Lux lucis Quod Atrum

A story I started to write but never finished... It's just a rough draft so yeah, it's not up to par and I wrote it like... a year ago. I intend to write a full book on the world though. It's pretty well made.

Lux lucis quod Atrum

The Marks of Honor

- By Heather Fairemont -
Chapter 1, Earning Our Lives



Kaleth

To a young boy, power is something that is out of reach, something that does not quite make sense to him. The only true understanding that he might have is that of his imagination, but even a boy's imagination sometimes molds with reality, and Kaleth felt invisible. He could possibly argue that the lizard agreed with him, for it seemed to not notice him hidden in the nearby bushes, dressed in his brown leather clothing.

The lizard was a strange creature to many people of the outside world, but to Kaleth, it was a familiar sight, and what it meant was food. The Mar'Thak lands were home to thousands of creatures, many of which could not be found anywhere else in the world, and Tyeori housed this one unique lizard in its rocky and barren terrain; the Krin Lizard.

The lizard now, was a small creature, possibly about three weeks old. It weighed no more than five pounds, and had a dark green, possibly grayish colored skin that sported two rows of protective spines, and armored scales. The Krin could grow to the size of horses, and were used for such, if one could only tame them.

The Krin were very notorious for being used by an elite group of Mar'Thak soldiers known as the Death Guard; Knights with unimaginable fighting prowess, capable of harnessing the Dark Lord's great magics.

Kaleth knew of naught but food, and food was hard to come by, well, at least food this good!

As he plucked a hollowed out Kilwi reed from his belt and procured a thorn that also came from the Kilwi plant, he raised the hollowed object, placed the Kilwi thorn, that had been turned into a crude dart, inside of the weapon, and fired the dart, piercing the soft skin of the lizard's neck, between its armored back and head.

The Creature almost seemed unaffected, but there was a bit of an odd swagger to its movement as it tried to scurry away; the poison had already set in. It didn't take long for the creature to stop all together, dropping from the rock face it decided to cling to, to land flat upon its back.

Kaleth felt like cheering, but his mother and all the other mothers always warned their children about unnecessary noise. It could draw the attention of any male out on a hunt, especially those of the Academies. They were vicious and hunted irregularly unlike the rest of the men who hunted in bulk during certain times of the year.

Instead of cheering like his body wished him to, he moved quickly over to the body of the lizard and plucked it from the ground, pushing the dart deep into the flesh of the creature before pulling it free.

Kaleth stuck the tip of the bloody thorn into his mouth, biting the very end off and sucking on it as he placed the dead Krin into a pack on his back.

The Krin blood was very nutritious, containing many minerals that were hard to come by, making the Krin a very useful source of food for those who lived in Tyeori, hiding from the older males who sought to "purge" them from the lands.

Also, much like the Krin blood, the inside of the highly poisonous Kilwi thorn was a small amount of a very sweet nectar that in sufficient quantity, could revitalize nearly any one lacking in nutrition. It had come about at one point, which somehow someone came across a neutralizer for the Kilwi plant, probably by observing the Krin, who loved the plant greatly. The blood of the Krin destroyed the toxic content of the Kilwi thorns, allowing them to eat away at the reeds freely.

As Kaleth headed back towards his home, he found that the wind had been picking up. Wind in Tyeori was never a good sign, it often meant trouble, and something was wrong with this wind… It was a hot wind, and smelled of smoke. Kaleth then knew what was wrong. Academy students!

He burst into a sprint, running quickly back towards his home, and then realized, if he were spotted they could trail him back. No, home was not the place to go, but…

Kaleth slammed into a body, and thankfully it was no larger than his own, so he assumed he would not die yet, but that body did let out a yelp as they fell in a heap. When Kaleth regained his senses, he realized he had ran into a girl that had been harvesting the flowers of the Kilwi plants, which he noted that he nearly ran into in his frantic escape.

"We have to hide!" Kaleth whispered; his breath labored from panic and the sprinting.

The girl's eyes widened in horror, she realized what was going on right away, "Quickly, I saw a place we can hide on my way here!"

She grabbed his wrist and yanked him into motion. If Kaleth thought he could run fast, this girl could at least double his speed, though, then again, the females among the Mar'Thak were known for their great speed and agility, as well as their superior intelligence.

Kaleth could see where she had led him as soon as it came into view, a crevice had formed in the earth, and would easily allow them a safe hiding spot, but it would be a bit suspicious of any of the men walked nearby. Again, Kaleth was surprised as the girl actually grabbed a nearby Kilwi plant and yanked it free from the ground, pulling it over the hole that covered them.

"Are you crazy?" Kaleth whispered.

"Not as crazy as you for making any noise at all!" She replied angrily as she applied salve made from Krin blood and several other ingredients to the puncture wounds on her hands. She might find that she would be slow at moving for a few hours, but she would most certainly not die.

Kaleth ducked back against the far wall, the girl cuddling up against him, she was obviously as afraid as he was. Their mothers always warned them about the riders. They were dangerous and showed no mercy, and mercy was not even a word that existed in the Mar'Thak language, at least that Kaleth knew of.

It wasn't long before the stench of the torches the Academy students carried arrived. They always burned torches and a large fire nearby where they would hunt to signal all the hiding women and children, giving them the sport of the hunt.

Somewhere in ancient times, the Mar'Thak had taken on the sense of the survival of the fittest mentality, and such, weakness was despised above most things. Another thing that had come about around that time was the separation of families.

Young females, around age sixteen and up, often left the hiding of the Tyeori wastes and even the forests in the other regions to join up with the men and others within the cities. These girls would then find themselves in a game of mating, trying to get chosen by the best of the men. That way, they could assume a position of power once their child was born.

Even though, once the females were with child, they would flee from the cities in fear that another of the family would come forth to attempt to kill her and the unborn child, as they too, sough position of power in that family. This caused what was known as the hidings. Mothers and their children scattered in bands throughout the lands, hiding from those that seek to do them harm.

So, Kaleth knew he had a father somewhere, and it was possible that he even had brothers in this band that was out to kill him, and his mother, oh his mother would be worried as she sat back in the caves with the rest of the families, if they could even be called that.

Above, the voices of the men could be heard. They were spread out, that much was certain, as they were yelling and few of the voices were close together, hopefully they would pass right around Kaleth and the girl, but luck was not something to be taken seriously in these times, only your skill at hiding yourself from their eyes could keep you alive, luck… luck was not a factor anymore.

The crunching of boots was heard overhead. Oh please pass over! That is what the two prayed for, but prayed to whom, the Dark Lady, the only god they knew who could help them; but she was the one who began the senseless slaughter of the mothers and children…so Kaleth really didn't know who his prayers went to.

The movement above them ceased, and Kaleth heard the man above draw his sword. The shadow moved fluidly across the sand outside the little cavern they were secreted away within as the man stepped over it.

He jerked away the Kilwi plant, his mailed hand easily protecting him from the thorns. As the Mar'Thak male stood over them, glaring down at them with the intent to kill them, he raised his sword into a position to thrust, and Kaleth felt the girl curl up into a fetal position and whimper.

"No…" She whispered faintly, but it seemed to have an effect on the man like no other.

He staggered backwards and quickly threw the Kilwi bush back over the hole.

"What was what?" Another man asked as he walked up, "What was it that spooked you Auskoth?"

"Nothing," but as Kaleth saw the man reach for the bush, the man named Auskoth grabbed his wrist, the sound of chain on chainmail ringing in the air.

The other was obviously angered, "What is the meaning of this? Remove your hand from me!"

"Come, I just saved your life. There is a very agitated Ruen in there."

The man…Auskoth lied to the other! Oh, what a day this is. A Ruen would surely have meant death for anyone who provoked it. The snake was easily one of the most dangerous creatures in the lands the Mar'Thak controlled, and they were found primarily in this region of Tyeori.

The man nodded to Auskoth, "Thank you, Brother, I owe you one."

Auskoth patted the man on his back and they moved on, leaving the two children alone.

"I can't believe we are still alive," the girl whispered when the men were obviously gone and the sky was getting dark.

Kaleth nodded. He had gotten significantly sore crammed up against the rocks with the girl curled up against him. It felt awkward to him, he rarely spent time with anyone, he preferred the solitude, but the time with this girl had been… nice.

"I don't know, but we should be headed back home now, before something more dangerous than those men finds us," Kaleth said as he kicked the busy away from the hole and climbed out, the girl right behind him.

"By the way, I don't know your name yet," the girl said plainly, "I would like to know the name of my savior."

Kaleth chuckled as they began the walk back home, "My name is Kaleth. What is yours?"

The girl smiled, "I am Lleyaldilth, named for our Dark Lady."

Kaleth nodded, she seemed very proud of her name, and namesake, "It's a very pretty name."

The girl blushed profusely. Nodding frantically when she felt it was necessary to reply.

The walk back to the caves after that was quite uneventful and no one spoke until they reached home. That day, Kaleth was heralded as a hero amongst the women and children, and Lleyaldilth was the great maiden in distress.

Nexus

"You have got to be kidding me…" Rynitia whispered.

Nexus laughed, and he thought exactly the same thing as he looked at the path that led to the Aerie. The path was wide enough to fit only about three people on it at one time, and stretched further than the eye could see up into the mist covered peaks of the mountains.

"They don't call it the safest, yet hardest place to reach," Nexus stated flatly to his new friend.

Rynitia had the exact same destination as Nexus, thus they had decided to travel together, and so far things seemed to be going fine, even though in the end they'd be competing against each other for entry into the Brotherhood, which was ironic, because she was a girl, and it was a Brotherhood.

Rynitia sighed and walked towards the first of many outposts along the way to the Aerie high at the top of the mountains. The guards stationed there looked extremely friendly, and Nexus assumed they were of the Brotherhood.

They wore silver plate armor that covered a good portion of their body, large two handed swords upon their back and sword and shield at hand. They had large white fur cloaks draped around their shoulders, and friendly looks upon their faces.

As Nexus and Rynitia approached they smiled, "What is your purpose in the Aerie?"

"We have come to test for the Brotherhood," Nexus replied and Rynitia nodded in agreement.

The guards nodded, "The walk to the top is considered the first test. Most people don't make it. We are to send word that you begin your journey today. You have exactly two days from this time to reach the top."

Rynitia's jaw dropped, "Two days!"

"Yes, two days. It is a difficult time to reach the top in, but we don't want any people who give up easily, or those that do not have the commitment and dedication to reach the top for the test joining the Brotherhood," One of the guards stated.

"No, it's not that. I just didn't think it'd take so long to get there. That's ridiculous!" Rynitia exclaimed.

Everyone that could hear her began to laugh, even Nexus. He had been far more prepared for this journey, he could tell. Rynitia had no clue what to expect. Nexus knew nearly every trick of the Brotherhood, for his father had attempted three times to join, and had failed each time. Now that he was dead, Nexus vowed to join the Brotherhood in a way, to please his father's spirit.

Rynitia put a look of fierce determination on her face and marched onward, through the first set of gates and onto the pathway. Nexus lagged behind for a moment, chatting with the guards about the walk to the top before he jogged off after Rynitia who had made good progress.



Nexus and Rynitia experienced great difficulty in their trek to the Aerie, the stronghold of the Brotherhood, but they did make it, and they believed they had beaten the two day mark by at least a good six hours, thanks to Rynitia's blind determination to not stop the second night.

As they stood before looming gates of the Aerie, they were once more stopped by guards.

"You must be…Rynitia and Nexus. Welcome to the Aerie, you made it in near record time," The first guard said.

Rynitia jumped up and down cheering in glee as Nexus attempted to hide his – embarrassment at being associated with her. The guards smiled as well, everyone here seemed extremely friendly, more so than most of the people Nexus had met so far, yet, it didn't stop him from eyeing him suspiciously. Nexus always had quite the odd personality for a Rohyr, always skeptical and suspicious of his brethren's intent. He did not always trust their good intentions.

"Come inside, Brother Marcus is waiting," the second guard said as he motioned for them to enter the Aerie's walls.

They were led through the Aerie, and it truly was a massive fortress. Nexus could not imagine anyone ever storming and taking it, it just wouldn't be possible. He didn't have a great deal of time to study it before they were shoved into a fairly large room that could have been some sort of waiting room.

Inside stood a man that Nexus assumed was Brother Marcus, and he was one impressive looking man. He had a fairly short, yet thick beard and mustache that circled around his mouth prominent black eyebrows, dark brown eyes that held a vast amount of knowledge and power, and hinted at more.

Brother Marcus was a very big man. He was tall and very powerfully built. He was by far the most powerful Rohyr in just appearance alone, and from what Nexus had heard, Marcus was one of the most powerful men in the Brotherhood.

"Welcome!" He stated, his voice ringing in the empty hall, "to the Brotherhood."

Nexus and Rynitia bowed slightly, "Thank you Brother Marcus."

They spoke in unison, and Marcus smiled. He took a step forward, standing upright in front of them, "You have completed the Brotherhood's first task set before all those seeking to join us. The walk up the hill is nothing, for before you are done we will have you running up and down that mountainside faster than you can believe possible."

Nexus knew the look on his face gave away his feelings about that, but Rynitia collapsed to the floor, seemingly unconscious. Brother Marcus smiled as he looked at her, and then turned towards Nexus, his face asking the question.

"She already ran up the mountain. She'd have been here a lot faster if she hadn't been waiting for me," Nexus replied.

Marcus laughed, "We'll make sure to get her taken care of. Unfortunately, we are lacking rooms to be giving out, and as you are friends already, I doubt you'll mind sharing one."

It was Nexus's turn to fall to the floor.

Marcus

Four weeks earlier…

"Get those ladders off the wall!" Marcus shouted as he swung his sword and sundered the armor of a Mar'Thak soldier's back. The Mar'Thak reeled around, screaming in pain with the intent to kill Marcus, but had not expected to receive the bottom edge of Marcus's shield in the chin, ramming its jaw up into its skull.

All along the walls of Whisperwind, ladders were being raised and repelled by the defenders, if they could get to them in time.

Marcus had feared this attack would come, and it had, in the dead of night, when his men were least prepared. He really had no fear that they could hold them off, for he knew that the Mar'Thak were too few in number to take Whisperwind just yet, but he feared for the lives of his men. He had already lost a good number of them, that he could see.

Marcus turned around, facing a group of archers that were still trying to kill a few of the Mar'Thak from afar before they could get their ladders to the walls.

"Lieutenant, have your men target any Mar'Thak attempting to climb any ladders not yet knocked down," Marcus ordered to a lieutenant among the archers, who proceeded to give the orders to what men he had left.

Marcus sighed with relief; the battle was in their favor, but far from over.

The walls of Whisperwind were thick, and the Mar'Thak had realized this a while ago and had stopped attempting to batter them to dust with various siege weapons, and decided to throw themselves at the defenders instead, which had seemed to have a greater effect thus far.

Between Marcus and the rest of his men were several Mar'Thak, who were arguably good fighters, but Marcus knew by nature of their race, all of them were exceptional fighters. Regardless, Marcus raised his shield and lunged forward, taking another of the Mar'Thak in the back, one who had assumed his fellow that had been slain a moment ago would be guarding.

As the Mar'Thak fell into the others around him, Marcus swung his blade downward, ending the life of the first Mar'Thak with a sickening crunch of a skull. He took a step back as another Mar'Thak warrior hopped over the bodies of his comrades and landed right in front of Marcus, swinging his sword wildly as many of them were bound to do.

Mar'Thak lacked fighting discipline…They were brutes.

Marcus caught the sword with his shield and drove his blade home, right into the heart of the Mar'Thak. He pulled the blade free, and was knocked off balance by someone, or something running into his back.

As he turned, he realized that the entire squad of archers had been killed by a volley of arrows, and the Lieutenant had just been ran through by a Mar'Thak, which threw the body at Marcus with the intent of knocking him off balance to make him easier to kill.

Marcus growled. Rohyr were naturally peace loving people, but infringe on their way, or harm their people, and they would fight till the end in the fiercest ways they could muster. As Marcus regained his balance, he tossed aside his shield and threw his blade at the first of the Mar'Thak to advance towards him, and quickly pulled the giant war hammer from his back.

The next Mar'Thak approached intent on killing the Paladin. Marcus did not feel like dying that day, so as the Mar'Thak swung at him, he caught the blade on the shaft of his hammer and quickly brought around the hilt, smashing it into the Mar'Thak's jawbone, before spinning and bringing the head of the hammer around in a deadly arc, nearly breaking the head of the Mar'Thak from its body.

Marcus was about to wade into the next batch of Mar'Thak when a volley of arrows feathered them. Marcus sighed with relief, as it would make his job far easier, and as he looked around, he could see that the Mar'Thak were dying, or retreating.

He twirled the war hammer and planted the hilt, leaning on it in exhaustion, "This is getting too much," he whispered to himself.

Achrynoth

The drop down over the side of the cliff was quite impressive, at least a good three hundred feet, but Achrynoth was not afraid. He was immortal, and he clung to the edge of the walls with his vicious talons, watching down over the tree tops as the young girl Haeli played with a few children.

Achrynoth was sickened by the creatures. Children, right here in the greatest city of the Mar'Thak? It was almost an insult to the goddess Llaerynoth … but, the Avatar insisted that these children were special and they were to be left with her and if anyone would have touched them they would feel the wrath of the Dark Lady.

Achrynoth knew that Haeli was lying; he was the Dark Ladies Avatar on this earth. He was the one who ruled, he alone! This pathetic girl would soon learn her place; a place among the other Avatar who feared his great power. At least, until the time was right he would give her what he wanted. He needed to find a way to destroy her, a way to tear her apart and banish her from this world.

The massive beast that was Achrynoth turned and furled its wings in close against its body and leapt off of the small retaining wall that overlooked the home of Haeli. As Achrynoth landed near the two necromancers that had followed him to the top of the citadel, he shook his head.

"I do not understand why you two are following me, but it had best be a good reason," Achrynoth stated angrily.

The necromancers bowed their heads in apology, "We have reports that all sightings of Rohyr in the Blighted Lands are minimal, and that we have been assaulting their fortress of Whisperwind for at least a week now. Unsuccessful so far, but we are making progress. They are losing more men than we are."

Achrynoth turned back and looked at the wall that he had just hopped down off of. It wasn't a very sturdy wall, just a few stones piled on top of each other with a little mortar to hold them together. Things like that were what amazed Achrynoth. How could something so simple be so useful? It stopped objects from rolling or sliding over the edge, provided defense if necessary, and kept people from falling accidently. Again, he shook his head at the trivial matters of life.

"Stop the attacks, mass a force, and then resume them. If I know those worthless commanders out there well enough they have been doing nothing but attacking with small forces hoping for glory, but no… they will never win that way, and if we are to get rid of those disgraceful Rohyr we need to do it in one fell swoop. Whisperwind is a fortress unlike many others and will be hard to overtake, but we could do it if only more of our men were at least half competent," Achrynoth sighed and folded his hands behind his back, walking towards the stairway to the lower levels. "Send a few of the Death Guard down there to make sure things get done, and call up some more recruits from the academy, I need a bit of fodder for a little mission."

"Yes my lord," the necromancers bowed again. "My lord, do you have any one in particular you'd like in command?"

Achrynoth thought for a moment, "No, I think they are all fairly well versed in tactics. Any will do. Get me at least twenty of the academy troops. Any more than that and we will be wasting them."

"Yes, my lord. I will have the men here as soon as possible and inform the Death Guard that they are to perform a mission for you. They will be pleased; they have been cooped up here for so long!"

Achrynoth listened to the clicking of his talons against the stone as he descended the stairs into the citadel, the walls closing in around him, forcing him to pull his wings close to him until he reached the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. The men who made this structure had not made it with him in mind and he was very disgruntled about it.

"Yes, Yes. Get to that right now, I want those academy men here by tomorrow. I don't care what they have for gear or if they are still alive when they get here, they need to be here," Achrynoth stated somewhat angrily, though in truth he was still quite calm.

The necromancers bowed and moved down the halls quickly, getting out of the way of the powerful Lich Lord who had a personal agenda to attend to.

"When I read this story I.. Jizzed.In.My.Pants! This never really happens its just abusred, but I wanna appologize, just take my word!" ( CotK would know xD)

But yea, its kick arse... makes me feel noobish D:

True epicness. I should believe this is unfinished, seeing as, well, this is unfinished.

Also, do you know any latin or just got that from somewhere?

Anyways, you have to finish this. At least continue it.

Yep.. it made him jizz too But yea. Finish this story D:

I'm not going to finish this particular one, but I'm going to use the world, and especially the Mar'thak to tell a story of an evil person, who is up against a whole race of people just as evil, if not more evil than them to begin with. This person will go on quests against great demons, beasts, humans, Rohyr, and pretty much anything you can think of, including Mar'thak.

It'll be something interesting, and I think you guys will like it.

I look forward to reading it.