Episode the Eighth: Ebb and Flow

Late Spring and Summer, 211

When the Church of Inner Light's debate in the Castle of the Sea comes to a close, so too does the long winter that grips Komaru. As the cherry blossoms bloom across the kingdom, three messages spread from Touraine lands. First, the debates themselves ended with the Decadians, the Church faction dedicated to rethinking the Church's opinions on knowledge, in the ascendant position. Second, the gathering was the happy occasion of Lilly Touraine's engagement to Faust Yuasa, the Duke of Alban. Finally, the Castle of the Sea was once again the beginning of a mighty army's march to battle.

Alerted to the presence of a desert serpent base in the southeastern wastes of the kingdom, Count Yamato Komaru and the Princess Consort lead a force of Royal Guard far from the capital. Joined by mercenaries provided by the Touraine and a detachment of elite Minamet cavalry, the army enters the badlands. In the wastes, they find that the rumors of an attack are undeniably true: the children of the east have raised a pyramid from the earth, and around it the desert sands are growing.

As the Royal Army approaches the pyramid, the desert scum swarm out to defend it. Using years of tactical experience, Yamato drives away the defenders and sends his own House Guard into the pyramid. The survivors describe the interior as hive-like, with the walls covered from floor to ceiling in intricate carvings and painted illustrations. At first, they met with little resistance, facing only a few terrified easterners armed with makeshift weapons. As they ventured deeper and deeper into the pyramid, even the veteran guardsmen felt the strangeness of their surroundings. Remembering the end of the battle, Yamato's soldiers speak of a hallway filled with the scent of incense, the faintest sound of bells, and the whisper of a woman's laughter. As they pressed forward, the walls fell away around them, and they found themselves within a great gallery swirling with haze. Brightly cloaked serpents filled the gallery, surrounding a dais of carved basalt. Upon the dais sat a throne flanked by recumbent bodies in diaphanous silks, and upon the throne sat a beast out of nightmare: a man with ebon skin and the head of a jackal, a Child of the Aten.

The survivors were those who did not have the chance to face it in battle. They speak of it cleaving men in half with its hands and feasting upon its kills as its skin turned aside countless killing blows. Only the foresight of Yamato's sergeants allowed the House Guard to withdraw before its assault, and even so many men died in the retreat. As they fled, the Child followed, the intensity of its fury growing as it drew closer to the sunlight. Beneath the temple's entrance vault, six Komaru guardsmen fought to the death against it as Yamato Komaru gave the battle's final order. When the last Komaru died, the Minamet brought the walls of the pyramid crashing down, burying the Child beneath a thousand tons of stone.

Once again, the Black Pharaoh's forces seem to know the instant their temple falls. Across a hundred miles of desert, angry raiders boil out of the sands to raid into Komaru. For a hundred and twenty days, the Minamet and the Komaru armies defend themselves against the flowing tide of the Furnace's wrath.

Autumn and Winter, 211

The days grow shorter, and the fury of the serpents slowly ebbs. As the harvest approaches, the Royal Council raises the kingdom's taxes, further straining the endurance of the lower classes. Discontent simmers across Komaru. In the cities of the Minamet and Sone, several small riots have to be suppressed by military force. In the lands of the Bellatrix, death comes at last to claim the Principal Light. Reyhari, overseer of the Church for more than twenty years, is cremated with full honor, and his ashes spread upon the wind. Within a month of his death, the Numinous Council names Maurice Ambre, the Radiance of Touraine-by-the-Sea, as his replacement. The new Principal Light takes the name Alnarim, and promises to bring the truth to light across Komaru.

Meanwhile, in the west the Touraine and the Twilight Crux have spent the summer in a massive construction effort. All across Touraine lands, new castles are rising, built by the sweat of the Crux's skilled artisans. The castles are unique in Komaru: built with angled walls to a thickness rarely employed in modern warfare, they squat like armored starfish along the eastern Touraine frontier. Claypool, the first new fortress completed by the Touraine, is the site of Lilly Touraine's marriage to the elderly Faust Yuasa. The ceremony itself is splendid, and while it lacks the regal atmosphere of the previous year's Touraine marriage, the political importance of this marriage is every bit as palpable to the guests. Alnarim again emerges from Church lands to preside over the marriage, and by the end the newlyweds' gifts include a dazzling array of treasures and the castle of Claypool itself.

Although the newlywed couple quickly departs Claypool, some of the guests choose to tarry for a while. In particular, the leadership of the Crux and the Touraine family spend a month in discussion. While the topic under discussion remains a secret, by the time they depart, even the least Crux initiate and Touraine half-blood is aware of the gravity of the meeting.

For a second month, the Touraine lands are a whirl of activity. Survey parties crisscross the land as if searching for something within the very earth. After the first week, the Church takes an active part in the effort as well, and ultimately the unlikely combination of illuminators, initiates, and nobles finds what they seek upon a rocky cliff in northern Komaru. They build a makeshift camp and put forth a call. Within forty days, the cliffs of Sunset are covered with tents, with the masters of both the Crux and the Touraine family in attendance.

In the week that follows, Komaru changes profoundly. The change begins when the Touraine elders join the Crux masters in the heart of the camp as the sun slips below the westward ocean. Within minutes, the earth shakes for miles around the camp, and within the hour the first bloom of stone breaks free of the confining earth. Gaping chasms form and close while ribs of granite push to the surface only to be shattered like glass. Inexorably the bloom grows, its colossal bulk shuddering out of the ground like a child fleeing its mother's womb. By the end of the night, a new castle stands upon the cliff. Shaped like a rose wrapped in twisted wire, the impossible edifice's walls are the color of silver drenched in blood.

The Touraine family names the castle Sunset, and its birth is both miracle and tragedy. While the end result is stable, the Touraine reveal that the magic used to call the castle nearly broke free at one point during the summoning. As the castle's pattern raged out of control, many would-be sorcerers died to contain its energies. Ultimately, only the assistance of the Church's theurgists stabilized the summoning, at the cost of several being called to the Light. The survivors are rewarded by the Touraine for their courage, and several merchant families find themselves generously entitled. For a time, the matter seems settled.

Until rumors spread of gunfire within Sunset during its blossoming, and the extent of casualties among the Twilight Crux leadership becomes clear. Within a month, the depleted ranks of the Crux leadership are filled with Touraine loyalists, and across northwestern Komaru the symbol of the Touraine appears beneath that of the Crux on their markets and banks. Lucien Skye remains silently cloistered in his home after Sunset's birth. His only public appearance is at the side of his wife when the Touraine family names Glorianna Touraine the new Grand Mistress of the Twilight Crux, a position she is to share with her husband. As the news of Glorianna Touraine's new honor spreads, so does a whispered name for the new castle by the sea: Sun's Death.

Early Spring, 212

The spring thaw brings more than buds to northern Komaru. Pressured by Faust Yuasa, the Yuasa council declares a major reorganization of Yuasa holdings. Across the northern territories, ambitious Yuasa nobles suddenly find themselves pitted against each other to maintain or expand their power. Before it ends, the conflict spills over into the rest of the kingdom. As the Yuasa scheme and plot, one man slowly rises to the forefront of the family. Backed by generous bribes of land donated by the Touraine and bolstered by an agreement with the Church that rebuilds the Crux's presence in Bellatrix lands, Faust takes control of the Yuasa council. In the wake of Faust's ascension, several opportunistic Yuasa lords on the eastern border once again send their armies south into Minamet lands. There, they find themselves nearly unopposed by Minamet forces. Over several castles, the silver mountain of the Minamet banner gives way to the purple river of the Yuasa.

The nearest Minamet army is gathered in the city of Sunrise, far to the south. Although it is only the first month of spring, the city burns under the sun's heat. Fights are common, and even the army's leadership feels the searing weather as it waits for its scouting expedition to return from the desert. Finally, on a day when even the vultures hide from the sun's wrath, a single rider emerges from the sands.

As the rider nears the army, Mineko Minamet spurs her horse and rides to meet the lone scout. He slides from his horse at her approach, his skin clammy and pale as he bows to her. Mineko says, "There is time for that later. How many of the scum are gathered at the oasis city?"

The dry-throated scout swallows as he answers her. "All of them, my lady. All of them."

Mineko inclines her head and waits for the other generals. When they arrive, she bows to the Crown Prince and says, "It will be a battle like none seen before, my liege. All I ask is that you give the order."

With a gesture of his hand, Alessandro commands the combined might of the Minamet and Komaru armies to gather and enter the Eastern Furnace.

As Alessandro's army gathers, the leadership of the Church meets with the Touraine and Yuasa families to propose its own solution. To ensure the safety of Komaru, they declare that a second army must be gathered. Pledging their resources to the cause, the three groups call for a council of war at the Castle of the Sea. As always, the alliance pledges, all other families are welcome to send their own representatives.

Thus, in the 212th year of Paraceln's Age, two great armies gathered to guard the fate of Komaru, their destiny to shed a river of blood that would flow back to the Castle of the Sea.