2. The Warrior

“No, no, no! I told you I’m tired of these little defense missions.” Parkelous stomped around his room in disappointment. He was trained well, and fought with great ferocity. Somehow, he was denied the glory of battle. “For fifty years, I’ve been sent to the deserts, forests, and towns to defend small groups of people. And who do I have to fight? A small group of mortal bandits. Why can’t I fight some real threat like the heroes of old? Poleces fought the Dürken. Morfectos fought the D’rku’vni’ni. Even you got to fight the Hertire. Why do I get stuck defending this little bronze age species that will probably never to have to worry about being attacked?”

“Need I remind,” said Coliph, “how important a task this is? Your defending the race that carries the Jewel. You are of the few people who stand between order and chaos. And if you do well, you will be remembered as one of the greatest heroes of all time.”

“I’d rather fight off the Demon horde. These missions are boring. And besides, why don’t we just use the Jewel to wipe them out? They are mortal after all.”

“Half-mortal. Unfortunately, half of them has the ability to withstand the power of the Order. Remember, fighting a war is not glory. Ending one is. Plus, I have strong feeling this war will not end well. They have a weapon that kills gods.”

“Well, so do I.”

“Yes, but your sword fights for good. From what I’ve seen in Tropolis, these Demons crave nothing, but violence. I’m sure their sword does the same.”

“Look! I don’t care about this Terraheim or Certain-ga. I want to have some fun for once.”

“Actually, I think it’s pronounced like a Y. Certain-ya. Like in Norwegian.”

“I don’t care!”

Coliph sighed heavily. Convincing his former student to fight for righteousness and not selfishness couldn’t be done through words. “Alright, Park. Why don’t try thinking about the entire universe instead of just yourself for once? You may not like the task at hand, but it needs to be done. Just do it the best you can. Who knows? Maybe you’ll actually enjoy the job this time. I heard the Raelians are nice, and some of our kind have been desperate for Certainja’s hand.”

Park sighed and pushed his light brown hair back. “Alright, I’ll give it shot. But would it end the universe to get a different job for once?”

Certainja gazed out the window of her fortress. She watched as the clouds flowed across the sky, obscuring the sight Raela, the capital city dedicated to her grace. She had no fears when she couldn’t see the city. Her people were thriving. They had no enemies, no reason to fear the other races. All the other races tried to do is try to achieve the same level of strength the Raelians did. Besides, the cloud would move out of sight within a minute.

A young messenger walked into the observatory where the goddess was. “Your grace, I have word from the gods to deliver to you.”

Without taking her eyes of the clouds, she said, “What news do you bring? I hope they aren’t just complimenting me on how well I’m doing, guarding this race.”

“No, my queen. It’s much more serious. The gods say they are entrusting you with the Jewel.” The goddess took her eyes off of her city for once and stared back at the boy. “They say, ‘Due to recent circumstances, we must take drastic measures to ensure universal peace. To maintain that peace, we decided to move the Jewel to less well-known location. We have decided that you and the Raelians shall be given the honor of protecting this important item. Please make us proud. The safety of the universe depends on it.’”

Certainja looked out the window again. “Thank you. I will consider this message.” The messenger left the room.

“Drastic measures?” said a tall, think woman with long white hair stood next to the goddess. “The Triad must be in trouble.”

“I don’t think it’s that serious, Milay,” responded Certainja.

“The gods rarely give the Jewel away unless they are trying to hide it.”

“If they truly wanted to do so, they should have chosen a better spot.”

“You heard the message. They wanted a place that is not well-known. The Raelians are the first race on Terraheim to reach the Bronze Age. Most races throughout the universe have achieved technology comparable to the gods themselves.”

“We didn’t get much explanation of why they are sending the Jewel to us.”

“Yes, but we can only guess, if they said drastic measures.”

“Hopefully, we’ll get more explanation when we receive the Jewel itself.”

The goddess turned away from the window and walked towards the stairs to her room. She was a tall woman, though not quite as tall as her servant, Milay. Her hair was of a golden yellow, unlike Milay, who had pure white hair. Like Milay, her hair was naturally that color. Also like Milay, her hair was long, hanging halfway down her back. Her skin was a fair apricot color, whereas Milay had a dark tan skin. Despite their many differences in appearance, both maintained their youth quite well, and they had been close friends for as long as Milay began serving Certainja.

As she walked up the stairs, Certainja yelled down to Milay: “By the way, you know that new guard Gollus? I want him removed from duty for spying on me.”

“He’s been spying on you?”

“Unsuccessfully, I might add. I can tell because I’ve checked the area of the room. There is no possible way he can get a good angle of me. I can hear him grunting in anger behind the wall.”

“How do you know it’s him?”

“Because he has this stupid habit of yelling his name as he curses when he realizes his view is obscured.”

Milay smiled at this. “I’ll take care of it.”