Damnation: Dawn of The Apotheosis

A MEETING

A lone figure marched across a patch of grasses in a brisk military fashion. The sound of his heavy boots breaking the twigs disturbed the silence of the midnight. He finally stopped by a large gate and gave it a single soft knock.

“Who is it?” a gruff voice asked from the other side of the gate.

The man chuckled, stroking his beard as he answered curtly. “You can open the gate this instant, or I can smash it down with your skull.”

The man at the other side stood up sharply, all traces of sleep gone in an instant. He flung the gate open and saluted the man.

“General, I offer my apologies. Lady Lyda did not inform me that you would be here.”

“Yes, she didn’t,” replied General Okhotnik, moving on to the main building.

The mansion was not very large, built only two floors high, which is rather conservative for a lady of high rank. She made up for this with a garden that stretched all the way to her gate, and a wide training ground at the backyard. The gardens led to paved passageways that further led to a number of doors.

General Okhotnik took one of these passages, as if he knew exactly which led to the Lady.

Without so much as a knock, he turned the knob and entered. The room was not too large, but with enough room to house a small company. Three couches were arranged at its centre, with a maple table in the middle. Lady Lyda sat one of the long couches, examining a large map in her hands.

She was not in her steel armor, nor was her Blade of Victory by her side. Instead, she was in a plain black night-robe. Her short yellow hair made her charmingly boyish, and take away her ever-stoic expression and one may conclude that she was an attractive woman.

She turned to the visitor with a frown. “General Livasai?”

General Okhotnik leads a group of mages named the Crossing Rapiers, or the Livasai Corps as they are sometimes called. He had joined Capricorn Prime a decade earlier and had ever since offered his military powers to the Lord Commander, becoming his chief adviser in no time. He however claims to have been an old Capricorn member, and that he has an army of soldiers just beyond Capricorn walls. He prefers to be addressed as General, or as Lord General by members of the Corps, rather than Lord or Grandmaster.

Lady Lyda was probably his closest friend, having served him for nearly a century as one of the Chief Commanders of his troops. Despite being a grandmaster herself, she chose to serve as his knight-grandmaster, offering him her unfaltering allegiance. She had grown familiar with him, so much that she freely addresses him with his first name, Livasai.

She got up and offered General Okhotnik a cup of tea, while she poured herself another before going back to her seat. “Why have you come to see me at this time, Lord General?” she asked.

General Okhotnik stroked his beard lightly. “I ask myself the same question: what flimsy excuse does an old man such as me have to visit such a beautiful woman as yourself.”

“That is precisely what I mean,” Lady Lyda replied sharply.

“I would not like to dally much, so I will go straight to my point,” he said.

“Go on,” she said, balancing her cup on the saucer.

“An important matter, I came to discuss.”

“I said go on,” said Lady Lyda, her tone slightly irritated.

General Okhotnik took a sip of the tea, cleared his throat and stopped stroking his brown goatee. “I wish to overthrow Lord Commander Trost,” he said.

“What?” exclaimed Lady Lyda, somewhat taken aback by the declaration.

“Did I stutter? Oh, I suppose I did,” he said with a dry chuckle. “I mean I plan to overthrow Trost.”

“And you are telling me this because—”

“I need your support,” he answered plainly.

Lady Lyda looked into the cup of tea in silence for some time. She emptied it before replying General Okhotnik.

“My unalloyed loyalty belongs to you, Livasai,” she said, “as always.”

“That is good news, though I have never for once in my life thought of doubting your loyalty.”

“I see sense in your mission,” Lady Lyda said, ignoring the General’s previous statement. “South Capricorn will be ruined with Trost at its head.”

“You have come to the same realization as I have. South Capricorn has grown weak and pathetic under him; it is time for a change. My ambitions, I have been nursing them for quite some time now.”

“Obviously, I knew you had something of such in you.” Lady Lyda replied.

“Excellent, such is Lady Lyda, the lioness of Livasai,” remarked General Okhotnik.

“But I had my own reasons for keeping mute,” she said.

“And what would have prevented my lady from providing me with immediate information?”

“Curiosity,” replied Lady Lyda, pouring herself a new cup. “You see, Indac and his men were killed.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“I inspected Tvinn with my most astute men. We came under the conclusion that they met a strong opposition, who wiped them out and probably made away with the apotheosis. Yet, that is not exactly what terrifies me. What terrifies me is that the job seemed to have been done by a very small number of mages, perhaps three or four of them. From the evidences we gathered, the struggle did not last long, and that means the opposition annihilated them easily and quickly. If a small number of mages had annihilated a score of masters and the numerous knights we sent along, then we’re talking grandmasters and possibly archmages.”

“That is dangerous, that could not have been Libra,” said Okhotnik.

“Certainly not. After we left the scene, some Libra knights came to inspect. We caught them and even after we tortured them enough, they kept saying they had nothing to do with it, nor do they have any knowledge of the apotheosis.”

“We ourselves don’t know much of the apotheosis beyond its existence. Such mystery lies ahead of this old man. Notwithstanding, my schemes will come to play. It is not as if I did not expect such amusements like this to take place.”

“How precisely do you plan to depose Trost?”

He ran his fingers through his beard and assumed an even more serious expression. “Specifics forthcoming this even,” he said.

Then, as if he had suddenly remembered something, he sat up precipitously. “I’m afraid, my lady, I must be on my way this moment. Even an old man like me needs sleep.”

“What a curt old man you are, Livasai,” she said. “You stir a woman up in the middle of the night, only to return to your own sleep.”

“You must forgive me, ma’am, but I must leave. Your company, I will keep at some other time.”

“Very well,” she replied, and the General disappeared almost as quickly as he had appeared.