Chapter 3 Petty Games

"THEIR PETTY GAMES, RATS SCURRYING THE FLOORS OF A BAITED REALM. I WISH THEY KNEW THAT THEY HAD DIED, EVEN BEFORE THEY WERE BORN."

***

PHASE ONE

"These damn writers !" Fang yelled as he dropped the book on the table, "don't they know how to write anything apart from romance ?"

"But you always read it master Fang", the female butler of Fang's mansion, Artena, a werewolf, said as she poured his tea into a cup.

"I do ?" Fang looked a bit surprised by her remark, "well", he shrugged, "maybe it's because I can't help it."

"So what kind of stories do you like master Fang ?" Artena asked.

"Don't tell me you don't know", he said, "the legends, epics and tales of the ancients and the future, one with battles and endless wars, the conquest of empires and realms ..."

"I get it, I get it, master Fang", Artena said, "now you can have your tea" she said handing the cup and saucer to master Fang who was sitting at the side of the window in his room.

"I know that's your specialty", she reminded, "especially fooling people around with your acts."

Balkyre Fang gave a guilty smile, Artena knew alright, that he wasn't just some prodigal who was waiting for the demise of his father, the patriarch of the Balkyre family, Duke Mor. Fang was capable of doing worse than that, even the demise of the Vercan realm was something Fang could bring about with his eyes closed.

"The prince and your sister have been keeping an eye on you lately.", Artena reminded.

"Let them play their game", Fang said, that board of geometric patterns taking form before him as he drank his tea, it's surface filled with those game pieces which Fang moved deftly as though he already knew the outcome of the moves he was making, even before he had made them.

"What they don't know is", Fang said as he took the position of another game piece which burned into the air, "that the board itself was my doing."

***

"You said that the Sage Majors have confirmed that this being is more powerful than even Olana ?"

"Yes master Morca", the female shrouded in a red cloak replied.

"Strange indeed", said Morca, "For him to be able to cause a rift in the Orcan winds of Phelmur and surpass the trickery of the Erama, he's indeed a being that can't be rivalled by most."

***

"Yes I am", Lord Raven said to the thundering skies, "I can be rivalled by none !"

The flashes of lightning which came with the drizzling rain swept over this terrain like a storm of white flames, not even the vampires, werewolves and beings of the underworld could withstand the thunderbolts and lightning flashes of the Ciaran Void.

"But I can", Lord Raven mused, "because I am unrivalled."

Taking a daring leap from the edge of that floating formation, Lord Raven fell through the mesh of lightning intertwining itself with the red clouds of this plain and when he finally landed on this barren soil, those seven pillars rose from the depths of the earth.

"Finally", lord Raven sighed, "the Seven Pillars of Ciara."

PHASE TWO

Dragging along the corpse of the weregoyle, sword in hand and blood now an ointment decorating his once royal robe, this ghostly form emerged form the hill of corpses. Staring at the skies brimming with the wings of these flying beasts, endless in their numbers, he knew that the end of this battle was far from over.

"Artor", Megraz mused to himself, "you really are desperate aren't you ? Unfortunately", he screamed to the skies throwing his sword away, "so am I !"

The skies thundered and those blue flashes of light fell like pillars of fire striking down that army of flying waregoyles, making them screech as they burnt.

"You think you came from hell", Megraz challenged, his claws and fangs elongating themselves, they raved of a monstrous scarlet, "I'll show you what real hell looks like."

His being frayed through the distance, leaping to the skies, Megraz began a massacre, the carnage was severe and it rained blood, the screeches intensified, but it wasn't enough to appease the enraged Magrez, they wanted his life, but before they could take his, he was going to take theirs.

***

"His majesty !" Mernon gasped as he saw the second prince walk into the courtroom covered in blood.

"What happened ?" Counsellor Morman feigned concern, but a stare from the bloody Megraz made him hold back. It was a daring stare that only said one thing, "You failed again Morman."

***

"How long will this petty game continue ?" Mernon thought aloud.

"As long as one player isn't left standing." Megraz replied as he and Mernon walked the courtyard of the royal palace, "Any news about Balkyre Fang ?"

"His majesty", Mernon complained, "why are you so interested in a black sheep like Fang ?"

"His being a black sheep is my trump card." Megraz replied.

"You refused to forge a relationship with the more renown heirs of the Balkyres yet you are pursuing the oddball among them."

"It's his oddity that makes him more useful." Megraz answered calmly, "Balkyre Fang's siblings are trying to woo the support of the royal family in order to strengthen their hold of inheriting the Dukedom, and the first and third prince want the support of the elite families of Verca especially the Balkyres, in order to strengthen their position as heirs to the throne."

"They each have their interests", Mernon pointed further.

"But two to four makes it a tug of war not between the princes, but the elite families", Megraz continued, "each family wanting the favour of the next king will do anything to ensure their candidate succeeds at all costs, making them disposable."

"With a surplus of allies wanting to gain the favour of the first and third prince, they have turned themselves into the princes' pawns."

"Don't forget Mernon", Megraz pointed out, "there isn't one prince."

"Since there are two masters ..." Mernon postulated.

"It doesn't matter who the elite families serve."

PHASE THREE

"It doesn't really matter who they serve does it ?" Lord Raven said as he studied the inscriptions on each of the Ciaran pillars.

"And it is their insolence that shall serve my purpose."

***

"But what makes the second prince view Balkyre Fang as the perfect option ?" Mernon probed.

"Because he isn't seen as being capable of rocking the boat ?" Magrez revealed.

"And his majesty wants him to sink the entire ship."

"You're correct Mernon", Megraz affirmed, "no one would expect that someone who isn't capable of squashing a flea, skin a living creature alive and with the smile of a ruthless killer."

***

"Neither rocking the boat nor sinking the ship is needed to be done from the inside", Lord Raven mused to himself as he stood at the centre of the Ciaran pillars, with its formation taking form above him.

"Being the sea, it'll take only a second for me to have them engulfed in the claws of my waves."

That halo rose from the core of the Ciaran formation rising to the skies it made the earth quake.

***

"Do you think Balkyre Fang is capable of becoming such an anomaly ?"

"The possibilities aren't solid Mernon", Megraz smiled, "but it doesn't matter how the tables are turned, whether upsidedown or inside out, all I know is that this realm will never be the same."

***

The Ciaran pillars began to crumble as the fury of that rising halo intensified. Lord Raven standing at its core with that deadly smirk of his lips, unfazed by the chances of being consumed in this rage of chaos. It didn't matter to him whether the earth crumbled or the heavens fell, after this ...

"The nether realms will never be the same ever again." Lord Raven grinned to the shattering skies.