Book: Philosophy (Preview, Chapters 1-9)

[Shadowstar1922]

This is the preview of the map of North America. The year is 2013. I'll give more previews of the map for the following week and then post the first chapter. :3

[Shadowstar1922]

Chapter 1: The People’s Noble

In the lands of the United States of America; from New England down to Virgina and then some, lays the country of the Auran Confederation. A proud country with a democratic monarchy as its government, it has gone through a recent fascist uprising to overthrow the monarchy and give power to one man and the private companies. In this post-industrial world, the Head of State, Queen Michelle gives up certain powers to a new elected position, the Prime Minister. In 2012, elections come in to reveal that Shadow Akolite and his board of Administration have won the election and is the first man elected in as a Head of State in the Auran Confederation. After being elected in, he had to abandon his duties as the Head of the Dark Magic clan, leaving his not-yet-ready apprentice, Finnegan Blakely, to operate as a mere soldier to the military and to finish his training in the dark arts on his own.

May 12th, 2013

“Stop! You are under arrest!” The boy screamed as he chased the criminal through the disgusting woods; woods so dense with vegetation and trees so high and wide the sun never laid a finger on the ground. The two men who ran greatly disturbed the quietness that made up the atmosphere of these woods. Footsteps smashing and smearing the soil, the pursuit commenced. The boy was none other than Finnegan Blakely, apprentice of Prime Minister Shadow Akolite. Ever since holding his new position, Finnegan has had to work for the government as a soldier under Akolite's command. Though the work was stressful and hard, he managed to deal with it.
Oh, the criminal? He was just some idiot who robbed the local mart.
Why does Shadow continue to make me do these stupid tasks? Finnegan thought to himself as he jumped from tree to tree in pursuit of the criminal who had thought it'd be smart to attempt to execute proper acrobatics and what not to outrun a dark mage.
This is child's play, I should be doing more important missions for the country. As Finnegan stepped on the tree branch, he placed his hand lightly but wide on the hard bark, emitting a soft purplish glow. Within seconds his dark energy ripped downward, traveling into the ground at great speeds to do a sharp turn towards where the criminal lay. Before the criminal could even jump to the next tree, the dark energy flowed up into his tree and onto his branch. The dark energy then manifested into an artificial arm with growing fingers.
This is probably the most simplest thing you could ever do. Patrol the streets, what was he thinking? Finnegan proceeded to clap his hands on a quick and sharp manner, and the fingers of the artificial arm that stayed protruding out of the damaged tree shot to the criminal, thinning to become sharp ends. The ends pierced the main arteries that lay in one's wrists, pierced the ligaments connecting the foot to the shin, and the final one; the middle finger, into the man's throat. Obviously following protocol, it hit a non-lethal spot. The piercing in the throat was just to quiet the man's screams.
I could be working with Clent, or Dori, or even Saphique on their adventures, their tasks, their duties, but no! I have to hunt this piece of crap. Finnegan dropped his hands to his side from his previous stance and relaxed himself. With a quick image, or actually order in the mind, the arm swung down(obviously expanding so it would not snap) and smashed the man's face first into the ground, the blood previously pouring from his pierced wounds splattering across the dense vegetation. The fingers of the artificial arm grew deeper and dug itself into the soil to then make a tight knot. He was surely not getting out of this.
I'm sure if I just do a couple more lazy patrols and weak tasks, Shadow will promote me to more higher and more dangerous missions. I just have to bear through this. From the man's wounds, one could assume that he would be dead in minutes. But, that was just not protocol. Finnegan would let him bleed a bit, to scare him until the dark energy would seal and repair all damaged tissues, but not leave, oh no. The pain still needs to occur for any succession in scaring the man, striking the fear that those who break law are punished. That was just how the country worked; how the police force worked.
“Alright,” Finnegan began, walking towards the criminal whom lay on the ground in a pitiful manner. The fear-struck eyes looked deep into Finnegan's in attempt to guilt trip him. Even though he was 14 years old, it wouldn't possibly work. Shouldn't the criminal know that?
“Do you know what you've done wrong?” Mr. Blakely said, kneeling down and looking directly into the criminal's frightened face. He couldn't speak. He laid on the ground helpless, the dark dirt smudging his face and his peasant clothes. The blood had already began to form several pools.
“Just move your head to acknowledge me.” Finnegan said, speaking in an odd yet calming manner. The man attempted to gulp in nervousness, but couldn't. It was too much pain, and he flinched from the sharp sting of his saliva touching his sensitive wounds. Though, in the midst of all this man's pain, he blinked.
Finnegan nodded in acknowledgement and within moments, the expanded fingers of the artificial arm lifted the man up to stand straight up. The knotted fingers in his feet dissolved into the air as a wisp of gas, as well as the one in his throat. The wounds were closed. The fingers in his arms, however, shoved his hands together behind his back and expanded, encompassing both of his hands and forming a perfect sphere around them. The dark energy then enclosed all of the open area to keep the criminal's hands in a tight and secure manner.
After the hands were trapped, Finnegan proceeded to walk on the path. He lifted his hand and flicked them in a fashion that told the man to walk forward. Hesitant, the criminal took one stepped, but made no emotions in showing pain. The dark energy from the hands hand streamed into his blood and down to his legs to numb and relax the nerves and began cellular restoration. Somewhat calmed, the criminal made no further hesitations to follow Finnegan back to the city.
The woods were quiet, calm, and majestic as the two made their way back to the Capital. The insects buzzed and danced lightly around and about the flowers and leaves, the birds kept to themselves and rarely tweeted, and the squirrels pranced on the ground in search of nuts. The only thing that made a sound was Finnegan and the criminal's footsteps.
Finnegan stopped abruptly, causing the criminal in the back to bump into him. He made a curse under his breath and Finnegan did hear it, but paid no attention. Up ahead of the path the sun's light shined bright, marking one of the few open entrances, but what caught Finnegan's eye was that a figure was blocking a small portion of the entrance. Moments pass to show a couple more figures following.
“What is with the wait?” The criminal demanded, seeming to be irritated at Finnegan's sudden stop.
“Quiet,” he replied, waving his hand up and down towards the criminal. Finnegan immediately narrowed his eyes and placed a hand over his forehead, blocking the skinny rays that spot the ground. The black figures came closer and closer but Finnegan couldn't quite figure out who the people were.
“Hey, Finn!” the lead figure yelled, waving his hands in a couple slow sways.
Is that... Jason? Finnegan thought.
The figure began to run forward in response to Finnegan's absent reply.
It is! It's Jason! Jason Akolite was the First Gentleman of the Auran Confederation. Even though Jason adopted Shadow's last name, the two never got married and never planned to be. They considered each others as their respective lovers and felt that marriage was too demanding and put any relationship into higher expectations that both of them never really wanted. When Shadow was elected in and the public had found out he had never gotten married, they seemed uneasy and hesitant in their decision but accepted it none the less and considered Jason to be their First Gentleman. And, to further support their questionable acceptance, citizens would always address Jason as the “First Gentleman”, which got on Jason's nerve a lot.
Finnegan greeted Jason's arrival with a warm smile and waved to him. Upon getting closer, he tackled Finnegan to the ground, hugging him tight.
“Hey, get off me! You're heavy!” Finnegan complained, attempting to push Jason off him.
“Never! It's been forever! The military has you training non-stop and I never get to see you because these dumb ass guards think I can't handle myself,” Jason explained, fighting Finnegan's restraining and hugged him tighter.
“I don't care, you're crushing me!” The boy said and had successfully thrown Jason off of him. The two immediately jumped up and Jason tried to hug him again but failed. In anger, Finnegan brushed off the dirt that had layered parts of his dark purple cloak.
“Ugh, you got my new cloak all dirty,” Finnegan said as he furiously wiped it off. Jason shrugged, not caring that his clothes were equally as dirty.
“First Gentleman, you've gotten your brand new suit all dirtied up. The tailor spent weeks making that! Here, I will brush it off,” One of the guards said and approached Jason to brush it off.
“Won't you shut up? I swear to God you people will make me snap and you'll be the first to get your throat ripped out!” Jason said, anger flashing in his eyes, a fist held up to the guard whom offered to clean his clothes off.

[Shadowstar1922]

(continued via Chapter 1)
Before Shadow was elected in, Jason was what they called an, “acrobatic fighter” using his natural flexibility and somewhat strong upper body to his advantage, he was known to be quite the powerful warrior. He possessed no magical powers like Shadow and Finnegan possessed, but he made up for it with using the new industrial technologies to his advantages, such as two devices on his arms that were securely strapped on and quite heavy to fire bullets and sometimes explosives. They also had two small blades near the wrist to use whenever he needed. There was even a rumor that Jason could beat Shadow in a “hand-to-hand, weapons only, no magic” battle that had raised superstition if the people's first Prime Minister wasn't a good or powerful leader.
So, because of Jason's well known strength, the guards would not object to the First Gentleman's request to leave him be. Considering who Jason was and what his personality was, he wasn't joking when he threatened to rip their throat out.
“So uh, what's with this?” Finnegan asked, pinching the suit on Jason's shoulder and lifting it before letting it go.
“Oh this? It's just some snobbish wealthy clothes some servants requested me to wear. They wouldn't give me my old clothes back,” Jason explained, rolling his eyes.
“Your old clothes were rubbish and peasant-like, First Gentleman. We had to replace them!” The guard said, defending the servant's decision. It was the same who offered to clean off Jason's dirty clothing.
“And what is wrong with being a peasant?” Jason asked, turning his head to set his eyes on the guard, narrowing them in disapproval.
“N-nothing, First Gentleman! I just thought you'd like to look more proper.” The guard said, hesitant with his words.
“Peasant clothes aren't proper? Who gets to decide that?” Jason asked, an eyebrow raised and a half frown growing.
“First Gentleman, please, I do not wish to get in an argument with you!” The guard said, backing up a bit in fear of Jason flipping out.
“You will be the first to die if you people make me snap. I'm almost on the brink of insan-” Jason stopped, and was interrupted by something out of the corner of his eye. There he saw the criminal, standing there and quiet as can be. He now looked shocked to see the First Gentleman in front of him, coming down and going into the woods of all places to meet a friend. Political and government leaders rarely came out of their work places to meet the people, or even go out in public. But here was the First Gentleman, up and about with his guards. Now, the criminal seemed a bit surprised that the First Gentleman even noticed him, and receded back a bit when he had given him a look.
“Who is this?” Jason asked, now focusing on to the criminal. He approached him, narrowing his eyes yet again to observe the man. The criminal responded with a mere flinch in fear of an assault and Jason relaxed his glare respectively. He then moved his vision to Finnegan, waiting for an explanation.
“A criminal I saw steal a bunch of food from the local market on Blair St.” Finnegan explained, “He ran away when I caught him. I asked him to return the food and told him he was under arrest but he kept on running and eventually went into the woods.”
Jason made a short nod as he continued to study the man with intense eyes.
“Well?” Jason asked.
“I-I stole the food, First Gentleman,” the criminal said, beginning to tremble, eyes darting to and from the floor.
“Why did you steal the food?”
“M-my family suffers f-from poverty, First Gentleman,” the criminal said, still stuttering but sounded more collective, “It's hard sometimes, ever since the revolt broke out F-First Gentleman.”
Jason was silent. He didn't know how to respond. Ever since a recent fascist uprising began in late 2011, the country has been war torn and poverty had risen, destroying families and homes all over the country, mainly the southern region. His eyes filled with a wave of sorrow and he looked down for a moment.
“Release him.” Jason said, in a low tone.
“What?” Finnegan asked, shocked in Jason's decision, “ He stole food, he broke the law!”
“I said release him!” Jason said, raising his voice and glaring at Finnegan.
In a reluctant fashion, the young dark mage raised his hand and opened it wide, and within a second the chains binding the man dissolved. They swirled around him, healing his wounds completely before disappearing in the soft breeze that brushed the woods.
The criminal collapsed on the ground in awe, hands in knees burying against the soft soil. He continued to tremble as he attempted to look up. The sweat dripped from his body, his face was screwed up with so many emotions attempting to show themselves, but one thing was obvious. He was thankful.
The criminal attempted to rise to his feet, but could not. He was still coming to grips with what had just happened. Jason noticed this, and he picked the criminal up, and hugged him. Placing his head on his shoulder, he whispered, “Survive,” before tapping his back and releasing the criminal from his grasp. The criminal in return looked into Jason's eye and slowly nodded. He then darted past him, running for his life incase Jason, or the guards changed their mind.
Behind Jason's eccentric, sadistic and out-going personality, there lay a sensitive and understanding side to him that never ceased to come out at the right time. Though Jason never talked about it, it was obvious he had a rough history before he had met Shadow and his clan, something Finnegan would never dare to ask about.
Jason turned to Finnegan and smiled, his green eyes shinning bright, “Lets go see Shadow, he has a day off.”
Finnegan nodded before a slight hesitation struck him. Jason turned towards the entrance of the woods and raised his hand to motion for Finnegan and the guards to follow. With no word, the guards began to follow him immediately and Finnegan ran up to catch to him.

[Shadowstar1922]

(continued via Chapter 1 with 3 lines of space between this post and the previous one)


“Sir, the Ambassador from the Lake Union has entered the building,” a woman said as a man in a thin black cloak with his hood obviously down passed her desk. The man nodded in acknowledgement, and continued his route down the Victorian-like house filled with numerous portraits of past political leaders of the Auran Confederation and of foreign countries over seas and abroad the continent. Having numerous corridors run off from it, this hallway lay in the Electorate University, a government building where elected officials and leaders would do their duty.
Another woman approached the man, this one holding several papers stapled together, “Sire, the Minister of Labour has finished his report on the growing poverty and has confirmed your socialist long-term policy to solve it.” The man nodded and took the report, opening his cloak to put it in a side pocket.
“Has Parliament agreed with the law?” The man asked, his dark purple eyes gleaming with hope.
The woman merely nodded, “The socialists, liberals, and a majority of the conservatives voted in favor of it, though the monarchists and fascists weren't too happy about it. The law will go into effect tomorrow.”
The gleaming eyes quickly dissolved at the hearing of the news, “They'll soon see they're wrong. Thank you for the report, though.” The man then continued his walk down the hallway, his soft shoes lightly pressing against the thick carpet, barely making a sound. A third person approached the man, this time a young boy, bearing news.
“Mr. Akolite?” He asked.
“That is me,” the man answered, waving his hand to motion him to follow him in the hallway.
“The First Gentleman has returned from his trip to the Capital Woods. Should I ring him to your office?” The young man asked.
“Yes, that would be nice,” Mr. Akolite replied, “Also tell the secretary down the hall to direct the Lake Union Ambassador to also come to my office.” The young boy nodded, and went on his way.
I'm sure Jason won't be too much of a problem with a foreign diplomat in the house. He'll be able to control his outbursts, Shadow Akolite thought to himself. Within moments, he had reached a large and wide door, bigger than the others on the left of him. He immediately opened them to reveal an oval office with a large desk in the middle of it with two fluffy chairs behind it. Behind the desk lay two Auran Confederation flags as well as smaller flags of the nation's well known and respected allies.
A chandelier with numerous light bulbs hang beautifully on the top of the ceiling, always on, since there were no windows in the room. Covering a majority of the hard, wooden floor was a dark blue carpet that reached only portions of the walls. Book shelves and high tables decorated the walls with things like books, ornaments, and other nick-nacks on display. Most of it was random and was only there to cover up the holes here in there in the room. It wasn't exactly a perfect office, but Shadow did not care, and visitors didn't particularity mind.
This wasn't a country where government officials were pampered with nice things and high quality productions. They had similar living standards to the average middle class citizen, and it had been that way ever since Queen Michelle took the throne.
Shadow strolled to the office and sat down on the left chair. He opened a drawer with patchy white v-neck shirt, brown pants and a thin sweatshirt. He proceeded to take them out of the drawer and placed them on his desk, taking off his cloak and the spiffy clothes he wore under the black cloak. Upon taking off all of his under clothes, he stretched out and released a somewhat loud yawn. Thats when the door opened.
“Shady-baby, I'm home! And look who I've brought with me, Finne-” Jason was cut off when he walked through the door and saw that Shadow was completely naked. The two shared a shocked pause for a brief moment.
“Why did you stop-” Finnegan began, but abruptly stopped when he looked past Jason and into the room, at Shadow. Finnegan's face was washed with a wave of red as he stared right at Shadow's body.
“Finnegan cover your eyes! You're too young for this!” Jason yelled, tackling Finnegan down to the ground outside of the room. Shadow obviously yelled and thrusted his arm forward, dark energy buzzing around to form a larger but barely materialized arm that slammed the doors shut.
“God dammit, Jason I've told you to knock!” Shadow yelled, slamming his clenched fist on the table, his face flustered red.
“That was a home rule, not a work rule! You've fucking scarred the kid!” Jason screamed back, still holding Finnegan down to the ground.
“Uh, I didn't really mind to be honest,” Finnegan said, defending himself. Jason looked down at him with a sharp glare.
“Say one more thing about my man and you are getting dropped,” Jason said in a stern voice, narrowing his eyes.
Finnegan gulped nervously and nodded.
“Jason, why are you on the ground? And where is Shadow?” A woman behind them said. She wore a long light blue silk dress with sparkling earings and a purse. On her upper left breast area, she wore a badge with the Lake Union's military coat of arms. Her dark blue eyes shinned bright with her oddly perfect foundation on. Not even waiting for a response, the beautiful woman walked straight in the office, with Shadow still naked. This time, he was only shirtless.
The woman screamed and Shadow yelled at the top of his lungs yet again. She immediately ran out of the room, slamming the door shut and backed herself up against the closed doors. She was breathing heavy and face flustered.
“I'm sorry I didn't warn you,” Jason said nervously as he rose from the ground.
“I didn't really mind to be honest,” The woman replied, calming down, her rosy cheeks beginning to become lighter.
Jason was filled with anger.
“Look here little Miss Ambassador, I don't care who or what you are, you put a move on my man and you are dead.”
The Lake Union ambassador shook her head before gulping, “ Don't worry, I'm married.”
The door the ambassador was on shoved open, pushing her quite a ways. Out popped Shadow, still fixing his white v-shirt. There were buttonholes with no buttons, but a semi-thick rope he used to tie it together. As Shadow walked out of his office, he tied the bow at the top and pulled the shirt down quite a-ways before changing his view to the group.
“Now that you've all seen me naked, I'm sure we could forget about it and move into more, professional business,” the Auran Prime Minister said with a slight embarrassed look on his face.
“I'd rather not forget about it,” Finnegan said, raising his hand with a smirk on his face. Jason gasped and immediately kicked Finnegan straight in his stomach before folding his arms and looking away. The Ambassador looked quite disappointed as Shadow entered his office, shaking her head.
“Is that your apprentice?” The Ambassador asked.
“Sometimes it's hard to say yes, Melissa.” Shadow responded, embarrassed yet again.
Jason reluctantly entered the office and Finnegan struggled to get up from the hard blow dealt by the First Gentleman, but managed to enter the office nonetheless. Shadow and Jason took their seats behind the desk as Melissa took a side chair and placed it in front of the desk, and Finnegan just decided to stand.
“So, shall we get down to business?” Shadow said with a big grin.

[Shadowstar1922]

~sweats nervously at the 62 view increase but no feedback~

[Rainshard]

I'll read it properly when I have some time, I like the map though.

[Annakall2013]

Wheres chapter 2 ?

[Shadowstar1922]

Wheres chapter 2 ?

Chapter 2 will come out on Friday.

[Dr Frook]

reading eeeet now

[Shadowstar1922]

reading eeeet now

What do ya think about it?