Battle Of Gray Ridge: A Short Story

Prologue Amikah Delgard sat at her dining room table in the soundless hours beyond midnight with a bottle of rum in her hand. She stared at the sheathed katana sitting on two rusted nails on the wall. Amikah often awoke at night, drawn to the old weapon. She had taken the curved sword to the market several times to sell but always turned home halfway. Amikah reached across the table and took the katana from its resting place. Her left hand grabbed the hilt while she held the cherrybark sheath between her ribs and the stump that remained of her right arm. Amikah pulled the blade from its scabbard with one silent movement. She placed the sword on the countertop and ran two fingers across the flat side of the blade. “Battle of Gray Ridge,” she …show more content…
He tried to find out how they could do such amazing things, but not even they understood their power. They were born with their gifts you see. Every one of them had unique abilities. Some could move faster than an arrow or lift an ox over their head. Others could see or hear or feel things most people couldn’t. A few could control the elements themselves. They had many different strange gifts. But none of them knew how or why. And that made the Emperor angry.” “Why did he get mad?” “He wanted their power. His citizens didn’t like him and the Emperor wanted to use their power to stop rebellions. So the Emperor made a plan. He gathered those people together and made them prisoners. Of course, they would never follow him, but he would raise their children to obey him.” “This isn’t a very nice story.” Valx pulled his blanket up to just below his eyes. “No, it’s not. But it’s an important story. The Emperor made the strongest of the Greatborn have children and found their progeny were even stronger. By the time the Emperor’s grandson became Emperor, they had bred people with nearly unstoppable power. But the Emperors couldn’t control them forever. Some broke through their brainwashing and turned on the Emperor. They started an uprising and war broke out across the Empire. It wasn’t long before someone got rid of the Emperor. Then no one could control the Greatborn who still obeyed him. The Empire entered a civil war with both sides led by powerful warriors. One side was led by people who had been loyal to the Emperor and the other side by