free all the nations that it had captured and plundered over the centuries-a plan that is being enacted right up to this very moment, but I shall tell you more of that later.
‘My brother and I joined the Lions, but we knew that even all seven together could not defeat the Archmage and his almighty Staff of Elders. We fabricated the guise that we had been mistreated in Garteny and that our lives were misery there and, when we started blasting our own defences to pieces, the Empire accepted us with open arms. The defeat of Garteny looked assured at that point, but then we began to execute our plan. Together with the Lions, we began to sap at the strength of the Emperor’s great army, sabotaging their efforts and crippling their assaults. We each began to feign exhaustion and the Turians thought that all their luck had disappeared at once.
‘The Emperor’s men lost their momentum and their progress into the north began to slow. The last few precious months passed and winter set in quickly, forcing both sides to dig in and wait it out. The men of the south were not ready for such hardships and their resolve drained away with the blood in their cheeks. At last, the Emperor’s generals realised they could not go on and returned to Cintar, where they were promptly executed. The Gartens laboured hard all through the winter, fortifying their cities and bolstering their forces with conscripts from all over the great frozen north. By the time spring had next arrived, they had well readied their defences.
‘In the meantime, we Lions had begun searching for allies amongst the outer states, surreptitiously sowing general unrest throughout the Empire. Rioting and rebellions sprang up all over and the Emperor’s forces were kept busy quelling them that year and the next. It was then that the treaty was signed, for the Emperor feared his borders had been expanded too quickly. His new territories were still unstable and he needed time to consolidate his rulership. He was confident that he could bide his time and take Garteny at his later convenience, but each passing year only readied the north-men more for his assault. By the time the Emperor was once again ready to forge north, he found a very different picture. The Gartens had fortified their cities and bolstered their armies beyond what the Emperor could have believed. Every Turian spy and diplomat and assassin in the capital had been painstakingly rooted out and killed. The Emperor would need more than just sheer manpower to conquer these vast new walls and defences. Even we Lions would not be enough.
‘This is where he turned to the Order. I had been living and studying in Cintar for nearly eight years when it became known that the Emperor wanted our magical assistance in breaking the Garten defences. The only solution was to build a bigger and stronger force of magicians to aid the Imperial armies. Not every magician could be as powerful as the Lions, but they didn’t need to be, just as long they were great enough in number. We were charged with converting the School from little more than a halfway house for idle, old magicians into a genuine academy of magic. We began scouring the lands for talented young pupils. We promised the Emperor that, eventually, we would be able to find greater spells and produce more magicians, until we could achieve the goal set to us. Of course, we did not act entirely as we had suggested. We secretly forged an Order of Magicians that, rather than being another cog in the machine of war, was beneficial to all the peoples of Amandia. We did become powerful, but we purposefully avoided teaching those spells that could be used to maim and kill and instead focussed on healing and spells of a practical nature. Instead of touting the usual Imperial claptrap, we steered our pupils towards rational, philosophical consideration. We dared not teach anyone to defy the Empire, but we hoped to bring the students to a point where they would reach that conclusion for themselves-and, to a certain degree, we were successful in that. We continued to delay the Emperor year after year, hoping that some day he would finally give up his plans to continue with the war and allow himself to slip away peacefully. It’s been so long, we had actually started to believe we had won.’
‘But what made the Emperor so intent on suddenly invading Garteny again?’ Goodfellow asked. ‘It must be at least forty years since the battle of Raven Fields.’
‘At least,’ Anthem agreed. ‘I can’t say for sure what has made him suddenly so set on marching north once more. Perhaps it was Lord Jarrod promising him certain victory, or perhaps it was Master Celios foretelling he would finally have a son, or perhaps he thought it was just good timing. Who can know? But let me get back to my tale.
‘During my initial years in Turia, I had come to know Master Vim, who luckily enough was appointed as principal of this new School of Magic. He was a stout patriot, but also a very intelligent man and a pacifist at heart. We certainly saw eye to eye in many things. When old Master Vim finally passed away, I inherited his position, chiefly because I had become easily the most accomplished magician in the Empire, and also because of a single terrible thing that I did, which has kept me in favour with the Emperor all these years. I have spent every day of my life since that time endeavouring to keep magicians out of the Emperor’s armies, but now the accursed Lord Jarrod has gone and undone all our good work.’
‘I always thought the Empire
‘Do you think Garteny would still exist if Turia had won? It was a bitter defeat for the Empire and the truth of the matter cannot be told in these parts lest you risk losing your head. Many of the historical works that line the Emperor’s university are tainted with more than their fair share of such fiction.’
‘And what happened to your brother? Samuel asked. ‘Did he return to Cintar with you?’
The old man shook his head. ‘No. No, he did not.’
‘Where is he?’ Eric asked.
‘This is the tragedy of which I spoke. When my brother and I first joined with the five Lions, we needed to ensure our defection was believable. This meant we had to fight side by side with the Turians and we had to make it look like we really had a sound disliking for our Garten kin. We started by destroying a few fortifications and spooking the odd warhorse, but we quickly realised that this would not be enough. In order to save millions, we would have to be theatrical in killing a few hundred. But Salu refused to kill, no matter how many times I told him it would save more lives in the future. He refused my plan outright.
‘He was always the first into action when it came to saving any living thing, be it a man, a beast or a butterfly, but he could see no logic in our plan to save countless lives in the war, for Salu was a simpleton. He was a genius at certain things, such as the carving and crafting and casting spells, but every morning when we awoke I had to help him tie his shoelaces. He could never remember how, no matter how many times I tried to teach him.
‘Incensed by the Emperor’s bloodthirsty commands, my brother was driven into a sudden fit of rage. He went at the Emperor like a beast, tearing away the Emperor’s protections like a child tears through the layers of a gift- wrapped toy. He threw the Archmage and the Staff of Elders aside like playthings and went charging at the Emperor like a mad bull. The Emperor felt terror for perhaps the first time in his life and then I did the thing that has kept him in my debt all these years-the thing for which I have been damned ever since. I attacked my own brother before he could kill the Emperor; not because I didn’t want the man dead, because I verily did want that, but because I did not want Salu to live with the guilt of such an act, as I knew he would. I drove him back with my own power until his fury had passed and he fell sobbing to the floor. I slapped him in the face and scorned him for behaving like an animal. That slap hit him like no blast of power ever could-the look on his face was of absolute shock and dismay. He stood up and fled from the scene and that was the last I ever saw him.
‘Men were sent out to bring him back, of course. More men were sent out after that and more, but none were ever seen again. Eventually, they just stopped sending men. I have never seen my brother since then and I have never been back to Garteny. I don’t know what came over me at the time and countless souls would curse my name if they knew the truth, but I am the man who saved the Emperor’s life and I have been trying to undo that mistake ever since. This tale also explains why the Emperor has imprisoned himself in Cintar since that time, rarely leaving the palace walls without entire armies around him. He is terrified that one day Salu will return to finish the job.’
‘So what do we do now, Grand Master?’ Eric asked.
Anthem looked up from his melancholy thoughts. ‘It’s time to undo the wrongs of the past and make up for past mistakes.’ The two Erics looked to each other, confused. ‘We act,’ Anthem continued. ‘Our efforts to stop the Emperor’s lust for conquest have failed. Our strategies to unite the land peacefully through the Order have been exhausted. It’s time we acted swiftly and concisely. We must do what no one else has ever been able to do. We must do what we originally intended to do, what I failed do and what has been foretold we
‘You can’t be serious,’ Eric stated in total disbelief.
‘I’m deadly serious. It is time for an end to his power-driven madness. It’s time to end his wars and let
