Chapter 8- News From Lemuria

  Savage Lands, Coral City- Castle of Coral, Throne Room- Spring, Alt- 152 (Near Evening)

  Sea-King Atlmorin of the Coral Singers

  The soldier kneeled after Atlmorin singled for the next person to come forward. The soldier then held up a rolled-up parchment. His younger brother and chief advisor, Sonora, walked over and took from him, the king waited while his brother read the letter.

  “Your son reports the Fall People have begun to fall back. The human sves in the besieged town still hold strong, and he thinks if we replenish his losses, he may be able to capture both the town and the rebel sves inside." His brother announced while he rolled the paper back up.

  "He said the same thing three weeks ago," Atlmorin compined, and then he motioned for the soldier to stand and ordered him. "Go rest, I will have my answer and reply at the fifth horn for you." The soldier bowed before walking back towards the throne room's exit. "Did my son add anything about the mysterious horned dogs or the spike lizards?"

  "Only that there are more of them than he originally estimated," Sonora answered.

  His brother looked like all of the Coral Singers, his flesh a mix of blue and pink skin. He had the blonde hair of their house, while many of the other Coral Signers instead had bck or brown hair. So trusted was his brother that he was the only person besides his guards who was permitted to remain armed while in his presence.

  Atlmorin sighed before stating. "I don't know what bothers me more, that my son can't beat an army of underfed sves, or that my brother cannot tell me who wiped out said sves masters."

  "There was no warning or build-up. It is as if the gods themselves returned, and they fell out of the sky and took the Iron Wolves with them." Sonora defended his ck of success.

  Atlmorin leaned back before saying. "Yes, you can't even find all of their bodies. They're not in their nds, and they're not under the sea. So tell me brother is that your conclusion. That the gods took them away?"

  The advisor wasn’t able to answer, as the guards stood stiffer when the doors to this throne room opened unexpectedly.

  An outer guard announced. “Now entering, Princess Aniase.”

  The king smiled and rose to greet his daughter. She was still dressed in a short traveling skirt and blouse, and only a few decorative bracers and neckces. His daughter wasn’t alone, two porters carried a pair of chests as well.

  These porters were not Coral Singers, but their rivals Fall People, with their red and tan skin tones, instead of the Coral Singers' blue and fair. As fellow descendants from Atntis, they were stronger and tougher than regur people. Yet these two still wore colrs marking them as sves rather than free peoples.

  “You’re back from Lemuria sooner than we expected.” Sonora pointed out.

  Aniase gripped the forearm of her uncle in greeting, before saying. “There was less competition at the markets than I feared, and the prices were fairer too, so I had to spend less time haggling.”

  “Lemurians lowered their prices?” Atlmorin said in surprise as he moved to greet his daughter as she did her uncle.

  After she released his forearm, she motioned to the porters to lower their burdens to the floor. The two sves did and bowed to the king before walking backwards from them. Aniase then moved to open the one on the left first, the insides were over half filled with silver and gold coins.

  “What was left over, after buying all that was requested, minus a couple of items.” His daughter expined. Before opening the other chest. Inside this one was mostly bars of steel. Who only the Lemruians knew the secret to successfully forming from scratch in the Savage Lands. As well as a few steel bdes and trinkets.

  “What items couldn’t you get?” The king asked her.

  "I did get my hands on a pair of Leaper sves, but I traded them away for some information that I think you will see more worthwhile than a couple of bed warmers." As Aniase said this, she reached into a pouch she had tied to her hip and pulled out a folded piece of parchment that she handed to her father.

  Atlmorin unfolded the paper, and began reading the list of things she had managed to buy while at the Lemurain markets. “I will be the judge of that, what information did you learn?”

  She smiled, not that he saw it, before saying. “The identity of your mysterious faction. The one that wiped out the Iron Wolves.”

  That pulled him away from the list of sves and goods that she had brought back. The king stared at her face as his brother asked. “Who are they?” Atlmorin some much of her mother in her face and expression when she answered.

  “They are a group of Outsiders. They call themselves the Brotherhood of Mutants.” His daughter looked rather smug as she started to tell them what she uncovered. “Who the merchant I traded with thinks are all blessed, since none of them showed signs of the Savageness in them. They are all human, unsurprisingly, but more than that they all have active Musol genes.”

  ‘And she has every right to be smug, she did in one trip something her uncle failed to uncover in six months.’ Atlmorin thought as he shared a look with his brother.

  “How many?” The king asked her after he returned his gaze to her.

  "He wasn't certain, as he wasn't the one to personally be dealing with them. His brother was, and had said his brother told him that he was given the honor to trade with them and he reported seeing half a dozen of them, and they all used their powers openly in front of him." the princess expined.

  “What tribe did this merchant hail from niece?” Sonora asked her next.

  “He was a lizard man from the Swamp People.” Was her answer.

  “Territorial, but an honest people.” Atlmorin noted what he recalled of them.

  “And they have bloodied the Fall People time again, as punishment for fishing in their waters.” His brother pointed out as well, giving further credence that they should trust this report.

  “And what kind of powers did they reveal?” Atlmorin asked his daughter.

  His daughter sighed before admitting. "That he didn't tell me anything. Apparently, his brother also withheld it from him. In his fears of losing his privilege to trade with them, he kept quiet about some things. But I did learn their leader's name as well."

  The king thought for a moment, he knew they might have been able to beat the Iron Wolves, had they pushed hard, but it would have made them too weak. So he allowed the outsider tribe alone. However, now there is a new group and they are fewer in number, but their abilities would give them an edge if they also possessed the outsiders' weapons as well.

  ‘So without proper information on them, we again have a Kraken waiting near our borders.’ He thought in conclusion.

  As he was lost in thought, Sonora asked. “What is this leader’s name?”

  “Nath’aniel, son of Path’aniel.” His daughter innocently said in answer.

  The king's brain broke for a moment, before he shouted an order. “Clear the room!” his eight guards stared at him confused, as did the two porters. When they failed to move, he used the magic ring on his finger to quick cast a water nce. It impaled one of the two porters, and then his men and the other sve reacted as he shouted. “Now!”

  His brother then moved to stand over the wounded sve. The water mixed with the blood spilling out of the hole in the man’s chest. Sonora stomped twice onto the red man’s face, breaking his face and ending the dying man.

  Once the doors closed behind his men, he grabbed his daughter's arms and asked. "You are certain of the name?"

  “Yes, he said it to me twice.” She was frightened by his reaction to it.

  Atlmorin then sighed, released her, and made his way towards his throne in defeat. His family had redecorated the silver thing throughout the years. Treated shark skins and coral pieces adorned it, but he knew underneath it was a mage’s silver creation.

  “I don’t understand your anger?” Anaise asked, as he reached out and gripped an exposed silver piece of the seat.

  “Why are we here girl? Why do we live here in the Savage Lands?” his brother asked her in response.

  “To get away from the stagnant noble bloodlines of Atntis. To be free of their foolishness.” Anaise answered right away.

  "That's part of it, what was our ancestor's original goal?" Atlmorin asked his daughter. He saw her open her mouth to answer, but she couldn't find the words. So he reminded her. "We are descendants of one of the four legions sent to conquer and take away the nds from the mages… Coral City, our capital, was built amid the ruins of one of theirs."

  “As are the other sea-kings capitals, and Lemurai.” Sonora added.

  “The only one we couldn’t find, was theirs, as it was small and under construction. And it was known, as Path’aniel’s Citadel.”

  “Oh, Nath’aniel, son of ‘Path’aniel’.” She repeated softly.

  There was then a moment of silence as the three of them sorted their thoughts.

  It was broken by Sonora, when he recalled a tale. "There is a legend among the Golden People. That before the beast-men rebelled and the Savageness took root. During that rebellion, they killed our Beast Tamers. In this legend, it was said that one of their strike teams found it once, and they searched it but found no one inside it.'

  “Who knows, if this story is true though.” Then he shared a look with his king and asked him. “Do you think that our enemies have returned? What should we do about this?”

  “We don’t know enough about this Brotherhood to act yet. Where is the Citadel? What powers do their unique genes let them do?” Atlmorin started with, as he formed a pn. “Perhaps we should do as the Swamp People did, and send a merchant to them. This merchant needs to be skilled, as everything will we do going forward, will based on their insights and information.”

  “Shall we recall the Prince and the army?” Sonora further asked.

  'And repeat what happened to the Iron Wolves?' Atlmorin thought but before he could say something simir everyone turned to the room's only exit when they heard the sound of the doors opening. The king snapped and started to scold the intruder. "I said clear the room. Who disobeyed…”

  But upon seeing a pale-skinned bald woman stepped into the room, he stopped talking. As the weight of mystical energy, he felt off of her stilled his mind.

  The strange woman kicked the door shut. Once closed she swung her metal fan, cleaning the blood off of it. When she opened her mouth, she spoke old Atntian and not the more modern Sea Tongue that they used today. “(Apologies, but we are not one of your subjects.)”

  His brother quickly drew his sword and pointed at her. "Identify yourself!"

  The woman tilted her head, before answering. “(We are the One Most Ancient)”

  Atlmorin frowned at her answer, not really sure what she was trying to say. His brother didn't like her answer, so he charged her. During the charge, he used his limited magical to encase his bronze sword in water.

  Before he could swing the water-edged bde, she shed out throwing her fan. The clear steel weapon hit Sonora in the shoulder, arresting his momentum. This 'Most Ancient' then slipped in close to his brother and palm struck him in the chest.

  Atlmorin had raised his hands and thought to aid his brother with his magic, but just before the woman's palm nded, he felt her full strength in the mystic arts, as she pushed his brother's soul outside of his body.

  As his soul floated in the air behind his body, both the king and his daughter stared in stark fear.

  "(Do we have your attention?)" The woman asked after she turned a ring on her finger into a thin-bded sword.

  Atlmorin raised his open hands towards her, as he responded in Ancient Atntian. “(You do.)”

  Most Ancient lowered her bde, and bowed before saying. “(Good. You are pnning and plotting to bring harm to Nath’aniel. Do not lie we know the truth of it.)”

  The king's hands shook in fear. He wondered how she could know about something they just learned about. Too scared to respond, he simply swallowed what saliva was in his mouth, before she continued.

  As she spoke she gestured with her free hand. "(Know this. We are a senior leader of an order of mystic arts users, you would call us outnders. And Nath'aniel is a Founder of ours. Continue down your current path, and we will return. We will cut off your arms, cut off your legs, and make you watch as we burn your kingdom down around you before we send you to Death herself… This is the only warning we will give you… you understand yes?)"

  As she finished speaking her fan flew back to her by a basic cantrip.

  “(We do.)” Atlmorin admitted.

  "(Good.)" Most Ancient says, colpsing her fan and returning her sword to its ring state. A second ter Sonora's soul re-enters his body and he falls to his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

  The bald woman then begins to wave her hand around in a circle, while still holding her metal fan. As she does a spark appears before expanding into a hole in the air. As the hole widened, Atlmorin saw a courtyard on the other side. In this courtyard, several dozen of magic users sparred and dueled each other in pairs. Then the bald woman stepped through the hole and it closed behind her.

  As the three of them caught their breath, suddenly the double doors were shoved open. A dozen soldiers marched in. In the hall, his royal guard y dead behind them.

  “Your majesty, what happened?” One of the officers asked him.

  "Get out." He ordered them. When they didn't immediately do that, he used the magic crown he wore to summon a water elemental into the room. The eight-foot-tall water spirit stared down the gathered soldiers. The Coral Singers warriors backed off and left the throne room.

  However one of them remained. The man wasn't as armored or armed as the other men that led the charge. So Atlmorin willed the elemental to raise its fist into the air. The soldier quickly dropped to his knees and muttered. "Wait, Your Majesty, I carry a message from the harbor."

  The king kept the elemental in check and didn’t kill the man.

  After a moment, the soldier knelt over and delivered his message. "There is a ship in the harbor, Your Majesty. It has signaled its desire to enter our port."

  “What fg does it fly?” The king asked the man.

  “A blue field with a golden trident.” The soldier answered.

  He sighed, before telling the young man. "Allow them to dock. But limit them to only a dozen people to disembark at a time." The young soldier bowed deeply before leaving to carry out the order. Atlmorin falls onto his throne once the hall is clear again. Anaise was trying to help her uncle back to his feet as the king muttered. “First signs of the ancient enemy, now a ship flying the fg of our ancient homend. What else can go wrong today?”