The Promise of the Wind: Chapter Two

All that said, there was a fairytale, or rather a folktale of how everything in Almata had made a one-hundred-eighty degree turn, from what was known as the good old days to the bad ones.

As much as there had been a number of tales in Almata such as The Tower of Tanel and the Giants, The Banshee and the Emperor, The Banquet in Daland, The Empress and the Flying Gardens, The Magic Lamp and the Genie, The Nine Witches of Savina, none of these was much talked of as The Silver Empress and the Charm bracelet.

Surprisingly, it had nothing to do with having a happily-ever-after like most of the tales set in magical lands.

Actually, it was some sort of infamous tale and so, do not be deceived by the words, “charm bracelet" as there was nothing like a beautiful lass spots a nice-looking lad, and entices him using some magical charm bracelet.

It was just one of those tales that left you questioning really if every cloud has a silver lining.

Being an evil tale, it had gotten itself many names such as the "Unspoken tale" meaning it was forbidden for anyone to talk about it.

But like a fashion that never grows out if style, it was always talked about whether in hiding thus the reason for its being so common among the people, but why?

Legend has it there was something called Megalandia. Now don't start thinking of Megatron or some other world.

Megalandia was actually a vast area of special land in Almata that took only some portion of the North fork.

Not so large to occupy half of the North fork and not so small to leave anyone questioning why it was called Megalandia.

It occupied the uppermost part if not the last tip on the North fork. You can say it was situated at the extremes, at one of the ends of the Almatan world.

So how special was this Megalandia thing?

Like I said before, it was in Almata and trust me everything within this world was magical in one way or another.

But that is not the big point here. Megalandia was just a group of the five greatest empires that had ever lived in Almata. Great in a number of ways but majorly politically and economically.

Maybe living in Megalandia would be compared to staying in New York City with the sky scrapers, subways, streetcars and anything to do with the modern world removed.

But remember Almata was a giant world of its own, a place of deep mystery and enchantment, complex and yet too beautiful to be reduced to Earth, the planet of apes.

The North fork was known for having powerful empires, thanks to the rulers from Megalandia.

We should also not forget that most successful empires were run by male rulers. Therefore, on that note, all rulers in Megalandia were emperors but not empresses.

Was it all about being lucky or there was actually a direct correlation between being born from a wealthy, prosperous, powerful family and making a great emperor or empress?

I won't lie to you that I have an answer to this but there are many scenarios where some of the emperors and expresses who had been raised from stinking rich families messed up everything for their empires all because of vanity and egocentrism.

In a world with bizarre creatures and magic as its backbone, it was not enough to be born from a well to do family, one needed to work a bit harder in order to make it to the top.

And that brings us to Cavalano, the most powerful of the five empires in Megalandia, the North fork and Almata altogether.

If all these empires were children, Cavalano would have been the most favorite.

It was located in the middle of Megalandia, all surrounded by an archaic gigantic perimeter stone wall, protecting and separating it from the other four empires, Aramos, Matros, Aritran and Sanano.

At first impression, a mere look at the legendary wall from the outside would make you think it was purgatory on the insides yet paradise is what awaited anyone who stepped into the great empire.

In the center of Cavalano, the White castle, as it was called, old as time, as beautiful as Aphra, the goddess of beauty and wisdom, is what welcomed everyone who would make it past the Ten Gates of Oklu.

These gates had been put in place to give ultimate protection to the emperor, his family and the castle.

Therefore, no warriors or spies would make it to the castle as each one of these gates was a checkpoint station.

Inside the White castle lived the great ruler, Emperor Tovan Vernelius and wife Shidon Meryl with sons, Tovan Waven, Tovan Cembar, Tovan Roden and of course his army, the Assembly of Arcane.

Emperor Tovan Alvenius, Vernelius' father, had died when his only son and child was just being born thereby leaving the delicate empire in the hands of a very young, weak and uncertain master.

Not even Vernelius' mother would inherit the throne, it was against tradition for a woman to succeed a man.

At such a time, everyone had thought that was the beginning of the collapse of Cavalano empire.

But somehow, someone had managed to be a saving grace.

Andrelius, Vernelius' cousin brother was appointed by the emperor's council, the Mazgard to be a regent until little Tovan reached ruling age.

As a way of learning from his father's mistakes, Emperor Vernelius had married young, the woman of his dreams.

This was perhaps the most loved emperor. He never failed at any time to do what was expected of him.

He worshipped the gods and goddesses and offered them sacrifices on a daily basis compared to other emperors and empresses.

Therefore, as payback, Gagiel, the god of the sky decided to build his temple, the Shrine of Gagiel in Cavalano's capital, Dumbarton and he made Emperor Vernelius the sole keeper of the temple.

He was given an amulet, to help him protect the temple.

This was a special one as the god had put a portion of his powers inside it to protect the shrine from the four deadly attacks that the people had no control over.

It was only the emperor who was supposed to wear it

The emperor, we shouldn't forget was also very kind and generous.

It was this generosity that the Silver Empress of Avispirin had sought from him.

After a little conflict with a neighboring empire, the Silver Empress was required to sign a peace treaty but with the help of an emperor.

So, she had chosen Vernelius. Then a rumour started spreading that the two were married and even had an old son.

Shidon did not take this lightly.

She thought that Tovan Waven, there eldest son would not be heir to the throne so she asked him to help her steal the charm bracelet she had seen with the husband.

She thought that maybe with it, her husband would find her more attractive.

But little did they know what they were about to steal.

On that fateful day, the emperor had not put on the amulet therefore as his eldest son was stealing it, it fell down and broke into four pieces.

The god Gagiel therefore cursed every female creature, with Shidon being first. Surprisingly, she was pregnant with a girl instead of a boy. And just like that, the daughter was also cursed.

This curse was never known but tales say it was generational.

It turned out that each broken piece of the amulet was supposed to represent a certain group of people.

And that is how the Fire nation, the Ice nation, the Nomads and the Air nation or descendants of the wind came to place.

Soon or later, empires started dying away and were replaced by kingdoms.

Thanks to the Silver Empress and the Charm bracelet.