IRINA / ILINA
Maruyamu kingdom, like Lusitania, worshipped the teachings of Ialdabod, and thought itself unconcerned by its neighbour's growing fanaticism. That is, until the day that Lusitania crossed their borders, gaining little by little the control of the Kingdom and oppressing the population, until the King Nicolaos was forced to exchange the capitulation of his Kingdom for his life. After that, disregarding the promise, the High Priest Bodan murdered the King and the Queen. Maruyamu having fallen completely under the rule of the Lusitanian invaders, Irina, her older sister and a small retinue fled to one of the stronholds of Maruyamu, which was besiedged, and fell two years before, in year 318 of the Pars calendar. Irina then decided to leave their Kingdom by boat, accross the Darubando Inner Sea, and ended up in Pars. As she left, her older sister killed herself. Irina, with her attendant Johanna, arrived in Dairam Region, in the north of Pars, in the year 321 of the Pars calendar. Having lost both her family and her Kingdom, she decided to try to find the Pars Prince, Hirumes, with which she had fallen in love. She thought that he was the last person she could depend on, the only one who would help her rebuild Maruyamu. But the Maruyamu boat finds, at it tries to accost in the main port of Dairamu Region, that the Lusitanians have already overrun the Kingdom of Pars, like they had Maruyamu. Ambushed, her troops are helped by two strangers, a bowman of uncomparable skill, Merlein, and a one-eyed swordsman, Qbad. Irina asks them to her ship to thank them, but also to ask for their help in locating Prince Hirumes. Merlein refuses categorically, although he usually helps anyone who needs him, Royalty troubles are of no concern to him, until he sets eyes on her. Being taken by Irina's great beauty at first sight, he decides to help her, along with Qbad. While travelling along the Continental Highway, they came across Hirumes, which they only knew as a man with a Silver Mask, but he denies knowing her, or the 'Hirumes' they talk of. Irina, with her attendant, Johanna, walks up to him to ask her herself, but she can not judge for herself, for she is blind. Hirumes leaves at a gallop, entreating the Maruyamu court to stay away from Ekubatana, where the fighting rages, and stopping his own men from killing them. As he leaves her behind, Hirumes thinks about how he loves her... But that without his rightful place as the King of Pars, he is not worthy of her. One thing that Hirumes does not understand, is that Irina loves him for the man he is, not for the Crown he could have. And now, Maruyamu having fallen, she is as destitute as he is, with a Crown without meaning. Unheeding of his warning, Irina and her retinue head for Ekubatana. |