King Sinbad of Sindria (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ofsevenseas) wrote2014-12-09 09:26 am
ofsevenseas) wrote2014-12-09 09:26 am
Dreams/AU Fate/Imitation
Destiny?:
The man with the sun-colored hair and green clothes said he was Yunan - and as I found out later - a Magician. A Sorcerer of Creation, performing miracles out of nothing and everything because he was beloved by the Rukh - the Prana of the world around us. He was strange, hiding in a barrel because the light's too bright, but there's a gentle air about him, and he moves effortless as if he was an aspect of nature itself, a bird given human form.
He smiled at me, and explained that I was different - I was special, and because I protected the caravan without considerations for reward that I interested him, and the way I helped my fellow villagers confirmed something.
Yunan led me outside while my mother slept, and touched the back of my hand with a finger - I remembered yelling in shock as all my veins lit up - bright as the midday sun, with countless larger motes throbbing like firelight, then like that it was gone from view, but I could feel a dull throb under my skin.
"A magic circuit," He explained, answering the question I hadn't even given voice to. "It's the lifeline of magic potential, the amount of Rukh within you is exceptional, and even untrained and ignorant of your magic as you are, you still managed to draw upon it in order to predict the movements of those bandits. You don't belong here - a life of an ordinary fisherman, you could do much more out in the world. Yes... this world needs someone with a kind heart and eyes that seek justice like yours do."
"With that power of yours, you could be a King - one that could make this world better. Here - take my hand and I'll show you where you can get started - and attain your first subject."
the sufferings of war:
becoming king:
being rejected by Yunan:
"Yunan?" I asked, surprised to see that he has not aged a single day since our last meeting.
"It was a mistake," He looked at me with a strange look in his eyes, it took me minutes to realize why that weird gaze was familiar: it was Fear.
"What was a mistake?" I asked - why was he looking at me? Was he afraid of me? But why?
"Telling you to be a King. You were exceptional My King, a level of Magecraft few could match, Charisma to make enemies into loyal generals, the Will to carry on despite pain and grief. You are too Perfect."
A slap to the face would've been kinder. "Isn't that good? Wouldn't people want a good King?"
"Not like you - You warp people. Even without meaning to, you snare and entrapped people to your will, even if it destroys them, they are glad to do anything to get your approval. Even the Djinns who do not share lightly had complied to joint-servitude so freely. If you were a remote King who kept himself from the people - this would not be so bad, but you walk among them, you empathize with them, they see you as their Friend and Father-Figure, your kindness is a slow poison that will kill all those dazzled by your presence."
"But - I cannot pull myself away from people. No one can live in isolation."
"Yes that is true, but you act as a friend, your heart bleeds and ache like an ordinary man, but you have started to think like a King - you don't befriend people on a whim, you befriend them by how useful they are to your goals."
"That's a Lie! I would never-"
"And your Will - in less then seven years - a thriving kingdom, One of the most prosperous trade ports in this corner of the world on an island deemed useless by all. It's an act impossible for anyone else. I now fear what may happen if you bear it all on the world at large." He continued, as if he did not hear me.
"Yunan - I have no intentions of ever going to War." I started, finding myself trembling with rage, my hands balling into fists. How dare he! He was the one who inspired me to reach beyond the horizon, who taught me magic!
"Do you think China or Byzantine, or the Kingdom of Jerusalem, or any eager Nation would not take a chance at claiming this place? You will fight - you will win, but they have the numbers to try to win by attrition. I know you, King - You will tire of playing the defensive war, You know very well a young country will lose such a game. You will use your economic prowess to force nations to be your allies, or choke others into ruins. You will seek to cripple your enemies, you will drive them from your shoes and to their own. You will throw your Magecraft at them to confuse and scatter them even though many of your enemies are ordinary humans. Your People will follow you to the ends of the earth, mowing down all who do you wrong.
And others will fight, thousands will die. The moment you start to preemptively defend Sindria is the moment you spark a great and terrible war that could destroy whole countries. Once you set your course, you never give up. Your stubborn desire to set things to what you think is "right" will drive you to atrocity.
That is why I said you were a mistake." A knife to the back would have been kinder. Suddenly, he turned and walked away - I reached but grasp nothing. "You are no longer My Student or My King, Sinbad."
"Yunan! Wait!"
And he was gone, as if he was never there. I knew right then I would not see him again.
being corrupted:
The circle was completed, candles - half black and half white laid out and lit - glowed in the darkness of the moonless night.
"Please Sinbad, reconsider it!" A voice - a young woman called out from behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Yam. Normally, I would heed her advice as she knew far more about magecraft then I, having spent a lifetime learning whereas I picked it up piecemeal and the spare few lessons Yunan gave. But not now - this was too important, to urgent. "There are powers that should not be used! I beg you, please stop this!"
"I'm sorry - but this is our one chance of stopping Al-Thamen in their tracks," I answered with a heavy sigh. "I know the risks involved, but I am the only one who-"
"But your majesty! Just-"
"Please do not make me give you a Royal command, the less Magus there are present, the better. If something were to go wrong, I need you to save me, all right?" I turned to give her a beaming smile, full of confidence and assurance. I knew I was laying it on heavy, she started to shake her head to protest, but she could not overcome the aura I projected, so she sagged and left the chamber.
She wasn't too far away - but far enough. I stepped into the sigil, lightly as not to disturb or mar the seal, and raised my hands out - east to west and started chanting - putting myself in a rhythm in both speech and breath to match the beat of my own heart.
"O Rukh - O Spirit of the Heavens and Earth - Spirit all who lives and had ever lived.
I beseech thee to bring from the Abyss the tainted Rukh
I who am pure of spirit and of earthly body seek that is not
Rukh that fell upon depravity and despair hear my command!
Take from thy current masters their spirits to still their limb
Take from them their prana so no spell they shall cast
Take from them their souls to trouble our world no more -"
My vision grew darker then black, as the impossible happened - butterflies formed entirely from pitch-black light swam around my body - blinding whiteness as similar beings flooded out of my body. My knees buckled, sweat drenched my forehead, but I forced myself on.
"O Rukh that flows within all that lives and had ever lived!
O Rukh of lives that perished in sorrow and despair!
Listen to I - Sinbad Bedrpoor - Magus and Student of Magi Yunan
I commend thee to rend the ones who call themselves Al-Thamen -"
I could hear myself screaming - and pain, pain unbelievable - a million needles stabbing into my skin with the heat of the sun, and acid dripped over my sword arm and face. There was no vision, no light no darkness just pain and twisting. My heart twisted tight in my chest, the image of my father being dragged away by soldiers sheared itself in my inner eye unbidden, then my mother dying in my arms, the villagers screaming it was my disappearance and neglect that caused it.
Why? Why... why must this happen?! I thought I heard myself scream, but it didn't sound like me. It sounded like a dying beast, something inhuman.
Then nothing. Then warmth, soft hands on aching skin, then vision. Hand mottled and stained, burns to touch. dark fire burning through veins, no pain but power, but wrongness, corruption eating, consuming - filling power in the voids it created, twisting around my heart like a strangling vine. Then voices and footfalls - sudden light in pitch blackness, blinding - hurts. My eyes stung and the vision blurs, and there was wetness on my cheeks.
"Sin! Oh Sin, what have you done to yourself?"
What had I done?
stepping down:
The man with the sun-colored hair and green clothes said he was Yunan - and as I found out later - a Magician. A Sorcerer of Creation, performing miracles out of nothing and everything because he was beloved by the Rukh - the Prana of the world around us. He was strange, hiding in a barrel because the light's too bright, but there's a gentle air about him, and he moves effortless as if he was an aspect of nature itself, a bird given human form.
He smiled at me, and explained that I was different - I was special, and because I protected the caravan without considerations for reward that I interested him, and the way I helped my fellow villagers confirmed something.
Yunan led me outside while my mother slept, and touched the back of my hand with a finger - I remembered yelling in shock as all my veins lit up - bright as the midday sun, with countless larger motes throbbing like firelight, then like that it was gone from view, but I could feel a dull throb under my skin.
"A magic circuit," He explained, answering the question I hadn't even given voice to. "It's the lifeline of magic potential, the amount of Rukh within you is exceptional, and even untrained and ignorant of your magic as you are, you still managed to draw upon it in order to predict the movements of those bandits. You don't belong here - a life of an ordinary fisherman, you could do much more out in the world. Yes... this world needs someone with a kind heart and eyes that seek justice like yours do."
"With that power of yours, you could be a King - one that could make this world better. Here - take my hand and I'll show you where you can get started - and attain your first subject."
the sufferings of war:
becoming king:
being rejected by Yunan:
"Yunan?" I asked, surprised to see that he has not aged a single day since our last meeting.
"It was a mistake," He looked at me with a strange look in his eyes, it took me minutes to realize why that weird gaze was familiar: it was Fear.
"What was a mistake?" I asked - why was he looking at me? Was he afraid of me? But why?
"Telling you to be a King. You were exceptional My King, a level of Magecraft few could match, Charisma to make enemies into loyal generals, the Will to carry on despite pain and grief. You are too Perfect."
A slap to the face would've been kinder. "Isn't that good? Wouldn't people want a good King?"
"Not like you - You warp people. Even without meaning to, you snare and entrapped people to your will, even if it destroys them, they are glad to do anything to get your approval. Even the Djinns who do not share lightly had complied to joint-servitude so freely. If you were a remote King who kept himself from the people - this would not be so bad, but you walk among them, you empathize with them, they see you as their Friend and Father-Figure, your kindness is a slow poison that will kill all those dazzled by your presence."
"But - I cannot pull myself away from people. No one can live in isolation."
"Yes that is true, but you act as a friend, your heart bleeds and ache like an ordinary man, but you have started to think like a King - you don't befriend people on a whim, you befriend them by how useful they are to your goals."
"That's a Lie! I would never-"
"And your Will - in less then seven years - a thriving kingdom, One of the most prosperous trade ports in this corner of the world on an island deemed useless by all. It's an act impossible for anyone else. I now fear what may happen if you bear it all on the world at large." He continued, as if he did not hear me.
"Yunan - I have no intentions of ever going to War." I started, finding myself trembling with rage, my hands balling into fists. How dare he! He was the one who inspired me to reach beyond the horizon, who taught me magic!
"Do you think China or Byzantine, or the Kingdom of Jerusalem, or any eager Nation would not take a chance at claiming this place? You will fight - you will win, but they have the numbers to try to win by attrition. I know you, King - You will tire of playing the defensive war, You know very well a young country will lose such a game. You will use your economic prowess to force nations to be your allies, or choke others into ruins. You will seek to cripple your enemies, you will drive them from your shoes and to their own. You will throw your Magecraft at them to confuse and scatter them even though many of your enemies are ordinary humans. Your People will follow you to the ends of the earth, mowing down all who do you wrong.
And others will fight, thousands will die. The moment you start to preemptively defend Sindria is the moment you spark a great and terrible war that could destroy whole countries. Once you set your course, you never give up. Your stubborn desire to set things to what you think is "right" will drive you to atrocity.
That is why I said you were a mistake." A knife to the back would have been kinder. Suddenly, he turned and walked away - I reached but grasp nothing. "You are no longer My Student or My King, Sinbad."
"Yunan! Wait!"
And he was gone, as if he was never there. I knew right then I would not see him again.
being corrupted:
The circle was completed, candles - half black and half white laid out and lit - glowed in the darkness of the moonless night.
"Please Sinbad, reconsider it!" A voice - a young woman called out from behind me. I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Yam. Normally, I would heed her advice as she knew far more about magecraft then I, having spent a lifetime learning whereas I picked it up piecemeal and the spare few lessons Yunan gave. But not now - this was too important, to urgent. "There are powers that should not be used! I beg you, please stop this!"
"I'm sorry - but this is our one chance of stopping Al-Thamen in their tracks," I answered with a heavy sigh. "I know the risks involved, but I am the only one who-"
"But your majesty! Just-"
"Please do not make me give you a Royal command, the less Magus there are present, the better. If something were to go wrong, I need you to save me, all right?" I turned to give her a beaming smile, full of confidence and assurance. I knew I was laying it on heavy, she started to shake her head to protest, but she could not overcome the aura I projected, so she sagged and left the chamber.
She wasn't too far away - but far enough. I stepped into the sigil, lightly as not to disturb or mar the seal, and raised my hands out - east to west and started chanting - putting myself in a rhythm in both speech and breath to match the beat of my own heart.
"O Rukh - O Spirit of the Heavens and Earth - Spirit all who lives and had ever lived.
I beseech thee to bring from the Abyss the tainted Rukh
I who am pure of spirit and of earthly body seek that is not
Rukh that fell upon depravity and despair hear my command!
Take from thy current masters their spirits to still their limb
Take from them their prana so no spell they shall cast
Take from them their souls to trouble our world no more -"
My vision grew darker then black, as the impossible happened - butterflies formed entirely from pitch-black light swam around my body - blinding whiteness as similar beings flooded out of my body. My knees buckled, sweat drenched my forehead, but I forced myself on.
"O Rukh that flows within all that lives and had ever lived!
O Rukh of lives that perished in sorrow and despair!
Listen to I - Sinbad Bedrpoor - Magus and Student of Magi Yunan
I commend thee to rend the ones who call themselves Al-Thamen -"
I could hear myself screaming - and pain, pain unbelievable - a million needles stabbing into my skin with the heat of the sun, and acid dripped over my sword arm and face. There was no vision, no light no darkness just pain and twisting. My heart twisted tight in my chest, the image of my father being dragged away by soldiers sheared itself in my inner eye unbidden, then my mother dying in my arms, the villagers screaming it was my disappearance and neglect that caused it.
Why? Why... why must this happen?! I thought I heard myself scream, but it didn't sound like me. It sounded like a dying beast, something inhuman.
Then nothing. Then warmth, soft hands on aching skin, then vision. Hand mottled and stained, burns to touch. dark fire burning through veins, no pain but power, but wrongness, corruption eating, consuming - filling power in the voids it created, twisting around my heart like a strangling vine. Then voices and footfalls - sudden light in pitch blackness, blinding - hurts. My eyes stung and the vision blurs, and there was wetness on my cheeks.
"Sin! Oh Sin, what have you done to yourself?"
What had I done?
stepping down: