A Feast For Crows

The next morning I arose to the sound of servants scurrying around the halls, hell bent on finishing the mornings tasks. Slowly I slid out of bed and onto the freezing floor below, my body jolted as my feet met the floor before becoming accustomed to the feeling. Making my way over to the chest in front of my bed that had my clothes strewn about on top of it, I began to stretch my body out before sliding into my casual attire. As I opened my door, I was met with the disgruntled face of my father and his mistress who carried their new-born in her arms.

"Come." they both marched down the hall towards the main hall, me following slowly behind them. The hall had been turned into a banquet hall, flags and banners strung around on the walls, a velvet carpet laid out.

"So… What's this all about?" I slyly remarked as I wandered around the room, grabbing some fruit from a platter laid on one of the tables. My father went up to his chair and sat on it with his mistress beside him.

"I've decided on something for your future. You shall become my legitimate son, and I'm going to use you to further my connections." he coldly delivered back to me, his attention diverting to his other son.

"Is that all you've called me back here for? To marry some girl that I've never met in my life? And you expect me to let you?" I began to chuckle near the end of my sentence in disbelief at his thought path. "Tell me, what part of you thought that I'd agree to any of this?"

"I owe it to your mother." he began to look at the floor before turning to his mistress who gave him a slow nod.

"Oh, that's right! Where is she? Hmm? Thought she would've loved to see her only son that she ever so loved." I turned around looking at all the servants expecting to see her face, all riled up.

"She passed away shortly after you left, but because I despised your existence so much I decided that I wouldn't tell you, since you yourself would admit you had no love for her." He took his son from his mistress beginning to play with him a little, bouncing him up and down on his knee.

"You will not be my heir... Only a tool for my politics. But it's not only that, I want you to lead my forces in the defence of our lands, after that, you shall marry who you deemed fit enough for you. Or nobody and you'll go back to being disowned." his son began to chirp away in enjoyment, playing with his father.

"Ah, well we'll see how it goes then eh? I think I'd rather get down to planning this defence as soon as possible then. How far out are they?" my father summoned forth the captain of his forces currently who dragged me away to a room with a single table laid in its center, on it lay a map of the surrounding area with pieces of coloured wood highlighting enemy and friendly movement. I slowly studied the map looking at their positions carefully, whilst also attending to the scouting reports.

I returned to my father later that night who explained to me that their movements were weird from what he could tell and began to explain the gathering will most likely be held in a weeks time.

For the next week my life became a constant cycle of the same things; wake up, train my sword skills and magic, read scouting reports and plan the castle and towns defences. My magic itself had been beginning to take real form, I was able to cast fireballs and a constant stream of fire, whilst my sword skills had improved to the point where I could challenge the most experienced in the castle guard. The enemy themselves seemed to never budge, always sat just beyond some hills about 20 miles away, they were waiting for something to happen or somebody to arrive.

One day I went to my father to explain the situation, we had been reinforcing the walls of the castle and building a weaker wooden wall slowly around the outskirts of the town, he payed no attention to the reality of the situation then and now slowly his friends rode into our town and began their own preparations for the event about to be held. During this time I met many people he deemed to be suited to my standing, some were old and looked like a walking carcase, whilst others were barely old enough to do anything themselves.

Later that night the event began, I wasn't accustomed to such occasions, most of the time I was left outside of the castle and merely went into town to drink, for once I was living in the high society where those who were gifted the chance of being rich lived. Many of the women approached me at the party and introduced themselves to me, some more pretty than others. Yet there was a weird feeling in my gut, that something wasn't right. I had barely began drinking when my father began to fall out with me due to my lack of trying to find someone suitable.

I downed a couple of drinks and went up to dance with a few of them; Joan, Lila, Kloe, Alex, Francine, Fiona... too many names to count, it felt like an endless nightmare for me as they all came to me and said the same thing.

"Hello my lord, would you be my dance partner?" it began to infuriate me, did they all act the same way due to how they were taught? Seriously could they just be themselves for once and not some pampered brat that had done nothing of good before. My mind began to flow into these discussions as I continued to dance with the girls who approached me. The band was in full swing, everyone seemed happy and yet I couldn't bring myself to happily smile, I wanted to enjoy it but from everything I had experienced up till now, I just couldn't.

I spun one of my last matches around, gripped her close and continued to dance, staring into her eyes hoping she would tell that I wasn't into anything, yet they couldn't tell. This night had to go perfectly for their families is what I could tell, this area was full of nobles who controlled land within a weeks range of the border. Then all of a sudden, I had a strange feeling come over me, the band was loud as hell but then BANG! Everyone stopped moving, the band screeched to a halt. The door to the keep burst open slamming into the walls with another loud BANG and one of the guards ran in completely stunned.

"The town... its gone!" I quickly bolted out of the hall to witness the massing inferno building through the town, fighting its way to the castle. The screams of terror as the center of the town had been eviscerated, written out of history.

I came back into the hall and approached the guard who was huddled in a corner.

"What did you see? Did anything happen?" I hastily remarked, my chest tightening.

"Blue lightning struck the town, only once. Then that fire started and spread through the town mercilessly and unstoppable." his voice shaking. I knew exactly what this was at this point and realised how helpless the situation was.

"Quickly! Get all guards to their posts, send some to secure our guests in the lower chambers of the castle! Get my father and his family down there too!" Sharply turning to the captain of the guard, "And you, you come with me and wait for me to get ready." I turned to the hills just next to the town and I could barely see them in the moonlight, but thousands of cavalry followed by infantry and archers. Then slowly cresting the hill, trebuchets and catapults, despair set in. Yet this was my chance to do what I couldn't before, this time was my chance to rectify my past failures.