Wielder of the Flame by Nikolas Rex

read?”
    “Yes,” Marc answered simply.
    “Sesuadra, you have something useful for this I assume?”
Soren looked at the boy in the back.
    Sesuadra nodded in the affirmative. 
    The boy turned to a box nearby him and opened it up. He
spent a moment or two rummaging through the things inside the box. He finally
seemed to find what he was looking for. He pulled out an oil lamp also at the
back and made his way over. There was not much room in the already full cart,
but Sesuadra picked a large box for a make-shift table, and laid out a large
roll of canvas over the box, then placed the lamp on that and lit the wick to
illuminate the canvas. He gestured his hand at the canvas, motioned for Marc to
take a closer look, then sat down next to his display.
    It was a map.
    Marc stared at it but saw mostly a jumble of
incomprehensible symbols.
    After a moment or two, however the symbols began to
transform in his mind’s eye and he was able to understand them. The symbols
appeared as words. The largest was written across the top of the canvas in bold
and elegant large letters. LYRRIDIA it read. Marc was amazed at the attention to detail put into
the making of the map. There was one large mass of land that took up most of
the right portion of the canvas and a large body of water to the left. There
were small cities, important landmarks, rivers, lakes, and territories marked
off with names of places labeled neatly underneath each and in the same
graceful calligraphy as the title of the map.
    The map had been sectioned off in large areas and was
labeled, with names strange to Marc, in bold letters. Alborcium, Terragur,
Itherin, Biarlin, and Wildlands were the largest.
    “What are these?” Marc asked.
    Sesuadra bowed his head and returned to the box again.
    He sorted through a few more things before returning with a
book in his hand. LYRRIDIA: A HISTORY was embedded on the leather cover in large gold letters.
    Sesuadra opened the book to a spot, scanned a few pages,
handed it over to Marc, then handed the light to him.
    “We are headed to Kolima, it is here on the map,” Zildjin
offered, showing the place on the canvas.
    The two boys then returned to their spots and huddled back
into their cloaks. Soren glanced back every now and then, but mostly focused on
the road ahead.
    Marc settled down as comfortably as he could in his seat to
read the book. He glanced at the map occasionally for reference. The book read:
    After the War of Power, in the wake
of the devastation and destruction, the only hope everyone had for survival was
to come together as one. Terragur, a very powerful and influential man rose up
and united all under one banner, one hope, one King, and so The Noble Kingdom
was founded. Terragur, the first King, ruled in an equal balance of justice and
mercy, he was benevolent, yet strong, he had the leadership the people needed
after so many cycles of war and so much destruction. The people named the
kingdom after him, and it came to be known as Terragur, The Noble Kingdom. Only
working together could everyone survive. After the cycles passed and the lands
became full of life and prosperous again, others took his place and mercy was
cast aside. Justice became corrupted and The Noble Kingdom turned into a cruel
place to live. To this day their rule is harsh and yet they continue to refer
to themselves as noble. Because of this, after many cycles of oppression a part
of the people rebelled. Much war broke out once again, but the rebels, under
the direction of Itherin Shadowhand, prevailed and separated, founding the
Freelands which came to be known as Itherin in honor of his name. After a time,
some of the Freelanders longed to return to a similar, more firm rule, in their
cities, like Terragur they were once long ago a part of, but did not wish to
return entirely to their unpleasant roots. They broke away from Itherin and
moved into the Wildlands, boldly clearing space to build their new homes. They
founded their own