Immortal-Prologue 1

The day was sunny, and that was it. Verdani was never one to spend any unneeded amount of time taking note of anything that wasn’t worth his time, like how people are different from each other, or how that annoying girl seems to be staring to him at every opportunity. No, Verdani wasn’t one for such frivolities; after all, taking note of flora in the middle of a battle is in no way advantageous. That’s what separated him from the other kids, they would go around, playing in the dirt and grime, but he would just sit indoors all day studying and preparing for anything, and everything.

Then, breaking Verdani’s train of thought, the girl came bursting into his room. It should be noted, however, that it was more of a dorm than a room, given how all of the orphanage’s boys slept in the cramped space. There was only enough room left over for him to put in a single worktable he found on the streets, and a chair he managed to cobble together with a few pieces of timber and some nails. Returning back to the girl, she was called Azalia, pretty name with a face to match, most of the other boys in the orphanage regard her as something like a princess walking amongst them. She always seems to find some excuse to sit next Verdani or incorporate unnecessary amounts of physical contact in every game she asks him to play with her.

“Hey Dani! Big news!” she shouted at Verdani with needless vigour, “He’s going to do it!”

“First, my ears are bleeding, “ he looked back with an uninterested glare, “Second, who’s going to do what? And third, don’t call me Dani, it’s weird and makes it seem like we are close friends.”

“Well, maybe you should go outside a bit more and stop being such a terrible person!”

“Says you, now, just tell me already.”

“Fine, geez… Andrew is going to tell Ruby how he feels,” she then started mumbling something unintelligible, under her breath, “… wish a certain someone would… confessions are lame anyways…”

“Sorry, what was that?” Verdani inquired, he was sure he heard something about confessions.

“Uhh… what was what?” Azalia retorted, “It’s probably your imagination.”

“Sure,” Verdani remarked, he was sure that it was not his imagination, but he had more pressing matters. Even if Andrew does tell Ruby how he feels, Verdani wants to know why that concerns him, and why Azalia wants him to know. Nonetheless, Verdani leaves his desk and walks over to her. “Lead the way, Azalia. And don’t try anything like last time.” Last time, Azalia tripped Verdani and had him fall on top of her, that incident was painful for both her and Verdani.

Azalia looked over her shoulders and grinned, “Don’t worry, now that I know how much you weigh, I won’t be trying that again.” Verdani lets that insult slide, since he knows that Azalia has as much combat prowess as a duckling, and that if he wanted to, he could carry her on one shoulder.

He followed Azalia through the winding corridors of their orphanage, both of them could find their way around even in total darkness. The only thing stopping them is the fact that the adults would not let them meander after sunset. They emerged from the shadows of the cathedral-like structure that is the orphanage and into the glaring sun, which blinded both of them. As they made their way down the short flight of stars, which contained exactly 5 stairs, the kids that were out there became suddenly silent.

“Well? Isn’t someone supposed to be bringing everybody here?” Verdani stood there with his arms crossed, as a little girl split off from the group of kids and ran towards an unseen destination. Moments later, she returned with a small group of teenagers and a few boys who followed behind. Verdani clapped his hands together as soon as they reach him, “Excellent! I have another little project for you all. This time, we reach for the richest person in our kingdom.”

“You mean the king?” the tallest of the boys spoke out.

Verdani grinned widely at the comment, “Yes, the king. And I do understand that breaking in would be tough, but in case you have not noticed, our dear friend, Vescal is not here.”

Upon finishing that statement, the kids looked frantically around for a person that was not there. As soon as they finished looking around, he spoke again, “I’ve sent Vescal to become a messenger, I managed to blackmail a few people to allow him to reach our princess. The princess and I managed to make a deal, one that benefits both of us, so. Our plan begins today, let’s head to the palace.”

He then turned away and walked with an air of finality, towards the main road that leads to the palace. The rest of the male children just followed him, since he arrived Verdani had became the ringleader of the children, they all speculate that he’d be the person who can turn the church against the demon lord and stop the infighting. He had arrived at the orphanage at the age of 3; he stood there on the doorstep holding a note with a sentence scribbled on it. The paper that he had examined many times was of expensive make and the lettering was golden yellow. The sentence, though scribbled with an innate urgency was intelligible, and all it said was: “His name is Verdani, protect him and shelter him, we’ll collect him soon.” No one had appeared for him, this may have had an impact on how Verdani viewed the world, but he denies this with a smile.

Some time later, Verdani and his gang arrived back at the orphanage. All but him had suffered some form of injury, but none of them was serious and was likely to be healed in a day or two. When the adults questioned him about this, he simply placed a gold coin into their hand and a finger to his lips, they never bothered him about it again.

The rest of the boys decided that since they managed to pull off a heist that would make any brigand and highwayman jealous, they should celebrate. So, they brought all the children young and old out to the outskirts of the city as soon as the moon came up-Verdani bribed the adults again for this-and brought an assortment of food with them.

They had a form of a picnic under the moonlight, and the moon was full and the light was bright. Verdani simply sat by his gang and enjoyed the time he had there, until one topic came up.

“So, guys. This has been buggin’ me for a while now, but what do you want to do when you’re older? You know, since we can’t stay at the orphanage forever,” one of the older boys enquired. Throughout the next 2 minutes, there were a number of occupations that came up, everything from a librarian to a soldier. And when the question came to Verdani, he simply reached up in front of him with his right hand and made a fist at the sky, then said, “The king of everything, to rule over everything for the rest of eternity. To be the god of gods, the king of kings.” Then a silence swept over the children at Verdani’s declaration, but before anyone can speak, he began again, about something else.

“Also, does anyone else feel that? That feeling that something bad is going to happen soon,” he enquired, and when no one spoke he scanned the horizon before saying, “We’re in trouble. Everyone up! Get to the orphanage! The monsters are coming!”

To be continued…