Touch of Fate

Chapter 114: History Lesson

After a quick dinner, Mike sat down in the living room, aiming to finish the history book before going to bed. The others had come in for the meal before going back out to the training yard. Sera had looked happy but exhausted. Apparently she had finally acquired the archery skill.

He made sure to heal her bleeding hands before they left again. It was nice to see her getting stronger, but he was a little worried that she was pushing herself a bit too hard.

Leaning back in the comfortable chair, he took Audra out of his pocket and placed her on his lap. The little dragon was still deep asleep, having consumed half of a roasted chicken for dinner. Remembering what happened earlier, he sent a sliver of mana towards the little creature, and was rewarded with a bleary-eyed stare.

He strengthened the flow, and noticed that Audra got increasingly energetic the more mana he pushed towards her. It seems that his original suspicion was correct and that she required regular mana infusions for some reason. In fact she seemed like a bottomless repository for it, much like her egg had been.

[I wonder if I can]

Picturing the flame dragon that was probably still sitting under the pavilion, Mike tried establishing a passive stream of mana towards his familiar. After a little mental finagling, he felt the mana tether connect. He set it up to send about 10% of his mana regeneration capacity towards the little dragon.

She looked at him curiously for a moment before crawling up onto his shoulder and cuddling up against the side of his neck. It seemed that she appreciated the new supply of mana.

Smiling, Mike opened his book and began reading.

Picking up where he left off, Mike read about the long period of anarchy as the survivors of The Fall eventually settled in the newly vacant ruins of the High Elven Empire. It seemed that technology, both mundane and magical, suffered a major setback during this time, with the fragmented societies being reduced to primitive lifestyles.

It vaguely reminded Mike of the stories he'd read about Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire, where a number of critical advances in science and culture were lost in the resulting conflicts.

The few remaining documents about the early Third Age suggest that most humanoid groups formed into clans, and carved out segments of territory for themselves. Eventually these clans began to unite along racial and cultural lines. This gave rise to the first kingdoms, as powerful clan leaders took control of vast swathes of territory. Of course, wars started occurring when these territories started encroaching on one another.

This continued for a time, until one particularly effective feudal ruler, by the name of Pyrathias the Conqueror, launched a campaign of unification for much of the Inland Sea region, the portion of Ea that Mike currently inhabited.

Judging from the map on the inside cover of the book, this area resembled an altered version of the Mediterranean, with major continents on three sides and two inlets to the southwest, and southeast respectively. The biggest difference was the inclusion of the Central Continent, which was a large landmass in the center of the sea, and several islands that hovered around its periphery.

Pyrathias ruled a small, nautically inclined, country on the Isle of Porthos. Due in large part to the country's large mercantile fleet and vast trade network, Pyrathia, as it was inevitably called, came to dominate the international economy. Leveraging the vast wealth he accumulated from taxes and tariffs, Pyrathias built the largest and best equipped military seen since the dawn of the Third Age.

What followed was a period of time known as the First Unification Wars, as the Pyrathian Empire dominated one minor country after another. As far as Mike could tell, they hit upon the idea of attacking once to display their military might, then offering the other party a chance to willing join the empire in exchange for mild taxes and a few new laws that wouldn't dramatically alter their way of life. Not surprisingly, many countries chose the path of mild humiliation in favor of outright destruction.

So, within a single generation, much of the Inland Sea region had been unified under the Pyrathias. Only the elves of Mirithia held out, since no army could assault the Verdant Tangle without heavy casualties. Eventually the two parties ended hostilities in a mutual truce, with Mirithia joining the Empire as an associate member with no taxes or outside governance. Clearly a face saving measure.

Pyrathias's descendants ruled surprisingly effectively, maintaining the vast empire for almost a thousand years. Eventually, a dynastic dispute led to a splintering amongst three heirs. War ravaged the region for much of the next couple hundred years, during what is now called the Warring Kingdoms Period.

This was brought to a close by the Second Unification Wars. The eventually victor was a female general by the name of Tirelia who claimed to be a direct descendant of Pyrathias. Whether or not she spoke the truth mattered little, since her army proved unstoppable. She'd organized it into specialized corps complete with dedicated mage squadrons, battlefield engineers, and the first precursors to the current Knightly Orders.

In a mere ten years, Tirelia was crowning herself Empress of the New Pyrathian Empire, before enacting a sweeping series of reforms that changed the old imperial system into a vast web of interconnected dependencies which made complete separation difficult to achieve.

Before she was assassinated by an ambitious general in a short-live coup d'tat, she made sure to establish a council with representatives from every territory. The exact duties of this council were not defined, but it was heavily implied that it should step forward in times of political strife, to guide the Empire.

Once the usurper had been dealt with, the council elected Tirelia's niece Lidia, to be the next empress, establishing a tradition that would continue throughout the Second Pyrathian Dynastic Period, which lasted about 800 years and was mostly characterized by technical and cultural development.

The book glossed over several important sounding events, but made sure to focus on one. It was the discovery of an entirely new variety of magic. One that was eventually dubbed Arcane.

Mike paused at that. [So, no one in the past had ever used Arcane Magic until this point in history? Also the author hasn't made any mention Summoning yet. That's a little hard to believe, unless the skills were somehow added to the System later. If that's the case, it may mean I can start developing my own skills as some point]

With this discovery came a host of new skills and classes, greatly expanding the people's access to magic. Suddenly, the market was flooded with cheaply produced magical goods created by a new generation of Arcane Magic users armed with a host of new crafting skills. The general quality of life increased dramatically as a result.

After eight centuries of stable rule, the imperial system fell apart in an unexpected manner. Unlike the first Pyrathian Empire, the second didn't end in bloodshed. Instead, each of its constituent members made a play for independence through diplomacy. Due to the empire's weakness, they succeeded.

So, in a slow cascade that took decades, the empire gradually disintegrated into separate kingdoms and principalities, until only the Isle of Porthos was left. Despite the loss of territory, the Pyrathians nevertheless maintained a strong grasp of nautical trade in Inland Sea. In many ways, they profited from the dissolution of their empire, as their capital, Bergell, came to be known as The City of Coins in reflection of the incredible amount of wealth that flowed through its harbors.

Mike halted his reading there, as he heard the others returning. He was about three quarters of the way through the book, and judging from the timeline listed in the introduction, he still had nearly 1200 years of history left to cover. It seemed that the author was less inclined to discuss recent history, and therefore only glossed over the major events.

Sera walked into the living room first, looking thoroughly exhausted. She grunted something at him that could be considered a greeting, walked into her room, and collapsed onto the bed without bothering to change.

Brenden followed after, watching the Oracle with a wry smile.

"Productive day of training?" Mike asked curiously.

The beastman nodded. "We ran into a teacher for the Martial Arts department who took an interest in Sera. He's been running her through some intense exercises to unlock what he calls her 'hidden potential.' Whatever that's supposed to be."

[Oooh, the 'hidden master recognizing the potential of a student through chance observation' trope. That's a good one.]

Tal who brought up the rear, gave Mike a friendly, if expressionless, nod and went into the room after Sera, closing the door behind her. Brenden sat down on the couch, and got comfortable. Fatigue was evident in his features.

"You doing alright?" Mike found himself asking out of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Some things that happened today just brought back some old memories better left forgotten." The beastman replied with a sigh.

For a brief moment he stared into space with a haunted, almost tortured, look in his eye. "I'll be fine after a night's sleep."

Silence fell on the room as Mike considered his next words carefully, "Brenden, I'm your friend. If you ever need to talk about something, I'll be here to lend an ear."

He had to duck when Brenden threw a pillow at his head. "That's enough of that sappy shit. I'll be fine. Besides, I'd be in trouble if I had to rely on you for advice."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mike asked, mildly offended as he chucked the pillow back at the beastman.

He caught it dexterously with one hand before setting it down. "Any course of action you might recommend is likely to get us involved in some quasi-apocalyptic scenario that nearly kills us."

Mike opened his mouth, but then thought back to how things had played out during his first day of school. "Alright, you may have a point. Nevertheless my offer still stands. If need be, I'll listen quietly from a safe distance so you don't get caught up in anything."

Brenden chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, I'll be fine after a night's sleep. Something that you look like you're in need of yourself."

"Yeah, I was about to hit the hay, myself. Got another day of learning tomorrow." Mike said as he stood, stretched, and started getting ready for bed.