THE FIRE OF AEDON

CHAPTER3:FENGIUM

Fengium was an impressive city constructed on the highest mountainous area of Aedon. This city, which was the habitat of the Fengs, was built between the mountains in such a way that it was as if the city had been there since the mountains first existed.

In the meeting room of the palace, which was built on the biggest mountain of this magnificent city and used as one of the biggest settlements and administrative centre of the city, Lord Maeral and his five people, whose intelligence he trusted, were sitting around the long table, waiting for the arrival of the people they sent as scouts.

"Have you heard the rumours?" muttered Raizel in the midst of this long and tense wait. He was the last one to join them, and when he spoke in the presence of Lord Maeral, he still couldn't help his fear, and his voice was no more than a whisper. Moreover, he was the youngest person in the room at that moment and this was the second big meeting he had attended.

The blonde-haired woman sitting directly opposite Raizel fixed her gaze on him. Her normally large eyes seemed to grow even larger as she looked at Raizel. "Are you talking about God Urea?" Raizel fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat and swallowed loudly as he looked at the woman across from him. There were many stories about this woman named Mathea, and he had heard them just like everyone else in the room. The woman had a frightening past. "Yes."

Lord Maeral ran his eyes over the pair with curiosity. It was obvious that he was unaware of the incident. Moreover, as the Lord of the city of Fengium, it seemed to annoy him to be so out of the loop. "What event are you talking about?" the authoritative tone in his voice caused the entire focus of everyone in the room to suddenly shift to Lord Maeral. Although he was only in his mid-thirties, it was not for anyone to question Lord Maeral's authority and knowledge, as he had studied with scholars since childhood.

The oldest of them leaned forward and looked at Lord Maeral. This man, Master Kaira, was one of the longest serving members of the Council. He was also a wise man who had mentored Lord Maeral for a long time. "The news that the god Urea is aware of Aedon is spreading fast, sir. Even if we have no definite information about this, the recent disasters are interpreted in this direction by many."

"And this has been a long-awaited development, my lord. Everyone knew that God Urea would one day learn of this place," Mathea concluded. Although she was not a long-term member of the council, this woman, who had proved herself quite well in a short time and made her name frequently mentioned, had been a member of the council since the time when Lord Maeral's mother was in charge.

Lord Maeral nodded his head in understanding and leaned back in his stately chair. His fingers, covered with various rings, beat a certain rhythm on the table for a while, but then he must have been disturbed by this sound, because he simply left his hands on the table. His eyes, a mixture of brown and red, were watching the wall in front of him quite thoughtfully. He started playing with the rings on his fingers, as he usually did whenever he was thinking about a serious subject.

The silence that had lasted since that conversation was broken by the sound of the scout's footsteps entering the room. As the five men lined up on either side of the table straightened their postures, Lord Maeral remained seated, his red-coloured eyes fixed on the intruder. The woman, tall and waist-length with thick black hair, was a young Feng named Jwei who had been sent to watch over the Pathrick Kingdom. Although she was young in age, she had been on the lookout for quite some time. When she came to the end of the table, she bowed slightly and greeted the people at the table by placing her right hand over her heart. "My lord, I bring you information from the Pathrick Kingdom."

Lord Maeral placed his elbows on the table and clasped his hands together. As the sound of the metal rings clinking together echoed through the room, young Feng looked up at Lord Maeral, realising immediately that she had to speak. "The senile oracle says that all these disasters were caused by the god Urea's realisation of Aedon, my lord, and he has been travelling regularly among the peoples for two months, repeating the same prophecy."

"The senile oracle?" muttered Lord Maeral, more like he was talking to himself. "Is he still alive?"

"Yes, my lord, he seems to be in very good health."

"What do people say about that?"

For the first time since Jwei had entered the room, she looked into Lord Maeral's red eyes and looked very confidently. "The humans are already ready to fight, my lord."

Mathea leaned back in his chair at this news and started laughing. So much so that his voice echoed off the four walls of the hall. "These people seem to make a habit of fighting battles in which they will be defeated."

Lord Maeral waited patiently for Mathea to stop talking. He had a generally calm nature, but like everyone else who seemed to be calm, he turned into a rather frightening person when he got angry. "Is it over, Mathea?" When Mathea finally fell silent, a great silence filled the hall with Lord Maeral's question.

Mathea straightened up in his seat and cleared his throat twice loudly. "Yes, my lord."

Lord Maeral took his eyes off Mathea and turned them back to the young scout sitting opposite him. "Very well, go on, Jwei."

"There is a powerful storm raging across the kingdom, my lord, with torrential rain, lightning and tornadoes sweeping across the kingdom. The people are looking for ways to cope with all these disasters."

Raizel, "They are not much different from us then." He muttered thoughtfully, his eyes fixed on the embroidered pillar behind Mathea. It was more the tone of someone talking to himself than a comment. However, Jwei must have taken it seriously because she took his gaze away from Lord Maeral and fixed it on Raizel.

"It would seem so, sir."

Lord Maeral fixed his eyes on the sky, which, as far as he could see through the window, was coloured red. The last time he had seen the sky so heavily coloured red was as a child during the war when the Slergs had slaughtered the Humans. He suppressed the urge to laugh as he remembered how horrified he had been by that scene back then. As a child, he had thought that that battle had been the end of Aedon, but now he found it hard to cope with the fact that the end was much closer.

Galadriel, who had been silent until now, looked curiously at Lord Maeral. "What do you think, my lord?" With his thick black hair and brown eyes, he had a rather ordinary-looking build, but everyone who knew him realised what an extraordinary person he was. Even compared to the Galadriel Slerg race, he had a very unusual character.

"How can we fight against a god?"

Mathea lunged forward in horror. "We cannot fight God, my Lord. Perhaps-" Lord Maeral slammed his right hand down violently on the table, causing everyone at the table to jump. They had never seen him angry before. The Lord was usually known for his dignity and patience.

"I don't care what you think, Mathea! We will not hide like cowards! Does anyone have any objections?"

Mathea still looked undecided as everyone in the hall shook their heads in the negative. "Mathea?"

"No, my lord."

"Very well then." A deep silence fell over the room at Maeral's words. There seemed to be a deep inferno in the lord's eyes. Jwei had felt the fire in his irises, and it was frightening. Maeral had been in charge of the Feng Empire for many years and they had never been subjected to a major attack. Based on this, Jwei questioned what Maeral would do. The idea of fighting a god was insane, the mere thought of it gave him a headache, made the blood rush through his veins, but there was no such thing as impossible in Aedon and there never would be. Jwei, who had served Maeral for so long, knew this best, and it helped to ease some of the fear in him. Clearing his throat slightly, he prepared to continue. She decided that the best thing to do now was to shift his focus away from Mathea. Straightening her head, which had fallen back with fatigue, she fixed her eyes on the papers on the lord's desk.

"What do you think, my lord?" She said, his voice sounding withdrawn. "I don't think we should just sit around waiting to die." The lord looked around with thoughtful eyes. He seemed to be wondering what the council members next to him were thinking. After shaking his head several times in a row, he looked at the papers in front of him. Mathea sat cowering in his chair, trying to banish the fear that sat in his mind.

"We will fight." he said without losing the sparkle in his eyes. "We're going to fight God, and I don't even know how we're going to do it. We may have to co-operate with humans in this. Enemies may turn to friends and friends may turn to enemies, but whatever happens, we will not cower in a corner."

Mathea stirred, her selfish mind travelling back years. She hated the human race so much, having lost her father in the war with the humans, that for a moment her eyes were even more furious than Maeral's. "This is rubbish." She hissed through his teeth and lunged forward, pushing his chair backwards. The gold-leaf chair shook and fell to the floor, a heavy ringing filling the ears. Maeral was so pleased with the situation that she did not make a sound. Instead, he leaned back in his seat, watching Mathea's reaction with glittering eyes. Jwei knew he was a silent outburst of anger.

"Humans caused the deaths of thousands of Feng years ago. All our people know that, including me, and I am sure they will not allow such a thing to happen."

"Since when do you get to decide that?" Maeral's face broke into a smile that could have held a thousand expressions. Before continuing his words, he quickly stood up and stared at his interlocutor. "If you are such a coward, leave this place now. Otherwise, your death will not be at the hands of a god, but at my hands."

"I am not the coward, you are. I never thought you would stoop to asking people for help." There were murmurs of surprise in the room. The other members wondered why Mathea was talking like that, what had made her say such a thing. They hadn't seen anyone with the courage to stand up to Maeral for a long time, and they liked the chaos in the environment, even if they didn't show it. Except for one person.

Jwei.

He was aware of the seriousness of the situation, because what he had seen minutes ago in the Pathrick Kingdom was the real thing, and he had the feeling that nothing could ever be the same again. Jwei took a step back because he knew that something bad was going to happen. She felt it somehow somewhere inside her. It was as if the blood coursing through his veins had heated up and the breaths he took were trapped in his lungs.

"I knew from the beginning that you would not make a good leader." Mathea moved, preparing to leave the room with slow steps because she could not predict what would happen if she stayed here any longer. "I won't be on the council anymore. It's a pity about your mother because she hated people." With her last words, she turned her back and started to move forward.

Maeral mixed a powerful cry with the screams of the sky. His mother was his favourite person in the Aedon universe, and he was offended that some ridiculous council member had spoken ill of her. He raised his fingers, and a powerful wave of light instantly flooded the room. As the other members quickly closed their eyes, the light emanating from Maeral's fingertips turned Mathea to ash. Even Jwei hadn't realised that something like this would happen, because he knew that members were entitled to immunity as long as they didn't leave the council. However, he realised that this moment was the beginning of the change of many things in the council as well as everything else. They were now on an irreversible path and no one, not even God, knew what would happen at the end of the road.

The light went out as the papers in the room fluttered to the ceiling, and Jwei looked down at the pile of ashes at his feet. Mathea had not only got what he deserved for his foolish behaviour, but it was the beginning of a new era for the other council members and the entire Feng people. They could now at least perceive what Lord Maeral's anger looked like, and that was only the shining side of the coin.

But Mathea had survived a more brutal ruler than Maeral.

Or rather, a god.

Urea.