Braun: Success and Failure

Gyorn and I received our own rooms at a luxurious inn, while Lord Xax was escorted to the palace towering over the city.

We were both tired from the trip, so first thing we did after settling in, was go wash off some stress in a public bath.

“Aaaaahhh” I said as I submerged myself in a hot bath after taking a cold shower. “It feels so nice to be clean…”

“It’s weird, I don’t know what you are talking about,” Gyorn replied.

I looked at him confusedly but then remembered that he spent most of his life in the mine shafts, so it was obvious which feeling he would be more used to.

Gyorn always wore a serious and calm complexion, even in an unfamiliar place. The boy, who was now clean, revealed an even more impressive physique for his age than I thought. He was built out of pure muscle and was one head taller than me, standing somewhere on par with Lord Xax.

His black hair and brown eyes fit his demeanor well; a completely unassuming boy if you don’t take his build into account.

“Are you ever anxious about anything?” I asked him out of the blue.

“Not really. I have been alone in this world since birth; there is nothing left to be afraid of except death. But even then, I don’t fear it. We will all die eventually anyway. Some of us will go sooner than others, is all.”

After a short silence, I spoke up.

“I was alone too, but now I have you and brother Xax. Do you still consider yourself alone even though you have us?”

“I suppose not.”

After clearing the slightly morbid mood I created in the bath, we left and planned our next steps.

We had a lot of time on our hands. We didn’t know when, and if, Lord Xax would return today, so we needed a way to entertain ourselves.

“You want to explore the city?” I proposed to Gyorn.

“Yeah, its not like we can do anything else at the moment,” he said pausing for a minute. “Let’s go somewhere there, there, then there?” he asked pointing his finger everywhere around us and looking for my approval.

He was horrible with directions, but I understood exactly what he meant. I nodded and we set off to conquer the metropolis.

We approached the lively city square. They were selling a lot of interesting things there. Food, weapons, accessories, whatever your heart desired was in here.

There were even peculiar game stalls with interesting prizes. I have never seen anything like it.

All you needed was money, which we didn’t have.

“I want to buy something memorable…” I said, probing my empty pockets, hoping to find some money in there. But I knew even without checking, we were the poorest people in this entire city.

“You want me to buy you something from here?” asked Gyorn as he pointed at a weapon shop.

“Are you sure?” I asked, “Do you even have money on you?”

“Yeah, the envoys escorting Xax gave me some so we can pass by time while he is in there dealing with whatever he is dealing with.”

“What?!” I shouted, “How come you got money, and I didn’t?”

“They gave both of our shares to me because I am older,” he replied calmly.

I couldn’t argue with that.

“So what, you are going to buy me something with my own money? Thanks...” I said crossly.

At that moment he bent down towards me and whispered in my ear.

“Be careful, people here are trying to pickpocket every chance they get. They tried to steal it from me 9 times already,” he said quietly.

“What?!”

“Do you still want your share?” he asked.

“No… I’ll leave it to you,” I answered, frantically looking around us.

We went up to the shop and chose a small, shiny knife that felt perfect in my small hand. This was going to be my second personal possession after the necklace Kryterius gave me.

“That’s going to be 10 yul, kind sirs.”

At that moment, while we were paying for our purchase, someone reached in behind Gyorn and attempted to snatch the money he had on his belt.

As if perfectly aware of this, Gyorn grabbed the man’s hand without even looking and pulled him out of the thick crowd to the front.

Before I, or anyone else, could even see the person’s face, Gyorn took hold of his entire arm, wrapped it around his own shoulder, and threw the thief into the neighboring stand, in one fluid motion.

There was nothing left from the display.

“AAHHHHHHH! MY SHOP! WHO WILL PAY FOR THIS?!” said the unlucky owner.

Gyorn remained expressionless and pointed his finger at the person lying on the remains of the wooden construction.

“When he wakes up, he will pay for everything,” he replied, “I suggest you tie him down, so he doesn’t get away.”

“Let’s go Braun.”

We nonchalantly left the square as if nothing happened and headed for our next destination.

“Where did you learn that?” I asked him in awe.

“What? The throw?” he asked, “I used to fight every day after working at the mine. On my way to buy food, older kids used to gang up on me because I looked poor.”

“Sorry to hear that…”

“They ganged up on me, but it wasn’t much different from a one-on-one fight. Don’t worry.”

“Wow! Do I need more muscle like you to be able to do that? Can you teach me?” I requested, impressed with his rich experience.

He looked at me skeptically, “If you want to, sure. But I never hold back.”

“That’s fine!”

The sun would start setting soon.

While we continued exploring the city, Lord Xax was meeting his mother for the first time in years.

He entered the room and saw her sit on a chair, looking out of the balcony.

“Mother… It’s been a long time...” he said.

“Let me warn you, I don’t want to hear any of your excuses…” he muttered. “I have been doing alright, until recently… I was living in Marxes and even found a job… Though I doubt you care about any of that anyway…”

“Mother…”

“Are you ignoring me, even after I came all the way here?” said the boy irritably, clenching his fists.

“You haven’t seen me for years and you won’t even LOOK AT ME?” he shouted.

After a silent pause, Lord Xax stormed towards his mother.

“Mothe—”

His face turned a pale color, just like his mother in front of him.

As if awaiting the right moment, the envoys charged the room in a group.

“LORD XAX, HOW COULD YOU?! THAT WAS YOUR OWN MOTHER... THE QUEEN!” one of them yelled, barely containing his smile.

“MURDERER!” yelled another.

“TRAITOR TO THE STATE!”

Laughter was filling the room. They were no longer suppressing their amusement.

“You fucking scumbags…” said the boy, sweating profusely.

He understood what was going on perfectly.

They started approaching Lord Xax, but he was quick. Before they got any closer, he jumped over the balcony and off a slanted cliff.

It was a rough fall.

He broke his left hand and badly injured his right knee in the process.

It was taking him all of his strength to stand up.

Still, he was alive.

Another couple of minutes, and he would most likely be joining his mother.

‘There weren’t any wounds or blood on her, so she was probably poisoned...' he thought to himself.

The pain was clouding Lord Xax’s thought process.

His new clothes he had worn to appear before his mother, were torn to shreds and doused with blood.

He limped out onto an empty street and into the heart of the city.

The deeper he went, the more concerned, and distasteful gazes kept concentrating on him.

He just wanted to get as far away as possible.

He was sure they must be tailing him already.

As he got out onto yet another street, he stopped in his tracks.

“BROTHER!”

“Xax. What the hell happened to you…”

Before him stood the only people he could trust.

“Quick, let’s get out of here!” said Lord Xax urgently. “They killed her… My mother…”

Gyorn’s face instantly turned serious.

“Where do we go?” he asked calmly.

I remained speechless. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Uuuh... Did you see any storm drains while walking?” asked Lord Xax in a hurry.

“Yes,” said Gyorn, “They looked like they run pretty deep.”

“There.”

“Alright,” replied Gyorn, arching his back, “climb on.”

Lord Xax climbed on the back of the boy, and we made pace towards the drainage system.

“How are your injuries, brother…” I asked.

“Don’t worry Braun, they are not that bad…”

But I saw his sweating face. He was trying to put up a tough front to not worry me. A broken hand, possibly broken knee and cuts all over his body couldn’t be anything but excruciating.

I was disappointed in myself. Gyorn knew about the storm drains, but I didn’t even notice. I felt useless when it mattered most.

When we arrived inside the long, spacious tunnels, Gyorn gently placed Lord Xax on the ground.

The tunnel had a torch near the entry, which we lit up to see our surroundings.

It was already dark outside.

“I’ll go get some stuff to treat your injuries and fix the broken hand in place. I’ll be back,” Gyorn said, disappearing into the night.

“Thanks.”

Lord Xax was breathing heavily as he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He was in a lot of pain.

“Brother, what happened? Did someone attack you? …what do you mean they killed your mother?” I asked anxiously.

“Doesn’t look like I will be inheriting the throne anymore…” Lord Xax said as he laughed. “I was set up… let’s wait for Gyorn and I will let both of you in on what’s happening.”

“Alright…” I said.

We waited and waited.

But Gyorn, wouldn’t return until hours later.

Also injured and covered in blood.

“Gyorn!” I said running up to him, “What happened?!”

“It’s swarming with them up there…” he said, “the idiots tried to ambush me… and they almost succeeded,” he added as he raised his shirt, showing a cauterized wound on the right side of his stomach. “Haha…”

“W-Wha—”

He sat down and leaned against the tunnel wall.

“They remember every single one of us, Xax, they’re searching the entire city right now,” he said while placing some clean cloth and sticks he brought for Lord Xax’s broken hand, to the side. “Only a matter of time until they find us…”

Neither Lord Xax, nor I could respond with anything.

“I closed my wound so it should be fine. I barely got here though. I think I passed out 3 times on the way…” he said groaning in pain and sweating even harder than Lord Xax.

“Sorry you had to go through that for me...” said Xax dismally, “How did you manage to get away?”

There was a pause while the only noise that was audible was the dripping of water in the tunnel’s distance.

“I… killed them...” he replied grimly.

At that moment, both mine and Lord Xax’s eyes widened. We thought we misheard what he had just said.

“Never thought I would become a criminal, let alone murderer…” Gyorn said laughing, covering his face with one hand, his injured wound with the other.

There was no mistake.

“…no! That was self-defence… You had no choice!” I shouted back.

“No one is going to care about the details… There’s going to be a bounty on my head within hours,” he said dimly, “I am sorry…”

“…don’t be,” said Lord Xax, “I will have one soon, too. Or maybe I already have one.”

“What? …is this about your mother?” Gyorn asked gravely.

“Yeah… When I went to greet her earlier this afternoon, she was already dead… Then the envoys came in saying ‘how could you?’, ‘murderer’, ‘traitor’ to me. The pests couldn’t stop laughing…”

“They will blame her death on me, and I will never see the light of day again,” Lord Xax said aggrievedly.

“…brother…”

“Why… Why do I feel sorrow for someone who betrayed me and ruined my life?!” he shouted.

We sat there in silence and listened as rain started to heavily pour down outside.

Things couldn’t get any worse; both Gyorn and Lord Xax were incapacitated and unable to move. I was the only one that remained unscathed.

“Xax, I think we should go deeper into the tunnels... They will find us if we stay here,” said Gyorn.

“Yeah, I agree… How long do you think we have before they come here?” Lord Xax asked.

“Roughly 2 hours.”

“And what if it doesn’t go any deeper?”

“…it’s been nice knowing you?”

They both laughed.

While it lifted the glum mood, the situation wasn’t getting any better. We were all head-deep in shit.

We couldn’t continue staying idle in one place.

“I will go explore the tunnel. Please let me.” I said, “You should both rest...”

After thinking about it, Lord Xax gave me the thumbs up.

“Alright. Take the torch on the wall and be careful… Braun,” said Lord Xax, “We’re counting on you…” he added, smiling through pain.

“Yes, brother.” I said, going into the darkness and leaving them both behind.

The winding tunnel extended for miles. It had a lot of pathways that could be connected, so I scratched the letter ‘X’ on the walls with my pocketknife to know where I was coming from.

The entire drain tunnel was abandoned. No one ever set foot in here and the only noises I heard were from rats or other small animals.

It was a serene environment, enough to drive you crazy had you been here all alone.

After an hour or so of looking through this labyrinth-like drain system, I found the deepest point, which also extended to an even deeper cave but was blocked off by a gate that guarded the way. There was no getting past, at least I didn’t know how to.

I decided to head back to let Lord Xax and Gyorn know of my findings.

While I was returning, they were still resting there quietly, back at the entry.

They patched up each other’s injuries during my absence.

It was darker than ever now, with only the moon lighting up the entryway.

Suddenly, something like a twig snapped outside the tunnel.

Needless to say, in complete silence this was extremely audible to even the deafest of people.

Gyorn turned around to face Lord Xax, extremely alarmed, silently pointing in the direction of the tunnel entry with his whole arm extended for dramatic purposes. He wasn’t the only one who heard it, Lord Xax just as alarmed, started violently nodding his head and gesturing that they have to get out of there.

They stood up and started limping together towards the darkness.

After a couple of minutes, they saw a light source approaching them.

“Broth—”

“Shhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” hissed Lord Xax.

There could only be so many things causing them to flee here while injured. After deducing what must have happened, I led them towards my discovery as quickly as possible.

When we arrived at the gate. They examined it together, thinking fast.

Gyorn pointed at the weakest looking metal bar and we nodded.

With combined effort, we started pulling. Both injured, their input into this task was limited, so I knew it was up to me to do most of the work. I placed both of my legs to anchor myself in a good position and started using all of my body to pull this thing out.

After some crumbling noises and blood coming out of my nose, we successfully freed one side. As things stood, I was the only one who would be able to fit inside.

With a little recuperation, we put all of our weight into bending it outwards so everyone could squeeze in the small hole.

As footsteps and light approached, we quickly got through and hid inside the cave.

It was the envoy group. They lit up the gate with their faint torches and didn’t see anything irregular. They quietly moved onwards, eventually leaving the tunnel.

We survived the day and continued successfully evading our capture for weeks.

Weeks turned into months.

Months into years.

With time, the cave we found, would later extend even farther underground, eventually earning the name Aireven, the city of criminals.

The Queen’s death would be attributed to Lord Xax’s cold hearted murder, resulting in the abolishment of the Neverian monarchy.

It would be years until we finally understood the significance of this event. Happening in every single kingdom, there would come a time where monarchy ceased to exist altogether. The only existing accounts of Kings would be in records of history.

It was the birth of Zepsis, the World Government.