The Elemental Nobles

 He gave three sharp raps on the door, each giving a metal thud that echoed slightly down the hall. There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a loud pound and a voice, saying, "Damn it! I thought we said we wished to be undisturbed!"

A slight murmur came from someone else, their words inaudible through the door. The first voice sighed. "My … apologies." He didn't sound apologetic. "What is the reasoning behind your … interruption?"

"It's Zahyr Thunderforge, sir," Zahyr replied. "I've come because there is someone I'd like you to meet." There was no immediate answer, as they discussed among themselves what Zahyr had said. "If that's the case," a deeper voice said, "then come inside, and let's see this Nyoran you think we should meet."

Without hesitation, Zahyr pushed open the door. Opening it revealed a large room with ornate decorations, fancy arches and columns, and a large window allowing you to see the city and beyond. In the center of the room was a thick wooden table, and sitting in chairs around it were the Nobles. Each of them was wearing intricately detailed clothing, each with unique patterns woven into the fabric, as well as a crown that rested on each of their heads.

"So, this is who you wanted us to meet." A black furred Nyoran with flame markings said as he looked me up and down, "he doesn't look like mu-" he was saying before he suddenly stopped, staring at me.

His eyes narrowed as his hands burst into flames. "How dare you bring a Corrupted one to us!" He shouted, and as he said it, after a short pause, he warranted the same reaction with everyone else, save for a Lightning Nyoran with storm grey fur. "Now hold on, Kyros, Zahyr knows the risk that he was taking by bringing someone like him to us. He obviously wouldn't have done this without good reason, so let him speak."

The Fire Nyoran, Kyros, started at him with the same anger he had at me, but he seemed unfazed. "Fine." Kyros spat, "I'll give him a chance to 'explain', but be warned," he said as he glared right back at me, "If I even think you're lying, I won't hesitate to kill you both."

"He's insane." I thought to myself as Zahyr, seemingly unfazed, stepped in front of me and said, "The very reason why I brought him here is because I believe... no, I know that he is the one that you have asked us to find." Everyone seemed somewhat surprised, but Kyros just scoffed, "And how do you expect us to believe that? Sure, he matches the description, but that doesn't change the fact that he's been Corrupted."

"That may be true King," Zahyr cut in, "but he's different. He is the only one in all of our history that the Corruption is ineffective against, the only one that hasn't been consumed from it. And my proof for that, being that we met at he Duskmire, a little over a month ago, and when we met, he was already Corrupted. And since then, it has shown no signs of spreading at all."
Zahyr's words stunned everyone, even Kyros, who looked at us as if to determine if Zahyr was lying. After what felt like an eternity, Kyros let the flames extinguish, and only after they were out did he speak,

"Leave us." was all he said. Zahyr gave a bow to him, saying, "Normally I would listen without hesitation, but after seeing your reaction, I would like to stay here with Zarek."

"That wasn't a suggestion." Kyros said, his voice carrying the same anger once again. Feeling the tension rise, I decided to cut in. "He's right Zahyr, you should go." Zahyr turned to me with a look of surprise on his face, "I know, he just threatened to kill me, my heart's still pounding from it, but you're going to have to trust me, okay? There are things that I need to tell them only they can know."

"Fine." was all he said, and turning to the Nobles, he gave a deep bow before walking out, the door closing shut behind him. As soon as the door closed, I noticed the Lightning Nyoran relax, dropping his shoulders and breathing a sigh of relief.

"You need to get your son under control." Kyros snapped at him. "And what makes you think he would listen?" he replied, a smile forming on his face, "He's not normally one to respect and listen to higher authority, let alone his own father."

"Oh." I thought as I finally realized why the guards called Zahyr a Prince. The Nyoran turned away from Kyros and faced me, "We're sorry about giving you such a fright, but our experiences with those Corrupted have been … unpleasant to say the least. But enough about that, what's your name boy?"

"It's Zarek, uh King."

"Well it's certainly a pleasure to meet you, Zarek, and you may simply call me Thorren." He replied, a smile still on his face. "Come closer, I won't hurt you, although the same can't be said for our friend Kyros here."

"That's King Kyros to you, boy," he said through gritted teeth, "and don't get too comfortable, your usefulness is yet to be seen." At that moment, I realized that we were not going to get along at all.

A bit hesitant, I limped over to the table where they stood, wincing slightly with each step. "Here, take my seat," Thorren said, pulling his chair out for me, "you seem to be injured, may I ask what happened?"

"I was attacked by Duskwraiths," I said as I sat down, and as I said it, I could feel the tension in the room rise. "One of them managed to claw my face," gesturing towards my bandaged face, "and another shot me with an arrow," gesturing towards my side and blood-stained shirt.

"Thank the Guardians you survived." A Nyoran with blue-green fur and water markings said, sitting at the opposite end of the table, "Who knows what would have been of the fulfillment of the prophecy if you haven't."

I gave a nod to her, "Again with the prophecy, what does it even say about me?" I thought to myself, as someone else cut in, this time a Nyoran with near white, blue fur and markings that seemed to resemble shards of ice. "Let's not jump to conclusions, we have yet to determine if this boy is truly the One."

"I ... might have a way to prove to you that I'm the One." I said sheepishly, "And what might that be?"

"My first day in Tenoria, I had a dream, and I met someone, a Nyoran. He told me to call him Veythar, but only after telling me that he was the Guardian of Balance." I paused for a short moment, expecting for some sort of reaction from them, but they said nothing, either too stunned to do so, or simply letting me further explain, so I continued, "He told me that I was chosen to be a representative of the Guardians, and told me about you, the Elemental Nobles, how I was to come see you as soon as possible, because of the prophecy."

Standing up, I stepped back until they were able to see me fully, "When I met Veythar, my leg was burning with the pain from the Corruption, and he healed me, made the marks fade. If that's not proof, I don't know what is." I limped back to the table and sat down, still in a collective silence as they seemed to process what I said.

"Your story has certainly proven to be quite informative." This time, it was a brown furred Nyoran, his markings the shape and color of vines. "It seems we have much to discuss. We'll arrange a room to stay in, fresh clothes to wear, and a doctor to address your wounds."

I gave him a nod as I stood up, "Thank you for you hospitality, King...?"

"Sylas... Sylas Stonewall."

"Thank you Sylas," I said to him, "one more thing." I said, suddenly remembering something. Reaching into my shirt, I grabbed my chain and pulled it out, only now just remembering I had that. "Are you able to tell me what this means?" I asked him, pointing to the cross on it. Sylas leaned in close to get a good look at it, "Unfortunately no, that's not any symbol I've ever seen before. Why do you ask?" He replied, straightening up once more. "Oh, no reason, it's just something I've had with me the whole time, but I've lost all of my memories, so I can't remember what it meant."

Sylas seemed a bit confused when I mentioned I lost my memories, but he said nothing about it. "Well, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. I've delayed you long enough, Thorren will help you out."

I gave him a nod as Thorren put a hand on my shoulder as he led me out of the room. When he opened the door, I saw Zahyr leaning on the wall, apparently waiting for me to come out. Seeing Thorren, he suddenly stiffened, standing up straight.

"My King," He said with a bow, his tone more serious than I had ever heard before. "Commander," Thorren said back, "Take Zarek here to a room, and arrange for a doctor to check his wounds, and bring fresh clothes for him too." Zahyr gave him a nod and wrapped his arm around my shoulder as he led me away to the room.

As soon as we were out of sight, I felt Zahyr relax, dropping his shoulders as he breathed a sigh of relief. I was going to say nothing, but I couldn't help but wonder what that was about. "So... Sylas, he's your dad, huh?" He looked surprised, "He told you?" he asked. "Not exactly, when you left, Kyros told him to get you under control, and he just replied saying that you don't exactly listen to authority, much less his."

"He said that?" he asked, groaning when I nodded, "By the Guardians he's so ridiculous. Well ... he's right anyways, I've never really cared about being a Prince ... That's why I became a Commander in the first place, so I could leave this life behind."

"Why?" I asked him, and he looked away, staring ahead. "Because I wanted to be free from all the expectations, to be seen as more than just an heir to my father's throne." He said, sounding sort of upset, but he quickly hid it, "Besides, I'm only going to be a King when my father gives the throne to me, and I hardly doubt that's happening anytime soon." It seemed like a sensitive subject to him, so I let it be.

Thankfully, we didn't have to walk much farther to reach the entrance to the room, and it was a lavish space with an ornate bed and a balcony that overlooked the city. "Wow," I said in surprise, "this is ... amazing. Definitely the nicest room I've been in."

"Yeah, it's nice," Zahyr said as I let go of him and limped over to the bed, "It's been a while since I've been in a room like this, but I never minded the beds we slept on." Throwing myself on the bed, I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the comfort of the bed envelop me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said to him, “But compared to this, what we slept on was garbage.”

“Hey, that’s you’re opinion, not mine,” he said jokingly, “but anyway, I’ll leave you alone for now, I need to find Kaida anyways and tell her what happened. There’s a washroom behind the door,” gesturing to a door on the opposite side of the balcony, “and some Nyorans should come to help you out.” I sat up as he said this, “Thank you, Zahyr, or should I say my ‘Prince’?” I said as I gave a mock bow before wincing from the pressure it put on my wound.

“Ha ha, hilarious,” he said, cracking a smile, “make that joke when you’re better, not now. But anyway, don’t mention it, it’s the least I could do for you considering all the crap you’ve been put through the past month.” He gave a final nod to me and walked to the door. “I’ll see you soon,” was the last thing he said before he left, closing the door behind him.

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The next hour was pretty uneventful; all I did was wash myself off in the washroom, cleaning myself of all the dirt and blood - my fur had collected from being outdoors for a month. Afterwards, a doctor came by to check on my wounds. Thankfully, he didn’t panic when he saw the Corruption in my face, since he was actually one of the doctors who treated my wounds that night. He didn’t say much; he just cleaned my wounds and left. Afterwards, I went to the balcony and looked at the view, and I was completely taken away by how much I could see, both in the city and beyond the walls. It made me realize just how real my whole situation was.

After I enjoyed the view, I was going to lie on the bed when a glint of light caught my attention. I realized that there was a mirror hanging on the wall in the room, and I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before. I limped over to it, realizing that I never once had a chance to see what I properly looked like. I didn’t know what to expect, since I had the same characteristics of every other Nyoran I’ve met, except for the white fur. The only distinctive feature I had was that my eyes were a surprisingly neutral grey.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door. When I limped over and opened the door, I came face to face with a Nyoran carrying a pile of clothes and a wooden cane of sorts. “This is for you,” he said as he extended both objects. 

“The Nobles have said that they wish to speak with you as soon as possible, so get dressed and come with me.” Nodding, I took the items out of his hands and closed the door. Leaning the cane on the wall I slipped out of my old, blood-stained clothes and put on the new ones that they gave me. They felt lighter, the fabric softer, and woven with amazing patterns across the shirt. Afterwards, I grabbed the cane and took a closer look at it. It was an ordinary wooden cane, nothing fancy about it, but it was just the right size for me to use to walk around without any assistance.

“Nice, this will really help me.” I thought to myself as I opened the door, the Nyoran began leading the way, with me following behind. The cane definitely helped; it made it easier to walk without having to rely on anybody, as well as lessening the pain caused by the movement.

He led me back to the room where I had met with them before. The Nyoran opened the door and gestured for me to enter, closing the door behind me as I walked through. There, sitting at the table, were the Nobles once again. “It’s good to see you again,” Sylas said to me. “Come, sit,” he gestured to an extra chair at the table.

I limped to the chair and sat down, and no sooner than I had done so that Kyros decided to speak.

“Let’s get right to the point. We’ve discussed it for quite a while, and we’ve reached a conclusion. Based on your testimony and the proof you’ve given, we trust that you are in fact the One.”

“Thank you Veythar.” I thought to myself, “So what does that mean?” I asked him.

“It means that we are going to tell you all you need to know in preparation for what is to come,” Thorren said.

For some reason, this worried me, I had no idea what I meant to do, but I was at least relieved that I was going to learn.

“So," he continued, "I think it's best we start at the beginning."

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Note from Author:

Hey guys, sorry it took so long to finally write this chapter (over a month). 

This was mostly my fault, even though I had duel enrollment classes and projects, I ended up procrastinating.

And I'm sorry you guys had to wait so long to read it, but this is probably how it's going to be, school is taking up most of my time, and I think my worry of posting this as soon as possible made me procrastinate more.

I'm not going to stop, I'm probably going to take longer to write chapters now, so I don't accidentally burn myself out or get overwhelmed.

It's not just that, I've been writing my chapters a lot longer than before (this one's 2.7k words), so writing that much in one chapter is definitely going to take time.

TL;DR: chapters are going to take longer to write, I want it to be for fun rather than a burden.

(P.S. I'm sorry if it felt rushed near the end, I'm writing this at 1:00 am, I'll try to fix it later or not)

(I'll also delete this part in like a week or so, or when I add the next chapter)