Book One: Fate
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Chapter Eleven: Tentra
Tai took small steps walking along field after field without care. There was no rush after all, since he knew which way his pray would be going (though their final destination could be one of many places). Karen may be trying to take Zan’s boy to the nearest Katerano church, but that would mean going to Tillsen and yet they headed towards Tentra, the capital city. It was a large detour. They would reach Tillsen a lot quicker if they cut across the land below the marshes, so perhaps that meant they were not heading there. It was also a possibility they were heading to the capital to try and get help from the King of Atra. The Destined guide that speaks to them in their dreams could have warned them about the impending attack on the land, but how could she have known the exact timing?
Not knowing their plan, if they even have one of course, made things interesting. They were no threat. The girl had grown stronger over the years, but she was so afraid of him that she posed no real danger. Zan’s boy was even more pathetic, an amateur of the arts and did not even know what a Destined was. Ending both their lives would sever two blood lines in the legacy, that would be a huge event, but after that there was nothing left for him to do. It was because of that fact that Tai considered toying with the prey for a little longer, to make them hate him, themselves, and take everything they care about away from them.
He suddenly became aware of two people's presence near him, they were heading straight for him and at high speed. He recognized the Auras; it was Elites sent by his master. Flickering before him, their images warped into view. They bowed before their superior.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Tai asked, grinning under his mask.
They straightened their posture from the bowing position. The two dressed much like Tai, in plated black cloth and thick gauntlets, however they also wore large dark steal helmets with face masks that looked like beasts that were hiding all their features with only two dark eye holes pierced in the metal to allow them to see. A large sword in its sheath hung on their backs, attached to them by a strap which traveled around their chests. These were Elite soldiers, highly skilled and specially trained assassins working in any task involving infiltration, elimination and subterfuge.
“Our master has sent us to deliver a message and check the progress of your hunt,” one spoke in a low and raspy tone.
The other Elite delved into his breast plate and pulled out a folded scroll sealed with wax. Passing it to Tai, they stood in silence while he read it. Breaking the seal, he read the content. He growled angrily and crushed the scroll in his hand, throwing it into the wind.
“He sent you all this way to scold me?” Tai asked and laughed bitterly.
“Our master insists that you must keep the people of Atra from knowing of your presence until the invasion begins. You are making too many people aware by prolonging the deaths of the Destined that you are perusing. We have been ordered to stay with you until this task is complete and to make sure that you obey the orders given to you.”
Turning his back on them, he laughed manically. How he hated a chain around his neck, being forced to jump on command and listen to the orders barked at him. It ruined his fun.
Asking if there was anything else, the Elite spoke once again, “Another Sect assassin has been called from the northern borders and is heading here for the pending invasion. Commander Kass will meet you in approximately five days, after concluding the massing of L’Carn’s Special Forces pending the collapse of the surviving rebels.”
Tai’s anger grew. He was a Sect, they were supposed to be so powerful that they would travel and act alone with the sole purpose of hunting the Destined. However, now he had two lap dogs following him making sure his lead stayed firmly around his neck and another Sect on the way. Why was his lord sending Kass to him? Was there distrust in the ranks or did he doubt his ability to kill two of the Destined? That would not do. He would do things his way, regardless of what the orders said.
He had five days before Kass would arrive and find him, which was plenty of time for opportunities to have fun with his prey. However, the two Elite currently with him made things a little awkward. Though he out ranked them, they would not obey any order from him which would directly contradict one from their master.
But then, although these Elite are highly skilled they are nothing compared to a Sect, or Destined for that matter. Karen, in a rage, tried to attack me, the brave Elite jumping to my protection are struck down by her blade, yes, that’s believable…
Holding his hand out in front of him, still not facing the Elites, a purple shroud surrounded Tai’s arm. Twirling and dissipating, a large sword appeared in his hand. The blade was a thick dark purple and an odd shape with many edges spreading from the main blade, almost like two separate blades had been melded together. A black misty light was constantly shining from the long misshapen blade. The hilt was black with large rounded edges and a purple crystal embedded in the center of it. The hilt’s handle was large enough for two hands to grasp for more powerful blows but it could be used single handedly as well.
“My beautiful blade, it has been a while since I last summoned you,” Tai said, stroking the sword with his free hand.
One of the Elite hissed and asked if they should continue traveling to find the Destined. Tai agreed and twisted around to face them. Without warning he leaped forwards. Grasping his sword in two hands, he jumped up and slashed sideways, taking the head of the first Elite clean off his shoulders. Landing softly to the ground, Tai turned to face the other Elite. The head of the previous one fell next to its now collapsed body.
“Commander Tai, what are you doing?!” the other Elite cried out.
Without answering, Tai jumped towards the other Elite, who rolled sideways out of the way. Landing precisely once again, Tai held his left hand up, releasing it from the hilt of his sword. Flattening the palm and pointing it towards the Elite, who was some distance away. A purple light appeared in the center. Tai looked forwards, not towards the elite. The purple light extended into a large beam which shot forwards at blistering speed, the Elite could not move fast enough and was consumed by the blast that followed. Lowering his hand, Tai laughed heartily to himself and tossed his sword into the air. The blade vanished into a dark cloud which also slowly faded away.
They won’t spoil my fun. No one will.
Morning welcomed the group when they awoke. It was slightly chillier than the day before, but not bad and perfectly fine for walking. The checkpoint between Cattra and the capital, the place known as Wex, would not be far. Leon explained that he would get them a cart in Wex to get to the capital as fast as possible, meaning they would probably reach Tentra by night fall.
A short distance down the road from where the group camped was a small stream which ran down near the forest Leon had caught the group’s dinner. They stopped there to clean themselves up before continuing traveling. The mood had not seemed to improve since the conversations they had over night. If anything, it was worse. Leon, after hearing Tylor explaining everything to Joel, had worried him and scared Karen a lot. Leon himself seemed despondent with their shock and anxiety, remaining as calm as ever.
The amount of ground to Wex was not as much as Tylor was expecting, the checkpoint town soon appeared on the horizon after only a few hours walk. It was quite small compared to Cattra and even Wrathe, compiled mostly of a few large houses dotted around an open dirt area with no walls or gates. Smoke emitted from a few chimneys billowing into the sky which, from that distance, were the only signs of life. Leon explained that this was because of the rumors of a monster. Wex’s usage had dropped greatly when no travelers were risking taking the road from Wex to Cattra. All the people that were left were either the stubborn cart owners and traders or knights of Atra. Wex’s only purpose was a rest station and stock collection point between the capital and the docks in Cattra, the capital having no dock or open sea nearby.
No one stopped to check them or ask their business for the first few minutes they wandered through the checkpoint. That was until a knight in full silver plate noticed Leon and immediately stopped them, saluting the Demon Hunter. Tylor reminded himself Leon held no actual rank amongst the knights, yet they still treated him as a superior officer or, even more so, like royalty or some form of dignitary. Of course, Tylor had never actually seen how real royalty was treated, only read about it, so it was an assumption.
It was true that Wex was desolate of people for the most part. There were three or four knights visible in the southern part of the town they currently stood in and all of them had looked particularly bored, until the knight noticed Leon. The rest of the knights joined the one which had seen him in grouping around him and saluting respectfully. They started asking questions about the monster and if it had been slain. Nodding, Leon explained about the bandits and the set up they had made using scare tactics to conceal the murders and robbery.
“Hunter Sansec, shall we send a runner to the capital reporting this information?” one knight asked.
“No need. I am traveling back home with my companions. Are there any merchants remaining that has a cart that can take us all to the capital?” Leon asked.
Two of the knights left them, heading off to the northern end of the checkpoint, the direction of the capital. While they waited, Leon inquired about the state of affairs around Atra. The knights babbled on about troop movements and longer watch hours. Tylor could not help being a little disappointed that a knight’s job sounded so tedious and boring. Where were the bloody battles against monstrous hordes of evil? It was not nice to wish for battle and war, but he could not help but feel that the image of grandeur he and Joel had talked about when they were younger was a lie. Joel was looking off around town sighing with obvious boredom. Joel always spoke about being a powerful knight; a defender of justice, silver armor and a glorious steed.
Maybe he had become used to disappointment. What a sad state of affairs the main land was in. The reality could not live up to the glorious images and ideas created by the dreams of two young friends with high hopes and vivid imaginations.
The land was all so tedious to Tai. And that was not only because he had walked the same path some time ago when he was heading to the island to face Zan. The whole kingdom was just dirt roads and trees, with the occasional town. Wex could not even be considered a real town, it was just some buildings cluttered around in the open living in its own filth with a bar and trader outposts.
Zan’s boy and his group of misfits had just left Wex, in a cart. He had watched, perched upon one of the taller buildings, assessing them. They were definitely heading to the capital; there was no question of that now. The road leading up to Wex had a few crossroads which they could have taken to get to other towns, such as Tillsen, but the Marshlands would stop any short cuts directly across to any of the other burrows.
The newest addition to the group seemed to be held in high regard by the knights stationed at Wex. Could he be some figure of importance that the group happened upon? Tai had lost track of his pray after the incident on the Sparda, only finding them again after sensing Karen’s presence on the road. Though he had almost confronted the two boys in Cattra when they were alone, he choose not to take that opportunity, it was too soon. So, sometime between the meeting on Sparda and walking the road to Wex they met this man. He was no knight; the armor he wore was built for agility, not heavy protection that the knights of Atra seemed to favor. He looked young as well, although older than Karen and Tylor, so it was odd for experienced knights to respect this person.
Relaxing, Tai still sat lying back against a chimney looking into the sky atop one of the buildings in Wex. The group had only just left in a cart; there was no rush yet to catch them up. He could not have any fun with them while they were on the open road. Of course, he could just attack them now and kill them all, but where was the fun in that?
No, not yet. They had to endure a little more. Only then would his perverse satisfaction be complete. That did leave the young boy with them and the new acquaintance, but they were not important nor had they wronged him in the past to warrant his full wrath.
They were expendable.
However, the interest in this new member of the group was getting the better of him. It would not hurt to find out a bit more about the person. Curiosity had won the battle in his mind as he slowly stood up and looked over Wex. A few knights wandered the grounds and some scruffily dressed tradesmen near the north exit. One of the knights was just disappearing out of view to the east behind one of the other larger buildings.
Perfect.
Tai’s image dissipated into a few thin lines, his body then reappeared on the building across the open street from where he had just been. Once again flickering out of sight, his body moved rapidly to the next building up, right to its edge where his body once again took form. Peering over the edge slowly, the knight was there in plain view, wandering around seemingly aimlessly and very bored.
Jumping off the roof, Tai landed behind the knight with a deep thud. Rising to his feet, completely unhurt, he shoved his hand into the knight’s chest as the bulky figure turned to see the source of the noise, denting the thick plated armor and sending him flying out of the alley into a cart. Whatever force Tai had summoned to do such a thing once again vanished.
Appearing before the injured knight like some ghostly visage taking form, he grasped the frail exposed neck of the knight, lifting him to his feet. Tai tilted his head and peered into the knights large eyes. Still choking the knight, but not squeezing too hard, he demanded to know who the person was traveling with the young boys and girl that left Wex a few moments before was. The knight was spluttering in obvious shock of what was happening to him. Below his helmet, which only covered the top and sides of his face, was a distressed young man, who was probably watching his life flash before him.
He enjoyed that look.
“I will ask only once more. After that, instead of asking, I will just pull off limbs,” he spoke in a deep subtle tone. “Who was that man, the one you knights seemed to treat like a superior?”
Moans of fear were the only answer he got at first, the knight was trying to scream out, but the grip of Tai’s gauntlet around his neck only allowed him to make short gasps. Then, however, the knight started spluttering more useful information.
“Sansec…Demon Hunter Sansec…” the knight coughed out.
Breaking the knight's neck inwards on itself, Tai let the bloodied corpse fall to the ground. Pieces of skin, bone, and globules of blood dripped from his dirtied gauntlet. A Demon Hunter. That was interesting, even more interesting that Karen and Zan’s boy had managed to recruit someone like that to their group.
Preliminary information collected on the defenses of Atra by the Elites had not mentioned anything like Demon Hunters, it was possible that they were not counted as part of the army and were a type of militia or mercenary group. He began thinking of all the possibilities. It was possible they would be trained differently from knights and could even pose a greater challenge. It would be important to find out how many of them existed, what they were capable of, and-
“Oh my god, he killed Dren!” a voice up the other end of the alley shouted.
Tai twisted around slowly and looked down the ally to see three more knights, which must have become suspicious of their friend not returning. Raising his hand out slowly, Tai flicked his hand inwards toward his chest, beckoning them to attack. The knights unsheathed their long swords and charged down the alley towards him.
“Allowing yourselves to be cornered in a small area with no room whatsoever to maneuver, you can barely swing your swords, how foolish are you?” Tai cried, leaping at them.
In a line, the knights charged down the alley as Tai ran towards them at the opposite end. The first knight raised his large silver broadsword above his head, ready to swing when Tai was in range. Tai’s image flickered and disappeared, reappearing a very short distance from the knight. The sword flew towards Tai, but without a second thought he caught the blade in his fist, tightening his grip around the metal. The metal began to twist like it was nothing but thin copper, before breaking in his vice like grip.
Behind the first knight the other two could do nothing as there was too little room to get around the armored knight and be able to defend themselves at the same time. Using his free hand, Tai smashed his gauntlet into the first knight’s helmet, toppling his whole body backwards and causing him to make a horrible spluttering sound. Moving in a smooth motion Tai dropped his gauntlet down to the level of the knight’s chest and cried out in a deep voice. The first knight was hurtled backwards at tremendous speed like some invisible force had violently struck him. The other knights were caught by the flying body and pulled back the length of the alley way out into the open center of Wex. As the three bodies flew down the alley the thin walls around them began to crack and break open going along a path in line with where the first knight’s body was thrown.
As the dust settled, the walls of the buildings which had created the alley had caved in on themselves. The ground had been ripped up too, like some strange circle of energy had traveled the course of the alleyway. Debris crumbled and littered the ground, upturned earth exposed fresh brown dirt which had not been trodden on by a persons feet in years.
Two of the knights slowly got up, using their swords to hold their weight, pressing the tip deep into the earth below them. The knight whom Tai had struck in the face did not get up. One of the others ran to him and checked his body. Blood was oozing out of the helmet where his perfectly formed face had once been. Backing away, the other knight began coughing violently. The two remaining knights had not even noticed that Tai had now walked the length of what used to have been an alley and was waiting for them to continue trying to attack him.
“Go get Hunter Sansec!” one surviving knight, the shorter of the two, cried to the other. “I’ll hold him off. They can’t be that far, go!”
Amused, Tai stood still, listening to them. It made no difference to him if the one called Sansec was called back, but if he returned then no doubt Karen and Tylor would as well and he could not have that, not yet. The knight turned to look at the gate, only to see Tai’s image leering down at him. Startled, the knight fell backwards, dropping his sword and landing on his back. He could not remove his stare from the black eyes of his attacker, nor could he move as Tai stretched his palm out in front of him.
The shorter knight, who still stood, charged at Tai as purple specks of light began to form into a ball of energy in his palm. Looking up to see the charging knight, he pointed his other palm out at him. It jerked back as if firing something off, but nothing was visible to the normal eye. The charging knight was suddenly punted backwards, skidding to a halt a considerable length away, badly winded.
“Wait your turn,” Tai sneered.
A purple blast of pure energy surrounded the startled knight on the ground, tearing flesh from bone in an instant and then burning it to nothing. The purple sphere of energy created a crater where the body of the knight had been, before dissipating into nothing, leaving clouds of smoke circling the hole and rising into the sky.
“Now, it’s your turn,” Tai said, walking round the crater and towards the last remaining knight. “You interrupted my interrogation of the first knight, so I will give you a chance to tell me some more about the Demon Hunter who just left here.”
The soul remaining knight was winded from the seemingly invisible attack which had struck him. Coughing, he pulled his helmet off and threw it away. Backing up to a wall and using his hands for support, he pushed himself up to a half standing position. Tai took small steps, watching the knight’s movement.
Without his helmet, his race was more noticeable. It was a Lis, the strange rims on the cheeks which attached below his chin confirmed it. He was also slightly shorter than the other knights; the average Lis was smaller than a Man. A feeble race of cowards, most were servants to Men, they sickened Tai even more than the normal peasants. It was no wonder that the person before him now cowered, sweating like a pig, coughing like an invalid, and begging for his life.
“You showed more bravery than I would expect from a Lis,” he mocked.
Lis would sell their own mother if it meant their safety. Perhaps the one before him would be more forthcoming with information about the Demon Hunters. Tai repeated his question, and listened as the Lis began giving intimate details about the Demon Hunters of Atra.
Demon Hunters, a special title given to someone who has trained since birth in a special church found in a hilly region north west of the capital. There they spend their youth training and learning a variety of fighting techniques until the beginning of their adult life at eighteen. By then, they have been trained in at least sixteen ways of combat and mastered at least three, with moderate understandings of the use of magic, but mostly the details of beast’s weaknesses and living habits as well as a great deal of strategic knowledge from running various combat situations.
Through the church, fully fledged Demon Hunters and even Apprentice Hunters were hired out like mercenaries to slay beasts (or demons as they called them), which outlying farm towns are prone to, and deal with bandit groups or anything that knights could not handle. A share of the revenue brought in by such tasks helped the church train more Demon Hunters and peruse the search of more combat knowledge, which would also be taught to its students. It meant that most were incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable of the world around them. The Demon Hunters were also taught to control their emotion and hide it from others, holding them deep within themselves to give them a better attitude when in battle.
Hunter Leon Sansec was a special case. The knight explained that Sansec left the church after his training at eighteen like the normal fully fledged Hunters, but to be employed by the head of Atra’s knights, Commander Xeno, permanently. No one knew why, but since then Sansec had helped the knights with a variety of missions and had gained a lot of respect in the kingdom. Some began to say that he was unbeatable. The absurdity of such foolish speculations made Tai laugh out loud.
The Lis apologized and said that was all he knew. Dropping to the ground, he backed away towards a side alley. Tai turned to look at the far exit of town, the way in which the Demon Hunter had left. Karen had certainly recruited someone who sounded like they might actually be a formidable opponent. No normal person would stand up to his power, but with the supposed skills the Hunters had, it might be interesting to see how one would perform. This information was also something he could impress Kass with when the banshee eventually crawled out of the shadows in five days time.
Huffing to himself, Tai quickly fired a blast of purple energy into the alley the last knight had escaped into, causing it to explode and the building adjacent to crash down upon it. The Lis screamed out with pain before everything went silent. Tai walked slowly through the checkpoint. He could feel the presence of others as he went, hiding in the few remaining buildings. It was possibly just traders or maybe even some knights who were too afraid to fight him. The temptation to destroy the whole town was great, but Tai resisted it.
Vanishing into the wind, the checkpoint was once again quiet.
“Is Tai a large man?” Leon suddenly asked the group.
They had been sitting in silence listening to the gallop of the horse drawn cart they now found themselves in for some time. The cart was open and hardly built for people, they sat upon sacks of supplies and such, but it was the only cart left to take them to the capital. Startled by Leon’s question, nobody answered at first. Eventually, Tylor muttered that he was not particularly tall, only slightly taller than him, and about the same build. Leon asked a few more questions about Tai’s appearance, seemingly very interested in it. Tylor asked why he wanted to know such things.
“Shortly before we left Cattra, a woman was murdered. It was an old fortune teller. Her neck had been crushed to a pulp. No normal sized person would have the sheer strength needed in his hands to do that and it did not look like any kind of weapon had been used. It seemed odd this should happen after you and your pursuer come to town, so I was curious whether he may have done it.”
An old fortune teller murdered. Tylor felt ill at the thought. Could it have been the one he spoke with about the mark of the human iris? Tai seemed to have some sick perversion with killing people instantly with wounds sustained to the neck, so it could have been him. Had Tai been that close to them? So close that he followed them and murdered an innocent person just because they had conversed with him?
“Leon,” Karen spoke out. “Do not pursue or get involved with Tai. He is our problem. You will only get yourself killed.”
Tylor was sure Leon smirked as she said it.
“Tai is responsible for the deaths of the people of the Sparda and of that fortune teller. That makes it my business to bring him to justice. If I do, I will remove your problem for you. You should be happy.”
Karen cursed and looked away. Joel piped up and told Leon that Tai was very powerful and it would be wise for him to avoid this person. The constant reiterations that Tai was too powerful and should be avoided only seemed to make Leon more interested.
“Perhaps this Tai will try to attack you while I am with you, then I will have no choice but to tempt fate by fighting him,” Leon said, without emotion, before turning to face the front of the cart, looking to the horizon.
People are making plans around me again, Tylor thought. Karen says Tai is our problem, I guess that means me and Joel too. And now Leon wants to fight Tai. Leon is probably a lot more powerful than me and has the right mentality for this kind of thing, no conscience telling him not to strike at Tai, he’s even wanting it to happen, perhaps the voice should pick him for whatever destiny my father had. He’s so much stronger than I am…
“I thought we were getting close. The driver has made even better time than I thought, the sun hasn’t even set yet,” Leon said to the group. “Look out in front, before us on the horizon, the steeples and roofs of the capital city Tentra.”
Suddenly full of life, Joel scrambled up from the sacks he was sitting on, tripping over Tylor’s feet in the process. Laughing with a big grin on his face and getting up, he hopped over Tylor’s other knee and leaned next to Leon, sitting on hunched legs and using his arms for support on the edge of the cart. Tylor leaned over the side and looked forward along the path.
“My god….” he stuttered.
Roof after roof, steeple after steeple, each appeared on the horizon, lifting into the sky higher and higher as they got closer. Tentra truly was a testament to expert design and beautiful architectural skill. The city spread for what must have been miles from left to right, ten at least. The smaller buildings were hidden behind a huge gray stone wall with towers on the corners similar to Cattra’s, but many more meters high giving a bird's view of the land surrounding the city. The sun lay further past the city, casting shadows towards them in all manner of shapes projected from the visible roofs. From somewhere within the city a church bell rang out, echoing all the way out into the country side.
The cart bumped over another raised section of land revealing more at the base of the city. Directly ahead of them were a set of open gates so large they could make out fine details about its shape despite that they were still quite far away. Before this gate were a huge number of fenced off areas with crop fields spreading as far as the eye could see and many smaller wooden huts. These looked similar to the fields which lay around Samilo before the disaster back on the island. Leon pointed out that these were the farming areas which sat out of the city as it was better for the live stock and the crops as they received more sun than they would within the cities tall walls.
Some buildings were so large that the sun light it caught on its facing edge spread its dark shadow all the way to the walls and beyond the farms and fields. Glass which caught rays of light sparkled like tiny stars creating a picture perfect moment which Tylor and Joel could compare to nothing they had seen before. The sheer scale of it was amazing, not just the fact it spread from left to right over so much land, but that it must also spread around deeper into the distance which they could not see. The amount of people that must live in such a gigantic city had to be in the high thousands. Tylor asked Leon about its total size and number of people within it.
“It's hard to give an exactly estimate to how big Tentra is, depending on whether you count the farm areas situated outside its four gates, these being located on the north, east, south, and west sides. Needless to say it is a fair few miles in length and width. The number of people living there is cataloged in the Grand Registry, though that information is never given out to an exact amount.”
“It’s amazing,” Joel said, while looking slacked jawed at what stood before the group.
All problems were forgotten in that instant, even if it was only for a short time until reality once again set in. Tylor welcomed it. He had never seen a sight so truly amazing. To someone like him, coming from a small farming village (with total inhabitants sitting at around one hundred), he could barely fathom so many people living in such a huge place. It was mind boggling and it would no doubt get worse once they are inside its gates. Seeing the sights and its many people first hand, close up, made him shake at the thought. For once the anticipation Tylor felt was coupled with a good emotion, not fear. He could not wait to see inside the glorious city of Tentra.
So, the capital was within sight, and it had not grown on Tai any more than the last time he saw it while he was chasing Karen towards Samilo. It had been a short visit, but long enough to see that the place was nothing special, he had seen bigger places burned to the ground.
Tai had come across a realization while pursuing the group. Zan’s boy did not have a mother in Samilo; else he would surely be more informed about the Destined than he currently was. It was strange that Karen had not told him more. Perhaps Zan’s boy was refusing to hear more until he found his mother, which might explain why they were all heading to the capital instead of Tillsen.
Preliminary reports of the capital were quite lengthy and detailed, collated by Elites which had infiltrated the city more than three years prior. Tentra was a behemoth of a city in comparison to the rest inside the kingdom, with heavily fortified positions stored within a three-layer barrier of specific design to prolong and protect against sieges. This meant that beyond the visible outer wall there was an open pit with another wall looking down on it, then past that a second space and a third wall. It had a suggested civilian population of one hundred and ninety thousand of a variety of races living within the city and in farming communities located outside its four gates. A strong merchant presence suggested they relied heavily on trade and banking.
Tentra’s army consisted of heavily armored infantry, light armored cavalry, and small amounts of archers and siege engineers. They did not depend on or look into wizardry as a large part of the main military force. The bulk of knights resided within barracks dotted around the city and trained in the grounds of castle Tentra, located near the center of the city. At any one time a garrison of around five thousand knights kept the peace with the rest being sent out to counties around Atra. The bulk of additional troops were garrisoned at both the east and west kingdom boarder, to protect from invasion.
The city was designated as highly defensible with considerable protection and force within, with little obvious flaws exposing themselves. It was this report which would help dictate what actions his master’s legions would take when the cleansing begins. Originally, a full assault on all three surviving kingdoms was planned, but this was deemed impossible after analyzing the military set up within each and possible prospects of siege attacks on the capital cities. It was decided more underhanded methods to overthrow the capitals would be employed after squandering so many months trying to defeat L’Carn’s forces to the far west.
The reports about Tentra collected by Elites had also spoken of something known as the Grand Registry. A large manual filing establishment used for keeping personal information on the people of Tentra and surrounding towns within its power, such as place of residence, family trees, and past history. Publicly, it was for crime prevention and to help them keep track of the number of people in the city to stop over population. It was also used to keep tabs on the current populations of the ever growing city to make sure the knights could cope with the number of people in the city at any one time.
Kept a bit quieter was the royal family’s obvious desire to stop their people having secrets. There was probably a number of reasons for this. Know peoples secrets and you can control them so much easier. It was partly that reason that Noctern had been refused help all those years ago. It was hard to believe that they did not know what really was happening to its people, but Noctern had always refused to provide records for the Grand Registry.
What an amusing thing politics was.
For now he would watch them some more, to see if the group split apart once at the capital and then follow the important prey. The inkling that Zan’s boy was seeking knowledge other than that about the Destined would not stop nagging at him. Perhaps Zan’s woman lived within the capital. Tai grinned as he walked along. What better way to continue causing the boy pain than removing his last living relative? Then he would let him dwell over it and it would eat at him from the inside. The feelings of self hatred and guilt, all those negative emotions would be forced upon him, before he would finally put him out of his misery, just before Kass arrived.
“My poor kitten. I wish I could let you live longer, but time has caught up with us,” Tai mused to himself. “Fate has decided that you and your playmates time is up and even I cannot fight against such a ruling...”
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