Chereads / Death Blues and Beyond / Chapter 3 - A new life

Chapter 3 - A new life

Whats, what's happening, did I make it, who am I, where am I.

My name is Aed, Aed Mass.

Not so, my name is Darian Leye.

No my name was Aed Maas, and now it's Darian Leye, but who was he, is he and what has happened, I cannot remember.

I think I was dead, then he was dead, but then we were no longer so.

It was done to us, I asked for it, no I chose and fate choose and all because he was already dead, but what happened to him

My stomach feels as if it has seen better day and I need to vomit up that which is causing it, do I not

Was he sickly, suicidal or was it not by his will but that of another?

The last thing I can remember is going to bed aboard the ship

No the last thing I remember was getting ready for the transfer of my soul into the body of someone who had just died on the planet Cantarus.

I must have arrived successfully, mustn't I, what was the name I must use now, the name of the dead persons whose body I now reside in, Darian Lay.

That sounds a little off, doesn't it?

Yes, it does but leye isn't right either so it must be... Leye then.

They said it would only take a short while to integrate the two memories and not everything would completely integrate such as little things like personal preferences and the like.

Maybe it is best to start thinking about myself as Darian Leye now and not my original self or perhaps as if I just changed my name to Darian Leye.

Either way, I now must answer to the name Darian Leye and work from there.

So what is my name, why it's Darian Leye

Now, who the heck is Darian Leye?

The eldest son of Adrian Leye one time merchant and now the new Baron of Yasia and Protector of the Nolian Islanders. Yasia is one of the Baronies of Celeste Island and the Nolian Islanders are one of the three surviving native tribes of the Celeste Archipelago.

And I think the previous owner of this body was poisoned and not by his own hand.

No I know he was, we were since I can clearly remember becoming violently sick after drinking the sleeping draft. That damned purser knowingly or not he sold me a poison sleeping draft, what about that seasickness draft I got for father was it poisoned two. Is he dead, I need to wake up and check on Adrian, they said it would take a little while after integrating the two sets of memory, for me to gain full control of the new body and that while I would be fully aware until then I would remain unconscious.

Might as well make use of that time to go over Dorian's memories and the extra they but in figure out what I know about the planet I now find myself on and my current circumstances.

Cantarus is the fourth of ten planets and many other objects out from its solar systems sun and it rotates around it every 354 days. A day is made up of 24 hours each of which is 60 seconds long and there are 12 months in the year each of which 29 days long.

The planet has two moons, Moud is about the size of Earths moon and Munu is about two thirds that. Of the ten planets in the solar system, only seven are currently known to the inhabitants of Cantarus who still have a geocentric world view.

As far as Dorian knew the planet has two continents Nostrum and Teorum, which are separated by the Aurtis Sea with the Celeste Archipelago in between them. The Celeste Archipelago is made up of many different islands around 15 of which are inhabited, the largest of these is Celeste.

The Celeste Archipelago is politically divided between the Balterum Empire in the South and the Teorum Imperium in the North. Celeste is the northernmost island controlled by the Balterum Empire and the largest island in the archipelago.

The Teorum Imperium rules about half of the continent of Teorum and has existed in one form or another for the past 700 years but has only been as powerful as it is now for about the last 75 years, this was mainly achieved by conquest. The rest is divided between the Kingdom of Vetris and the Bolus Republic.

The Balterum Empire rules over about three-fifths of the continent of Nostrum, the rest of which is divided into a large ever-changing number of kingdoms, city-states and the like. It was formed 512 years ago from the ruins of the Ostrun Empire and has been ruled for the last 189 years by the Guval family who seized it from the family of the empires founders in a bloody civil war.

The Ostrun Empire had been in the middle of acquiring the Celeste Archipelago from its natives when it fell. The founder of the Balterum Empire, Banasser Miset had been in charge of the efforts to do this and when he heard about the empires fall he decided to continue his task and not involved himself with the struggle over its ruins until he had done so.

When the largest Celeste Island tribe surrendered to the invaders, after two years of hard struggle, it's shaman made a prophecy that from the ruins of a nearby house a new one would arise and damned all those who dared to hinder its construction.

Unknown to but a few the shaman whispered a second prophecy directly into the ear of Banasser that said as long as a single descendant of his tribe lived this new house would prosper but if they ever died out a terrible fate would befall it. After they surrendered Banasser resettled them on Nolian and their descendants still live there to this day.

Once he had finished conquering the archipelago Banasser Miset dedicated the last 27 years of his life to founding an empire from the ruins of the old one, finally taking control of the old capital of the Ostrun Empire the day before he died.

Darian Leye, the eldest son of Adrian Leye was 23 when he died and his body was taken over by another. Adrian Leye, his father was 51 old and he has 2 other sons Eudo(21) and Forne(19) plus one daughter called Abigail(17). Darian's Great Great Grandfather Arthur had been the Duke of Cantai whos seventh son Darian had become a merchant and had prospered as did his son Gilbert.

Two years ago Adrian had somehow, the particulars were never explained to Darian, learned of a plot to overthrow the 16-year-old Balterum Emperor Aubree Guval by a cabal of nobles. He had somehow, this again had never been explained, gotten the news to someone he trusted in the Imperial Guard. This news had arrived just in time to thwart an assassination attempt on the Emperor and after a 14-month civil war, the conspirators had been utterly defeated.

As a reward for his service, he had been rewarded with the Barony of Yasia and its associated titles. He had handed over control of his mercantile efforts to his second son Eudo and taken his heir Adrian and daughter Abigail with him to his new lands, temporarily leaving Forne in Eudos care to follow later.