Where it all Began

Hi there I’m James and thank you in advance for reading this piece of writing. The following work is the majority of one of the later chapters in my Fantasy book currently titled ‘Tallisaria’ after the land it is set in. It is a tale in which a young man, the son of the islands former regent, finds himself thrust into a world of Betrayal, Subterfuge and Conflict after his father is found dead under mysterious circumstances. The Island Nation of Tallsiaria was on the brink of war when disaster struck and although the kings death seemed obviously an act of the enemy, The young man and his remaining family find themselves chased from their house and hunted by those who believe the kings death resulted from a conflict a little closer to home. This excerpt from one of the later chapters sees Tyzius and his assorted allies confront one of the major instigators of the war and a long time adversary of the party.


Where it all Began

Cypher paced the room in a maddening fashion, eyes ablaze with cruel delight; I clenched my fists… he was enjoying this. Turning finally to face me he embarked on his monologue.
“And so you want to know why we’re hunting your brother, why your sister is under our protection and why you’re here now, do you really want to know?!” Cypher was bellowing from across the hall, his voice echoing off the cold stone walls. “Why wouldn’t I? Just tell me already!” I screamed inside, head pounding with questions. As if in reply the crazed senator swept to the side of the room and pushed open the lid to a carved wooden chest that had been squatting there innocently. “Even better than telling you the answer to all of those oh so prudent questions why don’t I just show you!” in a flash the senator raised a hand from the box and flung a small pouch across the room at me; I snatched it out of the air, pulled open the chords and out into my hands poured several shards of metal, pieces to a sword. But they didn’t belong to any old sword; there could be no mistaking the intricately etched patterns. They had come from Hresvelgr the sword my brother had been given for his twentieth birthday, aside from that they were bloodstained. I looked up, the senator, still standing over the chest, was smiling. “and now I suppose you’ll want to know where they came from and how we obtained them… well your greatly appreciated patience will now be justly rewarded” with that Cypher lifted his other hand from the chest and with it the severed blood soaked head of a man. A cold wave of dread swept over me followed by a rush of boiling anger, the head belonged to my father! The senator smirked at my reaction as he held my fathers head up for all to see, I felt it staring at me, the hollow eyes looking at me with disapproval as they always had done in life. Again I clenched my fists and felt without pain as the shards of metal sliced into my fingers. Blood dripped from my hand.

Korhavel grimaced, elves despised the heat and he was no different, despite having removed his armour and all the weapons he could do without, the hot air from the hypocaust was making him uncomfortable. Crawling on hands and knees the elven hunter had made his way to the hall underneath the floors of several rooms via the heating system, up above he could hear an unfamiliar voice shouting maniacally, this he reasoned must be the senator. Caring little for what he might be saying, Korhavel worked his way to the end of the chamber where he was least likely to be heard and began to loosen the tile above his head. 

“Bastard” I screamed still un-aware of the metal shards digging into my hand “you killed him!” The senator satisfied I had acknowledged the head as my father’s flung it carelessly back into the chest and slammed the lid “Me! You think I killed him” the senator was no longer smiling “you really are as stupid as you look, why would I have my greatest ally in this battle killed off? He was going to pass the declaration of war at the next council meeting until your brother killed him!” the senator was now positively foaming at the mouth. “Those sword pieces you have in your hand were extracted from the neck of your good father, or did you really believe your brothers convenient story about losing the blade on a hunt?” 

I felt numb, my hands loosened and the remains of Hresvelgr clattered to the floor. It was unbelievable, bitterly so but the senator was making sense, he had no reason to kill my father whereas however twisted it seemed, Mazasius did, with regards to the potential war. On top of that my brother was a terrible liar and I had always doubted his story about breaking the sword on the tusks of a diamondback boar, but to have used it to kill my father, to kill HIS father! Could it be true?

“No! It’s just not right!” in a rush of anger and defiance my hand shot to the hilt of the sword at my side, I was poised, ready to strike. But then I noticed something…something in the corner of a room, a figure climbing out of the floor, it was Korhavel! But what was he doing here he was supposed to be guarding the entrance, I felt myself take a step forward, but a hand clamped down on my shoulder, turning around, my gaze was met by that of Florean who shook his head sternly. I was about to pull free when a voice echoed shrilly from behind me in the direction of the senator “Guards” bellowed Cypher “I think our guests have outstayed their welcome, kill all but the boy, he’s needed for questioning in relation to…” the voice ended abruptly, I spun around hurriedly and saw Korhavel, who had all this while been sneaking up on Cypher from behind, with his arm wrapped around the senators neck, with his other hand he grabbed the jaw of his victims head and snapped it to the side, there was a crack as the spinal chord splintered and Cypher slumped to the ground. It was then that seven armour clad guards stormed into to the room with swords raised and shields braced. Torbjorn who had all the while been standing quietly in the corner of the room for the duration of events grabbed his axe off the ground and ran shouting into the guards “to arms!” Scanning the walls in a second, Korhavel found what he was looking for and snatched an ornamental halberd off its stand then flew to join the fight. “Over here” said Florean from behind, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me over to the chest, I tried to resist being in no fit state to see my father as he was, but Florean kept on tugging. Finally letting go he stooped to the ground and grabbed up a pile of papers resting next to the wall. In the background I could hear sounds of battle as Korhavel tried desperately to hold off the soldiers. From where I was standing I could see two side doors, two possible routes of escape; what was it Agares had told us? If all other paths were blocked then take the exit to the right of the hall as you face the thrown then run until you find the stairs to the wine cellar. Whispering a prayer to Guradd that Agares was a reliable friend I went to the correct door and yanked it open; turning to my friends I bade them to follow and ran through the passage in front of me as fast as I could. Too much was happening for my mind to handle, I wanted to get out of this godforsaken place and I wanted to get out now. 

Upon noticing that their master already lay dead on the floor, the guards eased up their assault for a split second and in doing so allowed Torbjorn and Korhavel to turn and flee through the door after their friends. As they fled a voice emanating from the hall chased them down the corridor, “You two attend to the senator! You, warn the city patrol if they escape! And you three make sure that they never make it past these walls”. Torbjorn grinned menacingly and turned his head towards the elf “Three against us two?” he queried in mock surprise “They insult us, had they not seen the pile of bodies we’d left in the ante-room?” Korhavel simply shook his head in exasperation at the giant human’s never ending tendency to use inappropriate humour at inappropriate moments and continued running.

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The End- For the moment

Thank you again to those who had the patience to read this far. Unfortunately this is all I have written for this chapter so far. However I have done small amounts of work on two other chapters both earlier in the book which I would be delighted if you read. As for this piece of writing I’d be eternally grateful to anyone who had the time to give it a review, whether you enjoyed it or otherwise, it will be a huge help to me and any future pieces of writing I intend to do. I’d especially be interested to hear if my sentence structure, pacing and characters are of a decent standard and if the drama was not over the top.