Veliken War - The view from Mount Helion

[Scott of Hyperborea]

[this takes place about halfway between B3 and C3 on the coordinate map]With a final burst of strength, Nikolas Raesin pulled himself over the rocky outcrop and reached the summit of Mount Helion.Behind him, the view was disappointing; the true peaks of Skiron, beside which this seemed but a hill, blocked his vision. Before him, however, the plains of Audentior stretched on as far as the eye could see, dotted here and there with hamlets, towns, decaying ruins, and, in the middle, the metropolis of Velike, the only city in the area that could compare to the great centers of the nations to the east and west.It had not always been this way, of course. Once, these sleepy plains, which foreigners called the Veliken Territories when they bothered to refer to them at all, had been the bustling center of the world's first civilization, Audentior. Once they had been great.Nikolas was an Audente himself. The Last Audente, they called him, as if such a people could ever go extinct. He had been born within a stone's throw of the old capital Airosamente, and had grown up among the ruins. There was not much that a talented young man could hope for in the Territories; its economy, aside from the city of Velike, was barely existent at all, and the nearest world-class university was in Aquilaria, a thousand miles to the east. That had been why he had been so lucky to get a scholarship. The Hyperboreans, who considered themselves descendents of Audentior, would accept a few Audente youth every so often to Boreal University at their government's expense, and he had been chosen to attend, with an eye to studying civics. At some point this had changed to military tactics, and he had been put on a track that would have made him a leader in the Hyperborean Paladins - if he had not chosen, despite everything, to return to the Veliken territories in his fifth year, brimming with new knowledge.He had learned in Hyperborea that there were a few others like him; Audentes who still believed in the old ways. Together, they had set up...an organization. The Velikens weren't too happy about it, but the Velikens were Shireroth lap-dogs, as everyone knew (or they had been, he reminded himself). He was the military arm of the Blue Sun Society. There were others, in the education arm, the economic arm, who didn't understand why the Society even needed a military arm. Nik Raesin knew, though he wasn't going to say it outright. They needed a military arm because one day, when things went too far, they would have to kick out the lap-dogs in Velike and declare the New Audente Government. But that was still far in the future...In the meantime, their organization had done well. Schools were being opened by Blue Sun people in all of the little cities across the territories, and people were learning useful trades. The area was booming as never before. And the military arm - well, they were getting experience. Here and there, as mercenaries, and the money always went back to the treasury. He had made a name for himself, in certain circles. A name and a nickname - the Last Audente.But he had never quite had a job like this one before. His employer was the Kaiser of Shireroth, and his task was nothing less than to keep all of the Veliken Territories from falling into the hands of the Anticans. The lap-dogs in Velike had decided to switch from being Shirerithian lap-dogs to Antican lap-dogs, and although it did not much matter to Nikolas, it seemed people were willing to pay his organization a lot of money to supplement their own activities there. All of a sudden, it seemed the Territories might become important.That was why he was here atop Mount Helion. He always liked to get a good feel for a battlefield before a struggle. And it seemed the struggle was soon to begin. Shireroth was massing troops on the border, and when they did, he was under orders to help them in any way possible, using his knowledge of the local terrain and the support he had among the Veliken populace.Exhausted but stubborn, he realized he should start the slow climb down. The roads here were not so good, but he would be able to make it back to his base in Apolytown before dark, if he hurried. No one was watching, yet. It was the calm before the storm.He glanced down at the plains one last time, and imagined them as they might be soon - the fields burnt, the cities pillaged, the rivers red with blood. Serves them right, he thought. There would be a reckoning, for these tinpot dictators in Velike, for all of those who had let their country down over the past centuries. He silently thanked the Kaiser - not his Kaiser, but a Kaiser he respected in the way he respected few of the people here - for the opportunity to deliver it. Then Nik Raesin, the Last Audente, started his descent.He left, atop the mountain, a blue sun flag, flying in the wind. Edited by: Gryphon the Pure at: 5/15/05 0:04

[Unknown]

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