Chapter 2: Uldar’s Legacy

“What th-?” he gasped.

The common room was chaos. Dozens of sacks and chests were piled against the wall; many were half-filled with clothes, tools, ornaments and anything that was portable. Most of the Lu family rushed back and forth, stuffing the bags with more supplies. Only Master Lu and Theresa were missing from the scene.

It was clear they were going on a trip.

A long one.

As he stepped into the room, the family froze in mid-step, looking at him with fear and worry. They looked as though he would turn into smoke and blow away at any moment.

“Alex,” Mrs. Lu began examining him. “Did you-”

“Alex!” a tiny voice cried.

A rapidly sprinting bundle of long chestnut hair and chubby cheeks slammed into his waist, nearly driving the breath from him. “Selina? What’s wrong?” he asked.

His ten year old sister looked up with large green eyes shining. “Master Lu heard that Th-the Chosen got found. S-so did The Saint.”

His heart nearly stopped.

“What?” he dropped the sack of gold on the floor; it landed with an ugly clink. “When!?”

“Today,” came the deep voice of Master Lu. The family patriarch was taking the stairs two at a time as though he were a man half his age. In his hands, he clutched the old Lu family ancestry book and the swords once wielded by his own grandfather.

Alex grew even more nervous. Those never left the master bedroom. Not ever.

He looked over to the mural on the inn’s wall. It was an amateur piece of art: painted through many hours of labour and love by himself, Mrs. Lu and Theresa. On the left was the ancient form of Uldar, the prophet-god that guided the people of Thameland. He was the first to face their eternal enemy.

On the right floated a blot of darkness being cut through by the Chosen’s sword.

The Ravener.

It was their eternal enemy who always arose—seeking to consume the Kingdom of Thameland as it had for generations—starting slowly, taking its time and crafting armies of monsters from its inner core. Then it would bud, sending out scores of smaller pieces of itself to burrow deep into the land to then sprout, creating nests and dungeons that spawned monsters.

After Uldar had defeated it in his age, he had ascended to the heavens. Yet, he had not destroyed it. He knew that The Ravener would reform in time, for darkness always returns, as sure as the days grow long. So, he cast a part of his own power down onto the people, and foretold that five Heroes would rise in his place and defeat The Ravener once more.

A century after Uldar’s ascension, five young folk gained a shining mark on their bodies: The Chosen. The Champion. The Sage. The Saint. The Fool. Together, they defeated The Ravener again. A century after that, it had returned.

Five more arose to triumph over it.

And so it was again.

And again.

A cycle of victory and horror: the pride of the Kingdom of Thameland.

…and Alex cared absolutely nothing for any of that bullshit.

In the painting set between Uldar and The Ravener, stood the five heroes from three generations ago: the Saint of that party had come from this very town of Alric. Well, sort of. The young woman had claimed to have come from somewhere incredibly far away, but was settled comfortably in Alric when she’d been marked on her eighteenth birthday.

She had died in the next generation, though, when she—ancient and long retired—had set off to defend Alric from a dungeon that had sprung up in the caves just north of town. She had defeated the core and—in death—left her magic infusing the entire underground complex.

The Caves of the Traveller.

People who entered them came out in all sorts of places; it was a portal that shot people out at random: the next town, the capital, somewhere in the wilderness to the north, or even in some cave on the continent.

Now, it might hold something far more sinister.

Once The Ravener used a place as a dungeon, chances were high it would use it again. No wonder the town had been so quiet. How many others were frantically packing up their worldly possessions into as many bags as they could?

“We’re going to stay with my brother in the Rhineian Empire,” Master Lu placed the swords in a chest then closed and locked it. “Until the Heroes can clear out the land.” He paused, giving Alex an odd look. “You…you haven’t felt anything strange today have you?”

Alex knew why he’d asked: the Heroes all had their marks appear on the same day, when they hit adulthood. And he’d turned eighteen today.

“Nothing, Master Lu.” He shook his head.

“Good,” the older man sighed in relief. “I didn’t want you dragged into this, even if there was only the slightest chance. Especially not with the future you have ahead.”

He gave a thin smile and tossed something across the room to Alex. The young man caught it: a scroll case, with a broken wax seal that had the symbol of four towers flanking a taller, fifth in the centre.

“I found that when I was packing your things. That’s the seal of the Genesari University, isn’t it?” His grin widened. “I’ve seen it on some of the embassies in the capital. Biggest, fanciest wizard school in the world, right?”

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“Yeah,” Alex chuckled as some of the tension left the air.

“An acceptance letter: you little rascal, when were you going to tell us?”

Alex’s chuckle became a full laugh. “Tonight. I had this whole thing planned. I was gonna brag and you would cheer, and I’d show you the spell I’d shown the examiner who came through the magistrate’s office last year. Then we’d have a big party and I’d ask for Theresa’s hand in marriage, then dodge you and Mrs. Lu as you tried to choke the life out of me.”

Thankfully, that got a chuckle out of them.

He sighed at the bad timing. “But then the world had to go and end on me. At least, this part of the world.” He grew more serious. “So, what’s the plan?”

Master and Mrs. Lu looked at each other, then at him.

“You’re going to school, Alex,” Mrs. Lu said firmly, like a lord giving an order to one of their retainers. “Your mother…she had a hard time bringing you into the world, and I’m not going to see her baby caught up in all this, or waste his opportunities. ”

Alex had to choke back emotion. He glanced down to Selina, falling to one knee in front of his sister. “You still ready to go, little goblin? Things have changed now, but…I still want you to come with me. We’d have a place together, just the two of us. That sound good?”

Excitement shone in Selina’s eyes, but with it was a mix of worry and guilt. She slowly looked to Master and Mrs. Lu. “Are-are you going to be okay?”

Alex grimaced. She had been young when the fire had taken their own mother and father, but old enough. He sometimes still woke up drenched in cold sweat with her scream from that night echoing in his head. Ever since, she had been strongly protective of Alex and the entire Lu family.