Kapitel 3: Princess Aleyria (1)

Chapter 3

Rin-Turah

3 days ago

All was quiet in the forest. It was the first day of spring, and every other forest across the land was abuzz with new life. The cold and hard winter was finally over. The merciless ice had given way to life-giving water, and life burst forth in a wild celebration of colours. Birds of every shape and size filled the air with songs of joy. Mammals big and small bustled about, hunting and being hunted, fighting for food and for the right to mate. The circle of life resumed in earnest.

Every other forest, except one. It was as though time had forgotten about this particular forest, and left it in the deep, unforgiving cold of winter. No sunlight pierced through its dense foliage, and nothing stirred. A silence as unnatural as the cold smothered the air.

Deep in the heart of this forest, Princess Aleyria sat all alone. Though no wind blew, her long, white hair billowed out behind her and her white robes strained back against her body. Black and white streaks of pure energy mixed with blue lightning bolts raced toward her from all directions and swirled around her in a frenzy of arcane power. The magical vortex grew larger and larger as it raged and struggled to explode outward in a destructive blast. But it never did.

Princess Aleyria maintained perfect control over the chaos around her, weaving and perfecting the fabric of her magic. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the magical vortex slowed. Black streaks of wild energy gradually turned white, and the blue flashes of lightning merged into circular orbs that danced around her. With a final burst of light, the magical vortex turned completely white and disappeared completely. Her luxurious white hair fell slowly into place and her robes settled around her gracefully.

Princess Aleyria opened her eyes. And as she did so, life returned to the forest. The magical pressure lifted and everywhere, flowers began to bloom with surprising alacrity as though they were trying to make up for lost time. All the animals crept forth from their hiding places and began to live once more. Spring had finally arrived for this particular forest. Princess Aleyria, the White Archmage, has had her fill.

*-*-*

Aleyria stepped out of the forest in a great mood. She was in such high spirits, she almost skipped her way out of the forest. But she did not because she was a mage, and mages have supreme control over their bodies. Well, most of them. She put her hands in the long volumous arm sleeves of her white robe and strolled out into bright sunshine.

Her teacher, Crown Prince Aloxandros, had just been Coronated as King the day before, and she had successfully managed to escape from the following stuffy receptions, claiming that she needed to recharge her Magic Power in the Forest of Rin. The celebration with the foreign delegates had gone on for an entire day yesterday, and today, the newly crowned King Aloxandros will entertain his ministers and the nobles of the country. She had no wish to participate in such a boring event.

Just outside of the forest, her three red-robed personal guards sat on their red horses while holding the reins of her white horse. They were expecting her. Though they did not see the spectacle that occurred within the forest, they could sense the chaotic power that slowly increased in strength and later surged into a terrifying intensity. And of course the eventual sense of peace that returned to the forest as the powers were pacified.

"You look really happy, mistress." commented Shiranui, a beautiful human girl of only 19 summers, as she led Aleyria's horse to her.

"True, that. What is your happiness, mistress?" asked Kan-Dari in her sing-song voice as she rode up to her Mistress's side. Kan-Dari is an elf maiden from the elven kingdom, Elgandar. Though the oldest of the group by decades, she was still young by elven standards.

"Well, for one thing, it is a beeautiful day!" replied Aleyria happily as she climbed on her horse. "And for another, I've decided that we spend the rest of the day in the city!"

"For real, mistress?" asked Shiranui, her eyes shining bright in excitement. "Even until dinner time?"

Kan-Dari burst into a peal of laughter.

"Food! All you think about is food! Kan-Dari poked Shiranui with her wand and fell in place beside her, in front of Aleyria and their third comrade.

"You eat like a starved hunter and yet, you're still so slim! Mistress, I suspect magical misconduct! She must have placed some sort of enchantment on her body so that she can eat all the time and not get fat! Let us hang her!" she proclaimed.

Aleyria laughed even as Shiranui snapped at Kan-Dari.

"I did no such a thing! Unlike you, I routinely train my body." She gestured daintily at her well toned body and said, "Here in this body is fifteen years worth of training in the fine arts of the swordmanship! Not that you will ever understand."

Kan-Dari snorted uncharacteristically and stated, "And fifteen years worth of untempered pride! Back in Elgandar, you would be thoroughly whipped for such arrogance!"

"Arrogance! There is no arrogance in me! I am the humblest of the humble! I am humility itself!" Shiranui proclaimed grandly and rather contradictorily.

"There, that's exactly what I meant. Only the arrogant say that they are humble! You are the true embodiment of arrogance. A.. A wolf in sheep's clothing!" Kan-Dari accused Shirarunui rather proudly herself for being able to use a human expression.

"Ha! Pile folly upon laziness, will you? Not only you don't exercise and thus accumulate fat, you misuse linguistic phrases the way a bandit misuse their ship!"

"Did you just call me a fat bandit?!"

Aleyria smiled as she allowed the two best friends to lead the way to the city. She knew they would bicker the entire way there and then some more as they argued where they should go first. Though few in the continent can match their arcane prowess, they were still little girls at heart. She was happy to allow the two loud girls dictate what they would do in their rare day off.

She glanced at her third and final personal guard who had remained silent all this while. Liz'An, the Zantroll.

"Your silence worries me, Liz'An." Aleyria said gently. "What troubles you?"

Liz'An turned to look at her Mistress. Her horse shifted uncomfortably beneath her weight.

Trolls were a huge and powerful warrior race. The males stand over seven feet tall and were naturally blessed with vicious sharp tusks that can pierce even the thickest animal hide, long arms that end in four sharp claws, short elbow blades and thick-skinned feet that were thicker than boots.

The females were not as tall, and they do not have tusks like the males. But even then, they tower above the other races. They were walking weapons, and they knew it. As such, there had never been a troll mage in their entire history. Until now.

"My sincerest apologies, Mistress. I did not mean to put dampen your high spirits." Liz'An responded.

"Ah pooh, since when do you apologize for things like this?" Aleyria replied with a laugh. "Quit being so miserable and talk to me!"

Liz'An smiled her fearsome troll smile.

"You know the rumors better than anyone else, Princess. They say the Zantrolls are mobilizing at the border. They say King Dirz'On has appointed a fearsome General to lead them into combat. They say they will invade Rin-Turah come summer time."

"'They' say many things Liz'An. And not all of them are true." Aleyria chided her gently. "It is not for us mages to dwell in rumors. Either they are, or they are not. Keep your thoughts on the things that are, and the things that will be."

Liz'An remained silent for a while. Ahead, the two girls were still deep in their squabbling. Something about pirates and their pet parrots and monkeys. A cool breeze blew, and the smells of the city wafted by. Food, dust, the sweat of travelers and their mounts, the stink of the sewers and the distinct fragrance of incense and myrrh. Somewhere in the distance, a bell chimed dolefully, as though giving voice to Liz'An's heavy heart.

"So, are they massing soldiers in the border, Mistress?" Liz'An asked. Beside her, Aleyria sighed. "Am I rightly worrying about this?" Liz'An continued.

"I am born Zantroll but I am bred a Mage. My allegiance is to Rin-Turah and so is my heart. But my blood is Zantroll. It is a heavy weight upon my heart to think that they might invade." Liz'An's sorrow was so great that a single tear rolled down her rough skin.

Aleyria sighed again. She knew she would have to talk about this with Liz'An sometime soon. Apparently the time is at hand. "The Zantrolls will come." She said quietly.

"We had hoped that the Coronation of King Aloxandros might give us a chance at diplomacy. But King Dirz'On had denied all allegations of invasion. Already his advance scouts cross into our Kingdom at night, mapping our lands and marking spots where they can make camp.They will not wait for summer to invade. They will be here in a few short weeks. Maybe even in a few days"

Liz'An gasped. "So it is true! They are invading us!"

At this, Shiranui and Kan-Dari paused their squabbling and turned their heads back to look at Liz'An and Aleyria.

"Who is invading us?" Shiranui asked, as she and Kan-Dari slowed their mounts to draw alongside their friend and Mistress. "The Zantrolls?"

"Are the rumors true, Mistress?" Kan-Dari added.

Aleyria looked at the girls gravely said in a troubled voice, "Yes. The Zantrolls come. And our best efforts to deter them have failed. It seems that their King is hellbent on making Rin-Turah his to rule."

Shiranui placed her hand on Liz'An's broad shoulders. She would have placed her arms around Liz'An but for the simple fact that she could not. Liz'An was too big, and even placing her hand on Liz'An's shoulders almost brought her arms into a full stretch.

"You are Rin-Turah now, Liz'An, as I am." Kan-Dari said gently. "This is your home, and we are your family. Elgandar and Zan are but a memory for us. Let them remain so."

"I understand." Liz'An replied brokenly. "But my heart does not." Kan-Dari stretched out her arm and touched Liz'An sympathetically on her shoulders too. "What will happen, Mistress, should they attack us?" Liz'An whispered with dread.

Aleyria sighed a third time, and said very simply. "They will die."

*-*-*

The group rode in silence for a while after that, each lost in their own dark thoughts. As they trotted steadily onward, the path they were on slowly grew wider and wider until the simple trodden path gave way to cobblestones.

"Look, Mistress, the Western Main! Shiranui pointed excitedly at the main road that was finally visible.

Aleyria smiled and shook her head affectionately at her excitement over such a mundane issue. Kan-Dari smiled too and held back her withering comment. They had served Aleyria together for over a year now, and had grown extremely close. Kan-Dari knew of Shiranui's past, albeit not in great detail. Liz'An who had only joined the team recently, however, did not.

"Have you not seen the Western Main before, Shira?" Liz'An asked the frail human girl (by troll standards) fondly.

"Oh, of course I have'" Shiranui declared airily.

Kan-Dari laughed at her defensiveness and finally let loose her flurry of comments. "Yes you have, when they were still under construction!"

"They were not!" Shiranui shot back. "Well at least not the ones near that giant oak over there."

"What giant oak? I don't see any oak trees?" Kan-Dari asked happily.

"I see fir, beech and there's even a palm tree. But no oak trees! Are you sure it was the Western Main you saw, Shira? It was not, perhaps, the Western Village Road?" Kan-Dari asked, her breath-takingly pretty elven eyes opened wide in an air of pure innocence.

Shiranui glared at her best friend. Kan-Dari had discovered that Shiranui was really bad with names one day, and had never missed a chance to tease her about it since then.

Shiranui was about to comment on the horrible standards of elvish courtesy when suddenly, screams from the Western Main could be heard.

"Attack!" hissed Aleyria, already drawing her wand and surging ahead. As one, the three red robes drew their wands as well and sped after their Mistress.

Aleyria began her spellcasting as her white steed quickly galloped and ate up the miles between the Western Main and her. The air around her began to ripple and glow red as defensive spells came to be. Her eyes glowed blue and in that instant, everything slowed down from her perspective. She could see the events ahead unfolding in slow motion. A squad of riderless borgs was savagely attacking the travelers in the Western Main.

The borgs, a giant bear-like animal with four hands instead of two, and the temperament of blood thirsty banshees, were bred as mounts for the Zantroll Army's mounted unit, the Borg Riders. A squad of City Guards was already charging toward them from the main gate, but it would be too late for many travelers.

Aleyria released her time warp spell and everything sped up to normal speed.

"Shira, Light. Dari, Earthshake. Liz, Gale." Aleyria commanded.

The three red robes raised their wands and immediately, their spells were cast. An impossibly bright light exploded from within the borgs. With a fearsome rumble, the earth began to shake and an unnatural gale ripped into the melee ahead and sent every one to the ground.

"Secure the area." Aleyria commanded again. Within seconds, the group hit the western main at a gallop and dispelled their initial spells. Then in their own way, they began disabling the borgs.

Shiranui, a Red Archmage of Fire, pointed at the borgs within her range and her magic caused their fur to combust spontaneously. Borgs around her began to burst into intense blue flames that burned and ate up their victims very rapidly.

Kan-Dari, a Red Archmage of Earth, raised Earth Golems that hugged borgs and smothered them in fatal embraces.

Liz'An, a Red Archmage of Wind, roared in anger and waded into the melee like a red Goddess of Death. She slashed borgs with open like sheep, her wind blades slicing them and leaving them splattered and dying in pools of blood.

Aleyria leaped into the fray and came face to face with a snarling borg, fresh blood dripping from its jaws. She continued forward and barreled into the borg. Her defensive shield glowed bright red and flung the borg back with a crackle of energy. Nimbly avoiding her red-robes and their growing number of victims, Aleyria emerged on the far side of the Western Main.

Far in the distance, further away from the Western Gate, she could see another squad of borgs advancing toward the travelers. The travelers were dispersing and running away in the opposite direction. But it would be of little effect. Borgs could run almost as fast as horses. If nothing was done, those travelers were walking borg-meat.

Anger coursed through Aleyria's veins. A century of peace had caused Rin-Turah's perimeter forces to become lax in their duties. She would have a word with the General later.