“Get me my sandals.”
A nine-year-old Jumi sat at her dressing table adjusting the small jewels on the earrings pinned to her ears. In the corner of the room, Merea sat down with embroidery in her lap. She kept an eye on Phoenix’s movement. She was a constant presence whether Phoenix was working for Jumi. The heart of the wicked knows no rest and that was true for Merea, she felt Phoenix was going to try to harm Jumi which was why she kept a close watch on her every time the both of them were together.
“Phoenix, get the princess her sandals.”
Phoenix left the clothes she had been gathering for washing and went to the trunk where Jumi’s clothes were. She pulled the sandals out of the trunk and went to give them to Jumi. Before she could drop them a tiny hand smacked her head. She looked up in shock but before she could blink Jumi spat on her face, a few drops of her spittle ran into Phoenix’s eyes. She squeezed her eyes tight as thoughts of hitting Jumi in the
There was a great buzz in the kingdom of Eyrotia. Every 2 years they celebrated one of their many festivals. This year they were celebrating the festival of Fists, a festival where many of the strongest men in the kingdom came together to compete in a show of strength. The winner of the competition at the end of the 2 days festival was added to the king’s army and the members of his household were given honorary titles in their towns, titles which were lower than that of the nobles but those titles were respected. The celebration of the festival of Fists was divided into two; the first day was for merry and welcoming of the guests both gods and foreign, the second day was when the real event happened. Every two years young men all over the kingdom would gather at the King’s Seat, a large arena built by one of Eyrotia’s past kings. The legend surrounding the King’s Seat was that it was carved from rock by the hands of the king in honor of the gods. There were multiple seats of stone
The walls Oya walked past were black and slimy, the walls rippled as though they were alive. Slime ran from the top of the walls to their bottom in big slimy gooey drops. The walls reeked of death and misery and aptly so for this was the abode of Neifler, the ruler of the underworld where ungodly and cursed souls came to rest. As she moved down the long passage that led to the center of his abode she prepared herself for the discomfort that awaited her behind the heavy black doors that were built into the walls with human bones. Oya forced herself to stay calm as she approached this door. She was the most powerful goddess, after all, the only one who could face Demeus in a battle with the possibility of winning. The doors to the gloomy interior of Neifler’s abode threw themselves open before she got to them and from within came the voices of the condemned souls, there were cries of anguish coming from the cursed souls and wicked laughter poured forth from the underlings who
Somehow Phoenix found a way to wiggle through the crowd and found a tight space that enabled her to see the center of the arena clearly. It also provided a clear view of the seat where the royals and nobles were to sit. The cowl of her cloak was over her head to avoid being recognized by the king or queen. From the second gate a tall, broad man walked into the center of the arena, the thousands of people gathered at the arena stood and hailed him, the roar of the people was deafening. In his hand was a cone-shaped metal which he held to his lips. “The festival of Fists is about to begin.” The cone-shaped object amplified his voice so that despite the large arena his voice could be heard by all. “Strong men of Eyrotia have subjected themselves to many days of training to show their strength and to gain entrance into the royal army and we the people of Eyrotia are here to witness this.” He let the hand holding the cone drop slightly as he waited for the people to finis
Goyre resisted the urge to sigh. It was never her intention to come here in the first place but Oya had convinced her to elect herself at the council of gods to serve as a representative for the gods at the festival of Fists. The higher gods would not be bothered to attend a small festival such as this, it was only the Feast of gods that demanded the presence of the majority of all the gods. Oya had pointedly reminded her that she could use this opportunity to search for the child of the prophecy but she would rather be in her temple in the pantheon enjoying the services of the Prys. Those servants of the goddess of excess were the best in all of the pantheons in providing pleasure, not even the gods themselves could satisfy her like they do. She stifled another sigh as she looked around the arena. Humans had handsome young men, any one of them would willingly be her sex slave but they could never satisfy her. As the men at the center of the arena battled she resisted the ur
Goyre was still dazed even when she heard her mother’s footsteps heading towards her chamber. She could already feel Oya’s powers vibrating through the walls of the temple. Her mother was excited to hear her reports about Phoenix. For the first time Goyre sent out the servants of Pyr from her temple, her temple was free from the sounds of moaning, or drunken orgies for the very first time. She sat on her metal throne and rested her legs on the stiff dragon head beneath the foot of the throne. As the goddess of the earth, she was in control of many of the elements on earth but of all the elements she could only strongly control 2; metal and wind which was why she was mostly worshipped among the hunters and miners, and for her powers in controlling the winds the seamen kept an image of her in their ship. Her temple was made entirely of black metal and all of her clothes were formed from metal. After what seemed like an eternity Oya finally appeared at the doorway of th
“Select the dirty clothes from the trunk.” Phoenix did as she was ordered. The Festival of Fists was over and the winner of the competition was Odoi, he successfully defeated the other competitors to emerge the winner and the king had given him the honorary title as the captain of the lower army ranks and also pinned the seal of the royal army on the shoulder of his cloth. The members of the royal house and even the servants were still resting as the merriment of previous had sapped all of their energy. The celebration of Odoi’s had extended till very late in the night. But Queen Merea had woken up early, even before the housekeepers and came to wake Phoenix up from her slumber in her room. The trunk was beneath the wide window that showed a view of the king’s road. Most of the streets were empty as the people were still sleeping off the tiredness of the previous day. The only people moving about were the fishermen as they sort to catch the fishes many families would
Phoenix watched Basten from the window that overlooked the training grounds. The training ground had colorful tents erected spatially around it and in the middle of the spatially arranged tents was the main training ground where the captain stood and challenged individual soldiers to a fight. The other soldiers either watched others either watched or practice their attacks and defense with their swords. Phoenix confirmed that Basten had been honest when he said he knew Odoi as his father’s guard. He was at the edge of the sparring ground watching Odoi fight one of the captains. He was without his cloak, she had come to notice that he never work his cloak to the training grounds, instead, he wore the armor that was reserved for his smaller frame and the tunic which all the soldiers wore. He was eagerly waiting for his turn to spar with Odoi and when the time came he swung his sword and charged at the larger man. Phoenix was alone in the room from where she watched the activit
A cool breeze blew through the windows of the castle making hollow sounds along the walls. The night was not cold, it was just pleasantly cool enough that all the occupants of the palace, except the guards, were fast asleep. The night was dark and there was no moon to cast its light against the stone walls. The only sounds heard were the dogs sniffing out rats in the kitchen and the rustle of dried leaves on the stone floors. Even though the night was peaceful sleep of Barigo was anything but peaceful. In his bed, he tossed and turned beneath the large embroidered fur covers as his dreams haunted him. It was a dream he had many nights and those dreams were the reason he had ordered that Merea sleeps in the room down the halls away from him to prevent her from hearing the sounds of his groans and scream. He clutched the sheets of his bed as though he was drowning but in truth, that action was a reenactment of how his brother has died at his hands. He could see himself holding