Magnifico

The Return

Seth had no idea that he was living in the shortest glory of his entire life during this period the General was yet to return. While the mourning was going on, Seth was enjoying with his wife and his 3-year- old son, celebrating his new rank in the army. It was really dark when the guards at the main entrance of Quinax saw someone riding on a horse coming close to their main gate and they had to stop the rider in order to search him thoroughly but they were surprised when they saw it was General Sun. “We thought you were dead,” one soldier said. The General saw the confusion in their gloomy-looking faces. “Dead, me dead? How? I am not dead, at least not yet''. He left the gate and rode to the palace. The Eunuch announced his arrival and he was given permission immediately by the King to come on in. “My king, I have returned, why is the white dragon flag raised, who died?” White dragon flags are raised whenever a King or a hero dies in Quinax. “General, is this really you? You were reported to have been killed in an ambush by the soldier you sent to inform us about the incident” King Zulu said. “Wait, you mean commander Seth said I died in the ambush?” General Sun questioned as he looked surprised at what he just heard.

“Exactly,” said the King. “Regent Lucas asks for your permission to come in my King,” said a Eunuch. “Of course, permit him to come in at once”. Lucas came right in and was shocked to see the General who he thought he won’t ever see again. “General, what happened to you, I thought you were dead” Lucas chipped in. Everyone was confused and Lucas suggested that Seth should be arrested with immediate effect, he opined that Seth certainly knows more than they think he does. A few palace guards moved to Seth’s quarters and found him packing his bags and was trying to escape from Quinax that night but he was unlucky and he was arrested including his wife and his son.

They were brought to the palace and were placed under arrest and few soldiers were watching, guarding them in case they plan to escape. Here comes the King, Lucas, and Sun who walked into the small cell he was kept and they began to ask him questions pertaining to what he told them earlier and his involvement in this whole scenario but Seth didn’t utter a word. “Seth, anything you were hoping to achieve or had in mind to achieve has been ruined. Why would you betray your brothers? To what end? What’s your gain? We have in our midst an unknown and dangerous enemy we are yet to face but here you made us start wasting our time dealing with internal conflicts” the General said. But Seth remained quiet and didn’t utter a word nor respond to the questions that were thrown at him.

“I don’t think he is going to talk, why don’t we use t*****e to get the information we need from him? Lucas opined. “That would certainly be the most lovely thing to do,” King Zulu said. They were trying to remain low key as much as they could because Lucas was afraid that Seth may not be working alone so he didn’t want to scare away other accomplices, and General Sun and King Zulu had agreed with him. The t*****e began and Seth was subjected to horrific t*****e but yet, he wasn’t yielding. Minutes later, Amara arrived in the cell room and went straight to Sun and hugged him. “Oh my God, I thought I lost you,” she said while she cried uncontrollably.

“You monster, you ingrate, you deserve to die,” Amara said to Seth. Amara suggested that Seth was a high commander, so subjecting a commander to t*****e may take time to achieve the desired result. “I think he is not going to say anything meaningful, I think his wife should be dealt with instead if we include his son too, I think it won't be a bad idea,” Amara said. “A welcome development, I think this is a very nice suggestion” Lucas added. “No, there’s no way we’re going to punish the innocent because of the crime of a criminal,” he said in disagreement. “I think she’s right my King, give us the permission to do so, this is the only way” General Sun added. Seth listening to their conversation certainly didn’t want his wife and kid to get involved in the mess he had created. “Bring me the wife” Sun instructed. “please wait, please, I will tell you everything you need to know, please” Seth begged. “Alright, tell us all you know, your life depends on it” King Zulu added. “Three years ago while I was posted on the northern border of Quinax, a year later I was approached by some men of Alaphas who offered me an opportunity, so they called it. They promised that if I will keep them updated about every information I can get from my kingdom, their king will see that I am rewarded handsomely” he said. “How do you pass this information?” Lucas questioned. “ Well, sometimes they will come pretending to be travelers but in most cases, I send messages through merchants that deal on the salt trade. We consider this the safest way of passing secret information because the merchant may not know the content of the information he is passing through the border” Seth added. “Now, can you kindly tell us about the Magnifico and the purpose behind the whole agenda?” Sun questioned. “Magnifico? What’s that?” Zulu questioned. “Problem” the General replied, “ I don’t really know much about Magnifico or its power but what I do know is that the Alaphas holds great contempt for Quinax. 

"I overheard their men saying that Zulu's father and grandfather have caused them misery in the past and they will pay back ten folds,” Seth said. “ I think we are going to stop here for today, we continue next time,” Zulu said. They all left and retired to the palace. The king instructed the General to narrate everything that has happened and also explain to him who Magnifico was or what it was and why it needs to be stopped. Sun told the king all that he noticed about the power of Magnifico and also why he needs to be stopped but he couldn’t tell the king exactly how Magnifico came to be. “Did you just say Sytrits General?” Lucas questioned. “Yes, I said Sytrits, do you have any idea what that means?” “Long ago, during the reign of King Zulu’s father, I heard about the story of the dead army of Sytrits. Rumors have it that it was cast back to the hidden tomb after the dead army believed to be Magnifico was used by the then leader of Tharsus against his enemies” said Lucas. “Nobody told me about this Lucas, how come I am a king and I don’t know what I’m supposed to know?” said the King as he relaxed to a chair. “You were young at the time at least, that’s what your Father thought, he saw no reason for sharing such information with you”

“But Regent, do you know exactly what should be done to stop him and the people of Alaphas because they will stop at nothing until they see we are all destroyed or enslaved” Sun added.  “Em, I don’t really know but I think there is some kind of spell written in a scroll hidden in Sytrits but since the Magnifico has been raised from the tomb, I think the scroll may have been stolen by the Alaphas king Jonas,” Lucas said as his face looks as though he was sick. “I think for us to get to Magnifico, we need to get to King Jonas” General Sun opined. Lucas was trying to draw up a perfect plan that would be used to stop Magnifico and also the Alaphas King, Jonas. They all knew that Jonas is a warmonger, you rarely fathom what he is up to but, anything he is up to must never be a good thing. The room remained quiet for a while, that night nobody could sleep nor eat, everyone was worried and were looking for solutions but none that was perfect came on.