Chapter 471: Ivory
…21 years ago…
The light of dawn slipped through the window cracks. A narrow sun beam flickered over Aurelia’s face. She grimaced and mumbled something in a stupor, before slowly opening her eyes. Aurelia turned her head and found the other half of the bed empty and cold. With a yawn, she sat up and threw on some clothes. She grabbed her fur cloak and left her bedroom.
Winter had come to the cold Ebon Realm, taking away what little warmth its people were accustomed to. The Rupture Mountains were cold almost year-around, but the winter months were especially cold. Evenfall was situated between the mountain slopes, protecting it from most of the harsh winds, but the Celestial Shrine, their most sacred temple, stood proud atop the mountain peak. Up here the air itself burned with every breath and without the proper clothing one could easily find themselves falling asleep in the chill air, never to awaken.
Aurelia worried that Ivory had gone out without preparations for the freezing temperatures, especially at this time of the day. He had a habit of forgetting such simple things like fur cloaks and thick wool tunics. His mind seemed to always be preoccupied with something more— interesting, even if that happened to be something as simple as a flower on the side of the road.
It didn’t take long for Aurelia to find him. He was sitting at his usual spot, at the edge of a cliffside, overlooking the mountains and the city of Evenfall below. The dark sky was covered in grey clouds and the golden light of the sun was only beginning to peek through the horizon.
Ivory turned his head slightly at the sound of her footsteps crunching the snow behind him, but he didn’t turn around.
“I thought I might find you up here,” Aurelia said and plopped down next to him.
“Good morning to you too, sleepyhead,” he said with a mellow voice.
She threw the fur cloak over both of their shoulders and huddled close. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I didn’t wish to wake you.”
“Oh? Since when?”
He smiled softly. “You seemed so tired last night, you fell asleep in the middle of my story. I thought you could use the rest.”
“I’m fine. I’ve just been a little busy with my spell training.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Not really,” she admitted.
“Are you annoyed that I wasn’t there when you awoke?” he asked playfully.
“No,” she said a little too quickly.
“I’m sorry,” he kissed her cheek. “I’ll be there next time.”
“I’m not annoyed you weren’t there, it’s just…”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“...There’s this girl. She was born into a long lineage of warriors and her parents have high hopes that she will follow in their footsteps. She tries hard, harder than anyone to make her parents proud. Then her father died before she could become strong enough and her mother fell ill, and no matter what she does she can’t find a cure to save her mother.”
“Sounds terrible,” Ivory whispered.
“It was, but then a stranger came, a very annoying stranger.”
“Sounds even worse.”
“Heh. At first the girl thought it was. But then she became closer to the stranger and soon she discovered that the stranger could help with a cure. Soon after she set off on a quest to find the flower for the cure, almost being killed by a terrible beast of legends, only to be saved by the peculiar stranger. Now her mother is being cured. And the girl has gotten much closer to the stranger. She spends time with him every day and listens to stories of his homeland every evening, and yet she still doesn’t even know his name. She worries that he’s holding back, but she doesn’t know why.”
“This girl is in a difficult predicament,” Ivory said thoughtfully.
She looked at him pointedly. “Any thoughts on how to solve it?”
“Hm, how about a story of my own?”
Aurelia leaned her head on his shoulder. “The girl is listening.”
“Once upon a time, in the Scarlet Realm, we meet our young hero, a mage, Nell, is the name.”
“Nell?”
He pinched her cheek lightly, “Don’t interrupt.”
She tried to bite his finger in retaliation but he had already moved his hand back.
“Now, where was I? Ah, yes, Nell was a brilliant mage, albeit somewhat naive,” he admitted with a wry smile.
“How humble of you,” she noted sarcastically.
“I like to think so. Anyways, this brilliant mage was enthusiastic about changing the world for the better. And for that reason Nell had come to the Scarlet Realm and joined the renown Mortem Order.”
“The Mortem? As in the evil Order of the Scarlet Realm?” Aurelia muttered in surprise.
He grinned lopsidedly, “I know many people feared the Mortem Order, rightfully so, they were powerful, and people fear the powerful, but they were not ‘evil’. They were scholars, scientists, mages, warriors, all working together to create a better world. And one day, the Order managed to do what none but the World Soul had ever accomplished, create life.”
“The beast-kin of the Realm of War,” Aurelia recited.
“Indeed. Nell was excited, the Order could finally move on with their plan. Except, there was one problem. The plan was not what Nell thought it to be. The young mage joined the order to help the world, not this; An army formed out of the most deadly beast-kin for the sake of, well, Nell wasn’t quite certain, as was also a member of the council; Holo was her name.”
Aurelia furrowed her brow. “Like the city?”
“Yes, funnily enough,” he laughed lightly. “Besides Holo, the rest of the council was on board with the Order’s true plan, the founder’s plan. And they tried to convince our young hero Nell that the plan was the only way to achieve their dream, not that Nell even cared to listen, in fact, our young hero refused to listen whatsoever, for any plan that involved the deaths of potentially tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives was unacceptable.”
“He seemed to have proper ideals, good for him,” she nudged Ivory's shoulder.
“Yes, well, the council didn’t see it that way. In fact, they wanted to kill Nell, since Nell was what you might call an ‘influential leader’ among the Order. The council worried that Nell might sway people’s thoughts on the matter of the beast-kin and so they planned to eliminate our young hero. But Nell was the founder’s favorite, and had even been bestowed the honorable title Champion of Mortem, and so the council held back.”
“Nell’s life was spared,” he continued. “Which ended up leading to Nell and Holo sparking an insurrection that would grow so quickly out of control, that not even the founder’s power could stop it, not until the war had already spread like wildfire through the realm and led to the loss of countless lives.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” he muttered. “All Nell wanted was to protect the realm and yet, in the end, she caused the destruction of the Scarlet Realm as they knew it.”
Aurelia frowned. “Wait, did you just say she?”
“I did.”
“But I thought—”
Ivory smiled, “Did you think the story was about me? Sorry.”
Aurelia shook her head. “But then— why? Why tell me all of this?”
“Because some things in life aren’t easy to comprehend and sometimes you just have to trust people. Take Nell for example. She refused to trust in the Order’s founder who had taken her under his wing and helped her achieve her true potential. Nell believed so fervently that she was right that she refused to even listen to his plan. And what did that cost the Scarlet Realm? Everything.”
“B-But,” Aurelia mumbled uncertainly. “The Order’s beast-kin would have killed tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands.”
“Millions,” he corrected. “But to achieve what cause? Do you even know? Do you have any idea why the beast-kin were created? Their true purpose?”
“That’s…”
“No, you don’t. How could you? Nell plunged the Scarlet Realm into a civil war before anyone had the chance to find out.”
“And you think the alternative would have been any better?” she asked with a frown.
“Perhaps.”
“Are you serious?!” she asked incredulously. “You’d rather see millions dead?”
“Half the Scarlet Realm’s people died in Nell’s civil war. A million lives lost and for what? What purpose did their deaths serve?”
“A million…?” Aurelia paled in horror. “I didn’t know…”
“As I said, perhaps the alternative would have been better.”
She shook her head. “No, even still, more would have died.”
“But at least their deaths would have been meaningful.”
“What? What is that even supposed to mean?”
“Think about it. Why would a being as powerful and knowledgeable as the Order’s founder have gone through all the trouble of creating the beast-kin in the first place? To just have wanton murder without purpose? No. Do you really think such a man would do anything without a purpose?”
“I… I guess we’ll never know,” Aurelia mumbled. She turned her eyes to the horizon and the dawnlight, its golden rays cutting through the dark clouds.
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Perhaps not.”
“Ivory…” she whispered carefully.
“Hm?”
“You said you’re an orphan, that on the day you were born your village was destroyed and your parents along with it. Did your… Were your parents killed in the Mortem Order’s civil war? Is that why you hate this Nell person so much?”
“I never said I hated her.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Trust, Auri. Trust. That was the point of my story.”
She leaned back and glared at him. “Then are you going to trust me enough to tell me your name?”
He looked into her worried eyes and spoke calmly, “My name is Mortem.”
She raised her eyebrow, “Like the Order?”
“Mm, something like that.”
Aurelia shook her head and groaned, “Oh come on, stop with the dumb jokes! You keep talking about trust, but you’re still just calling yourself the first thing that comes to mind. First it was Sabina, then Ivory, and now Mortem? Seriously?”
He stared coldly at her for a moment then suddenly laughed, “I’m sorry. You’re right, it was a dumb joke. I just get uncomfortable when I talk about the civil war… and the death of my parents.”
“Then your parents really did die because of the war?”
He closed his eyes and bowed his head. “Yes,” he whispered painfully.
She grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry… Look, you don’t have to tell me about your past, not until you’re ready. You saved my mom and my life. You’re a good person, that’s all I need to know.”
He opened his lilac eyes and smiled warmly, “Thank you, Auri.”
~~~
Present times… 4 days before the new moon… 4 days before the siege of Hollow Shade…
“Thanks for the food, Mom,” Stryg said with a smile.
Aurelia blinked. That smile and the way his lilac eyes seemed to draw one in, sometimes it felt as if she was seeing him standing in front of her. The mere thought sent a chill down her spine.
Stryg cocked his head to the side. “Mom? Are you alright?”
“...I’m fine, now eat your food.”
He shrugged and munched down on the roasted slab of venison.
The sun was beginning to rise in the east, its light bathing the scarlet forest in red hues. The two of them sat on a branch hanging above the Sylvan army’s campsite.
“We have a long day of marching ahead of us if we ever hope to make it to Holo’s Shade before the valley tribes,” Aurelia noted.
“We’re still several days away. You think we'll make it on time?” Stryg asked with a trace of anxiety.
“Let’s hope,” she answered grimly.
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
Chapter 471: Ivory
…21 years ago…
The light of dawn slipped through the window cracks. A narrow sun beam flickered over Aurelia’s face. She grimaced and mumbled something in a stupor, before slowly opening her eyes. Aurelia turned her head and found the other half of the bed empty and cold. With a yawn, she sat up and threw on some clothes. She grabbed her fur cloak and left her bedroom.
Winter had come to the cold Ebon Realm, taking away what little warmth its people were accustomed to. The Rupture Mountains were cold almost year-around, but the winter months were especially cold. Evenfall was situated between the mountain slopes, protecting it from most of the harsh winds, but the Celestial Shrine, their most sacred temple, stood proud atop the mountain peak. Up here the air itself burned with every breath and without the proper clothing one could easily find themselves falling asleep in the chill air, never to awaken.
Aurelia worried that Ivory had gone out without preparations for the freezing temperatures, especially at this time of the day. He had a habit of forgetting such simple things like fur cloaks and thick wool tunics. His mind seemed to always be preoccupied with something more— interesting, even if that happened to be something as simple as a flower on the side of the road.
It didn’t take long for Aurelia to find him. He was sitting at his usual spot, at the edge of a cliffside, overlooking the mountains and the city of Evenfall below. The dark sky was covered in grey clouds and the golden light of the sun was only beginning to peek through the horizon.
Ivory turned his head slightly at the sound of her footsteps crunching the snow behind him, but he didn’t turn around.
“I thought I might find you up here,” Aurelia said and plopped down next to him.
“Good morning to you too, sleepyhead,” he said with a mellow voice.
She threw the fur cloak over both of their shoulders and huddled close. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I didn’t wish to wake you.”
“Oh? Since when?”
He smiled softly. “You seemed so tired last night, you fell asleep in the middle of my story. I thought you could use the rest.”
“I’m fine. I’ve just been a little busy with my spell training.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Not really,” she admitted.
“Are you annoyed that I wasn’t there when you awoke?” he asked playfully.
“No,” she said a little too quickly.
“I’m sorry,” he kissed her cheek. “I’ll be there next time.”
“I’m not annoyed you weren’t there, it’s just…”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“...There’s this girl. She was born into a long lineage of warriors and her parents have high hopes that she will follow in their footsteps. She tries hard, harder than anyone to make her parents proud. Then her father died before she could become strong enough and her mother fell ill, and no matter what she does she can’t find a cure to save her mother.”
“Sounds terrible,” Ivory whispered.
“It was, but then a stranger came, a very annoying stranger.”
“Sounds even worse.”
“Heh. At first the girl thought it was. But then she became closer to the stranger and soon she discovered that the stranger could help with a cure. Soon after she set off on a quest to find the flower for the cure, almost being killed by a terrible beast of legends, only to be saved by the peculiar stranger. Now her mother is being cured. And the girl has gotten much closer to the stranger. She spends time with him every day and listens to stories of his homeland every evening, and yet she still doesn’t even know his name. She worries that he’s holding back, but she doesn’t know why.”
“This girl is in a difficult predicament,” Ivory said thoughtfully.
She looked at him pointedly. “Any thoughts on how to solve it?”
“Hm, how about a story of my own?”
Aurelia leaned her head on his shoulder. “The girl is listening.”
“Once upon a time, in the Scarlet Realm, we meet our young hero, a mage, Nell, is the name.”
“Nell?”
He pinched her cheek lightly, “Don’t interrupt.”
She tried to bite his finger in retaliation but he had already moved his hand back.
“Now, where was I? Ah, yes, Nell was a brilliant mage, albeit somewhat naive,” he admitted with a wry smile.
“How humble of you,” she noted sarcastically.
“I like to think so. Anyways, this brilliant mage was enthusiastic about changing the world for the better. And for that reason Nell had come to the Scarlet Realm and joined the renown Mortem Order.”
“The Mortem? As in the evil Order of the Scarlet Realm?” Aurelia muttered in surprise.
He grinned lopsidedly, “I know many people feared the Mortem Order, rightfully so, they were powerful, and people fear the powerful, but they were not ‘evil’. They were scholars, scientists, mages, warriors, all working together to create a better world. And one day, the Order managed to do what none but the World Soul had ever accomplished, create life.”
“The beast-kin of the Realm of War,” Aurelia recited.
“Indeed. Nell was excited, the Order could finally move on with their plan. Except, there was one problem. The plan was not what Nell thought it to be. The young mage joined the order to help the world, not this; An army formed out of the most deadly beast-kin for the sake of, well, Nell wasn’t quite certain, as was also a member of the council; Holo was her name.”
Aurelia furrowed her brow. “Like the city?”
“Yes, funnily enough,” he laughed lightly. “Besides Holo, the rest of the council was on board with the Order’s true plan, the founder’s plan. And they tried to convince our young hero Nell that the plan was the only way to achieve their dream, not that Nell even cared to listen, in fact, our young hero refused to listen whatsoever, for any plan that involved the deaths of potentially tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives was unacceptable.”
“He seemed to have proper ideals, good for him,” she nudged Ivory's shoulder.
“Yes, well, the council didn’t see it that way. In fact, they wanted to kill Nell, since Nell was what you might call an ‘influential leader’ among the Order. The council worried that Nell might sway people’s thoughts on the matter of the beast-kin and so they planned to eliminate our young hero. But Nell was the founder’s favorite, and had even been bestowed the honorable title Champion of Mortem, and so the council held back.”
“Nell’s life was spared,” he continued. “Which ended up leading to Nell and Holo sparking an insurrection that would grow so quickly out of control, that not even the founder’s power could stop it, not until the war had already spread like wildfire through the realm and led to the loss of countless lives.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” he muttered. “All Nell wanted was to protect the realm and yet, in the end, she caused the destruction of the Scarlet Realm as they knew it.”
Aurelia frowned. “Wait, did you just say she?”
“I did.”
“But I thought—”
Ivory smiled, “Did you think the story was about me? Sorry.”
Aurelia shook her head. “But then— why? Why tell me all of this?”
“Because some things in life aren’t easy to comprehend and sometimes you just have to trust people. Take Nell for example. She refused to trust in the Order’s founder who had taken her under his wing and helped her achieve her true potential. Nell believed so fervently that she was right that she refused to even listen to his plan. And what did that cost the Scarlet Realm? Everything.”
“B-But,” Aurelia mumbled uncertainly. “The Order’s beast-kin would have killed tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands.”
“Millions,” he corrected. “But to achieve what cause? Do you even know? Do you have any idea why the beast-kin were created? Their true purpose?”
“That’s…”
“No, you don’t. How could you? Nell plunged the Scarlet Realm into a civil war before anyone had the chance to find out.”
“And you think the alternative would have been any better?” she asked with a frown.
“Perhaps.”
“Are you serious?!” she asked incredulously. “You’d rather see millions dead?”
“Half the Scarlet Realm’s people died in Nell’s civil war. A million lives lost and for what? What purpose did their deaths serve?”
“A million…?” Aurelia paled in horror. “I didn’t know…”
“As I said, perhaps the alternative would have been better.”
She shook her head. “No, even still, more would have died.”
“But at least their deaths would have been meaningful.”
“What? What is that even supposed to mean?”
“Think about it. Why would a being as powerful and knowledgeable as the Order’s founder have gone through all the trouble of creating the beast-kin in the first place? To just have wanton murder without purpose? No. Do you really think such a man would do anything without a purpose?”
“I… I guess we’ll never know,” Aurelia mumbled. She turned her eyes to the horizon and the dawnlight, its golden rays cutting through the dark clouds.
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Perhaps not.”
“Ivory…” she whispered carefully.
“Hm?”
“You said you’re an orphan, that on the day you were born your village was destroyed and your parents along with it. Did your… Were your parents killed in the Mortem Order’s civil war? Is that why you hate this Nell person so much?”
“I never said I hated her.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Trust, Auri. Trust. That was the point of my story.”
She leaned back and glared at him. “Then are you going to trust me enough to tell me your name?”
He looked into her worried eyes and spoke calmly, “My name is Mortem.”
She raised her eyebrow, “Like the Order?”
“Mm, something like that.”
Aurelia shook her head and groaned, “Oh come on, stop with the dumb jokes! You keep talking about trust, but you’re still just calling yourself the first thing that comes to mind. First it was Sabina, then Ivory, and now Mortem? Seriously?”
He stared coldly at her for a moment then suddenly laughed, “I’m sorry. You’re right, it was a dumb joke. I just get uncomfortable when I talk about the civil war… and the death of my parents.”
“Then your parents really did die because of the war?”
He closed his eyes and bowed his head. “Yes,” he whispered painfully.
She grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry… Look, you don’t have to tell me about your past, not until you’re ready. You saved my mom and my life. You’re a good person, that’s all I need to know.”
He opened his lilac eyes and smiled warmly, “Thank you, Auri.”
~~~
Present times… 4 days before the new moon… 4 days before the siege of Hollow Shade…
“Thanks for the food, Mom,” Stryg said with a smile.
Aurelia blinked. That smile and the way his lilac eyes seemed to draw one in, sometimes it felt as if she was seeing him standing in front of her. The mere thought sent a chill down her spine.
Stryg cocked his head to the side. “Mom? Are you alright?”
“...I’m fine, now eat your food.”
He shrugged and munched down on the roasted slab of venison.
The sun was beginning to rise in the east, its light bathing the scarlet forest in red hues. The two of them sat on a branch hanging above the Sylvan army’s campsite.
“We have a long day of marching ahead of us if we ever hope to make it to Holo’s Shade before the valley tribes,” Aurelia noted.
“We’re still several days away. You think we'll make it on time?” Stryg asked with a trace of anxiety.
“Let’s hope,” she answered grimly.
Frostbird https://discord.gg/uYqw7R6SKz
If you liked the chapter please leave a like, if there is something else you are interested in knowing about the lore, or if you have any questions, remarks, or just want to say hi drop a comment below!
Check out the glossary for more info on characters, lore, magic, and more!
