CHAPTER 2 : This is me
Tension is in the scent of the air in Agartha. The old one is busy doing her witchcraft while shivan is curious and ferocious. The old one: “drink this it ties you and wolf trident together more strongly”, shivan took what she offered and said, “I have many questions about what happened when I was born? What is that my father wanted to tell me, on his deathbed?” the old one: “how would I know that child” and giggled, shivan: “I am very exhausted o old one! What’s all this you do, what’s the matter with my trident and a wolf” Old one wittingly said “oh! this one I know, your grandfather fought with a wolf named Wulf Kiba, child he is ten times bigger than the biggest wolf you might have seen, but boy your grandfather didn’t have any intention to bind his new forged trident with any animal spirit, I forgot to say one thing…about us, we are the forsaken beings haha..necromancers we are precious as long as needed, we can talk with the dead who are trapped and abided. We can do a great deal of witchcraft, but importantly my boy with the captured spirits we can create many binding and bounding spells, we can bind an animal and very few times a human spirit to the living person or thing or place which can offer immense power many call us witches and say what we do is witchcraft and Blackmagic but no my precious child what we do is sacred art which is embedded in the very soil of mangi, its called necromancy. Coming back to your grandfather, Wulf Kiba. they both had an affair, Affair of Honour. Shivan: “what my grandfather fought one on one combat in the scared fire with that wolf!”, The old one: “It’s not wolf, prince” shivan said “and I am no prince, I’m the king of Agartha and even you oh Old one” the old one: “its also no wolf, he is called Wulf Kiba and yes they fought, its not either of their mistake, Kiba is the king of kings of the wolfs and your grandfather, Ahi is King of the whole Agartha for the first time, never before one man ruled Agartha. Kiba helped him to achieve this dream but later due to bad advisers and councillors, Kiba felt that he and his kingdom are been taken advantage of and he felt king is not treating him as his equal or of his worth and this drizzle drops eventually turned out to be a storm which near meant to happen, deep down both of them know but they were just tied to strings of pride and politics as I told Ahi never needed me until Kiba challenged him, Affair of Honour. If Kiba won that would be the end of man’s era on this soil, we would also be like Rogaland, I mean no offence to Kiba he would have been a great king but in mangi few animals which are born on dark twilit don’t die, even if they are dead their spirits won’t then we either bind their to a place or a thing or a person so that we can use their spirit to our advantage many animals do this willingly but few don’t after the great combat I forged the trident you are holding with Kiba’s spirit, it’s not only you who’s fighting but Wulf Kiba is with you. Your grandfather didn’t give this to your father it is directly passed to you after his death when you’re born you are crying and shivering until your grandfather gave his trident for fun. The moment you held it you stopped shivering.” Shivan now held his trident with all his hubris and kitsch. Something felt different a second before and now. Shivan thought “everything is up here(mind)”. The old one said “ no my child everything is down here” pointing to heart, shivan laughed and asked “you said something about spirit’s willingness” old one: “ yes necromancers can say whether the spirit is willing or not at the time of binding but later we can’t but we can definitely feel when they are willing to” again with all the gut his soldier came inside and said, “sorry my lord I’m sorry but they have sent another message asking for you in your court my lord”. Old one: “its time my child, you will have all the answers when its time until then keep your mind at ease you are already fighting yourself and that only gets worse, have faith in spirits child, faith is all.” shivan: “old one I may soon need your help before a war”. Old one laughed and nodded. shivan left from that place. He rode on his cheetaher ten times faster than their solider, furiously he entered his court hall hitting trident all over the floor and shouted very sarcastically “yes, yes, yes my lords I am here I am at your service, I sincerely apologise for my late arrival, your highnesses” there is utter silence in the hall not even the sound of their breaths. “What is the reason for this very urgent meeting where you asked the king to attend twice in such a short time? It better be for a reason… that I care for, Orson”. Orson built all his gut and shiveringly said “sire, A slave whom we captured in the first battle was here when we discussed our strategy when he is there serving to us, now enemy know our numbers, our defences and strategies he escaped my lord” shivan: “oh, yes messenger already told us this” another counsellor: “My king, we must act now and revise and think of what we must do now”. Shivan: “after this, terrible mistake of ours, there is nothing left other than negotiation. Who was in the guard when he escaped.” Orson pointed offa. Offa with despair and fear said “sorry my lord, I don’t know how he escaped lord, there is no way that he escaped through gates, he must have to know the secret passage out to the fort my lord but..” shivan: “you failed in guarding this place and you have the courage to give reason to me. First in the battle and now. only God must know why I am still keeping you as my commander.” Orson: “sire, this is not the time to settle internal things, but negotiation with rouges is like animals having a feast with the hunter, you sure are the greatest warrior of Agartha but leave the work of the mind to us, my king” at once shivan stood from his throne and threw his trident at Orson, it missed him by a hair and told “how dare you to talk to me like that, you have the audacity to say that in my hall, I will pluck your tongue out if I heard your voice again without my permission. We will negotiate with them. The court is dismissed now please leave us.” shivan took a long breath and murmured “ I have the courage and spirit within me, oh fathers give me strength”. They say good things come every then and once but bad things come at once. Another slave named Olaf wrote a letter and attached it to the raven. This raven reached to the camps of Theodore.
Theodore felt as if gods are blessing him abundantly, with lot of excitement he read the letter, and laughed, shouted and gathered a meeting in his camp “friends, this is the day we drink, celebrate king shivan now befallen to a point where he wants to negotiate with us, this happened for the first time in our time. All the credit goes to my friend Edvind, who escaped from the fort with the information. After all their fort is not impeccable and mighty as they bark. But friends I am not here to negotiate am here to avenge my father, I will kill that ass-licker until there is no more blood in his guts to spill. Let’s drink to Alastair” everyone shouted “ hail! Alastair”. Their camp is filled with fire from both out and in their hearts.
Days are passing like shadows, Shivan summoned the old one to his chambers, he said “old one I said I will need your help, I need it now”, she asked, “with what could I offer my service to you, my child”. Shivan hesitated for a moment and then he looked straight into her eyes and I said with a sharp voice “ to create a lie, which should be rooted and become a powerful myth” old one laughed smirkingly and said “why in earth you need me to lie, that’s what you have counsellors and ministers for ah…but you want me, is it what I think it is my child, what you want me to do,” she opened her eyes so wide it is his first time to see straight into her eyes, he felt like seeing straight into the wilderness “ what you want me to persuade lord shivan!” shivan: “I fought battles with my soldiers, our army has many great commanders and soldiers but I saw more than a few probably more than half who fear to death until they leave that fear aside we not going have ground shattering victory. I just don’t want them to be fearless of death but I want them to die with all fury and glory. I want them to anticipate death, await death, embrace death. My should people believe in an afterlife so much that they should wish and thrive to die in glory. No one in my reign should fear death. Once and for all. Though this changes every once and a while, to that while it should be once and for all.” he opened his eyes wide and wild while saying this old one felt like seeing straight into the wilderness. She is left with no words, after a minute, she said “you’re all your grandfather hoped for, it might be true, you, Nemecis and …” she is murmuring to herself, lost in thoughts, shivan: “what is that old one, what are you talking about?” the old one said: “nothing, it’s just I saw something in your eyes, it’s struggling, it’s suffocating, it’s fighting, its war I see but not with you, within you” shivan: “old one I need your help to make them believe this with all their heart as you said not their mind”. Old one: “let’s suppose for a moment that you achieved it, they believed but isn’t it wrong, to take the choice away from them” shivan: “what choice am I taking away?” old one: “to save themselves if they believe this they won’t save themselves before they have a choice to run now they even don’t know that they don’t have a choice.” shivan laughed: “after all it is false then old one” old one asked “what ?”, he said, “Faith is all, all that is said by you and in Agartha, they say that All you have to do is believe. Isn`t that what really embedded in Mangi’s soil? Believe it with your whole heart that will be true, this is false then?” old one shivered and laughed “you are the wisest king of all I have seen, no it’s not false, you reminded me, you made my spine chill. But king, you don’t yet know the full depth of words you just spoke, it has much more degree to it but for sure you persuaded me with your wit, I will help you but do you really believe it with your heart, O king ?” shivan said “that’s the matter for another time, I want you to use all your witchcraft sorry scared art to create my grandfather’s voice in the holy fire when I gathered assembly. We have to create a place after the death my grandfather should say to them that it feels like heaven, like the grand hall of joy and cheer, like Valhalla, Valhalla it is.” old one: “fancy names and smouldering voices in fear this has been done many times my king soldiers need something more because unless they believe it truly they won’t reach heaven, Valhalla.” he said, “yes but my grandfather voice is so much but leave the remaining to gods if what you say is true the dead will rise and talk.” laughingly. The old one said: “Indeed, they will, Faith is all”, he replied “faith is all.” the old one went back. Offa is waiting right outside his cabin, the king came out and said “ you promised me offa, this kingdom, its time offa, its time for war but to win it we have to restore faith.” offa will all the pain and snivel said, “yes, sire.” the king left to his bedroom, but offa looked at the sky with his dreaded eyes, there is so much agony and he is shivering for the first time.
Its full moon day, the day where wolfs come out from forests and howl all day! The gathering is happening, the entire army is there to witness the holy summon of the king, they are so eager to listen to kings words. Finally, the king came. All are yelling, long live the king, it’s echoing all over. With one thud of his trident entire crowd only made one sound, its silence. After a few minutes of an obsolete pin drop silence, the king shivan: “ ah..indeed that was a pleasure to my ears and my heart only in the silence one can hear himself, thas`s why I say silence is my favourite sound. Today we have gathered here, it’s of sheer importance and today is the day when Agartha will be born again. My people, you know this fort is all of wonders and secrets even after all these centuries but a few days ago I have found a secret treasure box inside the deeps of my grandfather’s private chamber. It has gravel ruins inside of the box” all gasped, gravel ruins are the thing which used before 600 years back to store information. “Yes, my people a gravel ruin in which our ancestors wrote, the information is in it was written in old Norse language which The old one helped to translate, I obliged to the old one to come here directly read that out to you.” this is the first time a necromancer being in a public gathering that too it’s Old one. The old one looked at him and with a tremble in her voice “Valhalla,…Valhalla it is, That is a place of fearless, that is a place of valour and glory. Its place of warriors and soldiers. It’s for them who have a weapon in their hand which serves their kingdom. There is no death for a warrior you will all meet again at the junction of Valhalla but a warrior must die with all glory and valour but most importantly fearless, Valhalla only welcomes them those how not only are fearless but them who embraces face of death with servitude. The idea of death is the only thing that tampers a warrior`s spirit. Embrace the death let spirts be with you…” old one trembled to read the next line king took the ruin and read it aloud that it almost broke sky…”Soldiers, Meet you at the junction, Faith is…” the crowd completed the sentence with an astounding spirit. He looked at the old one, her eyes turned into purple. When people started to murmur among them they heard a voice from the holy fire, “Maiyh! People,..” people started shouting “ahi, ahi, king Ahi Ernest…”, “ my people, I am talking with you from Valhalla, it’s a wonderful place, even though I am here my heart is with you and my grandson Shivan Ernest, may the spirits be with you, fear none even the god of death himself, in a battle your not only fighting your enemy but also him but to win you should not give in to fear its the only way to win the battle over the enemy and over the god of death and only when you win the battle on him the gates of the junction of Valhalla will be open, embrace death, meet you at the junction my people and shivan.” crowd went numb for minutes few minutes no one is able to believe what they hear with their ears but all the elders know it in their heart that it is the great ahi who talked with them. King looked at old one, she felt too weak, her eyes returned to normal colour. Everyone is discussing among themselves, few couldn’t believe, few couldn’t digest, few are speechless out of all this chaos rain and thunders started on the far sight with the lighting of thunder and fire they not only heard but now they are able to see Offa dead son Silas Pushkin yelling “ Valhalla it is! Valhalla it is! Valhalla it is! “ thunders stopped, rain consumed fire. In a whiff, Silas disappeared. Now there are no doubts everyone felt chills in their spins but Orson came and asked: “I am so happy and fulfilled by this but why we didn’t saw dead till this very moment” old one said at a high pitch “because that ruin is spellbound on when its read with another spell you can see what you are meant to. Now you have all witnessed the dead have spoken and risen” Orson said, “if it is true Silas Pushkin should be still buried in his grave right let’s see” everyone in the crowd threw stones at Orson and are yelling at him, the king said, “stop this, as a king, it’s my responsibility to answer and clear your questions” while his soldiers ploughing the soil of Silas grave stone king remembered of what his father told him that people, ministers and commander of the kingdom must always ask the right questions, a king must always give wrongs answers with one hand and right action with another. Suddenly he heard a scream. “King, his body is right there” the old one with blithe murmured All you have to do is believe, Faith is all.” everyone started screaming, “hail! Shivan Ernest” some said “ thank you, my lord “ everyone is now against Orson, screaming at him. King with anger came towards Orson, “I already told you this before” he took out his knife and Orson tongue and cut off his tongue, he yelled with pain, but the warriors yelled with joy and newly filled energy. “Valhalla it is..” it echoed. From then they decided to celebrate this day every year as The Gathering of Valhalla. The king announced “Soldiers, there shall be no more delay, no more remorse, we will attack the rogues and their king Theodore at once tomorrow”. The chieftain of Offa asked “sire, they have higher grounds, if we go now we have to climb the hill” the king said “if we delay we won’t have the advantage of surprise we have to attack before the first light in the morning” one of the counsellors said with offa that “he might be the greatest king for discovering these ruins but what he is planing now, taking his soldiers in the dark, he is in haste as ever and will remain ambitious forever ever. If we accept this it is like following a blind man to lead the path. While this is happening Olaf, the rogue slave wrote a letter very fast and tied to raven and set it free. The king while talking with his soldiers suddenly moved in godspeed and took an arrow and bow from fellow archer and hit it directly in the eye of the flying raven, it fell in the middle of the ground. Solider ran fast towards it, gasped and shouted “sire it has a message of all what we have just discussed” King laughed and with a witty sigh he replied “I know that, bring Olaf to me at once” everyone around is shocked after hearing these words from the king. Offa said, “When it’s all dark only a blind man can lead the path my lord”, to the counsellor. They bought Olaf to the king, he kenneled. King said “ we have to thank him for his service and his friend who escaped the fort.” king and offa looked at each other and they are laughing. “ yes, its all my plan, in fact, offa it was me who told him about the secret passage and Olaf I guess it is also him who gave you this idea of passing messages, it was also me but I told him to tell you. Before you ask any doubts I went to his prison in rogue disguise and lodged this in his mind so that we will have the advantage of surprise, right now I bet they are thinking that we don’t have proper defences around our fort and that we are about to negotiate with them. Now let’s squeeze them so tight that they should beg us to let them breathe.” Offa: “ Orson I guess if you have your tongue it is the time when you apologise and accept that our king is the greatest warrior and greatest tactician.” Orson nodded his blood filled face. Everyone hailed the king. “Long live the king..”. The king: “What chieftain asked is also a valid question, they have the high ground until now we showed our wit now its time to show our guts and valour, we have to risk. We are going to divide our armies into two, I know, I know we are already less in number dividing would further make our failure inevitable but there’s a catch they are on the high ground now. One army which is lead by me will confront them directly from below we have to slowly bring them towards the lower ground, down. The second army which is lead by offa will go from the back. By the time their army comes down, which they will come because they won’t be able to resist to kill me especially Theodore. In the meantime, offa will lead his army, by the time Theodore comes down to the low ground to us offa will strike them for the back and using chaos as our chorus we will be the triumph. Lets us march. Meet you at the junction of Valhalla.”
Using catapults and fire bound arrows kings army gave Theodore a big wave of shock, light is slowly touching the ground as a series of cascades. necromancers started chanting their spells sitting on elephants in the last row and the drummers started beating drums so loud that their vibrations could move the stones on the ground, King Shivan Ernest, loves the sounds of drums and it fills him the exuberance to fight in the war with glory. His every strike and every step matched the beat of drums. Counsellors are far away from the battleground but insight. We were battering and beating against our enemy under the sun-litten sky. A storm of arrows and spears are buzzing and fizzing through the sky. Theroder is still waiting up instead of coming down. He has sent more than half his army down but he is still not coming. He is confused about whether to give up the advantage of high land. This crucial if he doesn’t come down soon he will see offa army, offa’s army will not know what is happening up and they will get slaughtered. King rode his cheetaher alone holding his trident to the above ground. The drummers are increasing their intensity to match Shivan’s speed. He came to the middle and shouted “poor, Theodore. I killed your father, right here on this very battlefield, sorry I ripped him right through the middle, they are saying ..” he’s reflexes are so fast that he moved away from the arrow that is coming at a speed faster than sunray with a hair. He spitted on land as if he did on Theodore and continued… “They are saying that you are here to avenge your father’s death then come to avenge him come to me and get ripped apart as your father did.” offa`s army is very close the high ground. Theodore unable to control his anger any more he orders his army to go down with him. The very next moment offa`s army reached the high ground. At the low ground, both armies are fighting so brutally. Theodore and king are fighting not only with their flesh but also with their spirt. Theodore escaped many strokes of king`s trident and so the king. King fell down with a hard push from Theodore and it will take Offa at least a few minutes to reach down. Drummers stopped beatings their drums, King is on the ground seeing at the battlefield, though he is below than anyone he felt like as if he is watching is from the sky. though the king is crawling, though they know that offa will take the time to reach and save them no one of them are scared every one of them is looking like the god of death himself, everyone is fighting with valour. This might be the first time this happened, in any battlefield king will give inspiration to his army but now his army is giving all the force The king needs, he is filled with happiness and hubris. He taught to himself that, its true, All you have to do is believe. With all the courage and strength he raised up before the second Theodore’s sword hit the ground. He lashed at Theodore and his army like a wild animal. For every swing, he is at least claiming two lives. With blood all over his face, he looked at his drummers with a grim in his eyes with all the strength they have they started to beat the drummers and this is fueling him. he is killing everyone in his way. Offa arrived from the back, both armies together slaughtered Theodore and his entire army. This time The king is on his cheetaher and he ripped Theodore apart as he did to his father. As a token of victory, he bought Edvind back. Everyone hailed him upon his arrival to the fort but he’s still thirsty of blood. This is the mightiest battle ever fought its called, The Great Battle Of Valour and he proved that he is the greatest warrior and tactician. He gained respect in his court, love from his people and his soldiers gave him everything they can. That night he went to his father and his grandfather`s Memorium he could see that both of them are happy and proud but what he felt is different. “Is this it, is this how it feels when you achieve something, there should be more it isn’t it?” he taught. He is also enthusiastic he learned many new things in politics and in warfare. Many years Agartha was at peace apart from a Few civil wars here and there. few times they were seized and few times king went to a seize. He won many battles, his fame went beyond the boundaries a man knows. Years passed like wind, He fell in love with women who dressed like a queen. Orson and offa both grew more white beards than off grey ones. He has everything he wished for, fame, kingdom, power and beautiful daring women but he felt hollow inside, he taught that these are things that make a man happy. He is the happiest man in the world right now but he feels an emptiness somewhere deep inside one day after his court dealings at midnight he left to the forest like a ghost, it slowly turned out as a habit going to the forest to far from all of this. It’s all dark and light moonstone-yellow light appeared in the carnal-black sky. He heard someone calling his name, which he has forgotten, “Shivan Ernest the great, shivan Ernest the great”. king: “who are you and why are screaming my name”. The other person replied “I am No one, Does it matter anyway? the prophecy of the Nemecis, win the war that’s happening inside of you. You have more to deal with.” The king: “what are you talking about, what is a prophecy I don’t understand any of what you just said?” the other person: “It’s the way of it, the way of prophecy, it will only be understood while it’s happening.” Shivan confused after hearing all this his closed eyes and took a deep breath and by the time he opened his eyes, there is No one. He shocked his hands shivered once again. He rode back to the old one at godspeed and asked: “ someone said “the prophecy of the Nemecis, win the war that’s happening inside of you. You have more to deal with.” he asked old one “what is this, what is the prophecy of Nemecis?” The old one: “it’s been told that the curse of Nemecis will be lifted by the Two men Twice out of which one man is both wolf and a man and the other is three-eyed and Two-headed man. It is also called as nemecis of Duance, have you grasped, the curse will be lifted Twice by Two-man where each posses Two Qualities” shivan: “what…” he laughed, “I had a doubt and now it’s confirmed it makes no sense, this is non-sense” the old one said this while she is thinking very deeply “It’s the way of it, the way of prophecy, it will only be..” shivan finished that sentence saying, “ understood while it’s happening.” old one shocked and asked “who told you this, what is his name”, shivan carelessly said “he said, no one”, The old one shivered and gasped for breath.
Present in the village of Darbu
The boy shocked after knowing his name and he kenneled before Shivan. The Seer of the town is here and his chest felt warm within a second after seeing Shivan Ernest, feeling surprised and enlightened by seeing a man who is both a man and a wolf he said, “after all, it is true, the prophecy of Nemecis” he shouted and gathered his people and said “here he is, one of the Duo of Duance” everyone kneeled before Shivan Ernest.