Muralea

Chapter 06

Casualties report’ Kyros was having a meeting with all the heads of the clans with which I was in attendance.

One of them spoke ’16 severely hurt and 10 dead’ there was murmuring in the room.

‘This can’t go on Kyros’ an angry looking man stood up ‘when is the time going to come for us to strike and end them once and for all’

‘Sit down Hero’ an even angrier woman scolded him ‘we all feel the same way you do but we can’t just charge in’

‘Why not they seem ready for a fight’

‘They obviously came for the girl’ another spoke

‘Why don’t we just kill her’

‘We can’t just kill her you i***t’ the angry woman spoke

‘What did you call me? Want to take this outside?’

‘Be quiet!’ Kyros yelled and everyone went silence.

‘We are not killing the girl, we may be able to use her to negotiate with them’

‘Negotiate?’ the angry man stood again with enough speed to knock his chair to the ground.

‘Hero’ the angry woman now calm tried to calm him down.

‘We should be thinking of ways to exterminate them, wipe them clean off the face of the earth not negotiate with them. What? We’ll be like in exchange for you guys leaving us alone we’ll return her to you they’ll never listen’

‘Calm down, we are not exchanging her for that. It’s in exchange for his highness but Drakon probably wouldn’t do it which is probably why they tried to take her’ Kyros held his chin in thought.

‘Wait I think we’re missing something here, his majesty is dead why would we need to’ Kyros explained everything about my dad being alive and what that Drakon guy plans to do at a blood moon.

‘What…impossible…how…but we saw him’ everyone was confused.

‘Wait!’ Hero spoke ‘How do you know all this? We all saw his majesty get stabbed and we all saw his lifeless body drop dead on the ground’

‘Because his majesty said so himself’ everyone was even more confused ‘everything I told you right now, his majesty told to Emilio here’ he gestured to me.

‘Hey’ I waved

‘Emilio huh? I’ve been meaning to ask who he was?’ Hero peered into me

‘This is his majesty’s son’

‘His majesty doesn’t have a son, he must be an imposter’

‘He does he never told anyone, it was 23 years ago when he wanted to explore other worlds he went to earth and fell in love with one of its inhabitants. One year later she was pregnant and had his child. He kept it under wraps I was the only one that knew about him’

‘And why is he here now?’

‘Well with the King gone it’s obvious that his son, the prince will ascend to the throne. But it is not the case here, he doesn’t want anything to do with the throne. He only came back to tell us about Drakon’s plan, I trust he will be leaving soon’

‘So he’s just a spineless coward’

‘Hero! He is your prince’

‘No, a spineless coward like him will never be my prince’

After he said those words anger shot through me. I stood up and everyone turned their attention to me ‘Yes I may be a spineless coward, I agree but the reason I came back wasn’t just to warn you but to stop Drakon myself’

‘You stop Drakon. Ha! don’t make me laugh’

‘Yes I know I sound delusional but my father left the Kingdom in my hands and I’m not about to let him down. I know some of you might not warm up to me instantly and I’m not asking you to. I just need your cooperation because this isn’t something I can do alone’

‘You don’t have to worry about that honey’ the now calm lady came up to me ‘though he was our king he was also like a friend to all of us, if what you say is true then I have no problem lending you my strength in whatever way I can’

‘Really thank you so much um…

‘Xanthe, call me Xanthe’

‘Xanthe you can’t be serious about this’ Hero spoke up

‘Of course I am’

After she spoke up the other leaders of the clan started warming up to me instantly, telling me to ask them of anything and promising to help me in any way, well everyone except for Hero.

I learnt there are 8 clans each with their own distinguishing magic powers;

There is the Aceso clan they are the healers. They can heal pretty much anybody as long as they are still alive but the bigger the injury the bigger the mana they’ll use

The Xeno clan they use spatial magic and the Xenon clan which uses teleporting, their powers are similar, they take you places. I was told the first member of the clans were twins, that explains the name. Also it kind of means their descendants are cousins

The Lycus clan, they are shape shifters but can change into only one thing – wolfs

The Freya clan, everyone in this clan is drop dead gorgeous. They have the power to hypnotize you to do anything they want with their beauty.

The Hectur clan, this is the clan Kyros is from, they have the power to seal another person’s power when some conditions are met of course.

The Rapha clan, they kind of creep me a little. They have the power to control blood but to be able to control the blood inside of a person requires great skill and concentration

And finally the clan that stands at the pinnacle of all others, the Mura clan. The powers of each generation are always changing so no one knows what they’ll be unless they manifest it. They could even be exactly the same as other clans. I was told my father had the power to summon lighting but I’m not completely sure what mine is.

I really want to meet him, face to face despite him not being there for us I still wanted him in my life. I’ve always wanted a father figure. I vividly remember when my mom took me to the park. I was always admiring the kids who played catch or whatever with their dads.

It made me so jealous but now that I have a chance to meet him I’ll definitely not waste it.

Soon after the meeting ended and the leaders dispersed, Agatha came running to my side.

‘Hey Emilio –I mean your highness. I’m so glad you decided to stay, I’m going to be in charge of your schedule’

‘What schedule?’

‘As the future king there’s lot to be done, you’re going to need training both physically and academically’ she handed me a paper ‘the physical training is divided into two, you’ll be learning how to fight and how to control your powers clan leaders Xanthe and Hero will be helping you with that’

‘Can I get someone other than Hero?’

‘Why you don’t like him?’

‘More like he doesn’t like me’

‘Yeah he’s really difficult sometimes, to be honest he scares me but he is the best fighter in the whole of Muralea’

‘Of course he is. So he’s teaching me how to fight?’ she nodded her head ‘that means Xanthe is teaching me how to control my power’

‘That is correct’

‘Alright and the academic aspect?’

‘Oh, Father and I will be taking care of that’ she said smiling

‘Ok… so your father is…’

‘Kyros’ she said like it was obvious

‘Huh? He’s your dad! Come to think of it I do see the resemblance’ I said putting my hand on my chin deep in thought

‘I’ll teach you on the history of the land, he’ll teach you your kingly duties’ she said so excited.

‘So…’ I looked into the schedule ‘I have training with Hero in the morning, then with your dad, before training with Xanthe and then you?’

‘That’s correct also occasionally we’ll have you interact with the people. We can’t have a king whose distant from his people, am I right?’

‘I barely have a moment to breathe’ I said with disbelief

‘Not true you have a break right there’ she pointed at a tiny space in between the activities

‘Only for an hour’

‘You only have about 6 months until they attack this place. Normally it takes years to master both combat and your powers but we only have half a year so we need to do what we can. We start tomorrow’

‘Tomorrow!?’

‘The sooner the better’ she said walking away

I wondered around the castle looking for Xara and I finally found her with Heron and Kyros. ‘I’m glad you decided to fight with us’ Kyros placed a comforting hand on my shoulder I just nodded.

‘Um Xara I need to go back for a bit’

She looked at Kyros as if waiting for approval and he nodded ‘Alright follow me’ she took me outside and opened the portal back home.

 I entered my house and called for my mom to see if she was home.

‘Emil?’ immediately she saw me she hugged me ‘I’ve been so worried’

‘As you can see I’m not dead’

‘Don’t even joke about things like that’ she placed a hand on my cheek

‘Good evening’ Xara curtsied behind me

‘Oh goodness! I didn’t notice you dear I’m sorry. Thank you for bringing him back home, would you like to stay for dinner?’

‘I’ll be honored’

The three of us ate the dinner in peaceful silence.

‘Thank you so much the food was delicious’ Xara said after helping my mom to clear the dishes while I quickly head to my room to grab a few things.

‘You could stay for the night I know how tiring these things are’ mom said

‘I wish I could but we need to head back soon, we have a big day ahead tomorrow'

‘What do you mean by “we”?

Mom heard me entering the room and gave me a fearful look when she saw the bag in my hand

‘Emil, sweetie, what’s going on?’

‘Mom you’re not going to like this’