• Prologue

    I walked down the long hall way towards the lord's office, as usual all was quiet. The only noise was my boots hitting the polished marble floor. Guards where at every door in this building after the explosion on the second floor of the castle. Now everywhere you go there is a guard or more standing and watching cautiously for any signs of trouble. No one really can go anywhere without being watch by a statue like guard standing there waiting for you to slip so he can hack you down.
    "I wonder why the lord needs me." I asked myself out loud, "I hate being the honor and pride of this empire."
    I laughed a bit on the idea, what pride and honor, this empire isn't the great empire after the new lord came into power, I thought. I walked to the door in front of the lord's office. Two guards stand there, and saluted to me and one of them opened the double door
    "The lord is waiting for you sir." He said, I nodded and walked in closing the old wooden doors behind me. I walked behind the lord.
    "You asked for me my lord." I said bowing. He was standing at the window behind his desk looking out at the rising sun.
    "Yes I did." He said bluntly.
    "Well what is thy bidding my lord?" I said impatiently, shifting my feet to get into a comforting stance.
    "You sound aggravated, what is wrong?" He asked turning around, his face showed some concern for my well being, but his crystal blue eyes showed hate from his child hood, “You can tell your brother right?"
    "I am aggravated because we are losing imperials from betrayal and from unknown deaths." I said furious at him, clinching my fist, I just wanted to hit him for acting stupid, "Sorry Jan, I mean my lord, i just can't stand that good men of the empire are disappearing twice as much this month than any year, and you won't do a damn thing about it."
    "You out of all people, my brother, think that I am not doing my job as lord!" He said in a high voice, " I fought for this country, during the war over Mt. Basilisk, is that not doing a damn thing for the empire!"
    "You keep forgetting I was the one who sieged that damn Mountain, and lost almost all my men, and what did I get, nothing!" I yelled at him, my heart was beating twice as fast than usual and the magicite in my blood was boiling, hate was swelling in me and something kept telling me to hack him down where he stands, but something darker told me to wait, "You took all the credit to become lord and did nothing!"
    "Get out of my office, I don't want a disrespecting judge in my office, thinking he is better then me." He said clinching his fist, he was on the edge and was going to fight me in the office.
    "To hell with you Jan!" I yelled walking out the door and slamned the door behind me. That bast*rd always think he is better then everyone else, I thought
    I walked out of the castle looking out at the city, least this isn't a hell hole yet, I thought. As I walked down I realized if I keep this up with Jan, one of us will end up dead by the other's blade.
    "Hey how you doin' Johny?" Alexander asked in a humorous voice.
    I grabbed him by the throat, "You do not call me Johny, Alex."
    "Alright.... Alright, just let me go *sshole!" He said gasping for air, I dropped him on the ground and looked up sighing. He got up and dusted off his clothes, "Someone is pissed off I see."
    "You guessed correct, so what trouble are YOU in today?" I said in a slight humorous voice, but tried to conceal it hastely.
    "Well I kicked a guard in the grion today in front of the cavern, and then I met this very fine la...." He said but I interuppted him.
    "I don't want to know what you did with her." I said sighing in disgust walking towards the gate and noticed something, "how did you get through the gate, you are not an imperial."
    "Correction, I am one now, yep I signed up today and will be you apprentice." He said in the most happy, annoying voice I could hear from him, "Ain't it fun, we are goin' to have a blast John!"
    "God help me." I sighed, "What did I do to deserve such punishment."
    "Hey that hurts feelings you know, maybe that is why they call you The Sorrow, always cold and heartless." He said in a honest voice, I almost felt sorry for him, "so where we goin?"
    "I am going to see Niomi." I said hoping he would just die or something.
    "What is this, you wish to be her lover don't you, ain't that new, god I didn't know you had a heart." He said in a high voice.
    "I don't love her! Beside love is blind." I said walking through the gate with him.
    "And obvious." He added a little concerned.
    "Well whatever, I don't love her, I hope you see that, the sooner the better, I lost the will to love when my mother died, and decided to hate every god damn thing!" I said pointing at him with anger, he just doesn't understand my pain, I thought.
    "Sorry man, I didn't know." He said standing in the street while I walked off. Sorry, but I didn't mean to be like that, I'm just stressed a lot, I thought, I really wanted to say that to him, but I just couldn't. I took a deep breath while walking down the street, finally peace and qui..., I thought but was interrupted by a guard falling down right in front of me. Niomi came towards the guard clinching her fist. She looked pretty pissed off.
    "I don't like guards that squeeze my *ss!" She said punching the guard in his face. She looked towards me about to punch the guard again, "Hey John."
    She landed another punch to his face. I looked at her and looked up at the blue sky, I am always getting annoyed by these people, I thought, when will they decide to leave me be.
    "Well I see these guards are still getting their faces smashed by you." I said bluntly, looking at the guard. She let him go and he got up and was about to slap her when I grabbed his arm, "Get or I will kill you in front of all these civilians."
    He nodded and ran off, stumbling on himself a bit. Niomi looked up at me smiling as usual, "I see that guards are still getting threaten by you my dear Johny."
    "Why do you call me that, it is annoying." I said looking at her; she had black hair and blue eyes, like her mother. She had a gentle concern look on her face half the time.
    "Because it annoys you and I lo...." She said but I moved my hand over her mouth making sure does not finish the sentence.
    "I will keep telling you this, don't love me, I never asked for it and never will." I said moving my hand off her mouth, tears started to go down her face. Damn it why am I always doing this to her, I thought. Civilians looked at us but walked off, not wanting to get to any trouble.
    "Well I thought... you know you and me...." She cried and looked at me directly in my eyes, god I hate this, I thought, even though it was all show, she never cried unless she knew she could get something out of it.
    "Look I am sorry, I just...." I said but couldn't finish the sentence, I pulled out a small silky looking cloth, "here no one wants to see you cry."
    "Thanks." She said rubbing her eyes with it, "You just need to be polite you know, or show some kind of affection."
    "You will not stop till I show some type love towards you." I said crossing my arms and got the cloth back from her, no tears as usual, I thought.
    "Yes and I think you need to treat me to something for being mean." She said back in her cheery type.
    "God, fine, I will take you out to eat at one of the bigger, more respectable caverns okay." I said, trying not to say go to hell to her.
    "Sound fantastic!" She said and hugged me, without giving me any chance to push her off, "remember wear something more casual, I don't want to give the impression that I am being guarded by a judge. See you at eightish."
    "... Great.... can't wait." I said, deep down inside my torn heart, I felt a little spark of love, I must hide this from the world, I thought, I cannot be the best with an emotion dwelling inside of me. It is a weakness that needs to go away, and it could be used against me. She skipped off and then ran to her house.
    "She doesn't understand that I can't love." I said out loud.
    "Well least you know if you need to cry on a shoulder or something you got her." Alexander said right by me.

    "How long have you've been watching?" I said pushing him away from my shoulder.
    "Since the Johny part... Johny!" He said in that god damn voice of his. As usual I grabbed him by the throat.
    "She gets lucky to say that, but you are not so lucky." I said squeezing a little harder than usual.
    ".. Ok... can...'t br..eath." He choked trying to make me let go of him. I dropped him as usual, "What the hell that actually hurt me man."
    "Then you should know better than to aggravate me." I said crossing my arms.
    “How did your mother die?” He asked getting off the ground, looking at me with a look so pathetic.
    “I guess since I am your mentor, I guess you can know.” I said, and motioned him to follow me, “Walk with me.”
    “Thanks, I thought you where goin’ to say no.” H e sighed honestly dusting his pants off.
    “Well it happened about eighteen years ago. It was at the beginning of the War of the Espers, if you can remember.” I said taking a left towards, my mother’s grave a couple of miles from where we stand, “Father had gone to join the fight and well as you remember hopefully, we were invaded so he died protecting this empire.”
    “Terrible, go on.” He said behind me trying to keep a straight face. He loved my father and was almost a brother to me.
    “Well I was still in the academy when I heard about the invasion, and was told to stay inside, but I raced towards my mother’s house, keeping away from the invaders. Well when I reached the house, mother was limp on the ground in an awful position. I went up to her thinking she was unconscious. When I got near her she had hear necklace in her hands near her chest and had a stab wound from a blade, I recognized the wound, not from an invader’s blade, but by a katana.” I said trying not to remember how much pain I was in that bloody day, “Well the katana was lying beside her, it was our ancestor’s blade and I figured out who did it about five years ago. It was a setup from the very beginning, my father’s death, my brother’s lord hood.”
    “I didn’t know, I am sorry.” Alex said crying a bit, but kept it back as much as possible.
    “Well now you know. If you want to see my mother’s grave keep going straight.” I said, changing moods, and walked back to my house.
    “But aren’t you going to tell me the rest?” He asked standing there almost knocking over an elder.
    “You know the rest; just put the pieces together.... all will be spoken when the lord crumbles.” I said, wishing for Jan to die already.
    “Just tell me, or speak some English.” He said walking towards me.
    “I never told anyone, about it, what makes you think that I am going to tell you!” I said clinching my fist, ready to draw my blade and end his life for trying to get into my past.
    “This is where all your hate comes from, your mother’s death and people trying to help you get through it.” I said crossing his arms, looking at one of the people looking at them, i turned to the person.
    “Your eyes are stuck, get moving.” I said motioning him to move on, “Yes that is where my hate for the planet comes from.”
    “So you hate Niomi then?” He asked. I stopped in my tracks, thinking about it. I couldn’t answer a yes cause I felt something about her, but I couldn’t say no cause it would be a weakness that needs to stay hidden, like the past, but the past will always be brought up.
    “I.... can’t answer that question.” I said after the long moment of silence, “It is not a yes and it is not a no.”
    “It is a simple yes or no man.” He said sighing, “You do feel some kind of connection with her, but you think it is a weakness.”
    “Quiet.” I said and started to walk again. I can’t live like this, not with my brother trying to get rid of me, and trying to show some type of affection to Niomi. Evil lurks around every corner all the time, and is trying to find my weakness, and it has already.