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It had been close to two days since Evrame's forces had broken up. After traveling with them all for so long it felt so strange to be on his own again. Actually, this was the first time Evrame had ever been permitted to be truly alone besides the rare occasions he had managed to sneak out of the palace. He knew that in the days before the formation of the empire it would not have been unusual for male lions to be exiled from their tribes after reaching a certain age and often times those males found themselves all alone in the world. Evrame had more power and training available to him than those males ever did and he still found it to be a slightly frightening experience. He could not imagine what it must have been like for those ancient lions. And then there was the much worse experience of facing exile even later in life after being replaced in the tribe by younger males returning from exile.

After just two days of being alone it was no surprise to Evrame that one of those ancient males had decided to change things. The very first emperor had learned a few things from the other races while in his own exile. When he returned from exile he brought a small army with him on the promise of land and a few of his females once he claimed a tribe. After taking one tribe he started taking in all the other exiled males and getting them to swear oaths of loyalty to him before taking over more and more tribes until he eventually controlled them all. By that time there were so many females to go around that the males did not need to worry about challenging each other as long as they were willing to settle with a few less females than they normally would. There were a few dissenters, but most liked the prospect of getting a female or two and never having to face exile again. It was actually the lionesses that put up more of a fight to the change, but quite a few of them liked the idea of no longer having to exile their sons and the emperor had started bringing in all the ideas and inventions of the races that surrounded the lands belonging to the lions, making life easier for everyone.

Of course, things had not gone entirely well for Evrame's ancestors. The lions had always been respected as warriors, but they had always been nothing more than a scattered group of tribes that were of no real threat to the countries surrounding them. When the first emperor organized things the lions started to look like an actual threat. One kingdom whose name has been lost to time tried to conquer the lions before they could become too big of a threat, but things had not gone well for that kingdom for a variety of reasons. For one thing, many of the lions had learned more from the other races during their time in exile than anyone had ever suspected and they were a much more advanced people than anyone could have guessed. The other big reason was that the first emperor had spent more time organizing his people into an effective fighting force than that kingdom had been led to believe. When they attacked to lions they encountered a much larger threat then they were prepared to handle and they were the ones that wound up being conquered. It was the first time the lions had ever conquered a foreign kingdom and it would be far from the last that were conquered by the empire.

Now Evrame had the daunting task of re-conquering that empire. He was happy that he did have the resource of godly knowledge and virtue to assist him in his task, which was more than his ancestors had when forging the empire. Then again, his ancestors had never really had to face off against any other gods to form their empire either.

It also looked like Evrame was going to have to face off against multiple gods a little earlier than he would have wanted to. While he had been traveling another god had moved into the region of the god that Evrame was heading towards. He knew that they were not fighting, but he could not tell much else. The lion prince turned god of knowledge and virtue may have had more knowledge available to him than a normal person, but his powers still had their limits. While Evrame could tell what was on the minds of those close to him, he had much more difficulty knowing what people where thinking from further away.

Evrame was close enough to his destination that he could tell he was heading towards a village and many of the people in that village were unhappy, frightened even, of something that was occurring there. To Evrame that meant that at least one, if not both of the gods that were present there may have been causing trouble for the people there. The village itself was only a day's journey away for Evrame, but he had to remember to at least look like he rested every so often. He did not want to give out any hints that he was a god to anyone else since he was fairly certain the only way for many other people to know that he was a god was by his actions.

The closer Evrame was able to get to the village the more clear the situation became. It was not only his new powers that assisted him with figuring out just what was going on. Occasionally Evrame would spot patrols as he traveled. He stayed out of their view, but he was able to get a good look at them. They were dressed in soldier's uniforms and the outfits might have fooled those unfamiliar with actual soldiers. What they were wearing was probably the real thing, but they were not wearing them properly. Pieces of armor were not connected properly, little things were out of place, and they just did not carry themselves like real soldiers. Evrame was certain, even without his powers, that they were probably brigands that had managed to loot a shipment of supplies to one of the legions. Now they were impersonating a group of soldiers in a village and pretending they were protecting the villagers from the rebels in the area while taking everything they could from them at the same time.

Normally, things like that would not have happened. Even Marame and Talame would not have tolerated such behavior from brigands. They did not like for people to steal what they planned to steal themselves. But, things like this tended to happened during civil wars and revolutions. While both sides were so busy fighting each other they did not have the time to deal with brigands and those brigands ruthlessly exploited that. All the rumors flying around about both sides of the conflict also made it seem believable that soldiers would act that way to enough villagers that no one even bothered to report that there were brigands that needed to be handled to either side of the conflict.

There was a certain complication for Evrame that made him think twice about walking into a confrontation with two gods and that was that he could not tell who they were. Even second hand knowledge that Evrame was able to glean from the minds of the villagers and brigands alike seemed to be fuzzy when it came to knowledge of the gods in their midst. What the other gods were themselves thinking was a complete mystery to Evrame, he just knew they were there. There was one thing Evrame could tell from the minds of the villagers and the brigands and that was that they believed there was only one supernatural being in their presence. Supernatural was the right word to use too, many of the people still hesitated to believe that what they were seeing was a god.

Evrame wondered what the other god was doing. Was he hiding himself from the other god? Maybe he was trying to keep his presence a surprise for other gods seeking to challenge his partner? There were too many reasons for the other god to be concealing himself for Evrame to guess with any reasonable assurance why he was doing it. The other god could have been hiding and waiting for his moment to attack the other god for all Evrame knew. There was only one way to find out what was really going on and that was to keep heading towards the village. It did cross his mind to move onto another lone god instead of challenging the two, but Evrame doubted that things were going to get any easier as time moved on and all the gods continued to gather power. This was something that he had to handle now.

When Evrame was within visual range of the village he tried to take in everything that he could with his eyes that his godly senses had been unable to inform him of. Spotting one of the gods was not that difficult to do. He was a lumbering brute of a badger that was about three times the size of everyone around him. By the way he was dressed it was easy to tell that he was one of the brigands that had invaded this town. It was also obvious that he was the one in charge of the brigands by the way the ones around him were acting.

There were only a few brigands that were active in the village when Evrame first arrived. It was still early in the mourning and while many of the people in the town were already active and going about their morning activities, it looked like the brigands were still sleeping off a night of heavy drinking. Many of them were sleeping wherever they happened to pass out. A few of the villagers had to gently push bodies out of the way of their front doors just to get out of their homes. Evrame could tell many of them did not want to be so gentle, but they knew they needed to be since they thought those brigands were in the legions and they were also scared of the giant one that had occupied the center of the village.

As Evrame entered the town itself he drew a few wary glances from the few villagers that spotted him. He knew that they must not be in a mood to welcome outsiders at the moment due to what the supposed soldiers were doing to their homes. Evrame also doubted that they would want to share much of the food that they had left either. All those brigands had to be a drain on their supplies.

Evrame made sure that the few brigands that were up never saw him. He was unsure about how they would react to a new comer and he did not want to find out. Even though Evrame was confident in his ability to defeat any of the brigands present he did not want to do anything that might alert the other gods to his presence in the area. The village was not that large and word would travel fast if a fight broke out or if someone went missing, so Evrame decided to stay hidden from the brigands until he could find out more about the god he knew about and discover the location of the second god.

To Evrame it had seemed like finding the other god would be a difficult thing to do while finding out more about the badger would be the easy thing to do. The badger brigand was a boisterous individual who seemed to like talking about himself in a loud enough tone of voice that everyone in the village could hear him. By the way he was going it was not going to be long before he eventually blurted something out about just what his powers were. Things did not work out quite the way that Evrame expected them too.

After rounding one corner Evrame came face to face with an aging human. This human was a person Evrame had not expected to meet again. The last time he had seen him was before his escape from the capital city and Evrame wondered what he was doing in a small village like this one. He also noticed that he did not know what the thoughts of the human were. Since the only people that Evrame knew of whose minds he could not read were gods he assumed that he had found the other god.

All of a sudden, the idea of having a second god in the area did not seem like such a bad thing to Evrame. He had known this particular human since he was a child. Even then the human had not exactly been a young man. Now his hair was completely gray, his face was a leathery mask of wrinkles, and his formerly well muscled body was much thinner than it had been in Evrame's youth. The man had needed those muscles for his craft. He was a blacksmith and he was also supposed to be the best weapons crafter in all the empire. It was also rumored that he had fled from Alancia during Evrame's own escape from the city.

"Greetings Master Jarfane. I had not expected to meet you here," Evrame said to the old blacksmith while bowing respectfully.

"I had a feeling I would be meeting you here my prince," Jarfane said silently to keep from being heard. "Now stop that bowing. It's not proper for someone of your station to be bowing to an old man like me."

Evrame frowned a little. He thought it was proper for him to show a little respect to those who deserved it. His brothers were more the type that liked being bowed to while showing no respect to others unless they thought it absolutely necessary. He also wondered about something else Jarfane had said. "How did you know I would be here?" asked Evrame. Even his powers were not able to tell him the exact identities of each god.

"It was the sword, a sword I have been making just for you for some time now. The sword could sense its master coming and I knew it had to be you," explained Jarfane. For all of Evrame's life Master Jarfane had talked like that. The old man always claimed to know just who the weapons he made belonged to and refused to sell them to anyone but those people. Some thought he was a little eccentric, but Evrame had seen the look in the eyes of those that received Jarfane's weapons. They always looked surprised at just how well those weapons felt in their hands the first time they held them. If Jarfane was eccentric, it was not because of who he chose to sell his weapons to as far as Evrame was concerned.

"You managed to make one of your famous swords even in a small village like this one?" asked Evrame.

"Well, I have to admit that even I was having trouble forging anything close to my normal quality since I had been forced to leave many of my tools behind in Alancia. But, I had a rather strange encounter with something claiming to be the God or some such nonsense a few days ago. Whatever that thing really was it left me with some very useful abilities, abilities that let me finish your sword," explained Jarfane.

As Jarfane finished the explanation he ushered Evrame into one his own hut. The equipment of Jarfane's trade littered the hut, but everything was still in its place. Evrame remembered that he had always been as neat as his chosen profession would allow him to be. There was something in the hut that caught Evrame's attention and held it. "Ah, I see you've noticed it. Under normal circumstances I would have never crafted such a thing," explained Jarfane, "It was only after becoming what I am now that I got the urge to make that...that bastardized long sword. You needed something a little more unique than even one of my best blades though and this is it, so I guess I'll settle with calling it a modified long sword."

Jarfane was definitely right about the sword being modified. It was about half a foot longer than any long sword Evrame had ever seen. The blade was also slightly wider than was traditional in a Nolveran blade. There was a two handed hilt on the sword with a lion head pommel. A thin strip of what appeared to be silver ran down the center of the blade. Evrame thought it looked beautiful, but it also looked a little impractical for the type of sword that it was. Even if it was an abnormal weapon Evrame wanted it, felt like he should have it. He had started to reach out for it without even noticing, but stopped himself once he realized Jarfane had not given him permission to take the weapon yet.

Jarfane responded to Evrame's unspoken request, "Take it my prince. That sword is yours. It was made for you and you alone."

"Thank you Master Jarfane. I am honored that you would make such a weapon for me," Evrame responded respectfully. Jarfane just grunted in response. When Evrame first touched the sword he felt an instant connection to it. He made a few practice strokes with the weapon and was surprised at how natural it felt in his hands. It was perfectly weighted and seemed to suit his fighting style extremely well even if the unusual length of the blade would take a little getting used to.

"I figured you would want a two-handed weapon since I remember you never really took to shields. You always were in to oversized swords too," Jarfane reminisced. "I still remember the time you snuck into my shop in the capital when you were little more than a cub and took one of weapons to practice with after nobody else would give you a real sword." Evrame remembered that time too. The sword he had taken had been far too large for him and he probably would have hurt himself if Jarfane had not intervened. That was a story that only the blacksmith knew since he had decided to keep it a secret. Evrame had been grateful for that since his mother and father would have punished him severely for doing such a thing. The blacksmith had just found it amusing and had told Evrame that he really did not mind since he knew that swords and Evrame belonged together. Still, just thinking about that moment always made Evrame's ears dip a little bit in embarrassment.

"I would hope that I've improved with the blade a little since then Master Jarfane," Evrame said lightly.

"I would hope the same my prince," Jarfane replied seriously. "But would you bring that sword here. There is still one final touch that I must add to it. Oh, and before I forget, please make sure to give it a good name. It won't be truly complete until it has one."

"As you wish Master," Evrame responded as he brought the weapon over to the human. Jarfane just held the weapon in his hands and Evrame was a little surprised to see a faint glow emanating from him that seemed to be flowing into the sword. Evrame knew he was seeing a manifestation of whatever godly ability Jarfane had been granted. As the light continued to flow into the sword a strange rune seemed to be etching itself into the silver lining of the sword. Then, without warning, Evrame found that he knew what Jarfane knew, could tell what he had been doing to the sword. Soon after Jarfane collapsed and Evrame was barely able to catch him.

Jarfane had infused the sword with his own powers. He was mortal again, at least for a short while. Even as Evrame held the elderly man he could feel the life leaving him. That was when Evrame figured out that the entity calling itself Sarbon had come to Jarfane at the very moment of death. Jarfane had then been infused with the power of a god, saving his life. Now that Jarfane had given up his powers death had come to reclaim him. Evrame could not detect a hint of fear from the human though, if anything the expression on his face was peaceful. He had already accepted his death by the time Sarbon had appeared to him. Now that he had also managed to make sure that Evrame had received his sword he was able to pass on with no unfinished business and no regrets.

Evrame held Jarfane until he no longer drew breath. Then he carried him over to his bed and made sure to cover his body. If he remembered correctly humans from his part of the country liked to be buried after death. Evrame would make sure to come back and do so, but at that moment he had something else to take care of. All those brigands would probably notice a stranger burying a body and if they interfered, Evrame thought he would have to do a number of things that were not proper to do at a funeral. It was time for Evrame to use the gift that Jarfane had given his life to make.