Story:Kings of Strife/Part 0

Prologue
‘Today is the day I’m going to die.’ Sellsword Tobias Naid always had a love for life and a passion for battle, but never a real goal for himself. Planning out what he would do in twenty years in a profession where he might not live for another twenty days always felt foolish to him. Still, he was a strong man, and tall as the trees of northern Inusia, where he was born. The world never ceased to show him wonders and the clashing of blades never ceased to excite his heart, so Tobias fought to live, on and on into the horizon until he could see death no more.

But today it had caught up to him. Today he drove a damaged car through the barren country roads of central Inusia with death and its harbingers – two cars, full of fellow sellswords with blades and guns alore – hot at his heels. Today he would die, Tobias was sure, now more than he ever had been.

That was alright, though. ‘I live and I die, then I live again.’ That was what the Leader told him and all the others, and that was what he believed. Tobias said it to himself now constantly, allowing the mantra to ring in his body and bring power to his sword. He might die today by fire or bullets, but he would rise again in the New World. That was what the Leader saw, and everything the Leader saw came true. That was known.

“Faster, boy. I’m not dying today.” The passenger seated next to him in the stolen convertible he was driving snapped with a light and husky voice. Tobias looked over to her and muttered a hasty reply, but his words were lost to the wind. He had to focus on the road and not end up staring at her again, Tobias knew, so he nodded after speaking and returned his focus to driving.

She looked back constantly to the enemies chasing them, and when she did her violet dark hair flew back from her brow and waved luxuriously in the wind. How did she managed to look beautifu, even when their lives were in danger? How did her eyes glitter just so as she squinted in the wind, and how did her slightly parted lips look so appealing? Did she even know how beautiful she was?

His passenger was a princess, soon to be one of the few rulers of the New World, and Tobias Naid was leading her away from the Leader. An action punishable by instant and painful death.

‘I live and I die, then I live again.’

“They’re getting too close! Speed up!” The princess cut her eyes at Tobias with a glare, and he slammed his foot harder on the gas pedal. The car couldn’t go much faster, not on the somewhat damaged roads left in disrepair. To the right of them, formless forests holding dark, tall, and forboding trees rose out of the horizon; to their left, broken and dry plains of grass sifted on and on until they formed the great desert in the center of the country. Behind them, death; ahead of them, redemption, freedom.

‘Is not the only freedom in death? Don’t we run from what we need?’ Tobias didn’t know the answers and he didn’t call the shots. That was never his job, not under the Leader and not under the princess. She had come to him and his friends specifically, knowing of their devotion to her and her fellow future royals, and she had asked them to help her escape. Escape what? Death? Didn’t she know that nobody could be free of that?

But Tobias said yes, and so did all of his comrades. The way her eyes glowed and pleaded… The way her hips curved just right, and her chin always raised just an inch higher than other’s… She had the looks fitting of a princess, and the promise of gratitude and gratefulness in a job well done. Tobias Naid the sellsword had never been one for emotional connections, but he was sure that he fell in love with the princess when he first saw her. It was love that motivated him to pledge his life to her, and his comrades agreed out of loyalty to their team member.

The others had already died. The corpse of one, Tobias’ brother Kinkade, was sprawled out in the backseat. A bullet had went right into the back of his head and punched through his left eye, leaving the dead sellsword leaning forward with his blood coming out of his head on both sides like a waterfall.

‘He lived and he died,’ Tobias thought to himself when his brother cried out, ‘Now he lives again.’ Knowing this wasn’t enough to stop him from choking up, but it helped. He knew his soul would soon join his brother’s.

“They’re getting too close. I’m going to take them out.” The princess unfastened her seatbelt and flipped into the backseat. With a disgusted grunt, she pushed Kinkade Naid’s corpse out of the car, and turned her back on Tobias.

“What are you going to do?” Tobias looked in his rear-view mirror, but he could not get a good glimpse at the princess. She raised her hands, slightly pointing her open palms towards the two ensuing cars, and stood up slightly. “Be careful!” Tobias cried. “You’ll be shot!”

“I’m not dying today,” she said. “Not here.” Her hands began to glow with ethereal, violent light, and Tobias knew she was performing magic. ‘A knight may one day become a royal,’ the Leader always said when someone asked when they would learn magic. ‘but if he would be a king, only the path of a tyrant would await him.’ The princess used her magic and Tobias turned his eyes from the rear-view mirror. He never liked witnessing the laws of reality as he knew them be broken. It always made him uncomfortable.

Explosions cut through the night, and the sound of humans screams and melting metal echoed off the far-off forest to the east. For a moment, the ghostly night sky erupted with light as flames and smoke started to cloud the otherwise undisturbed atmosphere. Soon, though, the sellsword and the princess’ car was far enough from the site of the destruction that the flickering and screeching of the fire faded. Even the fire’s screams sounded human, Tobias noted with some degree of terror.

Now, without two speeding cars behind them, the night was peaceful again, and only disrupted by the roaring purr of the convertible’s engine. Once they were out of eyesight from the two pursuing cars, the princess climbed back into the front seat, her palms rubbing at her eyes. She strapped herself in and shivered. “I left it behind, and already I am weakening,” the princess mumbled.

“What did you do?” Tobias asked fearfully. He loved the princess and dreamt of her, but she was terrifying. The things she could do was terrifying.

“I imagined them all burning, and so it was.”

“Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” He asked her. The princess did not respond. ‘They lived and died, and now they live again.’ Tobias said this in silent reverence to the men who died chasing them, the men who he had worked with not long ago, and he said it also to reassure himself. The rest of the drive, after this, was silent and mournful.

The city was clear in the horizon before long, and its bright lights and high-rising buildings cut through the peacefulness of the drive. At the speed they were going, the two would arrive at the city within minutes. This brought Tobias no relief.

“Aren’t we going right to the Leader’s backyard?” He asked timidly. He was a middle-aged, experienced sellsword with hair on his back, chest, and chin, yet Tobias Naid was reduced to timid speech and silent fear in the presence of a princess. She was someone he loved, and feared, and respected, but could never understand.

“You ask too many questions,” she growled back. “Are you afraid?”

“No,” he lied. “The Leader says I live and I die, then I live again. What is there to fear that won’t return to me?”

Her mood darkened. “The Leader says a lot of things. We’re not running to our deaths.” She looked him in his eyes, and for once her own were not shining. They were still stars, but now they did not shine through the night – they simply existed, and for a brief moment, Tobias was sure that they flickered and changed colors. “Do you trust me? Will you promise me that you’ll run from here, and stay alive?”

He stole a glance at the princess and audibly gulped. “They’ll find me. They always will.”

The princess gave him a warm smile despite the exhaustion beneath her eyes. “They won’t find you. Stop the car.”

“What? But we’re only five minutes away from the city, tops!” He looked back at the road and the steadily encroaching city, then back at the princess. She was completely serious, he could tell.

“Stop the car.” She was insisting. Tobias complied, and pulled the convertible over less than two miles away from the various junctioning highways and roads leading to the city. This time at night, the road they had traveled was relatively empty, but the various turnpikes nearby were buzzing with activity and cars zipping by. The princess got out of the car once it stopped and walked around the hood, until she was standing outside of Tobias’ door.

He could barely move but to look up at the princess. As always, she had stunning beauty, and with the light of the city shining off her scowling yet gentle face, the princess’ eyes sparkled once again. She looked down on him with her chin raised and her mouth pulled into a reassuring smile.

“Thank you, Tobias Naid. This is as far as you must go.”

His eyes widened. “What? But we haven’t even gotten to the city yet, let alone out of the country! If I leave you here, you’ll die!” ‘She lives and she dies, then she lives again.’ Somehow, that wasn’t very reassuring to Tobias. In fact, knowing that his princess would die a violent, bloody death filled him with dread.

But the princess shook her head sadly and smiled with benevolence. “My end will come as I will it. Not by the Leader. I really must thank you. You’ve helped me so much.”

Tobias looked down, heat filling his face and making his hands sweat. “We can’t part here.” Was he being selfish, or was he really concerned for her safety? “They’ll kill you. They’ll find me.”

A laugh from the princess. “No, they won’t find you.”

He frowned. They always found runners. “Can I just ask… Why did you do all of this? Why kill so many people, and run away so fast? What did you do?”

Her countenance darkened. “What did any of us do, but exist, when the cardinal sin is birth? He gave us life and power, and when he did so, he gave us sin.” The princess looked off to the side, taking in the sights of the city, with all of its mysteries and opportunities and sins. “I have to leave. It’s what I deserve. Penance. Judgement.” Her eyes softened then, and Tobias felt as if he were drowning as he gazed into them. She seemed so detached for a moment, as if she was sadly remembering something horrible, and was filled with melancholy and regret. Then, as soon as it happened, the look faded and she turned back to him.

“I hope that you will not live again,” she said. “You don’t deserve to have to suffer through this world again.” Her golden eyes hardened again, and began to glow as Tobias looked into them. The last thing he thought of before everything faded away was how much he loved those eyes, and how they shone in the darkness. Then he joined the darkness.

‘I live and I die, now I live again…’

...End of the Prologue.

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