Chapter 0 - City of Flames

Avolire, 1534

            An explosion is heard, breaking the silence of the night that surrounds Augliere Castle. Alden awakens from his sleep. Curious of the commotion currently going on outside, he gets out of his bed. He walks towards the door, hoping to take a peek outside, but the door suddenly flings open before he could reach for the handle.

            “Prince Alden!” Shouts Janus, his father’s advisor, while panting in panic. Beside him stands Clara, Janus’ daughter, and Eric, Alden’s cousin. “Come quickly! Follow me.”

            Alden is as confused as anyone would be in this kind of situation, however, after seeing the terrified faces of the three people before him, he decides not to ask any question. And with that, he follows Janus’ orders without saying a single word.

            “We must hurry!” Janus says while leading the way in restlessness. “King Aaron has ordered me to send you three away through the Portal.”

            “Father, what’s going on? Hasn’t the portal never been used in centuries?” Clara asks curiously.

            “Well, King Aaron has forbidden the use of Portal as it consumes all the magic within this town in order to be activated. Using it once could cause the loss of magical source for days.”

            “Then why? Why are we using it now?” Asks Alden. “We won’t be able to survive without magic, people will suffer!”

            “Alden, you still don’t understand, do you?” Eric says. Alden now realizes that his cousin is angry. “There won’t be anymore magic after this, It’s better if we use the portal now.”

            “What do you mean by—“

            Alden couldn’t finish his sentence upon seeing his town. His beloved town, His hometown, all up in flames. Magical lamp posts that are supposed to illuminate the streets have fallen and scattered on the ground. The floating buildings are also beginning to fall one by one.

           

            Alden stops walking and stares unbelievably at the scenery before him. “What exactly is happening here?”

            “They asked for it.” Eric mumbles while gritting his teeth, fire appearing around his hands. “The humans asked for war.”

            Unable to find his words, Alden stays silent. He feels surprised, sad, angry, and confused. Confused as to how the humans are able to do such damage without the help of magic. Confused as to why they would even do such a thing in the first place.

            “There they are!”

Alden’s thoughts abruptly come to an end as he hears someone shout. He can see a group of humans running towards them with strange crystal orbs in their hands.

            “Heh, just in time. I was just about to teach those imbeciles a lesson. To think they would actually come to me instead.” Eric says, walking confidently as the flames surrounding his hands grow brighter.

            “No Master Eric!” Janus grabs Eric’s arm, restraining him. His actions clearly anger the eight-year-old boy.

            “Don’t you dare touch me you lowly advisor! And how dare you try to stop me from giving these foolish humans what they deserve for challenging magic users like us!”

            Eric turns around to attack the humans, but he is restrained once again. This time, by Clara. “What is—“

            “Eric, your flames.” Clara says, her eyes focused on Eric’s hand.

            Eric looks towards the direction Clara is staring at, and he immediately understands what she is trying to say to him. The flames around his hands are being sucked in by the crystal orb the humans carry. Not only that, he also feels himself getting weaker as well.

            “They’re taking away my magic.” Eric says, unable to believe what is currently happening. “How? How is this possible?”

            “We don’t have much time! We have to go!” Janus says as he starts to run while pulling the three children along with him. To buy them some little but precious time, he channels all of his power in to creating a wall of ice that blocks the humans’ path.

            “What was that? What did they do to my magic?” Eric angrily exclaims while running beside Alden. “Hey, lowly advisor, what was that thing they were carrying? And how did they manage to get their hands on something like that?”

            “I have no idea, Master.”

            “And here I thought my uncle hired you because you were smart. If you can’t even answer my question, then don’t you dare work here!”

            “Forgive me, Master,” Janus mumbles.

            Clara can only watch silently as her father gets treated badly. She is too tired and too scared to be angry. Suddenly, she feels Alden holding her hand. She looks at Alden and sees him smiling at her, as if saying that everything will be alright.

            Clara returns his smile softly. She knows full well that amongst all of them, Alden is the one who is suffering the most. She knows how much Alden loves this town, and she also knows that amongst all of the magic users, he is the one who cares the most about humans. If he were to be king one day, he would definitely make humans and magic users equal. And now, one by one, the humans are killing his beloved people and destroying his precious town. Clara can’t even begin to imagine how Alden must feel right now.

            “We’re here.” Janus says when they arrive in front of a giant sealed door. Janus blesses them with some spells before opening the door. After the door is open, they run inside to find a giant circular frame within the room.

            Janus immediately steps forward. He begins to recite some spells in order to activate the portal. The three children behind him can see that the portal is slowly starting to glow as it gathers magic.

            “Look! They’re over there!” The humans voices are getting louder and louder.

            “They’re coming!” Clara says in fear.

            Alden holds Clara’s hand even tighter while readily looking at the group of humans.

            “It’s done! Go, Quickly!” Janus pushes the three children towards the portal. They immediately start running, but Janus stays behind.

            “Father!” Shouts Clara while looking at where her father is standing. She knows full well about what her father is trying to do, and she wants to stop him. Very badly she does, in fact. But seeing her father’s eyes, the eyes of someone prepared to lose his life, she can’t afford to stop her legs from running. She will never be able to stop him.

            Janus smiles at his daughter one last time. He mumbles something Clara cannot hear, but she clearly knows what her father is saying.

                I love you.

        Janus turns around, facing the humans in front of him. Seeing this, Clara’s tears start to fall. She keeps on running, but she can’t bring herself to tear her eyes away from him. She shouts to her father, over and over and over and over again, but he keeps his focus on the humans.

            She can see the magically-formed-ice her father created but slowly, his magic is sucked in by the crystal orb. And then, it happens. A sword is stabbed through his heart, and he falls dead on the ground, a pool of blood forming around him.

            Clara feels as if her heart stopped it’s beating for a while. She wants to call for her father, but no words comes out of her mouth. She is scared of the humans chasing them, yet she can no longer feel her legs. She just keeps on staring at the corpse of her beloved father, letting Alden pull her towards the portal.

It may only be seconds, but it feels like eternity for the girl before she finally enters the portal—

—and then, everything goes black.