LOGINShare
Chapter 8: Father Ordan
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56Antuas led Sethlzaar into an entrance beneath the keep. They walked an arched hallway, each arch in a way marking a distance travelled with wooden torches rested against the walls. They cast a golden light to expel the darkness. This left Sethlzaar marveled at how ancient the place seemed.
The hallways were fashioned from stones so old he could smell it. On different parts of its walls cracks crawled like failed spider webs. They passed hallways leading to unknown parts shrouded in darkness. Each one claimed a part of his childish curiosity. The darkness of those unlit beckoned to him and he stared with a wanderlust.
His mind demanded he explore it. He reached out his hand, curiosity outweighing caution and...
"Vi Sorlan."
He turned.
Antuas stood ahead of him with a gaze strong enough to dissuade him of his compulsion.
When had he stopped walking? he wondered
Related chapters
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 9: Like Ox For Field
Minutes felt like hours and, as it stretched into hours, it seemed to go on forever. They labored under the bright sun in their repetitive strikes under Ordan's command.Ordan had them line up after an unending length of time spent on arm jarring strikes and Sethlzaar studied his wooden sword as they waited for their next command.He knew very little about swords, and he knew even less about the various designs. The only weapons to ever appeal to him lived in his memory of his journey and the scabbard of the darkness. He had snuck into Groc's study at one point in time and had seen the different swords hung on the wall, most of them had been longer than he had been tall.They'd all presented themselves in various sizes, sharpened on both sides. It gave them a double-edged ferocity. But what had caught Sethlzaar's eye was neither them nor the elegantly curved swords with the inscription sword of Tarr crossed over each oth
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 10: Test Of The Mist
Sethlzaar and his peers learned of the existence of tests from the older boys as the days stretched into months, and finally into a year. They were trained in techniques required in fights."We teach yer not for the defense of a man, but the defense of a realm," Ordan told them one morning before training began. "We do not teach yer how to defend yerselves. No. We teach yer how to kill a man."Arrsahel was the day of the sword, first of the week. They woke before the break of dawn and took to the courtyard where they trained.Father Ordan remained brutal with the sword, giving Sethlzaar reason to believe he indulged them more for the opportunity of brutality than teaching them how to kill a man.Narvi proved adept with the sword, parrying strikes from the priest and occasionally finishing a spar with only so much as aching hands. It always left Ordan's mood fouler than usual. The children dreaded going after him, as
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 11: Only Prey Run
Sethlzaar made to rejoin what was left of the group, but his pride served to keep him in place where he fell to his knees.He rose to his feet. They trembled in fear. Cautiously, he waded through the mist, finding only more of it with each step. As he wandered, he considered the possibility of Narvi and Cenam being the last a conscious choice of the priests. He decided that if he was to place a wager on who would be the last out of the group it would be on Cenam.The sound of a twig snapping pushed panic into his mind. It sent him on a panicked sprint through the mist. Slowly, the mist thinned into nothingness.He sidestepped a tree as his vision cleared, narrowly avoiding it. A stray branch hit him in the face immediately after. He crashed to the ground, like a discarded log.Sprawled on the floor, he opened his eyes. The sun was at its peak. The direction with which the light bore through the shades of the trees w
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 12: The Old Man
Sethlzaar let himself into a free fall. He dropped through the remaining distance and hit the ground harder than he planned but did not let it hinder him. He rolled away from the voice on impact and came to his feet immediately, leveled into one of the few variations of the knife stance Yggdra had taught them.He reached for his knife, and his hand met nothing.Where is it? he panicked. The bear. The realization clawed at him.Panic grew to terror. Truth damn it all.He was left with only a few choices. Not finding himself with the strength to run, nor the mood for it, he turned to the source of the voice.An old man sat in the dirt. His back rested against a tree as he seemed to mull over his own question. "Of course not," he concluded. "You don't look the kind. Well, that way," he pointed to his right, "will find you in a cloud of fog, annoying thing
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 13: Ulkiniki
Antuas took Sethlzaar by the shoulder and covered him in a thick cloak. He led him through the gates and into the fort. They walked past the field, and Sethlzaar watched the first light of day covet the sky. He knew he was the last of the participants to walk through the gates.On their arrival at the walls Antuas took the cloak off him. "We don't want the others thinking you get special treatment," he said smiling. "Now go on. You are to remain in your room like the rest of your mates until you all are called for."Sethlzaar walked into the compound as the portcullis was raised, alone, and filled with a loss of achievement. One year and it still doesn't feel like home.The group he met in the room was not too surprising.Cenam was rested on his bed with a certain care free nature he only displayed in the wild, Narvi was biting his nails, something Sethlzaar had noticed the boy only did when
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 14: The Lire
The days stretched into weeks. The weeks into months. They trained. They sparred. They ate. They learned new tricks, and skills. Eventually, winter came again. With it came the falling snow, coveting the grounds in the finest white. And with the snow came blizzards common to the realm.No one spoke of the children who did not return from the Test of the lost. They were not forgotten. But they were never mentioned, as if by some unspoken rule among the boys of the seminary.A new set of children trooped in not long after the test. They brought with them a sense of growth. Sethlzaar and his mates were finally free of the putrid chores of the fort, most especially the chore of cleaning out the latrines.The new children looked so young, and so small. Sethlzaar wondered if he had looked like they did when he'd first arrived and how exactly he had survived the seminary for so long. Soon, they would grow out of it, just as he
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter15: The Second Test
The snow fell, and Ayla drowned in it. Their lessons with Father Karnamis increased, adding Elsahel to its day of training.Karnamis proved more dedicated to their lessons than they expected. He seemed to worry for them more than usual.It was not their first winter in the seminary, and they had different garments for winter, with a cloak made of animal fur to keep them warm, or at least from freezing to death. Sometimes it seemed as if the priest forgot this.Karnamis taught them that when in a group, hurdling together was the best way to keep warm. This was something they already knew; a knowledge long since possessed. Canabi and Soartin often slept on the same bed during the winter, sometimes outside the winter. Sethlzaar often wondered if warmth was all they did it for. It troubled him because they risked the consequences of getting caught, as the punishments were severe.Their second test took p
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 16: The Visitor In The Night
The days played by torturously into a week. Sethlzaar found himself wondering if he would survive the test.Maybe I'm not cut out for this life, he thought as he picked up the last of his traps and found a single rat. How the rat had gotten to the trap in the midst of all the snow was a question he did not have the brain power to ponder.Another week went by in such a manner.Each day he found an insignificant catch and had himself eating meat of measly quantity. It ranged from rats to lizards and other small creatures.Sethlzaar made his way back to his shelter, discreetly surveying his surroundings with each step. It was a habit trained he was yet to lose. It was in his second day of the test that he had first felt he was being watched.At first his mind had gone to Cenam, but such a feat in such an environment was something he couldn't imagine his brother capable of,
Latest chapter
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Epilogue
Darkness has never truly been a thing of worry here. Basically, it’s most often dark here. Most of us don’t like it, but time is enough to make anyone adapt to it. Still, it’s not like we have much of an option. Wether it’s dark or bright or generally colorless, it wouldn’t matter, this is the life we live. We would claim we didn’t choose it, that it chose us. But I’ll be honest, we chose it as much as it chose us. Every action we ever took has led us here; at least all the actions I ever took led me here.
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 112: The Bloodless Night
Maekil snapped his finger in recognition. “Yes,” he almost exclaimed. “The Shadow Child of the Conisoir. Even the Lords employ it to scare their children from bad deeds.” He placed a finger to his bottom lip in puzzlement. “Although, yours is different. Why is that?”“Because it is the true tale.”“And you believe this
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 111 :Maekil
Red wine twirled within a transparent cup made of glass and fashioned for the simple and unnecessary sake of aesthetics. By Truth, Maekil never could understand the desire to be pleasing to the eye. Perhaps it was because all his life he had been nothing but pleasing to the eye, perhaps it was not. He dropped the cup without taking a sip.He would only taste of the wine when the night was over and the morning greeted him with the light of the sun. Normally this wasn’t the case: not in his manor.
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Valerik's Quest 12: The Incarnate
Valerik came awake screaming and gasping. His cassock was soaked in sweat and a terror grasped at his heart as he cried into arms that held him with so much untainted love. But somethings were greater than others and he knew that no love or hate or indifference could triumph over the terror that held him.“What’s wrong, father?” a voice asked.He knew who
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Valerik's Quest 11: By Your Fear You Shall Know Him
Valerik opened his eyes from his slumber, instinct propelled to reach across him to ensure he bow still lay where he’d left it last night when he’d bedded down for the night. The bow was the livelihood of his people. A man with no knowledge of where his bow lay at all times was a failure of a man. Assured it was where he’d left it, he rose from the ground to a sitting position and watched the man who sat on the log on the other side of a fire that was nothing but ash. No doubt it had fizzled out sometime during the night, considering no one had paid it any attention.
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 110: Ayla Will Mourn
Sethlzaar blinked the darkness away, but he might as well have waved away the air. Unable to see, he sat up with ease. The floor was covered in grass and served as a soft bed to his rump, so much so that he hesitated to rise to his feet. But he did.Around him was overshadowed in a familiar darkness, and when he took a step forward he frowned at the sight before him.A rub
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 109: The Wars Of Men
They couldn’t afford to let the fight drag on. But if there were no wisps, how could he change its course? If Berlak evaded him at every turn, how could they turn the tide? The answer came to him as quickly as the question. There’s more you can do in the dark.Stepping forward, he moved his hand in as he spun from the cover of Cenam’s back to oppose Berlak. The god turned away from his attack easily, striking a closed fist against the flat of Cenam’s veil.
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 108: Nothing Is Impossible
Sethlzaar saw the moment the fight was decided. The climax to the torrential build up. Cenam swung the veil in his left hand. A downward stroke designed to take his enemy’s head. Berlak reacted as fast as the stroke itself, his longsword striking the veil from Cenam’s grip, taking away the priest’s advantage. But Sethlzaar had seen such decisions before. Cenam had intended it. The strike, although intended to take the man’s head, had never truly been expected to. Not a feint. A sacrifice.Cenam’s second ve
Aegis of the Immortal: Blood Blessed Chapter 107: May His Grace Keep Us Where Our Strength Fails
The war raged on within the city walls, though the carnage was not as depressing within as it was without. Sethlzaar carried himself in a full sprint, his previously perceived fatigue ebbing away at the touch of darkness as he followed where Cenam led. Bratvi kept pace beside him and paid no obvious attention to his broken wrist. One thing was certain; even if the Most Reverend could fight, it would be impossible to use both veils.There was no doubt that those who had given the once mythical city of Arlyn its reigning title had never stepped foot within its walls. Still, there wa
