Chapter 2: The Blood Oath

The next morning Elondra went back to the lab and practiced again.. This time the challenge was keeping her mind off her father’s words about his time being near. She also had to do more work just to put the table back together after having smashed it the previous day.  After a few hours, she finally got it right, and jumped gleefully. Things were going well, and her teachers were telling her how quick she was to pick up her lessons, even for a royal. Her love of Magic spurred her to put many more hours into practicing than her siblings cared to. 

It was nearing high noon, so she needed to wrap up here, and head to the ceremony for the blood oath. She was walking into this blind, with no clue what it entailed. Rulers had such long lifespans that nobody other than her father had witnessed one of these oaths in living memory.  She was both excited and nervous. “Blood Oath” she wondered, “that sounds rather serious. Will it hurt?”

She had no real choice in the matter so she went to her chamber and changed into the garments her father had sent her - a long white robe with intricate silver threads covering the sides of the robe around the waist.  She thought the robe might just be a poorly fitted dress, until she walked into the ceremony hall - an ancient room in the palace that was almost permanently closed - and found that every last one of her siblings was wearing the exact same robe. Together, they looked like a small army of well-dressed guards. 

Elondra found the spot with her name shining in golden light on the ground, and stood on it, in a circle around an empty basin. The light disappeared when she reached her spot, and she wondered who was performing this magic, as she looked around and didn’t see anything obvious.

At the exact moment of high noon, a loud gong-like noise drew their attention upwards, where they saw the sun shining fully through the round glass window in the ceiling. Though they could see the bright sun, it was not blinding. When she looked back down, her father had appeared in the middle of the circle, as if from thin air.  Everyone looked surprised, but they kept staring and didn’t say a thing.  The whole event seemed very intimidating, but this stunt took Elondra out of her fear for a moment, and left her in awe of her father’s magical powers. How did he do that? She wondered. 

Benaar looked forward as if he didn’t see any of them, and started pulling the light from the sun rays, and as he did, threads of it encircled his hands. One by one he commanded his children to step forth, and as they did the shimmering golden light on the ground walked ahead of them to show them where to stand. 

When it was Elondra’s turn, she stepped up and held out her left arm as Benaar had instructed her siblings to, and Benaars glazed eyes focused on her for a moment, as he gave her a small smile which left her searching for a meaning. She had watched him closely during the whole ceremony and he hadn’t broken his gaze to focus on nor smile at anybody.  Then suddenly she felt a sharp pain as the sun light seared a small cut in her forearm, and her blood flowed out freely. Benaar then focused a little bit of the light into closing the wound, and it disappeared as if it had never been there.

Elondra returned to her spot, and after Roc and Jauntice, it was Kariba’s turn.  Kariba hesitated and looked frightened. She walked slowly to her spot, where a small step appeared to help her up. She squealed when the light seared her skin, but it was over in a moment and the healing had taken away the pain, so she walked back to her spot quietly.

When all their blood was mixed in the basin, Benaar’s glazed eyes came back to life, and he started saying the oath out loud.  None of Benaar’s children had heard the Oath before as it hadn’t been sworn in living memory, but their mouthes seemed to know the words. Their lips moved without their permission, requiring no conscious effort.

I swear by our Goddess Izeesa and her kin,
That in service my patience shan’t wear thin,
I swear by the good that lies within
That I shall shield Tiba as vowed herein
I swear by the sun and the sky’s many stars,
That I shall not shy away from battle scars,
I swear on the lives of my children and those to come
That I shall uphold this oath in its sum,
I shall not falter, and I shall not despair
I shall be fearless and fair,
In defense of my Ruler, I shall spare no thought
My loyalty shall never be bought
This blood oath I make freely, with my whole heart 
And when the time comes, I shall play my part
From this day forth, and beyond my dying breath,
Tiba’s servant I shall be, in life and in death

As the oath ended, a bright haze much like sunlight through fog engulfed Benaar, and disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, taking Benaar with it.  The siblings dispersed, the oath weighing heavily on their hearts.

The blood oath left Elondra feeling like she was just a card amidst a deck of playing cards that were being tossed around the table. She did not matter as an individual, and her chances of being picked out of the deck for the one ruling spot were slim to none.

Like a caged animal, she felt used and resentful of the system that almost enslaved them all in its service. She wanted to scream and rebel against the oath for no reason other than pure stubbornness, but knew that its binding nature wouldn’t let her even if she tried.

Then her voice of reason returned and she talked herself down off the mental ledge. “It’s for the good of the nation”, she told herself. “The Washm knows who must be next to rule” - but even as she said those words to herself, her cynical side responded - “so why can’t it just spare us all this trouble and tell us who the successor is now?”.

Deep down Elondra knew, though, that the nature of people would make things much worse if they knew in advance who the successor would be. She had heard of countless other kingdoms in which this was the case - where succession was determined solely by bloodlines and seniority - and those systems all fell to greed or incompetence eventually, while Tiba’s had lasted for thousands of years.

One of them might be chosen to rule after her father Benaar passed, and knowing in advance would only create room for greed, plotting and murder to attempt to change the course of the Washm’s choice. The Washm granted its bearer the power to enforce the oaths, making it physically impossible for those who swore it to disobey, so swearing the oath to an heir that did not possess the Washm yet would mean nothing.

Elondra’s rebellious thoughts subsided, and she acknowledged to herself that even though she felt like a pawn at the moment, in the grand scheme of things, this system was best for Tiba.  She wondered if any of her siblings felt the same way - but thought better of it. She was always the rebellious one, something she was actually a little proud of.

She sighed and walked to the Royal training that was about to start. It was going to take ten years of training before any of Benaar’s 14 children were apt to lead, so the road ahead was going to be long and troublesome.

Her mind wandered into dangerous territory, as she thought of how cruel it must be for the ruler of Tiba to live so long, only to watch everybody they loved die. The Washm bestowed an extraordinarily long life on its owner, creating stability and prosperity in the nation, but it came at a price as the gift of a long life didn’t extend to the ruler’s family. How did Benaar not go crazy? She couldn’t imagine ever losing her youngest sister Kariba, and she had heard that losing one’s own children was even worse… she shuddered at the thought.

At the training hall, three monks clad in sky-blue robes split the siblings up into groups of four to five based on age, and each group headed to their own room.   Their monk, a young handsome man with striking blue eyes and olive skin, introduced himself as Hassawn. He lead Elondra, Roc, Jauntice and Kariba to their room, explaining on the way how the monks were part of an ancient order called “The Nomads” whose sole responsibility was to preserve the olden ways of ruling, and train rulers or potential rulers in the art and science of ruling. 

Then Hassawn said, “In your heart, you are telling yourself one of two things: Either “I can absolutely do this”, or “There is no way I can do this” - and in both cases your thoughts need correction. If you think you can do this, then you are arrogant and will need to be humbled before you can finish this program - and humbled you shall all be as we will push you beyond your limits.   If you think you can’t do this, then you must get over it to go on and surprise yourself . This program will show you that you have the capacity to learn and do much more than you thought, and you will finish this program with a much-improved self awareness”.  

Hassawn turned and lead them straight into the wall. None of them even knew there was a room there, until the walls shrunk aside like an invisible sliding door, revealing a tiny room. When they walked inside, the room closed in on them, and suddenly Kariba whimpered and tugged at Elondra’s hand as her claustrophobia was kicking in.

Paying no attention to her, Hassawn brought out a wooden scarab from his black robe, and placed it on the wall. With a small murmured command from the monk’s lips, the scarab crawled on the wall and created what looked like a giant floor to ceiling window looking outside the palace. Kariba was so fascinated by it that she stopped noticing how tiny the room was.  The sunlight and the forest view made the room seem larger and more welcoming.

“Together, we will study many topics important for the rulers of Tiba, and should one of you be chosen by the Washm to rule our historic nation, these lessons will be vital to your success. I can’t impress on you enough how important it is that you absolutely dedicate yourself to this learning for the next few years.  There will be little time for play, or socializing, but the experience will be vastly rewarding, and you will leave here with a new found respect for your people and your nation. We will be studying history, leadership, magic, war strategy and tactics, psychology, and nature” the monk said. 

“We will meet here every day an hour after sunrise, and we will take a break at high noon. We will continue again one hour later, and until sunset.  We will take every 7th day off. Thrice a year, we will take 7 days off, and we will observe all national holidays as well. Since there is no time to waste, during that time you will still have to practice on your own”.  

“Any questions before we start on history?” he asked in a perfunctory tone.

Author's Note

First draft, please ignore typos/grammatical error. All constructive feedback welcome :) Thank you!

Reviews

[Tks]

Wow, I was very much taken in by your story thus far. Keep on writing, we are waiting eagerly for the next chapter to find out who is the Chosen successor!