The Xalinor Chronicles

Trial by fire

“Burn the filthy human! Kill this lowly cur!” shouted a mob of furious black cloaks, waving flaming torches at a helpless young man tied to a stake. The firewood beneath his feet was soaked in blood, which dripped incessantly from his scarred heels. His eyes glazed over the black silhouettes, gleaming with a sense of unspeakable horror.

“You two filthy wretches will burn side by side for trespassing into imperial territory!” roared a creature enveloped in a raven black cloak lined with silver.

The bleeding young man with turquoise blue eyes, shaded by raven black hair, opened his chapped lips to speak. “What have I done? Who are you?”

The man in the silver-lined cloak unsheathed his steel sword, studded with rubies at the hilt and marched towards the baffled criminal. He raised the weapon threateningly, making the moonlight dance upon the murderous steel. “You are a criminal who dared to trespass into imperial territory. Now you must pay for your crimes with your life!”

“I am innocent! I don’t know what you are talking about!” cried the criminal, shivering in horror.

“How dare you claim to be innocent? You humans have no shame!” The mysterious figure lifted his hood to reveal a pale red face, riddled with scars. A long black beard, tied into triple knots, stretched down to the silver-grey belt tied to his waist. His coral red eyes pierced the victim’s heart, as he cast his burning gaze upon the criminal’s face.

“Please forgive us, O great warlock. We will repent for our sins,” squealed a dwarfish creature tied to another stake, just beside the young man.

“Silence fool! I don’t want to hear another word!”

Unable to make any sense of this situation, the young man started twisting violently, trying to free himself from the thorny vines which held him tightly in their painful embrace.

“Ah, so you want to entertain the crowd. Go ahead; wriggle as much as you want. I do enjoy watching worms wriggle under my feet.” The bearded creature smiled at him menacingly. Then suddenly, he grabbed a burning torch from the person standing beside him and headed straight towards the stake in front. “Before I release you from your miserable existence, I would like to know your name.”

“My name is Jake... Riley. I don’t want to die. Please, I am just a software developer. There must be some misunderstanding. I don’t even know who you guys are. At least let me talk to a lawyer. I beg you!”

Jake Riley’s whole life flashed before his eyes as he looked into the hungry flame which crackled with rage. He was a 25-year-old man who used to work as a software developer at Limac Corporation. He used to live all by himself in a rented apartment since his mom and dad had kicked him out of their house when he had turned 23. Neither did he have the money nor the looks. His life had been nothing more than insignificant, up until this point.

Trembling in fear, he desperately tried to retrace the events which had led to this horrifying situation. He could faintly remember going to his friend Kobayashi Tamaguchi’s house, last Saturday. Kobayashi or Kobe, as he used to call him, was the closest thing he had to a friend. They often had drinking parties at each other’s apartment and played video games on weekends. Since they both were socially awkward introverts, this lifestyle suited them a lot.

He remembered the previous night, he and Kobe were chugging cheap beer and talking about their favorite anime characters. Kobe had shown him a strange map that night with the word, ‘Xalinor’ printed in bold on top of it. He faintly recalled flipping the map over and finding a string of strange words inscribed on its blank side. Yes, he had tried reading the words. That was the last thing he remembered before it all went dark.

When he had opened his eyes, after what seemed an eternity, he found himself lying on a cobbled road, surrounded by 4 bearded creatures with pale red skin. They were all dressed in red plate armor and carrying steel swords and shields. Without any warning, the armored men had begun kicking him with force. They had kicked him so hard that his insides hurt like hell.

After thrashing him mercilessly, they had stripped him off his shoes and clothes and dragged him through the streets in just his vest and underwear. The pain from his injuries coupled with the scorching heat of the midday sun had made him slip away from his senses in the middle of his ordeal.

He was already tied to a stake in the middle of a town when he finally regained his consciousness. It all seemed too horrifying to be true. ‘Perhaps I had too much to drink, last night,’ he thought to himself. But then he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. His whole body ached from head to toe and he was bleeding all over the place. He realized that it wasn’t a nightmare, but his grim reality right now. A mob of angry, bearded figures glared at him. Their torches ready to set him ablaze at any moment. Not a single one of them pitied him or his tiny companion.

“In the holy name of Grand Warlock Marzenon, I Malkoth Stormshield, sentence you to death.”

The hoarse voice disrupted his thoughts as Jake stared into the face of death. He realized that his cries for mercy were all in vain. There was no sense of guilt or even pity in Malkoth’s coral red eyes. Jake’s fate was sealed. The young software developer was going to die in a strange land, away from his family and no one would ever get to say goodbye to him. The thing which bothered him the most was that he didn’t fully understand what crime he had committed.

He struggled in vain, writhing in agony, desperately trying to free himself.

After watching the struggling man for a good few minutes, Malkoth sheathed his sword and took the flaming torch in his right hand. With a ruthless look in his eyes, he marched ahead and lowered the torch, bringing it dangerously close to the pile of leaves and firewood under Jake’s feet. Crackling with malice, the flame stuck out its hungry tongue, preparing to plunge its fiery teeth into the soft human flesh, which hung just a few inches above it.