Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 8th day

Sitting in my lavish room, decorated with all manners of luxurious trinkets, I can say definitively that the only thing occupying my mind was why my father would ever think of agitating Solaria at the moment, it made no sense in my mind. There has to be something I’m missing, a detail I overlooked. Yet, no matter how many times I looked through my memories with a fine-toothed comb, there did not seem to be any reason for him to agitate Solaria. I looked around the room again, searching for a specific place. The gold mirror, the diamond-studded purse, and drawers lined with gold were all eye-catching but useless. They served near no purpose, apart from cluttering the room in “expensive” items, they were minuscule in price compared to those actually infused with magic.

My room had nothing useful for me at the moment, the only thing that it did have was not there at the moment, so I decided to just confront father on his plans, worst-case scenario: he just admonishes me for lacking the vision he has about these topics, but I needed to know. The mystery had kept me up at night for a long time, alternatively, I could just let it be and see how it plays out, but if I were to, I could accidentally mess up part of my father’s plan. An event I never wish to see happen again, the backfiring of that last time I waltzed into one of his machinations and ruined them, were…. I would rather not talk about it. Shuddering as I walked, I forcefully evicted that…. dreadful image out of my mind. I, instead, focused on the rich and regal hallways, different from the architectural wonders my father had built, and I lived in ever since I was young, the opulent hallways just exhibited the air of the old aristocracy before The Last War. They were lined with precious metals and pearls.

I reached the doorway of the hall my father is in, the 2 guards next to it holding the flag of Iabrun, a red Griffin on a black background, holding up a spear. They did not acknowledge my presence at all, as was procedure, so I did not mind it and instead opened the large and well-decorated door. The door was not one many would forget, it held images of the earliest 4 nations embroiled in The Last War, Iabrun, Lesith, Archedom, and Leokeni. Those 4 nations were the fuses of The Last War, the memories of some were still bright with the atrocities committed, but I was born only 23 years ago, so these are all stories. Even if one of the fuses was our nation, the people then and now are completely different. As I finished thinking about these, I was already up at the throne my father sat on, a throne made from the bones of a long old mythical creature. Azure blue in color with a light glow, the bones still held the majesty of the creature it was taken from, they were formed into a perfect throne. Not gaudy, nor small, a perfect balance of majesty and humility, a true piece of art. Though it was nothing without a person to sit on it, and my father was exactly the person made for this amazing work required.

A 7-foot tall, giant of a man, with a gigantic greatsword, the size of himself, perched near his throne, made of the same substance as the throne. His eyes exuded wisdom and prestige, the ashen hair he had also added to his image, pairing perfectly with the scars of battles before. This was the man that was my father, and I was extremely proud to be his son. Though… coming here to ask him was nerve-wracking, I calmed my breathing, looked into his eyes and began to speak.

“Father, I have come to see you for a question.” I began by stating my business, he was a busy man and any distractions would keep him away from his work. His eyes, as deep and profound as the salty void in the sea, looked at me. His gaze hit me like a ton of bricks, my knees got shaky for a split second before I steeled myself. Getting scared now would only do me harm, his gaze retracted after 10 seconds, 10 seconds that felt like they were stretched through a millennium.

His deep voice resonated across the entire hall, “Alright, everyone else leave now. I have something to discuss.” All the ministers and military advisors left immediately, leaving just me and my father in the large hall. He stood up, gesturing for me to follow him, I started to as he began to talk.

“What, exactly, is your question?”, the deep voice resonated with me. The bounding power poured forth with his every movement, suppressing what one could do. I tried my best to talk as I was walking behind me. “I am sorry for not understanding father, but I see no reason to agitate Solaria at the moment.” His eyes turned away from me, looking to be in deep thought. I did not plan to interrupt him, I was once again trying to think of a reason. The current stage of Iabrun was tumultuous, with the nobles being a bit hard to control at the moment, what with the new Emperor that is going to come to the throne. It was a time for my father’s reign over Iabrun to end, and for someone new to come aboard. I will likely stay here as an advisor for the new one, but… exploring the open sea has always been a dream of mine. Ah, I got distracted. Solaria is far too powerful for us to provoke willy-nilly.

The church they had was far more unified than ours, full of 3 different Gods split across the land. While we could muster up the strength required to contest, but the war isn’t going to be a surefire win the same way it is against the lesser powers. The current Pope Celestine seems to be a bit weaker than the old one, but that doesn’t mean she was weak. Her presence would still be able to mow down the masses, so I still see no reason for my father to provoke them. The problem over the “why” petrified me, it felt like I was missing a large piece of the puzzle. As I focused back on my surroundings, we had already reached my father’s room. He gestured for me to go inside, so I followed and went inside the modest room. It was different from the lavish and exquisite rooms, it just held a bed made from the most ordinary of parts, a desk made from normal wood, holding no pattern.

I never understood why, but it was just how he was. My father motioned me to sit down in a chair, which I promptly did. He sat behind his desk and looked at me, the eyes unnerved me, they were the eyes of a person who had the blood of many, many people on his hands. Sweat rolled down my forehead, my back was nearly drenched in it, but I still looked him in the eye.

“You want to know why I sunk that ship?”, I nodded. The anticipation I had was palpable, one could see it in my eyes. “Then, you are not ready for the knowledge.”, anticipation swiftly crushed by my father. The confusing statement was then followed by “This will be a move to force out some artifacts the church has.”, which confused me immensely.

“Church?”, my father seemed to have a sense of my question already, answering “If you look close enough into Solaria, the Church holds all the power. The people follow the Church, they hold the Pope in higher regard than their own minister. They all seem to adore their religion and are even willing to die for it, the grudges between some races don’t hold true there as well. The current minister is about to be replaced, the signs are more than clear. We just have to wait to see what happens.” I nodded, I planned to say something, but he continued, “There are parts of this that I can’t say, parts that you can’t know for your own good. But, if you want to know. Go to the sea.”

This was all going far too fast for me, “The sea? What does that have to do with knowing the plan?”, I asked. The questions compounding in me nearly exploded, but I held them down and waited for my father’s answer. “Hmmm, the oceans of this world hold the fate of every person, even if one were to escape, the memories of their actions will be held in the memory of water. The stars in the sky, and the water in the sea are similar, one can pry many mysteries from them. That is where you shall figure out the truth of this.”

I pursed my lips, he didn’t answer me at all, making up some vague and cryptic nonsense. I will have to think over this proposition, I respectfully nodded and left. His words did not mean much to me, but any lead may be nice. Perhaps this is a little test for me? Whatever it was, I guess it would make me lose nothing were I to continue the lead he gave me. While I was walking through the hallway, I noticed 2 maids talking with one another, I did not really care about these trivial things, so I planned to leave them alone, then an idea came to me.

“Hello, get me any novels about the sea and the animals in it.”, they quickly nodded and ran off as I kept walking to my room. The names of the servants escape me, flowing through one ear and out the other. Eh, I guess it doesn’t truly matter, what matters is the negotiations soon on the 15th. I would continue with this little escapade after that, traveling to the sea is a large expedition and a dangerous one, even if I didn’t know much about the sea, I knew that it was more dangerous than land.

15 minutes later, I was sitting in my room with a stack of books around me. Most were boring pieces of works, some stuff about the islands in the sea and less the sea itself. I looked around one more time, and then stopped my eyes at a large and thick book, The Monsters of the Ocean by Vim Rhodes, the book started with a table of contents, dividing the animals in it into size classes. There was a deep childish curiosity in me the moment I saw a part of the book named Leviathans: 1,000 meters or larger. I was a grown adult, yet there was always a bit of a glow about the extraordinary compared to the ordinary, so sighing a bit at my childish glee, I opened the book at that point and began reading.