'Once upon a time, there lived a great king, who led his armies to countless undefeated battles. He won many victories across the lands of the unknown. Due to his strategic understanding, unwavering bravery and the will of a king to never break and bend before anyone. Therefore, he remained untouched by the sin of defeat.
Exactly, for people like him defeat was a sin, weakness was a sin and to be never known defeat was his flawless achievement.
Fighting battles in foreign lands and even having the zeal to win every one of them was such an example of his indomitable spirit. In a short amount of time, the king was able to claim a vastness to call his own country.
For a farmer's kid to achieve a feat like this in his lifetime felt unreal. His fame alone spoke of his inspirational story. A man who climbed the social ladder unlike any other.
The king of countless victories— King Rhaenos the Neverfallen.
The king was forgiving, kind to his people and equally cruel towards his enemies. His country started to prosper with happiness under his rule.
Until the day he managed to offend a god.'
— — —
August sighed and turned the page. One side of the page continued the story of the neverfallen king and the other had a hand drawn picture of a beautiful woman in blue long dress. The very portrait of her explained the elegance of royalty. Her skin was as flawless as jade. Her eyes however, were closed. The sides of her lips curled upwards in a gentle smile. A red flower with a green stalk lay beautifully in her hands. Her long, dark-brown hair exuded the vibe of pure eloquence on everyone. Forcing them to praise her flawless beauty.
Judging from the details, it seemed as though the artist himself was in love with the elegant woman.
At the base of the portrait there was her name written in golden letters, — Princess Aurora.
Meanwhile, the story continued,
'Other than his long dead wife, King Rhaenos loved his daughter and the people of his country. His daughter Princess Aurora was extremely beautiful, kind and wise just like her father. People of the country cherished dearly their princess. To them, she was a national treasure.
But the peace and prosperity turned their eyes away from the kingdom when the jealous gaze of goddess of beauty fell on Princess Aurora.
A mere thought of a goddess getting jealous of the beauty of a mortal was deplorable. Especially when the god in question was the goddess of beauty herself.
She wanted to destroy the peaceful kingdom neverfallen king had built for his daughter. She wanted to kill Aurora herself after taking everything which belonged to the princess. And after that, no maybe after that her jealousy would end, she thought.
However, the task of destroying a mere mortal kingdom fell beneath her status. Goddess of beauty can't possibly dirty her hands by directly involving herself in this ugly matter.
She wanted to destroy Aurora's peaceful life, but not in a hurry. Goddess wanted to savor every moment of her suffering.
The refusal of war god to partake in her ugly game of pettiness fueled the raging fire inside her even more. After all, the god of war had a higher position to uphold in the pantheon than the other gods, to indulge himself in such trivial matters.
However the goddess of beauty made a request to the other gods who do not care about anything more than their entertainment –not even their position and status.
The god of war however, did not completely refuse the goddess and sent the dragonkind — wyverns, who lacked any primordials to guide them that time —to kill King Rhaenos. It was also because the war god did not like the titles like neverfallen and undefeated.
Which symbolises well the fact that, how petty the gods were.
The god of whispers– on the request from goddess of beauty, started to broke the kingdom of undefeated king from inside slowly, making his own people hate him and the princess as well.
While King Rhaenos fought another battle against beasts and creatures, unimaginable for mortals the rumours violating the public image of his daughter spread like a wildfire among the people of his own kingdom.
The battle lasted for about half a decade. The king never fell behind his enemies, not even once. His army was also filled with hotblooded brave soldiers like himself. Therefore giving the king courage to wage war on the inhumane threats.
During that war, the king slayed many wyverns, beasts and creatures under the sharp edge of his never bending sword and earned the title of —
'The immortal sovereign'
Even during the war, his army remained unaffected by the rumours and continued to battle against the creature. Which was the moment that snapped the anger of the war god. He knew with these constant victories king Rhaenos would definitely gain more fame by the day. Therefore he just wanted to wipe the name of king Rhaenos off the world as soon as possible.
He immediately called the one dearest to him.
The god of silence.
— — —
August turned the page again, this time with more curiosity. The only thing nowadays he did sitting beside his mother was, reading the books. This one had almost nine volumes and he was about to finish the fifth one today. No one knew that words written here were facts or mere fiction but August believed this to be all true.
Among all the journals of history, this one was the most controversial one because in it there were the most offensive sentences written by the author. I mean, who would dare refer to the gods as 'petty'? Therefore, while being based on history, this book was considered as nothing but the writings of a crazy author.
August however begs to differ. After reading so many books which clearly mentioned and verified by the royalty as history, he believed them nothing more than a bunch of sweet lies. Stories told by mothers to their children for a goodnight's sleep.
How could he even complain, his mother also used to tell him those kinds of stories too. Of course every parent would love to tell their children sweet lies over harsh and cruel truths. He does not blame them for that.
In his eyes however those stories couldn't be more far fetched than the actual truth. He believed the truth to be bitter and cruel. Just like the Author of this book had mentioned.
With that taking a glance at his seemingly sleeping mother, August continued with the story,
'The god of silence. The god whose name was prohibited from the mortal tongue. The one who held absolute authority over shades and silence. The one who was cursed as being forgotten from existence. The one whose wrath was most difficult to escape from.
The half a decade war was about to come to an end. The immortal Sovereign was winning again. But even he couldn't save all of his people. Thousands of brave soldiers of his army had perished in the great war.
Even after that, countless soldiers still stand proud, waiting to sacrifice their life for their motherland, for their family and of course for their king. The banners of his kingdom still held high.
The sovereign would've returned home with one more victory that day, if it weren't for his bad luck for being on the list of the god of silence.
Fighting the inhumane creatures in a forest where trees stood tall. The canopies of the tall trees covered the horizon completely. On a rainy day, the mist suddenly covered the entire place in its embrace. For sometime however, clangers of weapons and claws clashing against each other could be heard but not for long.
After a moment, the entire battlefield fell deathly silent. The eerie silence covered the whole plane in the matter of seconds. And when the mist cleared there was no one left behind. The unsettling calmness washed over the entire forest.
Countless warriors and creatures were gone just like that. It was like they vanished in the broad daylight. Like death itself came for them.
The news reached home, but no one was able to believe what they heard. Some said it's a curse and some believed it to be a lie. How can an army that large vanish without a trace. It was simply unheard of, something like this before.
The truth however, lay hidden beneath the dark layer of the dense forest.
Untouched, unspoken, bravery Unsung …the accused …forgotten.
[ Volume 5 ends — The silence after triumph ]
"At last" August lets out a satisfied sigh and turns to the last page which immediately annoys him once again. The page where the name of the writer has been once — was torn, "Not this again" This wasn't the first time August had encountered something like that with this series. The previous volumes had the same problem after all. And for the next ones, which moron would jump right straight to the ending?
He closed the book and looked at the title for a moment which read, "Whispers of the fallen era"
He scratched his head and placed the book on the shelf, "sorry mom, my bookshelf is already full with the books i've not read yet." he chuckled, "sorry for using your bookshelf like this."
Then without facing her, he wiped the tear off his face and left the room in a hurry.
— — —
It has been about three weeks since that incident. Because Sophia was the only one qualified enough to teach, the regular classes were postponed till further notice. Surprisingly the rumours of Sophia's son putting everyone's lives in danger weren't spreading like August had expected them to be.
Was it the trust of people in Valerius and Sophia, which remained unaffected even after hearing their children's lives were in danger? Because it simply wasn't possible that townsfolk didn't know of it by now.
Whatever the reason for the silence was, August wasn't having any of it. If anything he was being negatively affected by everyone telling him it wasn't his fault while it clearly was.
Some days ago he had an argument with his father which quickly took an unexpected turn. He mistakenly mentioned the barrier. Which he knew his parents were keeping from him for a reason and not like he cared about it anyway.
But the concern of him not being able to take his mother to a capable doctor in the capital was genuine. While his father used to leave town for the capital from time to time he rarely saw his mother doing so. In fact she never left the security of the great barrier even for slaying the lesser beasts from the southern forest.
August let out a sigh, he remembered there was always a reason for anything his parents ever did …always.
'Ah! I shouldn't have said all that to father'
Everyday since Sophia fell into this state, August came and sat beside his mother. Never leaving her side. Shelly also used to come to see her teacher and her brother-like friend. Which was the most difficult time for August to remain quiet since his mind was always flooding with the questions he wanted to ask shelly.
Today however, August was sitting beside his mother like always and reading a book based on history or it claimed to be based on history.
He read the entire volume but couldn't keep from blaming himself by looking at his seemingly lifeless mother everyday. And how could've today been any different?
He left the room in a hurry, placing the completed book on the bookshelf. But his eyes began to tear up. Trying not to let his mother see him crying he left the room as soon as possible. No, she couldn't see him if she even wanted to. That was the severity of her condition.
August left the room wiping his tears off. Feeling vulnerable once again. The same feeling he had back when he offered himself to the elements. When he tried to control the echoes but almost ended up becoming the subject to them.
'I am pathetic'
— — — — —