Edward sat silently, staring at Marid. Fear showed on his face.
"Wha... what is this creature?" The veer asked hesitantly, but all that ran through his mind was whether his plans failed or not. Did the captured veer know him? Did he speak of their kin? Did he say anything about magic? What was he going to do? Carrying on with his play was all he had left. The veer was chained from head to toe, guards were pointing their pikes all around him. His face was covered and only his lips showed.
"Great Lord save us. What is this creature your highness?" He inquired once again.
"We captured this thing last night. In the blue forest. We also captured a Sahr who claimed to be this creature's novice." Answered Edward.
Feet and hands shackled, the veer clacked with every tiny movement. His mouth twitched, he was also bleeding.
"Uncover his face." Commanded the king.
Don't. Thought Marid who started to get nervous.
One of the guards pulled the cover off of the chained veer's face. His eyes were blinking, adjusting to the light in the room. The moment he opened them wide, they locked on Marid. Anger rose in his features but he kept quiet.
Good. The king's counsellor secretly sighed in relief. Don't speak and I will get you out of this. I promise.
The captured veer slightly bowed his head as if to agree to Marid's thoughts.
"Speak your name beast." Ordered Edward.
He hesitated, still eyeing Marid.
"Erving. My name is Erving, Edward king of the decaying." He spat.
The guards shook him and poked him with their spikes, until the king ordered them to stop. The miserable being groaned and snapped in agony.
"Tell Marid here, what are you, why were you in that forest and what business you had with that valkai." Commanded the king in a very calm and threatening voice.
"Peace be upon the worthy, worshiping time and again." He answered staring at the king. "From thou I came, and to thou I return."
O' Mighty thou were, and Mighty thou will be. The prayer rang in Marid's mind. He is planning something. He thought. I should do something before he ruins everything.
"Tis not time for prayers. Answer. What are you?" The king insisted.
"I am the sailor of God's boat. I am a mighty wave crushing against your sand castle. Your ruin. Free me or you will regret it." Erving finally answered.
Edward laughed, chuckling and shaking his head amusingly. His arms crossed on his chest. Marid shivered. The guards were terrified. They know how merciless their king can be. A laughter that can send fear through peoples' hearts is a curse with a sweet taste of power. "Bold words for someone on the verge of execution." He said.
Marid walked near the king enough to whisper in his ear. "I think it is better to not anger him. We don't know what this creature might be capable of. It is best if we discuss with him peacefully and not threaten his life."
The king looked at Marid, with very deep and doubtful sharp eyes. His thick eyebrows were perfectly bent and as black as his long hair. He might as well have been the divinest creature you could ever lay your eyes on. The king was dressed in a silver dress that shone like fish's scales, topping it with a dark blue velvet cape in gold at its ends. His golden crown was thin with a dark green emerald in the middle.
"Let me do the talking your highness, if you may." Proposed Marid.
Edward fell silent. Smiling at Marid.
He probably knows. The veer thought. He probably already knows about me.
"Alright. Bring be answers." The king finally agreed.
Marid smiled and bowed his head. The Titan king ordered his guards to lower their weapons and to free Erving from his shackles. The veer didn't move an inch.
"Leave them alone. Guard the doors nobody comes in and nobody leaves until I get answers." He commanded. "I will be in my chambers if you have what I'm asking for. Send word to me if you are done with him." He told Marid.
Everyone did as the king bid them to. He was escorted to his room by two of the same guards that held Erving captive. The rest left the great hall, leaving no one but the two veers.
"I think it was very stupid of you to keep your real name." Said Erving. "Your absence didn't go unnoticed. Your father paid hunters to track you down and kill you. The Doomed are looking for you. You are a threat to our people or so they claim, considering you were a priest once."
"I am not the only trespassing Veer. You are here as well." Marid protested.
"I am no one. I have no lordly father nor was I a veer of faith. Nobody will come looking for me. They are looking for Mahavhar as well, except that nobody can take him down. He is unreachable. He is after all the first to deny God's words." Erving changed his shape into that of a Valkai. His left eye was golden, the other one was dark. His short hair was curly chestnut.
"The doomed should not worry us now. We need to find a way to get you out of here without endangering any of us." Marid was dressed in a dark red velvet tunic with a silver belt on his waist matching the embroidery on his sleeves. "The king wants to know about falak. He believes that king Reynar is using it to fight him. I do not doubt that."
"Why didn't you teach him?" Asked the veer.
"I didn't not introduce myself as a veer. He does not know, and I would like to keep it that way. Otherwise he would see me a menace to his position. He is a very cynical person." Answered Marid, pulling a chair a seating himself on it, staring vacantly in front of him. "But you can teach him. You can get yourself out of this mess by teaching some of his soldiers. I heard Sahr can learn magic, unlike the rest of their kin. Agree to his terms and set yours, and you will be free of him."
"I can free myself. The only reason I didn't earlier was to have a word with you first. I wanted to warn you about you father, but I assume you already knew." Erving said, pulling a chair as well, to sit in front of Marid. "I do not wish to teach him anything. He is arrogant and his spirit is hollow. Unlike you, and unlike most of our kin, I do not hate the Valkai. I like their ways, I think they are fascinating creatures. Strong and full of life. The Valkai they caught, his name is Salmanazar. He is a skilled shipwright. A sahr as well, and my friend."
"They will torture him after in order to get the answers they need, and then execute him for high treason because he kept his knowledge secret." Declared Marid.
Erving stood up furiously, heading towards the door and shapeshifting into his natural form. The red veins on his body were pumping.
"You can save him." Said Marid before Erving reached the door.
"I teach them Sahr and they release my friend unharmed?" Stated the angry veer, turning towards Marid.
"It's the only way." Answered Marid in a very soft and sorry tone.
"Alright." That left a very sour taste in his throat.
"Guards!" Marid cried. The door opened and the two guards who were standing behind it got inside in very cautious steps. "Send a word to his majesty. Tell him, king Reynar will have a taste of his own treachery."
The following days, Erving taught Valkai soldiers magic, the same way I did with Reynar's. Marid insured his position and his identity. Everything went smoothly for both sides, and the great battle was getting nearer day by day. King Reynar became more confident, maybe even too much.
"Edward will soon regret picking up a fight he can't handle. I will drag him down, and make him pay for everything. He will soon know that the wrath of the wise can bring down the mightiest of titans." Reynar was feasting with his court. Bragging about how powerful his people are, how unbreakable they have become. He introduced me to all his mighty lordly friends.
"Mahavhar is God's light. He came to our aid when everything seemed hopeless. And one day we will rule this earth side by side. Peacefully." I remember him declaring loudly for all ears to hear. People drank to my name and sang songs about me, and yet I still felt uneasy. Something wasn't going right and not being able to figure it out killed me inside little by little.
My time in the realm of the Valkai was limited, like every other Veer, we needed to travel back to our doomed world for a while otherwise we would fall in an infinite unpleasant sleep. It happened to some of the first trespassing veers, who still can't wake up. Being neither alive nor dead was worse than being immortal with no purpose. And while Valkai kings schemed and orchestrated their war, something great was about to happen that none of the living dreamed of.
Sometimes, those we deem insignificant are those who can turn the tide of fate, and I learned that the hard way. Sahr, who up until that point of history were seen as odd and freaks, grew stronger with magic lessons, they mastered our own gift and made it a tool of their own. Some of those I taught myself, showed prowess and great talent to become stronger than a veer, my ploy was at risk.
One day, one of the sahr will realize they're strong enough to walk away from their kings quarrel, they will unite against everyone else and I will be doomed forever. I remember thinking one night when the moon rose for the last time that year. Will my tomorrows ever be the same? Will You not talk to me again? Will You not show me Your face one last time? I will not stop until You speak to me. The deity never answered that night, and I did not stop. I need to be one step ahead, always.
Two weeks before the great battle of that time, Grigori, the son of the king came to me one morning while I was reviewing the battle's strategy with three of the leading warlords. He was a Sahr and he was smarter than his father.
"It is nigh. Our fate is being sealed day by day. The knot is getting tighter and what for?" He said. "I never wanted to be part of this. Why not surrender? Why fight back?" He slightly leaned to investigate the maps on table. His fingers ran free on where his father's kingdom was drawn.
"Because we can win." I remember answering. I ordered the three valkai to leave us alone.
"We?" He amusingly asked. "This war does not concern you. If things go wrong you can easily walk away and disappear, back to where you came from." He pulled a stone from his pocket, he was dressed in a very delicate and soft silver dress. His dark skin was glowing, he had his mothers eyes, dull and dark. "Will these be enough? My main stone is that of burning ice. Will ice help me defeat my father's foes?" He stopped for a long while and looked at me. "Who are my father's foes?"
"Edward the Titan. He is marching to your doors right now, while we discuss morals and hesitations. Your foes will break down your walls, enslave your friends, murder your wives and children, the way they did with the northern kingdom. Burdock is now a fool in the Titan's court. I don't think you would appreciate such end." I warned him.
"I will be nobody's fool. Why should we, Sahr, even bother with this war. We are superior now. If I was born to a farmer's house, I would have been feeding cows and mar while my siblings learn spelling and healing. Sahr were nothing. We scared people and they shut us away. Now Sahr are the future." He declared confidently what I feared the most.
There it is. What bothered me. What I couldn't figure out. The rotten apple in my golden barrel.
I remember smiling warmly, and in that moment I pitied him. I pitied him for being the first fish to swim upstream. With the entire kingdom being focused on the upcoming war, it was my one and only chance to get rid of him and his convictions. The poor thing didn't see what was coming for him. I grabbed his arm tightly and said "You are doomed."
I trespassed to the veer realm and I dragged him with me. To tell you the truth, I had no idea it could work, but it did. And there he was, frightened like a child, shaking like a leaf. His fear got worse when he saw my true form.
"What are you doing Mahavhar?! Where are we?! What have you done?!" He desperately asked, falling to his knees.
"You are doomed, there is no going back now. I am sorry."
He was still very confused to understand what was going on, all he did was stare at me in bafflement. The mist was light, and it was cold. Oh, so cold.
"Peace be upon the worthy, worshiping time and again. From thou I came, and to thou I return. O' Mighty thou were, and Mighty thou will be." I chanted for his soul respectfully. Veer were once pious creatures and we viewed execution as sacred. I never was, but I thought I owed Grigori this. Unlike other veers, he couldn't feel my spell and repel it, so he unknowingly surrendered to it. Blood burst out of his ears, eyes and mouth and he collapsed on his back, agonizing. I pulled my knife out of my palm. Tore his dress and the silk shirt underneath it, thrust my knife in his chest and through his breastbone. I cut him open and I saw his two hearts, beating their last moments. I took his left heart first, then the middle one. I stared at him one last time and left.
When I trespassed back to the valkai world, I took Grigori's form and told everyone Mahavhar was gone for a while. I also started crafting the greatest stones the world will ever see, the two stones that will drag both worlds to chaos. I named the first Umbar for death and I sealed Grigori's left heart in it. The second one, I named after him, after merging his middle heart with that of a demon and making it the strongest of the two.
Will You talk to me now? Will You stop me? The deity didn't answer this time either.
The promised day came and with it came drums harmonising with the soldiers heavy steps and the rhythmic padding of Mar's hooves. War cries soared upon king Reynar's army, leaving the fortress to face king's Edward forces, who arrived the day before and were awaiting them few miles away from the great walls of the capital. Dawn was rising and I remember seeing vultures flying above the battlefield. A feast. I thought.
I was still in Grigori's form and leading his flank to battle, when one of the Sahr soldiers walked next to me. His helmet was hiding his entire face, leaving only his eyes.
"The left flank will follow us like we planned, my lord. Once we raise the flag both sides will join power. We need to stay alarmed. We spoke with our friends yesterday, they will not fight as well." He reported enthusiastically.
The golden barrel was rotten already. I couldn't think or react, I only stared at him and nodded. The Sahr had already allied and plotted against the two kings. They understood and acknowledged their worth. They weren't going to fight the war of a weaker race. They were stronger and they knew they could do better.