Valen Calabar IV

Valen sat in boredom on the balcony of his old room in the citadel. Everything stayed the same, minus the Ardentis banners on his walls that would dance elegantly with the wind when it came into his chambers. They were now replaced by Calabar banners, the wind never blew the same since that banner went up in his room. His fingers trailed along the ornate metal railings of the balcony, its cold smooth surface beneath his touch. He paused, staring out over the citadels sprawling courtyards. 

Memories surfaced unbidden. How the Ardentis banners had fallen, how their defenders turned against them and slaughtered their people like prey. The unwanted, the unloved was what caused it. He gave the world a relief, lifting the knee that had been on their necks for nearly three centuries. He gave them a chance to breath. This narrative would be different among the ten great houses. Some of them existed only because Flemmel Ardentis destroyed what stood in his way, replacing them with families loyal to him by oath, others bent their knees and surrendered after witnessing what happened to those that who opposed. The fall of the Thalorians was what really brought Xandria to its knees. Their rule was a gilded cage, draped in hollow grandeur and false virtue. They paraded their so-called legacy, blind to the rot festering within their home and all around them.

He despised them, he despised their arrogance, their cruelty they disguised as justice, and the way the Ardentis had treated him as an outcast because he only shared some of their blood. His mind thought of his brother, his pure little brother who served them loyally like a dog. Silas shared Erik's blood, he was named his heir because of it, but in Erik's mind he was only slightly better than Valen. In Erik's mind they were both soldiers and he used them as such not knowing how he broke them in the process. Valen loved Silas for he was the only member of the family that treated him as a human and not a tool. This was probably because he understood the how much hate Erik harboured for him. The one he loved the most was the one he had to kill to appease his new family, he was being ripped between love and honor. 

"Everything has a price, and it is never cheap." He muttered to himself softly as he stared out into the the lands, wondering where his brother was.

Trumpets sounded at the gates signalling the return of the Calabar soldiers sent to find Silas and the mechanical soldiers sent after him. They left with many and came back with few. The squad of nearly thirty men that left the walls of the Palace was nearly wiped out, as only twelve including their commander survived. He stared at them intrigued, before lifting himself from his seat, running into the palace and scurried down the steps. He pushed any servant who crossed his line of path out the way as he rushed to meet them. 

"Open the doors." He commanded the palace guards as he ran towards the exit. The tail of his brown army coat fluttered behind him as he moved. Upon exiting the palace he ran towards the gates meeting the injured men. 

"My prince." the bloodied commander acknowledged Valen's presence. He brought the stump of his missing hand to his broad chest as he bowed. The men followed his lead and also bowed. The commanders face was covered in debris and blood that only highlighted his wrinkles more. He smelled like the battlefield and reeked of death. His white hair was messy from his earlier altercations.

"It seems you are getting too old for this." Valen commented, looking the man up and down. 

The commander chuckled hoarsely, a sound that was more gravel than mirth, as he straightened his posture. His piercing eyes, weathered but still sharp, locked with Valen's.

"I'm an old man, in a world where men die young," he replied, his voice heavy with a mixture of pride and resignation. The weight of countless battles seemed to settle on his hunched shoulders, yet he carried it without complaint, as though it were a second skin. Valen respected it, his faint smirk and his eyes betrayed the flicker of respect. 

"And yet here you all are, still standing defying death itself"

The commander smirked at the prince. "You did not come to trade words with an old soldier and his broken men. What do you want, Mi'lord?" 

"I want to know what you found and who did this to you." The false prince answered.

The commander's expression shifted as he recalled the events. His smirk changed into a small frown as he turned to look at his men. 

"We were camped far east of here, somewhere in the Deadpine Forest," he explained, "We had gunships circling our campsite, it happened so fast, the gunships were taken down and we were ambushed by masked men, they used the trees as covers."

Valen's mind was perplexed. "I see, I'll see to it you and your men are taken care of. You will have a new arm," he assured the commander. "I will like it if you would lead me to this place when you and your men are rested, if that's where Silas is hiding thats where he'll die."

The commander nodded, his grizzled features unreadable for a moment before he spoke. "Your kindness is noted, my prince. My men will be ready when you call on us, rest or no rest. As for leading you to Silas…" He paused, his gaze hardening. "It will be an honor to finish what must be done. No man can outrun his fate—not even him."

Valen's expression darkened, his mind warring between resolve and a faint, unspoken hesitation. Silas. The name carried a weight that no title or blade could cut through. His brother. The only one who had ever seen him as more than a weapon, and yet now the greatest threat to his cause.

"See to your men," Valen finally said, his tone cold, as though it could mask the turmoil within. "And prepare yourself. When the time comes, I will end this."

The commander thumped his chest again in salute, though his expression betrayed a faint unease. "As you will, my prince."

Valen turned, the weight of his decision settling on his shoulders like a cloak of iron. He had promised himself that love would never make him weak, but in the silence of his own mind, he wondered if it already had.