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33: THE SUN STAR CRYSTAL

  Three hundred years ago, the last of the great majikal floating city-states, Sun City, stood just off the coast of Citadel, the Samiran capital city. Sun City is not part of the Samiran Empire, it’s held aloft by the Sun Star Crystal, the last shard of an elemental air crystal from the destroyed planet that is now Spires. It hovered 150 paces above the sea, using long rope elevators and rope ladders to come and go and move goods up and down as needed, high in the air it was unassailable by the Samiran Empire or anyone else that garnered ill will upon the floating city-state. A wonder of the world, and an envy of the world as well, especially to the Samiran Empire which was right next to it.

  Vancemo, was the strict but not entirely unfair regent and his son and heir were Malivance. Malivance was an adolescent boy of fair skin and black hair, not uncommon with the Samiran ethnic peoples but what was uncommon was his green eyes, so green that it was unnatural, more so because Samirans do not have green eyes, ever. He was different from other people, he could feel it, but he didn’t know what it was; he was an Everliving but his powers and abilities had not yet manifested.

  The Samiran Empire was in decline, while another empire, the Octavian Empire was at its peak, so the emperor, Torranos the Ninth and his regime were becoming increasingly unpopular, so he hatched a plan, literally; He had his men hatch eggs of the Sky King aerial predator and train them to carry men upon them as riders. This plan took years to get right, and it was done in secrecy, but eventually they did manage the feat. He thought he could make the empire great again if he could take Sun Star Crystal for himself, or at the very least, improve public opinion of him, which would help him hold onto power longer. Power is the most important thing for such men.

  The attack came in the darkness of the early dawn, ten aerial predators each carrying two or three elite assassins each. They landed on the terrace outside the throne room, this is where the Sun Star Crystal was, embedded above the crystal throne, and it was at a time when the king would not be there, so there would only be a few elite guards.

  Malivance likes to sit next to the Sun Star Crystal and do his studies, the power radiating from it comforts him, but he must have fallen asleep there. He wakes up upon hearing the guards die from arrows to the necks and heads as some cry out. He stands up and is surrounded by a bunch of Samiran assassins.

  One of the assassins moves in to cut the lad's throat but is stopped by the sergeant, the sergeant has a son his age and couldn’t bring himself to let the boy die like that, so instead Malivance gets smashed in the face with the pommel of a sword and he falls backward onto the polished marble floor, leaving him dizzy and drifting in an out of consciousness. He watches the men break the Sun Star Crystal free, once the crystal is free from its crystal structure, it causes everything to shutter and tremble with a great rumbling sound.

  Anger and fury rise in him, he feels hot, very, very hot and the only way to release it is to place it elsewhere, and he does just that. The boy reaches out with his arm as a focus, aims his fiery rage at the man holding the Sun Star Crystal, a green swirling flame forms on the boy’s hand and shoots at the assassin and ignites him in a burst of green flames causing him to scream aloud. So, another assassin cuts the burning man’s throat to shut him up, but it’s too late, royal guards come bursting into the throne room and a fight ensues.

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  Although he is still dizzy, Malivance works his way to the Sun Star Crystal, but another assassin grabs it first and runs to the terrace to get on his flying mount but the entire floating island begins to lower on one side, causing the floor to tilt, the fighting men lose footing, but so does the assassin with the Sun Star, causing them to slide, but it’s towards where he wanted to go more or less, and Malivance is sliding with them.

  They all crash into the terrace stone railing, some men go over and fall to their death, the flying mounts break free from their handlers and fly off. Malivance and the man holding the glowing yellow Sun Star Crystal goes over as well, taking the crystal with him. He hits the water so hard that he blacks in and out of consciousness and it would have killed a normal man. In the dark water, he sees the crystal fall deeper and deeper in the deep water, far too deep to swim and still have enough air left to make it back alive.

  With no further warning, the entire floating city drops from the sky, it crashes down into the water, everyone in the city dies instantly from the impact. The impact of an entire city hitting the sea causes a huge tsunami that washes over the capital city of Samira, killing nearly all ten thousand citizens, including the emperor that was the architect of the plan to steal the Sun Star. This is the final blow to the Samiran Empire; they fully collapsed immediately after the incident and became scattered tribal people in the vast jungle. Malivance was washed half of a league out into the ocean but managed to swim back to the ruined shores of Samira.

  The Samiran capital was abandoned, but the palace of Citadel has an ancient crystal majik device in the throne room that doesn’t work anymore; it was built before the Fall of Majik. Malivance believes it’s a weapon.

  In his wonderings, he came across a quaint little cult that called themselves the Purifiers, he joined them and quickly seized control. This is what he needed, zealots that are willing to die to look for the Sun Star because it’s a one-way trip, if you go all the way down, you won’t have enough breath to make it back. However, Malivance believes it can power the weapon in the Citadel palace. Eventually, after sacrificing many men over years, one of his disciples finds the Sun Star and ties it to a rope before he runs out of breath. After that, he renamed the Citadel palace, calling it the Purifier Citadel.

  The Sun Star was not enough to power the majikal device; it would only flicker and hum, so he spent decades scouring the world's book and scroll depositories and consulted sages. And that’s where he found it, it was in the ancient book depository of Archons Hammer on the isle of Galafid, one artifact of old stood out to him, the legendary sword of Otepi, otherwise known as the Sword of the First. The desert oasis city-state of Otepi is named after her and in her honor, it’s in a part of the world where she is worshipped as the Goddess of Justice and Vengeance.

  It was said to possess a power like the world has never seen. So, he rebranded himself, self-proclaiming to be the First Reborn. However, there is a catch: it's possibly buried in the Cursed Valley that is in possession of the Octavian Empire, and the sword has never been found… Until one day, word that the weapon was found by a blue-skinned Kazarian named Koronos. Up until this news reached him, he passed the time by ethically cleansing Samiran villages. Even though the Samiran Empire is long gone, he still hates the people for what their ancient ancestors did to his people.

  He devined that with the Sun Star and the Sword of the First could possibly power the ancient majikal weapon in the Purifier Citadel, even though he isn’t entirely sure that it is a weapon, he just believes it is, so he can lay waste to all of Samira, once and for all. Hatred has completely consumed him.

  Koronos the Kazarian | Royal Road

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