Chapter 52: The Boy Should Know
Prince Tyfin let his emotion slip through his steeled facade for a moment in his shock at the statement. The legendary beasts were returning?
"Are you certain? This is no light claim you make." The prince was hoping for a better answer than the one the orc gave him after he took a short, silent pause.
"Our hunters have been encountering hoards of feral beasts migrating from the area around your kingdom... Ferals that are running from something... Ferals that grow anxious and attack anything that approaches, even many which were normally docile and harmonious with others now lash out.
"Mother birds are abandoning their nests, leaving the changing winds to carry the souls of their unhatched away. Fiends are becoming more and more common, increasing in number and gathering in masses, attacking and picking off smaller villages as they grow in number... All of this within a week... The lands are falling out of balance and descending into chaos..."
The orc paused again, his demeanor shifted as he braced for a harsh refusal, and he looked the prince straight in the eye to make sure he could read his reaction before he continued.
"A chaos that began many years ago when your father chose to carve out an entire part of our world, Prince Tyfin. When he killed the humans along with the last line of defense that was keeping this threat at bay, the human king Calium Aureus... and yet his shield is carried on by that boy, a boy now in your service. I can not find it within myself to consider all of this as mere chance.
"I believe the heir to that shield was guided to be where we need him, to stand before the darkness that looms ahead, just as his father had once planned to do... Before, he was framed for the murder of your own mother, Queen Talia of Alora, and stricken down by your father."
Prince Tyfin was understandably alarmed at so many revelations, but he kept his feelings mostly in check. He was skilled at reading people and knew some friction was forming under the orc’s skin.
"My father did what he believed was justice, something I have both adamantly and openly opposed for over fifteen years now. I believe his treatment of the humans was harsh, selfish, and surely a dark mark upon my family name that will be forever carried forth, recorded as one of the lowest parts of our history.