The Flame Inside Him

The Tale Of The Boy Who Ran Away

"About two hundred years ago, some men and women from Pratos fled the grasp of the King of Pratos, King Garland, after his tyranny had become too ruthless and cruel. They fled in the depth of night and moved all the way to this Desert. All in one night. Once here, they had begun using their skills and knowledge to built a home, an underground city. The Deserters' Hole." Icarion took a pause to look at the two young men.

"But that doesn't make sense." Noah said. "King Garland still lives. He couldn't have been living for two hundred years!"

"The one I am talking about is King Garland the Fourth. The one ruling now is King Garland the Thirteenth." Icarion explained. "All Kings of Pratos were and will be named Garland."

"Oh." Noah nodded. "I understand."

"I'm glad you do." Icarion went on with his tale. "Well, some of the Deserters had some, eh, interesting skills, and thus they had begun building a magical city that would hide in the earth. They needed a leader, and chose a man of strong arms, cunning mind, and sharpened tactics as how to lead best. The man had been a personal guard of the King of Pratos before fleeing, and he had lead them out of Pratos with sword and shield in hand, fighting of every soldier that had come in the way of their freedom. But to lead came with a price. The Deserters had decided that a leader, one that could possibly be bought by King Garland, shouldn't be misled by the world's riches and beauty. It was then decided that the leader of the Deserters would have to be blind." Icarion took another pause.

He continued. "On the night of his ceremony where he would be crowned leader of the Deserters, the man's eyes had been taken out, so that he could never see and be misguided ever while leading the Desert people. It then became a law that all men that rule over the Deserters would have to be blind. This man ruled well, and when he died, his eldest son had to take over. But the eldest son didn't want to lose his eyes, nor rule. So he made it so that it was possible for the first son to pass leadership on to the next in line, and then the next in line could decide if he wanted to rule or not, and pass it on if he refused to lose his sight. and if no one in the family wanted to rule, then the position would be passed to the second most powerful family, and so on and on. However, the second son had taken the task upon himself." Icarion nodded grimly. "That is the origin of the Deserter's Royal Family.'

"I thought you were going to tell us the story of Vencutio." Noah said.

"We're getting there." Icarion said, and cleared his throat. " Now, as the years passed on, the Deserters grew in numbers and the family of the first leader had continued leading. A couple of decades ago, in the Terminea Desert, ruled Blind Sand, a man with three sons. Blind Sand was the leader of all the Deserters, and when he passed away, the first son had to decide what he wanted. He refused to lead, claiming to not be of the ruling kind, and passed leadership to the second son. The second son didn't want his youngest brother to suffer the faith of going blind, but he was too scared to rule. In the shadow of the night, he fled the Desert, so as to not have to face his little brother and tell him that he would have to rule. The second son had gone to Azuronea, where he became an apprentice of a Priest. There he learned all sorts of things, but more the Cathedral learned from him." Icarion looked at Garrett. "I believe you are familiar with the, ehm, experiments that your father conducts?"

Garrett shook his head. "Experiments?"

"Ah, you don't know?" Icarion shook his head. "Your father is a monster, Garrett. I'm sorry to have to tell you this."

"Go on, Icarion." Garrett simply said.

Icarion looked at him and nodded.

"The Allpriest, through years of practice, held himself busy with attempting to fuse humans with... with demons."

"What? How is this possible?" Noah asked.

Icarion grinned. "All is possible with a bit of magic, my boy. He put the souls of demons he had gained control over in bodies of men to therefore create monsters he could control, for the demons were only bodyless ghosts of what they had been before the Allpriest had gained control over thenm. Well, he succeeded, and in this boy he planted the demon of shadows. He planted a beast in a boy, making him a monster."

"Why?" Noah asked.

Garrett was facing the floor, silent as a crypt.

"To eliminate your father, the Belroar." Icarion said.

When it had remained silent for a minute or two, Icarion went on. "The Priests spent years telling the boy he was an angel, and that was why he had been different, different from almost everyone else. But the boy knew he was a monster. He always knew. The boy changed his name as well. He never again used the name he had been given by his father in the Desert. He named himself after the word that meant deserter in the language of the Deserters themselves, as to remind himself of how he had betrayed his brother an had ran away He named himself Vencutio, the Shadow Lion"