The Burden of the Protector Read Online Free
Author: S.C. Eston
are worthy and contain, if not the whole truth, at least a part of it.
My name is Dàr, son of Lanì and Maranàr of Ta’Énia, born and raised. I have never travelled, with the exception of my training in Vi’Alana. I have dedicated my entire life to the knight protectors and, by association, to Ta’Énia and the League. Even when doubts assailed me, I continued doing my duty. Even when Vìr challenged my views, asked me questions to which I had no answers, I continued to serve. Even when faced with forces unknown, grand powers that shook all my beliefs, I remained a simple and loyal protector.
It was my life, my family’s pride.
I discovered the object in the year ’65, exactly five years following my return from Vi’Alana, where I completed the requisite training to become a knight protector. The time spent in Vi’Alana was hard on me. I missed my family and Ta’Énia more than the average pupil. My discomfiture was such that my parents went through the trouble of petitioning for an early release on my behalf to the master trainer. The request was granted, probably due to the many good years of service offered by my family in Ta’Énia. So far as we can trace, my family’s ancestors have been knight protectors. For the last two years of my stay in Vi’Alana, I received condensed lessons, allowing me to return to Ta’Énia a year earlier than the average trainee.
Upon my return, at twenty, I was assigned to the Saril company, responsible for guarding the Yurita Highlands. Although it was a region dreaded by most, I was honoured to start my service at such a young age. During the following years, I lacked confidence and initiative, needed constant encouragement from my parents and elder brother. More importantly, I was terribly scared. It is one thing to live in Ta’Énia with one’s parents, an observer and a child with no responsibility. It is quite another to come back from training and be on one’s own, accountable for each action, for each mistake.
As I was one of the youngest protectors, many believed I would make a fatal mistake that would bring shame on myself and my family. Many wished it, overzealous lots, who didn’t approve of my shortened training and early beginning. My fear of doing exactly that was so deep that it almost stopped me from performing my duty. I could see disappointment in my parents’ eyes every day, and yet I continued to go to them for approval and support.
If there is one thing that all children learn at a very young age, it is to respect and fear the Sy’Iss. I personally saw the Sy’Iss as a huge and faceless monster. A puppet master guiding us through this unsafe and unforgiving region of the world. The fear of Ul Darak and the Sy’Iss is constant, an intrinsic part of our daily lives. Our survival depends on it. The survival of Jarum depends on us. We all have to learn to live with the fear, to endure until it becomes a part of us.
All, that is, except Vìr.
*
Vìr told me once that the fear was sowed around us, purposely, so it could grow and envelop us, blinding us to reality and binding us to specific rules. He said that the army of his country controlled its citizens in similar ways. In Ta’Énia, he said the treachery was planted not by the knight soldiers, but by the Sy’Iss. In these eastern parts of Jarum, the Sy’Iss was everything, and so most of us were oblivious to the reality surrounding us.
Vìr strongly believed that the fear made us more malleable and predictable. I remember disliking those discussions with an ardent passion, knowing he was the one with the delusions. He would not bend to the rules of the Sy’Iss, and I would say to him that his defiance would one day cost him dearly.
Strangely, it was during my first years as a protector, uncertain times at best, yet a critical period for a new recruit, that I befriended Vìr. I was twenty-two. I will always remember our first encounter. It was at the suspended bridge of Saril, which to
My name is Dàr, son of Lanì and Maranàr of Ta’Énia, born and raised. I have never travelled, with the exception of my training in Vi’Alana. I have dedicated my entire life to the knight protectors and, by association, to Ta’Énia and the League. Even when doubts assailed me, I continued doing my duty. Even when Vìr challenged my views, asked me questions to which I had no answers, I continued to serve. Even when faced with forces unknown, grand powers that shook all my beliefs, I remained a simple and loyal protector.
It was my life, my family’s pride.
I discovered the object in the year ’65, exactly five years following my return from Vi’Alana, where I completed the requisite training to become a knight protector. The time spent in Vi’Alana was hard on me. I missed my family and Ta’Énia more than the average pupil. My discomfiture was such that my parents went through the trouble of petitioning for an early release on my behalf to the master trainer. The request was granted, probably due to the many good years of service offered by my family in Ta’Énia. So far as we can trace, my family’s ancestors have been knight protectors. For the last two years of my stay in Vi’Alana, I received condensed lessons, allowing me to return to Ta’Énia a year earlier than the average trainee.
Upon my return, at twenty, I was assigned to the Saril company, responsible for guarding the Yurita Highlands. Although it was a region dreaded by most, I was honoured to start my service at such a young age. During the following years, I lacked confidence and initiative, needed constant encouragement from my parents and elder brother. More importantly, I was terribly scared. It is one thing to live in Ta’Énia with one’s parents, an observer and a child with no responsibility. It is quite another to come back from training and be on one’s own, accountable for each action, for each mistake.
As I was one of the youngest protectors, many believed I would make a fatal mistake that would bring shame on myself and my family. Many wished it, overzealous lots, who didn’t approve of my shortened training and early beginning. My fear of doing exactly that was so deep that it almost stopped me from performing my duty. I could see disappointment in my parents’ eyes every day, and yet I continued to go to them for approval and support.
If there is one thing that all children learn at a very young age, it is to respect and fear the Sy’Iss. I personally saw the Sy’Iss as a huge and faceless monster. A puppet master guiding us through this unsafe and unforgiving region of the world. The fear of Ul Darak and the Sy’Iss is constant, an intrinsic part of our daily lives. Our survival depends on it. The survival of Jarum depends on us. We all have to learn to live with the fear, to endure until it becomes a part of us.
All, that is, except Vìr.
*
Vìr told me once that the fear was sowed around us, purposely, so it could grow and envelop us, blinding us to reality and binding us to specific rules. He said that the army of his country controlled its citizens in similar ways. In Ta’Énia, he said the treachery was planted not by the knight soldiers, but by the Sy’Iss. In these eastern parts of Jarum, the Sy’Iss was everything, and so most of us were oblivious to the reality surrounding us.
Vìr strongly believed that the fear made us more malleable and predictable. I remember disliking those discussions with an ardent passion, knowing he was the one with the delusions. He would not bend to the rules of the Sy’Iss, and I would say to him that his defiance would one day cost him dearly.
Strangely, it was during my first years as a protector, uncertain times at best, yet a critical period for a new recruit, that I befriended Vìr. I was twenty-two. I will always remember our first encounter. It was at the suspended bridge of Saril, which to
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