Merlina
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Call of Caldiria prologue: Fall of the Lunastates
🕑 Added 2024-03-03 06:19:38 +0000 UTCI am slowly working on my old novel world in the meantime. (I had a little over two books written in this in the past and I want to get this off the ground now that I know more about writing.) I said this before I am bringing kinky elements into this so there will be giantesses, size changing, some blueberry content but there will be a lot of other stuff as well.
This was always my big dream of being the big story world that I would have when I was younger. I had so much planned out and I still work on cultivating the world. I am working on this at night separate from my short stories so that won't slow down. But ya I hope you all like this as this is my major passion project, even more so than my Fredricks Fancy and other stuff.
Call of Caldiria prologue: Fall of the Lunastates.
“The snow is really coming down tonight.” Telen stood at the window, looking out over the courtyard. “I haven’t seen a storm like this in years.
Wren smiled as she walked up to him. “It will be alright. It always is my love.” She kissed him on the cheek.
“I should go and check the patrol one more time. Just to make sure things are—”
Wren narrowed her eyes. “Now, Telen, you are not going anywhere. We finally have a moment together and—”
He turned around and sighed. “Did I tell you that I don’t like you intruding on my thoughts?”
She giggled as she brushed her red hair to the side. “Oh really?
I remember you saying you loved it about me.” She looked at his blue eyes. “Remember?”
He blushed. “Well, you still. . . I. . .” His eyes darted around the room, his body shrinking a little. “It’s just sometimes you can be.”
She took his hands into her own. “It’s okay. I know you are worried. I am, too.
But everything will be okay.” She looked across the room at the crib. “Nothing is going to happen to them.”
“I didn’t say. . .” Wren looked at him. “Oh, right.” He sighed. “I am just nervous.” They walked over and looked down at their kids, resting soundly. “They are so young. So helpless.” He ran his hand along one of his daughter’s cheeks.
“Telen, nothing has happened in Caldiria in almost a hundred years. Why do you think since we had the twins, something is suddenly going to happen?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just. . .”
The door to their chambers suddenly opened, and their personal bodyguard, Renex, stood in the doorway. He was a tall, blue-skinned man with four arms, one of the Perdition.
“Telen, the caption of the guard wants to speak to you down at the southern rampart.”
Telen sighed. “Really? In this weather? Doesn’t he know that I am trying to spend time with my family? With my newborn daughters?”
Renex took a deep breath. “He says it’s urgent. It can’t wait until morning.”
Wren smiled. “Just deal with it.” She kissed Telen. “And hurry back here. Veredel and Marike will be missing you.”
Telen smiled at her. “Don’t worry, I will. And I will keep contact with your mind in the meantime if you feel lonely.” He turned around. “Okay, Renex, you keep an eye on Wren for me, will you?”
Wren laughed. “Like I need him.”
Telen walked out of the room. “I know. But he is our bodyguard. Good luck.”
He shut the door behind him.
Renex stood in the door, nodding his head. “Hello mistress Lunastate.”
“Renex. You can wait outside.” She sat at her bedside. “I want some time with my daughters if that is okay.”
He used his lower left hand to grip the door handle, the wood creaking as it opened. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything?”
Wren laughed. “If you could stop the snow, that would be great.” She smiled and looked at him. “I know you can’t do that, Renex. Maybe bring some extra blankets up from the cellar. It is going to be a cold night, and I want to make sure the twins are as warm as they can be.”
“Of course.” He bowed and exited the room.
Wren looked down at her twin daughters. The darlings were just barely a year old.
“Well, my starlight.” She ran her hand along Veredel’s cheek. “My sun bright.” Her finger drifted across Marike’s cheek. “I know you are both too young to know this yet, but you two are special.” She smiled at her sleeping daughters. “You are Lunastates.” She sighed.
Her family line was the only one in Caldiria that could use psionic abilities. Wren could not only read minds but use her own to fight and defend those around her. Her family had protected Caldiria generation after generation, even if things had been mostly peaceful for Wren’s life.
As she watched her daughters sleep, she couldn’t help but wonder which one of them would inherit her gift. Her curse. Telen had been interested, too, as he was a Sizeran, and he wanted his genes passed down. He wanted a giantess for a daughter. But he would be okay for just a normal kid, as he put it.
Wren would be okay with that as well. She didn’t want her kids burdened with her gifts.
They were—
“Wren!”
She blinked her eyes. “Telen?”
“Something is wrong. The patrols haven’t returned. We don’t know if it’s the snowstorm or if—”
A sudden explosion sent Wren falling onto the ground. Straining her mind, she grabbed the crib and gently raised it back to a standing position. “Telen! What the hell was that?” She stood up. “Telen? Telen!” His mind didn’t respond in her own. For the first time since she was young, a chill ran down her spine. She looked at her daughters, who still slept soundly in their beds, trying to think of what she should do.
“I got the brackets like you asked.” Renex walked into the room with two blankets in each hand. “I think some of the alchemists down in the—”
“Watch them, will you? I need to see what happened.”
Renex looked at her in confusion. “But I am sure it was nothing. Someone probably—” She shut the door in his face. Sure, there was a possibility the explosion had been caused by some idiot mixing the wrong potion together, but something felt off. Telen had said the patrols hadn’t come back. The timing didn’t seem—
Wren anchored herself into place with her mind as another shockwave hit the castle, this one worse than before. “I need to know what is going on!” She began to run through the dark hallways, barely lit by torchlight. The first place she was going to was the southern rampart guard house. That is where her husband had been heading. She needed to find him and—”
Wren opened a door and walked outside, the biting cold and freezing wind greeting her. But she noticed something else, dozens upon dozens of small lights surrounded the castle. “What. . . what is going on?” As she gazed out into the darkness, she could sense many unfamiliar minds. She had to cut herself off before risking overwhelming herself.
“Wren!” Telen rushed up to her. “There you are.”
“What is going on?” She narrowed her eyes. “Why didn’t you respond to my mental cries!”
“I am sorry. We were taken off guard. The castle is under attack.” He looked out over the icy field. “The guards have been trying to hold them off, but they have strange weapons. Some say it’s the Ivien Empire reborn.
Wren snorted. “I am not going to let this happen. I don’t care what they have.” She gripped her hands into fists. “They are NOT going to take this castle. Veredel and Marike are here.” She looked at Telen. “If the guards can’t do it, then we have to. Tell them to retreat into the castle and protect anyone who can’t fight.” She looked out over the field. “Leave the rest to us. Once you are done, meet me out there.” She jumped over the rampart, using her mind to slow her fall.
Once on the ground, Wren dashed forward, her mind her weapon and shield. She had to be careful, as the more psionic energy she used, the more she ran the risk of overloading her brain and ending her life. But she had trained for over three decades and knew her limits well.
As she dashed through the snow, she could sense her foe’s brains. They saw her through some kind of odd technology. Wren didn’t understand how it worked, but all she needed to know was that they saw her, and they were about to fire upon her.
Before they shot at her, she dodged to the side, surprising them. Then she reached out with her mind, snatching their strange weapons out of their hands and using them to hit them in the heads, knocking them unconscious.
Somehow, her actions alerted the others even though her attack didn’t make a sound. It didn’t matter. She was already moving, dashing out of the way from their fire, the shots like thunder in the night. What shots that she didn’t dodge, she grabbed out of the air with her mind. It hurt, throbbing inside her skull, but it was better than being struck.
Then something else happened. Telen landed in the snow, his body almost five times his normal size. He reached down and grabbed a column that had been planted in the ground in case of an attack, lifting it like a club and tossing it at their attackers. They tried to scatter, but it was too late; the massive runed column smushed them.
Wren flew up to him. “About time you got here.”
Telen snorted. “I had to relay your orders.” He bent down to grab another ancient column. “Just who are they?”
She shook her head as she blocked some of the strange projectiles from hitting her loved one, blood tricking down her nose from the effort. “I don’t know. But there is a lot of them, and they won’t stop.” She turned her head. “Some of them breached the castle!”
“The guards have it. Let them deal with it.” He used the collum like a club, swatting the strange men away like gnats. “Now focus Wren. We. . . Ahhhhh!”
“Telen!”
Blood covered the snow as he fell to the ground. “Velorks Sake!” He grabbed his chest. “Who knew such tinny shit could hurt so much.” Telen shrank down, unable to keep his size stable.
Wren was at his side instantly, using her mind as a shield as the others shot at her. “I am sorry. I was distracted.” She used her hand to try and stop the blood. “Telen. You are going to be okay.”
He coughed. “I don’t know. I feel. . .”
She shook her head. “No.” She gripped his hand. “You ARE GOING TO BE OKAY.”
He looked at her. “Wren. I. . . you can feel where their shot hit me. You know I. . .”
She was afraid to check him with her mind, even if she could feel him fading. “No.
Stop saying that.” She winced as more of the strange projectiles bounced against her shield. Blood began to drip from her ears. “You are going to make it. We are going to. . .”
“Wren. . .” He coughed. “I. . . I want you to. . . I want you to tell the girls. . . that I. . . that I love them.”
“Shut up. You hear me!” She was crying. “You can’t stay that.” She was hugging him with her mind. “You can’t leave me. You just can’t. I will. . .”
“Even you can’t reverse this. I. . . I was. . . you were. . . my starlight.” She felt his hand go limp.
“Telen? Telen?” She took a deep breath. “Telen? Telen!”
The wind around her began to circle, her mind shuddering with rage as she dropped her husband’s lifeless body to the ground. Her concern for her own well-being was gone; they had taken Telen from her, the man she had loved. For what? FOR WHAT!?
She grasped onto the nearest mind she could find, snapping it like a grape. The others stood around in confusion as their comrade fell over in the snow, blood squirting out of his head. Wren wasn’t done, though, as tears dripped down her eyes. She. . .
“Wren!”
She turned her head towards the castle. That was Renex. “They are going after my children!” She gripped her hands into fists. “Nooooo!” She dashed for the castle. “I will kill them all before they lay one hand on them!”
Once inside, she reached out to the castle itself. Castle Lunstate was her weapon, to be used as a last defense against anyone who would threaten those who tried to invade. As she walked through its halls, she took deep breaths, her mind splintering from the effort. “These invaders. . . they will pay for. . . trying to harm. . . my family.”
She sought them out, finding them within the walls. They seemed to be searching for something. She ignored the intruders who were bumbling about on their own and alone for now.
She was looking for Renex. She eventually found him, clutching her daughters in their crib, surrounded by the intruders, their weapons raised to strike him down. Reaching out with her mind, she commanded the castle walls to crush the invaders, preventing them from harming her children. The effort caused blood to flow from her nose, but she didn’t care.
More and more soldiers entered her home, and she sought them out and ended them. More and more, it taxed her. She felt her bones break, her skin tear. But she wouldn’t stop. No matter how much blood she lost, she would. . .
“Hold it right there.” She turned to see a man in his mid-thirties pointing a strange hand weapon at her. “I assume you are the source of my troubles?”
Wren, who was now on the verge of her strength, looked at the man. “I won’t. . .” She tried to command the blocks nearby to fly out and smash his skull, but they wouldn’t listen. Her brain was on the verge of melting in her skull. “I. . .” She stumbled forward. “Ugh.”
He looked down at her. “How strange a creature you are.” He ran his hand along his cheek like a mother would a child. “I almost wonder if you are the source of the energy our scanners were picking up.”
She spat at him. “Whatever. . . power you. . .”
“Alex.” Another man walked up. “We found something, but we can’t breach the door.”
“What?” He snorted. “Are you saying we came all this fucking way and. . .” He kicked Wren in the face. “We just sent almost two hundred people to the grave, and the power source we detected we can’t even get at.”
“You. . . sick. . . Velork. . . fuck.” Everything faded to black.
***
Renex made his way through the crypts of Castle Lunastate, the twins carried in one set of arms and a curved blade in the other. He had no idea what became of Wren or the others, only that he needed to get the girls away. It is what Wren would want until she could come find him.
“Hold it.”
He turned his head, seeing strange figures chase him.
He didn’t slow down. He was almost out. He just needed to make it.
Sounds of thunder filled the corridor, and suddenly, Verdel and Marike were crying. “Hush now. We just.” Renex came to a dead end. “Ugh.” He turned around, and his two pursuers caught up to him.
“Nowhere to go, freak.” He tapped his finger on his helmet. “Hey, Alex. We found a runway in the tunnels down here. What do you want us to do with him?”
Renex set the basket that carried the twins down before throwing himself at the two men. His blade was fast, slicing into one of the men’s chests and cutting him dead before they could react. The other reached for his weapon, but Renex was on him, his blade knocking it to the floor and slicing into his arm as he pressed him against the wall. “If you don’t want to end up like him, I suggest you forget you saw us.”
The young man gulped. ‘Okay. Okay.” He backed away. “I will freak.” He dashed away.
Renex snorted. “Come on, you two.” He grabbed the crib as he pulled a hidden lever. “Maybe he can learn something from this experience.” He ran through the tunnel, the passage closing behind him.
After a short time, Renex emerged into the falling snow. “Finally.” He took a deep breath. “We should be safe now.” He looked down as he heard the twins crying. “It’s okay. Now, please be quiet. We don’t. . .” He gasped as he raised the basket to his face. “Wait. Where is Veredel.” He gently pushed Marike to the side. “Where is your sister!”
