The Arkanist

Magic

Chapter 12

Magic

Elda Ven was a ruin. It stood broken and defeated, squatting atop the point of an old rock peak. Its grey stone, bearded in moss and splotched with lichen, looked like an old man’s aged face as it shivered in the biting winds. The ruin tore through the dark sky, its crumbled roof clawing at the veil of red, as it shimmered down to tint the stone and eerie, pale red, splotched with black that looked like pockets of blood. A coiling black snake of smoke slithered into the dark sky, slowly rising from the blackened and burnt stone. Still, a flag writhed in the harsh wind, torn and ripped, from the open peak. Aera could see it was the flag of Sheon. It looked burned.

         The silence announced the ghostly creaking of the hold as the wind swirled by, carrying the ash with it. The skeleton of the once massive and grand hold flushed red as flame as the rangers threw their torches toward it. Elda Ven drooped with sorrow and despair in the fluttering shadows, and the ash draped on its ruined parapets and fell like tears. The ancient fortification stood like a massive corpse atop the rubble and rocky cliff, and the rangers the priests, mourning the dead as they passed. Aera watched the ruin of Elda Ven perish behind them as it was eaten by the oppressive shadow, lost in the murk. It had waited like a dead man upon a spike for a hundred years.

         Aera turned to Ollor, who still watched the mangled remains of the ruin as they slipped away, the rigid stone fingers clawing at the sky, high above the pale white arms of the trees gathered like family to mourn the dead. The trees, ancient and old creaked in the wind as they arced around the dismal remains of the fortification, cradling the broken hold. Together, they moaned like ghosts in the frigid howls of wind that raced from the north. Aera wrapper her hood closer around her head, shielding herself like Elda Ven could not. Instead, it stood bare and naked, the only shield its strength. Ollor grumbled as it vanished from sight with the insipid trees. Aera did not know what he said. Nor did she ask.

         “I remember hearing stories about that old ruin,” said Ollor. “Been around far longer than I have, or in fact any of us, for that matter.”

         “Even Harnwor?” asked Aera, forgetting the tales of Elda Ven.

         “Indeed.” Ollor ran his hands from his brown hair, scratching at his scalp. “Elda Ven, in case you’ve forgotten, Aeron, was the first causality of Sheon, during the Ascension. After the hold fell though, the Oppressive One had lost thousands of his men, and kept only few numbers guarding it, to have some sort of foothold in the realm of rebels.

         “It stood a ruin for fifty years, until us rangers, and soldiers from Ahhid marched to reclaim the lost hold of Elda Ven. He Oppressive One had heard of their plan, and sent in reinforcements as the Shenn forces arrived. The battle, if I’m not mistaken took place right beneath out feet as we speak.” He looked down. Aera did as well. “Referred to as the Battle of—“

         “Inurian,” Aera cut in. “The Shenn leader the their force, the King of Sheon.” My great grandfather… “When he died in battle, and the Ilmari paraded him through the carnage, posted on a spike, the Shenn soldiers fell into despair that their king had fallen, and the Ilmari killed them all. Not one had returned to Ahhid.” And my family was cut in half.

         “Then how did they receive the records?” Ollor smiled. “If no one came back, who documented it? Who was the witness that has proof?”

         “There…”

         “Was no proof,” Ollor answered for her. “That is what makes the Fall of Elda Ven, and, concerning to who you speak with, the Battle of Inurian, to mysterious. Nobody knows what actually happened, unless you want to ask the Ilmari. All we know for sure is that the fort was destroyed a hundred years ago and fifty years later it had tried to be taken back. Other than that, and the fact the Shenns lost, there have been a hundred different stories concerning what happened to those soldiers and King Inurian.”