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 gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gifts. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Thursday, May 21, 2009
all things in moderation
Haha. I have posted often, have I not? Sorry for the wait. I have no excusable excuses.
Since Twylla is just about as dependable as I am in putting up regular posts, she at least, has mentioned a little about herself. Now, it's my turn, I suppose.
The world is divided into the Eastern Kingdoms and the Western Kingdoms by the Dividing Ranges. The house where my 7 siblings and I grew up together is in the midst of the ranges, the roads required to get there secret, narrow and treacherous. We are adopted siblings, my brothers, sisters and I, who grew up together in secret with our adopted mother, Madorra. Madorra had rescued us and brought us up as her own after the Battle of the Cliffs had reached its conclusion and Maguiren Dark Shadow had been defeated.
My siblings and I are known in the world as the Children of Madorra, as we played vital roles during the Battle of the Cliffs, holding at bay Maguiren's forces whilst Madorra and Esthoria, Maguiren's wife, struggled with him. The Battle of the Cliffs was the final confrontation for domination of the Eastern Kingdoms.
It is common knowledge that everybody in the world is bestowed with a certain number of individual and unique gifts in their own measures. Many people may have a common gift, for example the gift of capturing moments of time in picture, but the measure or style of the gift will vary from person to person, so some will be more skilled and adept in their gift than others. Others may have more unique and rare gifts, such as the ability to hold fire in the hand, the gift of barriers, foresight and the breaker gift - which is able to break the effects and product of almost every gift out there. The breaker gifts were extremely rare and were once used by Maguiren as a means of controlling his experiments. The Breakers were his special guards and patrolmen who kept his law in the Eastern Kingdoms.
Perhaps that is yet a little confusing, so I will go a little further back in history to when it all began, some years before my birth.
It all started with Maguiren, the King of Ozarra, and his need for more power and wealth. This is all before I was born, by the way. He was a scientist, a researcher of the different giftings that have been bestowed upon the human race over the centuries. On seeing some of the rarer gifts, he sought for ways to strengthen and improve them. To give and take the gifts as he pleased. Thus began the Great Experiment of Maguiren.
Machines and formulas were made and tested first upon animals, then upon fellow human beings, most of them being the outcasts of society. From the very dregs of the Eastern Kingdoms: the lame, the deformed, the deaf, the blind, the poor and beggarly, emerged the Breakers. The Breakers were Maguiren's most loyal and fanatical supporters. Some people called them the Cursed, the ones who brought bad luck. It was only because of them that Maguiren achieved Dictatorship over all the Eastern World.
Once the Breakers were declared a success, Maguiren used them to learn the best methods of introducing certain gifts of his choosing into society. Gifts that he could control at his own whim. This is how normal people ceased to be in the Eastern Kingdoms. 'Normal' was to be gifted in something, anything. From speaking to animals to calling rainstorms. Everyone was gifted with gifts once considered more rare.
When he discovered that his experiments worked on others, he used them on himself. His aim was to obtain every gifting in the world. The result, semi-world domination. Unopposable, undefeatable, invincible and immortal. He had discovered the secret of lasting youth. Eventually, he hoped to take over the Western World, but only once every person and gifting in the Eastern World had been duly documented and taken for himself. Due to the ominous and forbidding nature of the Dividing Ranges, very few effects of his experiments reached the Western Kingdoms.
During his travels, Maguiren discovered 8 children who could oppose him. They had been born with either very unique gifts not found anywhere else in the Eastern Kingdoms or their gift ability was stronger than any other. These 8 children were my siblings and I. We were captured and taken deep into his underground stronghold, the whereabout none but Queen Esthoria, Madorra and my siblings and I know of. We became test subjects and were forced to undergo various forms of torture and activities under Maguiren's eyes in order for him to discover the full extent of our abilities. Our full strength and abilities were never able to be properly measured in all the 10 years of our captivity.
Then Madorra, a traveller from the Western Kingdoms, crossed the Dividing Ranges to learn whether the rumours of Maguiren's reign and activities were true. She found us during her investigations, at the same time befriending Esthoria and learning that she too was extremely gifted. The two helped us escape and the Rebellion was born.
Since Twylla is just about as dependable as I am in putting up regular posts, she at least, has mentioned a little about herself. Now, it's my turn, I suppose.
The world is divided into the Eastern Kingdoms and the Western Kingdoms by the Dividing Ranges. The house where my 7 siblings and I grew up together is in the midst of the ranges, the roads required to get there secret, narrow and treacherous. We are adopted siblings, my brothers, sisters and I, who grew up together in secret with our adopted mother, Madorra. Madorra had rescued us and brought us up as her own after the Battle of the Cliffs had reached its conclusion and Maguiren Dark Shadow had been defeated.
My siblings and I are known in the world as the Children of Madorra, as we played vital roles during the Battle of the Cliffs, holding at bay Maguiren's forces whilst Madorra and Esthoria, Maguiren's wife, struggled with him. The Battle of the Cliffs was the final confrontation for domination of the Eastern Kingdoms.
It is common knowledge that everybody in the world is bestowed with a certain number of individual and unique gifts in their own measures. Many people may have a common gift, for example the gift of capturing moments of time in picture, but the measure or style of the gift will vary from person to person, so some will be more skilled and adept in their gift than others. Others may have more unique and rare gifts, such as the ability to hold fire in the hand, the gift of barriers, foresight and the breaker gift - which is able to break the effects and product of almost every gift out there. The breaker gifts were extremely rare and were once used by Maguiren as a means of controlling his experiments. The Breakers were his special guards and patrolmen who kept his law in the Eastern Kingdoms.
Perhaps that is yet a little confusing, so I will go a little further back in history to when it all began, some years before my birth.
It all started with Maguiren, the King of Ozarra, and his need for more power and wealth. This is all before I was born, by the way. He was a scientist, a researcher of the different giftings that have been bestowed upon the human race over the centuries. On seeing some of the rarer gifts, he sought for ways to strengthen and improve them. To give and take the gifts as he pleased. Thus began the Great Experiment of Maguiren.
Machines and formulas were made and tested first upon animals, then upon fellow human beings, most of them being the outcasts of society. From the very dregs of the Eastern Kingdoms: the lame, the deformed, the deaf, the blind, the poor and beggarly, emerged the Breakers. The Breakers were Maguiren's most loyal and fanatical supporters. Some people called them the Cursed, the ones who brought bad luck. It was only because of them that Maguiren achieved Dictatorship over all the Eastern World.
Once the Breakers were declared a success, Maguiren used them to learn the best methods of introducing certain gifts of his choosing into society. Gifts that he could control at his own whim. This is how normal people ceased to be in the Eastern Kingdoms. 'Normal' was to be gifted in something, anything. From speaking to animals to calling rainstorms. Everyone was gifted with gifts once considered more rare.
When he discovered that his experiments worked on others, he used them on himself. His aim was to obtain every gifting in the world. The result, semi-world domination. Unopposable, undefeatable, invincible and immortal. He had discovered the secret of lasting youth. Eventually, he hoped to take over the Western World, but only once every person and gifting in the Eastern World had been duly documented and taken for himself. Due to the ominous and forbidding nature of the Dividing Ranges, very few effects of his experiments reached the Western Kingdoms.
During his travels, Maguiren discovered 8 children who could oppose him. They had been born with either very unique gifts not found anywhere else in the Eastern Kingdoms or their gift ability was stronger than any other. These 8 children were my siblings and I. We were captured and taken deep into his underground stronghold, the whereabout none but Queen Esthoria, Madorra and my siblings and I know of. We became test subjects and were forced to undergo various forms of torture and activities under Maguiren's eyes in order for him to discover the full extent of our abilities. Our full strength and abilities were never able to be properly measured in all the 10 years of our captivity.
Then Madorra, a traveller from the Western Kingdoms, crossed the Dividing Ranges to learn whether the rumours of Maguiren's reign and activities were true. She found us during her investigations, at the same time befriending Esthoria and learning that she too was extremely gifted. The two helped us escape and the Rebellion was born.
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