Chapter 34

Aliyas Amad woke up early that morning feeling positively radiant. The previous day had been a difficult one, as Amad had to preside over several important judgments in the Noble court, overhaul the cities tax plans for the next year, settle a dispute between competing slave traders, pass a new law governing the capture and transport of magical beasts and, most importantly of all, preside over the promotion of his new guard captain.

It had been a draining ordeal, but Amad welcomed the work. Less motivated men might ask why a Lord would look forward to all that hustle and bustle. Wouldn’t he rather laze around, eating delicious food and cavorting with women? And indeed, many of the men in his retinue did just that, so why not Amad?

The answer was simple. Amad loved Aribas. He loved his city with all of his heart and soul. To him, the perseverance of this great city, a veritable oasis in the desert, was more satisfying than than the rarest delicacy or the most arousing woman. Amad’s only desire was to spend his every waking hour bettering this place he called home.

Would the heaps of work lead him to an early grave? Probably. But that meant little to Amad, as long as he could find or make a worthy successor before that happened. And, luckily for Amad, he believed that he had found just such a person.

“Captain Robal.” Amad said, stretching as he greeted the young man in the Lord’s Office.

“Sir.” Robal said, smiling back at his Lord. That was one of the thing’s Amad loved about Robol, he always seemed to be in a good mood. “Shall I read you your schedule or should I wait until the maid has brought your morning tea?”

“Oh let’s get it over with now, eh? And did you make sure to have her bring you one as well? As late as you insist on working, I can’t have you collapsing from lack of proper nutrition, eh?” Amad said, giving his Guard Captain a concerned look.

“At your behest, yes. But you need not be so worried about me, my Lord.”

“Ha! But if something did happen, then who would I have to rely on that is as competent as you, eh?”

1 year ago Captain Robal Nemullison had been a squire serving some petty Lord in Erstshire before being sent here to “Obtain more knowledge of the world”. What that actually meant, was that the Lord had no room in his guard for an untrained knight and so instead he decided to foist Robal upon someone else. Amad took pity on the poor lad and volunteered to take him in but he hadn’t expected much, seeing as how he couldn’t even get into a petty Lord’s garrison.

Fortunately for him though, Amad had never been more wrong. Almost immediately, Robal proved himself to be a cut above the rest of his men. His combat abilities were top notch, beating out even the most experienced fighters among Amad’s forces. He could read and write, he was obedient but not unable to think for himself and, most importantly, he displayed excellent judgment and leadership qualities when given the opportunity.

On top of that, he was kind to those under him.

It was little wonder then why Amad had taken an immediate liking to this young man, and if he continued to display excellency, Amad would be able to finally rest comfortably by giving Robal his position. Although he didn’t hold any Noble titles, Amad knew that would change as Robal grew older and built up merit. It would be impossible not to bestow him with such rewards, given the sheer promise he had as a leader. And even if some stingy Nobles tried to get in the way of that and block Robal’s path to greatness, Amad could just trample all of their machinations by adopting Robal into his family.

“Though I somehow doubt it will come to that…” Amad thought, looking fondly at his retainer. He wasn’t sure why, but Amad just had this feeling that Robal would blow through any obstacle in his way.

Still smiling, Robal began to rattle off a list of errands and duties Amad had to complete before the sun went down, starting with the finalizing of the dispute between the two slave traders and ending by sending an invitation to the famous chef, Nazir Alikar, to cook a meal for Lord Amad a few days from now. Though not as important as his other duties, Aliyas Amad made a point of ensuring the chef came to cook for him. Not for the food, though he knew it would be exquisite, but for the renown of being the first noble to have such a famous name attend to him.

Even a thing as small as this could cause him to lose face in front of the nobles, and Amad had to make sure to impress such things upon Robal.

“That should be everything sir, will you need me to accompany you for any of it?” he asked.

“Hm? No, there will be no need for that. Instead, I would like you to take half the guard and patrol the city. The other half will guard the castle.”

“Shouldn’t I guard the castle sir? It would make me feel safer if you were properly-”

“Hahaha! I appreciate your concern, but there is no need to fret over me, eh? I will be fine, but you? I fear I am cooping you up in here too much. Go, ensure the safety of the streets and become more acquainted with the public. You are a somebody now, and a somebody can do a lot with the support of his people, eh?”

Though he still looked troubled, Robal did as his Lord bid him and left to protect the streets of Aribas- after finishing his tea of course. Amad breathed a satisfied sigh as he watched his precious protégé leave, happy to have finally found someone with the same inexhaustible energy and zeal for their work that Amad had.

After that Amad had a fairly uneventful morning. He quickly scarfed down an expertly prepared breakfast that he had barely tasted in his rush to get to work, sprinted to the Noble Court in order to go over the documents for the slave traders cases one last time, and was on his way answer a request from the mage guild regarding the vandalism of a certain magical item when-

CRACK

A noise like shattering crystal resounded and he felt a terrible pain inside of his head. Throughout the castle he could hear the screams of men and women as the pain affected them, which meant that whatever this was, it was strong enough to affect an entire castle.

When the pain finally receded Amad stood up to find himself completely surrounded by his guards, who quickly tried to usher him deeper into the Palace, where they could guard him from a safer vantage point. But before they could even get through the door-

“Ahem, testing…can all of you people hear me? Tch…so this is what I can expect from my first time using ? Denizens of Aribas If you can hear me, kindly come out of your houses. All of you.” a voice inside of his head said. The guards froze and readied their weapons, looking all around for the source of the voice.

But there was nothing there. Whoever was speaking to them was doing it from a good distance away. The guards, gradually realizing this, again started moving Amad into the castle. They were not going to put their Lord in danger listening to the words of some disembodied voice.

But then the voice spoke again “I seem to remember requesting all of you come out. Not just the men.” It sounded irritated, but the words it spoke meant that it wasn’t solely interested in Lord Amad. Rather, he surmised that it was talking to the whole of Aribas.

“Now now darling, they’re scared. They are just trying to protect their families.” a second voice said, scolding the first one. It sounded empathetic, which to Amad was good. If this force was strong enough to use a skill like Mass Telepathy, then it was likely powerful enough to cause great damage to the city. The fact that they could be empathetic meant they could be reasoned with, and if they could be reasoned with then maybe they could be convinced to settle whatever plans they had without bloodshed.

Well, one could hope anyway.

“You are too sweet.” the first voice said “But very well, I will omit the women and children for you, Merry.”

Merry? The name didn’t ring a bell to Amad, but there were plenty of unknown strong people out there. What was more important was the fact that the first voice, who was undoubtedly the more cruel out of the two, could be cowed by this Merry, which meant he only had to get some form of control over her to end whatever crisis was being brought to his city.

Or so he thought, but then-

“Death and pain do not care how much wealth is in your coffers, nor how much faux power you wield.” The first voice said, and suddenly Lord Amad felt a second, even greater pain in his skull. It was so awful and sudden that he folded over and vomited his breakfast onto the floor. His guards were panicking, unsure of what to do, so between retches he shouted “Take me outside you fools! Hurry!”

Money and power, the first voice was undoubtedly referring to the nobles and rich folk who did not heed his first demand. And despite this brutality, the second voice said nothing. Merry, it seemed, tacitly condoned her partners violence as long as it didn’t range into the extreme.

“Guh-…Get the other nobles out here…even if you have to drag them by their hair.” Amad said to his guards. They did as he commanded and after a few minutes the Noblemen and women were standing, or laying as some of them had fallen unconscious from the pain, in the streets.

They waited there, listening for the voices next orders, but none came. Nobody knew what to do, but nobody wanted to risk encoring the voices' wrath. Then, after a few minutes of waiting, someone spotted a runner approaching the castle. They were decked out from head to toe in plate armor, meaning they were a part of the royal guard.

“Make a path! Bring that man to me!” Amad shouted, waving his guards out of the way. When the man got to him he stumbled to a stop, panting from both the heat and the fact that he had sprinted here in full armor. “Get that off of him.” Amad ordered his guards. They peeled the plate off of the man so he didn’t die of heat stroke.

When the runner could speak he panted out “My Lord…Robal…confronting the ones…responsible for this!”

“What!? Where are they? Is he ok?” Amad said, panicked.

“They are in…the residential area…he sent me…to tell you…”

“So that is why we haven’t heard anything else from the voice…” Amad said to himself. “Very well, thank you for telling me this. Guards! We don’t know how powerful this threat is, so round up as many men as you can and go support Robal!”

“But sir, if we leave you alone-”one of the guards started to protest

“Fool! The enemy can attack me from all the way over in the residential ward! Do you think it matters if you’re standing guard over me or not? Now go, that’s an order!”

The guards, while reluctant, obeyed and quickly gathered horses to ride to the residential district. Amad hoped that they were enough to subdue this Merry and her pet, but somewhere in his heart he doubted it. What was happening here now was unprecedented.

Even when powerful foes did attack Langrace, they never went out of their way to attack Aribas. To do so would mean pushing an entire army across a desert where no food grows and no water runs, only to try and lay siege to a city with walls that were 30 meters high and 3 meters thick. Because of this, Aribas was a sanctuary city during war times. But even more importantly than that, it meant that if the lands to the south were being attacked, Aribas could easily build up an army to ambush the invading enemies using their secret weapon. Conversely, if Aribas was attacked, that weapon could be used to save them as well.

“Unless that is why we are being attacked?” Amad thought grimly. It shouldn’t be possible. The only ones who were aware of that information were the King, the Heroes, Amad, and a handful of people at the mages guild. But still, Amad couldn’t help but worry…

“Perhaps we will be lucky, and Robol’s skill will be enough for this foe.” Amad said out loud. The Nobles who heard him looked up and there was hope on their faces. While many of them had not treated the low born Guard Captain with kindness, none of them doubted his martial prowess.

Maybe he could win!

But then they heard it, that cruel voice speaking with such relish as he said only two words.

“Sanct Alter!” it shouted.

“Is that a spell-” was all Lord Amad had time to think before he was blinded by a flash of light, brighter than the sun. It came from the residential district, where Robal was. There a pillar of light erupted out of the ground, casting shadows over the desert. Around the city seven more pillars rose up, tracing paths of shimmering magic between one another and connecting to the pillar in the middle.

The Lord couldn’t see the design from the sky, but he knew what this was all the same. A magic circle, in the shape of a heptagram- a seven pointed star, which could only mean one thing

“Great magic…” he whispered “What…what in god's name has descended upon my city.”