Coming in for the Kill - [Solo/History]

[Aryr de Morte]

Aryr stood before the Temple priests as they announced who would become a soldier of the House Morte Royal Guard and who would be shamed in their failure. His father sat in the seat of the High Priest, his position and watched over the canidates. The priest next to him was reading from a battered piece of parchment that looked as though it had been to the Infinity and back. Aryr wanted to serve his House and bring honor and glory to his father's name. He was the twenty-fifth of the bloodline and as such would one day inherit the temple unless he disgraced his name.

"...Nai'dag Valsu, welcome. Soa J'nu, welcome."

J'nu... what a filthy mutt. His father is that traitorous bastard... Aryr held himself back from looking in disgust at the man.

"Aryr de Morte, welcome. The rest of you have shamed your names, you will continue your training until the next year."

Being accepted brought a great sense of pride into Aryr and undoubtedly into the other recruits as well. He was now part of the Royal Guard. The most elite fighting force in all of House Morte, no, the most elite fighting force in all of Eulaea. The Commander of the Royal Guard was busy fighting and could not make it to the ceremony. Aryr had hoped to meet him in person instead of having his envoy there to oversee the happenings. The shamed warriors sulked off with Captain Freyd, their trainer while the ten accepted soldiers stood silently.

"You ten are to become a part of the House Morte Royal Guard, this is the greatest honor one could receive," Aryr's father rose as he spoke to the soldiers, "you will bring victory and more importantly glory to the name of House Morte!"

Ten servants hustled in, each with a purple garment, the gold and perfectly round shield of the Royal Guardsmen, and a longspear. Each servant set their pile down in front of a recruit and went scurrying out of the room.

"In front of you is the cape, shield, and weapon of a Guardsman. You will wear your cape with honor, wield your shield with valor, and strike the enemy down with your weapon!" The High Priest's words shook the very foundation they were atop, it seemed.

From in back of them, heavy and commanding footsteps came. Aryr was tempted to look back, he had hoped it was the Commander but his training taught him to never look, breath, eat, or fight unless commanded to by a superior. The footsteps were baring down on the recruits, Aryr could hardly hold back the anticipation of seeing who was behind him. Suddenly the steps stopped in back of one of the men, Aryr could see out of the corner of his eye that the recruit had looked back to see who was coming. What happened next was a bit unclear to Aryr but it was something along the lines of the recruit being hit and falling down. The man walked over the fallen soldier and looked cooly and looked as though he were pondering the fresh meat that was the warriors in front of him.

"You should know better than to ever look back, what would that do to you in battle?" The man was tall, almost six and a half feet from the looks of it, and his muscles were large and developed, moreso than Aryr's own muscles. In short, the man had a commanding presence, "I am Captain Nataq, I will be taking you to meet the Commander and I will direct you in the field of battle. You will live if you do what I say, if not, then you will meet your end. If you don't have any questions, pick up your garment, shield and spear and put the cape on."

Aryr quickly bent over and pulled the toga-like cape over his head. The purple fabric was warm on his skin like it had been sitting in the sun for hours on end. There was more to the cape than he had thought at first, in front there was a leather strap that could be tightened across his chest to keep it on. The same leather strap that tightened it also had an apparatus to hook the shield's handle to so that it didn't have to be carried all the time. He picked up the shield in his left hand and carefully put his arm through the strap that would support it on his forearm and grabbed the handle. There were two small loops, which Aryr assumed were to hold the spear it so that one could carry something with the other hand. Aryr was unique in the fact that he was the only left-handed warrior ever to be in the Royal Guard. Every other left-handed warrior had been turned away and sent to the regular House Morte Forces.

Aryr was the second one to be ready to move, second to Soa J'nu. Soa disgusted Aryr to the utmost degree. His father was one of the rogue priests from the Temple of Infinity that created a House. House J'nu was the best contender against House Morte. Although Aryr respected Soa as a warrior, he didn't think him a friend.

At least he was honorable enough to stay loyal to the High Priest. Aryr looked around at the rest of them. These would be the men he would fight beside in battle, eat with, and eventually die with. It would be best to make friends with them, it was important to have a working relationship with each and every one no matter who his father was. Aryr decided he would talk to Soa for the first time ever at this exact moment; there was no better time than now.

"Soa, will you walk beside me?" Aryr looked at man. He was strikingly handsome and had short, brown hair and a cleanly shaven face.

"Yes, of course." Soa looked briefly at Aryr and then turned towards the long corridor that led outside the Temple. Captain Nataq had already gone outside and waited for the recruits to follow him. The two began to walk and upon seeing this, the others began to follow.

"One last word, soldiers," the High Priest, Aryr de Morte the XXIV walked slowly down the marble steps in front of his seat, "I want to wish you all the best of luck, come, kiss my ring."

All of the warriors turned and walked toward the older man. All in succesion they kneeled and kissed his ring, the High Priest whispering something in each man's ear. Finally Aryr came to his father, being the last in line, he kneeled, kissed the ring, and rose to look at his father.

The High Priest cupped his son's head with his right hand and whispered into his ear, "Bring great honor to our name and House, my son. Go with the blessings of the Temple."

The ten bowed to the High Priest and turned to walk to their Captain. Listening to his light footsteps on the marble floor reminded Aryr of how much he would miss the Temple. He walked side-by-side with Soa as they came out into the open, seeing only Captain Nataq standing on the patio-like foyer, looking directly at them.