Eminents

Prologue

Prologue

18 YEARS AGO

Chateau des Trioglades, Labonneau

"Your Highness," said Isaiah Durant to the man kneeling down at his feet. "Your reign ends here. Never again will you torment the people of this land."

Durant and his men stood there in the secret passageway below the throne room of the king's majestic castle as flames rose above them devouring acreage of the once mighty chateau. While blithe laughter turns to excruciating screams of shock, pain and loss.

The ways in which destruction, rage, anger can reduce everything to ashes is appalling yet riveting. Revenge can work its way into the most placid of people when it creeps in slow inflictions of anguish and finally grabs a hold on the person when he is at his most vulnerable.

But this wasn't the mere result of a single person's hate but the hatred that was harboured in the hearts of a thousand. The dislike that was initially seeded into their minds that grew with each oppression, each iniquity shown by the Sovereign. Each act of barbaric malice that was endured by the kingdom grew into a thorn-filled vine that held the power to end an entire hierarchy.

The people of Labonneau had suffered atrocities for ages. But they were doing it no more. This rebellion was going to be the death of their oppressor and would spell a new beginning of freedom for them.

Isaiah Durant, one of the key figures in the uprising, stood there in the dark of the night, watching his plan to overthrow the monarchy unfold.

They had acknowledged that freedom would come at a price and they were ready to pay it with their lives, if need be. The war had almost come to an end. It had already claimed the lives of many of their near and dear ones. But Labonneau wasn't going to let that deter it from its goal. It's freedom. Not when they were this close to achieving it.

Durant stealthily enter the castle with his men and they head for the king's throne room where his spies had informed him of the entrance to a secret bunker that would protect the king and his family during a siege.

And it didn't take them much time to break down the old rickety door at the end of the tunnel to enter into a room too lavishly decorated for a safe-house. Durant's men scoured the place for the royal family and found the king. It took two people to hold him down while he yelled outrageously and thrashed around. Isaiah Durant looked down at his king, his eyes filled with anything but mercy.

He points the weapon held in his hand at the king's forehead. The glint of the pistol reflects fear in the eyes of the king as his mortality suddenly dawns onto him. All the power of the throne he flaunted is now all useless.

"Please stop! Don't do this," he pleads. "I forfeit the throne. Please spare me. I will leave Labonneau and never return again."

"Why should I spare you after all that you have done? Do you even have some amount of remorse of what you have put your people through?" yelled Isaiah, mad with rage.

"Isaiah, the queen and the prince aren't here," said one man as he came near him. On hearing this the king laughed.

Isaiah shot him a sharp look, "Leave them be. We will take care of him first. Let us see to that later"

"Why do you want me dead?"

"Isn't it obvious, Your Highness? If not, I have said it out loud a couple of times already."

"No, you are lying. You are saying that you are here for your people. But you know what I think? That look in your eyes, of a mad man willing to sacrifice everything? I think that the reason for your anger is something else. Something more personal."

"Isn't it the case with everyone here?"

"I was right wasn't I? I know that look when I see it, Durant. I wore that look for ages, until now. Too bad, I realised it too late. And so will you. What a shame. It will be too late. What a shame!"

Isaiah looked away while the others shoot looks of uncertainty at each other. Clearly this was something that they hadn't heard of before. They knew that Isaiah was a bit hot-headed but they didn't know that this rage had far deeper roots than they had initially known.

"Why are you looking at me? Clearly he is stalling or has finally gone insane," defended Durant.

Caught off-guard, he finds his gun snatched right of his hands. King Phillipe then threateningly holds the gun and manages to break-free and runs out of the bunker followed suit by the men.

During the hustle no one notice the man who was watching all from a shadowed corner.

The man quietly waits for an opportunity to slip away unnoticed. If they found him there, he would be the next target of their hatred. The people were angry and were channelling their anger onto anyone they assumed were guilty. Even association with the royal family was definitely blameworthy. If they found out about what he was about to do, they would surely kill him without hesitation.

No, Richard Westfall couldn't afford to be noticed. Not when he had to guard something that precious.

Richard ran across the throne room. He jump right out of a giant window protectively holding something in his hand, just as he heard a deafening shot echo through the halls.

Richard had no doubt that the king was finally dead. He would not dare to question the rebels' determination at this point. But he was right in assuming that. The king was dead. This was all finally over.

Such bravery. A strong belief in what they stood for. And the courage to do something that many stepped back from.

But what a shame it was indeed. For if they knew what the true hidden crux of the seemingly noble minded uprising was, they wouldn't have started it at all.

And this war? It was far from over. They were to be threatened with something far worse and unfathomable. Unknowingly, they had paved way for their biggest threat yet.