The Sorcerer's Sword

The beginning

The Kingdom of Rivena was a very prosperous city, it was blessed with a lot of natural resources and was the envy of all the kingdoms around.

The kingdom hadn't always been like this though, in the past the Kingdom had been in total chaos and anarchy. This was when the dragons had ruled the sky and the sorcerers walked freely and did magic.

Those who could do magic were the gods of the city. The non magic users were used as slaves. This was a very hard time, majority of the sorcerers were proud and egoistic and often engaged in petty fights. The casualties of these petty fights were the common people.

The most powerful sorcerer was named Zarall, he was so powerful that even if all the sorcerers in the kingdom came together, they wouldn't be able to defeat him.

Zarall wasn't interested in their petty fights, all he wanted to do was to practice magic in his home quietly. The other sorcerers tried several times to bring him over to their side but it was of no use, he declined all of their requests.

When a new king came into power, King Adam wanted to stop the abuse of humans by the sorcerers but he was too weak. He was just a figure head in the kingdom, no one respected his authority since the sorcerers had all the power.

King Adam thought long and hard about what to do and then he had an idea, although he had no real power in the kingdom, he was still the king and the sorcerers needed his seal of approval to do certain things.

He made an announcement that he wanted to appoint one of the sorcerers to be the prime minister and only the most powerful ones would be considered.

The sorcerers started to fight among themselves for the right to be the prime minister, factions and clique were soon formed among them.

So many of them tried to bribe King Adam with gifts so he would consider them or their chosen candidates.

The only sorcerer who wasn't moved at all was Zarall, he had no desire in being the prime minister. Some sorcerers who admired him tried to persuade him to join in the struggle to be prime minister yet he wasn't interested at all.

In the struggle to be prime Minister, so many casualties were recorded among the sorcerers. One of them called Sinda was particularly vicious and it seemed like he would eventually win. Both the humans and sorcerers fervently wished that this would not come to pass. Sinda was very cruel and he took delight in torturing others. 

King Adam sat down and enjoyed the drama that came with the whole affair. This was what he wanted, to take out the powerful sorcerers with a power struggle, the weak ones wouldn't be able to defend themselves and his kingdom would be free from the magic users. 

He only had one major concern, Zarall . The powerful sorcerer had shown no sign of being interested in the power struggle. His plan to rid the kingdom of magic wouldn't happen if Zarall was still alive. 

He casually told the sorcerers that Sinda had a chance at being prime minister but a part of him was considering Zarall for the position since he was very powerful, even more powerful than Sinda. 

When this news got to Sinda, he was enraged and wanted nothing more than to destroy Zarall who he had always envied. 

Sinda needed a plan to ensure that he could be more powerful than Zarall. 

So he did something rash, he did blood magic. 

Blood magic was forbidden among sorcerers. It was the most powerful magic. It involved using the blood of a living being as sacrifice to boost one's magic power. 

Although blood magic was powerful, it was forbidden because it couldn't be controlled by those it wielded, eventually it would form a mind of it's own and control the wielder instead. 

Sinda was aware of all the things that could go wrong with using blood magic, yet his quest for power blinded him. 

He used humans and the sorcerers who supported him for the ritual. 

The ritual was successful and Sinda's power was boosted. But, the power was too much for Sinda to control, he ran mad. 

That day was a day that could never be forgotten in Rivena. Sinda went on a rampage throughout the city, killing people and destroying things. 

King Adam had gotten more than he bargained for, instead of a fight between the two powerful sorcerers, his kingdom was going to be destroyed. 

When it seemed that all hope was going to be lost, Zarall stepped in and saved the day. He battled against Sinda, it was a long battle. At the end Zarall was able to destroy Sinda. The kingdom of Rivena had been saved. 

Zarall was too weak after his battle and collapsed. 

King Adam seized the opportunity and rounded up all the sorcerers in the kingdom including Zarall. He declared that sorcery was evil and was forbidden in Rivena. 

He held a grand execution for them in the town square. Some of the sorcerers pleaded that they were innocent of the charges, that they had never used their magic to hurt anybody. 

King Adam refused to listen to any of their pleads. As far as he was concerned, all sorcerers were evil. 

They pleaded on behalf on Zarall, that he should be spared since he had saved the day. The king ignored them all. 

On that day, the thirteenth day of the seventh month, all the sorcerers in the kingdom were all hanged including Zarall. 

Normally the king wouldn't have been able to capture Zarall, but he was still weak from the battle with Sinda and all his strength was gone. 

After they were all hanged and the king sent someone to pick up the bodies, they couldn't find Zarall's body. 

The king ordered for an extensive search of the kingdom yet Zarall's body was never found. 

His famed magical sword which had been seized by the king and kept in the palace treasury also disappeared as well. 

In the following years, the king kept up the watch for sorcerers and anyone found guilty was executed immediately.