Asura Khan:

I awoke late at night. I got up and walked out to my balcony. I felt a sudden urge to fire one of my weapons. I picked up a bow and arrow from next to my nightstand. Then looked out into the endless night. I aimed at a spot in the sky and shot. The arrow whistled as it flew. Then a sudden cry. Then a couple seconds later a thud and crack. I had hit a bird of some sort. I jumped off my balcony and glided to the location of the bird. It appeared to be a large Corvid of some sort. It was seemingly dead. When I picked it up I felt a jolt of energy coursing through my body. Possibly the Corvid was magic. I let Tenger have at it and looked out into the sky. I was restless and had nothing to do so I found my way to the family house on the hill. I meditated for a bit then went up to the top of the hill. I looked out towards the vast lands of my motherland. I sighed as I thought about my life thus far. I had already adopted the Narakam empire as my homeland. I felt conflicted inside. The narakam empire was vast and had an array of climates. From the deserts of the west, the perpetual winter of the Narakam mountains, the jungles of the north east peninsula and the dense forests of the south. It reminded me of my original motherland back on earth, Asia. These climates reminded me of home. It reminded me of my human heritage. My father was a man of mixed heritage. His father hailed from the islands of the pink cherry trees in eastern Asia. Whereas his mother was from the lands of the coconuts and rice in southern Asia. He himself was born in the city of the angels, in the land of smiles in Asia’s south east. I did miss earth a lot, but I had opted to stay here. I had grown to love my country, I had grown to love its people. I was born to serve this empire and its people. I stared at the moon in the night sky. Out of the blue I heard a voice next to my head. “You have much to learn about yourself, young one.” I drew my sword as I turned. I saw a man, a bit taller than me. He had long black hair with red ends. He was dressed in traditional Narakam clothes, with a long sabre at his hip. His eyes were frightening. They were pitch black. He seemed to have 2 Irises; the outer iris was the same vibrant red as mine. The inner Iris was blue. His pupil was a serpentine black slit. He had 2 large red and black horns sprouting from his forehead. He spoke a strange, ancient sounding dialect of Narakam. It would be incomprehensible to ordinary citizens of the empire.. He looked at me and I knew instantly who he was. The clothes, the eyes, the language, they all pointed to one thing. The Great Demon Emperor, my ancestor, my predecessor. He smiled at me and said, “You look well child. How is everything?” I did not want to appear star struck or awkward so I answered in a cool and collected fashion. “Can’t complain. Everything is going fine thus far. Life's a breeze. I just miss the earth a bit is all. ” He smirked and said "You have much to learn, little one.” He looked out to the horizon. “Oh how I have missed this world. You have much to learn about it. The others believe your fate has been sealed by me, they believe we are separate, they don't know we are one in the same. I am here to show you some of the secrets of this world and who we are.” he gestured with his arm for me to come with him, and we walked into the night together.

Dushtan Khan:

“DAMN IT! Tolui, I knew Tamrkan might make a power move, but I didn’t expect something this serious. The child he plans to bring forward might be in great danger just because Tamrkan put him in that situation. Let's wait for Senso to get here, then we can discuss what we have to do from here.” Tolui was equally stressed. He quietly spoke and tried to keep together. “I just want to avoid a situation, where the child will face the wrath of the great emperor. But look, I have a piece of information about the great emperor. I already told Senso, but I got a report from the national archeological team, they were able to gain entrance into the ancient temple last night. As you know the temple is one of 3 existing monuments from the time of the great emperor and empress. It has been protected by a magical barrier thousands of years from the unopenable cube outside the temple.” I was elated, this was the discovery of the century. “They found the key for the cube?” Tolui furrowed his eyebrows and replied, “There is the weird thing about it. They didn't. When they went to check on the cube there was a single black feather sticking out of the key hole.” I was confused “How would that be possible? The cube couldn't be broken, it's immune to magic and even the best lock pickers couldn't pick it for thousands of years, not even I could break that seal. How could it be possible?” “We don't know. But that's not the important part. They found an old painting, it shows the great emperor and empress. There were 2 books under it. One was written in Ancient Narakam the other in Ancient Teikoku. As far as magical testing has shown. The books date back roughly 499 thousand years. The painting seems to be a bit older ” I was still a bit sceptical so I wanted to know how confident we could be that these findings were about the great emperor and empress and not some other nobles who had exceptionally powerful magic.  “How do we know the portrait is of the Great Emperor and Empress? There is no existing image of either of them. Not much is known of them apart from the tales and the words they left behind about their succession.” “It has to be, their united seal on top of the picture frame. It's from the same time they lived and the painting is detailed and their seal is even inside the painting, there is no way it isn’t authentic. Nobody could get in for thousands of years. There are still strong traces of ancient magic on it.” Just then the guards opened the door, we turned and saw it was Empress Senso. She was dressed in her usual traditional blue teikoku dress, it had long sleeves and flowers embroidered all across it. She came and sat down at the table. She was a lovely woman usually but now she  had a concerned expression on her face. We were all stressed because of the recent events that had happened “I will cut to the chase, my spies found the identity of the one Emperor Tamrkan Vansh plans to put forward. It’s his son Khina.” Tolui looked baffled and shouted “What? Why would he do that?” I thought about it, then I realized. “It's a smart power move, Khina is of Teikoku and Buraldag descent. Khina’s mother, Khochen, is your sister Tolui, and also Seno’s cousin. Tamrkan is making a big play here. He will try to pressure both of you to support Khina as a way of having more power and influence as well as having bloodline responsibility. Asura is entirely of demon blood, but he contains absolutely no Teikoku blood, and his Buraldag and Kanshai Ancestry is not as close as Khina’s.” Senso piped up, “We know Tamrkan is making a power move. We cannot say that outright. As far as can be seen,Khina is not the successor but how do we protect him? If Tamrkan puts him forward we can’t stop him. We’ll be stuck with 2 options, risk killing Khina by putting him through the trials, like the pretenders before him and in turn risk war. Or make him emperor by voting to forgo the trial, saving his life but messing with the plans of the great emperor and thus putting our nation’s people at risk. Unlike before we may have the real successor face this pretender, that would end horrendously. ” I thought deeply and responded “I am not sure we can protect him from the wrath of the great emperor. We can do nothing but hope the successor the Great Empress has the same innate ability to calm him down. Speaking of which. Senso, do you have any information about the Empress’s Successor?” She nodded solemnly “So far nothing. We have been here for days so we have no information from the ball, I am supposed to receive a report later today. But I think it might be my little one. She said her summon was a 9 tailed white wolf with silver fur tips on each tail. Her wings have also white and silver since birth. I think it's likely she is the other half.” “Whatever the case may be, get ready to bring Asura and Khina here, and tell them both to bring their Soulmate. If we wait too much then things may get out of hand. Maybe if we can prove Asura to be the true sucesssor before discussing Khina, then we can plead for Asura to spare him.” Tolui nodded, “Agreed, Senso what about you?” Senso took a sip of her tea and said “I believe that is wise”. I concluded by saying, “Then it is settled, they come here tomorrow and stand before the 4 pieces of the first at high noon, the trial will commence at dusk. I will send out the message”

Amira Alkitab:

We all congregated at the office of the president. I didn't know why we 5 were summoned as there was seemingly no reason for him to do something like that. Especially at 7 pm despite not having talked to us all day. We were let in and as we entered the room I saw Asura sitting at his desk. The doors closed behind us and Asura gestured to the comfy looking chairs in front of him. We sat down, I felt the uneasiness in the air. Asura’s eyes seemed to look into our very being. His silence only made him appear more and more threatening. He broke the hanging silence and spoke. “Are you aware why I called you 5 here today?” I decided to speak up “No” “Well then, the reason I called you all here is to appoint you positions in my government.” I got very excited and just blurted out “NO WAY! REALLY?” Asura briefly covered his ears before continuing.“Indeed I am being serious. You will be appointed as follows; Tamashi Kunshu is appointed as my VP, Amira alkitab as Minister for Internal Affairs, Khaitan Buraldag as the Minister for Foriegn Affairs, Yin Lilang as Finance Minister and Sean Éire as Secretary. Now I assume you 5 will accept this offer will you not?” I was excited so I practically yelled “Yes Sir!”. Asura looked thoroughly unimpressed as he gave me a flat stare. The rest of them just nodded. “Good, now everyone but VP Kunshu get out of my office. Your secretaries are waiting in the hall. They will take you to your new offices.”

Tamashi Kunshu:

I stayed in my seat as the others left. I heard the door close behind me. I saw past Asura’s charade of seriousness. He was just staring into space. I could somehow sense his feelings. His soul seemed empty yet worried and anxious. “Asu, are you ok?” He suddenly snapped out of it “Hmm? Oh nothing. Tama, I have received an invitation from my grandfather. It is a summon to the council of nations, to the dinner of the 4 pieces of the first. It requests my presence tomorrow but it doesn't specify why. It said ‘bring your soulmate if you have identified them.’. That being said, we have to leave in an hour. Just pack clothes for a day. We will take the carriage. Even with flying in the presidential carriage, the time taken to reach the Island of the Council of nations is roughly 14 hours.” Asura got up from his chair, as did I. He came and gave me a big hug. “Don't worry Tama, I am sure everything will be fine. Just get ready to leave. By order of succession Amira is acting president for the meanwhile. I am sure nothing too bad will happen.” I nodded in understanding, gave him a kiss on the cheek and left. He seemed off. There was something up but I didn't know what. I went and headed for the dorms. Asura turned and stood by the window

Once I was done packing, I walked out to the main gates with the servants carrying my bags behind me. In front of there was a grand Black and White carriage. It was long and large and was beautifully ordained. I stepped into the carriage and saw the lavish insides. It was like a smaller version of a palacial apartment. There was a small note on a nearby table, it read.

“I am not to be disturbed until we reach, I have some important work to do.

Love you Tama, come and get me when we reach.”

I found that note peculiar, but a president has his work I suppose. I sat down and read the newspaper. The carriage began to move steadily. I looked outside, as we moved from the entrance and left the school gates. Once we had exited the gates, the carriage quickly gained speed and the outside world went by faster and faster Then we lifted off and went high into the sky. A servant came to me with a great platter of Traditional Teikoku food as Asura had requested. 

After dinner I simply looked down on the lights of the cities below. My thoughts ran in the background. What was up with Asura? Why are we going to this event? What is it about? I fell asleep slowly by slowly and I finally fell asleep.

I awoke in the morning with the warm sun on my face.  We were still in the sky, I could see the island below. I got up and there was already breakfast. One of the servants came back and said, “We will land shortly Madame Vice President.” I got up and went into the small office. Asura was wearing a cloak over his traditional military uniform. The hood covered his face but as far as I could tell from his posture. He was staring straight forward. He was completely silent; there were a bunch of signed documents on his desk. I went to his side to wake him up in case he was asleep. Before I could touch him he suddenly said, “Please don't get so close, Tama, I came down with a little sickness you shouldn't get my germs.”. I was flattered, he was inside the office the entire time so I didn't get sick, how sweet. “I understand Asu, we are about to land and just get ready. I looked out the window as we were descending to the island. “As we are about to land, take a seat and just strap in just in case the suspension can't fully keep the place stable.” I did just that and as I did I saw that we finally touched down. As we had come from up north we landed in the Narakam part of the island. The island was the only one in the world shared by all 4 empires. The centre of the island was international territory. We were galloping down the roads along the tropical paradise. Soon we reached the Fortresses of the Council of Nations. As we entered, Asura got up and went to the door. Of Course as VP I stood behind him. The doors opened and we had a long carpet leading into the complex. Lined with saluting soldiers. Asura was silent and still had his hood on. I assumed he was doing that due to some decorum protocol. He stepped out and walked forward a bit and shifted to the left a bit. He gestured me forward with his hand. I walked forward to stand next to him. Then he began walking forward again but this time I was by his side. I resisted the temptation to hold his hand as we walked. It made it obvious his highest priority was me, and that was sweet. We walked into the great complex and were guided to a large room. In front of us on a slightly elevated desk the 4 leaders of the empires sat. The room was large and ornately decorated with black, gold, white and silver.

There was a large Map of the world on the wall behind them.

 I saw my mom. When she finally saw me she got excited and said, “Tamashi, you never told me you were soulmatched by the spirits. I am so proud of you darling.” I blushed a bit, it was definitely embarrassing having my mother know about my romantic life. The Narakam emperor began speaking in a loud booming voice.

“We, the 4 pieces of first, are assembled on this day to see Crown Prince of the Narakam Demonic Empire Asura Khan, the proposed successor to the First Great Demon Emperor! Remove your cloak, follow the guidance of the spirits. Recite the spell to undergo the trial of the successor” All 4 leaders looked at us. I stepped to the side a bit and gave Asura some space. He flew up and removed his cloak. The 4 leaders gasped. I was confused.  Asura turned to me and I saw half of his face had disappeared. The Narakam Emperor shouted, “What is the meaning of this!?!” Asura didn't say anything. “Why is there a Magical Projection here? Why is Asura not actually here?” There was a sudden white blinding flash. Asura was gone all of a sudden. Everyone was in disarray. It was havoc. Contacting intelligence agencies and trying to find him. I was in shock. What happened? What was going on? I just collapsed in the corner crying. Even after hours upon hours of searching by major intelligence organisations and armies of the world, they couldn't find him.

The Crown Prince of the Narakam Empire had officially gone missing.

End

To be continued in the next book

Hey Ho dear readers of mine!

It is I ShanKou, sadly this is the end of book one. But don't worry, book 2 is already in the works. I will probably start publishing it in a couple of weeks, most likely starting June 4th or 5th. But I hope y'all are liking the series so far. Sorry for the sudden cliff hanger.  Feel free to message me with questions or feedback, I love interacting with my readers! Hope y'all have a great day, see you in June!!!! :)