Kismet’s Tale

      Mavin found himself staring intently at the pages. His eyes glued to the sloppy, and dashed penmanship.

       20th of Mars, Year 1928.

     The Emperor was prosecuted by Lady Mildred Anastasia Viola, first to her name. Rest of the Athesian siblings were declared guilty of the crime to the people, and to their Empire.

     The Emperor didn’t flinch. He stared at his people without a blindfold. His body was displayed on the same wall where his beloved was hung. I accompanied the Empress in the throne room, next to her was the Lady who I found close.

     Killing the Emperor only tamed the mainlanders. The Western Athesian Empire belonged to the Lazonians, and its allies. Eastern Athesian was still in the hands of the ‘nobles’ who chose to fight to their bitter end. I had discussed it with the Ladies, and our allies and decided that the Senior Shina, the Grand Duke must go.

     He was the backbone of the civil war. He held them together. But he was a stubborn man who had stubborn allies. No one was going to dare and fight them… other than my Hounds.

     One hundred fifty hounds were left. Fifty were injured and their limbs prosthetic. Johan, Sird, Gerd, and Baldric choose to go. They were the best of us, and though I had refuted them, they did not listen. “Do not deny us this,”  Johan said to me. Following that, Sird told me that this must happen.  Heine, the one leading the troops who had lost their limbs, joined them, and promised to pave a path.

     Agna wanted to join, but Balric had persuaded her to stay with me. They...were one of the few who survived that I was close to. Before they left, I had them gathered in a dining area. I forbid talking. I forbid everything that was related to war as we drank and cursed the young master for leaving us to deal with this.

     The coffin of the young master was safe. I didn’t think of the young master lately, and although I had Horst and Kirsa guard the coffin. There are worries that they might find the coffin of the young master.

     I spent time with my fellows. I bid them a parting glass with Agna, and saw them off.

       23rd of Mars, Year 1928.

     They took the head of loyalists. Johan was the only one who returned among them. I had slept with Agna, and she shared my grief.

     25th of Mars, Year 1928.

     The battles caused me more of my hounds. Logain and Rigel almost lost their lives, but they were able to go back home safely.

     26th of Mars, Year 1928.

     Lady Mildred Anastasia Viola showed her fangs that day. On the back of her hand was a partial mark of the Imperator, and seeing that broke something in. I told myself, did the young master fail?

Mavin stopped at that line. He was sure that he had sealed the Imperator’s Crest. Then this was only the mark that limits them...which means that someone already regained the power of sparks. He continued reading.

     The mark gathered the sparks, but Agna had calmed me, told me that it was inferior to the sparks that the Old Magi used. Nonetheless, even if I do want to have some of my hounds watch her, we were too few already. The magiborne were mutts compared to us, and yet we have to count on what made them magiborne to regain our numbers. Ike and Martina had stabilized their blood yet they lacked what made the hounds stable.

     Martina said to me, “Whatever it was, the ‘boons’ that the young master had attracted and resisted one another, eliminated the weakness, and created a supernatural physique… How the young master gathered his boons is unknown to us, and even if we do know, I doubt that there would be another hound.

     I had little choice but to use them.

     3rd of Maia, Year 1928.

     The days had been unkind. There was little peace to be found. The loyalists fought hard, and letters and telephone calls swarmed me. Lady Elea has become a strong child, though there are days where she could not hide her sorrow.

     Lord Derrick had grown sickened and it was two days ago that he died. It seems like there was a tumor that had grown under his armpit, and autopsy suggested that it was a sickness that caused a burning chronic pain, which I should have noticed when I saw him holding his face.

     Lady Elea didn’t cry. She stood with her mother who rested her hand at her husband’s chest. It was only when Lady Natalya arrived, roughened by the war, that our little lady broke in tears. She was still a kid...

     We buried the Lord with full honors. The guns and artillery of Lazon roared at the news of his death. Though his death emboldened our foes. Logain and Rigel continued their war, and Lady Natalya led the rest of my hounds to gather lands.

     Lady Natalya insisted that a Confederate must be formed. The wars had affected all the continent, and this weakened us. Our neighbors intended to join the chaos, and thus we dropped the sun on an inhabited island where we showed the powers of Lazon and the Empire. This was enough to convince them for now, but technology spreads, and there are those who could not be easily silenced.

     10th of Maia, Year 1928.

     We lost the Lady as well. I didn’t dare to step out of fear. We found evidence that someone had conspired against her, and followed the track. One of the 108th nobles who held a grudge against the Matriarch’s maiden family took this chance. My hounds caught him, took his limbs away, and had him tell us why. He told us that he had loved the Lady, and thought this was his chance with Lord Derrick gone. He sickened me. I didn’t dare to show the body of the Lady, fearing that it would leave a scar.

     The bastard wasn’t man enough to do it while she was alive. I made sure to keep him alive, and had one of the demifiends gnaw on him. We didn’t let him die easily. Lady Natalya was the only one who knew of it. She told me that some of the 108th nobles must go.

     I agreed.

     15th of Maia, Year 1928.

     Our culling made Lady Mildred come to us. Lady Natalya joined her, and told her of what she thought. She was convinced and we lured some of the nobles into a trap where we had their leaders and heirs. The butchery we did meant nothing.

     With Lady Elea too young to become the leader. Lady Natalya had become the Matriarch of the Tomas Family, while the Lady was still too young. She had stopped going to battle, and had let Logain took the front.

     Our efforts had started to pay off. Agna, who was still on my side, had become a rock I could lean on. There are days where I felt like I didn’t want to get out of my bed, but I know that Lazon needed me.

     There are remnants of nobles, and the following operations will secure the situation in the Empire’s mainland. We can now focus on Norad and the rest of the Tripartite.

     27th of Maia, Year 1928.

     The mainland’s war was over. We chose to point our guns, and since we weren’t fighting in the mainland, we had to use some of our weapons to make them capitulate. Norad chose to fight. Rigel secured the mainland while Logain gathered his forces, securing most of the Norad borders within a few days.

     The plan was concocted by Lady who had become a terrifying leader. If the nobles had made a mistake, then it was to put her into power in Lady Elea’s name. I hate myself for saying that she having the role of the Matriarch had given us time and advantage. She made use of Logain and Rigel’s talents to subdue Norad’s borders within our advance.

     My hounds had called them her Lady, and they were willing to risk their life for her. I find that worrying.

     3rd of Septem, Year 1928.

     Agna fell ill. I found out  later in her autopsy that she was carrying our three-months old child in her belly. I had her buried back in Lazon. She was my rock, my love, and my light. I didn’t have time to mourn for her as Norad started its offensive once again.

     Sudugar, the place where Kohl Otto lived, had decided to not join the war. They had remained a free town where those who were willing to find a place were sheltered. Natalya had sent Lady Angelus and had her protect the area in the name of Jove.

     Norad didn’t dare to launch a raid on Sudugar, fearing retaliation from the Church of Jove who had warned everyone that no church must be harmed.

     4th of Septem, Year 1928.

     Norad faced the Vulcan Regiment that we had assembled. Fifty of my trusted men took the defensive line, and buried its forces under the weight of a mountain that we had decided to detonate in hopes of crippling them.

     10th of Septem, Year 1928.

     The Empire marched to the capital city of Norad where Lady Mildred herself asked them to capitulate and join them in the Confederate. She had reasoned with the King of Norad, and convinced the King to be part of this ‘Confederate’ that most of the Tripartite Alliance had agreed to.

     Logain, who had led the forces, stayed in Norad for five days before he left for home to begin the rehabilitation of Lazon. Lady Natalya, as the Matriarch had told me that she will be coming to Flost to secure the Confederate.

     20th of Septem, Year 1928.

     The City of Flost was where the seven-year war ended. It was a place where we thought that peace would come to the continent. It was a fitting place where one would end it all.

     As we roamed the city, my hounds told me that Lady Natalya was missing. I had followed her tracks and saw her in one of the halls near the capitol building. She stared at the hall silently until she noticed me.

     She told me that it was a place where she and the young master had danced. “I saw him staring at me right there. We didn't know that we had almost killed one another and we were simply two young soldiers who danced alongside the music. Though there was trouble in a way, and it turns out that the person we had rescued would become a terrible man. Aunger, you’ve done well in this war, I can see why my husband would trust you so much. Once this is over, I hope that we can finally get them to rest...I permit you to do so, Aunger. No heart is made of steel.”

     The bitterness in her voice made me ask, “What about yours?”

     She just smiled at me and said. “Perhaps, mine had been broken, but Elea, that young joy still fights on, working hard. Doesn’t it make you feel unable to give up, knowing that even she wasn’t willing to? Inaction in the time of madness causes harm, and if adults such as us are unwilling to act when even children do their best. Then we might as well let children rule instead. It will be hard, but I wish that we could at least get some rest.” 

     I took her words with me even in the signing. The war was over and the Confederate of Athesia was founded, with the head of the state being Lady Mildred Anastasia, and the Prime Minister, Colonel Tom Bedlam.

     It was also that day that we sentenced Lord Gunther, the vassal and trusted follower of Emperor Arno to his death. That deed was done by his son Ulric Bedlam, and the blood he shed ended the war...hopefully.

     25th of Septem, Year 1928.

     We held a ceremony for my hounds, and the soldiers. The soldiers were buried in the sake peak where the young master fought the exiled one, while my hounds were scattered.

     I was finally given time to mourn Agna, and the rest. It’ll take another year to truly stabilize the continent, but we must push on.

     Mavin looked at the next pages that were torn by hand. He looked outside, and saw that he didn’t write anything relevant until the year 1935 where news of the demikin invasion had truly begun.