was unable to escape from his false anger whenever she dressed in his robes and recited poetry to the other girls, Ida always laughed and would try to block Cein from catching Raina.

“I cannot believe I look like a twelve year old girl to you!” Cein would protest as he chased after Raina, “Give me back my robe!”

“I will! Just come here and I'll give it back to you, Master!” Raina would taunt him as she ran.

Eventually the game would tire Raina out and Cein would inevitably catch up and demand it back. Though it was only then the striking resemblance of Cein and Raina were obvious. Cardinal Cein, while shorter by a few centimeters did possess golden hair and blue eyes as all true Marhams, but the boy's hair was far longer, proceeding down to his ankles and flowing like a cape behind him with each movement. Cein's blue cloak covered in his straight golden hair was quite a sight to behold as he loved to show off how superior he was.

“Raina, my robe.” Cein would hold out his hand demanding it back.

“Fine, fine,” Raina always grumbled as she pulled the robe over her head revealing her white silk slacks and shirt as she did so, her little tummy always exposed itself as she wrestled the robe off of her, “I want one of my own.”

Cein took the robe from her, “And why would you want a Cardinal's robe?”

“Cause it smells good,” Raina would grin every time.

The unique relationship between Cein and Raina was that of a mutual love forbidden to cross boundaries by class and blood. Though Raina loved to tease this fact with him, even though she had deeper feelings for the boy. The weekly robe stealing affair affirmed her affections so much so that if she neglected to do so, Cein would become sick with concern as to what he did to upset her. She had made him grown weaker and softer, but yet the dark love of battle still surged through his body as it does for all men, and he fought with himself against her advances. Refusing to scold her and refusing to admit what he was doing was already wrong.