Only a few years after the failed venture of the Elysium Brotherhood,
whilst the other races of Elysium were battling amongst each other, the
emperor of the Hakarren Empire, Emperor Nissaq I, was planning the first
of the Hakarren invasions that would restore them in their position as
the lords of Elysium. Already, legions of Hakarren were positioned in the
mountains around Olbaron, poised to capture the cyclops capital whilst
their warriors were engaged in a battle on the southern continent. The
shadow of the Hakarren hung ominously over Elysium once again.
In a loney outpost, halfway between Thul'Mar and Olbaron, a single
Hakarren sat in a checkpost, staring down at the floor, head slumped, as
he considered the fate of his peoples. His grandfather had told him of
the days of old, when the Hakarren stood dominant over the other races,
when their rule was absolute and unquestioned. But they had been punished
for their superiority. The gods had not smiled on the Hakarren, and the
days when a single Hakarren could slay five cyclops, or any other race
for that matter, with their bare hands, was gone. Now the guardsman, whose
name was Jelkar, worried for his races future. If the emperor's plans succeeded,
it would surely not be long before the gods saw fit to punish the Hakarren
once more, and if that happened they would dwindle and die. But there was
no way to change the path of the empire; Any who spoke against the emperor
were slain as traitors.
Suddenly a shadow fell over Jelkar's face, blocking out the moonlight
that came through the open door. Jelkar rose to his feet, silently drawing
his dagger and starting to slide the sword from it's sheath at his waist,
but as he looked up at the giant yellow eye that stared down at him from
the silhouette in the doorway, a feeling of peace flooded over his body.
The sword slid back into it's sheath, and his dagger slipped from his grasp,
clattering down onto the stone floor at Jelkar's feet.
"There is a way Jelkar. You know what to do."
Thoughts flashed through Jelkar's mind, strange alien thoughts,
that he had never even dreamed of previously... They were filled with daggers
and death, and incomprehensible feelings. But in these thoughts, one image
stood above the rest; The broken body of the emperor, lying in a pool of
blood. When Jelkar recovered from this assault of thought, he looked up
- The doorway was empty.
The journey to Thul'Mar was uneventful. Jelkar passed a couple
of Hakarren patrols, but his story that he was taking an outposts report
on a failed cyclops attack back to the capital seemed to satisfy them.
Jelkar could not remember thinking up this story, it just seemed to be
their, sitting dormant in his head. He walked day and night, and occasionally,
he thought he saw figures moving in the darkness at the edge of his path,
but he ignored them. His task was too important to let anything distract
him from it.
Once he reached the city gates, passing through behind a traders
cart, nodding curtly to the Hakarren sentries that stood guard, his mind
seemed to open up, revealing to him what he must do. After spending a few
days in Thul'Mar, he began to shadow the guard patrols, discarding his
army uniform to blend in with the citizens of the great capital. The city
guard's wore black uniforms, as opposed to the grey of the normal army,
and it was for this reason that he was so interested in them. Four days
after he arrived in the city, Jelkar attacked a lone city guard who had
removed his helmet in the heat, plunging his curved combat dagger into
the guard's soft neck, severing his spinal cord at it's link to the brain.
When the corpse was discovered, it was dressed in the grubby clothes of
a Hakarren Citizen.
A day after the corpse was discovered, a new guard entered the
palace. The guards at the palace gates did not think to stop him, because
the palace roster was changed almost daily; It was impossible for any one
guard to know everyone who should or should not be in the palace, and so
they just generally concentrated on keeping out common citizens and the
abominations of the other races. This new guard slotted into the palace
scene perfectly, and no-one questioned his presence there. The guard headed
up towards the upper floors of the palace.
As Jelkar walked confidently through an empty corridor, past a
huge window, through which light poured, his eyes fixed on the huge dark
wooden doors at the end of the corridor, he drew out his trusty dagger,
the blade of which glinted in the sunlight.
Suddenly, there was a shout behind him - "Assassin!"
Jelkar spun around as a guard leapt at him, the spark of imminent
combat in his eyes, a sword poised over his head, ready to come down in
a deadly arc. Jelkar shifted to the side, bringing up his dagger and thrusting
it through the Hakarren's belly, the momentum of the guard's leapt pushing
it further up into his body, ripping through vital organs and causing blood
to pour down over Jelkar's arm. The guard slipped off the dagger, falling
to the floor in a lifeless heap, and Jelkar's head spun as he heard running
feet. He slipped the dagger back into his belt and drew his sword as another
guard came around the corner at a run. The new guard stopped, looking at
the corpse, and the Hakarren standing over it, unsure which was the assassin.
But then the guard recognised the dead Hakarren, and screaming, raised
his blade and headed for Jelkar at a run. Jelkar's sword swung up, and
the two weapons screeched at their metal grated together. For a moment,
they were deadlocked, but Jelkar's trek to the capital, and his days of
sleeplessness had left him weak and tired, and the guard managed to catapult
Jelkar's weapon from his hands, sending it skidding across the carpeted
floor. Jelkar fell backwards onto the ground, and raised his arm to protect
him from the inevitable blow that would follow...
The he was showered in glass, as the window next to him burst inwards.
Jelkar twisted his head around to see a colossal cyclops standing in the
space before the window, a mighty spiked mace raised over it's giant head,
whose unblinking yellow eye was focused on the Hakarren standing over Jelkar.
A single swing of the mace decapitated the Hakarren, whose head rolled
across the floor, propelled by a jet of blood from the guard's neck, and
whose body crumpled backwards, weapon falling uselessly to the floor. The
cyclops turned it's gaze onto Jelkar, who slumped backwards, dejected and
ready for death. But then, the noises of the corridor seemed blotted out,
and he felt his body stiffen, and some strange power forced him to push
himself to his feet, and picking up the sword that lay next to him. His
limbs were moving jerkily, and he was denied the right to control them
himself as they started to play out a parody of a battle with the cyclops.
The pair went through thrusts and parries, each one seeming false to Jelkar,
every blow as light as a feather. Jelkar's mouth opened, but instead of
the questions he longed to ask, he heard himself shout out...
"Assassin! Outrace in the palace!"
From the corners of his eyes, Jelkar saw a pair of guards come
around the corner, and head straight towards the cyclops. A thrust of the
mighty mace pushed Jelkar in the chest, and he thought how light it was,
light enough to shift a feather, but not much else, as his body staggered
back, beyond his control, acting as if the push had crushed his very body.
The cyclops turned it's attention to the two new arrivals as Jelkar leaned
back against the wall. As he watched the three begin to fight, the force
controlling his limbs seemed to take a new direction, and he began to walk
stiffly towards the huge wooden doors once more, sword slipping from his
now limp fingers.
Then all strength seemed to slide out of his body, and the noises
of the corridor burst in on him as he crumpled down against the wall, and
a scream echoed through his head. Jelkar looked back over his shoulder,
and saw the cyclops lying on the floor, the two Hakarren guards swords
moving up and down in a blur, hacking away at it's body. The cyclops' single
yellow eye was fixed on Jelkar, and even as he watched, it began to glaze
over as death swallowed up the life force within it.
A heavily clad Hakarren stormed past Jelkar, his armour bearing
the insignia of the emperor, showing this warrior to be the personal bodyguard
of the Hakarren leader. Jelkar's head swung back to the wooden doors, which
now gaped open invitingly. The urgency of his task had somewhat declined,
but he still felt certain it was something he must do, and he recognised
that this would be his only chance to complete his quest. He pulled himself
to his feet, and began to stagger towards the doors, the sound of metal
shearing through flesh echoing in the air behind him.
Peering through the curtains that separated the entrance chamber
from the emperor's personal bed chambers, Jelkar took in the scene before
him. Nissaq was pacing backwards and forwards across the room, ranting
and raving, while his personal magician, Lo'keth, stood to one side, arms
folded, nodding at everything his master said. The room was gaudily decked
with gold trimming, and rich tapestries hung from every wall.
"I mean, an Assassin! An outrace! In the palace! How did this happen?
We must increase security immediately, I want more guards, and we shall
have to search out and kill any outracers within the city. It will be a
shame to lose those of the other races that choose to foresake their own
peoples to join us, but outracers in the palace will not be tolerated!
My security cannot be compromised!"
The scene in front of Jelkar seemed to slow down as the emperor
drew close and then swung around, purple cloaked back to the doorway. Lo'keth
was nodding to the side, a long slow nod that it seemed would go on forever,
and the sounds of Nissaq's rants slowed down to the extent that they became
incomprehensible to Jelkar. Silently, he slid his dagger from his belt,
and moved forward through the curtains. A look of horror spread over Lo'keth's
face as Jelkar raised the dagger over the emperor, and the magicians mouth
began to open, his arms unfurling as the assassin's dagger began it's downward
arc.
As his dagger thrust through Nissaq's skin, Jelkar twisted it round,
so it cleaved through his lower back, severing the emperor's spine. The
emperor fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, crimson blood joining his
torn purple robes in a pool around the torn body. Jelkar stepped back,
dagger toppling from his hands.
Everything went red. Jelkar stared at his grey skinned hands, which
were now blackening and charring, and then he raised his head to look up
at Lo'keth. The magicians hand pointed straight at Jelkar, a blast of flame
pouring out and enveloping the assassin. Jelkar turned back to the corpse
before him, which now resembled exactly the image that had haunted his
thoughts since that night in the watch post. The life was slipping away
from him now, and blackness crept over his vision.
Suddenly, there was a brilliant light before him. All pain was
gone, and his mind seemed to empty of all thought. The light was wondrous.
He yearned for it, and it yearned for him. The light beckoned to him, desiring
the touch of his flesh...
He stepped into the light.
In the emperor's bed chambers, Lo'keth nudged the blackened corpse
with his foot, and grunted. He turned back to the ruined body of the emperor,
and lazily swung a hand in it's general direction. The blood around the
corpse ran back through the wound into the body, and it rose into the air,
the tear in it's flesh repairing within minutes.
"Thank you Lo'keth." said the emperor. "Though you could have been
a bit faster. Yes, more security is needed. And call in the tailor, I need
a new cloak. Oh yes, and get rid of that body."
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