The Creator's Intent

�Falholwyn! Falholwyn! There is an army approaching the Temple from the south. It is led by Vetar, but riding with him is someone else, or rather some thing, for it seems not to be truly human. Clothes, hair, and eyes so black they seem to draw all goodness and color from the world around him.� The master of the Temple guards was not a man to usually lose his composure, but he truly had never encountered anything like that which was coming.. He was a skilled warrior, but it was technical skill only, as it had been many generations since anyone dared attack the Temple. There was also the problem that his post, rather like the falholwyn�s itself, was deemed to be passed down in one family, regardless of true merit or skill.

An hour later, that same man lay on a cot beside his high priest, fading fast. �You have done your job honorably, Captain. You have withheld the enemy from these sacred halls long enough that the women and children have escaped unharmed. I was able to spirit away the library to safety, as well. Go to the Creator�s embrace proudly, and know that you leave this realm, not a captain, but the first general of the Army of the Creator. Thus, shall you be honored forever more.�

�Thank you, Holy Father,� the man wheezed painfully. �Call for me the Sergeant at Arms, please. I must pass on my duties to my successor.�

�Would not your son�.�

�I saw all my sons die before me, Holy Father, and for my failures did they perish. I taught them not how to actually defend, but to duel as I was taught. A duelist fights for points, but a true enemy does not follow the rules of the duel when he attacks to kill and destroy. It is enough to know that we held the evil ones back long enough that their damage will not be total and irreparable.�

�Forgive the intrusion, Holy One, but I bring news of the battle,� a young man with flowing red hair spoke as he barged into the room.

�You are the Sergeant at Arms,� K�Laad smiled. �You were just about to called for anyway. Step forward and take your new office, such as it is in this mess of a day.�

�What?� the young man blinked. �Your holiness, you should follow the women and children. We have no time for this.�

�There is time,� K�Laad assured him. �And I am not without my own defenses, young one. Here; take the hand of your fallen leader.� Once the dying man was holding the hand of his successor, he asked the former leader, �Are you certain this is your choice? There is no other?�

�I wish with all my heart for Dorence to lead the Temple Guard in my place,� the man whispered. �He is the best of the guard left and will hold my post better than I have.�

�Master Sagrowe, what are you saying? Just last week, you berated me in the training hall for my fighting style,� the young man gasped.

�Mistaken,� Sagrowe choked out. �Fought like you needed to, not like me. You� think ahead of opponent... better than any other. Holy Father� your magic� transfer� my knowledge� Temple� give to him. Hurry.�

�Does everyone in this castle know my powers better than I?� K�Laad grumbled aloud. �I thought I was very discreet hiding my magic.�

�No,� both of the other men said simultaneously.

�Well,� the high priest snarked. �Fine then, let me lay my hand over yours.� There was a flair of brilliant violet in the air as K�Laad helped combine their knowledge and power, then a surge of black and gray as he gave a boost of authority to his new young commander. As the magic disappeared from the realm, so did the spirit of Sagrowe.

�I saw the dark colors spread from your hands, sire, and am concerned,� Dorence spoke up bravely.

�You saw the magic? How can this be?�

�My mother had some powers, just a few, enough for my home village to attack our home one night. My parents were killed, but my father, who had once been a member of the Temple Guard sent me here to escape."

"Very well then, son of the powers," K'Laad smiled. "All magic, like all life, has color. Some of this even those with no connection to the powers know well, such as the idea that red is the color of romance, passion, and excitement, but it is also a color of danger and anger. Contrarily, black is the color of darkness, and evil, but it is also the color of power, authority, and control. Power is not always a bad thing. Remember that to defeat a powerful evil requires an even more powerful good. Both are powerful, and their goodness or lack thereof is evident in their use. Is the power used to harm or to heal? White is a powerful color as well, symbolic of purity, but milk does not become the tastiest of cheese by remaining pure. You say you also saw the gray, and so you did, for it is the color of stability, security, strength of character, and maturity. And now that you have had lesson one in the powers, perhaps someday you will join Jedaen and�. Wait. Jedaen. You're THAT Dorence?"

"We are but friends, Holy One," Dorence protested. "Like your own son, I have been raised in the Temple since my childhood. I am quite fond of him, Holy Father, but I regard him as a younger brother; I swear it, friends and nothing more."

"Your mouth declares that which my son's eyes and heart hope to someday refute, though if he were with us at this moment, his words would echo yours," the high priest observed. "Peace, Dorence. I do not doubt the innocence of your companionship with my child, but I tell you now that he sees in you something other than a brother. That is for the future, however. For the present, I am merely requesting you to survive this war, General, for my son may never forgive me if you do not."

"General?"

K'Laad rose to his full height. He commanded the young man to kneel and then tapped the guardsman on both shoulders with his staff. "By the declaration of my faith, and the designation of my powers, arise Sir Dorence, General of the Army of the Creator, and Defender of the Faith."

"I am your servant, Holy Father," Dorence stated before standing as well.

"We should do something about your appearance, young man," K'Laad smiled. "You hardly look like a general covered in mud and blood. Also, you will definitely need to be better clad before Jedaen sees you. I believe my son to be of even greater delicacy of nature than myself." He waved his staff over the young man once again, and the matted grunge of his red hair was cleansed and flowing down his back almost majestically. His dull gray armor transformed into shiny, and clean, golden plate over a long tunic of white. "Perhaps I can see some of what my son sees in you after all. Your charms have not the same effect on me, though," the priest smirked. "You may have to forgive me if some time I greet you at our meetings with milk and cookies rather than the customary wine."

"You think that discourages or disappoints me, Holy Father, but I have heard from Jedaen of the bliss that is your cookies. I truly look forward to them when we have you back in this Temple again."

"Have we lost the day then, my general?" K'Laad asked seriously.

"The day, perhaps; the Temple, most definitely; but we have not lost the war, Holy Father," the young man declared heatedly. "I will see your triumphant return to the Holy Seat in the Great Hall of the Temple. I swear it on my life."

"I was informed that you were teaching my son to fight with a sword," K'Laad said as he started toward the escape tunnel that he had directed the non-combatant residents of the temple compound into earlier. "In point of fact, Jedaen voraciously argued that he should be allowed to stay and defend me because he was your apprentice."

"I never officially claimed him as an apprentice, Holy Father, but I have taught him a modicum of self-defense," the young general confessed. "He hasn't stayed, has he? Tell me that he left the Temple with the others for safety."

"As much as I might wish to protect him by sending him with the women and other children, as he is a child of powers, like myself, I require his help here before we can join the refugees," K'Laad informed Dorence. "As for your teaching him weaponry, continue those lessons as you are able with my blessing, Dorence, for I fear he will need them in the days ahead. I understand that your change in situation will alter your time with him, even if he will not. I will step up my own lessons with him as well, however. For now, go and call all your warriors who survive to fall back into this hall. Jedaen should join me here any moment, as I tasked him with retrieving someone very special."

"And I am here, fath�. Dorence, you look magnificent." Both priest and general turned to see the young blond man standing in a doorway holding a long rope in his hand while staring almost reverently at the newly commissioned general.

"Am I forgotten so quickly, son?" K'Laad asked with a melodramatic pout. "You can congratulate General Dorence later, Jedaen. I require your help as my apprentice first."

"General Dorence?" Jedaen blurted as his eyes grew wide.

"Yes, little one, I have been promoted, but there will be time to talk of this later, for now I must withdraw my troops from a battle we are losing and you must help your father."

"I'm not that little anymore, Dory. I am not the same seven summers babe that followed you around the temple stables."

"No, you are the thirteen summers babe of my liege lord, the high priest, now go do as your father bids. I will see you again when it safe for all of us that I do so." Dorence quickly left the great hall of the temple, leaving a pouting boy in his wake.

"If I might disturb your lamentations of broken love but for the moment," K'Laad called out to his son.

"Love? Nooâ�� no, noâ�� Love?" Jedaen stuttered and protested and then questioned thoughtfully.  "AHHH! Father, what was that?" he screamed and gestured to the flash of red sparks in the room.

"That was me redirecting your attention," K'Laad said flatly. "Now bring in our old friend and show him the tunnel. He will wait for us to finish what we must do and then we will take him with us to safety."

"Holy Father! There is a beast in the Holy Temple," the voice of one of the warriors called out as they came into the room.

"Majestic, isn't he?" K'Laad returned as he strode over and pet Archael and give him a hug. "Did you think I would leave my oldest and closest friend behind to the men and monsters you could not defeat? Into the tunnel with you and your sanctimonious ideals. My son and I must now defend what you could not. No offense intended, General Dorence, but some of your troops leave somewhat to be desired."

"It is true, then," the man yelled once more. "The upstart boy is named a general."

"That upstart boy risked his life no less than three times today to save yours, you loud mouthed imbecile. Were it up to me, you'd have been left to face the invaders alone, but then perhaps you think you would fare well with them. It was rumored you have supported the castaway rather than the chosen Falholwyn."

"I support tradition and time-honored lines, not those who would usurp their rightful place."

"You have made your choice then," Dorence said as he pulled his sword out of the man's back. The body fell to the floor. "I have no use or patience for traitors, or men who do not support the true cause for which we fight to the death. Anyone else who does not believe the man I serve to be the one and true Falholwyn can now go back out to join the armies of evil," he yelled as he pointed to the doors. "Fair warning though, you should all know that I saw with my own eyes that Vetar was slaughtered by the Black Wizard the moment he gained their entrance at the gates to the compound. If you choose to turn against K'Laad now, you will have no priest to serve as you claim you do, you will have forsaken this place and all it has ever stood for. Those that wish to fight with me for our return to this place and the return of our Holy Father to the revered seat in this hall, take the tunnel that leads to our beloved women and children. I stay behind to protect the Falholwyn and his son until they join us in safety."