The Warriors of the Walls

Prologue- The Prince's Vow

Eldian Empire, Imperial Palace, est 100 years before the Titan invasion.

The Prince's footsteps echoed down the stone corridors in the underbelly of the palace as he silently made his way to the agreed-upon meeting place, his heart in his throat for if he was caught, it would mean the end of everything he hoped. So weaving through endless narrow passageways lit by the light of the various torches, the Prince found himself in the long-forgotten labs that lay the bowels of the imperial palace, and as he entered the musty stale room, he realized that he was far from alone.

"Lord Tybur," the Prince called out softly and moving to the sound of his name, the young lord made his way towards the Prince, but before the Prince thank the younger lord for coming, lord Tybur grabbed him by the throat and slammed him back into the stone wall.

"I should choke the life out of you for what you've done!" Lord Tybur snarled, his grief-stricken face twisted with unbound rage as he dug his finger's into the Prince's soft flesh.

"I didn't know..." the Prince gasped, his face turning red as he struggled to breathe around the younger man's grip, "I didn't know... my father would... do that to Helene... you have to believe me... I would never... have knowingly done ...anything to harm her... I swear!"

Squeezing harder, lord Tybur's eyes burned into the Prince's, the images of wild red hair and beautiful mismatched grey and green eyes assaulting his mind only driving the need his desperate need revenge. Gasping on air that was out of reach, it appeared that all hope was lost for the Prince when suddenly, lord Tybur cried out in anguish and released his hold on the Prince before falling back with tears in his eyes as he slid down the side of the wall till he was nothing more than a broken pile on the floor. 

"Thank... you." The Prince coughed as he too slid down the floor till he was sat by the younger lord's side, his throat bruising rapidly from the justified assault.

"Helene may have been sired by a different father, but she was still my sister" lord Tybur grieved, his hands buried in his messy pale hair, "Your father killed her at the behest of his council because of what you told them, because of your jealousy."

Crying softly to himself, lord Tybur who in reality was nothing more than 19-year-old who had just lost one of the few who made this world a brighter place, a 19-year-old who wanted nothing more than to be left with his grief and to bury his sister in her family crypt on the blessed isle of Paradis.

"What are you doing here, Karl?" Lord Tybur sighed as he gazed at the Prince, his eyes filled with pain, "Why did you ask me to come?"

Silence fell between the two men as they both stared into nothing, their shared loss a heavy unspoken thing between them until, finally, the Prince found the courage to answer the man who had once looked to him as a friend.

"I remember the first time I met your sister." the Prince reminisced, bottom lip trembling as he pictured his heart's deepest desire, "It was not long after her father had died in the skirmish for the Armoured vessel and her uncle had brought her to court to take her fathers' place... She was standing proud in the great hall, clad in her armour, her family seal on her breast and spear in hand like a goddess of old. She had looked at me when she had caught me staring like a slack-jawed fool and had smiled... I remember thinking she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

"She was a force amongst men, wasn't she?" Lord Tybur smiled as fresh tears rolled down his face at the memory of his fierce, bright sister. 

"She died because of what we are." The Prince spat, his fists clenching upon his knees as the sight of Helene's blood running down the marble stone of the great hall filled his mind, "Eldians...Titans... We never should have existed in the first place. Without them, it wouldn't have mattered who Helene Sparhawke fell in love with because she would have been a normal woman. It wouldn't have mattered that the father of the child she was carrying was an Ackerman, because Kaleb would have been a normal man. They could have married and had a normal life, even if it did break my heart, and it wouldn't have been a crime."

"They knew the law on the mingling of the bloodlines, but there was no telling them. They were in love and both as stubborn as each other." Lord Tybur sighed as he ran his hand down his face, he had known of his sister's secret lover, had begged her to end it before this very thing happened, but she would not hear it, her heart ruling her head as it always had ever since they were children.

"I was so angry that she had chosen him over me. I had poured my heart out to her, told her I would make her my queen but she had smiled and told me she loved me like a brother and that... that her heart belonged to another man. I refused to accept it, and that night when I went to her room to ask her why, I, the future king wasn't good enough for her, I saw them together." the Prince mourned, his heartbreaking all over again as he pictured the sight of their bodies pressed together in a loving embrace, "I thought by telling my father that they would be separated, that Kaleb would be sent to the arse end of the empire and that I could swoop in and mend her broken heart, but when the council learned she was with child, they called for her death. The Spear of Eldia, a commander of our forces, a war hero, and they killed her like she meant nothing, they killed Kaleb like he meant nothing."

"I was there, remember?!" Lord Tybur snapped, his temper flaring as he remembered the cries of Kaleb Ackerman as he begged for his lover and unborn child to be spared, "I was there begging your father to have mercy alongside the Sparhawke house, but it didn't matter, Helene was a threat to their power, and they were never going to allow that child to be born."

"But it's not just Helene, is it?" The Prince sneered as he pushed to his feet and began pacing back and forth in the forgotten lab that had once been home to ungodly advancements, "It's all of it! Our empire is built upon the bones of conquered people, its throne rests upon a corrupt power that trembles at the possibility an unborn child presented. Houses squabbling amongst themselves to behold godlike power that no man should possess, crushing anyone who dares to stand in their way."

"Yes well," Lord Tybur sniffed as he pushed himself to his feet, eyes fixed on the agitated Prince with apprehension, "Before long that throne shall be yours, and it will be your turn to sit at the table of the corrupt and feast upon the spoils of slavery. Enjoy."

"No, I will not." the Prince whispered as he froze in place, his shoulders hunched in on himself as he stared down at his large hands. They had finally reached the reason for their being here, the reason why the Prince had asked Lord Tybur to come, the reason the Prince needed him.

"What are you saying?" Lord Tybur asked apprehensively as he came up behind the Prince and turning to face him, Karl Fritz, heir to the throne of the Eldian Empire, who would be the 145th of his line to sit upon the Titan throne, met his gaze with burning resolve.

"I will accept the responsibility of righting this wrong. I'm going to tear down the system that allowed this to happen. I'm going to bring retribution to this empire of blood and you lord Tybur are going to help me."