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Begnion Era, 567
Naesala had become king of Kilvas so young, only seventeen years of age. He had taken over after King Moloch, the founder of Kilvas, had killed himself following The Blight, a period of catastrophic death and destruction within Kilvas that had left the spirit of its people broken, buried with the corpses of over five thousand ravens, little more than half the population.
Of everyone within the village Naesala had grown up in, only the elder Nealuchi had survived. Naesala's parents, including his pregnant mother, had died during The Blight.
Through force of will alone, Naesala had proven himself to be the most capable of ruling Kilvas after The Blight. Once he had taken the throne, he had discovered a new insidious truth about The Blight: it had been caused through a dark magic called a Blood Pact. King Moloch had signed a document with Begnion soon after Kilvas was founded, this document was the contract that formed the Blood Pact, chaining Kilvas underneath the yoke of the will of the Begnion senate.
The Blood Pact had not been broken by King Moloch's death, instead, it had been passed onto Naesala. The mark of the Blood Pact formed in black lines on King Naesala's left wrist. King Moloch's previous advisor, Zlatan, had known everything and explained it all to Naesala after he had inherited the mark. Naesala dismissed every other person on the council of Kilvas aside from Zlatan, as they were unaware of the Blood Pact.
Naesala picked out two new people to work on the council with Zlatan. A stronger, muscular man named Tihomir who was in his forties, as old as Naesala's father had been, and a lithe younger woman named Iskra who was in her thirties, she reminded Naesala of what a raven girl in his village might have grown up to be, had Vera been able to live that long.
Nealuchi stayed in the castle with Naesala, making sure he had food to eat and helped him learn all the things adults knew, that he had never been taught before The Blight. Officially, Nealuchi became the chamberlain of Kilvas. Naesala only left Nealuchi behind on slave-trading deals, taking only Iskra, Zlatan, or Tihomir on those missions.
In addition to having to provide the Begnion Senate with whatever they wanted, Naesala had the monumental task of rebuilding Kilvas. Believing the death to have been caused by blighted crops, over the course of three months, the ravens of Kilvas had burned every plant growing down, hoping in vain to stop the mounting death toll. Losing half the population of Kilvas had been a great blow, but the census of the survivors painted a more dire picture, there were few children, and few woman remaining, the population was mostly young men.
At the tender age of seventeen, Naesala had to find a way to appease the senate with whatever they wanted; feed his starving nation; encourage the repopulation of Kilvas; and discover a way to break the Blood Pact, if one even existed.
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Begnion Era, 567
“Your highness,” Zlatan called out as he flew through the hallways and landed by Naesala.
“What’s up?” Naesala asked.
“There’s been a birth. A young woman in the northern end of Kilvas had a girl.”
“Really?!” Naesala asked eagerly. “That’s great! What’s her name?”
“Rada.”
“Make sure Rada and her mother are well taken care of.”
Zlatan nodded. “I will.”
---
Begnion Era, 569
Naesala stopped as he approached the rocky coastlines of Goldoa, accompanied by three other, larger, older, ravens. All four of them were transformed, their sleek avian bodies covered in ebon feathers that shone in the sun. Naesala gazed down at the warm colored cliffs in awe. It had been over a century since anyone had been invited to Goldoa, and back then, it was only to negotiate a peace treaty between Begnion, Gallia, Crimea, Daein, Phoenicis, and Kilvas.
Not that the "treaty" with Kilvas was even necessary, given what Begnion had already put into effect after occupying Kilvas fifty years prior. However, it had gotten Begnion out of Kilvas for the most part, so Naesala supposed he should be grateful for minor blessings.
He turned slightly and moved towards the west a little more and flew towards the meeting place that had been indicated in the invitation the king had sent. Naesala outpaced the other three ravens accompanying him and slowed down a little to let them catch up.
By mid-day they arrived at the location, a small town south of the capital. Even looking at it from far away, Naesala could tell that it was empty. There were two dragons there, standing in their humanoid forms.
The ravens flew towards the ground and landed, transforming into their humanoid forms as well. The two dragons were an older looking man, tall, and broad shouldered and a younger looking man with long hair and an inscrutable expression. Both dragons stared at him in confusion and then looked to the tallest raven, Tihomir, who stood at Naesala's left side. Nealuchi was older and stood slightly to the right behind Naesala. Iskra stood behind Tihomir's left.
"King Kilvas, why did you bring a child here?" The older dragon asked, still looking at Tihomir.
Tihomir was silent for a moment and then looked down to Naesala.
Naesala laughed. "I brought myself because you invited me, King Goldoa.” He stepped in front of Tihomir and raised his right arm, crossing his forearm over the top of his chest.
The two dragons repeated the gesture towards Naesala with puzzled expressions.
"I can't blame you for being confused," Naesala said, "I don't think the hawks have accepted the fact that I'm the King of Kilvas yet. I hope you'll adjust quicker to the fact." He had only been ruling Kilvas for two years, but he had already quickly learned that talking was one of the things he was best at, especially when he was nervous. “Ah, but where are my manners? I am Naesala, King of Kilvas. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dragon King. The man you addressed is Tihomir, one of my advisors, as are Nealuchi and Iskra,” he said, gesturing to the large, broad shouldered male raven, the older raven with thick curly black hair, and the younger female raven with long hair tied back in a high ponytail.
“I am Dheginsea,” the older dragon said, and then gestured to the younger man beside him, “This is my son, Rajaion.”
Naesala nodded. “Tell me, what can we of Kilvas do for you, King Dheginsea? I understand it’s not often that the other laguz rulers have the honor of speaking to you.”
“I would ask you as to your intentions.”
“My intentions? For what?”
“You are provoking Begnion.”
“Oh, that,” Naesala scoffed. “Provoking? Hardly. If they had that much of a problem with what we were doing, if they thought that we were a threat to them, I wouldn’t be stealing from their ships and their towns.”
“I understand that one so young cannot see the larger picture, but wars have been fought for less. I would urge you to find a more peaceful path.”
Naesala tried not to, but he glared up at Dheginsea, fanning the fire that had been burning in him since the blight. “I understand perfectly well what my relationship with Begnion is. Their leaders don’t think we’re a problem.” He shrugged, cocking his head to the side for a second, “Honestly, some of the senators pay Kilvas to complete raids against their own people and we take a little for ourselves in the process. Is that it? You called me here because you thought I was starting a war with Begnion? I’m a little disappointed, if I’m being perfectly honest. I was hoping you were going to help us.”
Dheginsea looked at Naesala with a disapproving stare. “You should reflect on the violence you are visiting upon the beorc of Begnion and reconsider your actions. We would never assist with such a thing.”
Naesala froze for a second, as the fire swelled within him. He balled his left hand into a fist, clenching his jaw as firmly as he could until his brain caught up with his anger. One wrong word, and his people were gone forever. “You would speak to me of my violence?” He snarled. “If you’re so concerned about peace, then talk to those humans you seem to love so much in Begnion about their violence. Ask them about what they do to the laguz they hold captive. Ask about the horrors the humans visit upon the laguz, the terrors the humans delight in, thinking of us as less than them. If your people didn't have the virtue of being so overwhelmingly powerful, the humans wouldn't respect even your isolation. Have you ever even seen a laguz slave before? Beaten, in chains, half dead and still so broken by the way they’ve been treated that they’re loyal to the masters that despise them? What Kilvas does to the humans is nothing in comparison."
“Violence only begets violence. This is not how justice-”
“Justice?" Naesala sneered. "I’m not doing this for justice. I’m doing this for my people, so that they can live. If we do not steal, my people do not eat, and I would rather steal from humans than from laguz. Would you prefer us to starve to death?”
“Your people would not eat?” Rajaion asked. “But Kilvas only began acting this way after you became king.”
Naesala rolled his eyes. “It’s a recent development. All the crops on Kilvas were blighted two years ago, over half of Kilvas became sick and died as a result, so we had to burn all the crops down. We have no game to hunt, and the seas of Kilvas are nearly barren. If we hadn’t started stealing, the rest of us would have died.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Rajaion said, his expression soft and empathetic.
The fire burning within Naesala quelled to a dull roar. Naesala took a deep breath and nodded his head at Rajaion. “Thank you,” he said, pushing the memories of the blight, of burying all those bodies, as far back as he could, willing his face to stillness and calming himself from crying.
“There are other ways to obtain food,” Dheginsea said, “You could trade with Begnion, or ask the hawks for help.”
Naesala scoffed, the sound traveled from deep within his body, bearing the frustration of his soul. “Trade with the humans who would rather see us in chains? Go begging the hawks for help after they forced us out of Phoenicis, and treated us barely better than the humans do? I'd rather not waste my time.” He looked to a building for a moment, almost certain he had seen a face in a distant, empty window, and then back to Dheginsea. “I see you left yourself out of our options of people we could work with to avoid attacking humans to survive. If you cared as much as you claim to, you would do something like what you did for Gallia. But I can see that you care for us ravens as much as anyone else outside of Kilvas.”
“It’s not that we don’t care,” Rajaion said.
“Goldoa does not involve itself in the affairs of other nations,” Dheginsea said.
Naesala scoffed, putting his left hand on his hip. “This is real uninvolved in the affairs of Kilvas,” he quipped, his voice dripping with as much cynicism and sarcasm as he could muster. He looked up at Dheginsea and met his eye directly as he spoke. “You have no idea what it’s like to rule Kilvas, and until you do, I don’t care for your lectures, even if you were one of the goddess’s chosen heroes once.”
"Nestling," Nealuchi called out from behind Naesala.
"Ah, don't worry about it. Attacking me would be getting too involved in the affairs of Kilvas," Naesala said, calling back to Nealuchi by twisting his head slightly backwards, while still meeting Dheginsea's gaze. "Now then," Naesala said as he turned his head back to Dheginsea. "I've heard your complaints, King Dheginsea. Is there any other reason you called me here?"
"That is all I wished to discuss. You must not cause war, King Naesala."
"Yeah, I heard you the first time." Naesala saluted the dragons again. "Enjoy ruling a country with abundant resources and no problems while you look down on the rest of us for having to survive." He leapt into the air and the other ravens followed him. They shifted and flew back to Kilvas.
---
Begnion Era, 571
Naesala stood in a room with Nealuchi, Tihomir, Iskra, and Zlatan. Naesala sighed heavily. “No more kids being born yet, huh?”
“It’s difficult, considering how little food there is,” Iskra said, “No one wants to have a child in these circumstances. Especially since Rada’s mother died so soon after giving birth.”
Naesala nodded. “How’s Rada doing?”
“She has plenty,” Nealuchi said. “She asks for you constantly, nestling.”
“Stealing obviously isn’t enough, and we’re losing people to the humans fighting back against the raids,” Naesala said, “Do we have any movement on planting new crops?”
“The people still think that the crops are what killed us all, your highness,” Zlatan said, “I’ve asked around, but no one wants to try. They think the ground’s bad for growing plants.”
Naesala sighed. “Can’t say I blame them. I’d hesitate myself, but we have to think of something.” Naesala looked out a window for a moment towards the stark gray cliffs surrounding the castle and then turned back to them. “How about this? We tell the people we’ve discovered what caused the blight, the fancy crops of Begnion orchards and farms are too sensitive for the hard lands of Kilvas, but the plants that grow in the hard mountains of Daein and Gallia are well suited to Kilvas and won’t go bad like the Begnion crops did. Then, we just get some mountain plants from Daein, northern Begnion, and Gallia, and that should do it.”
“That may work,” Zlatan said, “I can spread that information to the people, your highness. It may take a few months for the people to warm up to the idea.”
“Fine. Make sure the women keep getting priority on the food we bring in. The men are going to outnumber them ten to one for a while,” Naesala said.
---
Begnion Era, 572
Naesala glared down at a small bush of Aja berries. It was growing in the place where Moloch had thrown himself from the cliffs of Kilvas into the ocean below at the end of his reign as King of Kilvas.
Of all the seeds to have survived in Kilvas, why did it have to be Aja berries? They were bitter and unpleasant, he would have rather any other plant had survived, even if it wasn't edible.
Nealuchi alighted on the ground behind Naesala.
"Is something the matter, Nestling?"
Naesala closed his eyes. "I was thinking about the festivals we used to have before."
Nealuchi nodded eagerly. "Oh, yes, they were all so wonderful, were they not? You're probably old enough to participate in the games of wits now."
Naesala chuckled. "Would anyone really stop the king from participating in anything he wanted?"
"I would, Nestling."
Naesala scoffed. "I'd just find a way around you, grandpa."
"I'm sure you would try, Nestling," Nealuchi said with a chuckle.
Naesala sighed deeply. "How long do you think it will be before we can do something like that again?"
“Probably not until the new trees start bearing fruit and the crops take and the people are assured that the food is safe to eat." Nealuchi fell silent and considered for a moment. "It would be good if we could have wildlife again too. All the game was wiped out during The Blight, either over hunted or died from starvation when we burned all the plantlife.”
Naesala groaned. “Maybe we can take some from the mountains we got the crops from. I don’t know how to fix the ocean, though.”
“The waters of Phoenicis have plenty of fish, and they’re very close. We’ll have to get fish again eventually.”
“The hawks always have plenty,” Naesala remarked bitterly with a sigh. “All right, I’ll talk to the others about the game situation. The southern island between Phoenicis and us is pretty much unpopulated, if we can transplant some game from there to the southern mountains of Kilvas, we might be able to let the game flourish there for a few years once there’s food for them to eat.”
“Always so clever, Nestling.”
Naesala grinned conspiratorially. "How else could I be king of the raven clan?"
---
Begnion Era, 580
Naesala looked down at Kilvas as he flew around it, jagged mountains and plateaus of brown earth. There were trees and other plants growing through the craggy rocks. The people celebrating with a wealth of wine and spirits he had obtained from Begnion. To eat there was a mix of foods harvested or hunted in Kilvas or foodstuffs that had also been obtained from distant shores, along with the bounty of the sea itself.
Kilvas was still a hard land, disagreeable to being settled and the ravens could never be self-sufficient, surviving off the land as other nations did.
But that was fine. Other nations had plenty, more than they needed, and Naesala was pleased to take what he could from them, agreeably or otherwise.
Naesala was also pleased to fly far ahead of Nealuchi and Rada on swift ebon wings and sneak in a drink to his own health with the cheers of his people.
A day like this would have to turn things around and encourage the ever shrinking population of ravens to finally begin to grow again.
---
Begnion Era, 587
"That's the thirty-eighth child this year," Iskra said, as a raven couple flew their infant child out of the castle, radiant at having received Naesala's blessings for their child's health and well-being.
Naesala settled back in his throne. "I hope that's not the norm forever," he said.
"If you keep humoring them now, it might be," Rada said, her voice precocious in the way of a young raven. It was hard to believe she was actually older now than he had been when he had become king.
Naesala chuckled. "Jealous that you don't have the undivided attention of the nation, Rada?"
Rada rolled her eyes haughtily. "I'm just glad the greywings will have more children to dote on, so I can go places without having them pinching my cheeks."
"You're sure you don't mind not being spoiled rotten wherever you go now?" Naesala challenged.
Rada looked to the side, folding her arms over her chest defensively. "I'm sure they’ll still give me whatever I want."
Naesala laughed out loud.
"They're just not gonna keep calling me the last child of Kilvas anymore," Rada muttered.
Naesala looked at her. "I wasn't going to let that name be true, Rada," Naesala said sincerely.