Golden Sage Yohan: Long ago, there were two sisters by the names of Damaris and Elita. They hailed from the kingdom called Geminis. This kingdom was watched over by twin goddesses who vowed to keep the land thriving. I question their existence despite all the tales I've heard and the number of scribes I've read. These divine beings never aided us when Damaris snatched the kingdom from her younger sister. Before I get ahead of myself, allow me to lay down some history.
Damaris was the first born to the royal family. A sage blessed her and a seer foretold her future. They said that she would be victorious in her endeavors, but at the cost of venturing into the darkness. Her family struggled with these words until her younger sister was born. She was the promised child, the one who would lead this kingdom to great advancement. The seer also mentioned that this would be done in such a short time before the kingdom would fall into darkness. The two sisters struggled and fought more times than anyone could count. When Elita was finally crowned and ruled over Geminis, Damaris continued to lead rebellious attacks against her. This carried on for a while, until Damaris was caught and exiled out of the kingdom. Elita was pressured into killing her, but she decided not to because, despite their anger towards each other, she still loved her older sister dearly.
That was the biggest mistake of her life. Several years later, a messenger came to Elita. Damaris was on the rise and coming for her sister's head. She had already conquered two other neighboring kingdoms. One was Tellus, just south of Geminis. The other was Quartal, just west of Tellus. With those two armies within her grasp, and a new-found power, she slaughtered all those who fought against her. Elita had one final card to play, a saving grace that would hopefully win back the kingdom even if she didn't survive. It was said that Damaris had cursed seven of her leaders, eight if you include herself, with the power to cheat death. So she gathered a group of trusted sages, which included me and my family, and placed a curse upon them as a final attempt to thwart Damaris's rise to power. These sages could not die unless the eighth tyrant were killed. Of course, these trusted sages weren't warriors or fighters. Knowing this, she taught them a ritual using a dragon amulet that would lead the sages to find champions, warriors, fighters, heroes that would be strong enough to take these tyrants down and reclaim the land.
Elita fought for her kingdom until her last breath. With her gone, the rest of the kingdom fell into Damaris's hands. My grandparents weren't ready to give up. They performed the ritual and recruited many different heroes, as did my own parents. We named these brave warriors Dye Heroes. The dragon amulet that was used to seek them out would glow one of the three colors on it. Each color represented different types of abilities and skills the hero had. Blue heroes were the most common, balanced in fighting and magic use. Yellow heroes focused more on stealth or high level magic. Red heroes were rare. They had great attack power or were strong enough to endure tremendous amounts of pain and attacks. Regardless, all the heroes failed simply because of the curse Damaris placed on her tyrants. If one dies, and the hero who killed that tyrant dies as well, all the tyrants that were slain will come back to life.
This knowledge was passed down to me and my colleagues. Several failed attempts weakened my passion for the quest. I outlived many wives, or they were killed by the tyrants as punishment for attempting to overthrow them. In my time of chasing after this dream I often invited death to come get me. I even tried to fight the tyrants myself. I discovered that the tyrants could not kill any of the sages because of the curse. Eventually, all of the sages scattered and went their separate ways. We simply tell this story as travelers. If any of the sages dared to settle down, they would tell their children these stories. We feared that the tyrants would rip everything away from us, as they've done several times before, so many of us never produced offspring. Some of my close friends did, but ended up abandoning them out of fear. So we roam around telling our story and living on. Having said that, I cast all fear aside and settled down. To be honest, I would have forgotten about our promise to our dead queen if it wasn't for my son asking me to tell him the story over and over again. As a young boy he would change the ending and have us sages as the victors. As he got older, I noticed this story wasn't just a bedtime tale for him. It was becoming real in his heart. It was because of him that I was convinced to start this quest again. My wife wasn't too pleased, but she knew it was a promise that was long overdue. Also, if I didn't pick this up again, my son would go out on his own and try to succeed where many have failed. This is the start of my new journey with my son. A new set of heroes awaits us. Elita, I take up my vow once more. I'll stop Damaris, and reclaim your kingdom.
"Come on dad! Stop daydreaming!" My son snapped me out of my thoughts. I noticed my mind kept drifting off into many memories. Sometimes it was overwhelming to the point where headaches would ensue. All sages learned to meditate when the memories of old would slither in. Some resorted to herbal drugs to block out some horrifying ones. The amount of times I was forced to watch my wives be defiled in front of me by that sick and twisted tyrant. The countless times I've watched many heroes get slaughtered. It was unsettling to think I would be throwing myself back into this delusion of reclaiming the kingdom.
"Dad!" My son grabbed my arms and shook me until my eyes focused on his. His eyes narrowed with determination. He didn't want us backing out now. He didn't want me changing my mind after I'd told him countless times we were going to do this. Having said that, he hasn't the slightest clue of what we're about to embark on.
"I'm fine. I'm just a little nervous, that is all. It's been a long time since I've moved these old bones in such a way." He frowned and raised an eyebrow. He obviously didn't believe me.
"You're afraid that we're going to fail, aren't you?" He comments. I had to look away from him. His words were true.
"Son... When you've been through what I've experienced. When you've lived as long as I have. When all you know is failure, no matter how much of a zealot you are, picking up from where you left off isn't that far from where you started. In my case, I'm starting at zero again. The same zero that keeps presenting itself no matter how far I get. Once our hero dies, it's all over. We start from scratch again while the kingdom continues to mock us for our feeble attempts. It won't matter in the slightest." Suddenly, my son headbutt me as hard as he could. This caused me to stumble back and knock over a flower vase. I rubbed my head and winced in pain as I growled at my son, who seemed to be unphased by his own attack.
"Stop it." He started off softly with anger in his eyes.
"Stop defeating yourself with your own mind. You're so used to failing that it is burned into your skull, I get it. But don't use that as an excuse to fail again. You're so sure that this will be a waste of time when you don't know for sure. Also, you have all the time in the world! You weren't cursed, you were blessed to have endless time to finish what Queen Elita started! She knew she wasn't going to live through her sister's attack. She knew her end was coming. But you have no end, father! Use it to complete the quest. Then, and only then, will you finally rest in peace and embrace death as your friend! Finish the quest, die a hero. It's as simple as that." I wasn't expecting such wisdom to come from my son in such a forceful way. I sometimes forget he is a grown man now and not a little boy. I sighed and kicked around the broken pieces of the vase. Even after all of that, the amount of courage it took to proclaim such a bold speech, my heart wasn't moved.
"Now that you've gotten that off your chest, you're going to listen to me and listen closely. We are going to fail. That is a guarantee. This amulet indicates that our next Dye Hero is blue. Whoever this person is, they are going to die. How far they get is up to us, but mostly up to them." I rushed to my son and grabbed his shoulders firmly as I glared.
"What you fail to understand here, son, is that this process didn't work the first time. Trust me, a group of us have been through the same pattern over and over. So get this through your rock hard head. A lot of heroes are going to die because of us. But eventually we will succeed. The question is, are you going to be okay watching these heroes die because our family lineage made a vow to a dead queen." His eyes watered a bit in anger as he brushed my hands off of him. I kept my glare fixed on his eyes as I spoke again.
"Are you okay with sending them to their deaths, just to move on and find the next cattle to be slaughtered... Are you ready to have your hands oozing with blood from the heroes you sent to die, all for the sake of a promise to an old and forgotten queen?" The air was thick with tension as I waited for a reply. He looked at the floor as if debating about what he should say next. He took a deep breath and let it out. His eyes met mine as he puffed his chest out and nodded with determination.
"Yes... Yes father, I'm willing to go through with it. I know I have a lot to learn, but I'm willing to see this through with you at my side. I'm ready to become a Sage of Geminis. I'm ready to become the hated savior of this kingdom." I was impressed by his resolve. I couldn't help but smirk as I reached out my hand. We shook arms to seal our fate together and grabbed our traveling packs. We both said our very long goodbye to my wife and departed immediately to the stable.
"Father, you never explained how the amulet tells us who the hero is. I mean, I'm not as skilled as you, but how do you know them when you see them?" I looked at my son and smiled. I showed him the amulet and pointed to the blue glowing part of it.
"When any of the colors on this glows like it is now, it turns into a compass for us sages. Because of the curse, our eyes are presented with a trail of whatever color the new Hero Dye is. Once we reach the hero, an aura of that color will surround the chosen one." He smiled with excitement as we walked out of the stable with our horses.
"Hopefully, I'll be able to see such a wonderful sight."
"Hopefully, you won't have to, and all of this will be over before it is passed down to you." My son liked my change of attitude towards this quest. As we mounted our horses I felt something I haven't felt in such a long time... Hope...
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