Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 600: Duty, honor or an old promise (2)

The majority of people in Vernium is from the Veranian tribes. There is the Backlands Veranian tribe and there is the Mainland Veranian tribe.

The Backlands refer to those who live in the land of Novus Gaia. 

In the old ancestral lands like those other ten tribes. 

But while the ten tribes occupied the most fertile lands and forest, the land that the Veranian was given was near the Darkness

As for the Mainland, it is the land inside the Darkness. 

The land of the Three Kingdoms. Varnikar and him were both from the Mainland. 

And unlike the people of the ten tribes they did not live in huts or moving tents like the Saranites.

They live in a house, in a land belonging to them. 

Land property rights is something very foreign to the thirteen tribes but those who live inside the Three Kingdom is very accustomed to this.

While the culture is different from those of the other continent, the system seems quite the same. 

He and Varnikar was neighbors when they were children. 

They develop quite the good friendship. 

When Varnikar was making his name known all over the Three Kingdoms as he hunts the Darkspawn, Vaishraya was climbing the ladder of the political circle of Vernium government

In the end, he was schemed by one of the minister of the Kingdom and was about to be executed but Varnikar using his clout of influence in the capital to force the King to retract the order of execution.

Since then, Vaishraya was appointed as one of the Lord Commander of the Four Fortress of Maroth.

He was happy to see his old friend, yet Vaishraya is also worried about what his friend is trying to do.

There is a chair with some cotton cushion in the room. 

It is not as ostentatious as those kings and emperors on the other continent but it does demonstrate that there is nothing lacking.

'Raya, are you concerned? Varnikar said as he took his seat. It is clear from the way Varnikar said Vaishraya name that they are close. 

Vaishraya bitterly smiles as he went to one of the shelves and brought out a drink. It is brandy. 

He got it from a Leviathan pirate who got it by plundering the pirates of the Emerald Sea. 

There are also all kinds of wine inside the shelf. 

But not all of it is the kind of wine that his old friend would like

His old friend did not like being ostentatious like those high people in the other continents that likes to swirl the wine in their glass before drinking it.

He prefers white liquor based off grain. But brandy is good enough.  He brought out a glass cup and pour down the brandy. Varnikar look at this and chuckles

'It seems life has been treating you well, old friend'

'This position is given to me by you. I should thank you instead' Vaishraya said as he took his seat on the opposite side of the table. It is a study table carved with great artful expression.

The fortress might look bleak from the outside. But the interior is very beautiful and had a certain charm to it.

Maroth had a lot of financial means. 

As they have magic towers they easily destroy any horde of Darkspawn before. 

The skins, the fangs and the core of monsters they get from their extermination job enables them to trade with many of the merchant in the Three Kingdoms and even other continents.

Of course, the only continent that they rarely trade with is the Human Continent, or the so called Davarus

The route of going there is very dangerous. The seas that they have to cross is so wide and so full of dangers that the risk outweighs the benefit

Varnikar look around the office and saw a few lore books and then he said with a smile

'Now, you believe me?'

Hearing this, Vaishraya face expression become complicated

'I was wrong before' Varnikar only smiles listening to Raya admitting to it after all of these years.

'But, it did not mean you are right' Raya said.

Varnikar could only shake his head as he takes a gulp of the brandy. Stubborn, he thought to himself.

'I doubt you inviting me to meet you is simply to tell me this' Varnikar said after finished taking that gulp.

Raya shakes his head and simply said

'I heard that the Capital had summoned the High Lords to Arqua'

Varnikar nodded and Raya continued. 

'There is an Outlander Monarch in Balhae' He look toward Varnikar trying to see if he could read the emotions of his old friend from his expression

He was sorely disappointed as he could not see any changes on the face of his old friend.

He continued. 

'Word on the capital is that the Outlander Monarch is an Emperor of a large Empire in Davarus'

Still, there is no reaction from his old friend. Sighing, he then continued 

'Now, if the stories of the old is to be believed the four corners of the New World is separated from the world of Men'

'Did you check it?' Varnikar suddenly interjected.

Raya shook his head. Varnikar chuckles a bit and then said

'I thought you would. You are the kind of man who believes fact and not stories.  For almost half of my life, I try to convince you of the Truth. Yet, you were always one foot in the mortal world and always hesitate to take the plunge. I have come to accept it. You were my old friend. But I could not make you believe in what I believe. I could only lead you to it' Smiling, he then added

'It is quite weird seeing you talk about lore and Old Stories.' Varnikar chuckles again. Raya sighed as he said

'It is hard to pass the Wide Mountain' Hearing this Varnikar finally understood. 

It is not that this friend of him suddenly become suddenly a devout of the Old Stories or believed in it as he did, but he was limited by certain limitation that causes him unable to verify this magical sight by himself.

'Ah, the mountain people. I admit, they are very guarded when it comes to their mountain. And since the Darkness has been lifted from the Three Kingdoms, some of my associates in the Capital had been telling me, that the envoys of the King were sent back to the Capital. It seems the mountain people had their own thoughts'

Raya supplemented Varnikar information by saying

'There is a King in the Mountains now. At least that is what I heard'

Varnikar only smiles as he said

'There is a few hundred settlements of people all over the stretches of the shore from the west to the east. It would be a monumental task to unite all of those settlement. But, I am not surprised. The Mountain people might not know the lore as much as us, but to those who have read it, they all know that this is nothing shocking. As the tribulation nears, kings and warlords would rise. This are the tribulation of Asrana. Whether they know it or not, they were guided by destiny and fate.'

The northern part of the kingdom is where the land of Vernium meets the sea. 

But before one could see the sea, one must pass the Wide Mountain that stretched from west to the east of the northern part of the kingdom. 

Further north of the mountain is the open seas. The Vernium kingdom had also wanted access to sea. 

Out of the Three Kingdoms, Vernium Kingdom did not have such an easy access to the sea.

On the north, the road leading to the sea, there is a mountain range from the west to east, like some wall or a barrier that kept out the people of Vernium from the sea.

On the southern part of the two other kingdom bordering with Vernium. On the far east of the kingdom sainted of having the shore like Surkeye in Luxermbough, there is another patch of land that no person of the Three Kingdoms dare tread which is the Void Lands.

The Void Lands is the darkest and the most dangerous patch of land in the Three Kingdoms. Even when the Three Kingdoms was shrouded with the Darkness it was not as dark as the land in the Void Lands.

Even if one only travel around the edges of the Void Lands, one would frequently encounter dangerous and large monsters that spawn from the miasma coming out from the Void Lands.

No one knows what is happening in the Void Lands right now. 

Ashwind is the closest state to the Void Lands and the distance between the states is very far so comprehensive report might not yet reach the Capital.

Because of this, when the Vernium kingdom explore the area to the north and found the mountain range, they were excited to find out that pass the tall mountain range is the sea