Chapter 9: Chapter 8 – The Duke Speaks

“The medieval period always makes for a good setting in fiction and games, but its never as fun to be a part of it as it is to look in. There's always a lot more hungry peasants and the acts of greedy lords often have no consequences.”

-Rear Admiral Edward Fletcher sometime before his promotion.

 

The Court was filled with the noise of conversation as it was called to order, everyone filling up either in front of the throne or along the carpet to it, between the thick stone pillars which held the arched celling up. It was a glorious piece of engineering that had only been finished about 60 years ago after 40 long years of construction.

King William remembered the days when his mother, the queen at the time, had shown him all of the intricate stone carvings along the tops of them on one of her brief breaks from ruling, telling him about the history of the castle… But that had been many years ago, so long that he wondered why he hadn’t had forgotten it…

“Your Majesty,”

“Oh, I’m sorry Francis.”

“The petitioners are waiting for you…”

The king arose from his thoughts, Francis, the steward proceeding to motion for the first petitioner to come forth. “The king now welcomes his petitioner and now asks for the first to come forth. Your Majesty, Duke Ilondis of house Rector, of county Flexham!”

Laid out in front of the king was a massive swathe of nobles from all across the kingdom, all ready to air their complaints and troubles to him. Twas the life of a king and he was getting a bit tired of it.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t want to do a good job as king, but instead that his age was wearing him down.

But there laid in front of him Duke Ilondis. The dark-skinned duke held himself up with his usual pride, clothed in his bright yellow cloak and shirt made of the dyes from his domain. “I bid you a good day your Majesty,” He said, with all the gravitas in his voice that he always had and that had made many a lady flock to flood him with marriage requests, “I hope you are doing well.”

William’s weary eyes watched Ilondis bow. What was the duke going to ask him for then?

“Rise, now, what are you here to bring to my attention Duke Ilondis.”

“Your Highness, I’m here to simply petition for a royal charter from you on the export of a new spirit that I have developed, it’s a rather fine concoction which I hope I can gift to you so you may taste it.”

Could he give up with the pleasantries? It was always the same with people, never was it out of genuine love for him but instead it was simply a way to butter hum up, “Who do you wish to sell to?”

“To everyone but the Tsardom and the Second Kingdom, of course, I would not support our enemies even upon pain of death! Though, I hope you haven’t forgotten the great tithe we paid during The War in the Desert with the Second Kingdom-”

William sighed, “I have not Ilondis, you will have your charter. Can the next petitioner come forth.”

Ilondis bowed again and made his exit, moving back into the throng of others.

The steward cleared his throat, “Your Majesty, this is Duke Nathaniel of house Seaton, of county Grenwixs.”

The man who stepped forwards was fairly young, around 27, clean shaven, tall, with piercing black eyes that seemed always attentive. His face was well shaped with none of the common features of a bloodline that had been too intertwined with itself. A soft blue cloak with gold embroidery was draped around his right shoulder, it’s clasp decorated with pearls, with the rest of his clothing as rich and immaculate. Overall, a man who could easily compete with Ilondis for the hand of many.

Duke Nathaniel… Grenwixs… Ah… He remembered; he had inherited it from good old Fedrick a few years ago. Hes was good duke from what William could remember, keeps the county in order, and has never let any pirates establish any presence along the Shores of Rike, and by all accounts a graceful man…

The gave a curt bow duke at the foot dais where the throne sat, “Your Majesty” he said, his voice every bit a prim and proper as his attire, “I apologise for what I am about to bring to your attention, but I have concerning news.”

The king straitened up in his seat, curses filling his mind as he felt his back crack. “What news? Has Queen Meera of the Kingdom decided to break the truce we have made, again?”

“No, my lord, it’s something more… spiritual in nature.”

“What do you mean? And shouldn’t we have the high priest here if it is to do with religion?”

Nathaniel shook his head “It not quite in the manner you may expect, you may still call him if you wish, but this was simply too urgent not to inform you about at the earliest possibility.” The duke motioned over to the courtiers as middle-aged scholar came out, bundles of parchment under his arm. “My astrologist has discovered some new stars in the sky, but, with further inspection and conversation with members of the Scholar Astrolegum, have revealed themselves to not be stars…”

The duke paused.

“Well, what are they!?”

The astrologer stepped up with his lord and swallowed, “We believe we may have found new sky arks, l-like the ones from the book of beginnings, a-a large fleet of them y-your majesty.”

The court erupted into chaos, but William was too stunned to do anything, his mind swimming. The sky arks, more of them? It was a great upheaval when the Astrolegum had found the wreck of one of the originals that had been spoken of in the book, but new ones? Ones from the High Haven? Have- Have they come for us? After all these years?

He tried to steady himself, looking around the court only to briefly lock eyes with the duke, the only one with any composure in the room.

“I-Impossible!” It was Francis, his eyes wild, “The books say strife had struck High Haven and had completely engulfed it! “A war to end all wars” Like nothing that had ever been seen!”

The duke cleared his throat, “But, my fellow lord, according to the same scripture, it was about 2,000 years ago when this occurred, their strife should had ended by now. So rather what we should be asking, is how they are here, instead why they are here.”

William steadied himself, taking a deep breath in, calming his mind like he had so many times whenever a crisis arose, “That, that makes sense Duke Nathaniel, I’m glad you have a level head. You are right, so, I want you, duke, to try and determine that. You’re henceforth to be given all of the funding and access you require, and I want you to be ready to lead the welcoming ceremony for them if they come down to meet us.”

“And I accept this duty your majesty and praise your quick decision making.”

“Yes, yes, now go, all of you! The court is dismissed! I need to consult with the high priest now!”

Francis started to splutter, “Your majesty! Surely now is not the time for brash decisions-“

“The court is dismissed! Now send for the high priest and direct them to my study, now!”

He swallowed before finally obeying, the din of chatter almost unbearable as William pulled himself to his feet, matching Francis’s pace for once. He pushed his way through the door at the rear and through to the outer gardens, nearly tripping over paving stones as he was blinded by the full glare of daylight. Then barging through and into the king’s tower, collapsing at his desk, wincing as he heard his back crack. Why did his age have to keep eating away at him…

His mind continued to swim with thoughts. What where they there for? Are they the ones who have come to raise us back? What would that mean for the people and him? Would they be-

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A knock on the door.

“Come in!”

“Some would say it would be bad manners to send for a high priest in the manner you just have, I was just finishing my psalms recitations when that Francis barged in…”

The High priest’s face was filled by what seemed to be his ever-permanent look of exasperation, his left eye socket covered by a white and red bandage. His white gown flowing down his body, decorated by gold pomanders, which gave the middle-aged man a permeant scent of incense and flowers. In his hands however, covered by a protective cloth cover, was the royal copy of the Scriptures.

“It doesn’t matter right now, did Francis tell you-“

“No he didn’t tell me why you sent me but I hope its for an important reason.”

“The angels have returned!”

The high priest’s face blanched white, his exasperation vanishing.

“A-a-a-are you facking mad!?”

“No! The Duke of Grenwixs came with proof from his Astrologist and confirmed by the Astrolegum!”

“How many? Did they come under a black star? Are they actually their ships!?”

“It’s an entire fleet, a-and I didn’t get that from him- Just-“ The King grunted, “I need you to read that copy of the scripture, the first book specifically, and after that tell me if it is possible Hiegfal!”

The priest, his face now filled with a panicked gaze then complied, resting the book down as he opened the scripture.

“In the beginning there was The Void-“

“Da- Not that part! The part with the war in High Haven!”

The sound of pages being carefully, yet briskly flipped through.

“You should not hurry me like this, the scriptures need to be treated with care…”

“It doesn’t matter at this point Damn-it!”

A few more pages, then Heigfal leaned in.

“The two gods Ifcan, the holy god of our sacred freedom, unity and order, and the god Chin, the devious herald of Disunity, oppression and War, grew angry at each other as their natural temperaments clashed. They gathered their angels together for one final war to end all wars. But Ifcan, in their wisdom, decided to build a fleet of 21 sky arks, each all crewed by the most loyal of angels, who’s holy purpose was to create a refuge to ensure that the follows of Ifcan would survive, even if the herald won.”

“Go on,”

“This fleet of sky arks escaped into space and the void’s domain, the mother and father of all. It watched them, intently. It decided to lash out, to show them it’s ferocity, the desolation of space… They were spread out across time and space, one sky ark crashing in the past, the others damaged yet defiant, but forced to settle.

Once they landed the found the angels of the ship dashed through time had become savage, lost their light, and were living in an unholy way. But even through their anger, some started to fall like them, with it threatening everyone that was left.

But out of these last angels, one rose up, their body mangled by their contact with the void, left eye plucked, but still with great conviction, and with the brightest of all lights inside. And with his eye blazing with light, he struck down all who opposed him and gathered the last angels with light inside of them, to bring those who had lost it to heel.

He then ruled as the first Supreme Patriarch, and the first King. Their rule brought unity, that which had been espoused by holy Ifcan and all of his loyal angels and spirits. He gave those savages without light a way to preserve what was left of their soul and to have a chance of salvation and tasked those with light to rule over them and to command them. And as he commanded, his posts would be split between his left prodigy, and his right prodigy, one Kings, the other Supreme Patriarchs.

And on his bed as they lied, one last commandment was given, to heed Ifcan’s followers when they came to save them but be aware of any trickery from Chin and his minions.”

The priest breathed; his oration seemingly completed as he looked at William.

“Well here is our answer, as given to us by the prophet! When they come, we must give ourselves over, we just need to tell everyone- “

“And the last time a great revelation came about a heresy was started and we had to burn about five hundred of them by the stake, is this what you want William? The start of a new heresy whose embers are still out there to this day” he said, the priest looking down at the king.

“Tah- No! No, no, no, not at all… What, what do you think we need to do?”

“I” He took another deep breath, “I’m not entirely sure, this, this is quite the thing to awaken to.”

The old king let out a tired, uneasy chuckle,

“Well, when the court’s spiritual guide is shaken by this, I know this is certainly an interesting situation indeed…”

“Indeed, it is, but there is always a reliable method, that mostly works, when the guests haven’t tried to kill their hosts-”

“You’re talking about arranging a meeting with them?”

“Yes, a good, warm welcome with only clergy and nobility invited, to keep it away from prying eyes while also making the best impression, to gauge them and then, if they are indeed Ifcan’s followers, negotiate and integrate with them.”

The king thought for a moment, “A good suggestion, but I feel with all of these parties and negotiations I have to hold at some point I’ll fall to dust.”

“Indeed, you might,” Heigfal said with a chuckle, and a more relaxed one at that. “Well then, I suppose I will return to my sanctum to pray, and I think I need to now, more than ever after this.”

“Indeed, you do, I think everyone needs to…”

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