An Endless Story...15

                Chapter 15: The Life of A Ruler

           (Continuing Caldrien's perspective).

Md.Lanvelpa then opens the finely sculpted wooden double doors.

"Take it all in," she said, already knowing Caldrien's amazed expression without even looking.

The white marble walls of the building go up for hundreds of feet, with past rulers sculpted into life size replicas.
The main room Caldrien is in has a glass dome roof, with a gold infrastructure, letting in the sun's bright, golden rays. Running down as 4 long columns on each corner of the room were bronze sculptures of Valnox, each one holding a different weapon, a bow, a sword, magic, and a dagger.
The floor seems to be pure quartz tiles, with nothing on it no desks, no chairs, nothing. Each wall has a giant picture the size of almost the wall itself, framed in pure sapphire. Each of the 4 pictures had a different ruler, and the largest portrait, the first one someone sees when the walk in, is Valnox.

Caldrien eyes nearly pop out of his head as he walks around the humongous room observing the most beautiful thing in the world.

Speechless, he just stares up to the glass dome, nearly falling back, realizing the scale of the place.

"This is the hall with the 4 greatest rulers our world has ever seen," started Ms.Lanvelpa, walking up to Caldrien who was too enchanted to fully pay attention. "Millions come to see this place everyday, but today it was closed because it's being renovated to look even better. Those sapphires," she points to the portrait frames, "those are part of the renovation, so you're the first one to see them besides me and the construction workers."

"Thi-this is incredible," was all Caldrien could say. But then: "Wait, didn't you say it was a school, Hall of Heroes Academy? So don't students get to see it early too?"

"Not exactly," said Ms.Lanvelpa, walking, guiding Caldrieen to the other side of the room. "We live in a world of magic, so whenever someone who doesn't has the permission to see the renovations early, the room goes back to how it was before the renovations."

"How," asks Caldrien. "Don't you need someone to be there to cast spell like that, where you change something's properties?"

"You do, but this isn't that. It is just a simple internal illusion spell that taps into someone's memory of the place before renovations, and displays that. If there is someone who has no memory of this place, then it is an external illusion where there is a magic cover over the real thing," answers Ms.Lanvelpa briefly, stopping herself and Caldrien in the middle of the room.

"Why stop here," asks Caldiren.

"Because I'm going to tell you about each ruler here," answers Ms.Lanvelpa. Carrying her heavy books in one hand, she waves her other hand in a circular motion, causing green sparks to appear from her hand and onto the floor. The sparks become bright enough to be considered white and then a wooden table appears from thin air. "A simple teleportation spell."
She puts her heavy books down on the table with a thump, all but one, the one about Valnox that she showed Caldrien before.

"Are we starting with Valnox then?" assumed Caldrien.

"No, he is last," Ms.Lanvelpa gently placed the Valnox book next to the other pile of heavy books.

"Let's start with the one behind you, the one across Valnox," she said.

Caldrien turned around looking more surprised then when he looked at Valnox.

"Who is that," he asked eyes glued to the picture.

"He is Lüivl II, the richest ruler who ever lived," replied Ms.Lanvelpa simply.

Caldrien gazed upon the beauty of this well done masterpiece.

There is a dark-skinned man, jolly as can be. He is in great shape and is wearing a velvet silk gown covered in diamond and emerald dots. The part surrounding his neck is covered in the white and black fur of a Tundra Notin. His rich brown eyes scanned the whole room with joy. His beautiful long silky hair puts everyone else's hair put of style. Lüivl wears two large golden boots with ruby encrusted silk straps going up to his diamond belt. His blue sapphire shirt and pants shimmers wonderfully in the sun's light. His wide nose and kind eyes made him seem very approachable. He was surrounded by every ore you could think of, which really complimented his image as it glows in the light of the sun.

"The renovation's design was inspired by his potrait, for example, the sapphire around all the frames of the four potraits," said Ms.Lanvelpa. "Lüivl II was from a large city called New Yelt in the land of Gamol. He brought the land to it's richest, being able to afford 15,000 golden palaces the size of a Delphi Nimph's home, he never let the fortune go to his head. He ruled with reason and mercy. He had a large family and started the built for the Golden Palace of Peace we all know today in the capital of the world: Zentam, where Valnox got married."

Seeming to believe that she gave a satisfactory answer, she turns to the potrait next to him on Caldrien's right. "We have to go quickly so on to the next one."

"Ok," Caldrien turned to the potrait.

"This is Jentlak Velque, the most organized and thoughtful ruler," announced Ms.Lanvelpa.

There is a pale, skinny man in a black tuxedo. His empty grey eyes matched his appearance. The man stood firmly with a serious expression, one arm to his side, the other holding a dragon shaped bronze scepter. The old man's face was defined, his high cheekbones clear, his thin lips shut, his face slim and long, his pointy ears, and his grey eyebrows and thoughtful eyes. His bald head shone in the portrait.

Yet Caldrien looked closer and saw a red liquid dripping from Jentlak's hand.

"Is that blood," he asked reluctantly, pointing at Jentlak's hand.

"Yes," replied Ms.Lanvelpa prolonging the word. "He killed his brother in combat."

"Why?"

"Because his brother was jealous of Jentlak's rulership, fame, fortune, intelligence, everything...so he fought him to the death, winner get's the thrown. This was when Jentlak was much younger than he is in this potrait. Jentlak nearly died since their power was equal, yet he was thoughtful and could use any resources, enviornments, anything... to his advantage." She moves closer to the potrait and points at the scepter.

"That is a family treasure dating back generations. That was another thing his brother was jealous about, that their father had given Jentlak the scepter and not him."

Ms.Lanvelpa tries to shorten the conclusion. She walks back to Caldrien and moves her finger in a circular motion just like she did when she summoned the desk. Blinding blue sparks appear and form the shape of a chair, then they slowly fade away, revealing a wooden chair. Ms.Lanvelpa sits down.

"He led our army in The War of the Lands, when are land was being pushed away by a nearly catastrophic rebellion."

She turns and looks across from Jentlak.

"This is Velebrí Beneski, a true war hero," she says smiling as if remembering a time when he was alive, despite her being born thousands of years after Velebrí.

There is a fair colored man with a blocky head and a muscle built body covered in shiny, diamond encrusted titanium armor. An evil smirk strikes across his face. He has a dark black, short beard, thick eyebrows and beautiful long black hair. His sword and shield are on one side of him as he sits on a golden thrown.

"He was the most war like, most ferocious, most ruthless ruler there ever was, when it came to war and enemies. Normally, he was a kind, handsome, reasonable young man who helped the kingdom as much as he could. He was like Jentlak and could easily formulate hundred of strategies by seeing his available resources. Velebrí was from a small northern town called Vjrň ow Uioň (Hand of God), in the religious country of Voupujrň (Holy Land)."

Ms.Lanvelpa stood up and snaps her fingers, the chair disappears. She picks the dusty book of Valnox.

"Finally, the one you've been waiting for, Valnox," she says with a bright smile.

"I had no idea about the interesting history of this paradox, but I suppose it is common knowledge to those who live here," thought Caldrien.

There is a tall, fit young man with fair skin. Be is dressed in long patterened silk, blue and red. He has a black chestplate curved upwards with spikes at the tips of the shoulders. He is wearing golden boots, the same as Lüivl II. He sits on a throne, his long sleeves drooping. He was a dark spear scepter in one hand and different color rings in the other one which is raised, blue swirls blowing away from it like smoke. Valnox has luscious, wavy brown hair reaching his shoulders, a full light brown eye, the other one a rich crimson. He has a sharp nose and thin lips, his chin comes to a poity stop just like his nose. A smirk strikes across his face, one that seems inviting for some reason.

"Why is one of his eyes red?" Asked Caldrien.

"It's because he lost his eye fighting his best friend in a match when he was young, the only one who could even be compared to such a magical prodigy. Valnox got it replace with one of the eye's of Kankrok, the devil himself. People feared him for centuries, but they soon realized he wouldn't harm them. The eye gave him special abilities such as blood control and reanimation, but he only used theses things for good. Valnox was almost as thoughtful as Jentlack but was stronger and more skilled then all the rulers in history. He was just and fair, his brutal techniques made way for kind emotions for the knigdom he created. You already know many other things because you read his brief history an hour ago."

She walked up to Caldrien and simply pointed at the sky and said: "These are the 4 Guardians, they were all alive during Valnox's rule and they all went beyond the sky but never revealed what was beyond, they just said never to go beyond..."

"Wow..."

Ms.Lanvelpa picks up all her heavy books and starts walking away telling Caldrien to follow her.

"The desk is still here...," is what Caldrien was about to say but then but then Ms.Lanvelpa spins her finger, shooting blue sparks at the desk, engulfing it and making it disperse and disappear into billions of pieces of light.

She signals for Caldrien to come with her, they walk to the door. Nothing but the sound of boots and heels clicking as they cross the floor fills the room until they reach the door. A large booming sound similar to an explosion fills the room followed by a long and steady rumbling sound.
Ms.Lanvelpa nearly jumps out her heals, but quickly runs to the door, her books disappear and her clothes change to a battle outfit all in one purple flash. She has on a shiny black suit with blue stripes that conforms to the perfect shape of her body.

Caldrien follows her and when they open the door they stand, frozen.

Smoke filled the air as a burning ember fills the distance.

"What happened?!" Asked Caldrien.

"That's what I'm going to find out. Stay here," says Ms.Lanvelpa, and she runs off to the scene.