AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Konnichiwa. Something new. Okay, I was inspired to start this after I found out about Sionna Klassan's Fantasy Trooper story. I thought the idea of the Troopers in a fantasy setting cool. I didn't read her story at that time, however, so any similarities are purely coincidental.

Ja ne,

Shin-chan

DREAMSCAPE - PART 1

CHAPTER 1: PRINCE SEIJI

by SHIN-CHAN

The sun peeked over the horizon, casting long early morning shadows across the sleeping land. Silently, the man entered the dark room and headed for the windows. He was dressed in a muted green tunic with grey leggings. He pulled the long braided cord, and pulled the dark green velvet drapes open, sending the early morning sunshine into the room.

As the drapes silently swung opened, the warm morning sunshine flowed across the huge room and came to rest on a large blackoak four poster bed draped in green satin. Barely visible under the green satin covers, was a wild shock of blond hair.

Seiji had heard the drapes being pulled open, and burrowed deeper into his pillow in response. 'It can't be morning yet.' He could feel the warm sun hitting his hair, laying his hope to rest.

"Your Highness, you wished to rise early this morning."

'No, not really.' Seiji thought to himself. 'I wished that I didn't need to get up this early.' Seiji sat up in the bed, his velvet covers falling to his hips. 'Awake at the crack of dawn. Gods, I just crawled into bed a few hours ago.' He rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake up. This getting a few hours of sleep a night had to stop. There was no way he could save his people if he killed himself from exhaustion.

He turned to the man in the green tunic. He was picking up the clothing that Seiji had casually strewn across the floor the night before. "Good morning Jeren. How long will it take for my advisors to meet in the main council room?"

His valet, Jeren, turned to him, an unreadable expression on his face. "They will be there as soon as you wish it, Highness. They are at your disposal."

Seiji nodded. 'Right, at my disposal. I am not ready for this!' "Have them meet there in three-quarters of an hour Jeren."

Jeren bowed to him. "Yes, your Highness. Anything else?"

Seiji shook his head, and bowing once more, Jeren left the room, silently closing the door behind him.

The moment the door closed, Seiji threw himself back onto his pillows. "Gods, what I wouldn't give for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep. Thanks alot, Father, for leaving this mess for me to clean up."

With a long sigh, he reluctantly crawled out of his massive bed and stumbled to the bathing room. He had forty-five minutes to get ready to confront his advisors, he had better get busy.

As he bathed, he thought back through the events of the last two years. The High Kingdom of Illyon had been at peace for nearly two thousand years. During this time, they had made numerous peace treaties with and for the four other surrounding kingdoms.

Wynsion, the Kingdom of the Clouds, a massive island which floated on a bed of clouds. Darsia, the kingdom to the east. To the west was Trans, Illyon's closest allies. To the south were the many islands that made up the kingdom of Lyrin.

Some of the treaties were for alliances in case one of the kingdoms was attacked by one of the outlying, barbarian countries, but most were trade treaties.

"But have one kingdom be attacked by the unknown, and they all back off as though they were faced with the plague."

In all reality, he couldn't blame them. Given a choice, if he didn't know what he knew, he wouldn't want to get involved either.

Two years ago, when Illyon first started to notice the increasing number of demons appearing, the other countries quickly pointed out it was an eternal matter, and not covered in the treaties. When the other four countries discovered the same thing was happening to them, they stated that they had to take care of their own problems first.

'As if an increase in the number of free roaming demons didn't involve everyone,' he thought in disgust.

And his father had gone along with it.

In vain, Seiji had tried to convince his father that there was more to the appearance of these demons than meet the eye, that something had to be done, but his father wouldn't listen to him. He had more important things to think about than silly stories told to him by his son.

Seiji braced his hands on the tub and hung his head. Two months ago, a massive army had appeared out of nowhere on their northern border, from the rocky wastelands. The King had left with the army to confront the enemy, and none came back. No trace of either armies had been found, and he had some suspicions as to why. He had suddenly awaken one morning to find the golden cornet, worn by all kings of Illyon, on his bedside table. He was now in charge.

Seiji hauled himself out of the tub and dried himself off. He walked back to his bedroom and started to go through is wardrobe. Now he had a war with demons to deal with, and four countries on the verge of open hostilities with each other. Without a King on the Illyon throne, and he couldn't be crowned until he was eighteen, all treaties were worthless, and the other countries had started feuding. He wasn't ready for this!

"Sometimes, I wish that I didn't have to get up in the mornings." He looked at himself in the mirror, checking his appearance. He was dressed in the flowing green and white robes he preferred, the gold cornet failing to keep his blond hair from falling across his eye. He bound the rest of his wavy shoulder length hair back with a green jeweled golden clasp at the base of his neck. He looked young, too young for the responsibilities that he had to bear. "Well," Seiji sighed, "on to the confrontation."

The two guards standing at the entrance to the council room drew themselves to attention at Prince Seiji's arrival. They both walked over and opened the two massive wooden doors.

Inside the room was a massive wooden table with a green tablecloth on it, sitting around it were his father's six advisors, and the ambassadors for the other four kingdoms. All ten of them looked uneasy. It was highly irregular for the ambassadors to be invited to sit in on a council meeting.

Seiji smiled slightly at his advisors looks of unease. He had purposely neglected to tell them that he had asked the ambassadors to join them.

All whispering ended as he entered the room. Everyone stood and watched in silence as he walked to the throne at the head of the table.

Seiji motioned for them to take their seats. As they took to their chairs, Seiji decided to skip over the usual formalities, they took way too long, and precede directly to why he summoned everyone. Once they were sitting, he started to speak.

"We are in the midst of a dire emergency." There was a general shuffling at this announcement. All of his advisors knew things were bad, but to say things were that bad... "I know none of you believe it is so, but it is true." Seiji sat back and laced his fingers together. Time to get down to the heart of the matter. "Do any of you know where these demons are coming from?"

The ten men looked at each other in confusion. What was he talking about?

"You Highness," Thomas, his father's most trusted advisor began, "The world has always been full of demons. They come, they go. That is why we have demon hunters, to keep the numbers down. They are being a bit problematic right now, but we are dealing with it." He said it as though he was talking to an ignorant child. Thomas always had a very high opinion of himself.

Thomas began to stand up. "Now if that is all your highness..." Thomas was not happy at being waken so early in the morning, and for being waken to talk about something as trivial as demons... Well it was ridiculous.

"Sit Thomas!" Seiji ordered, finally getting tired about how his advisors thought they were the ones in charge."This meeting is not over. Apparently you weren't listening. I asked if you knew where the demons were coming from, the major demons, like the one that killed my father, not the usual ones." Seiji stopped speaking as ten blank stares focused on him.

Apparently, they hadn't seen what was so obvious to him. There was no way minor demons would group together, for any reason. From the reports his father had received before his death, Seiji had known the attacking army was made up of major demons. "You haven't notice the difference?" he asked in an incredulous voice. This was great, just great! How could he get anything done when all of his advisors were incompetent?

Seiji sat up straight in his throne, giving his head a quick toss to get the hair out of his lavender eyes, eyes that had gone hard. "There is no way you can be dealing with this demon problem, because you apparently have no idea what the cause is." Seiji paused for effect. The idiots were probably going to think he had gone crazy on them. "We are being attacked by the Shadow Lords."

The room grew deathly silent after this announcement. Whatever the gathered men had expected to hear, it wasn't this. The story of the Shadow Lords was set in ancient history, before the founding of the Five Kingdoms. The Shadow Lords, rulers of a world of shadows and demons had attacked their peaceful world and all but destroyed it. All that had saved their world was the intervention of the great Dragon Kings and the Star Armor.

Legend had it, after the Shadow Lords were defeated, The Dragon Kings had formed the Five Kingdoms to protect the world in case the Shadow Lords ever returned. They had set up the wearers of the Star Armor as kings of the five new countries and had vanished. It was mostly believe to be a bards tale, a grand story of heroism and bravery to entertain hot headed young fools and silly maidens. Very few believed it had really happened.

"But," another of the advisors, Kraig, stuttered out, "that is just a myth."

"No," Seiji shook his head. "I have spent many hours researching this. I have sent for obscure auguries and books of ancient history. The battle of the Shadow Lords really happened. And they are returning. The signs are all there."

After giving his advisors a searching look, they didn't believe him, not that he cared any, he told them what he had found out. "The auguries claim that the Shadow Lords would return two thousand years hence, when shadow children wander the land and when the stars grew afire and fell out of the sky."

Seiji held up his hand as Thomas was about to protest. "I will admit, it is a bit vague, but in the old legends, a demon was referred to as shadow's child, and the stars are falling from the sky at an alarming rate. And for the army my father was killed by," Seiji lowered his eyes, "where do you think they came from?"

After a moment of silence, Seiji looked up and continued. "Given recent occurrences, I am sure I have enough evidence to believe that the Shadow Lord's return will be soon, and we are not ready." He motioned to the four ambassadors. "That is why I have invited our four guests here today. I believe that due to the possibility of the impeding crisis we will soon face, it is time to declare Emperor's Right." Seiji had stayed up most of the night researching this.

Emperor's Right. It was a special law set up not to long after the founding of the Five Kingdoms. In the event of a major crisis, one that jointly affected all five kingdoms, the king of Illyon could declare himself Emperor, and take control of all the kingdoms.

In the past two thousand years, it had only been declared once, five hundred years after the founding. After the crisis was resolved, Emperor's Right had been revoked, until the next time it was needed.

Seiji's advisors paled. Things were getting out of hand here, out of their control. Prince Seiji, they surmised, was overreacting and making too much of a deal over a few minor incidents. The folly of youth.

The six of them looked at the ambassadors. It would be up to them if Emperor's Right was to be placed into effect. Only by a majority vote of the kings could it be established.

The ambassadors looked at each other. They would be acting on their kings behalf on this. The room grew quiet as the ambassadors debated with themselves, they could not choose wrong on this. The four of them bent their heads together and whispered among themselves. They had to be in total agreement on this.

Finally, Rayin, ambassador of Darsia stood up. He nodded to the others, and told Prince Seiji and his advisors their decision.

"Emperor's Right is now in effect." He solemnly stated.

Seiji closed his eyes. He had hoped he was wrong on his assessment on how bad things were. How he had hoped. Sighing, he opened his eyes. "Emperor's Right is in effect," he softly declared.

Silently, he watched as his advisors adjusted to this new reality. By the looks of chagrin on their faces, it didn't look as if they were taking it to well. A small smile played across his lips at the looks on their faces. It was about time they learned who was in charge now. Once he decided that they realized that HE was in charge, he began to speak once again.

"I need to meet the other for kings, as soon as possible. We must make plans now to fight the Shadow Lords..." he stopped speaking as all four of the ambassadors dropped their eyes to the table as one. His own advisors shuffled nervously. Seiji's eyes narrowed. He had a bad feeling that someone had been keeping something from him.

"What is the problem?" he demanded.

The Royal Gardens had been set up by Seiji's great grandmother many years ago. When she first came to Karin as a young bride, she had resented the fact she was not allowed to travel anywhere. So she had, at her husbands approval, torn down some old buildings, and had a large ornamental garden built for her pleasure. Covering several acres of land, it was a showcase of exotic flowers and elaborate landscaping.

Seiji was pacing in the gardens that afternoon, not paying any attention to the flowers in bloom or the sweet songs of the birds. He was still furious about what he had learned in the meeting.

"None of the five kings have been in the same room in over five hundred years," he growled. "Most of them have never even left their own kingdoms! What is wrong with them? Why has this happened?"

Princess Nasha, his cousin, watched him furiously pace back and forth in front of her, his fists balled at his sides, his eyes full of frustration. She had never seen him so worked up before. "Well cousin, it can't be all that bad, can it? Under Emperor's Right, the other kings have to obey you."

"Yes they do." Seiji stopped pacing and faced his cousin, taking a deep, calming breath. It didn't work, and he took another. "But only orders they receive in person. And if none of them are willing to leave their own countries..." his voice faded off and came back with renewed vigor.

"But that's not even half of the problem facing me." he growled through clenched teeth. "My advisors and the ambassadors have been keeping secrets both from me and from each other." Seiji walked over to the bench that Nasha was sitting on and sat next to her, running his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Wynsion has all but cut itself from the other kingdoms," he said softly, still not quite believing what he had heard. "They don't want anything to do with us 'land dwellers' any more.

Darsia practices sorcery, Trans forbids magic except minor elemental magic, and Lyrin has all but disband its military force."

He looked over at his cousin, who had been patiently listening to his tirade. She was such a dear. "And now for the good stuff." He paused for a moment, and continued in a normal voice. "I was hoping on receiving advice from the other four kings, as they all have more experience than I, but no...what do I find out? I find out that all the kings are my age. Which means, in truth, they are all prices, as none of them are old enough to be crowned. To top it all off, and this is great, the Crown Prince of Lyrin disappeared nearly four years ago. They don't have anyone of royal blood in charge down there. The head advisor is running the country." Seiji lowered his head into his hands and moaned.

Nasha frowned, this was not good, not good at all. "But what will you do, Cousin? Only those of royal blood can open the sacred vault. Without the Star Armor, the Shadow Lords cannot be defeated."

"I know, I know," he muttered. Seiji dropped his face in his hands. What was he going to do?

Nasha reached over and picked a small flower off a nearby bush and twirled it between her fingers. "To bad you can't go and get them yourself," she said to him softly. "The other Princes. That would take care of most of your problems."

Slowly, Seiji lifted his head from his hands. "What did you say?" he questioned her, voice low. He could not have heard her right. Go and see the other Princes, himself?

"Well, if they won't come to you, what would it hurt if you went to them." She brought the peach colored flower to her face and breathed in its gentle fragrance.

'Go to them,' Seiji thought. 'Get out of this castle, away from my advisors, and gather together the Princes.' This idea of Nasha's was beginning to sound better and better. He smiled to himself as he thought it over. 'Thomas would have a fit.' What a pleasant thought that was.

He held up his head in determination. "That is exactly what I will do."

Nasha's light blue eyes opened wide as she turned to her cousin. "Wha... Seiji, I was joking! You surely are not taking me seriously!" Nasha gaped at her cousin in shock.

Seiji nodded and stood up. "Yes, I am." He bent over and gently picked his cousin up. "I have no other choice, Nasha." He pointed out. "The five of us must open the vault before the Shadow Lords open the gateway between our worlds. Once that happens, nothing will prevent them from destroying our world. It has to be done. I have no choice."

"But... but you are the Prince of Light! You can't go gallivanting around the countryside! You have a kingdom to run! It is just not done!"

Seiji nodded as he carried his cousin into the castle. "It is now."

The advisors had reacted as he thought they would. They were so predictable. They all thought he was crazy.

"Run around the countryside? Gathering together the other Princes? It is beneath your dignity to do so, Your Highness." Thomas protested, doing his best to change Seiji's mind.

"He is correct, My Prince." Kraig quickly agreed with Thomas. "They should come to see you. You cannot leave Illyon!"

Seiji straightened to his full height and haughtily gazed down his nose at Kraig, who was a good six inches shorter than he was. "I cannot?" he questioned. "Who here has the authority to forbid me to do anything?" Seiji redirected his gaze to Thomas, who ran a finger under the neckline of his tunic nervously.

One by one, as his gaze met each of his advisors, they looked away. There was nothing they could do, and they all realized it.

"I will be leaving at the end of the week, Thomas, you will take care of all the arrangements. I wish to travel in a small party, so send along only two retainers."

Thomas choked at this. "But, Your Highness..." Seiji held up his hand.

"I can defend myself, and the relations between the Five Kingdoms have deteriated so much, I don't want to cause any problems. If they see me showing up with a large entourage, they might take it the wrong way." Seiji's eyes narrowed. With all the other problems he was facing, the last thing he needed was someone thinking he was invading them.

"But Your Highness," Yarin protested, "Who will run the kingdom while you are gone?"

"My cousin, Princess Nasha will be in charge." Everyone in the room gave Seiji blank looks.

"Princess Nasha? But she is a female." Seiji gave Thomas an amused look. "That does not make any difference." Seiji told him lightly. "Females are perfectly capable to rule."

Kraig gave Seiji a nervous look. "But, My Prince, she is not, ah," he groped around for the proper word, "physically capable to rule." He stepped back nervously at the dark look his prince directed at him.

"What do you mean by that." Seiji's voice had grown cold and hard. He loved and was very devoted to his cousin.

"I was, ah, referring to her, um, handicap..." Kraig's voice dwindled as he realized he had just made a bad mistake.

"Being unable to walk has nothing to do with ruling. If anyone questions my decision on this," Seiji glared at everyone around the room, "just remember, you can be replaced." After giving Seiji a nervous look, all the advisors decided to drop the subject on who would be in charge. After all, there was more than one way of being demoted.

"Ah... ahmm." There was a soft cough from the doorway. Seiji and his advisors turned to the door. The Ambassador of Trans was standing nervously outside the door. "Your Highness, please excuse my intrusion."

Seiji inclined his head to the ambassador, not at all bothered by his unannounced presence. "Come in if you wish."

The ambassador shook his head. "I do not wish to intrude, Your Highness. I was wishing to speak with you for a moment, but as you are busy..." he started to back away.

"Please wait a moment." With a wave of his hand, Seiji dismissed his advisors. He didn't have anything else he wanted to say to them. "Come in. What is it you wished to speak to me about?"

"Well," he murmured nervously, and waited until the guards closed the doors to the council chamber. "At the meeting earlier this morning, I wasn't quite truthful."

'Oohhh, now why am I not surprised,' he though in resignation. 'Has anyone been truthful lately?' Seiji walked over to his throne, mentally preparing himself to hear more bad news.

"Your Highness, when I told you earlier that my prince could not come to meet you, I did not tell you everything. The reason why he would not come was because," the ambassador gave a fleeting glance around the room, "because he is already here."

A look of total astonishment appeared on Seiji's face. 'I don't believe it,' he thought numbly, 'good news, by the Dragons themselves, good news!'

"The Prince of Trans is in my castle? How long has he been here?"

The ambassador looked at Prince Seiji in surprise. This was not quite the reaction he was expecting. Prince Seiji seemed... thrilled to hear this. "Yes, he is in the castle. He has been here for nearly a month now."

"Why did he come? What made him leave his own kingdom in a time like this?"

"It is not a very long story, Your Highness. Prince Shu had been getting alarmed by the incidents occurring in Trans after the death of his father last year. When he realized that similar events were occurring in other countries, he felt that something had to be done. He believed that what was occurring was to serious to be handled individually. He sent numerous letters to your father, who ignored them. Prince Shu," 'Ah, how do I say this,' "became weary of being ignored, and came to speak to your father in person. But by the time he arrived, your father had passed away, and you were in charge.

"Prince Shu, unsure of your knowledge on the situation, and not familiar with your policies, decided to wait and see what you would do. After informing him about the council meeting this morning, he told me to arrange a meeting between the two of you, at your convenience, of course."

"Of course," Seiji repeated absently, his mind wandering. Prince Shu of Trans was here, in his castle, incredible. From what little he could piece together from what he just heard, the Prince of Trans seemed to be a bit on the impulsive side. Not many people would leave their country to meet with someone who would more than likely not listen to them as he had done. Apparently, he was also quite worried about his people, worried enough to seek help in person. Unfortunately, that wouldn't have worked. His father hadn't listen to him, his own son, why would he listen to a prince from another country.

"I am free now," Seiji stated as he stood up and started for the door, passing the startled ambassador. "I would most like to meet your prince as soon as possible."

"Yes, yes, Your Highness, follow me." Seiji let the ambassador take the lead as they left the room.

(to be continued...)