Bond Breakers

Plans & Discoveries Part One

Targun*

Targun's plan was formulating into so much more than he'd pictured the night before. It would've been easy to sell Shakur out to the king. As simple as telling Erya that the High priest was handing out gems to citizens to blackmail them into dividing the leaders, or whatever else he had planned. However, the recent news meant those plans would have to be adapted.

Shakur was hell-bent on preventing the tournament by using influencers to turn the leaders on each other and convince Erya that one would have to be chosen before they did something to choose for him...

Targun wasn't a fool. Shakur would have others to do his dirty work. There would be hundreds of addicts ready to do anything for their next fix, and if that meant using nefarious means and well-crafted plans to turn the competitors on one another, well...

Still, Targun didn't think the leaders would succumb. He'd observed each one. There was nobility, honour, and worse respect among them. They wouldn't be capable of killing another, even if they didn't know the truth... no, Shakur would've failed, unless there was something he was missing. He never knew with the wily High priest.

And that's why he had to form his own agenda. The extension of the competition to include all Aradian's meant that he not only had a chance to prove himself, but to take his rightful spot.

Again, he wasn't a fool, he would need Shakur, access to Stone-abilities would be crucial as would be the High priest's minions in distracting the leaders from the tournament.

He glanced at those leaders standing on either side of the king as the announcement was made.

Targun should've been standing up there with them. But soon he would rule them. As he would the entire crowd that jostled around him excitedly as they were informed of the possibility of power. He wasn't worried about any of them, as talented as the soldiers were, or gifted some of the workers, there was no chance they would overcome a Forician, and there was even less hope that they would defeat the leaders when Erya would gift them with any number of his enchantments or heritage powers.

But he had studied them for years, they were always his competition, and they didn't even know it, or him. He knew their weaknesses, their strengths, what drove them — to their knees, and he would use it all, every scrap to ensure his victory.

"Once you have applied," he tuned in to listen to his king, "your name will be drawn against a location of one of our outer cities or Aradia itself, you will then have to defend it against the influx of Forician's that have bypassed our shields and found their way to our shores."

The crowd inhaled as one. Stilling as if fear had frozen them in place. They stared at their king, shock holding their limbs as if they were puppets.

"But I have faith in you, in all Aradian's; that you will destroy the enemy, slay the monsters who invade our shores, and when you do, when you hold the head of those aberrations in your hands, when you drive your weapons into those monsters, you will have a place in the tournament. A deserved chance to rule."

Fear snapped like a twig in flames. As if the king's voice was magic and his words had leant strength and bravery to his offer.

Targun watched in silence as the crowd erupted into cheers, as they swayed with pride and joy at the king and the opportunity he had provided.

He didn't move. He stood still, avoiding any contact from the masses. This wasn't some prize, it wasn't to be celebrated. The shield had failed. The enemy was on the shores. And this tournament was pointless, a way to extend the lives of those who would be dead as soon as it ended. And now the king was asking his people to go up against the foulest, most powerful of beasts across Myrrindia. Targun was disappointed in Erya. But it had given him a chance, and he knew he would do things differently.