Chapter 106: First Duel of Dragons 1
The Juggen de Yachi Mountains, a few weeks before Hamilcar’s victory on the Thiar River, on the awaited seventeenth dawn, I was still in my tent reeding a report from Hasdrubal in the north, while a Horus and another attendant made the final touches on my black and silver armour.
"Trouble in the north?" My uncle asked, as he checked one final time on my brothers’ equipment.
I nod in reply, before explaining "Hasdrubal reports odd activity from the southern Luminous armies, as well as several small scale raids they conducted on a few border towns in the past few days, under the command of General Heinrich Vanar, the one we faced a year ago on the Melting Mist Plains."
"Are they going to invade?" Cyrus worriedly asked.
"These are merely probing attacks, nothing more my boy. You don’t have to worry about them." My uncle reassured.
"But aren’t probing attacks traditionally done as a precursor to larger attacks?" Nizam asked.
"They are. And if anything, these raids will increase in number and scale in the coming days." I truthfully told them.
"But didn’t we have a non aggression past with them?!" Cyrus loudly exclaimed.
"We indeed have one my young prince; but that was when we were strong and they were weak. Now we are fractured and they are not." Isaac explained in a calm, yet eerily cold voice.
My brothers wanted to say more, but I interrupted them, saying while turning to face them, as Horus and my attendant finished their work "And that is exactly why we are here, and why we must win this battle. To remind them of their fear that forced them to sign their treaty with us; to show them that even divided we are still not to be trifled with; and to prove to not only them, but to the whole world that crossing us is a blunder the likes of which they would not even live long enough to regret."
Hearing my words, they felt immense pride envelop their hearts, already laughing at the stupid faces they imagined those fools would make when I won this battle.
Yes ’when’ not ’if’, for such was the confidence they held in me. Something that brought brought me a great deal warmth, as I looked into the light of their eyes; a light I was deprived from in my past life.
"My liege, we must depart now or we won’t make it by the appointed time." Isaac said, as he glanced at the slowly illuminating sky.
Quickly sheathing Dark Majesty with one hand and clutching Fallen Nemesis in the other, I swiftly dart out the tent, after giving my brothers one last reassuring look, before riding hard to the east with my usual entourage of Abraham, Horus, Isaac, my uncle and my Palace Guard.
We were headed to the center of the Anazoi Canyon, a spot known as the Stone Tables, for the peculiar shapes of the rocks there that looked like giant tables made from the earth, but more importantly today, it was where the fateful coin toss that would determine this entire day’s battle strategy and flow would be done.
Having no time to spare, we hastily reached the Stone Tables right on time, only to be stunned by the scene before us. Unlike what we expected, Maximillian was already there, but he wasn’t alone and it wasn’t one of his wives, or generals or even his guards. The one who was with him was none other than the traitor Zadkiel, his eyes arrogantly closed and dressed in a long, white, blue and black royal attire, made from the finest silks and adorned with the most precious gems, woven with clearly expert hands, with the a setting azure sun above three black fish knitted very prominently on his wide sleeves and back, while an obnoxiously large golden crown rested atop his head.
My uncle’s eyes nearly spit fire when he saw him, while the rest grew so enraged they seemed ready to strike him down at a moment’s notice, they just needed a single from me and they would throw themselves to certain death if it meant the death of this hateful man.
"My my! You don’t to be very popular with your kinsmen Zadkiel." Maximillian teasingly said, with an amused smile, which elicited no response from the still close eyes Zadkiel.
"He is no kin of ours!" One of my men loudly shouted.
"No? What say you Grand duke of the west and Emperor of the Eclipse Empire?" Maximillian continued with his mocking tone.
My uncle instinctively clutched the handle of his cutlass, as his eyes lit up menacingly with the brilliance of his greenish blue aura, while it also flared around him like the ocean’s restless waves. But I remained calm, for I had once before suffered and dealt with the pain of my uncle’s betrayal in my past life, and it now caused me no further dilemmas like those of my uncle, i only felt rage at the fact that he still dared to do it in this life as well, greatly disrupting much of my plans.
"Enough with the mental schemes, lord Maximillian. I had thought you better than to use such lowly tricks." I said, my tone dry, but my mad eyes furious. Clearly not impressed by his little plan.
"This is war my lord, no tricks are too lowly. But I can see that you were not amused by my little prank." He said, shrugging his shoulders, as he removed a single Darr from his robes, before showing it to us all to make sure that there was no foul play, and then he unceremoniously flipped it in the air.
Everyone held their breaths as the coin did it’s fateful acrobatic danse, before it softly landed back in Maximillian’s open palm, fully showcasing the luck’s verdict.
It was heads, Maximillian will attack this day.
None of us made any comment on this, as we calmly began to turn our horses around to resume our posts for the coming battle, but before we could a single voice cut through the thick silence.
"Zadkiel." My uncle’s voice called out, as he motioned his horse to move ever so slightly forward, his killing intent and aura now no where to be seen. And for the first time since our arrival, Zadkiel opened his eyes to look upon my uncle.
"I will say these words once and only once. And know that I do it solely, not for the bond of brotherhood that once connected us, but for the love of the woman who bore us both, and for the tears I know she would’ve wept if she saw us here today. I implore you to abandon this folly of yours; bend the knee, confess your crimes and swear to whatever oath you still hold dear to never again raise your sword against your our emperor and his empire; to finally lay to rest these reckless ambitions of yours, and I promise to you on all that I hold dear that no harm shall be done to even a single hair upon your head, and that you can live the rest of your days in comfort in the city of your choice in my lands, with the full privileges of an imperial prince. You would want for nothing with your every whim satisfied no matter what it may be, this I swear to you before all the gods and those present here today... So what say you?" My uncle’s voice was steady, his words cold yet measured, but for those who knew him well for a long time, recognized that his eyes had betrayed him in this moment. His gaze was not piercing or apathetic, nor was it warm or pleading, but it was tragically hopeful.
He still held some semblance of hope that his little brother, the same one he had protected, nurtured and loved for so long was still in there somewhere. Buried under decades of history, ambition, schemes and the Gods know what else, and all he had to do is reach out one final time and he would regain his beloved brother.
But it was already too late for that, as Zadkiel’s showed a contemptuous smile and mockingly said "Oh, my dear eldest brother, always the honourable one aren’t you? Always the one to never give up on family. Even when our incompetent brother Achamenid was born and graced with the divine blood of our ancestor, you were the first to back him, even when he was in the crib and would still wet his own diapers."
"He was the rightful heir." My uncle said in a resolute tone, though the light in his eyes had visibly dimmed.
"NO HE WASN’T, AND YOU’RE AN IDIOT IF YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT!" Zadkiel roared out. "He was a fool! A lust drunk fool, who spent his days in bed, with a new woman in his arms everyday! And look how he turned out, dead in some battle that he had no right of losing, yet somehow did! If I was born with the divine blood I would’ve turned this empire into the world’s unquestionable hegemon! I would’ve been the greatest emperor our nation has ever seen! He wouldn’t have even been the emperor if not for you, who executed all our rebellious half-siblings the day our father passed! But just because I was born after you all and didn’t have the divine blood, none of you ever looked my way, you all fawned over him, even though he possessed none of the qualities of a true ruler..."
"Enough!" My uncle roared. "I will not allow to continue tarnishing the memory of my late brother! And if anything you should kneel before his grave everyday and thank the Gods that Achamenid was born before you did, because if he wasn’t, then I would’ve claimed your stubborn skull first, the night I hacked off all our other traitorous half-siblings heads for your damned insatiable, delusional ambition!" His barbed, spiteful words of fraternal hate stung even those among us who were not a part of their screaming match.
But Zadkiel merely shrugged with an unbothered snort, then he swept his eyes across us all, before lingering momentarily on me, as he said "Delusional? No brother I am not delusional. I may be stubborn and ambitious but I am not delusional. I realized that I would never sit on the Black Throne of our forbearers, so I made a compromise with reality. If I can’t be the emperor, I’ll be a king." He finished as he smilingly tapped his crown.