Blood was its foundation. Blood was why it had been built and because of the blood was why it is my safe place. My stronghold.
Crystal are its walls, two hundred standards tall. Seamless are its stones. A thousand standards thick. No door.
The wall opens and closes at my demand and within them grows my garden. All the plants I love best. All the plants my true mother loved best, for it was she who had built the Citadel for me.
Her face is but a dream and her voice, like a breath of wind. It was so long ago. His face overshadows all, like a streaked nightmare. The Citadel is the safest place, where not even he can enter.
We had seen something he didn't want us to see. He hadn't even noticed me at that time. She had pulled me along with her; running, running until breath ragged in my throat and I could taste the metallic tang of blood. My heart beat so hard, I thought it would break me, but she wouldn't stop and dragged me along. Then she'd pushed me. Hard. So hard, I thought she was throwing me.
When I'd woken up, all I had seen was blood. Blood everywhere. Her blood.
Wandering, a kind farmer had taken me in. Clothed me, fed me, sheltered me. I grew up with his children and he made no distinction between us. At first. The farmer gave me more difficult chores because I would do them promptly. How well I truly did, I'm not sure. Sometimes, I would be away for days. Keeping sheep, mending posts, taking the animals to the Valley for summer. It kept me occupied. Made me forget that they had begun to shun me. Avoid me. Even the farmer began to look at me oddly.
One day, I came home from the Valley with the flock, only to find him waiting for me. The farmer's family had sold me to him. I ran, but could not hide. Fled, but didn't go far, because he was so much stronger than me. So much faster than me.
That is how I ended up deep underground. In a cell. Like a lab rat. He never even realised I was that child.
That is how when the tests first began, I found that I had an impenetrable Citadel. Founded in love, built upon blood.
I still have nightmares. I still dream that Maguiren is coming for me, waiting, even though I know he is no more. It was because I wanted to lay my darkest fears to rest that I had returned to the Eastern Kingdoms. Yet... the Dark Shadow still haunts the halls of my nights, prowling outside my Citadel walls. Somewhere. Waiting.
Showing posts with label eastern kingdoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eastern kingdoms. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
about time
About time, Twylla! I thought you'd never get round to it. Maybe my subtle hints were too subtle for you? Joking, joking, but now that you've posted, I have to do something.
Unlike Twylla, I tend to be much more private, so I don't tell you everything about myself. Instead, I thought you might like to hear about the town of Raggedge today.
Raggedge is a small town with a population of maybe 800 people, situated at the base of one of the mountains of the Dividing Range, at the very western border of Inageam, within the Eastern Kingdoms. The town seldom gets any visitors, so if you ever decide to see the quaint little place, expect to be treated something like a VIP or a celebrity. The whole town will turn out to greet you and you will be invited to at least half the homes to have a drink of Raggrovage and have a bite of Raggrove-flavoured waffles.
This town is well known for an interesting thick green coloured beverage known as Raggrovage, after the wiry herb, Raggrove, usually found in this area. The plant has thick little leaves that is often used as an all-round cure medicinal plant or as a te. Raggrovage is usually drunk warm, sprinkled with wisps of a special herb (they refused to tell me the name of) that considerably sweetens this otherwise strong thick bitter drink. The locals tend to prefer to call it a tonic. Its taste is not unlike that of very strong green tea, mixed with a sprinkling of a variety of other things. I think it tastes much better when mixed with milk or cream, but each household makes it differently.
Raggrovage is an aquired taste that few people who grew up outside the town learn to appreciate. I don't mind it. It's certainly a good hot drink that warms you up on a bitterly cold day and the reception that comes with it is nice, especially if you've spent the last few weeks scrambling around the mountains.
The people of Raggedge rear goats, turkeys, geese, chickens, ducks and the occassional cow if they manage to get their hands on one. They make some awesome vegetable dishes - usually due to the seasoning they use and their spicy meat stew is something I wish other towns would learn from them.
Anyone have any questions about the town?
Unlike Twylla, I tend to be much more private, so I don't tell you everything about myself. Instead, I thought you might like to hear about the town of Raggedge today.
Raggedge is a small town with a population of maybe 800 people, situated at the base of one of the mountains of the Dividing Range, at the very western border of Inageam, within the Eastern Kingdoms. The town seldom gets any visitors, so if you ever decide to see the quaint little place, expect to be treated something like a VIP or a celebrity. The whole town will turn out to greet you and you will be invited to at least half the homes to have a drink of Raggrovage and have a bite of Raggrove-flavoured waffles.
This town is well known for an interesting thick green coloured beverage known as Raggrovage, after the wiry herb, Raggrove, usually found in this area. The plant has thick little leaves that is often used as an all-round cure medicinal plant or as a te. Raggrovage is usually drunk warm, sprinkled with wisps of a special herb (they refused to tell me the name of) that considerably sweetens this otherwise strong thick bitter drink. The locals tend to prefer to call it a tonic. Its taste is not unlike that of very strong green tea, mixed with a sprinkling of a variety of other things. I think it tastes much better when mixed with milk or cream, but each household makes it differently.
Raggrovage is an aquired taste that few people who grew up outside the town learn to appreciate. I don't mind it. It's certainly a good hot drink that warms you up on a bitterly cold day and the reception that comes with it is nice, especially if you've spent the last few weeks scrambling around the mountains.
The people of Raggedge rear goats, turkeys, geese, chickens, ducks and the occassional cow if they manage to get their hands on one. They make some awesome vegetable dishes - usually due to the seasoning they use and their spicy meat stew is something I wish other towns would learn from them.
Anyone have any questions about the town?
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
story of Madorra... and a little on my siblings
My siblings and I have sought to find the history of our adopted mother since the time of her death some years ago. She never told us much about her past, except that she was born to poor parents somewhere in the Western Kingdoms. Occasionally, she might mention the most common dishes they ate and her favourite foods or the trading system, but not much else.
We have travelled the entire Western World searching for somebody who knew something about her, but to no avail. Maybe she is as nameless and faceless as she says she was. It's strange how a person, nobody knows exists, can leave their own country and become a famous figure recorded in history. If she hadn't come to the Eastern Kingdoms, she would have died nobody - and nobody would have cared.
What we do know about Madorra is that being born to poor farmers during a time of famine in the Western Kingdoms, they lost their farm to their creditor. Her mother died not long after during childbirth to her younger brother who did not survive. She was brought up by her father, until he disappeared one night, leaving her alone. The time spent with her father had taught her many skills and she travelled to wherever there was work. Then during the Boom Year (a year of excess in the Western Kingdoms, so much that they didn't know what to do with all the extra food and money), she met somebody, cut some sort of deal with them where they became relatively rich... before they 'disappeared' her. She was given some money and banished from the Western Kingdoms. Heading through the difficult mountain passes - which she says took almost 5 years to cross, she emerged in the Eastern Kingdoms.
We suspect that after her arrival in the Eastern Kingdoms, she continued to keep a relatively low profile to get a hold of the current situations and get over the culture shock of what was the beginning of Maguiren's tyrannical reign.
It was during a raid by the Breakers for all the eligible females in a certain town, that she was spotted and protected by Queen Esthoria. This is how they became firm friends. Officially, she became one of the queen's handmaidens. Unofficially, she was the queen's eyes and ears in the kingdoms, often going on long journeys to obtain a fabled bottle of 'pure' air-water or to have a new dress made out of rare materials. She accidentally bumped into Maguiren on one such excursion, while he was out recording the success of yet another one of his experiments. He noticed her intellect, so the story goes, and after attempting to apprehend her, she scolded him and told him off - and he was unable to do anything about it. Because of that one scolding and her ability to avoid capture by him, Maguiren came to highly respect Madorra. An invitation was often sent to her through the queen to have dinner together with them, where he would discuss his experiments and ideas with her. The history books say that she mostly argued against him and made him lose his temper, nevertheless became a firm favourite and friend of the royal court.
Mother never told us what the discussions were about. It wasn't worth talking about, she'd tell us.
When she and the queen discovered my siblings and I, they decided they had to do something about Maguiren, because it was through the logs and records in the underground laboratory that they discovered what kind of a man Maguiren truly was. Before, they had been unable to make up their minds about whether he was a good-but-misguided man or plain evil. After our dramatic rescue, of which every sibling, except for Dugan, played a part, Madorra took us into hiding. Queen Esthoria was locked up in her apartments for the next 5 years, during which Crown Prince Gavin Eugene Fallon Otissaphir was born.
We, the Rebellion, discovered the Unseen Realm and used it to communicate and plan. Later on, during the Battle of the Cliffs, it became one of our main battlefields as well. The Unseen Realm is another plane of reality in which those with the correct gifts, with enough strength, are able to operate and move in. Generally, it just looks like a dark void and people from far away can meet together in the realm, although not moving from where they physically are. It makes distance shrink somehow. Nobody really knows. We don't really understand the laws that govern the Unseen Realm and so never stay there any longer than is needed. There are stories of people who have tried staying there for extended periods of time and they... they were never found again.
Come to think of it. I've never introduced any of my siblings. Here we are in order of age:
- Marcie - the strongest and wisest of us. Everyone goes to her with their troubles.
- Dugan - dark, silent and mysterious, nobody is sure of his gifts, but he is the only one who can truly stop a Breaker.
- Clarissa - funny and bubbly, she and Tamilo are a bit like twins.
- Tamilo - a practical joker, partners with Clarissa to make everyone laugh.
- Gideon - serious fighter type, big muscles, etc, you get the idea.
- Verity - like her name, can tell whether you're telling the truth or whether someone has cast an illusion. She has this thing about wires and mazes.
- me - you know.
- Jamiel - can run and move as fast as the wind. He is also the most attuned to danger and can sense if any of us are in danger, so he's like our messenger and watchman.
Yes, we all have exceptional gifts, but not all the gifts have names, so I can't tell you and if I did, we'd be here forever... or a few weeks, minimum.
What gifts did Mother have? I'm sure you want to know. I wish I did know. Not even Queen Esthoria can tell us exactly what sorts of gifts Madorra had.
We have travelled the entire Western World searching for somebody who knew something about her, but to no avail. Maybe she is as nameless and faceless as she says she was. It's strange how a person, nobody knows exists, can leave their own country and become a famous figure recorded in history. If she hadn't come to the Eastern Kingdoms, she would have died nobody - and nobody would have cared.
What we do know about Madorra is that being born to poor farmers during a time of famine in the Western Kingdoms, they lost their farm to their creditor. Her mother died not long after during childbirth to her younger brother who did not survive. She was brought up by her father, until he disappeared one night, leaving her alone. The time spent with her father had taught her many skills and she travelled to wherever there was work. Then during the Boom Year (a year of excess in the Western Kingdoms, so much that they didn't know what to do with all the extra food and money), she met somebody, cut some sort of deal with them where they became relatively rich... before they 'disappeared' her. She was given some money and banished from the Western Kingdoms. Heading through the difficult mountain passes - which she says took almost 5 years to cross, she emerged in the Eastern Kingdoms.
We suspect that after her arrival in the Eastern Kingdoms, she continued to keep a relatively low profile to get a hold of the current situations and get over the culture shock of what was the beginning of Maguiren's tyrannical reign.
It was during a raid by the Breakers for all the eligible females in a certain town, that she was spotted and protected by Queen Esthoria. This is how they became firm friends. Officially, she became one of the queen's handmaidens. Unofficially, she was the queen's eyes and ears in the kingdoms, often going on long journeys to obtain a fabled bottle of 'pure' air-water or to have a new dress made out of rare materials. She accidentally bumped into Maguiren on one such excursion, while he was out recording the success of yet another one of his experiments. He noticed her intellect, so the story goes, and after attempting to apprehend her, she scolded him and told him off - and he was unable to do anything about it. Because of that one scolding and her ability to avoid capture by him, Maguiren came to highly respect Madorra. An invitation was often sent to her through the queen to have dinner together with them, where he would discuss his experiments and ideas with her. The history books say that she mostly argued against him and made him lose his temper, nevertheless became a firm favourite and friend of the royal court.
Mother never told us what the discussions were about. It wasn't worth talking about, she'd tell us.
When she and the queen discovered my siblings and I, they decided they had to do something about Maguiren, because it was through the logs and records in the underground laboratory that they discovered what kind of a man Maguiren truly was. Before, they had been unable to make up their minds about whether he was a good-but-misguided man or plain evil. After our dramatic rescue, of which every sibling, except for Dugan, played a part, Madorra took us into hiding. Queen Esthoria was locked up in her apartments for the next 5 years, during which Crown Prince Gavin Eugene Fallon Otissaphir was born.
We, the Rebellion, discovered the Unseen Realm and used it to communicate and plan. Later on, during the Battle of the Cliffs, it became one of our main battlefields as well. The Unseen Realm is another plane of reality in which those with the correct gifts, with enough strength, are able to operate and move in. Generally, it just looks like a dark void and people from far away can meet together in the realm, although not moving from where they physically are. It makes distance shrink somehow. Nobody really knows. We don't really understand the laws that govern the Unseen Realm and so never stay there any longer than is needed. There are stories of people who have tried staying there for extended periods of time and they... they were never found again.
Come to think of it. I've never introduced any of my siblings. Here we are in order of age:
- Marcie - the strongest and wisest of us. Everyone goes to her with their troubles.
- Dugan - dark, silent and mysterious, nobody is sure of his gifts, but he is the only one who can truly stop a Breaker.
- Clarissa - funny and bubbly, she and Tamilo are a bit like twins.
- Tamilo - a practical joker, partners with Clarissa to make everyone laugh.
- Gideon - serious fighter type, big muscles, etc, you get the idea.
- Verity - like her name, can tell whether you're telling the truth or whether someone has cast an illusion. She has this thing about wires and mazes.
- me - you know.
- Jamiel - can run and move as fast as the wind. He is also the most attuned to danger and can sense if any of us are in danger, so he's like our messenger and watchman.
Yes, we all have exceptional gifts, but not all the gifts have names, so I can't tell you and if I did, we'd be here forever... or a few weeks, minimum.
What gifts did Mother have? I'm sure you want to know. I wish I did know. Not even Queen Esthoria can tell us exactly what sorts of gifts Madorra had.
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