Sweet Waters Throne

88 Chapter 8During the golden hour Aurora gained her consciousness after being out for over five hours. She woke up exhausted and requested a bath, the servants delivered it and when she was done, Artemis came to her. He was so eager to know what happened to her and the sudden seizure which came out of nowhere the moment she touched Lady Aryan.

They took a walk on the gardens of the castle where they were free from peoples’ ears and the walls which always proved to have ears and they could talk.

Artemis asked straightaway “What happened?” with haste and excitement.

Aurora didn’t seem to be in a hurry to say the things she saw to her husband; she went on to sit on a log right there in the garden and Artemis followed and sat beside her. “My visions are quite clear now” said Aurora.

Then she turned back and reached out for a tree which was nearby, Artemis just watched as Aurora closed her eyes and chanted a few spells. Suddenly, there were strong winds which passed for a minute and picked up leaves and lighter stuffs. The sun was setting and it was getting cold, since it was winter there shouldn’t be such winds – but it was Aurora’s powers which caused the winds.

“What did you see my love?”

Aurora stopped and took her hand off the tree, just like what Visenya taught her to ask the nature for strength and power, she did exactly that. She was after all a Morrow and a Dark Crawler, she might as well just embrace her nature.

But there was something inside her which must have been very dark that she didn’t want to share with her husband. Whatever she saw in Aryan’s future was way too dark and scary for her to even begin telling Artemis.

She finally reached a conclusion and decided to tell Artemis “I saw Lady Aryan on a throne” she started. “She wore a golden crown with blue sapphires on the front, and then I -” Aurora paused.

.....

“Tell me, tell me everything”

While trembling Aurora brought herself to speak “I saw her killing you” This was the ultimate prophecy which even Artemis himself didn’t see it coming. His eyes widened with amazement especially since he just had a profound good moment with Lady Aryan.

Before Lady Aryan left, she clearly told him that she wasn’t her enemy. Then how come she wouldn’t want to kill him? None of this made sense.

Being so shocked about the news of his death which he wasn’t aware when it will happen, Artemis stood up softly while maintaining his silence. “Did I die?” he asked.

“I... I didn’t see you dying but she was swinging her sword on your belly”

“Maybe I survive, maybe I’ll push myself backwards and she will miss”

“I don’t know... that’s all I get” A very panicked and unstable Aurora stood up too and started to walk back and forth. “What’s the meaning of all this? All I dream about is this war, and I thought it’ll be you and Gandalf. I have seen my dragons unleashing flames on the lions, I have seen kingdoms burn but I just never know...” Aurora wept.

Artemis felt a responsibility to calm Aurora down, he reached out and hugged her tight. “How can I save you and our children if all I dream is destruction and never a solution” she continued to weep.

“Maybe it’s the destructions which will help us to foresee the challenges. Why is she wearing a crown? Does she murder her brother and take the kingdom?

That was a good question Artemis asked, Aurora even stopped crying and looked into her husband’s eyes. They went back to sit on the log and discuss further about what Aurora saw in her visions and what it meant for them and their children.

By the next day Artemis hasted to crown Lord Affrey Trill as the new Lord of Old City early in the morning and it was followed by a brief celebration. Later on the caravan prepared to leave the city because Aurora was in haste to go back to her grandmother and tell her what she saw, and also it was time she made a journey to the Dark Town where it all began.

When the Dark Crawlers of House Morrow arrived in Maldonia with their dragons almost a thousand years ago, they resided in Dark Town and that’s where they ruled from till their last days when they were all murdered and a new king arose. They controlled all the cities, from Blackmount in Maldonia to Raven in Prophis to Penrith across the Silent Sea.

Their golden pale hairs were the symbol of royalty and power, it seemed like everyone in the kingdom wanted to be a Morrow. They styled themselves as “gods of the land” and the first king was known as Alienor Morrow, a twenty-year-old young man who owned the biggest dragon in the world, it is said Alienor’s dragon flames could melt the iron and stones. He ruled the kingdoms for twenty years before he died in battle when he was just forty years of age.

Alienor’s legacy and triumph in ruling the kingdoms and men alike has been told in almost all the books which Aurora have been reading. The legend speaks of his strength and his height because he was six foot and eight inches, towering all his servants and good folks alike.

The good folks believed Alienor to be a real god. “He is taller than us mortals, he conquered the kingdoms and he flies. That is a god to you” they said everywhere from Maldonia to the Liberty Cities which weren’t liberty during the ruling of House Morrow. They were termed as the Kingdom of Sea.

The Morrows ruled all the rivers and isles alike, all the lords of these places acknowledged Alienor’s powers and the ones who refused burned while their sons watched. There was no mercy shown to those who disobeyed Alienor and he was a good fighter too.

For his size, some thought he wouldn’t be good at swinging his sword but every single time he proved them wrong. Alienor had five wives, it was custom for the Morrows to take many wives but within the tribe. No one was allowed to wed a foreigner and according to what they believed “a mortal” because they styled themselves as gods.

But that didn’t stop them from mating and fathering bastards with low-borns, however these bastards could never be proved to be Morrows because their hairs never grew to be golden pale and that’s because they never had powers to ride a dragon and neither were they given eggs to hatch. King Alienor himself is said to have had ten bastards while he had fifteen children from his five wives.

The fifteen children Aleinor had, only five were sons while the rest were daughters. Each wife gave Alienor a son, but his first born son Milo Morrow was the one who was named “Prince of Dark Town and heir to the Morrow Kingdom” These children gained their golden pale hairs when they first claimed their dragons, and just like their father – they all flew high above the sky overlooking down at the small folks who they called them mortals.

The chronicles record of the moment when the sky of Maldonia, Prophis and Kingdom of the Sea was overcrowded by dragons. The children flew everyday whenever they felt like flying, the palace in Dark Town is said to have been the biggest palace to ever been built in Maldonia.

People came to Dark Town just to see the House of the gods standing so high and the dragons circling it every day. No one dared to get even closer to the palace, it was forbidden for mortals to step inside the house of the gods. There were no council chambers in palace, and neither were lords invited by Alienor to discuss matters of states.

“What’s there to discuss when I rule over the world?” Alienor once told his son, Milo when they went flying together. He was preparing him to be great just like him, and his number one advice to Milo was never to associate with the mortals. “They are beneath us, we are their superiors because we have dark magic and dragons. Don’t ever forget that son”

And hence when Alienor died during the battle which wiped up half the population of Prophis during that time by fire, Milo Morrow was crowned King of Morrow Kingdom when he was eighteen and just like his father he ruled the kingdoms and men alike.

Milo inherited his father’s dragon and rode her during the day of his coronation, every king must ride this biggest dragon in the world as a sign of strength and power. Milo took two wives unlike his father, they were good Morrow girls with golden pale hairs and their dragons. Even though Milo was the true heir to the throne, his brother grew envy of him and his power.

This wasn’t what led to the disappearance of the Dark Crawlers in Maldonia, there is a deep history about these warlocks that even Aurora herself needed a long time to learn all of them and gained herself a dragon.