Excerpt: Five Shall Rise

Prologue

The following text was recorded by Rusmel of the Wandering Order of Scribes as it was told by an old man in First Light Inn of Dapple End, Dariel.

Long and long ago, when the shores of the ocean were different than they are today, and the Plains of Glass were just a small expanse of desert to the west of the Jagged Peaks, there was a king. An emperor, actually. His seat of power was in the capital city of what is now the nation of Amarynim. He dwelled in an exquisite castle of all shades of marble, with wide windows that let in the breeze and thick walls that sheltered the inhabitants from the worst of the tropical heat. A huge library offered readings from all over his vast empire, from ancient histories and lore to the newest and cleverest poetry and verse. He had a large harem populated with the most beautiful of women from all the corners of the world. He had a breathtaking wife who sat at his side as his chief consort, a dusky skinned woman with thoughtful gray eyes and silken black hair, a woman who was widely recognized as the most celebrated beauty ever to sit beside any emperor. She had gifted him with four intelligent and strong sons, and a striking daughter who was the apple of his eye. The towers of his castle were occupied by a great many wise men, mages, astronomers, and scholars. The capital city was well known as a center of learning where one could study esoteric areas of knowledge that were simply unheard of elsewhere. The large bay provided harbor to one of the largest navies the world had ever seen, full of fast, trim vessels with sails so white they gleamed in the sunlight. His realm extended wider than it ever had before, from the frozen wastelands of the north to the ocean of the west, and from the uncharted jungles of the south to the opposite ocean in the east. True, there were some pocket nations that were not under his domain, but who was going to argue with elves that dwelt in the deep wood or the harsh mountains? No humans dwelt there…Truly, it seemed a blessed existence.
But he was not satisfied.
At first, it was just a small tick of nameless discomfort that would preoccupy him when examining the maps of his realm, a tiny crease that would appear between his brows as he looked out over the hundred nobles that made up the Golden Court. It was a small nagging voice in the back of his mind that said "There is something missing here," as he watched his sons at arms practice, pretending he didn’t notice his daughter furtively copying their practice on her own in a small part of the garden that no one else went to.
It was a small restlessness, so he did not dwell on it. But time passed without the feeling abating, and the small voice grew louder. A distance grew between him and his wife, the courtiers took on an aura of distrust, and he spent more and more time with the messages from his regents.
One night in his study, as he pored over the reports from his distant representatives, he grew angry with himself. Look at all the realms you have dominion over! How can you possibly be dissatisfied? He raged at the voice in the back of his mind. The voice spoke back to him in a sly manner. How can you possibly have dominion over them? You cannot see them. You cannot speak with their people.
The emperor frowned. But others rule there in my name. See the reports they send? I am master of the largest empire the world has seen!
Ha! If you say so, the voice returned. But how do you know the reports are true? You think they rule in your name, but I say they rule in their own! How could they not? You are foolish to think they answer to you, a silly old man puttering about in his study over a thousand miles away!
And the emperor had no answer. In truth, the voice was right, for how could he possibly know how true the reports were? How could he know what actually went on in the vast expanse that was his empire? How could the people of those lands know that he was their ruler? Would they even recognize him if he went in full state procession to their land?
He became obsessed with finding a way to reach all the corners of his lands. At first, he thought a procession through all of the principalities was the answer. He would visit all of his realms and show them their ruler. But his courtiers and chamberlains and advisors were aghast at the very notion.
“It is dangerous out there, Majesty, there could be assassins anywhere!”
“It is not safe, Majesty, and the expense of taking your entire household—How could you possibly manage?”
“It would not do to make the regents think you do not trust them, Majesty. Besides, your work is here.”
It was obvious to him that his advisors felt that the emperor was much better off keeping his nose out of the workings of his empire. His frustration and unease grew, and he turned to his Spymaster.
“Of course I would inform you if any of the regents were lying, Majesty,” he said in an unctuous tone. “You may rest assured that any threat to your power would come to your attention immediately.” The Spymaster bowed to him in a rather cursory, distracted manner, and left his presence.
The emperor realized then that his advisors and courtiers had very little respect for him. He was a mere figurehead. Who knew what they really did behind his back, beneath his very nose? The truth was that his empire was vast, was enormous, and entirely impossible to be ruled by one man alone by any normal means.
And so he began to look at other means of taking control of his empire. His wife worried about him and fussed at him, and so he withdrew more and more from her company, going for days without visiting her or calling her to his bed. He called no women from the harem to attend him, and he no longer visited his sons at arms practice or their lessons. He snapped angrily at his daughter when he found her in the library poring over complex astronomical texts that were considered somewhat unladylike, sending her in tears from his presence. A different sort of scholar appeared in one of the towers, a pale man with dark eyes who spoke to few and rarely emerged from his chambers except when the emperor called for him.
And he called for him more and more often.
The strange, pale man was a mage, but a different kind of mage than the emperor had ever invited into his presence. He had shown up in the Hall of Petitioners late one afternoon, offering the knowledge of how to see far distances through the means of a dark orb of polished obsidian. The demonstration of this power had shown the orderly in charge of hearing petitions that day an incident in which a bandit troop overran one of the villages on the outskirts of the city. A troop of soldiers was sent to investigate, and the vision had proved true. The soldiers were able to kill the bandits and save the remaining villagers from death, though most of the men had already been killed, the women raped, and the goods ransacked.
“A pity that this ability was not available sooner, so that this tragedy could have been prevented completely!” the mage had commented, and so assured his appointment to the emperor’s cadre of wizards and scholars. But as time went on, and the emperor called on him more and more, those close to the emperor began to suspect the pale man of darker abilities as well.
The emperor grew pale and gaunt, but his eyes were fiery and driven. He ceased to take any interest in his family, and on the night it was discovered that his daughter had run away with a young bard during a festival, he dismissed it as unimportant. His wife retreated to her apartments, refusing to come out.
Slowly, reports of strange doings in the dungeons at night reached the emperor’s advisors, but they dismissed it as nonsense. And it sounded silly enough. Darkest, quietest rumor had it that the emperor was conjuring demons to do his bidding through the sacrifice of prisoners, aided by the silent, pale man who had brought the obsidian orb.
Supposedly, the demons acted as the emperor’s spies, bringing him news of the doings of his courtiers so that he may know if they were loyal to him. Silly, thought his advisors. Utter nonsense.
They did not think it was silly when the soldiers came for them with accusations of treason and criminal acts, nor when they were tried in front of the entire Golden Court. It was in complete confusion that they were carted off to the dungeons to be beheaded. Their ranks were too high to behead them in front of the entire city. Let them meet their ends with quiet dignity, the emperor told everyone. The people thought him merciful.
But mercy had nothing to do with it. The confusion of the advisors ended when they were led one by one into a dark room lit with pungent candles and decorated with unsavory looking marks. The pale man and the emperor’s gaunt face and burning eyes were the last things they ever saw as their blood poured out across chalk markings that glowed in the half light.
For the strange, pale mage served other masters than just the emperor, and his purpose was not quite at one with the emperor’s own.