The Broken Sigil

The sun rose above the new castle. Celvin CastThe sun rose above the new castle. Celvin Castle just as they imagined, a dream of two lovers lost in the world, the broken world the world that they fought together to save, a shame both of them weren’t there to see what they have accomplished, their dream a realization. Silverwater and Villeurve, two different villages, two different worlds, once at odds against each other, and now one of the biggest nations in the world of Oniphere, some say it's competing against The White City. The different cultures that the villages once had made for a unique atmosphere and design. Some buildings were tall and made of stone, some houses small made out of wood and hay for the roofs, cobblestone alleys, pointy watchtowers some higher than the others, crenelated walls, the valley around the castle green as ever, and the tall apple tree that Hugo promised to Cristina that stood just outside the castle on a hill that overlooked at Celvin itself. Everything was just like out of a fairytale really, but pretty and big words bring trouble, the forces of evil may be defeated but there are others full of ambition that seek glory and power, and Celvin was the perfect target. After the world had forgotten about the wars that divided them. The war between the North and the West, technology against magic, and the king of The White City defeating both armies brought peace to the world and taught both nations to coexist with each other. But peace wasn’t to last long since the war for existence had started thrusting the world into another danger, a bigger danger than just a simple war between two nations, a danger that threatened the existence of every nation, and thus an alliance had to be formed, differences had to be put aside and work together to defeat the ultimate evil. Echo, the Sigil, and Vega. As far as every Kin had been concerned everything was put to rest and they were convinced that everything is done and dusted, The Sigil broke in half, Echo was defeated and killed as well as Cedric. Francis and Hugo had sacrificed themselves to bring down the dragon Vega with the help of the Sigil that broke in half and gave both of them powers against the foul being. Cristina had lost Hugo, but she had a baby with him and named him Marcus. Aelizia became the queen of the North after her father’s death and lived out her days with Liza’s sister Lora. Liza on the other hand returned to Steampeak and continued with her life with her reputation restored. Franco and Zafina got married and automatically created an alliance between Yimeon, and The White City, everything went right with the world all those happy endings, alliances and prosperity brought Oniphere to the golden age, where cities and castles thrived, the land that had died out when Echo was draining its power had restored to its former beauty, perhaps even better than what it once was. The Kin were forgetting all the bad things that have happened and were moving on, but of course, not everybody could forget, wars are the reason they are reminded not to thump their chests next time. The Ashen Fields were a good reminder of that, the East once an unexplored and dangerous region where the final battle took place now became known as the Ashen Fields since it was still ash from the war, the soil was gray mixed with ash, plants never grew and the sky was always darkened and gray, the volcano smoked constantly, and on the ground was a giant mark that glowed red. The mark was that of the Sigil, what the sigil looked like before it broke in half. The glowing mark on the ground led the Kin to believe that danger still might be about and they wouldn’t rest easy, but now half a century later it still glows but nothing else is happening, some Kin believe that Vega and the Sigil are in fact still alive and brimming with power deep underneath the surface and that one day it may come back to bring ruin to the world. Now after all the lessons they have learned over time they couldn’t ignore things and warnings anymore. The kings and queens have gathered a council and decided to create a special school that would teach students in the ways of magic and technology, something that has never been heard of before, and that’s what made these students special. Now these students when they graduate would become known as The Protectors, and they would stand watch in the Ashen Fields, should anything happen they would be the first line of defense and would have to warn the rest of the world of the danger that is coming. Being a Protector was a big ask, it would mean that you would have to give up on your own ambitions and dreams to devote yourself to studying two subjects, ofcourse you would also have to favor a Watcher so that it may grant you the power of magic, and some Kin couldn’t stand the thought of believing in a higher power, and with all that said and done, the one thing that made it all impossible was the fee that was required students to pay to attend the school. Bringing people across the world to teach students how to become the ultimate being wasn’t cheap, but for the nobles, it wasn’t an issue, therefore it became exclusive only to the kids of the nobles, it wasn’t fully exclusive it was simply that the middle class couldn’t afford it. But it was effective, no matter how ridiculous the whole thing was and expensive it worked in the end. What the school had done was to put the entire world at rest, the whole point of the school was not to create soldiers that would be ready at moment’s notice but to create figures across the world, and therefore the Kin knew that if anything happens there are The Protectors among them, they, of course, were anonymous and lived their normal lives until it was time for them to serve in the Ashen Fields.        The white caravan slowly made its way towards Celvin Castle, it wasn’t a siege or a declaration of war, just a simple visit from the king of The White City to Celvin Castle, and it was for a good cause.      “Raise the gates!!!” yelled the guard as the soldier raised them, the gates slowly raised, and it revealed the entire noble family of Celvin Castle, well almost the entire family. There was King Alfred who ordered his entire family to line up and welcome the king, there was his wife Jacklyn, his oldest son Frederic along with his wife Isolde, and their little son Aldus. The caravan had arrived in the courtyard and stopped sideways so that when the soldiers opened the door the king faced the other king. The White City king came out of the caravan and looked around the castle, he has heard much about it, and how awesome it was but seeing it with his own eyes was something else.      “Edmund my dear friend!” he walked towards him.      “Alfred, my king!” spoke Edmund as he bowed before him, Celvin Castle may have been great and big, but the White City still had authority and was still the capital of the continent.      “Rise my friend!” ordered Alfred since he didn’t care about people bowing before him, all he wanted was to embrace his close friends and he did so, they hugged each other and tapped on each other’s shoulders, Alfred had a long dark hair that was pushed back, he had dark eyes, a big nose, and a short gray beard, he always carried his cape and sword, you’d think he was ready to wage a war at any moment. Across was Edmund who was cleanly shaven had brown curly hair and a small nose.      “Come, meet my family,” said Edmund as he gracefully turned towards them. “My son Frederic, next in line for the throne,” Edmund presented a young fellow with a masculine body and his brown fringed-up haircut.      “My lord,” Frederic bowed.      “His wife, Isolde and son Aldus,” Edmund pointed to a woman with pale skin, long dark hair, and blue eyes, Isolde was truly beautiful, and their little son Aldus who was no older than ten years old, had a dark long hair after his mother.      “My lady Jacklyn,” Edmund pointed at his wife and the queen of Celvin, she also had dark hair and her eyes were brown, and her face was already showing some marks since she and her husband were getting old. Edmund scanned around as his face became angry.       “Where is your bother, Frederic?” he asked him.      “Probably off studying again,” he answered, as Edmund kneeled down to Aldus and looked at the kid.      “Kid, run along now, call your uncle,” ordered Edmund.      “Yes, grandpa,” said Aldus heeding the order immediately.      “Ah… here they are,” Alfred looked at two women that walked towards them accompanied by a group of soldiers. “This is my lady Isidora!” he announced as he pointed to a woman that had long black hair and looked very young for her age, she had a grim and angry look about her, as if she was forced into making this trip, none the less she bowed before Edmund and his family as she turned around and looked for her daughter. “Katrina!” she called out to her to show herself up front next to her father.      “My daughter Katrina!” announced Alfred as he presented her, she had blonde curly hair, big eyes, a small nose, and a mouth. Isolde may have been beautiful but Katrina was her competition.       “I don’t understand why is it that I have to be bothered with such irrelevant matters!” Lucius stormed towards the courtyard as Aldus ran in front of him, he walked forwards still arguing with himself.      “You must be Lucius!” called out Alfred.      Lucius just stopped dead in his tracks and looked at Alfred as if he was nobody, just how in the hell did he know his name? “And who are you supposed to be?”      “Boy! You will show respect to King Alfred!” Edmund came right up to his face. “And you will bow before him.”      “Bow?” he asked. “I’m sorry, aren’t we all equal? I don’t have to bow,” he looked at his father who was starring daggers at him, embarrassing him like that and whatnot. Katrina just smiled at the insolence Lucius had and noticed each other.      “It matters not, Ed…” spoke Alfred as he was interrupted by Lucius when he approached Katrina.      “My lady,” he bowed before her and kissed her hand.      “Oh… manners,” said Katrina playfully. “Now Lord Lucius, pray tell of these important matters,” she looked at him.      “None as important as you my lady,” Lucius dismissed with his hand. “Father,” he turned towards Edmund. “We need to talk about the Protectors when the time is right.”      “Ah… here we go again,” Frederic couldn’t believe he brought it up right now.      “The Protectors?” asked Alfred who of course being a descendant from Franco and Zafina knew everything about them, he even planned for Katrina to be a part of them but her wishes were something else. “What about them?” he became intrigued.      “Come, Alfred, we must eat, you must be famished,” said Edmund as he pulled him away from Lucius. “The servants have prepared a feast for the kings!” he laughed.      “How could I ever ignore you Edmund!?” laughed Alfred as both of them burst into laughter and walked inside the castle, Edmund turned around and looked angrily at Lucius giving him a final warning if only he embarrassed him once more it would be the final straw.        The feast went long into the night, Alfred and Edmund were drunk on the red wine constantly hugging each other and singing their voices out, Frederic sat there with the two of them as he admired the two kings hoping to one day have fun just like them, while Isolde stood aside with Katrina who played with Aldus.      “What a lovely child you have,” Katrina tickled Aldus on his stomach as the kid couldn’t stop laughing.      “Thank you, my lady,” said Isolde.      “Please, no need to call me my lady, we are equals after all,” she looked at her.      “Unlike Lucius, I’ve still got my manners,” responded Isolde.      “Lucius…” Katrina looked away but couldn’t find him anywhere. “Tell me more about him?” she looked back at Isolde.      “Oh, what is there to be told, we’ve known each other since kids,” started Isolde.