Aluric sat there with a serious expression on his face until the door finally closed, he had finally told them the truth, and with the exception of pix who had already known, they were all shocked but seem to take things pretty well despite the absurdity of the situation. After letting out a sigh of relief, Aluric slumped down in his chair, he had felt a bit of the weight being taken off his shoulders, especially since they all agreed to still support him, though he had resigned himself to getting rid of any of the four of them if they didn’t agree with his plans, after all he couldn’t let this plan or the prophecy be known to the public,

He regained his composure, and sat upright again opening one of the books on his desk, as he prepared to do the paperwork that was required of the guild master, when he felt a presence next to him, and out of the shadows appeared a masked figure, Aluric’s eyes shifted towards him,

“who are you ?”, Aluric asked, as his divine energy started to radiate outwards, towards the stranger,

“i’m but a humble servant, a shadow, if you will, of the first prince Ea Dracht”, the servant answered,

“so what does he want now ?”, Aluric asked, his eyes going back to the paperwork in front of him,

“his royal highness has asked of you to join him at the palace at once, he says it pertains to the war and your brother”, the servant said,

“okay, I’ll depart in a minute so you can leave now’, Aluric answered,

the servant just bowed his head and remained there,

“i said you can go”, aluric repeated,

“i was told to accompany yo….”the servant began to answer but stop when he felt the murderous energy pouring off of Aluric,

“if I told you to leave, you leave, Ea knows that once I get the message I’ll be there, so LEAVE”, aluric said to the servant as his voiced bellowed,

“yes” the servant said abruptly, and disappeared into the shadows ,

switching over to the Dracht imperial palace

“I SAID KNEEL”, the voice shouted,

“father I have no intention of kneeling, especially to a king that doesn’t even look like one any more”, the other voice answered back,

the old man sitting on the throne looked sickly and pale, the heavy crown tilted on his head, his grey hair running down to back as it looked messy and ragged, his clothes draping off of him, as if they were two sizes too big,

“may the goddess Arma smite you with madness and trap your soul in her cursed blades, my foolish son”, the king said with vitriol and venom in his words,

the person standing before him, the First of the kings children, Ea Dracht, seemed unbothered by the venomous words shouted at him,

“look at you sickly and unhinged, why would I kneel to a shell of what was my father, I’m not as foolish as my brother or my sister to keep revering you when you your self have come to look so pitiful, but soon I will be taking your place father so you don’t have to worry, now, since the unpleasantries are out of the way, we have business to talk about since both me and you have a vested interest in this war”, he said to his father, the look on his face remaining expressionless the entire time,

the king sighed,

“despite your disrespect, you are going to rule this country with an iron fist, much like how I was, and you are without a doubt one of the most powerful people in this family’s long history, so what is it you have to say”, the king answered,

“ I believe the church of Exxion will be making it’s move soon to stop us from completely overtaking the continent, so I want you to remove the seal off of Zara, so I can wield her again”, the prince stated,

“oh is that a bit of fear I sense….. you only call for that weapon when you think you truly need it, this war was your brainchild, you can’t get fearful now that the consequences are nearing”, the king said with a sinister look on his face,

“well if it were only them I wouldn’t be so concerned, but today self four powerful people entered the city and their power stood on par with the four pillars of the guild of Artemis, and from what my information surmises, they are with the Rebel forces that have been trying to stop us from taking over the continent, which makes them even more dangerous than they previously were, and so if they actually act according to the rumors we spread about them targeting the Royal family, we really will be in trouble, so I need you to unseal my sword”, the prince pleaded with his father,

“fine I will unseal Zara, but if any attempt on my life is made by you you will be made enemy of the empire, by the way that was a genius idea to make up that rumor, it’s a shame Aluric will have to kill his brother, and Amon had such great promise also” the king replied,

“well since I got what I came for I’m leaving”, the prince replied,as he walked out of the throne room,

at the Rebel army base

Amon had been leaning against the wall for sometime now, he had been watching all of his men train, and occasionally corrected some of the mistakes that he could see being made no matter how small it was, he had been taking shade out of the sun, plus there wasn’t anyone he had wanted to spar with, so he just kept to himself, his view then went over to yumi and bard sparring, she had been sparring for a while now with the armor that brie and aster had made for her, because she wanted to get use to it,

however after watching them for a while his consciousness began to drift and he soon found himself daydreaming,

“aluric this plan is absolute madness, you’re going to plunge not only this country but the whole goddamn continent Into darkness”, Amon shouted at his brother,

“what are you saying, don’t you see this is the way to make our country powerful, so powerful and so wealthy no one would have to be fearful or poor like we were brother”, Aluric said back to him,

“i get that we owe some people in this country a lot and I get that you have an unyielding love for it but with this you are going to destroy us all”, amon pleaded,

but his plea fell on deaf ears,

“Regardless of what you say you can’t stop me, Ea and I have already start to put things in motion, you’re powerless to stop it brother”, Aluric responded,

“well then I guess I’ll have to get the power to stop you then”, Amon responded as he stormed off leaving the guild doors swinging wide open,

Amon had decided to do whatever it took to stop the prince and his brother,

“AMON LOOK OUT”, he heard a voice shout, snapping him out of the daydream he was having,

it was yumi, and as soon as he realized he pushed both of his hands outward, stopping the incoming Bard from colliding with him,

“thanks man”, Bard said, before getting to his feet and walking back towards yumi

“pheew that armor sure makes you a lot powerful than before that’s for sure”, bard exclaimed,

Amon just smiled, he noticed four shadows coming from atop the wall, realizing the four boys were back he signaled to them to come down.

Back at the imperial palace

Ea entered into his Private quarters, in the dining area, where he was greeted by Aluric, who was standing at the end of the dining area staring through the giant door like window frame, Ea immediately had a slight grin running across his face as he had not seen his old friend in a long time

“you know it’s a shame that we came up with this plan yet because of it we can’t hang out like we use to”, Ea said, walking towards the circular glass finished dinner table, pulling out a chair and taking a seat,

“yes it is, but you know that this war has us both busy with some back breaking work”, Aluric answered not even turning around, to look at his old friend,

“i had always liked the view from up here, you get a perfect view of the city and its surroundings, it really makes you feel as if you live above everyone else”, Aluric continued to note,

“so what is it that you wanted from me ?”, Aluric asked,

“well there are two things I wanted to talk to you about, the first one is I found some very interesting information in the old library of the former king, I guess after all my father did he still couldn’t get rid of everything his brother owned”, Ea said, as a single loc of his red hair dropped down over his face as he leaned over the table,

“so what is it that you found out ?”, Aluric asked,

“it’s pertaining to your parents”, Ea answered, Aluric barely batted an eye, only slightly glancing towards Ea, because of what he just said,

“Go on”, Aluric spoke,

“ I remember a very vague memory of your dad, even though I was really young at the time, the one thing that always stood out about him was those deep green eyes he had, they were like if you were staring into a vast forest, you also have that same color to you eyes aluric”, Ea rambled on,

“what does my dead old man have to do with anything”, Aluric answered, as he stared at the people going about their everyday life,

“ well then what stood out to you the most about your mother ?”, Ea asked,

“her hair, that red hair that seemed to be on fire whenever we went outside, if you ask me it from what I remember it represented her personality perfectly, not to mention she loved outside so I would see that sight often”, Aluric answered abruptly,

“yes, it was indeed her hair, unlike the royal family whose hair is dark red and closer to the color of blood hers was vibrant and full of life, but don’t you find it strange that your hair even though red in color isn’t the same red as hers”, Ea said,

“what are you getting at Ea”, Aluric asked,

“while reading through my late uncle’s records that I found in his library I came across a telling bit of information, my grandfather one of the former kings of dracht had an illegitimate child, it was said upon her birth she had hair like fire, and surprise surprise, wouldn’t you know it so happens that that child was your mother, so that makes us cousins”, Ea explained,

“hmm…even if that were true why didn’t amon get red hair also, he looks everything like my dad, white hair and green eyes even down to the weapon they use it’s the same”, Aluric said,

“well your mother was a halfsie, and you and your brother only have ;like a quarter of royal blood in you so it’s possible the gene just skipped him”, Ea proposed,

“well if anything that only makes our bond as friends even stronger now”, Aluric said with a small smile on his face,

“so what’s the second thing you wanted to discuss”, Aluric asked,

“don’t you want time to process what I just said”, Ea asked aluric,

Aluric gave pause for a moment, “i’ll deal with it later, for now tell me what else it is you want to talk about,

“well it’s pertaining to the little incident earlier today I heard about with those four individuals, my sources tell me that they are tied to your brother and the rebel army”, Ea spoke as he gauged Aluric,

he sharply watched as Aluric turned from the window and took a seat across from him, resting his feet on the table with one arm over the back of the chair,

“so you heard about that already huh”, Aluric answered,

“Naturally I am going to be the ruler of this kingdom soon, so I like to be aware of anything that may seem important”, Ea answered,

“but on that same topic, Aluric, it’s time, your brother has resisted our efforts long enough and at this point has enough people following him that he can make an actual difference in the war, his forces have already stalled us from completely decimating Bolterra’s military, so I’ve decided it’s time to put an end to him’,Ea explained to him,

Aluric looked at him taking his feet off the table and sitting up right,

“you sure don’t hesitate to ask a guy to kill his own brother, but why now I’m sure we don’t have to rush to take him out”, Aluric asked,

“well about that, the church has already made it’s move”, Ea answered,

his eyes slowly drifted to the window on his right side, and Aluric’s eyes slowly followed, that when Aluric felt it, the slight presence of Divine energy mixed with a slight sense of bloodlust,

“how long have you noticed him ”, Aluric asked,

“he’s been spying on me for about two days now, however, the servant I sent to you earlier says he’s been spying on you a lot longer”,

“and you decided not to tell me because ?”, Aluric asked,

“didn’t want to tip him off or spook him”, Ea answered,

Outside the Palace

‘shit he noticed me’, the stranger thought to himself,

‘well I’ve heard and seen enough from both of them, so I think I’ll go ahead and tell that damned priest he can send in one or two of those so called heroes to stop this mess before it goes any further’, the stranger continued in his train of thought, as he got up and left before the prince summoned any guards to his current location.