Kings and the Decay They Inherit: Chapter 2 – One Flame, One Purpose

Chapter 2 – One Flame, One Purpose

“Are you ready, Aziel?”

“I am. Try not to burn down anything this time, Gabriel.”

“I’ll try not to, but when has burning things not been the best solution? You remember that one time that I cooked us the chicken and turkey that was in the one building we burned, don’t you?”

“We had to dig those up out of the wreckage.”

“But they were delicious when we took them back home. There’s nothing like a good meal after a job well done.”

“I hate it when you bring that up. Let’s get this done.”

Aziel and Gabriel get off their horses and go their separate ways as they enter a heavily guarded base in the Anathema region. They each go about their objective in their own way until it is done and they meet up again just as their support arrives.

“My lieges! You shouldn’t go out on your own! We’re supposed to be the attack force, not you,” one of their soldiers says.

“You know how those two are. We’re just the backup at this point,” another soldier says, “Through that flame, God has granted them immense power. Remember to be thankful for it.”

Aziel and Gabriel get back on their horses and travel back to begin their travel to Benevolus for a meeting. These horses are blessed by their flames and travel nearly five times faster than a normal horse as it almost appears that the horses are as fast as lightning. While they travel, priests and purification squads cleanse the lands of the Anathema regions with prayers, holy flame, and holy water.

“How did you manage things?” Gabriel asks.

“Like I always do. Arrested those who still had good in them and executed those who resisted. I already know what you did with all the blood, body parts, and fire that I saw. You do know that-” Aziel responds.

“That taking more prisoners and making them repent is better than just ending them. I know that by now. You should know by now that we don’t read souls the same way and it doesn’t mean that I can be merciful sometimes.”

“Only sometimes though.”

“Details, details. We’ll talk more about our strategies before we go out on our next conquest.”

When the kings come back to Gabriel’s home, they give out the newly purified territory from the Anathema regions to a kingdom of Gloria. They don’t attend any meetings with the press or their people and head straight to Gabriel’s home where they spar and talk.

“Do you think Gloria will appreciate our efforts in improving our relationship?” Aziel asks.

“It’s a political nation of kings and backstabbers. I don’t think they can tell the difference between charity and a bribe,” Gabriel answers.

“But we still must be kind to them.”

“If it wasn’t a commandment by God, I wouldn’t. You should see the sins that I’ve seen in their eyes.”

“And you should see the virtue they have. Wh-”

“What is invisible to you is visible to me yada, yada. I get it. My blessing doesn’t have the option of being non-lethal like yours. It’s a mace, not an herb. Let me use my blessing the way God intended and I’ll let you use yours without question.”

Aziel uses his spear to trip up Gabriel.

“Your ‘hammer’ still cannot match the skill of my spear.”

“It’s like I said. I can’t use it non-lethally. If I was fighting seriously, you’d be in pieces.”

“Excuses, excuses. Maybe try using a more appropriate weapon next time.”

“This is the best weapon I have. There’s nothing like this heirloom of my kingdom.”

Aziel trips up Gabriel again then puts the tip of his spear close to his neck.

“If you say so.” Taking practice weapons from the weapons rack, Aziel throws one to Gabriel while using one himself. “Now try beating me.”

In their next sparring match, Gabriel beats Aziel.

“Ha! Got you now!”

“You see? Sometimes you need a different tool for the job.”

“Whatever. I’m not going to give you credit for my victory.”

“You shouldn’t since the credit is all your own.”

“Tell me then, why do you credit both of us for the decisions you make to the public?”

“Do you want to switch roles by talking to the kings and clergy while I decide the next target we go after?”

“Oh please no. Politics and debate are a bore. I just question your decision in terms of who you give territory to. Our families have hardly gotten anything while you’ve been giving our spoils to kingdoms of Gloria, Ecclesia, and other kingdoms of Genus.”

“We have plenty and when we’re in need, our allies give in return.”

“If you say so. I still think we should have more.”

Gabriel’s father enters the training room and says, “Hello, boys! Who’s been winning your sparring sessions?”

“It doesn’t matter, uncle,” Aziel says, “It’s just training. How’s my father doing?”

“You wouldn’t even know that he’s sick with all the exercise and debate that he’s doing. Speaking about fathers, why aren’t you with your wives fathering your children?”

“We were going to go back home after some sparring and talking about recent events,” Gabriel says.

“You both are very gifted, and I’m glad that you’re using it as much as you can, however, your family needs you. Even God rested from work, boys.”

Aziel and Gabriel agree with Gabriel’s father and head out to their homes. In a drastic turn of events, the sky turns red, and black flame tornados form around certain key buildings in Benevolus with one of those being where Gabriel’s father was. When the storm calms, Aziel and Gabriel rush to his location with Gabriel getting there first since he was closer. Gabriel sees his father trapped beneath the rubble of the building and does his best to smash apart the rubble to free his father, but his hammer can’t break apart the rubble well enough without further crushing his father as the rubble above it falls to replace the broken ones.

“I can free you, father. Just give me some time.” Gabriel uselessly tries to heal his father with his flames. “Come! You brought me back from the dead. Why can’t you heal my father?!”

“Gabriel…what can you see inside my soul? Is it stained with sin?”

“No, father…of course not. Your soul is as white as snow.”

“Then you have no reason to worry. I will be waiting and praying for you in Heaven.”

“I am not worthy of your prayers. What son can’t save his own father? If I had done something to prevent this from happening…I’m such a failure.”

“You’re not a failure…because you’re my son…Even now, I have been granted a vision by God of your soul and it burns as gloriously divine as your flames…I love you…”

Thinking that he can still save his father, Gabriel keeps trying to use his flames to revive him only to give up after no longer seeing his father’s soul in his body. He then weeps while holding his father’s head since it’s the one part of him that’s out of the rubble while the rest is crushed beneath it. Aziel arrives and begins weeping over the death of his uncle.

Hearing Aziel behind him, Gabriel tries to collect himself while saying, “We have to find out why this happened, so it never happens again.”

“Gabriel, I think we should-”

“I don’t want to hear your suggestion. Look around here while I remove my father from this rubble.”

Aziel does as Gabriel said since he doesn’t want to aggravate him while Gabriel is emotionally compromised. He searches around the area and finds pieces of crates and artifacts that he recognizes as their spoils from the Anathema region. After digging up his father, Gabriel finds similar pieces along with the horror of the state of his father’s body since it seems to have been almost completely crushed.

“It’s a miracle that he was able to talk and live for as long as he did,” Gabriel says aloud.

“Gabriel, we should investigate the other sites that were affected by the black flame tornados. I’m not going to find much just by being here,” Aziel suggests.

“Okay…I’m going to get some people to take care of my father’s body first.”

“Of course.”

The kings get a group of guards and medics to take care of Gabriel’s father while they go to the other sites. There they discover more broken spoils of the Anathema region near where the tornado first formed.

“We have to find out who made these and why they formed black flame tornados,” Gabriel says.

“Do we even have enough evidence to consider that being the reason for them?”

“It’s the only connecting factor between the locations either than the locations being areas of importance.”

“We’ve been to the places these things were from and arrested or killed the people who made them already, so they couldn’t have used them while they were in prison.”

“We still need answers from them. Of all the times that you’ve taken prisoners, I thank God that you did this time.”

Following the one lead they have, the two visit the prisoners they caught from the Anathema region and question every one of them. Thanks to their ability to read the souls of the prisoners and Aziel’s ability to get people to follow his command, they find out that the prisoners saw several clerics willingly ignore the cleansing rituals for the cursed items that were rigged to unleash black flame tornados that are common to the Anathema regions. These clerics then took them and told their underlings to bring them to the places in Benevolus that were destroyed by these tornados.

“Of all the people to be against us,” Gabriel says to himself.

“We’ll find these clerics and bring them to justice,” Aziel says.

“We’ll bring them to the judgment of God for their actions. They deserve more than life in prison.”

“I won’t argue with you on that.”

The prisoners give a description of the clerics to Aziel and Gabriel so they know who to go after before the two search Benevolus for them. They find out from the other priests and bishops that these clerics left for Pietate, a kingdom allied with the kingdoms that comprise Ecclesia. They then travel to Pietate where the clerics they are looking for are waiting for them in a large public park. The park is populated with other clergymen nuns, their guards, their servants, some laity, and other business and political figures who talk amongst themselves unaware of what is about to happen. Statues of saints watch over everyone in and outside of the park while bushes of flowers decorate the scene as if preemptively put there by God in anticipation of this event.

Gabriel walks fast to the expecting clerics with flames already dancing around him as his fury flares up at the sight of them. Before he can say a word to them, both Aziel and Gabriel are shot at by a hail of arrows from the rooftops and seemingly killed in an instant. Some in the crowd are scared and run away while others were watchers and were there for the front row seats of the execution. The clerics and their conspirators wait a bit before going to the bodies of the two kings.

“Behold, your saints, your gods. You, who idolatrize them, be humbled, and look upon their corpses that are riddled with arrows,” the bishop says.

Flames start dancing around the two kings as they begin to stand up.

“I was wondering why I couldn’t get up. I didn’t feel anything when you shot us up,” Gabriel says, “But now I know because now I know your motives for destroying my home!”

“It was to destroy you and those that worshipped you,” the bishop tries to clarify.

“We have no worshippers. If we do, they’re forgettable and deserve to be forgotten.”

“You’ve had every kingdom in all three Pillars eating out of your hands ever since you were cursed by those flames. We allied ourselves from everyone who we could from every kingdom, even your own in an attempt to take you down.”

“Why didn’t you try talking to us? We were welcoming to everyone who we talked to and open for debate,” Aziel questions.

“Do you really think I believe you when you use the golden flame, which was used by a tyrant who used a similar flame to manipulate the entire world?”

“It’s not a golden black flame like hers.”

“But it’s still a golden flame all the same that you can use to manipulate people. The small difference in appearance matters not especially when everyone has a black flame within them.”

“Why are we even talking to them when we should be delivering them to God, Aziel? You see the same things I do. Tell me if there’s any virtue left in their hearts.”

Aziel reads the souls of the people around him and sees that they all have few virtues in their souls.

“They don’t have many.”

“Then it’s decided.”

“Kill us and the whole world will know your tyranny.”

“What do you suggest that we do then? Pretend to die? No, God will not let us die because He has granted us a power that you and your conspirators are jealous of. You’ve killed many innocents for your delusions and now you will answer for your crimes!”

Aziel and Gabriel enact justice upon everyone who attacks them and by the end of it, the entire area in and around the park is splattered with blood and fire. Most witnesses of this event have a hard time opening their eyes back up and this number of people is small since a lot of people have long since left the area.

Gabriel then slams down his mace before he says, “Let this be a warning to all who think to do evil for good! Everyone who chooses to stand against God and us, His faithful, will be met with fire and fury!”

Aziel is unable to disagree with Gabriel because of what happened and that there was no other way to resolve this situation. They later explain the situation to the archbishop and the rest of the kingdoms as they make a promise to route out everyone who is against them.

During the meeting with the kings, queens, archbishop, and various leaders, Gabriel says, “Because of what happened, I will be taking the necessary resources, land, and whatever else I require from the kingdoms and families that wronged me and mine to repair the damage done and more as we see fit.”

“That will be until our enemies’ penance is complete, right? We can’t keep them in indentured servitude forever,” Aziel asks.

“We will see.”

Everyone else in the room with the two is scared to disagree with either of them since the kings’ scars from yesterday’s assassination attempt still show as a clear sign that nothing will kill these kings. Even the archbishop himself is unsure of how to handle this situation with them. Gabriel can think of nothing more than taking whatever he wants to right the wrong done to him. His distrust for the other kingdoms, which doesn’t include Aziel’s, has grown exponentially. This is clear to Aziel who sees that the virtues of charity and trust in one’s neighbor have decreased in Gabriel’s soul. Aziel hopes in his heart that Gabriel will one day put a limit on how much he will take from the other kingdoms, though as of right now, his hopes don’t seem like they will be coming true anytime soon.