— % & - PROLOGUE -
I dream of a purple-green blanket of clouds, rumbling, while the ocean dances wildly to its tunes. It sounds ethereal, but it looks a lot like death. I cry for loved ones to take cover and not scurry around under the treacherous sky, but no matter how hard I scream, no one seems to have heard me. I hear them warn me instead, to stay safe, hidden. And like the real life heroes that they are, they run out to help more people be safe. — % &I'm a coward in my nightmare. It feels a lot like myself. I'm not screaming loud enough, not insisting hard enough, not trying much at all. But I pacify myself saying, they'll all walk back to safety once they're done playing the hero.
Pathetic.— % &My heartbeat rings like a bad omen in my ears, blaming me for not saving them, begging me to walk out of the hideout, urging me to take action. But I am paralysed-- physically and mentally. As my heart is running out to save the ones I love, my heels are digging harder into the ground, resisting all my attempts at being selfless.
"LET GO!", I scream, at no one in particular, or maybe, at myself.— % &Gasp!
I wake up, sweating hard. My palms are
damp and dry at the same time. My heart is practically thumping out of my chest. It was just a bad dream. I look down at my hands.
Blood.
There's blood on them.
It's sticky and a bit caked up in places. I look to my side and a gasp of dread escapes my parched throat.
Amara.
Amara's dead. My sister's dead.
And her blood is on my hands.— % &-
— % & • CHAPTER-0 •
-Soul Fetters Of The Liege Lords-
It started out as a barbaric practice to keep the Liege Lords in check. The One King could take no chances, for though they were all his loyal subjects, each one was powerful enough to wage a war against him and win, if not worse. Not that they would dare call for a mutiny. Not against the Unus Dominus. Never against the Unus Dominus.— % &But he wanted them to believe that he trusted them. So it was sold as an idea. As a gesture of loyalty. Bind your heart to a human soul, part or whole, as a testament of your devotion to your service. A bit of control shouldn't hurt if you're faithful. Should it?
The Wisages from the One King's court, who were each responsible for a Realm, would write the prophecies naming the human soul, or as they call them in the Afterworld, Soul Fetters, meant to be bound to their respective Liege Lords' life and sanity.— % &The point of it? If the Soul Fetter were to ever be hurt or say, extinguish, a Liege Lord would lose all his senses alongwith his sheer will to live, let alone his potential to rule a Realm. But death would never knock his door because in the Afterworld, all the mighty ones are immortal.
However, not all power was lost. The Lieges were permitted to raise Spirit Guards for their Soul Fetters. Ghastly looking beasts trained to keep a watch over them, to protect them.— % &We humans, though not a part of the
Afterworld, have known, feared, respected, and
served the One King and his subjects
from centuries over.
Roughly, a thousand years ago, the Unus Dominus had come down to conquer Earth, and many human lives were lost in that bid. The Monarchs of our humble planet then kneeled before him and begged him to spare our home, the only world we knew. The One King took "pity" on us, and made a truce stating one condition-- the Realms would have complete and unconditional access to the planet and all of the resources it had to offer. Living, dead, and lifeless. Were they ever to meet resistance, they would destroy our world.— % &The Monarchs were more than glad to be spared in exchange for bonded labour. But they knew that there was nothing the Realms didn't already have. They construed that the One King simply exploited the weak for pleasure. That he loved the sense of power that came with it. So was their theory.
Blockheads.
They should've known better than to think that Dominus Balthazar was foolish enough to keep a weak planet under constant surveillance for over a millenium, just for the fun of it. I should've known better.
— % &-