The Emperor's Hand

200 YEARS AGO

As I watched the man ravaging the battlefield, I started to worry he’d never be stopped. His black hair trailed behind him as he moved from man to man, quickly killing or wounding each person who stood in his way. He went by the name Yviss, although rumors said it was self-given. The meaning was known only to him. Something was different about him, though. My eyes stayed fixed on his right hand, which was covered in an inky blackness. From this hand flew trails of pure darkness, wrapping themselves around the eyes of soldiers and blinding them. Yviss was...unstoppable. Against the dark red sky streaked with occasional beams of light, his tall frame was quite imposing as he turned his attention to me. I was one of the only ones left. As he approached, I got the same treatment as everyone before, being blinded by the unknown substance from his hands. He had to be Crystalborn. Creatures that fell from the sky in chunks of shining rock, blessed with unnatural abilities called Gifts. It didn’t really matter now, though. I tried to listen for his movements in compensation for my lost sight, but it didn’t help. Hardly two seconds were over before a cold blade slid into my stomach, sending me gasping to my knees. Yviss knelt at my side, one slender hand placed on the side of my face as the blindness disappeared and I could see him again. Shaking from pain and fear, I tried to form words or move to strike with the sword that was faintly gripped in my own hand. “Oh, you can’t be doing that.” He told me before I glimpsed another flash of steel, and my hand was no longer attached to my arm. “I’ll let you live, though.”

I didn’t really want to live anymore, and blood loss would take me shortly. Only one thing brought me the faintest of hopes, carrying confusion with it. Glowing green chains came from hands behind Yviss, wrapping him up and pulling him back. Shock, anger, and maybe even a little bit of fear burst onto his face as he dropped his weapon and struggled to no avail. The chains must have been Crystalglass-the only substance in the world that could stop Gifts from working-because Yviss stopped doing anything supernatural. His outraged shouts rung across the open air, and only then did I realize that these were his own men tying him down. He’d been betrayed. For the most part, his words were indistinguishable as I lay there dying, but I did catch one thing. An oath. The man was swearing to destroy everything that was held dear by those who had gone against him. Or maybe just everything. I doubted he would manage such a thing. They’d imprison him, and he couldn’t possibly escape. My consciousness finally slipped away, leaving me satisfied in the false belief that at least Yviss would never be free in the world again.