The Human Federation
1714 Words
The sun was already high up in the sky. Viethra woke up from her bed not remembering the events that transpired. He saw Myles’s armors neatly arranged in a corner. He went out of the room only to find out that she was the only person inside the house. She went outside and did not see a single soul. The whole village was empty. She could hear the ocean waves unceasingly beating against the shore. A certain neigh suddenly caught her attention which made her head to the stables. Inside the stables, she saw Myles who was packing for their trip.
“Myles?” Viethra approached him.
“Oh, you are finally awake,” Myles turned to her. “You passed out this morning after you cast a powerful spell.”
“Powerful spell? What spell? I don’t remember anything.”
“You don’t? But it was a very powerful spell. You stopped the giant wave and saved the whole village from destruction.”
“I did? Well, I am glad everybody is safe. Speaking of which, where is everybody?”
“Oh, everybody followed what you said. After you shielded them from that wave, they evacuated the village to settle in a new place far from danger. They just left a while ago after eating lunch. The whole village was grateful for what you did. I’m finished packing. We should get going soon.”
Viethra and Myles returned to their room, Myles donned his armor while Viethra freshened up and ate brunch. Thereafter, they rode on the long road towards another village, which they reached by early afternoon. They continuously went on their way until they saw the capital of Siquia from the horizon.
Liezel, the capital city of Siquia is the largest city in the northern human territories. This city is the main force that guards the boundary territories against Pacifica. When they arrived in the city, it was almost nightfall.
The city was quiet. Peace and order were kept by the numerous knights present in the city. They were questioned before entering but things went smoothly as the knights knew the value of tourists and visitors to the city business. Liezel and her knights needed money to fund its war effort against the merpeople. The young ruling lord was just and even though he needed money to support his cause, he never tried to increase taxes.
The two stayed at an inn and went to sleep after eating dinner. The two slept soundly. After some time, morning came like a breezy blow of the forever changing wind. Viethra ate breakfast while Myles practiced with his sword. He was tired of missing some of his hits. He knew that he had to find a teacher who could teach him some techniques. He wanted to find someone but there was no one he could find.
Viethra and Myles then headed east towards Jora. It is the smallest territory in the human federation and most of its land is for agriculture. It had one city with the same name. They passed by the city. While they were riding slowly, Myles saw a poster of a tournament for the best swordsman in the land. It was going to be held two days from today’s date at Talus, the capital city of Paladia.
Myles told Viethra about what he saw. Viethra thought it was a good idea to find a master and it was an opportunity to find the “mistress of blades.” They went out of the city and arrived at Phira.
The land of Phira had dense vegetation and the people lived as carpenters and lumberjacks. The territory borders Dombruk, the hawk people territory. Unlike the merpeople, the hawk people chose to have friendly relations with humans even though they were allied with dwarves. There was nothing much to see in the territory. The two encountered a lot of goblins, serpents, and creatures of decay on the way but they were able to defeat them all.
They arrived at Avrol, the capital city of the territory. The city had a lot of peculiar products and there were also hawk people who traded with humans. They arrived in the city late afternoon. According to the map that they had, Avrol is near the border to Paladia and Talus, Paladia’s capital is not so far from the border. They could arrive there by night but Myles convinced Viethra to stay the night. Viethra agreed and the spent the night in an inn.
What they saw at the inn was different. The food was strange and had a different flavor from normal human food. Viethra never tasted something different from what the humans usually served and this new taste interested her. When she saw hawk women working in the inn, she knew that the food was also of their influence. Myles only had a glass of water and a little bit of fruit and went to practice with his sword.
The two then fetched shut-eyes. Usually, the two would start to leave before the sun rises but this time they were able to leave when the sun completely rose. They arrived at Paladia where they saw swordsmen who were traveling towards the capital. Some were on foot, some were on horseback, some went alone, and some traveled in groups. Myles was both thrilled and intimidated by the people he saw.
They arrived at Talus. It is one of Paladia’s twin capital cities with the other one being Tanis. Talus boasted its mastery of the weapons while Tanis beheld its mastery of land magic. The ruling lord of Paladia lives on Hyde, the city between the two cities.
Security was tight and to get in, they had to pretend to join the tournament of swordsmen to enter. The city was bustling and busier than any other city they had been so far. Like Talida, shops and stores lined up at every street but Talus’ were larger and were more numerous. They passed by the arena where hundreds of swordsmen were lining up from the entrance.
It was high noon when the two arrived at their destination. They found an inn where they were to stay for days to find the person being referred to in the prophecy.
“Seek the mistress of blades in the largest city of the people of the land,” Viethra said. And they knew that the tournament was the perfect place to find this person. After leaving their things at the inn, they set out for the arena. Besides the arena, there were also sword art schools where aspiring sword masters learn the art of swordsmanship.
Myles was fascinated and tried to enroll but the prices for learning were eminently high. They were enough to rob them of the money they had. Myles searched from school to school to find a cheap fare but they were all expensive. Finally, he found one, school which had the most affordable price written on a sign right outside of its door. The façade of the school was amazing but the inside was quaint. Everything was run down and there was nobody there except for a fox which slept at the reception.
Myles sneaked in one of the rooms and found someone sleeping. It was a woman who slept soundly on the cold hard wooden floor. Suddenly, someone shouted from behind Myles and a man ran to him wielding a sword. Myles retaliated and drew his sword and parried the attacker’s swings.
“What do you want?” The man who attacked him said. “If you have come here to steal, then my blade through your chest is what you are going to get.”
“No!” Myles shouted in reply. “I have come to learn the ways of the sword.”
“Take this!” The man continued attacking Myles. Their noise suddenly woke up the woman who was sleeping. Enraged at the ruckus the two were making, the woman grabbed a pole and rid the two of their swords. She struck them making them kneel on their knees.
“What is going on here?” The woman sternly asked.
“This man here was trying to steal something!”
“I wasn’t! I came here to enroll at your school. I want to learn a thing or two about how to handle swords.”
“Really?” the man replied. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
“All of this for ruining my sleep?!” the woman was enraged and slammed the two’s head with the pole. “I’m going back to sleep. You should teach this boy.” The woman went back to where she slept.
“I’m Mac,” the man who attacked him introduced himself. “I run this place with my sister, Mae, the one sleeping over there. So I’ll be your teacher.”
“Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Myles. I’m from Matil village in Rolance.”
“Matil? You traveled a long way boy.”
The two began their lesson and before he knew it, Myles was learning the art of swordsmanship.
Meanwhile, Viethra explored the city to inquire of a woman who mastered the sword. When she asked about it, people would laugh at her for asking such a question. She searched from shop to shop, store to store, and even inquired for women who mastered the sword in the sword art schools. Viethra gave up and went to search for Myles. She was later disappointed when she found out that the school that Myles was learning from was quaint and run down.
Viethra watched as Myles and his teacher exchanged swings and slashes. Mae woke up and eventually joined Viethra. She would usually laugh whenever Myles makes a mistake. Viethra was pissed every time she did it and later on confronted her to fight Myles’s teacher.
Viethra was shocked when the woman accepted. And right before her eyes, Myles’s teacher surrendered before the match was about start. Viethra was angry at what the teacher did and bade Myles to fight her. Driven by Viethra’s anger, Myles had no choice but to face Mae in a fight.
Myles charged in and attempted to strike Mae first. Mae just stood there and in a flashing split second, she parried Myles’ strike and thwarted off his sword plunging it into the wall. Viethra was taken aback at what Mae did.
“Finally,” she thought. “Is she the mistress of the sword?”
- Writer
