Metorm: The Empire

The adventure begins

The Secret is the first story of the four-part Selenthion, which begins with the story of a young hunter boy, Sagiron, who discovers something left behind in the Silwoods by a treasure hunter known as the Arkman.

Upon learning the nature of the discovery, Sagiron is quickly plummeted into an adventure with world-changing stakes, as the Antorian-spanning Perillean Empire pays attention to the rumors.

"Freeze, in the name of the Perillean Empire!" echoed in the rainy night through the clanging of a guard bell as a robed trio fled into a back alley. "The Yoneians are getting away. The satruss screwed up again."

Horadriam followed his brother, leaping over the rain-soaked wooden fence and scrambling into the dark forest. Bows sprung from behind; a scream ensued. Something crashed into the fence.

"Brother!" Horadriam shouted.

"Cease fire. We need them alive."

The brother did not get up; it was too late. Horadriam rushed into the dark forest, branches snapping, but he could no longer see his other brother. Behind him came the clatter and creak of steel armor as the meusar knights jumped the fence. A low stone wall emerged from the dark forest, and he ran to it and leaped over; but he slipped off the wet stone and fell roughly behind the wall. Footsteps approached; he froze. One by one, a whole squad of meusars leaped over him. Horadriam held his breath, waiting in horror for the armored claws to seize him.

"Assce!" came the command: heavy footsteps stomped. Horadriam laid stiff with fear, his heart pounding. Nothing happened; the footsteps subsided. He raised his head cautiously: he had fallen into an old ditch. Faint voices came from the distance.

They didn't notice. Horadriam dared to breathe again. He stood up quietly and looked around. The clanging of Tritoria's guard bell had ceased, and only the rain echoed.

He leaned against the wall, overcome with despair, and sighed. Borodriam, the eldest brother and the wisest of all, was gone. The younger Manadriam had escaped, but he was faint-hearted. How had the Perilleans discovered them? It was supposed to be a quick and discreet expedition, but now everything was going wrong. Horadriam felt his bosom—and pulled out a small leather scroll. If the scroll fell into the hands of the Perilleans, all would be lost. The Yoneian's greatest secret and most powerful weapon would fall into the hands of the enemy. The scroll had to be destroyed.

A branch snapped nearby. Startled, Horadriam peered over the wall and, leaning against it, felt a loose stone move. There was also a rustling behind him. He panicked—and stuffed the scroll between the loose stones. Footsteps approached. He crept away from the sounds and dived into the dense forest.

Beyond the trees, a forest road appeared. To the left was a stone structure, the towering end of an old bridge; the ramp had broken off. At the base of the bridge tower was a doorway; it had to be the way up to the bridge—it was his escape across the Silvon Stream. Horadriam took off at a run. Just as he stepped out of the forest and onto the road, four red soldiers with crossbows emerged from the darkness at the base of the tower.

"SALITATIEN" broke out at once: answers came from the woods. Footsteps approached from behind. There was no other way: he ran straight at the soldiers, who raised their crossbows.

"KATA" shouted Horadriam; there were whispers. The faces of the red soldiers went deadpan; they turned their bows on each other and fired. Horadriam leaped over the dead soldiers, arrows in their chests, and rushed into the tower.

He fumbled around in the pitch black when he came upon a set of stairs. He galloped up the steep spiral staircase and ran out of the guardhouse onto the rain-soaked bridge. Footsteps approached from behind. He bolted across the bridge into the darkness. Lightning flashed, illuminating the bridge. He screamed and stumbled to a stop: the bridge was broken.

Rough grips jerked him to the ground on his back, hitting his head. Stunned, he saw meusar knights in yellow and black full plate armor surrounding him, X-shaped quad bows aimed at him. His hands and feet were bound tight, and he was pulled up. More meusars with torches had come to the bridge, and with them came a knight. This knight's armor was gold with red details, all shiny, padded, and so beautifully adorned and engraved that it could only belong to a Meuriorian prince. In his thigh holster, he carried a dual handbow. Horadriam was terrified: the highest powers were after them.

"Search him," said the prince with a metallic tune caused by his armor. The meusars turned over Horadriam's shabby robes but found nothing; the bearings were left behind in the inn.

Fortunately, the brother escaped. They had nothing.

The meusars stepped aside and the red soldiers brought forward a slender man, much like Horadriam, with long black hair and his hands tied behind his back. He was forced to his knees. Horadriam was shocked: Manadriam, too, had been captured. Behind him, a corpulent Perillean lord with a large mustache and a rain-soaked blond wig came huffing and puffing, followed by a servant carrying a useless umbrella.

"Meusar detective Chasoir," the man puffed with his squealing voice in Palpur. "You found the fugitive. My worthless teitoners almost messed everything up. But we got lucky: this other rat ran straight to the highway copolion's lap."

"Satruss Le-Muel," prince Chasoir said, "If you and your men hadn't interfered with our operation, we would have avoided a chase and taken them all alive. You almost ruined years of investigation."

"Speak Silvon, Reddicks[1]," Manadriam shouted.

"Where's De-Arcie?" Chasoir asked. "I know you come all the way from Arkhanic City, and one of you is the Arquis."

Le-Muel scowled at Chasoir's poor Silvon and stepped closer. "Where is the treasure chest hidden? What does it contain? Who is the Arkman? And what were those flashes in the river village? Speak."

Horadriam startled: he realized what had exposed them. The duo fell silent; raindrops pattered on the meusar's armor.

"Take them both," Chasoir ordered. The meusars grabbed Horadriam, and the other meusars went over to take Manadriam.

"Hold on," Le-Muel stepped in front of the meusars, waving his fat finger. "I got interested in this treasure. Bring them back to Tritoria, and I'll investigate this further first," Le-Muel gestured to his guardsmen.

"This is a Meuriorian matter, and I will take them to Teleng," Chasoir said.

"May I remind you, Mr. Atrice meusar detective, we are in my capitalon, and as a satruss, I am in charge," Le-Muel whined.

"You might want to think twice about taking on the Family," Chasoir said. The Perilleans argued over who owned the prisoners, and Le-Muel's guards seized Manadriam, who became nervous.

"Horadriam, they know everything. You must use it. We have no choice. They will get it otherwise." Horadriam tried to make facial gestures to silence his brother, but Manadriam panicked. "We shouldn't have been caught. Meusarion will torture us until we talk. Do it, Horadriam. Repeat what you know. Hear me, Reddicks: the new Antorian order is coming. Anthorm's prophecy is about to be fulfilled. Before you stands the Heir of Arkhaniel, who knows the Salat Kata, in the name of the grand-king Salimerat. Horadriam, do it!"

"So you are the Arquis. Take him," Chasoir pointed at Horadriam and turned to Manadriam, held by Le-Muel's guards. He drew his handbow. "We will no longer need you."

"No!" Horadriam realized what the prince was up to. Lightning flashed again, and the sky thundered. Horadriam concentrated, closed his eyes, and cried out:

"RASANAT"

There were whispers. The air on the bridge swirled, forming a vortex. Torches were extinguished, and Le-Muel's umbrella fluttered to the sky. The meusars recoiled back as the gust grappled them. Horadriam shouted:

"VALANAT"

A shimmering cyan wave formed in the air and swept over the bridge, blasting off all the Perilleans: Le-Muel dove into the guardhouse for cover, but Chasoir hurled off the bridge with the troops.

Horadriam's ears buzzed as he sank to his knees, weak, almost fainting. He took a deep breath and looked up; there was a dark lump on the bridge. Lightning flashed: it was Manadriam, an arrow in his temple. Chasoir had pulled the trigger. Horadriam cried out in grief and collapsed on the bridge. But there were cries from below: the Perilleans were coming back. He had to get away; he would rather drown than fall into the hands of the Perilleans. He mustered himself, stumbled to his feet, still bound, and leaped to the end of the bridge—and threw himself into the darkness.

[1] Reddick (Sil. Persikh), a Yoneian derogatory name for the Perilleans who use red as their main color

Intro: The Arkman

Notes

Chapters

A few words regarding the Selenthion

Maps

The Arkman

1. The Broken Bridge

2. The Salty Thing

3. From Arrow to Dart

4. The White Rider

5. A Harsh Fate

6. Memorial

7. The Herbmaster

8. An Intruder in the Night

9. Lessons

10. Confessions

11. The Way of the Warrior

12. The Fields

13. A Mark

14. The Pilgrims

15. The Temple of Salon

16. The Skill Games

17. The Forbidden Knowledge

18. The Enlightenment Day

19. The Way of Mashiat

20. Crossroads

21. Dreams Shredded

22. The Mountain Maniac

23. The Secret

24. The Journal

25. The Two Slices

26. The Great Leader

27. The Wagonmen

28. The Whitetop Club

29. Bethrat Walks

30. The Bard

31. The Feast of Veration

32. Yellow and Black

33. Tritoria

34. The Collectors

35. The Whistler

36. The Rogue Chief

37. The Past Things

38. Locked in the Tower

39. The Furious Warrioress

40. The Raven Creek

41. The Perillimoon Rumor

42. The Storm Whisperer

43. An Empire for the Journal

44. A Flight to Bearhill

Appendices

Chapters

The Antorian-spanning Perillean empire controls all of Yonland. Chasoir, a Perillean knight detective investigating an old Anthormian legend, gets a lead on a rumored treasure hunter, the Arkman, who is caught, but found nothing with.

While hunting, Sagiron discovers the scroll he left behind, and gets into trouble with bandits along the way. Later, with his friend Merkhat, he ends up with the local herb-smoking madman Yahamat, who has similar symbols to the scroll, but says little about them.

The next day, a rogue band raids his home village, and one of them recognizes Sagiron, blames him for the death of his comrade, and demands a duel for revenge. Sagiron's father Sargus dies defending his son, and the rogue chief decides to take Sagiron out, but he defeats the chief with a trick he learned from the hermit. The rule of the rogue band is whoever defeats the chief becomes the new chief, but Sagiron refuses. Sagiron confronts a young rider before the rogues flee from the cavalry.

Arhim, the village herbmaster, offers Sagiron a place to stay as a thank you for saving him from hanging. Sagiron refuses because of him being a Perillean. After his father's funeral, the villagers gather at the Whitetop Inn, but Sagiron gets drunk and passes out in the street.

He wakes at Arhim's, and decides to give him a chance. Arhim figures out Yahamat is mad because of the herb he smokes, and at night they sneak in to steal his stashes and mow his garden. Arhim gives history lessons and teaches Sagiron and Merkhat how to read and write.

Weeks later, they go to Yahamat, who has sobered up, and after explaining things, realizes the herb had made him a wreck, and reveals he taught his father, and since the boys want to follow in his footsteps, he starts training them.

They practice fighting and train through the winter, but in the spring, Merkhat is old enough to be put to work with other slaves, leaving Sagiron alone. Sagiron learns Yahamat has not learned everything from his travels, but is part of an ancient order that uses the symbols to practice. Sagiron shows him the scroll again, but Yahamat recognizes it now as the symbols of their arch-enemies, the Harachimians, and tears it up.

Strange wanderers appear in the village, and it turns out they are on a pilgrimage Yahamat thought would only be a year later. They set out on a journey to the temple in the mountains. Sagiron meets the Order of the Salon and takes part in trials of knowledge and the Skill Games.

In his spare time, he wanders around and finds a strange group practicing in the ruins of Salon. They capture Sagiron, and when he recognizes them as the Harachimians he thought were long gone, his interest is piqued. Yahamat finds him talking with them, and they return to the temple to explain his actions.

In the great evening, the new members are chosen, but a rider, who turns out to be Arhim, appears and warns of an impending army. The knights try to shoot Arhim as a Perillean scout, but Yahamat takes the arrow, reveals Sagiron wasn't chosen, and tells them to flee and look for Halin, a missing knight friend of his. The army lays siege to the temple, overwhelming the knights.

Using Arhim's knowledge, they find an old escape route, but end up with the Harachimians, also trapped in the temple city. They flee the temple by the way Arhim knew. Sagiron is still suspicious of the Harachimians because of all the talk, and he doesn't want to break against Yahamat's will and turns down their offer to follow them to Harachim.

They return to the home village. Sagiron doesn't know what to do next, but finds the pieces of the scroll. He retires to Yahamat's hut to study the symbols in his journal, turning into a hermit himself over the months, but he discovers something strange. When he visits the village, he learns he can sense people and make them do things, and causes a scene that ends in a fight, demonstrating his remarkable abilities and more. His friends call him a freak.

He flees the attention and runs to Arhim, who doesn't believe him at all, but Sagiron proves himself. The village doctor and his assistant show up, because Arhim had planned an intervention for his months-long seclusion, but he calls them off. Sagiron shows Arhim the Journal and repeats what he felt, and Arhim learns it too. Arhim realizes something very strange is going on and orders Sagiron back to his hut and to hide the Journal.

The next day, Arhim comes, telling the scroll he found contained the code to Salat Kata, the long-lost ancient temple skill, which the Arkman had retrieved, but had to leave behind. The Perillean Empire was looking for it, so they had to keep it a secret. They practiced using it.

Sagiron wanted to use his newfound ability and to find Halin, but Arhim hesitated. The village chief gives up his position for one of his sons, but he is found murdered, and the hapless Sagiron becomes the suspect. A trial is held, but Arhim learns the truth, gathering evidence and makes the chief's other, jealous son confess his crime in the heavily corrupted court.

The local governor Le-Muel's son Percilion is appointed as the new chief, and the village is turned into a draconic work camp. Sagiron decides it is time to leave and goes to Merkhat to ask him to join the journey. Arhim protests, but ultimately agrees.

In the morning, Sagiron goes to meet Merkhat, but prison wagons have arrived, and most of the villagers are being relegated because there has been a rebellion. With Merkhat gone, the village is locked down, preventing Sagiron and Arhim from leaving quietly. Arhim tells Sagiron to be quiet.

The village elder falls into a coma, and people think she's dead, but Sagiron realizes she's not, and uses the Secret to wake her up. Later, a relegate madman attacks Sagiron, thinking he has dark powers, and Sagiron is forced to use the Secret to deter him. Arhim is mad and hesitates when Sagiron wants to reveal the Secret to his friends and fight to escape the village instead of hiding, but Arhim has hidden the Journal, preventing him from revealing it.

While planning the harvest festival with his friends Yaramat and Harrogat, a Perillean bard appears at the inn and asks Sagiron strange questions. Sensing trouble, Sagiron runs to Arhim, where he is confronted by two cloaked figures. Arhim's house has been ransacked. Arhim returns, but the Journal is found among the debris. They fight over the Journal, but Sagiron accidentally makes Arhim nearly stab himself, and he reconsiders the dangers of the Secret.

They plan a diversion at the Harvest Festival, and Sagiron causes a brawl that draws the attention of the guards, but Percilion calls all the guards, stops the festival, and demands they turn over the conspirators he has learned about. Sagiron uses the Secret to incite the villagers to protest, but it turns into a full-scale mutiny. Sagiron flees the village with his friends and Arhim.

An ambush awaits them at his cottage. Meusars, the elite knights of the Perillean Empire, led by the knight-detective Chasoir, who had been after the Arkman, arrest them and they are taken to Tritoria, where it turns out Le-Muel had found the Journal Arhim managed to hide just before the meusars came. They try to escape with the Secret, but fail, proving their skill they tried to deny initially, and are locked in a dungeon.

The governor and the detective have an argument about authority. Chasoir tries to get them out of the dungeon quietly with drug-laced food, but their plan is discovered, and a brawl ensues between the meusars and the governor's castle troops. Bagged and bound, they are taken to a guardhouse, where the guards turn out to be the figure Sagiron saw with the rogue band, a boy named Roy and his friends.

They disguise as guards to escape, but they have to get the Journal from Le-Muel. They sneak into the castle tower and storm his throne room, but Le-Muel and Percilion escape through a window and departs for Silvon Palace.

They flee Tritoria. Roy leads them to the rogue band that had attacked the village back in the day and killed his father. Sagiron refuses, but with the Journal gone, they end up facing the rogue band. The new chief faces Sagiron with his goons, but Sagiron defeats them using the Secret, and the chief is driven away.

Le-Muel hiding in Silvon Palace, they must come up with a plan. They learn of the Gatsemat rebels and ride across Silvon to rescue them. They stop a Perillean messenger convoy and enter the Gatsemat in a decoy.

They manage to free Elyara and her rebels, but they argue, with Elyara challenging Sagiron for the chiefdom. The duel ends in a draw, so they agree to move on for now and ride to Raven Creek, a hiding place where the spies sent to Silvon Palace were waiting.

The rogues and rebels learning they were in for a book, they laugh them off, but Sagiron uses the Secret to show them a vision of what will happen if they don’t stop them, and waking up from the nightmare, they agree to join.

They enter the palace grounds through a rumored passage, but their entry is discovered. Gathering slaves from the barracks at their side, they storm the gate and manage to open it for the rogues led by Elyara. A thunderstorm sweeps over them, and Sagiron notices the Secret is stronger with it, confirming the rumors about the Arkman. He runs to face the army approaching them across the meadows and uses the Secret to create a storm, but a bolt of lightning strikes his sword, creating a shockwave that knocks the army down and allows the rogues to defeat them.

They storm the bricked up palace and confront Le-Muel and Percilion, who reluctantly surrender the Journal. Chasoir has left for Teleng to get reinforcements, and the scouts have arrived, warning of an approaching meusar army. In the commotion, Le-Muel and Percilion escape through a secret door. The rogues ride off.

They celebrate their victory at the Bearhill hideout. Yaramat and Harrogat have found the slave logbooks and ride off after the relegated villagers. Sagiron and Arhim ponder the Secret and consider burning the Journal to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, but think of their own possibilities. The rogues ask Sagiron to stay, and after thinking about it, he sees an opportunity for them to do what they should have done back in the village, and decides to stay.

Full synopsis