Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 432: Land of shadows (1)

She is running again.

She couldn't stop running. 

Sweat filled her forehead, her hand push away the branches, her feet leap upon bushes and sometimes her body just charge through the bushes while enduring the pains, the thorns and the scratches.

Her heart is eating furiously like a war drum, erratic and loud. Run, run the only thought in her mind right now. 

Her eyes are full of tears, streaming down her face like a rain that could not stop, her boots have been flung god knows where, as she keeps running, panting and exhausted, yet she keeps running. 

Sister Liselle how could she do that? 

Why would she do that? She thought to herself. And then she stumbled onto a rock and she crashed pitifully to the hard ground. 

'Ouch. Argh' she winced in pain and blood came from her open skins. 

'Ouch.' It was painful and her tears fall down again, while her vision becomes blurred, her hand is trembling out of fear and anger. And now even pain.

She hopes her mother will survive. Her father is Arial the Dragon. The strongest one in the world she told herself. 

'Nothing going to happen to mother' she said to herself alone in the dark forest. Her scratched hands are still trembling, her eyes wavered.

Ariadne since little, rarely she was as unprotected as of right now. She was always protected, guarded and in a position of power.

This was supposed to be a happy day for her. She wanted to see her beloved father, and then they will feast.

They will dance in the grand hall of the Palace and her father would take her into his arm and laughed with her. 

But now. she sees bloody battle, seeing the nice and kind Knight Warwick die, one of the subordinates of Ser Massey, die in such horrible ways.

And she prays.

'Please let mother be safe.' She prayed deep in her heart.

Then a voice came.

'Follow the stream' the voice whispers. And Ariadne was jolted out of shock. 

'Who's there? Show yourself!' She yelled looking left and right.

Yet she doesn't see anyone. Only the rustling of the leaves and the sound of insects in the forest. 

No one. The voice comes out of nowhere. And fear crept into Ariadne heart.

What is this? She mused. And her heartbeat quickened, cold sweat poured from her back and Ariadne grab a stone from where she crashed. 

'Who's there!' she repeated again and no one answered.

Is she hallucinating? Then the voice came again. 

'Follow the stream, child if you want to be safe. There is a sanctuary for you. Listen to me daughter of Asrana'

What stream, Ariadne mused and then beneath her feet she sees a stream of water leading to a tree, arching in a way that resembles a large gateway.

'Follow the stream, child.' The voice whisper again.

And unconsciously she started moving following the streams. 

And then there is a blinding light just before she enter the archway and then images swim into Ariadne mind, men begging to the sky, great armies lining up in vast plains, hideous creatures with horns and sharp teeth, shrilling cries and screams of agony, red blood bodies strewn along the battlefields as if the plains was growing a terrible and strange crops, people crying and praying and then, high up in the sky a man is standing on air with a majestic aura..flying to a dark and horrible mist. 

And then another image appears on Ariadne mind, a sword so bright it almost blinded Ariadne, and then Ariadne was jolted to consciousness, screaming.

The maid outside quickly knocks the First Princes door

'My Lady, are you alright? This servant is coming in' the maid said, nervousness fills her tone, fearing something has happened to the Princess.

'I'm fine!' Ariadne yelled. 

'Do not come in. Be gone'

'Yes, my lady' the maid replied, but still the maid quickly informs the Head Maid to inform this to the Emperor.

Ariadne on her bed, wiping of her sweat on her forehead, sweating profusely. Her head feels like it was split open and she is dizzy.

It was like a glimpse. of the future.

She gets up from her bed, massage her heart for a while, trying to calm herself down, and then take a drink of water.

'That dream again.' She said as she balled her fist in anger and frustration.

She could not remember what happens after she follows the stream. But she knows that this was not just a dream.

She remembers the stream and she remembers that day. But what happens after she step into the archway? 

'Always the images.' She said and she put down the glass a little bit harder than she intended to.

It cracked.

She never could get past the archway but she knew. she did pass. She just doesn't remember what she saw after that.

What did she saw? She knew it was something importantknows it in her heart, her instinct tells her, that she is right but she couldn't remember.

She then takes a deep breath. She was eight years old that time when the murder of her mother happened.

It pushed her father to great depression. The murder of the Empress of Eden was the last straw. 

Her great and powerful father, feared and respected, a symbol of power.

And while most men resorted to drinks and taking to carnal pleasure her father take a more drastic approachand more brutal. 

He declares war and with it the unifying of the continent. She is now the First Princess of the Empire. 

Her father after the war, becomes a man she did not know. or recognize. She is old enough to know some things and she remember her father. 

The kind and doting father. 

He is still the doting father, Ariadne mused.only not kind. He is now cold and emits an aura of detachment of everything around him.

There is coldness in his eyes, coldness in his heart. 

And once in a while when her father came to visit her, she could see a hint of regret and anger beneath the surface of that calmness, lies a burning fire.

Anger. regrets. but to whom and for whom? The tower becomes Ariadne refuge. The battlefield on the other hand become her father refuge. 

Refuge from her feelings. Refuge from her fear.

Every time she looks at her father there is both mixture of resentment and guilt. Resenting him because of her mother death, feeling guilty because she thought of her father like that.

She out of everyone knows the grief her father hides in his heart. But he is not the only one that grieves

She grieves too

And her dreams. 

Her dreams.it always happen every time her father came visits. She did not know the reason either but soon enough she fears her father visit because she knows her dreams always occur the day he visits.

She knows she could not blame her father for what happen, for her dreams or her mother death but her father is the cause. 

This kind of thought is hard to eradicate. If her father did not take the throne of Vangua, would her mother still be alive? 

If and if and more if. This kind of question always attack Ariadne mind. What if these happen? What if that happen? 

Torturing herself with these question all day long.

And if she didn't blame her father, she blames herself. It was her that insisted Liselle to come. 

Who would have thought that Liselle is an assassin?

And knowing that maybe, just maybe it was her action that leads to her mother death, Ariadne could not accept that.

And so she blames her father. Her absent father. When she was young she always wanted to see her father. 

But why.... why couldn't he be there? Why could he not found mother earlier? Why couldn't he come to Arrandy?

To Ariadne her father is like a God. Unbeatable and peerless. If he was there. he would surely save mother.

But why couldn't. he be there?

These kind of thought sometimes come across Ariadne mind.

And then she remembers the day she returned to the castle after a week lost in the forest and founding out her mother is dead, as her sarcophagus is brought out to the Imperial Mausoleum.

the first of its occupant is her mother, and that day flashed in her eyes, almost like it just happens yesterday.

All the people look in grief, the occasion was solemn and no one could be seen wearing a smile. 

Aunty Lisa is crying on her husband shoulders, Uncle Kyle looks like he couldn't barely stand, and others who share the same sentiments.

Ariadne could not believe it. That her mother died! That her...mother has left her alone. 

Of all her years, most of it was spend with her mother. And seeing, realizing that her mother is no more, the song echoes in her ears.

Let the sky shows you the Light,

Fly and soar to the opens cloud and let fate writes,

Write the stories in the starry skies.

She tries to deny it with all her being. The song echoes in her ears. Losing someone, especially losing your own mother, murdered in cold blood, tortured before her death, poisoned, is not the way her mother should go.

Her kind and graceful mother.

She should have died of old age when Ariadne has married; she should have died old and content. Ariadne was distraught with variety of emotions.

And she yelled looking at the sarcophagus.

'Mother! Mother! Mother! What should I do!' She cried her face was full with tears, trying to run to the sarcophagus but held by Uncle Silas.

'Uuh' she said trying to stop her cries and at the same time trying to release herself from Uncle Silas grasp, trying to see her mother.

Then she looks at her father. 

He was silent, detached, and cold and there are no tears on his face but Ariadne could see it in his eyes, the same way she could see her mother feelings through her eyes.

There is anger and fire in her father eyes. 

Fire that threatened to burn everything. A silent anger. And then a knock brought Ariadne back to the present.

'Who's there? I already said I'm fine. Be gone and don't come again until you are ordered to' Ariadne ordered

'It's me, Aria.' And Ariadne knows that it is her father. Only her father called her Aria. Even named her for one of the months of the year for her.

'Imperial Father' Ariadne said.

'I'm fine.' Ariadne reply there is faint of nervousness.

'You don't sound fine'

'II'm fine.'

'Won't you show me your face, Aria?'

'Imperial father, I-' And there is silence. Then Arial said, his voice tone is higher, clearly showing he is impatient and at the same time worried about Ariadne.

'I am your father Aria! I have been patient. I have been. generous. This act of yours must stop. What is it that you're afraid of outside this Tower!'

Arial waited behind the door. Considering his strength, he could rip the door with one hand, he could even punch the wall.

Arial has waited years. For two years he was at war. Another six months administrating, occupied with the Council and the Halls.

Arial was never a family man. His destiny was never to be a family man. 

He was destined for greatness, the moment he was born, for greatness was thrust upon him. 

A destiny that even he doesn't know. From the beginning...he was destined to soar higher than anyone else.

But it is also his destiny to live an endless day, to suffer and to learn from the suffering, to be forge from fire and blood.

And getting hurt is easier for him than talking to his daughter. He doesn't know what to say, doesn't know why Ariadne locked herself in the Tower. 

In a way, Arial feels that Ariadne blames him for the death of her mother. 

In all of Ariadne childhood. he is rarely there. Even when she was born Arial was at the Dark Lands. How did things get so twisted?