Contents
DEDICATION
MAP
CHAPTER 1: ZELDA
CHAPTER 2: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 3: TETRA
CHAPTER 4: ERIC
CHAPTER 5: ZELDA
CHAPTER 6: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 7: TETRA
CHAPTER 8: RUFUS
CHAPTER 9: ZELDA
CHAPTER 10: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 11: ERIC
CHAPTER 12: ZELDA
CHAPTER 13: TETRA
CHAPTER 14: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 15: ERIC
CHAPTER 16: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 17: ZELDA
CHAPTER 18: ARTEMIA
CHAPTER 19: ERIC AND ZELDA
CHAPTER 20: ZELDA
CHAPTER 21: ERIC
CHAPTER 22: ZELDA
CHAPTER 23: ERIC
CHAPTER 24: ZELDA
CHAPTER 25: ERIC AND ZELDA
CHAPTER 26: ERIC
CHAPTER 27: ZELDA
EPILOGUE, PART 1
EPILOGUE, PART 2
AUTHOR'S NOTE
MORE FANTASY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
To those whose creativity inspired this series.
MAP
CHAPTER 1: ZELDA
For the first time since darkness had descended upon Hydor, Zelda smiled.
Minutes remained before the sun broke the horizon of the mountains, providing the usual bright blue glow to compliment the radiant pink that painted the clouds in the sky. The worst night in the history of the magi had ended. A new dawn had broken.
The fourteen year old mage who had just witnessed her mentor and thousands of other magi perish in an unexpected and cruel attack had finally finished the graveyard. She could finally lay to rest the souls of the magi. All of the children, all of the elders, all of the men and women—they could all finally know peace.
Zelda came to the grave of the man who had taught her so much and left a mission in her hands that he had not completed over two centuries. A few hours earlier, she’d laid his body to rest with the assistance of one of the few non-magi she could trust in this world, an elder dragon hunter named Abe. Then she had laid his soul to rest with the words his wife, Tetra, had taught her.
“You’d be so proud of this, Garo,” Zelda whispered, the saddened smile still on her lips. “It’s so beautiful. Everyone has a spot. Everyone is with each other now. There’s no more war for them. Their pain has ended. Their legacies live on. And your legend…”
She had to laugh, but only to avoid crying again. She’d gotten tired of crying. Every time she cried, it reminded her of how many people she loved or knew had died in the last couple of months. Mama. Roland, the leader of the town of Dabira. Maria, the woman who had most cared for Zelda. Maria’s children. All of the Shadows except, at first, for Tetra, their leader; Yeva, a mage and friend just barely older than Zelda; and Garo.
But now Garo had died as well.
And it all happened because of the empire. The Syrast Empire, which had sought to erase Garo’s story, had sought to do so by slowly wiping out every last magi in Hydor.
But they had failed. Zelda had made sure of that in Dabira. Tetra and Yeva had left to make sure of that in Caia. And as for now, well, Zelda knew Garo’s legend had not only survived. It had become stronger through his final actions, fighting to save the town even as it burned, taking his last breaths to give one last piece of guidance to Zelda and Tetra.
“Your legend will never die,” Zelda said, her voice weak and wavering.
What will my legend be? I’ve never thought of it before, Garo. I would say I used my magic for good, like Mama said. But it’s so hard to use it for good. I don’t even know what good is. It’s so confusing.
She looked away from the grave briefly to glance at Abraham Wallace, the dragon hunter who had abandoned his guild and sworn loyalty to Zelda. He sat on a boulder by the ocean, quietly strumming his fingers on his knees, occasionally stroking his beard, but mostly giving Zelda as much space as the girl had ever had from another human being.
As much as she had grown to become saddened by the empire, men like Abe gave her hope that magi and humans might peacefully coexist some day. He had shown up too late to save any of the magi, but he’d helped Zelda all the same. He’d sworn his allegiance to her, helped her bury Garo, and assuaged many of her fears.
Tapping into her dark side wouldn’t make for a warning that she’d become the worst of Tetra or a shade of the emperor. It was a necessary evil to fight the darkness that the Syrast Empire represented. The emperor and his minions would not respect the rules of the magi, which meant she and the others would have to fight on their terms.
Struggling with the possibility of using evil to fight evil, she turned inward and used what had always helped her in times of severe stress—the songs her mother had taught her. She went to the one her mother always sung to her every morning, the one that started her days.
“You are the star of this world, my little girl,
Little girl, the gift of my life,
You will do great things, my shining pearl,
My shining pearl, the ender of strife…”
She paused. Could she call herself the ender of strife? Or did she perpetuate it? Finish. Think about it later.
“You shall be a guiding light, my sweet angel,
My sweet angel, the gift of my life.”
Zelda then proceeded to the chorus, trying not to notice the tears welling in her eyes.
“Zelda, my beautiful daughter,
Zelda, my grace from above,
May you live in peace,
May you live in love.”
When she finished, she bowed her head. For all that had happened, she hadn’t found peace, and she certainly hadn’t found love.
But from this point forward, she swore she would work to accomplish those two tasks. Create peace in Hydor, and live in love.
She looked back to the grave, released any remaining tears that she had, and stood. She meandered slowly to Abe, her legs still weak from the spells of the night before and the burials she’d performed. The old dragon hunter turned and smiled compassionately.
“Dear child, I think you’ve earned yourself a rest for the next week,” Abe said.
“If only,” Zelda said with another deflective laugh. “I don’t think I can. I finished what I need to do here. So now I have to go to back to Caia.”
“Caia?”
The question sounded reflexive on Abe’s part, but truth be told, Zelda appreciated it. It slowed her down. It forced her to consider her next words, for they would dictate her next actions.
“That was the plan, I thought,” she said. “The emperor and his soldiers are the ones that killed everyone here. They’re the ones that killed Mama. So I want to go and defeat them.”
“You want to kill the emperor specifically, I assume?”
It was strange for Zelda to hear it said so coldly. Just a few hours ago, she’d given into her vicious side and killed any guard in sight. But now, when someone asked her if she wanted to kill the man responsible for all the heartache in her life, she felt like she was asked if she would become a monster.
“I want to end his reign,” she said.
Abe, perhaps sensing the young girl’s confusion, said nothing, simply nodding.
“I know you want to end his reign so that you may have peace for your world,” he said. “I would agree with you in most circumstances, even though I think the task of killing the emperor doesn’t necessarily correlate with bringing peace.”
“How so?” Zelda asked.
“You can’t
just kill a man and expect the culture he’s created to fall with him,” Abe said. “In many cases, in fact, killing a man will enhance his stature. He is no longer a man, but an ideal. He is no longer living, but a legend. And people have a funny way of worshiping legends without considering the people behind them.”
Zelda bit her lip, unsure of how to counter the argument. In fact, she’d thought of Garo in such a way moments before.
“In any case, though, I don’t think the emperor should be your gravest concern right now,” Abe said. “The hunters I was with, Eric and Artemia. They went south to go after Ragnor. I worry about what they will accomplish.”
Ragnor. The second greatest dragon of them all.
“Why do you think they’re a problem?”
“They isn’t the right word,” Abe said with a snort. “Artemia is the real problem. She is lustful for power and will do anything and everything to get it, including sacrificing the world. She already sent a significant portion of the Dragon Hunter’s Guild to its death with Indica. She kicked me out because I saw through her, even with our history, hence why I am here. I can only shudder to think of what’s happened to Eric.”
Zelda remembered the woman in red robes who had help her, Tetra, and Yeva defeat Indica. She didn’t remember much of the woman other than the dark, empty eyes which seemed to contain no spirit, no soul to them. She didn’t feel like that Artemia woman could stare at her, just through her. It left her with a chill, the exact opposite of Mama.
“Do you think they killed Ragnor?”
“Honestly, I am not too sure,” Abe said. “The fact that it took so many of us to defeat Indica makes me think that two hunters could not—”
“Two hunters and a mage,” Zelda said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I just wanted to add that a mage by the name of Romarus apparently went with them. I wasn’t there when Romarus did so, but he helped me on my journey back to Caia to attack Indica. He is wise but old. I was surprised to hear he went.”
Abe nodded. He spent several seconds taking in the new information, so long that Zelda wondered if he might have forgotten the conversation at hand. She used the silence to consider what he’d said.
The idea that the empire was not the greatest threat to the peace of Hydor seemed impossible to believe. The emperor had hunted her kind for centuries, killed her mother, and nearly killed her at a ceremony. Artemia had never played any part in that. She’d only seen Artemia once, in fact. It seemed like a battle outside her matter and her concern.
But… if Mama had said to use her magic for good, then maybe that meant defeating the greatest threat at hand.
Who was to say, though, Abe was right? Abe seemed like a kind, gentle, smart soul. But he was also not a mage and couldn’t possibly understand the threat that the empire posed to her kind. At best, the empire was dismissive and spoke with snark to the dragon hunters. Zelda would’ve taken that relationship with the empire in the time it took for her to cast magic if it meant no magi would die.
“Then perhaps they have defeated Ragnor after all,” Abe said, jolting Zelda out of her thoughts. “Artemia, too, had magic. She took a piece of the essence from Indica and used it to power her weapons. It was not of a great power, but it was power enough. And Eric, bless that boy, he may not be a mage, but his will to fight, his courage, and his skills seem magical.”
All of this seemed preposterous to Zelda. Defeating Ragnor? After how many people had died to take out Indica? And Ragnor was supposed to be tougher, not easier.
“What do we do if they did defeat Ragnor?” Zelda asked.
“We need to tread very carefully,” Abe said, his voice growing more ominous. “Artemia would take whatever power Ragnor provided. She would not share it with Eric and Romarus. In fact, I suspect she would’ve outright killed each of them for her own gain. We would have to get it from her. I don’t trust her in the least, and you shouldn’t either, Zelda.”
“And if they fell to Ragnor or along the way?”
Abe sighed, sadness filling his eyes. He really cares for Eric. He watched over him for so long. It’s like Garo for me. And Tetra. And Mama.
Zelda took her own deep breath to try and push away the grief, knowing all but one of her mentors had perished. And given the way Tetra looked, she doesn’t seem long for this world either.
“Then we don’t have to worry much about them, do we?” Abe said with a smile, though Zelda knew the smile came from the same place hers had—to push back against the pain and sorrow of losing a loved one. “But with all of that said, it’s been about three weeks since they left. They should have gotten to the home of Ragnor by now. You have someone heading to Caia at this moment, right?”
“Yes,” Zelda said. “Tetra, Garo’s wife. And Yeva, a friend of mine who lost her parents here last night. They are going to Caia. They’re going to find some information that Garo said to search for. And then, I guess they’re going to kill the emperor.”
“Or try to,” Abe said. “So then I suppose that we should go to the south to try and rendezvous and approach whatever survivors there are. We don’t have to fight Artemia if we see her. In fact, that would be a terrible idea.”
“I can fight,” Zelda said.
But as soon as she said the words, she knew it wasn’t as true as she wanted it to be. To become the powerful mage that she knew she could be, to reach her limits of potential, she had to have the magic of the dragons near her. If this Artemia showed up with the essence of Ragnor, she would probably not win. She needed the essence of Indica to fight back.
I need Ragnor’s too. I have to have as much as I can. Garo said I’m the most powerful magi there is.
The thought discomforted Zelda. The reign of Emperor Rufus Syrast had shown her what too much power in the hands of one individual could do. The night before had shown Zelda that just because she was a mage, just because her mother had taught her well, didn’t mean she didn’t have the demon inside her that could strike as a Syrast would. Would that demon awaken if she had all the essences?
It was an impossible hypothetical to consider. She had to collect power. She could acquire the essence of Indica, a crystal that gave her an enormous amount of power, but that in itself wasn’t enough to turn her into a demigoddess capable of ending the empire’s reign. She needed more. She needed the magic of Ragnor or Bahamut.
But if she did that, she might become the very monster that Rufus Syrast was and that Artemia supposedly was.
How did it ever get to this?
“We should avoid fighting if we can,” Abe said. “For a while, when Artemia believed that dragon blood could give her magic, we had the option of killing the dragon or collecting its blood. I never, ever started a fight, even if the dragon was smaller than you. If I had to, I had the ability to kill, but not the desire. You never know what tricks an enemy has and what magic it might possess—and in the case of Artemia, what I do know is more than enough. I know she has the will to kill and the lack of conscious that would stop her otherwise.”
That was enough for Zelda. She still wanted to run east and help Tetra. That’s what she had told the elder mage anyways when she finished her burials at the town formerly known as Dabira.
But her allegiance, above all else, was to her mother’s final wish to use magic for good, no matter how dark the world became. And if the darkest clouds came not from the east in Caia but from a huntress to the south, that’s what she would do.
“No matter what path we take, danger will follow,” Abe said. “It’s what we’ve earned for allowing Artemia to engage on the hunts she wishes and for allowing the emperor to run amok. But I can promise you that if we check in on the hunters to the south, we’ll address the most pressing issue first.”
“Understood,” Zelda said. “I can use teleportation when I have energy. It will save us some time. I still want, I mean, need to get to Caia. But if you think the south is most dangerous…”
“I only say this because I believe it will best help you, Zel
da. I swore allegiance to you last night and I intend to keep to it. But I want you to make a rational decision, not one based on emotion.”
“I know. We’ll go for ten days. And if we don’t find anything, I’ll use my teleportation spell to get us to Caia. Is that good?”
“That sounds great,” Abe said with a grin.
Zelda patted her knees twice and quickly stood. Abe slowly rose, making a small joke about stiffness from old age, a joke which Zelda politely laughed at, but her mind did not mirror her physical expression. She walked through the graveyard, trying not to comprehend how many people had died. She didn’t want to know, really.
She imagined different graves marking the resting spaces of different people. Only Garo had a marked tomb, and thus the rest of the stones could represent anyone. Roland. Maria. Her children. The people at the docks. The councilors.
Stop it, Zelda. You’ve honored them enough. You can honor them more by making sure their souls find peace by ending the threat to this world.
She came to the end of the graves and approached the river. For many weeks, water had represented a mortal fear for her. She couldn’t swim better than an uncoordinated five year old, and the bumps, currents, and imaginary and real threats all worked to ravage her fragile mind.
But now it was no obstacle. Now, it just was a part of Hydor, something that needed protection, not fear. She became resolute as she faced the river. To the south awaited a potential enemy somehow even greater than the empire. To the east lay the actual empire and its home. A river was not even a hundredth as threatening as that.
“Come on,” she said to Abe as he reached the riverbank. “Let’s use our time for good. Let’s save Hydor.”
CHAPTER 2: ARTEMIA
Clutching the red crystal close to her chest, closer than she ever had with the now-insignificant slice of Indica’s essence, Artemia marched out of the temple of the fallen legend Ragnor. Behind her, a horde of monsters from the nightmares of humanity’s imagination followed, having sworn allegiance to Artemia.
Legends of the War (War of the Magi Book 3) Page 1
