At the battlefield, Harwen Goldkeep was nothing to his Officers. He was a spoiled brat, a nuisance. He was nothing but a green boy filled and fat with riches, ready to get slaughtered in the war. His father deemed him to be soft, and weak. And so his foolish father sent his firstborn son to war, to be a man on the battlefield. Harwen kept a loose and obnoxious accent from the countryside, his stiff movements were made fun off, he was beaten around by peasants just to get the satisfaction out of it. He was considered no nobleman in training or his household. Always a rat, nothing but rat, running with a loose tail.
"Get up, Harwen! I said get up you rat!" his Chief Officer yells at him, laying down in a trench and the clanging of steel were heard.
The enemy was armed with catapults, archers, and giants. Enormous boulders were plunging through the ground, the sound of men screaming, and dying was heard from all across the battlefield. Harwen was afraid, a coward. He was no man, no man ready to stand up to the war. And so the man deemed to be a craven snapped at the battlefield, he killed the opposing men and to him it was nothing but a sport. The green boy was fuming with anger and madness, the men around him treated him once a coward, now a monster. Every foe that would try and stand up to him, even if they were taller than eight feet, they would already have been buried to the ground, by the deemed feeble man himself. He was called a demon, the Hellion he was called.
"My Lord, send this boy home, he is dangerous. We cannot let him roam around your camp for too long." the chief officer stammered. He was talking to Lord Evan Wigmore of Westloche, a Lord known for his sword skills, commanding the third of the Wigmore army.
"Do you have any reason or any knowledge to how this young man cracked his shell?" the Lord taps his pen as he dipped it in ink. "Well? Answer me chief, I don't have the privilege of staying here today. I have dinner with the High King himself on the morrow. Oldsummer is eight days far from here." Lord Evan questions the chief officer with an intimidating voice as writes a letter for the High King.
The chief officer sweats and replies, "I-I don't understand my Lord, he brought this violence upon himself."
Lord Evan slams his hands down on the table and the Chief gets startled.
He sighs, "Well I'm upset that my most valuable officer can't seem to understand such as simple thing." Lord Evan puts his pen down. "I will not send the boy home, he's more valuable than you right now, you worthless Chief. We cannot let go of such a unit."
"But my Lo-"
Lord Evan slams his hands and stands up.
"No more of this foolishness chief. You are here to be my chief officer, my man at arms. Train my knights, my footmen and archers. Do not bring up these kind of things to my tent again. You made the Hellion who he is, your superiors had told me how you train rich noblemen chief, looks like your methods has made this one unstoppable didn't you now?" the Lord intimidates the chief
The chief stutters, "I-I apologize my Lord, I will go back to work immediately." the chief officer bows and walks out of the tent with a stiff body.
Lord Evan sighs as he leaves and he looks at his left and speaks, "Show yourself, whoever you are."
Harwen comes out from behind the tree and enters the tent. "You have a strong sense of your surroundings."
Lord Evan sits down and continues writing. "That's what happens when you serve in two wars. Now if you don't have any business with me, I suggest you go back to your quarters, Mister Goldkeep."
Harwen walks up and sits on the desk on his right and says, "Why won't you send me home, my Lord?" Harwen speaks with a monotone and deep voice. "I'm absolutely the monster everyone thinks of me so why are you still confident of my abilities?"
Lord Evan responds, "Harwen Goldkeep, son of the rich Halys Goldkeep. Your father supports us and brings us the needed weapons, we project his support into battle. He gives us his son and he can handle pretty much a quarter of the horde of Beastmen, why would I let such a strong force of nature go to his home and be an craven again."
Harwen laughs and says, "How touching my Lord. Tell me the truth, why do you keep someone like me in this camp, I can murder every single one of these men in their sleep tonight if I wanted to." Harwen says with a little hesitation in trying to intimidate Lord Evan.
"You're one tough kid." Lord Evan sighs, he calmly puts his pen down and drops his intimidating voice. "You're one good kid, Harwen. Maybe your old man will tell you that himself someday because I see it in you. Like my father he didn't think I'd have anything special so he sent me to war. Guess what it costed me. My most valuable men, my credibility as a warrior, and my friends. I became the Lord of Crystalfort with the inheritance of my Father, but he still looked up for me, in the end he was proud of me even if there were an amount of things that I've lost I still loved him for it. You'll know why I kept you in this camp someday."
A guard comes in the tent, his clothing of a white cloak was of the colors of Lord Wigmore's family the color of the clouds and the sky were dyed all the way to his toes, with the hard iron chest-piece silhouetted with the head of a Pegasus and wings on both sides, a symbolic sigil to the Wigmore family.
"My Lord the carriage you'll use for Oldsummer is here." the guard declares.
"I guess we'll have to continue this talk next time." Lord Evan stands up and pats Harwen's shoulder as he leaves the tent.
The sounds of grumbling gets louder as the Lord walks and Harwen hears a voice.
"Harwen, wake up. Wake up, man. Harwen!" Harwen opens his eyes and sits up his bed. Cadmus had woken him up from his sleep inside the Kosmikos Inn.
"It's day already, Ah, you have to be shittin' me." Harwen speaks up with a tired and stiff voice keeping his loose accent in the way.
The inn was large and it wasn't filled to the brim unlike other inns. The place was clean and comfortable, and it was far from all the noise in Rosmic, the town square.
Cadmus chuckles, "The Boroughs made us breakfast, it's apparently part of that discount they talked about yesterday." Cadmus leaves the room and walks in the hallway.
"Hey, wait for me!" Harwen shouts at him in the hallway while wearing his shoes. "Is Oakhaven here? That bastard had a full days sleep."
They walk down the stairs as Cadmus talks, "Yeah, but he apparently left hours ago. They told me was doing some kind of job in the Guild."
"Ah, he gave us a hell of a time charging that horde of orcs for hours and then he decides to leave?" Both of them laugh a little. Harwen approaches the bar, "Mmm, good old chicken soup. Haven't had one since I left the manor."
Rick laughs softly, "My wife's a fine cook, get a seat we'll serve it soon."
Cadmus squints and looks at Harwen and says, "Heh, the Manor? What are you some kind of nobleman? Not with that accent of yours." Rick pours a cup for Cadmus and drinks it.
Harwen sits down at the counter chair and looks at Cadmus. "Yeah, I'm from the House Goldkeep. As our name states. We are noblemen."
Rick joins in, "You mean you're related to the Halys Goldkeep who funds half the military?"
Harwen smiles. "The very same."
"Then I should have charged you extra with all the gold your family has." Rick puts out his hands.
Harwen backs up from Rick, "No, no, no. I earned all this money while I was fighting, can't spend it all right now."
Cadmus ask Harwen, "What? You earned all this money, yeah? Why don't you just ask your parents for more?"
"Can't," Harwen raises both hands. "said that I left the manor, Cadmus. That was like eight years ago."
Cadmus is puzzled. "I'm confused, you can go back to your house and get more money. I mean, what are you gonna do with the remaining silver and gold you have?"
Harwen shakes his head. "Nope, no can do. I left a long time ago, technically. I didn't. My father forced me out y'know. That's what noble parents do to their children when the age of twenty-one comes by."
"Sending your kid to war doesn't sound like nobleman act." Rick raises his eyebrows and turns around and goes back to the kitchen. "Hey, Rachel is that soup ready yet?"
Cadmus agrees and Harwen sits down and get ready for for the soup. Cadmus turns around as he hears the child inside a cradle sleeping.
"Thought you said you only had one child, Rick. Who's the kid?" Cadmus ask Rick.
"Yeah, I do only have one, a daughter. She works as a Herbalist and learning under Lord Storm-Meadow's Court Physician in Faywyvern." says Rick as he gives both of them a spoon and a bowl of soup.
Harwen looks a little surprised as he blows away the heat of the soup and says, "Your daughter works for a Lord huh. Wish I could serve some Lord, pays well up front. But I'm pretty sure I'll just get pissed off all the time." he takes and bites a piece of chicken.
"Who's the kid then?" Cadmus asks.
"Your friend Quinn picked the boy up from a rubble somewhere along the alleys, that's what he told me. He went to the guild to ask who the father is and that he had some other business to finish."
"So you're taking care of this kid for now." Cadmus replied.
Rick nods, "Yep, until he finds the kids father."
After Cadmus and Harwen finish breakfast, they head out of the inn.
"Thanks for the breakfast Miss Borough, we're going to head out to the guild." Cadmus smiles as he thanks both of them.
"Ah, thank you too." Harwen waves at both of the Boroughs as they leave the inn.
Cadmus asks, "What are you going to do at the guild?"
Harwen sighs, "My sword just broke the other day, I'm gonna go ask if there's a smith 'ere. You have any business to attend there?"
"Yeah, I'm gonna go check up on Quinn." something catches Cadmus' eye, "Hey look." Cadmus points as they enter the town-square.
The stars that landed on the town were carried by wagons all the way to the town-square. There were a pile of them brought and placed beside the guild.
"It still had light in it or something when we first saw it." Cadmus recalled.
Harwen replies, "Well, I'm guessing any of those won't matter anymore."
Both of them enter the guild to see that that the banner-men who held a meeting the day before stayed at the guild, they were talking at the common lobby with Cratus. The lobby was packed again like yesterday but there were more men who seem to have more armor than usual.
Guilds are mostly places where people that are called 'bounty hunters' or 'adventurers' claim their money from completed tasks called jobs or quests. These kinds of organizations were just created three years ago by the High King Maximillian Virthurst. There is a small difference with independent guilds though. The guild in Rosmic is called a Towns-Guild or an Adventurers-Guild and they're source of income are from the High King as they work for him. Independent guilds are legal but they have to be known and and approved by a Kingdoms Lord first. The said independent guild can't give any reward for any completed job or quest in their guild unless they have anything to be used as a source of income which comes from either the Guildmaster or the Guild Owner. The only way you can do jobs or quests for these independent guilds is to register in only one of them.
"Didn't realize that this place could get much more crowded after yesterday." Harwen scratches his head.
Cratus walks up to both of them. "Both of ya get any sleep?"
"Barely." Cadmus yawns. He looks the banner-men from yesterday walk out of the guild, climb up their horses and leave. "You hiding something Cratus?" he glares lightly at Cratus, "What did you talk about with those men?"
"I can't talk about it here, there might be someone we can't trust with this." Cratus replies. "Let's go upstairs. I'll tell you something about it."
They follow Cratus and walk through the crowd in the huge lobby and enters to get behind the counter. The noise from the lobby dissipates as they go upstairs. Cratus lets both of them in the Guildmaster's office and Cratus sits on his desk.
"Well what about the kings emissary that you can't tell anyone?" Harwen asks.
Cratus crosses his arms and talks. "The guy that talked to me was a Commander Irwin from Lord Storm-Meadow. Apparently the battle we experienced didn't just happen to our town."
Cratus gets a map from his desk and puts it on the table. He points at the city Faywyvern. Lord Storm-Meadow's City.
"Everything around the kingdom was either wiped out by the falling stars or by the attacks after. Those attacks happened exactly after the stars hit the ground. According to Lord Aven's letters, they say the exact same thing happened. Lord Aven said he gathered some scholars to study the dead creatures and stars."
Harwen gets confused and asks. "I don't get why that's a secret. If it happened all over the kingdom everyone across the continent will know it by the morrow."
Cratus lightens his deep voice. "That's not the point. The creatures that attacked took the forms of Orcs, Beastmen, Goblins, and any other creatures that mankind fought in the war. If the news got around to the world it won't suppress the peace we have any longer. It's may look like a big misunderstanding to anybody but it's still dangerous, any living creature can make something out of it and will try to start another war like news of us kidnapping and imprisoning their kind and using them as manslaughter. That's why the Commander had a Verthurst banner. Lord Aven informed King Maximus about this." Cratus urged with somewhat an amount of fear.
If the war lasted eleven years with the amount of races in the opposing continent, it might last even longer if the whole world decides to go on a killing spree.
"I don't know what the big deal is about. If it spreads out it might as well be a rumor. These creatures are not dumb. They know that all of them went home. Unless something else is happening that they want to go for an all out war." Cadmus blurts out.
Cratus sits down and replies, "Beastmen and Orcs are aggressive. They're intelligent but any Lord from the other countries can manipulate each other, they're sure to have revenge on us because we won the war and that they know we still kept on slaughtering people of their kind." he closes his eyes and sighs.
"Well I'll keep it in wraps. Don't wanna go on a rampage with those creatures again." Harwen replies as both him and Cadmus sits down on the chair.
Orcs, Beastmen, Giants, Goblins. Any other creature besides them were considered Monsters. They still had the ability to speak and be civilized but their aggression made them the monsters to mankind. Humans and the other races once lived with each other for a long time. But conflict always has a place in a world full of intelligent life. Ninety-Eight years later, mankind and other races still go at each others throat. The Elves and Dwarves helped each other with humans since the very beginning and they were what the humans needed until the very end. Their mental and physical abilities helped a lot in winning the war. But that was it. The Dwarves and Elves cannot coexist any longer in Ikaria because of the population so they decided to move out to a new continent. The High King wasn't against it so he still supported them in finding a new home. If the help is too far away then Ikaria will be a wasteland before the first century ever passes by.
A few moments later the three of them decided the guild. Harwen asked Cratus who's the best smith in Rosmic. Cratus household apparently owns a shop that Cratus' friend runs it for him and Cratus does all the smithing a little help.
"Cratus, did you tell Quinn about this?" Harwen asks while they're walking to the Blacksmith shop.
"Yeah, it looks like he was the most concerned out of everyone who knew about what I said. For a young kid in his age he looks like he's seen everything in this world." Cratus gets concerned about Quinn.
"Did he tell you where he went? He left the inn early." Cadmus asks.
Cratus responds, "He's in my shop. He picked up a few pieces from the stars and asked me where the shop is. My friend took him there earlier. He's most probably checking things out."
The three of them enter and the bell at the door chimes.
"Roy, are you here?" Cratus calls for his friend.
Sounds of metal clanging were coming from behind the shop. The three of them walk out the back to find Roy and Quinn making a spear head from something. The metal is glowing with yellow cracks unlike any steel. Roy pounds the steel to finish a little more touches of the spears head and stops, Quinn grips the glowing steel with blacksmith tongs and dips it in the water.
"Just let it rest there for a little while, I'll handle it from here." Roy suggests.
Cratus approaches them. "Getting busy in the afternoon huh."
"Yeah, it looks like those stars act like steel. We're trying to find out how it will look right after it cools down." Roy gasps as he puts down the hammer and stretches and his arms.
Harwen calls Quinn. "Hey Lancer!"
Quinn turns around and says, "Oh, is that my name now, 'Lancer'."
Cadmus chuckles and admits, "You might as well be the sword saint, I've heard what you did. Pushed those orcs off like it was nothing. Lucky bastards looked like they just watched you as push the horde."
Harwen recalls. "By the way, we got a little something from the Guild." Cadmus throws a bag and clinks in Quinns hand. "A few coins for your effort. Damned body of yours was bleeding all over, you immortal or somethin'?. Find a healer before you collapse."
"Old wounds, trust me I've had worse." Quinn puts his fist and reassures, "I trust my body more than anything." He opens the bag and finds more than a few coins. "Did you split all of this up?"
Harwen shakes his head. "No keep it, it's all yours mate. It's from the king. For your war effort."
"The emissaries told me to give it to you personally." Cratus adds.
"The king?" Quinn. "This is a two hundred gold coins, I can't take this."
Cadmus sighs, "Take it, Quinn." he insisted. "I mean you deserve this more than we do."
Quinn looks at the coins in his hand and grips it tightly. "Then we split it all up. I got more than I need." he humbly suggested.
He gives the four of them a quarter of gold that was in the bag.
"Are you sure about this?" Roy questions his decision to split up the gold. "One gold is a hundred silver coins. You can do a lot with it."
Quinn laughs softly and says, "Well I'm not a person of ambitions, go ahead. I just want that spear of yours done. Quickly now before I take it back."
Harwen smiles and responds. "Then drinks on me tonight, I'll use all of it immediately Sir Lancer."
They share a little laughter and thanks to the gold that Quinn gave them. Harwen reminisces to the past, in the countryside doing nothing but bet and participate in horse races. The northeast countryside of Ikaria was different from anything else, it was the most peaceful place he had ever though of. Harwen wasn't like any other noblemen. He desired freedom and living it all out with the common people worked out for him.
"Let's see that spear in action." says Cratus as he attached the final piece, the pole to the spear head.
Quinn takes the spear and is surprised by the sharpness of the spear. "What are we gonna call the steel?" He takes a few swings of the spear.
"Heh, we're gonna figure that out sometime later. How is it?" Cadmus curiously asks.
"Same old spear, it's just sharper than a normal one." Quinn wonders, "Maybe you can try getting more steel to make a sword, could be a more logical way to test out how sharp and heavy it is."
Harwen interrupts. "You won't name it? I'll gladly name it after me. The Gold Keep Steel. How 'bout that." He shrugs and chuckles. "I'm a genius what can I say."
They finish up a few more touches, grinding and woodcutting the pole of the spear, Harwen and the others head up to the guild to meet to what looks like another messenger inside the guild. This time the men came from Lord Storm-Meadow himself.
"Cratus Highgriffin, we need to talk to your privately." The man hands out a scroll to him with the a blue seal with the emblem of a Wyvern, it represents the kingdom and city of Faywyvern.
"Then, would you mind if my bring my other companions?" Cratus points behind his head to the three veterans.
The mans eyes enlarges as he sees Harwen and Quinn. "Th-the Hellion a-and? Lancer!?" the men looked shock in seeing the both of them.
Quinn looks at Harwen. "That Hellion? Looks like an ordinary nobleman to me."
"I get no titles?" Cadmus crosses his arms and sighs. Both Harwen and Quinn chuckles.
"They know about the kings message, do you mind if we bring them along to my office?" Cratus insists in involving them with this matter.
"S-sure. We need all the help we can get for this one." The man stammers in responding to Cratus.
"Need all the help?" Cratus repeats.
With all that's been going on it seems that every hours passes by very quickly. The sun dims and the sky's getting darker little by little as night falls in an instant. The emissaries look pale from a days travel as the heat of the sun inside their armor made them look feeble and enervated. They lay down the rest of their weapons and undo the straps from the armor plates from their neck to toe. Harwen takes a glance through the young emissaries and feels emphatic to the torment they got just from a days travel. Advancing through grasslands and forests may not be difficult as it seems but the excessive amount of strain you face in riding is a struggle that a lot of people don't understand.
The emissaries exchange scarce details from Lord Aven to not keep much more time from Cratus. According to the emissaries the Lord wants to form groups of men to consider a meeting with him to seize an arising issue that could cause Havoc to the neighboring kingdoms. Soon after briefing Cratus, the emissaries left to rest somewhere else, they gave Cratus of what was the remaining messages written in the sealed scroll. It lasted quite a long time for any Lord of a kingdom to hold a council to all Guildmasters. Cratus read the scroll and it required that a representatives should travel to the city of Faywyvern and present himself to the Lord in five days. It was mentioned in the letter that there were sightings of monsters and the abundance of towns and cities that were deserted in the kingdom, anyone nearby will have to remain cautious until the crisis has dissipated. Cratus hands it to the town herald to announce the next day to the citizens in front of the town square and guild.
Harwen and the others decide to go back to the inn to discuss other matters related to Lord Aven with Cratus. They consider the options they have with the invitation.
"I'll put the three of you in my place. I'll get horses and anything you need, the three of you will ride for the city. Quinn, you know Lord Storm-Meadow better than any of us. Talking to him for the town might result into useful things, I have to safe guard this town and take care of a lot of business. The corpses of people and these orcs are withering and our defenses are crippled. Some of my men are tired and injured." Cratus insists on giving Quinn the invitation. "The days it will take to get to Faywyvern City is well enough to be put in the effort of restoring and reassuring that this town will be safe."
Quinn sighs and ponders, "Fine, how many days is it going to take to ride for the city?"
Cratus responds, "If you want to be there right away it will take a day but you'll tire out your horses."
Harwen adds, " It'll be faster if we don't use the Wyvern road, but it'll be risky. We won't know what we're going to run into."
"Then we'll take your route, we're not in any rush in any way so we can pack up in a few days." Quinn suggests.
"It'll be better if you leave on the morrow. Lord Storm-Meadows men will be going back the same day. Those kids look like their quivering just from the travel, they can probably use some of your help on the road." Cratus preferred going with more men to make it to the city safe and sound. If the rumors are true, those creatures will get aggressive as it can be.
"Your route won't bring us any unwanted attention, Harwen. I'll go with both of your ideas." Quinn agrees with both of their propositions.
Cratus stands up and walks to the door. "I guess that's it for for tonight, I'll be going back to the guild. See me tomorrow if you need anything, I'll be preparing your horses while you are resting here." He waves at them as he closes the door of the inn with the sound of the door bells ringing.
Cadmus yawns. "I'm skipping dinner, My body's stiffened up from all that walking and talkin'." he stands up and goes upstairs.
"You not gonna sleep? You look pretty tired." Quinn asks Harwen.
"Nah, I'm gonna stay here for a while. Got some things on my mind." Harwen replied.
Quinn nods and gasps with. "This Orc Lord sounds more out of his mind than it seems. It sounds like he's already trying to get his hands on this so he can pull every army to his side. I understand why the King wants to keep this to ourselves."
"So we need to clean up the shit we didn't do?" he sighs. Harwen looks at Miss Borough cradling the crying boy in her arms and asks Quinn. "What are you gonna do with the kid?"
"I'm going to try and bring him to the city, I couldn't find his father. The chief advisor told me that the woman's name was Elliot Northhaven but she had no husband." Quinn's face puzzles.
"You gonna drop this kid off the streets, into adoption?" Harwen curiously asks.
Quinn looks at the at the kid and mumbles. "I don't know." he ponders and says, "Maybe I'll keep the kid after this whole thing is done, but for now I'll try to find someone that can raise him there."
"You adopting him sounds better, I know for a certainty that the Ikarian war hero can raise a great child." he sniggered.
"I'll come up with something." Quinn replied.
"He was hiding something." Harwen mumbles.
"Who?"
"Cratus," Harwen declares, "it looks like an awfully bad cover up. He said that this information mustn't leak out to other kingdoms. You think we're being some kind of pawns here, like we're pieces on a chess board? No one. No one would dare go back to war based on a noise from another country. It's nothing but gibberish to me. Or maybe, you think it's because of these stars? That spear of yours, it's made from it and it's sharper than any weapon I've gripped."
"Maybe something else we haven't discovered, for now." Quinn reflects on the things that has happened in the past two days.
After all the news sounds like nonsense, it coming from the King doesn't make more of sense to both of them. Either another war is growing as they speak but Harwen cannot think of any more possibilities that can come out of this.
The night comes by Rosmic, it was as if another minute has just passed by, the hissing sounds of wood burning down in the fireplace pulls Harwen's eyes together and he falls asleep, crossing his arms filled with anger of the past. Harwen was fuming an aura from the things he has done but the moonlight and the breeze that he feels with his new friends after the war calmed his presence. Rosmic is a town of peace, anywhere in near the central part of Ikaria has one of the most fascinating kingdoms. No war has ever torn apart any city nor kingdom and that was to be grateful with.
The task of the three men were to gather at the city of Faywyvern, it is place notorious for it's Wyvern's but it brings no danger to people. They are calm creatures of complex breeds same to the Dragons but they were diverse beings in their instincts. Dragons are behemoths, and monstrous, any creature they see will be either torn apart or burnt to ashes. It is known to be utterly arduous to tame any dragon and only one in this current era is known to hold one in his hands. Harwen thought it would be a great burden to endeavor and venture all the way to to the city of Faywyvern.