" Sworgey, Sworgey!" An orange flame flared in Sworgey's eyes as he slowly opened them. He was sitting down next to Captain Hudern, who was sleeping on the medical bed, he began remembering what had happened last night. They had reached the great city of Castledawn. They passed farms and houses until they reached the nearest infirmary. Sworgey was to tired at the time to take into account anything else that was happening. All he could remember was taking the Captain to a medical bed. He could remember passing through several corridors that had an old oak wood floor and poorly maintained stone walls. His mind was blank after that. He looked around the room, locating his equipment by the window and the Captain's by the door.
"Sworgey, oi! Get up!" Sworgey recognised the face that was talking to him, it was Jurden, one of the knights who was in the battle at the temple. He had quite a long chin, a fairly small face, brown hair and was wearing the underlays that would usually be beneath his armour.
"What is it, Jurden?" Sworgey stretched himself and yawned a bit louder than he usually would, but the pass few days were so stressful for him, it wasn't a surprising that he was acting different to how he would usually act on a normal day of the week.
"I have a message from the council, they said they want to meet you."
"Me?" Sworgey was confused. He didn't understand, since when did the council of The Endritch Empire want to talk to a common knight who had just recently fought in a battle.
" They want you there by midday."
"Right, erm, yeah. I'll get moving, watch over the captain whilst I'm gone." And with that he left the room. He walked along the corridor, towards the exit of the infirmary.
15 minutes later, he reached the bustling markets of Castledawn. So many colours: blue, red, green, yellow and hundreds more. Market criers were announcing the new prices in the stores. Deals and trades were being made around every corner. It was truly madness. A man offered Sworgey a bag of wheat. However, Sworgey concentrated on his task at hand. He would reach the Capital Plaza a few minutes before midday. He could already see the gigantic statue of King Endritch. The first ruler of the Endritch Empire. Even though the statue and plaza were both on a raised hill, Sworgey could easily see it in the market area. The stone had been painted back to it's usual colour of gold because the rainy season had worn of the majority of the statue's colour, revealing the grey stone it was made of. Sworgey didn't think to much of it, and began the walk up the hill.
About 3 minutes later, Sworgey reached the Capital Plaza. It was a circular shaped plaza with grand buildings around it. The plaza was made of colour stone bricks, the plaza's design was extremely eye catching and interesting. Sworgey looked around, making sure everything was where he thought it would be. At the opposite end was the Royal Palace, the home of Queen Kierin. In truth she wasn't really the queen. Her brother, King Rougal, was sick and wasn't fit to rule. So Kierin decided to take the throne and to watch over the kingdom in his stead. She thought she was doing a good job but in truth, people hated her. She raised taxes that made them almost unpayable, didn't care what happened to any of the other races on Ordarn and she also seized alot of farmland to build her holiday homes on. A few mysterious rumors said that she gave her brother something to make him sick. However, non of them are directly confirmed. To Sworgey's left there was the Royal Hall. A place where dead Kings and Queens were buried, it held many artifacts and had fallen victim to attempted robberies and lots of other crimes. However, no one was ever able to rob the hall and then escape. The guards would capture them easily. Also, the statue of King Endritch was positioned on the ridge behind the hall that overlooked the city.
Sworgey's destination, however, was the Council Chambers. To the right of the plaza, a round building with chiseled pillars. Statues of famous councillors were dotted around the building and Endritch Empire banners were swaying in the wind. Sworgey began making his way to the Council Chambers. He began walking more quickly as he realised it was almost midday. He burst through the first double doors into the building and began running towards the meeting room at the end of the corridor. He flew past other people walking down the corridor, pushing them to one side, it was clear that he was in a rush. There were guards outside the room so Sworgey greatly decreased his pace to a gentle walk.
"What is your business here?" The guard seemed quite intimidating and held a double handed sword in his hands with the point of it touching the floor.
"My name is Sworgey, I believe the council has requested to see me..." Sworgey tried staying as calm as he could but he couldn't forget the facts that he may be late, it seemed crazy, but Sworgey hated being late, even just by a few seconds.
"Sworgey..." The guard stroked his beard and examined Sworgey to make sure it was the person he was told about. "Go in, they've been expecting you." At once the other guard sheathed his double handed sword and opened the wooden doors. Slowly and peacefully, Sworgey began walking towards the centre of the room. The councillors would sit around the room in a circular formation on raised stands. The leader of the council would sit in the seat directly in front of the entrance. Queen Kierin, who was also the leader of the Council, sat on the throne at the far end of the room. On the Queen's right was the Supreme Priest, Jonath. The Empire greatly worshipped the Lord of Light, Arath. On her left was the Supreme General of the Endritch army, Brenun. Around the rest of the room were other councillors of different ranks and positions.
"Sworgey, your bravery has been recognized by the council." Brenun said this whilst looking straight at Sworgey. "We have a few questions for you, my queen..." Brenun looked towards Queen Kierin and bowed his head.
"Sworgey, by surviving the battle you have proven to the people that the Southern Orcs do want war, thank you." Even though Kierin seem grateful, Sworgey couldn't help but notice that she seemed to talk like she had a separate agenda. "If we do go to war, I would be proud to have you as one of my elite guards..." Cleary, the Queen hadn't finished off her sentence when an old man's voice to the left of Sworgey ripped through the silence of the rest of the council.
"Why are you beating around the bush? He must know the truth! The prophecy!" The anger was clear in the old man's voice. Sworgey turned his head towards the man. He seemed old, in his early 70s, he wore a fairly long cape from his shoulders down to his feet it was a blend of red and gold. The man also wore brown robes beneath the cape and puffy brown trousers. He reminded Sworgey of a Desert Mage, just without the turban. If he did wear a turban he could've covered his nearly bald head that had grey hair above the ears.
"Councillor Zur! Be silent! Do not interrupt me like that!"
Zur stood up from his chair and instantly retaliated "We must tell him! Tell him about the prophecy, the lifeless are returning! Only he can save us!" Zur was acting like a madman, a furious one too. Sworgey, looked around at the queen for answers and tried figuring out why he was so important.
"I don't get it... I can save you? And aren't the lifeless just an old story that was made a few hundred years ago for children so they wouldn't get bored on prayer day, right?" Queen Kierin began to stand up as if to let out her anger on Sworgey, but she hesitated, and sat back down.
"Sworgey, you should go..." The anger was clear in her voice but she still made somewhat of a good job at hiding it physically.
"Is this what your mother would've wanted? What your brother would have want?" These words made Kierin erupt in anger, she stood up and yelled.
"My mother is dead! My brother is sick! This is what I want! Sworgey leave now!" She could no longer hold in the emotion. Sworgey stuttered a few words in fear.
"Y-Y-Yes your m-m-majesty."
Sworgey quickly spun around lunged straight out of the open doors. They were so old that they crackled as they were banged against each other, sealing the council inside.
"Why didn't you tell him the truth?" Zur was annoyed, the council lied to Sworgey. Queen Kierin ignored Zur.
"Sworgey knows too much... if he were to tell anyone else chaos will spread around Castledawn. This, we cannot allow." Brenun who was still quite shocked after the heated argument turned to Kierin.
"What do you suggest your majesty?"
"Kill him." The whole council went in shock, peoples voices could be heard from all around the room, Brenun froze, starring at the Queen. However, Kierin sat emotionless staring straight ahead of her.
"This is madness! You can't do that!" Zur looked as if he would kill the queen if he could. He was tempted to attack her with his magical abilities, but he held himself back.
"My queen, with all do respect, I cannot kill an Endritch knight, it is against our code. Your code!" Brenun was pleading her to reconsider. Kierin glanced around the stone room, she knew she had to respect the code. Or else her name would be disgraced for the rest of her life.
"Fine... I want him arrested, Brenun..."
"But your majesty!"
"No. I don't want to discuss this matter anymore." Any of Brenun's protests were destroyed at that moment. "Council dismissed." The doors swung open and the council stood up, bowed and then one by one, left the council meeting room. Zur was just about to step out of the room when Queen Kierin called him. He turned around trying not to look at her, instead he focuses on looking at Brenun and the Supreme Priest Jonath.
"I want you to go to Brenun's office by sunset." She turned to Brenun. "You know what to do." Brenun nodded in obedience but regretted it. Meanwhile, Zur began the long walk to the Western Square, he had decided that it was time to reveal the truth himself. Half an hour later, 2 armoured knights left the barracks on horse stead heading straight for the Western Square on the far side of the city. At that very moment, a hissing, hellish and horrify sound could be heard in every citizen of Ordarn's ears, the return of the lifeless had begun.