League of Light

The Capitol

"Alainn.. I think you already know that I love you too."

Firtha responded to my confession with tears in her eyes, and leaned into my arms, abandoning our food between us.

"The full moon rises tomorrow night."

"Are you ready?"

I took a deep breath before answering.

"As long as you, and all our friends are with me, I'm ready for anything."

I took her hand, and walked the both of us back to our friends. Rhys' face lit up when they saw us walk back hand-in-hand. Sahir was beaming just as brightly, and he clapped me on the back when we sat back down. All was well, for now. We went to bed for the last time before the war was done.

We awoke the next morning to the sounds of camp being broken down. Everyone was chattering excitedly, hoping that after today, none of us would be hidden in the shadows again. I looked around, our group being made up of the people deemed unworthy by the King and his tyranny. Because of who we are, what we are, who we love, we had banded together to take him down. While we worked, I thought of the poetic beauty of the king being removed by the very people he had shunned. I hoped and prayed I would be able to play my part. After a brief lunch, Aelfdene let us in on our battle plan.

"When the sun begins to fade tonight, our groups will make their way to the walls of the castle. You all have someone with the element of Time, and they will bring you under the walls, where you can then take out your guards along the way. Alainn and her group will be situated close to the castle, and head straight to the King. He knows of her power, and will likely be ready for us, so I want everyone to be on guard, and I want some of the weapon masters on her team. Volunteers?"

A few hands raised, and I was shocked at the number of people offering to help me, unless they just wanted the chance to take out the King themselves. We were assigned an archer who looked a bit elfin, and a dwarf with a huge mace, and I did feel safer with them, as well as my friends on my side.

"Very well, as that matter is settled, I would like you all to listen well, and heed my words. This is the most dangerous, important mission the League has ever been on. We were founded at the time of King Drygoni's rise, and many of you know this story. For the young ones among us, I would like to share it once more before we end his family's reign of terror."

I noticed she was looking at my table again at the last part, and made a note to make sure Rhys was okay, as they looked a little green.

"Drygoni was a sorcerer, well trained in the darkest part of the Moon affinity, mind control. He used this power, not for good, but to condemn those around him. He used this to take power for himself and appoint himself king, where previously we were a free people. Once in power, he used his position to make himself the only magic user. Our forefathers in the League of Light hid away, where previously they were teachers of magic, and were now outlaws. They protected our magic, and kept it within their families. As the years passed, nearly nine hundred years of only hiding, keeping their numbers small, the League decided to begin recruiting. They brought the members of the Siortha, the Elves, the Friutha, and the Dwarves, as well as humans and taught them the old magic. They began to attack the tyranny of our current King's father, Drygoni's son. He had forgotten all the ways of magic, as they were stamped out by Drygoni and his One True God. The people shunned by this God joined us in ridding the world of him, and the League as we know it was born. Now, in the thousandth year of this regime, we are ready, as a legion of rebels, to pull down the veil of tyranny."

At the end of this story, everyone around us cheered, as the sun began to go down. It was time. Our groups began to split off to their designated areas, prepared to take down the capitol city. In my mother's hooded cloak, Firtha and I conjured up a thick fog to shroud us from the prying eyes of the King's police in the streets. We made it to the wall of the palace, and Firtha tunnelled the earth, letting us through. Once inside, we had to avoid the other groups' fights, and maneuvered through the emptying corridors of the palace. Halfway through, Rhys began to take the lead, pushing through the hallways as quickly as they walked the tunnels at the first mountain base. Before I could ask how, Rhys stopped in front of a large set of doors on the highest floor. Taking a deep breath, they pushed the doors open.

"I wondered if you would be here, you disgrace!"

I stood in shock, as we looked up at King Tywyll and his Queen, as the King berated Rhys.

"You disgust me, you should have stayed away. How dare you walk back into this hall? Are you going to kill your own father?"

The gasps of our group were audible, from all except Sahir, who merely stepped up beside Rhys, defiantly placing his hand in Rhys'. I didn't understand.

"Rhys... is the king really your father?"

"Rhys, ha! Is that what you're calling yourself now? Tell them. Tell your new rebel scum friends that you were the great Prince Damian of Iledrith, and you threw it away. You're no son of mine, beast!"

"I was never your son! And you were never my father. I am not here to kill you, but I want to see the look on your face when we beat you. And you, Mother. I know who you are now. Look at her! Do you recognize her? Think back Mother, to when you were in the League and you betrayed Esmara Loreto, and look her daughter in the eyes!"

The Queen flinched at the mention of my mother, and I lowered my hood just as the full moon was revealed by the clouds, like my mother was giving me her strength from beyond the grave as I stared her betrayer in the face. The Queen stared back.

"She deserved it, just like you will."

She turned down the hall behind the throne, and Rhys tore after her, Sahir and our archer with them. Too focused on the mission to worry about that, or the King's bombshell about Rhys, I turned my gaze on the King. Rhys and I would talk later.

"We will take on the guards. I love you, you can handle him."

And with that, Firtha and our mace-wielder went to work taking down the kingsguard as I focused my breath, before delving into the King's mind. It was a horrifying place, and I could hear him trying to fight me out. I looked for something to take him down, a weakness, something to allow me to win. I saw Rhys as a child, hiding from their father as he told them they were vile for their identity, and I saw the Queen burning their portrait after they ran away, erasing them. I saw the King finding Rhys in some kind of library, screaming at them that this was secret, that no one could know what was within these hidden books. At long last, I found it. The memory that would break the King. I fixated on it, burning my intent to the memory, breaking the place in his mind it held. The King waiting by his father's deathbed, gloating and gleeful to be crowned King. I burned my pain, Rhys' pain, my mother's, and the pain of every citizen in Iledrith into the memory, until I saw the King writhing in pain on the floor of the throne room. Conjuring ropes of sand, I tied him down, turning the sand into stone. Rhys returned with the Queen in chains of her own and threw her to the ground. Sahir threw open every window in the throne room, as we sent the signal for battle's end. As we sent bursts of fire into the sky, Firtha pushed the wind around them, shaping a crescent moon out of the flames. The battle was over, and cheers began to rise from the rebels below and through the castle. We had finally won.