Year of 1209
Even after seven years, infiltrating the Western Royal Palace was no easy feat. Although the three brothers—Willem, Lyn, and Marcus—were now emperors of the Northern, Western, and Southern Kingdoms, the Western Kingdom still maintained layers of security that rivaled any fortress on the continent.
Illaria wasn’t sure how she would manage to recreate the magic she had pulled off seven years ago, but one thing was certain—her heart burned with an unquenchable desire for revenge. These people had taken her family from her. They all deserved to die. Their families deserved to die with them. Everyone deserved to die. With so much hatred boiling inside her, she felt capable of killing anyone. She had the power. She had the will. She could wipe out the entire continent if she wanted to. Sometimes she even wondered—maybe it would have been better if she had succeeded seven years ago. Why had she failed back then? She still couldn’t remember. But that didn’t matter anymore.
What mattered was justice.And to her, killing everyone in this palace was justice.
Illaria had already knocked a guard unconscious and slipped inside the palace walls. She knew the architecture of the Western Royal Palace inside out. Years ago, she had infiltrated this place and lived here for a time with Amayra—Amayra Sevenith, daughter of Varlen and granddaughter of the former Western Emperor, Draven Sevenith. Amayra had been the only close female friend Illaria had ever had. She had been cheerful, warm, and kind.
Perhaps… Perhaps Illaria should spare her.
No.Amayra had tricked her once—made her believe that she liked Marcus back then. How could she ever like the enemy? Amayra had played her part in that betrayal too. She was just as guilty.
She had to die.Everyone had to die.No one was on her side.She was alone.
Still, thanks to Amayra, Illaria knew the layout of the Royal Western Palace better than most of its own guards. The South and the West were nothing alike.
In the Southern Kingdom, architecture followed the harmony of concentric circles. At the heart lay the Royal Building, where the family lived together. It housed the main court, the grand library, war rooms, the royal living quarters, the grand ballroom, and countless other halls. It was the soul of the structure.
Surrounding it were gardens, towers, and residences for prominent ministers—the second circle. Beyond that stood sacred structures like temples, civil courts, and guest residences. Finally, massive walls formed the third layer, separating royalty from the city beyond.
The West, however, was different. The North and the West both seemed to share a certain disdain for warmth—for family, for women, for anything beyond rigid hierarchy. Their palaces were divided sharply. The Outer Court held administrative halls where ministers convened. Unlike the South, ministers did not live within palace grounds; they maintained their own estates and traveled in each day.
Then came the Inner Court. The Inner Court was the domain of the emperor and his family, but even here, hierarchy ruled everything. The emperor had his own residence. The empress lived in a grand palace close to him. The concubines and consorts were housed in smaller residences farther away, tucked into distant wings.
Men and politics belonged to the outer court. Women and domestic life were confined to the inner court.
Order without warmth. Structure without love. That was the West.
Ironically, this cold design made infiltration easier. Illaria could blend in by slipping into an unused concubine hall. Movement through the palace was simple too—Amayra had loved sneaking around, and because of that, Illaria knew the secret passageways, the blind spots, and the exact timings of guard shifts.
High-ranking guests—Marcus, Willem, and that traitorous King Usher—would most likely be housed in the Guest Palaces. These lay a short distance from the emperor’s residence but remained close to the main ceremonial hall.
The Festival of Aris had begun. A week-long celebration. Each day carried its own name. Each night, its own ritual.
Day 1, or the Awakening of Stars, marked the onset of the Festival. People would go to temples and holy rivers in the morning and return home early to clean and decorate their homes. The streets would be filled with the smell of incense and glitter around.
Day 2, or the Might of the Emperor would involve huge parades in the city and in the palaces enacting the noble works, victories and legacy of the Emperor.
Day 3, or Moon Feast, would be a grand day for indulgence to thank everyone for their hard work during the year. Big, lavish feasts would be organized accompanied by music and dance.
Day 4, or Trial of Flame, was the main day of the festival, where the god and goddess of war would be chosen. This was a day in which in the Royal Training ground a huge fighting competition would be organised separately between men and women. The victors were then declared to be the human incantation of the gods of strength and duty. They were then required to participate as a deity on the rituals conducted next day.
Day 5, or Prayer of Dreams, was the day where the priests conducted a massive five hour long worship session to bless the kingdom with another fruitful year.
Day 6, or Silent Night of Echoes , was the day for forgiveness and remembrance. This would be a quiet day where people would visit shrines and observe silence to reflect on their sins
Day 7, or Dance of Celestials, was the last day filled with cultural dances, food, fairs, games and fireworks. A day to spend with family and prepare for another prosperous year.
Out of these, Illaria felt the best day for taking them all down was Day 4, Trial of Flame. Even the name of the day suited the event. In this trial of flame, her magic would burn all of them to their deaths. Moreover this was the only day when all of the Royals would be gathered together in the arena to witness the fights. On all other days her enemies would be scattered. Her plan to take the mall down was simple, she would simply unleash the magic she had unleashed 7 years ago, it was such a strong and powerful magic she would wipe out if not everyone then at least all these traitorous families. The enormous magic power she would expel would definitely catch everyone’s attention like last time, but they wouldn’t be able to do a thing to her as a protective shell would encapsulate her as she prepared to unleash rage.
As her heart beat faster, at this thought and the possibility of her plan succeeding or failing, a sharp pain erupted in her chest. Her memories from the war were fogged, rather so deeply buried she refused to acknowledge them, but she suddenly recalled a faint bit.
As she had almost completed the preparation for Doomed Soul, her protective shell was broken. Someone had come close to her without her realizing. Next thing, a sword had pierced close to her heart. She distinctly remembered, the sword had intentionally missed her heart, as if the backstabber wanted her to not unleash the magic at any cost, but at the same time was not willing to pay the price of her death in exchange. This meant the person who had killed her, loved her enough to not want her death and she also possibly loved this person which is why her protective shell detected no harm from this person. But even this person had betrayed her in the end.
“Ugh, these memories.
I don’t want any of them.
I don’t want to feel.
None of these matter. And here everyone is an enemy only. This time, I won’t fail. No, I won’t fail.” she thought to herself as she left her abandoned quarter to roam and collect information.
Illaria obtained a fake entry badge for the Royal Palace and left the Royal Palace into the city of Nightsong. As she roamed the streets, she saw children gleefully running in the streets and their parents calling them back to home. She realised that their happiness was going to be short-lived, as Doomed Soul would engulf the whole of Nightsong at least into a bottomless pit of despair.
“Mercy is not only our Southern Kingdom’s Law but also a ruler’s greatest strength.” Illaria remembered Ryan saying to her as a child.
“No, No mercy this time.”
And she continued her walk. Illaria went to the grand public library to collect information about the details from years ago. She was extremely curious and kind of worried too about Marcus. That guy had never been good news. Why the hell was he always smiling whenever they met? Did he by chance know who she was? He was not good news. He had always saved her in the past, whenever he could, and something about his smile said he would this time too if he knew who she was and what she was about to do. No, Marcus needed saving, by dying which he should have years ago.
In the library Illaria went straight to the Archive’s Section and to her surprise found out the archive on the war was rather small. The archive presented the war in a completely different tone. There was no mention of the experiments that West had been conducting, the reason she and Marcus had interfered in the first place. No mention of the collaboration between North and South and the marriage between her and Lyn. Instead, the records mentioned,
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“South greedily wanted to conquer the whole continent of Merwan which tempted Emperor Ryan Longsword to launch a war on the West expecting to take advantage of the rivalry between Northern and Western Kingdom. He expected no aid from the Northern Kingdom and wanted to overthrow the peace between the three kingdoms. However, to his surprise sharing the same gods, culture and a history of bloodshed, the Northern Kingdom decided to step-up for the greater good of the continent of Merwan and aided the Western Kingdom in eradicating their common enemy. Divided by kingdom but united by culture their combined might triumphed over the Southern Kingdom’s Army of five hundred thousand strong. As the Southern Crown Prince Edric Longsword fell and Princess Illaria Longsword whose evil magic was brought to a justly halt, and Ryan Longsword who was killed by his own brother-in-law, the sinister family of South was served justice. Robert Longsword disappeared after the war, but given his complete lack of magical skills, for a weak character like him, disappearing into non-existence seemed like a valid choice.”
And as the archive continued Illaria felt her rage hitting new highs. Blatant lies. It then continued to talk about how in the war the Southern Kingdom had cowardly taken the Northern Empress hostage, and how Prince Marcus had defeated a thousand soldier units to save her. Thinking back about this, Illaria did remember something around this. As she and Marcus had continued their infiltration and were about to send home their findings, they were somehow suddenly caught and taken prisoner by the Western Kingdom. By the time they had broken free, war had already broken in the Western Kingdom involving all the three kingdoms. As they had reached the
Battleground, they had decided to split out to report their findings to their families and get an update on the situation. As soon as Illaria had reached her camp, she had received news that their army had indeed taken the Northern Empress as prisoner which was ironic because given the Southern Kingdom’s laws, she knew her family wouldn’t compromise on honour. There was definitely some mistake back then. But the archive wasn’t entirely wrong either.
After that it described more war details, which commanders died, how many units were sacrificed etc. Another notable thing was the death of the Northern Kingdom’s Emperor, Elmar Neor. So both the Northern and Southern Emperors had died. After his death and given all the casualties that had taken place, war between kingdoms was renounced for peace and it was decided that the Northern Emperor’s three sons will now rule as emperors of the three kingdoms and bring the Continent of Merwan under the protection of one family. The division was obvious, Willem-North, as he was the crown Prince, Lyn-West as he was the master of Spy Network and good in dealing with people, and Marcus-South; seemed like he didn’t have much choice. So that’s how Marcus had become the Emperor. From the records it seemed most of the prominent figures from other Southern Noble Families of Rayguard, HerdenGarden and Brigade were killed. A few left alive were spared after they swore their allegiance to their new emperor, Prince Marcus, no, Emperor Marcus. Illaria wondered for a bit, what sort of hell must have Marcus put her people through. What if all those bizarre, stone-cold and women hating laws had seeped into the Southern Kingdom? Her once warm home could now be housing concubines and slaves and what not. Disgusting, she thought.
The sun had set, and it was late night as she walked back to the main city and finally back to the Royal Palace. There was some extra security at her planned route, so she decided to take a detour through the Guest Palace. She anyways didn’t have much to do in the night except mint her rage into destructive magic. As she was crossing, suddenly she heard a very irritating voice
“These Westerners sure have such interesting festivals. Their wine is also so good unlike that port piss we have back at home.” Usher said to some guard who bowed down quietly and left the room. He was clearly intoxicated and Illaria was high on rage. How the next instances transpired, Illaria didn’t compute. All she knew was that the blade of her sword, Eleos, was against Usher’s neck. Usher suddenly snapped back to some senses realising that she had already made a small cut too.
Illaria, “Remember me?”
Usher eyed her from top to bottom. His face said he couldn’t remember. “Do I know you?”
Illaria, “Yeah, yeah, why would you remember, you must have forgotten about me or about honour and loyalty as you killed your own cousin sister's husband.”
Usher replied in a nonchalant tone, "Cousin sister’s husband? Do you mean Marielle? And Ryan. ohh, young lad you see they both deserved to die. Anyone who is not on the winning side eventually dies. Family included. It is the rule of nature, I can’t help it. Ryan and his family had to die in that war. Stupid man, I told him to let his daughter die but he wouldn’t listen.”
No one liked being weak. Strength was the rule of nature. Survival of fittest. But where was humanity? Where were the emotions?
Illaria felt her nerves throbbing out as she replied , “You coward piece of shit. Where is your honour and duty as a warrior? And that too against your own family. I can’t believe that you are my own blood. I should have made dad strip you off of all the titles very earlier. Do you-”
“Dad. Woah. No. Don’t tell me, is it you Robert? Pointing a sword at your uncle?”
“I don’t want to hear my brother’s name coming out of you. Do not take his name.”
“Ohh, is it you Illaria? I thought you died after you went crazy and tried to blow us all up. You should have died. How are you still alive? But not important right now I guess, but let me tell you what you are trying to do right now is not correct. Nothing will come out of killing me.”
“My whole family died, and you killed my dad. People say he was hurt more by the betrayal than by the actual wound you gave him.”
“And don’t you think he deserved it after what he did to you in the end? I think it was quite fitting to be honest. ”
Her grip on Eleos lost a bit of its determination as she replied, “What do you mean what he did to me?”
“He literally sent you to a foreign country against all advice and sta–. Wait. You actually don’t remember what he did?”
“...”
“Oh my poor child. I understand, I guess, that it is not easy to digest. Don’t worry but all that is in the past, I tell you. You will regain your memories eventually. But I tell you, there is no point in killing me or anyone else, the continent is at peace, you can join forces with anyone, that Southern Emperor, what was his name? Marin? Marco? … Marcus, yeah he liked you right? You can marry him and return home … Or if he doesn’t want to, you can come with me to my place as well, we are family after all.”
Illaria eyed him. This man had nothing to offer except chaos. “Peace? What peace? My whole family who had nothing to do with this dying, your own brother-in-law dying, that is peace to you?”
‘Yeah okay I get it, it is hard but listen you gotta do the right thing and trust me when your memories return you will understand what I am saying, but trust me, the right thing right now is to come home with me. There is no point fighting these people, Illaria, there is no point for revenge. Justice was served years ago. Trust me. Please.”
Illaria felt two tear trails drip from her eyes. She closed her eyes. She imagined Ryan’s smile and the warmth of his love. How he would do anything to protect her. His fatherly love was real, unlike her uncle’s fake words. Her mind might have been fogged about the past, but what was to be done right now, she was clear about that.“Trust the guy who is saying my dad did me wrong when he led a whole army to save me, against her own uncle’s suggestion to let her die. Justice was not served. I will serve justice today.”
“No. Illaria you don’t get it, he literally sta-” but Usher couldn’t finish. Both his sentence and head were cut off by a single strike from Eleos.
Illaria felt mostly right, this man was shit. He deserved to die a long time ago. And he was so good at faking. Even moments before his death he had looked at her as if he genuinely was trying to tell her something. No wonder the Westerners had taken a liking to him. They were all cut from the same wood, full of deception, lies and no honour.
“Grandad!?” A high pitched noise startled Illaria and she turned back in panic thinking she was caught. A young boy, with golden hair, blue eyes and a nose shape just like her mom’s had collapsed on his knees by the room’s door. His toy fell to the ground and went on and on “pee - po - pee - po”. He was barely five. Illaria didn’t know what to do now.
The boy gathered some courage in his frail knees and slowly walked toward Usher's corpse. Illaria could see his legs shake as he took the steps “Grandad, what has happened to you? Why is there red paint on the floor? Brother, Why is my grandad’s head on the floor? Why is he not replying?’
“...” Illaria didn’t reply. Or rather couldn’t.
“Grandad said he would play with me, he is fine right? When will he be back?” he asked with scared but too innocent eyes.
“...” He probably didn’t know what death meant, just like her years ago. He didn’t know grandad was not coming back. Or so she felt.
The boy slowly got up and walked towards the gate.
“Where are you going?” Illaria asked in a stern tone.
“Umm, back to my room, to sleep. Since grandad is not here, I will come here tomorrow.” he said with a scared voice as he bent down to pick his toy which was still making that pee - po - pee - po noise.
“You know, when I was a kid, about your age, back then every few years, one fine night the sky would be filled with shooting stars. But the stars that looked like pretty tears in the sky would cause havoc and actual misery once they touched land. Huge rocks from the sky would fall on places. It used to cause havoc for everyone from humans to animals. For humans, our night gazers would still predict where these rocks would hit, so damage to human life was minimized but for animals, oh boy, it was bad. Animals would flee the jungles and invade villages. It used to be absolute chaos. So anyways, my dad and elder brother were not home that day, they were out trying to kill these animals and save the people while mom and I were home. Technically, we should have stayed in. But we didn’t want to.
So we went out, close by only, to a garden to look at the shooting stars. Everyone else was inside. No one was around. Suddenly, a wild boar appeared in front of us.”
“Why are you telling me this story? I want to go and sleep, it is a long night.”
“I panicked. I started screaming, back then I had not picked up the sword yet. My mom also was no warrior. My mom also shrieked initially but instantly she regained her calm. She picked up a fallen stick from the ground and slowly walked towards the beast just like you walked towards your grandad. I thought mom was crazy.”
“This and that situation are very different.”
“She walked towards the beast and pointed the stick at it. Her body posture was stern and strong but it was a clear bluff to me. I very well knew that the boar could have ripped apart my mom in seconds. But to my surprise, instead it backed off and ran away. As soon as it left, my mom collapsed on the floor and let out a sigh of relief. I went to her and said, mom are you crazy? You could not have won against that beast. What were you doing?”
“She replied, my sweet child, your dad’s family is different. You have been brought up here so you don’t know, but you know what was the first lesson taught to me at my home?”
“Even if you let out a sign of panic in the first instance, regain your calm and senses immediately. Analyze the situation and find the best way possible to survive by any means- fight, theft, running away, deception or plain pretending dumb. Only if you survive can you actually do something to change the situation.” Illaria’s nephew replied with tears in his eyes as he realised that he had been caught. Family members might come and go, but teachings were carried across generations.
“You pretended very well, almost got fooled by your innocent eyes but what gave you away was your hurry to leave. A truly innocent and unaware child would have poked me to make his grandad speak again. But you, you know what death means.”
“Please let me go. I won’t say a word to anyone. I am innocent” Her nephew replied with tears rolling down his eyes. But to Illaria, this child was not innocent. He had seen her, without her mask. He was just trying to survive right now, like her mom did back then.
“Eleos will serve justice to all by the end of this week. Let it start with our own traitorous family.” And as soon as she completed her sentence, her body had moved forward and Eleos had taken another life. Surprisingly, this time Illaria didn’t feel just. She just felt numb and cold. This was the first time she had killed a child.
Illaria quickly ran away, both from that room and the face filled with tears of his nephew.