The rough wooden door squeaked open to reveal the dimly lit hall beyond. A variety of old and rusted weapons and armor adorned the walls of the otherwise sparsely decorated hall. A single large dining table was the only furniture of note that could be seen. There was no throne, no gem-encrusted gold, no elaborate carvings. It was certainly not what I expected from the home of a man that ruled an entire country.
Hunched over the head of the table, the man himself sat, rubbing his temples as he stared down at a map dotted with wooden tokens. Svend, the bear, it was a fitting nickname. He looked more like the beast than a man, with shaggy, unkempt black hair and a thick black beard that hid his features. The man was massive. Even while sitting down, he looked bigger than Orias had grown when using his innate talent. His arms were thicker than a normal man’s torso. A single finger looked thicker than my admittedly skinny arms. Sitting at the table, he looked like he was hunched over a child’s play set rather than a large piece of furniture.
A blur of red moved past me as Cyra walked to Svend’s side and leaned against his arm in a tender way that made me blink in surprise. “Svend, you have guests. Another claiming to be Aurielle.”
The giant man blinked a few times as he looked up from the map that had captivated his attention. “Another?” he said with a deep, hoarse voice that sounded more like a growl than an actual word. Our eyes met and for the first time, I was able to see the man’s face under the tangled mat of hair and beard.
“Gaius!” I blurted out in surprise, “You’re still alive?”
The man’s eyes twinkled as a big smile spread across his face. “Now, that is a name I have not heard in a long time. We might actually have the right one this time Cyra.”
Cyra frowned as she leaned closer to the man. She whispered, but the large hall still carried the sound. “Her fire is strange, not like it should be. There is also more than one flame in her body.”
While the two whispered and pretended I could not hear, my dad looked at me. “Gaius? Do you know this man… from before?”
“I had better. He only tried to kill me at least a dozen times,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. In response to my words, my dad instinctively reached for his sword, but I reached out to stop him. I placed a hand on his arm and shook my head. “That was a long time ago, he is no longer my enemy.”
Gaius started laughing in a deep bellow at our display. “I was never your enemy. It was Samson, the Brute Calamity, I pursued. His perversion of the Divine Body is something the Seventh Division would not allow. I never had any interest in you or the other Calamities, only him.”
“And yet I distinctly remember you helping us free him from execution, Gaius.”
The man sighed as he ran his oversized hand across his head. “I would prefer if you did not call me by that name. I went through a lot of trouble faking my death to escape the Seventh Division. I would rather you did not ruin it, Aurielle. I am Svend now, Svend the Bear.” He broke out in a big grin, chuckling at some joke only he knew.
“In that case, I would prefer if you called me Wren. I have a new life now… a new family. This is my name.”
Svend narrowed his eyes as he looked at me silently for a long moment and began stroking his beard. “Interesting. Are you going down the same path as the other students of Michael Aevus?”
Nearby, Cyra huffed in indignation as she glared at me.
I bit my lip as memories of my teacher’s piercing gaze sent shivers down my spine. “I am not that brave,” I whispered.
“Few people are,” Svend said as he placed one massive hand on Cyra’s back. She noticeably relaxed and leaned against him despite the comical sight of a single hand nearly as large as her entire torso. “Names are a powerful thing, Wren, and not easily changed. If you wish for a new life, you must first confront the old one. Despite Cyra’s doubts, I am inclined to believe you really are who you say. There should only be six people alive who know I helped one of the Calamities escape execution. However, if you want my help, you must first prove yourself as Aevus.”
“And, how exactly am I supposed to prove myself?” I replied, placing my hands on my hips.
Svend looked at Cyra and spoke softly. “Go get the crystal for me, please. We need to use it this time.”
“Is it really worth bothering him for this?” Cyra said back with a frown.
Svend nodded. “It is.”
Cyra nodded and walked through a door at the back of the building. Svend stood from his chair, his hulking form coming into full view for the first time. The man was truly massive. Even if I stood on my tiptoes, my eye line was barely above his knees. My dad, the tallest of anyone in my family, was only barely taller than his waist.
Svend chuckled at the exaggerated expressions my family had upon seeing him stand for the first time. “While we wait for her return, I will show you a taste of what Cyra and I have been working on for the past fifty years. I think you will be impressed.”
Svend moved to a large set of stone doors situated at one side of the room. With a small shower of dust, he pushed them open to reveal a staircase leading down. He pulled a torch free of the wall and waved us over to follow him.
Full of curiosity, I hurried after Svend as he disappeared down the stairway. My family hesitated a few seconds as they stared down the dark staircase but as Svend and I descended deeper, they hurried after us.
“How much do you know about the people that live in these lands, Wren?” Svend asked as he walked down the staircase, easily descending two or three steps with every stride.
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I scrambled after the man, struggling to keep up with his quick pace. “A bit, I know of the prophecy they have about the Great Demise and the one who spread it.”
Svend nodded. “I was surprised the first time I came here. Michael never told me he left a message for these people. Maybe he just assumed I would find them, or maybe it was a test. I do not know. However, they are a fascinating people. Four hundred years they prepared for a war that might never come. They suffered and sacrificed themselves without any doubt or hesitation. When I first arrived, they were little more than a scattering of warring tribes, but this place… this place was so much more.”
With every step I took down, it got steadily colder. I could see the fog from my breath in the dim light and I silently cursed Svend for not giving us coats before dragging us somewhere so freezing cold. I shivered uncontrollably and not even the fire burning in my chest could push away the chill.
The stairway down came to an end and Svend moved aside to let us see past him. Stretching out before us was a cavern, bigger than any I had ever seen. It made Seco Mons, a pass carved through the center of a mountain, feel small. The walls and ceiling were lit with small blue crystals that looked like ice and radiated a chilling air. These small crystals gave off a dim blue light, illuminating endless rows and rows of corpses. For as far as the eye could see, the bodies of men, women, and children were lined across the ground and stacked on shelves. I could not even begin to count the number. There were just too many.
Svend waved his oversized hand in a grandiose manner as he spoke. “The clan that lived in this place before I came here had a title. I cannot pronounce it so I will not even try, but it meant crypt keeper. For four hundred years the clans in this land fought and killed. For four hundred years they all brought their dead here for the crypt keepers to look after in preparation for the Great Demise. The families even erected monuments outside their home, marking the number of corpses they had sacrificed.”
“How… How many are there?” I asked as I took a hesitant step forward.
The frozen corpse of a woman lay in front of me. Her face was peaceful, but her body was another story. She was covered in stitches. Her body parts did not match as if multiple bodies were sewn together. Her right arm was not even human. It seemed to be something taken from a Demonkin with sharp claws that could rip flesh to shreds.
Svend cleared his throat. “According to the crypt keepers, there are just over five hundred thousand corpses ready to fight. There are more, but they have not been augmented yet.”
“Augmented?” I whispered.
“Yes, each and every body you see before you has undergone surgery after death so that they will be better warriors when raised to fight. Some will have limbs replaced with those of beasts. Others might have their bones replaced with steel. From what I hear, the extent of the augmentation is dependent on the state of the corpse at the time of death.”
“Have you people lost your minds!” A shout roared out from behind me and echoed down the seemingly endless underground cavern.
I turned to see my dad facing Svend, his face bright red and his hands clenched into fists. “How many of these people were stolen from the battlefield? How many were denied a proper burial just so they could be butchered down here like animals? I had heard the people of Kala carry away corpses slain and parade them through the street, but never in my wildest imagination did I imagine something like this!” My dad reached for his sword. His hands shook with a rage I had never seen from him before.
Svend raised an eyebrow as he looked down at my dad. “You are following someone that uses undead to fight. How else did you think we would help her prepare for war?” My dad hesitated, not quite drawing his sword as Svend continued. “I will admit, I also find this practice to be… dishonorable.
However, the dead are gone from this realm. The living are the ones that will suffer if a Demon invades. Is the desecration of a few bodies not an acceptable price to save the lives of your loved ones, of your children?”
My dad’s face went pale as his hand released the hilt of his sword and fell limply to his side. I watched as he closed his eyes before silently taking a step back from Svend. My mom took his hand in her and held it tight. Her words were barely a whisper as she spoke.
“Do all the corpses the Kala take end up here, even those not slain in war?”
At this, Svend narrowed his eyes. “It is against my laws to submit corpses one did not earn in honorable combat or belong to one’s own family. I cannot say it never happens, especially in the early days of my rule, but it is rare.”
I moved away from the corpse of the unknown woman to stand next to my dad. Ever since we started our trip to Kala, he had been acting strange. I did not know what was bothering him and I did not know how to help, but I wanted to.
I grabbed the hand not held by my mom and smiled up with the biggest smile I could. “It is ok, Dad. We are here with you.”
My dad opened his eyes and gave me a weak smile. “Thank you.”
My mom nodded at me and she pulled my dad back towards the staircase out of the crypt. He followed her, looking defeated as he starred at the ground. With a slight push from me, Charly, Donte, and even Esben followed them up the staircase.
After they were all out of sight, I turned back to Svend. “The augmentations were unnecessary but you are right, this is impressive. However, I am too weak right now to command an army this size. Surely, my teacher did not send you here just for this?”
“Of course not,” Svend replied with a chuckle, “I just wanted you to know the ‘sacrifices’ Kala have made in your name before we proceed, Wren. The true contributions of Cyra and myself will be shown after we have finished verifying your identity. Come, she should have returned by now.”