《Throne of Blood》Chapter 16 - Secrets
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I felt the light touch on my face as it passed through the window. I groaned a little as I turned to my side and felt the pain in my arms and legs. My muscles were strained as I had never really trained them so far. I got up slowly and started jumping a bit to relax my strained muscles.
It had been two weeks since I came to this palace. I had been enjoying my life so far, even the training as well. There were some things that I had come to despise though. Study of Etiquettes being one of them. Thankfully, we wouldn’t be going through that hell today.
I freshened myself up and made my way towards the dining hall. As I was going through the corridor, I heard my name being called in a high pitched voice.
"MEHR!! WAIT FOR ME!"
I looked back to see Sirius coming towards me while running lightly. He came by my side and put his hand on my shoulder as he began speaking.
"We'll be learning mana utilisation today!!!"
"I know, Sirius. How could I not? When you've only been saying that same exact thing for the past 3 days."
"Well, isn't this exciting? We'll learn how to use mana! I wonder if Mother will teach us how to fly?!"
I wonder, too, as to what prompted me to agree to her proposition that night. If I knew that this child blabbers on this much, I would have refused….. probably.
The conversation between Lady Maria and I was quite interesting, at the very least. I can't say I learned anything eventful, but I believe I made the right decision.
As we kept moving through the corridor, the conversation of that night blurred past in my mind…..
……...
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“And what exactly do you need from me?”
It was quite amazing to see the look of shock and surprise wash over her face. She kept looking at me as I stood there and waited for her reply.
“You seem quite mature for a 4 year old child. I wonder who exactly you are?”
“Hmm? I had imagined you would know.”
Lady Maria kept her gaze fixated on me as she played with the pendant in her hands.
“Quite an ancient one, isn’t it? …….Oh, looks like it hides the influence you create on mana. Seems like something a heinous convict, trying to escape from judgement, would be using this. Not some little child who is a bit mature for his age.”
Her eyes gleamed as she kept examining the pendant. Her grip had slightly tightened as compared to before and her eyes were gazing at it intently.
She sure is taking an awful amount of time….
"Looks like it doesn't do anything more than that… Just a way to hide your mana signature. Is ….. someone looking for you?"
"How much do you know about me?"
I asked, in a gentle tone, as I looked into her eyes. She let go off the pendant, backed off and simply smiled as she started speaking.
"Nothing, really. We just knew someone would come. Someone who will be necessary for the future. I…... hadn't imagined it to be a child though."
She knew I would come here? Necessary for the future…... Is she really with Sir Ghost? But she doesn't recognize the pendant…
"And….. how did you know that I would come here?"
I noticed, perhaps, an inkling of nostalgia in her eyes as she gazed up to the starry night sky. She sighed and continued to talk.
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"Someone had told me… a very long time ago."
Very long time ago… Well, that doesn't make any sense.
"How did you know it was me? I mean I could very easily not be the one you were waiting for."
Lady Maria turned her eyes towards me and read my eyes with her's. She took a moment before answering my question.
"No, it is you. There is no doubt about it. And as for what you asked before- what we need from you….. Well, that's quite simple actually. Just stay with our Son. He doesn't have any friends; to protect him, we had never allowed him to meet other people much. He…. has a lot of responsibilities."
"Isn't he just a child, though?"
".....You speak as if you're an adult." Lady Maria smiled at me as she looked into my eyes.
"Yes, he is just a child. But he is destined to be someone great. He…. will shine brighter than everyone. And for that reason, there are many people who want him to be in good company. And many..… who would try to harm him if they knew of his existence."
"But why do you trust me so much? You have never even tried to ask about me."
Lady Maria was smiling while looking at me. She approached me and kneeled down to get on my eye level. She gently dusted my clothes, the same dusty old rag that I had been wearing.
"I was told not to inquire about you. Who you are, where you come from and everything else would be off limits."
That's odd. Very odd.
"But why would you listen to them to this degree?"
"Well, they are higher ups, to put it simply. I can't tell you more than that."
"Higher ups? Like the bystanders in the hall?"
Lady Maria snickered. It was quite odd seeing her smiling with only one corner of her mouth lifted up. And with her cold eyes, the combination was something I wouldn't want to see again.
"Those people? They were in the hall because of their status in the kingdom. Nothing more. Their worth is less than sniveling worms in the grand scheme of things. Anyway, you'll be living here from now on, as long as you want. But you'd need to make yourself presentable, boy."
Lady Maria stood up, held my hand and started walking towards Sirius and the beasts. While I had some amount of information, it sure wasn’t enough. I still didn’t know what their intentions were.
“So, there are some higher ups who want me to live with Sirius, for some reason. That's what they want. What do you want though?”
Lady Maria kept walking while holding my hand. She had slowed her pace after listening to my question as she gazed at Sirius. For a moment, I thought I had seen a ghost as I saw something akin to love spread in her cold eyes.
“I… just want Sirius’ happiness. Nothing else.”
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An original novel set in the Fallout universe, written to be accessible to all, featuring unique people and places. Vol.II. out now Fallout: Vault X tells the story of John. A vault dweller, who spent every day of his twenty five years underground. Like his father, and his father before him. Proud to live in the last remaining bastion of humanity, all that survived The Great War of the atomic age. Hidden deep below the surface of the earth, toiling under brutal conditions. Year after year, decade upon decade. All to expand into the natural cave system the Vault occupied, building for the future. However, John knew what his forefathers did not, that everything he’d been taught was a lie. After finishing school at the age of ten, John received his standard issue pipboy. An arm mounted personal computer, worn by everyone in the Vault. Used to coordinate the relentless pace of expansion, needed to work as an apprentice. To learn the craft that would be his life’s work. A noble calling to ensure a future for all that remained of the human race. A quirk of fate saw John equipped not with the crude, clunky, pipboy model his father wore. That almost everyone around him wore. His looked smaller, sleeker, finished in a jet black sheen. And capable of doing far more than its drab counterparts. The world above had been ravaged by atomic flames, yet life clung to its bones. The Red Valley fared better than most in the century since the bombs fell. The clean water and rich soil protected by rolling hills. All spared from direct strikes, for the most part. Life survived here. Trees spawned from charred ground, misshapen, green leaves turned red. Along with simple crops, grown wild at first, then cultivated by the survivors. The scavengers of the old world were inventive, hardy people. All determined to rebuild in the ruins of a world they never knew. In the decades that passed settlements emerged. They grew, spreading along the valley floor. Reclaiming the pre-war remnants of the once industrialised heartland. Salvaging the robotic wonders of a bygone age to build their walls and work their fields. To protect them in the dark of the wasteland. But such things are uncommon in this world, and the rarer something is, the greater its value. And the worth of pre-war technology had not gone unnoticed. The last, real, power in this world rested in the mechanised hands of The Brotherhood of Steel. Forged from the mortally wounded old world military. The Brotherhood used its access to the weapons made for a conflict no one won to strike out into the wastes. Men and women were equipped with advanced armour, aerial transportation, high grade weaponry. Accompanied by the training, strength, and will, to put them to use. They established chapters and set up outputs far and wide. All dedicated to a single purpose. To ensure the technology left abandoned by its long dead creators didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Namely, any hands that were not their own. This is the world John escaped into. A place of horrors brought forth from atomic fire. A place where survival meant battling against the darkness. Fighting a war each day to get to the next. And war...war never changes
8 130Vagrant — CYBERPUNK / SCI-FI
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8 179Shipshape (Now writing book 2)
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8 161Double Trouble
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8 330Interface
Welcome to the World-City of Thousel, the sixth iteration of life on the planet. These are the recordings of the people of Thousel. Thousel is believed to be the second longest iteration of life, and the overall most prosperous compared to what we know about the past five iterations. Medicine and technology have all progressed abundantly, and the world itself has been turned into one great city, governed and managed by the Governmental-Company Alliance, or the GCA.These particular recordings concern the discovery of a peculiar machine. When two very different people find themselves bound by the fate of one mysterious bot, life in the World-City begins to change… Interface is a cyberpunk webnovel set in an ecumenopolis world where people evolved with electro-sensory abilities. These senses shape the face of modern technology and life in a world where the three largest corporations run what has effectively become the government. Each of these three companies control various aspects of life in the city, and they all constantly vie for domain and power over one another.The world stands at the precipice of biological, technological, and historical breakthrough. After decades of study into microbiology, archaeology, and geology, it has been discovered that sentient life has lived on the planet multiple times over. These past peoples are referred to as the “prior iterations of life,” and it is believed that five great civilizations were constructed before the rise of the modern world. No one can be sure for certain what caused these peoples’ extinction long ago, and the theories range from simply dying off over time to massive tectonic fractures in the face of the planet. Advanced technology, far more complicated than anything the people possess today, has been uncovered in multiple locations. This has lead scholars to speculate on exactly how long each iteration of life survived and how far they progressed as a society. None of the companies have been able to find a way to make this ancient technology work for their own profit. It is as though they are each missing the final key needed to unlock these centuries old secrets. What could this knowledge reveal about the nature of life across every iteration? What power could it give to the one who wields it?Far from the investigation into the origin of life, two kids unlock a new mystery – one that ties their fates to the discovery of an old, mysterious robot. Suddenly, eyes begin to turn towards them as life in the city of Thousel changes wherever they go…
8 107I've been having weird dreams about a ruined castle as well as a man locked in a glass cage that has beautiful piercing eyes. That glows and shine like the stars however I feel as if he is looking directly at me. There's this odd feeling in my chest that I can't explain...Disclaimer: The Sandman and it's character's does not belong to me they all belong to the amazing and talented Neil Gaiman and Sam Kieth. The pictures also used in this story does not belong to me so credits to the artists and owners.
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