CHAPTER 1: Who Am I?
By now he`s so tired of life, after, all that he`s seen and achieved, he should be tired but not of life but of him. He has a diamond face shape with the rock-like jawline and a thick old grey beard, his boar strong shoulders, Heterochromia, one eye is golden and the other is emerald blue they say that no one can stare directly into his eyes for more than a second because it feels like looking straight into the wilderness. His hands are so big that he can hold watermelon with one hand at ease yet they shiver quite often except when he holds a sword which is A Trident with sharp ends both the sides and blood bounded with a wolf spirit. Just the word of his presence can make his enemy feel so obnoxious. Now he is walking into Darbu, a village, alone in pitch darkness all he can hear is howls of wolfs, with many wounds he can barely walk. At last, he reached the village. A boy who is barely in his adolescence stopped him and asked: “hey man who are you?”. He is shocked and then he laughed and thought “I thought I would never come across this question in my life”. He took the support of his trident to stand firm but he is lost in his own thoughts.
32 Years Ago…
The kingdom of Agartha, it’s burning in the flames of assault by Rouges of Rogaland. Agartha is a very wealthy kingdom and one of the biggest trading centres in the country of Mangi. Mangi is deviously occulted land of Necromancy. In the history of Agartha, it fended itself many times from assaults of Rogaland but this time rogues have a new strategy. The walls of Agartha are so high and concrete such that no one can enter from the outside so when they are at war Agartha closes all the gates and entrances so that no one can come in or go out. This helped them many times not to get conquered by their enemies. The king of Agartha, Ares Ernest and the commander Offa Pushkin is relentless with the attack of rogues. The people of Agartha are suffering from hunger and chaos. Streets are all haunted with sounds of children’s cry. This time Rogues of Rogaland seized the fort from the outside, this is the longest seizure ever done by anyone. Whenever there is seize the people in the kingdom will be called inside the fort and they will close all the fort gatesThe people inside the fort are secure but no longer sane there is no food at all. The timely long-range attacks are making people more deprived than they are already. King Ares and commander offa took a decision, necromancer!. Their plan is to keep a few hundred inside the fort and go out head-on and fight them with the help of very few necromancers who are left. For the first time, Prince Shivan Ernest is going into the battle but the king doesn’t know this yet. This will be the greatest battle ever fought not because of the sizes of two armies but one army size is 7 times the other. Every Agarthala soldier should kill 7 Rouges. The King and the Few elite got on cheetaher, cheetah which is 3 times big and long. On the last row, necromancers boarded on the elephants and casting the spells. Shivan surprised his father on the battlefield with his appearance. It’s one of the vicious and ferocious battles. Shivan saw his soldiers fearing for death. Death is dancing on the battleground but shivan didn’t skip a beat. Far from his sight, his father is being attacked by 12 rouges and the 4 of his soldiers ran away instead of protecting their king. shivan riding his cheetaher to its maximum potential but by the time he reached his father he’s seriously stabbed and wounded, after seeing this he turned into death himself and fell upon the enemy like a wolf with his Trident which is also wolf spirited. The enchants of the necromancers, especially that of Old one’s gave him a power which felt like wrath. The Rogaland King Alastair and Shivan fought for so long but in the end, Alastair couldn’t take the wrath of shivan anymore. Shivan looked straight into the eye while their swords are crossing that gave him chills. Alastair heard this many times but never saw a person who has two different coloured eyes. With a clamour which is louder than the thunder, Shivan stabbed right into the middle of his rib cage and lifted him up to a height where everyone can see him this gave rage to his entire Army which gave greater impact than a spell, Agartha barely survived the war it lost many of its warriors, wealth and peace. It has a lot to restore. King Ares is on death bed and called for the council and made his son The King of Agartha. Shivan Ernest is now the king of Agartha few members of the council are not happy it’s not their fault either Shivan is the meanest and blunt king they are ever going to have. Shivan just got to know that his father was killed by the son of Alastair in battle. He is sitting in his camp and discussing with his soldiers, shivan said “hey, soldier why are you weeping in the corner?”, “Oh! Lord me, I…i lost my wife!” then shivan said, “ don’t cry like a bitch there are many beautiful women out there, celebrate this day drink ale, no more of weepings I have heard enough.” Shivan got a call from his father. Shivan: “father! How do you feel your wounds they look too bad, we survived father. Agartha has not fallen father” Ares: “son, yes not yet, not yet” he is coughing blood he no longer has life in him, he is hanging by the cliff. Ares: “Son, No man ever, in the end, neither talk nor remember how much he achieved or how much wealth he earned but the little little things that he’s gonna miss in the life, those tiny moments when he really felt alive.” Shivan: “father, what are talking about? Ares murmured “ what is this….what is life” gasping for breath, “son you have to know this your not a necromancer nor you have power but you are born on the dark twilit eclipse you yield the…” he left his last breath. Shivan felt disconsolate but he has no time to mourn. his tears feared to come out. With a lot of grief and uncertainty, he left the palace and went to the forest and came back after a few nights. In the darkness far from his fort, while he is entering the outskirts of Agartha a guard stopped him “hey, where are you coming from, get down from the horse, who are you?” shivan furiously stepped down from the horse and removed is hood and lashed the guard to the ground and said,
Shivan came back from his thoughts, the boy asked him again “hey man who are you?”, laughingly he said “oh! Me I am shivan nice to meet you and may I know who are?” the boy with a big gasp said “shivan!!! ”, shivan came back to his thoughts again…
lashed the guard to the ground and said, “How dare you fool, I am Shivan Ernest”. Commander Offa saw this from a distance and reached there in godspeed, “Oh! King, forgive the bastard he is new here, I offer my apologies. The council and the ministers all are waiting for you there are many matters that need your immediate attention my grace”. Shivan got back onto his horse and rode to his fort. He took a look at his father’s Memorium and went to his room to sleep.
Next day in the Witan, a meeting of counsellors, minister and commanders to help the king in taking decisions, one of the ministers “king, we all lost a great king, The whole Mangi is weeping for the loss of such a leader he is one his” shivan abruptly interpreted him and said “ yes, minister Orson I know. Could we discuss the more pressing matters perhaps? Last time we lost our king and we also almost lost our kingdom we barley survived the seize. The long and large walls of our fort are the reason why we survived this long but also why we almost lost last time. Once we close the gate we can’t have food, transports or supplies this is a greater advantage to the enemy. From now this has to change, the food must be cultivated inside the fort walls and we have to grow a number of cattle and crop so that even if we close the gates of Agartha we can sustain and be independent of the crop outside. When we have no battles everything will be normal but when we have we should not be at the will of the enemy’s endurance. For this, we have to remove a few noble houses and clubs”, ministers started making noise and few are even objecting that how can he take them without their permission, shivan: “ silence! Not a single word in the witan, as of now it’s only a few houses don’t make them few heads. Everyone who agrees with this say aye”, only he shouted aye and didn’t even wait for others, “ that’s it, it has been passed. Thanks to all the ministers for your guidance and Counsell, now dismiss.” shivan and commander offa are in king’s private chamber, offa: “ lord, I agree to your decision but”, Shivan: “ no more buts, it’s done! I didn’t call you here for this. It’s about my father he said something to me on his death bed I wish to understand it but I couldn’t. Offa: “ what’s that sire?” shivan: “if that is something which you should learn wouldn’t my father told you by now?” Offa: “Lord, I wouldn’t know unless you reveal it” shivan: “ who is there at my birth? Who conceived me?”. Offa: “it’s your mother, we all still mourning of her death on that day and the Old one conceived you, my lord”. Shivan looked out into deep darkness and he could hear wolfs howling, his hands shivered he stood up and took his trident to his hand and held it firmly, “that’s all for now offa”. Offa: “ sire, we have a word of Theodore, son of Alastair, that he is seeking for revenge and has gathered an army to avenge not only to avenge his father but also to avenge the greatest hero of their land. We must gather and grow our army too, my lord”, “no, offa just numbers don’t give us victory I saw with my own eyes in the battle many of our soldiers trembled and feared the death in the battle and coming to Theodore let him come, I taught to stop the never-ending circle of revenge and avenge but he doesn’t seem to care that much let him come. That would be all and offa how is your son? “ he is recovering at speed my lord, thanks for asking”. Shivan: “I wish him a speedy recovery, Agartha will need every warrior it has, Commander Offa.” offa left the chamber, shivan remember one of the lessons his father taught him “ 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”, it’s now making sense to shivan. “O, Old one, we have a lot to talk to about”, shivan thought, he has many questions on his conscious hoping that old one has answers. The old one, she is the oldest necromancer so far anyone can remember. Mangi is a land of spell-bids and magic. Necromancy is the practice of communicating with the dead and also very pre-eminent in binding a person’s will with a spirit. Magic works in many mysterious ways but Agartha is mysterious of all.
Theodore, awaiting just a few kilometres away from Agartha, he is the tallest person on any battle-field he walked, sleek but strong, has a very long hair which perfectly aligns with his horse`s hair when he is riding on its back. Theodore: “ Torsten, we have to capture that asshole and I’m going to stab shivan in right in the middle of his fucking arsehole. Like bastards and cowards they fucking hide in their rat holes two more moons we can attack them this time I will fucking pluck every rat out and kill those scums of Agartha, Hail Alastair !”, everyone in war camp hailing “ Hail Alastair, let’s avenge his death and bring back honour to Rogaland”.
In the court of Agartha, minister Orson: “king, Theodore is just outside of our kingdom waiting like a wolf to hunt”, another minister: “ there are many objections on what you did regarding acquiring noble houses.”, counsellor: “ there is much other pressing matter at the hand, lord we don’t the size and capacity of his army and he is fueled by his father’s death” everyone in the court started murmuring and saying something, noise is all over the court the king’s hand is shaking he leaned a bit and took his trident and hit it on the ground and that thump made entire witan silent. Shivan: “We are attacking in 3 nights, I want to erase the problem of Rogaland from its roots, I want to be the first king of Agartha who made this possible, Offa prepare your army, counsellor send letters to all the warlords, stop the food distribution further until my order, Witan dismissed, Prepare yourselves”. He left the witan everyone is still in shock, A minster with another: “he is moving under the cloud of haste and fame, he is too ambitious”, offa said “ Arent we all? minister”.
One the day of battle, 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. A gash of radiant light broke through the cauldron-black sky of clouds, blood is spilling all over the field, Shivan and Theodore are fighting with all their might but shivan made a mistake in assessing the size and plan of Theodore’s, many of their soldiers died and the ones on the filed are trembling with fear, shivan saw this with his eyes, he held his trident high and gave a signal and a loud horn was blown which meant retreat, expect a few many soldiers ran off so fast from the field as if they’re waiting for that retreat horn to be blown. King couldn’t see his men with fear rather glory. Theodore from far saw Shivan and started yelling: “ son of a bastard king, have your guts dripped down to your ass? “ shivan is already fighting 3 men with anger that one could take the heat of he killed all those three-men and started running towards Theodore and his army faster than a cheetaher, Theodore and his entire army are shouting at the king and waiting for shivan to come to them out the blue offa came on his cheetaher and pulled king back with all his strength. Everyone who came in time is inside the closed mighty walls of Agatha. Shivan is very angry on offa, “Who are you Offa, who are you to pull me back on the battlefield?” offa: “sire, I only did that because…” Shivan: “ how dare you to open your filthy mouth!” offa backed off and kneeled before the king and stayed silent. Shivan: “ shame on you, you acted against your king’s will, I should either kill you or banish you for this”. Orson, the minister in court: “ This is what happens if you go to the battle without proper discussion with counsel my lord and few noblemen didn’t offer their warriors to our army because you took their lands and houses” shivan: “enough! It’s been months since we are seized yet we are not even at the start of the hunger, we have enough supplies for months and we are getting yields because I took those fields, the size and plans of their army came out as a surprise that’s the reason why I called for a retreat, we aren’t defeated we came back” counsellor: “that another form of defeat my lord, that’s why they say that either a king should be a great tactician or a great warrior because as the sword of warrior gets blunts after every battle so does his brain.” shivan: “ Thanks for your counsel, that’s all for the day.” a solider in offa army “ sire, if I may, today offa’s son Silas Pushkin died in glory without fear fighting the enemy and my commander choose to rescue you rather his own son.” Shivan is in silence, his heart and mind are both filled with many thoughts few haunting him for what he had done, few saying him that what he had done is right with all the noise from his mind and from the court made his hand shiver. He took a deep breath and left the court glancing Offa. After a few days in the court, they are having a deep discussion on battle strategies after a debate king concluded on a plan and now shivan is on his way to meet the old one, he entered into her chamber and sat down. There is only very little light in the chamber, in the flickering fire old one tuned to shivan and said, “yes, my dear we have a lot to talk”. Shivan surprised after hearing that. One soldier with a pounding heartbeat rushed into the private chamber, shivan “ how dare you, fool”, the old one: “listen to him”, Soldier: “my king, a witan is summoned because one of the slaves of Rogaland who we captured in the first battle has escaped and the worst part is he was there in the court hall serving food when you are discussing battle strategies, sorry my lord to disturb you.” the old one: “No, my child the disturbance hasn’t even started yeRet!”