Birthright
Chapter 3
By: W.Bob Yankovic


1027 A.D. Castle Caldera

	The young man focused on the dust that covered the floor of his
room. He closed his eyes and strained his mind and his body. He opened
his eyes to see that the dust had been thrown back away from him. His
powers were growing. Soon he would use them on the door and the chains
that bound him in the room. He looked out the small window to the
torch that burned across the hall. Again he focused his thoughts. To
his surprise the flame exploded down the hall. This brought gaurds down
the stairs. They looked into the room and saw the man at the back of
the room. One of them made eye contact with him. This was a mistake. In
the brief seconds that the gaurd had looked the man in the eye he was
struck dead. Blood ran from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The other
gaurd, now scared to death flew up the stairs to find Dwerin.
	"How have you gained this power?" Dwerin asked the man as he
placed a metal face plate over the man's eyes. It covered his whole
face except for his mouth and chin. "We should have killed you when you
were born," Dwerin added. He placed his hands on the metal and recited
an encantation to seal the man's power. He did the same with the chains
that bound him to the walls and floor. When he was through he placed a
board over the window of the door. He also moved all of the torches in
the hall and surrounding rooms as far away as possible.
	"You will be contained. And you will be forgotten. Then you
will die. You will never take your place. You can give up. You are no
longer who you were. Now, be bound by the powers of my encantation.
Wither away," Dwerin said through the door. He turned to walk out of
the dungeon. When he shut the door he heard the man. It was just as it
had been for two years.
	"IT'S MINE!"

Unknown Castle in Artiena 1010 A.D.
	A man stood holding his newborn son. His wife lay on the bed
asleep. The man looked at his son whose sparkling blue eyes looked back
at him. "I promise you my son. Whatever befalls me, you will be king.
Even now my life is in danger, but that matters not," the man said to
his son. The baby giggled and waved his hands at his father. The king
took off his ring and placed it in the blanket that wrapped his son. He
looked to his trusted friend. "You will take care of him. Teach him to
fight as fiercely as you do. When the time is right show this ring and
give him his place on the throne.
	"Yes your majesty," the wiry man said. He took the child and
left quickly and silently. He knew where to take the child to keep him
safe. Far away was the only way to secure his life. And far away he
would go. The father looked out the window of his room as he watched
his friend take his child to safety.
	"You will be king," the man said, "If I have to come back from
the grave to insure it."

Artinea/Levitan Border 1045 A.D.

	The gaurds noticed nothing as Threais' army ammassed itself on
the other side of the river. They did not see the huge catapults loaded
with fire bombs. They didn't notice the archers by the hundreds taking
aim. But when Threais screamed out the attack, the Artinean gaurds
noticed their death drawing nigh. The small outpoast that gaurded the
river held only fifty troops. But they were of the elite class. Thier
skill would do them no good as arrows and exploding fireballs pounded
the small outpost. In only a brief moment the whole area lay in
smoldering ruins.
	"That is one!" Threais yelled from atop his mount. "Come on my
good fellows, let's make haste to Castle Caldera!" The army of just
over ten thousand men let out a cheer and began to march. As the whole
country of Artinea let it's gaurd down to celebrate the twenty years of
peace, Threias and Levitan began to storm its way across nothern
Artinea. The journey was only nine hours from the border of Levitan.
And Threais planned to make it there in five. Then with the remaning
two days he would rush to Wave Crest and take his place as King. With
this "Faceless Man" on his side, he would be unstoppable. The King
pulled off his shirt and vest to reveal his strong body. Yet the
soldiers only noticed the huge scar that ran down the center of his
back. "TO CALDERA! AND OUR DESTINY!

Castle Wave Crest 1045 A.D.
	"What is it?" Thirayus asked his father. He could see the
distress in the face of Leoric as he seemed to struggle with something
in his mind. He looked up at his son and began to speak, but nothing
came out of his mouth. "Father tell me!" the prince yelled.
	"You are not my first born," his father said. These words
stunned Thirayus. He stumbled back and found the safety of a chair to
support himself with. Not the first born? How could that be. His father
had always told him the truth before. Why would he hide a fact of such
great importance? Why would he deny him the truth in this area? So many
questions flooded his mind. He looked to his father who was now somber and 
staring down at the floor.
	"Before you, I had another son. He was born paralyzed. With
Dwerin's advice we attempted a procedure that would give him the use of
his limbs. But to our dismay it failed. The child was in even worse
shape than before. I agreed to let Dwerin care for the child until his
then inevitable death. After he died your mother and I had a second
child. This was you. Dwerin cast a great spell over all of the country
to block the memory of our first son out of their minds. We would start
over. You would be the first born, and you would be my successor,"
Leoric explained with a light sympathy in his voice.
	"Then that is why the Mage said that you were a murderer. And
also why she said that I am not who I think I am. But these facts just
raise a thousand more questions. How did the Mage of the Swamps know of
these facts if Dwerin cast the spell of forgetfullness? And why have
you kept these things from me for so long? Why father?" the prince said
as the anger began to rise up within him.
	"The Mage of Swamps is a powerful woman, she was once one of my
best friends. When she moved into the swamp she cut herself off from
Artinea. She promised to bring only harm to me and my family. She did
this because of the events which I just described. She was strong
enough to avoid Dwerin's spell. That is all that I have to tell you. As
for why I kept these things for you was to spare you from the trouble
that would come between us if you knew. Just what happened now is what
I feared. You have begun to hate me and you have cast doubt into our
father-son relationship," Leoric said.
	"I HAVE CAST DOUBT!? You were the one who lied to me for the
years I have lived. You were the one who killed my brother. You were
the one who cast the doubt. AHH!" Thirayus screamed as he stormed out
of the room. The king placed his face in his hands. He sighed deeply.
	"My son, I will never tell you the rest. If you responded this
harshly to me for this part. You would kill me if I revealed to you the
rest," Leoric said.

Road to Castle Wave Crest 1045 A.D.

	"We will arrive at Castle Wave Crest in just over eleven
hours," the gaurd told Dwerin. They would get there a day before the
festival to rest. Dwerin nodded to his assistant and walked over to the
stream that flowed beside the road. They had stopped to take a mid-day
meal. As Dwerin neared the stream he held his beard back so that it
would not drag into the water. He bent over a little and called the
water up to his mouth. To the surprise of the people knealing beside
him, the water sprang up in a perfectly round colum that suspended
itself right below the wizard's mouth.
	"When you are as old as I am, it is hard to bend over that
far," Dwerin said to the men in an explination. They just went back to
the shade of the near by tree and ate their meals. Dwerin enjoyed a
small laugh on their behalf. He knew he was powerful and he loved to
show it. When he was finished drinking the water slowly shrank back
down into the stream and everything returned to normal. He decided that
he would practice a bit with some of his magic.
	First he made a small ball of fire appear in his left hand.
Then in his right a similar ball of ice formed. He began to spin the
two balls of magic around in the air. To the two he added a ball of air
and a ball of earth, the next pair of elemental magic. Then a ball of
darkness and finally a ball of light. This was the spectrum of magic.
He spun the balls around in intricate patterns. After a few moments of
enjoying the sight of te balls he cast them further into the air until
they hovered about twenty feet from the ground. Then after a small
chant the balls that once fit in his hands expanded until they would
fill a banquet hall. These six huge orbs began to spin faster and
faster until they became one giant ball of magic. It was a conglomerate
of every type so the color turned a shade of grey. He then tossed the
ball of magic at the unsuspecting men traveling with him under the
tree.
	They looked just in time to see the huge powerful mass of pure
magic explode in front of them. But instead of destroying each of them
instantly, small sparks, like that of a firework, shot at them. Each of
them breathed a sigh of relief. Dwerin once again enjoyed a laugh. He
knew that soon there would be no time for laughing. He knew that his
mission was drawing closer with every passing second. Leoric would
definatly pay for his sins. And Dwerin was to be the one to expose
them. Once he had played along with the king's wishes, now he would go
against them.

Castle Eladamir 1045 A.D.
	"Let us depart," King Vhad said atop his horse. With this the
Fairy king, Epiphon the Wizard, Byron, and Shamshir began their travel
to Castle Wave Crest. After the twisting path through the forest, they
came to a road. This road lead to the North to Castle Caldera and to
the East to Castle Wave Crest. When the party arrived at the fork where
the path took it seperate directions they noticed the flames. To their
right, heading North was a wall of flames as wide as the eye could see.
To the left was a path just as wide of burned grass and trees.
	"Byron, what the hell is this?" Shamshir asked. Byron returned
a puzzled look at his friend. Nothing could explain this phenomenon.
Behind them Epiphon began to chant. Seconds later the sky began to
cloud up and a huge storm began to form. To the amazement of the whole
party a giant hand of water came down from the clouds and snuffed out
the giant wall of flames.
	"Thank you O great god of rain for sending the quenching
water," Epiphon said after the clouds had cleared. Byron and Shamshir
both turned to look at Epiphon who looked like nothing out of the
ordinary had happened.
	"What was that?" Shamshir asked. The wizard simply laughed and
looked at Vhad. The King was also laughing.
	"That my friend was the hand of Layr, the god of rain. My
friend Epiphon here has great power does he not? I have seen most all
of them now. The gods have very much favor with Epiphon. They find him
as kindred," Vhad explained. To this Byron and Shamshir replied only
with blank stares. Then Vhad suggested that they make haste to the
Castle to report the strange fire and also to get back on schedule. The
party started riding again. Shamshir decided that he was going to go
take a closer look so he sped off in the direction that the flames were
burning.
	"What other surprises does the Man-Beast have? He is three
times faster than the very horse I sit on." Vhad commented on the
flight of Shamshir.
	"If you only knew the half of it," Byron replied.

Castle Caldera 1045 A.D.
	"There it is," Threais said. He stood at the top of the
mountain with the Eyeless One and ten elite soldiers. Before him was
the huge lake that filled the crater of the volcano. In the center he
saw the island that held the prison castle. It was an old castle with
vines covering much of it. It had a large tower in the center and a
slightly smaller tower on each of the corners. "Eyeless One, the castle
is before us," Threais said.
	"Take me to the water," he said. A soldier placed the wizard's
hand on his shoulder and walked him down to the water. When he felt the
water on his feet he leaned over. He began to chant a spell, then after
a few moments he touched the water. With the amazement of Threais and
the soldiers the water froze in a path that reached all the way to the
island in the middle.
	"You never cease to surprise me wizard," Threais commented. He
lead the group onto the ice. The anticipation was killing him. This man
was to help him gain the throne of the Two Kingdoms.  Leoric would
never see him coming. About half way across the ice bridge he began to
pick his pace up. He would be King. Soon he was jogging. Leoric would
pay for what he did. He was running to the gate now. He began to scream
a war charge. The gaurds inside the castle noticed the party coming
across the bridge and began to shoot flaming balls of tar at the
bridge. Threais' soldiers began to run to cover along the walls of the
castle. One of them yelled over to the Eyeless One to run for his life.
The wizard just kept his idle pace toward the Castle.
	The fire balls came closer and closer to the Eyeless One. He
stopped about three fourths of the way across the bridge and held his
hands out to his sides. Now the fireballs hit at the wizards feet and
to his sides. Then the inevitable happened. A fire ball hit the Eyeless
One square in the chest, setting his clothing and his skin on fire.
	"You have finally hit me! Congratulations! NOW YOU DIE!" he
screamed. With a quick chant the Eyeless one turned his hands to the
sky above. Huge flames began to fall from the sky. They bombarded the
castle. Within a few minutes all of the walls had fell in on themselves
and the gaurds were dead. He then waved his hands over his body and the
flames were extinguished. His clothes were restored and his skin looked
as if nothing had happened to him. Then the Eyeless One walked calmly
past the soldiers and Threias into the ruined castle. "Follow me," he
said.
	Down, down, down, the spiraling staircase, the Eyeless One lead
Threias. When he reached the bottom of the stairs a scream erupted from
the dungeon in front of them. "ITS MINE!" the voice screamed.
	"Who or what is that?" Threais asked the wizard. With a small
laugh the wizard blew the door open.
	"That is the man we came to find," he replied. The two walked
along a small hallway until they came to a single room. The window had
been boarded up. The only hole in the door was a small slot in the very
bottom of the door where it looked like food had been supplied to the
prisoner. The wizard placed his hands on the door. He pulled it back
quickly and waved it in the air. "It is magically sealed. No matter,"
he said. He said a small chant again and the solid metal door melted
into a heap upon the floor.
	Before them sat a man. He looked miraclulusly healthy for a man
in a dungeon. There were chains that bound his writsts and ankles tothe
corners of the back wall. He wore a metal helmet with only his mouth
showing. The eye holes had been sealed with metal plates. The man stood
when he noticed them standing there.
	"You need not fear. We are here to set you free," Threias said.
Leoric would soon recieve his due payments. And at the hands of this
strange man.