The Chronicle of Dira

Prologue: The War Posterior

It had been two years since Pierce Alexander had seen Alon the Godkiller, he had laid it to rest in a place only he would no of, he had left no clues, and he had told no one. He had taken it away from Lancaster about two weeks after his daughter was born. She looked more like her mother than he, her eyes and face seemed to have been copied straight from the source, her hair was the only feature the two shared, it was dark brown, even darker than his, almost to the point of being black, and it was already growing long. The years after the Genzian Insurgence dealt mainly with ridding the world of the scars that were left behind by Olio Genz's campaign against the Defenders, the entire world had come to calm and only sought to forget that the horrible event ever happened.

Pierce sat down in the throne he had occupied for those two years, as he sat he leaned over to his right and laid his head on his hand, this would be the seven hundredth day since he had drove Alon across Genz's throat and crushed the stone containing Ghardesz, the elder god. A Sister from his own personal squadron came into the throne room carrying a message, she did not seem pleased. "Primarch, I have a message for you..." "Sister... Berdine, was it?" He still had trouble remembering the names of his Sisters, the majority of them he had not met before the squadron's formation. "Yes sir, your message." She handed him the envelope, which he opened as carefully as possible, it was sealed with a red wax coat of arms, the coat belonged to the Lianetzieg War Council.

"This is not good, not good at all." Pierce read over the words of the note again, they read:

"Pierce Alexander,

As a consequence of your actions two years prior to this note being sent, many people have died, been injured, and put out of their homes to flee from the terror of the war. We, the Lianetzieg War Council, hereby charge you with War Crimes of the highest degree. You are to attend trial immediately, we expect you will not flee.

Make no attempt to avoid trial, as you brought justice to Olio Genz, we shall bring justice to you."

There was no signature, but that was not the point, he was charged with war crimes, the only punishment for which was death. Berdine spoke up again "Primarch, we support you on this matter, all of us. We shall accompany you to Lianetzieg, we will testify to your innocence." "Thank you Sister Berdine, inform the others if you would?" "Certainly, Primarch."

Pierce walked out onto the walkway outside the throne room, Alayne was waiting for him, Alexandira in her arms. When she turned, the sunlight seemed to flow through her blonde hair, giving her a sort of holy appearance. "Pierce, what is wrong?" Pierce showed her the note after a moment of looking down at the ground. While she read it, tears slowly started to well up in her eyes "How could they charge someone as benevolent as you with something as malicious as this?" "I do not know, I need you to stay here with Alexandira. I will return, and I will return innocent." He left that day with the Sisters of Pierce following close behind, the sun set shortly afterward, but it left Alayne with a feeling that it wouldn't rise the next day.

The City of Lianetzieg was built around a large courthouse, where his trials were to take place, Pierce looked at it with irreverance as he walked through the doors. The trials began an hour later, with Pierce standing shackled to the floor, arms chained to large blocks which held him down further. Many people stood in silence, others cursed him for the charges, either way he was here only to prove his innocence and not to improve his image. Pierce would occasionally attempt to lift his hand up to scratch his hair-covered chin, but the chains prevented him from getting much higher than his waist, his height didn't help either.

"Pierce Alexander" the head of the council sounded over the chatter of the croud "you stand here charged with War Crimes of the highest extent, in which tense the good of the common people was jeopardized, should you be found guilty, you will be executed tomorrow morning by hanging. Do you understand?" "Yes, your honor." "Then let the trials of Pierce Alexander, son of Raina Alexander, commence." The only surviving member of Pierce's immediate family was his mother, Raina, who stood watch in sorrowful contemplation at the front of the croud of people. Her long brown hair had tips of silver at the ends, and her face bore few wrinkles, and those that were there were very unapparent. Her eyes were grey as the stones holding her dearest son down, and tears flowed from them throughout the entire trial."

One Sister named Jayne was the first to testify, she went on about how good Pierce was to the people in towns he liberated, and how his first goal at every battle was to clear the area of civilians before engaging the enemy. She talked about how Pierce had rescued a group of orphaned children in Arctian after the demise of his father, and how he had sympathized with several wounded civilians during his campaign. However, as much as she explained to the council, the more they seemed to not believe her. "We have heard enough from you, thank you Sister Eire." Eire was a prominent name in Wilhelm, Jayne had grown up amongst aristocracy and wealth until she was seven years old and ran away, when she ended up at Lancaster, a sixteen year old Pierce had greeted her and helped her enlist, she had been smitten with him since, she was also one of the founding members of the Sisters. All of those facts led to one conclusion from the council, they believed she spoke lies to prevent his incrimination. "We will call for your next attestment personally, Pierce, and for safe measure..." Pierce felt a surging pain roll through his entire body "if you lie, this spell will detect it, after three lies, you will fry your own brain." Pierce could feel the sweat rolling down his face, he had started to forget the exact events of the war, he was trying to move on. A sudden wave of recollection washed through him, everything he had forgotten seemed to display itself vividly in front of his eyes, every painful memory from the war that he had forgotten, he now recalled more clearly than ever. "It began in Arctian..." he spoke up, he went on for hours on end on every event that happened during the war from start to finish, he was not subjected to pain once.

"Very conclusive, Alexander." "That magic is forbidden for use in trials! You would make me subject to the very crime you so wrongly accuse me of!" The councilman to the farthest right spoke from underneath his hood. "This is true, but you see, you're accused of crimes against the common people, you are obviously not common." The central councilman spoke again "It is to our understanding that you have not done anything wrong when it comes to your charges of war crimes, however there is one more thing we have to address." "And what would that be?" "We need to know, if you did not commit these crimes, then who did?" "It was Olio Genz, I thought I conveyed that message enough during the war." "Olio Genz was the optimi at the time! Why would he do such a thing?" "His plan was very well orchestrated, almost every single Defender he did not hold in good favor was eliminated, almost..." "We see, well then, we shall call this trial to a close, Pierce Alexander, is there anything else you might like to add?" "Not at all."

Pierce walked out of the Lianetzieg council hall with a sick feeling in his stomach from the magic that was used against him, and as he walked by some people stared at him, others seemed to gossip amongst themselves. He could hear some of them talking "I wonder why they needed those stones?" "It's because if they didn't he'd probably have killed them all and ran." Sister Jayne and Sister Berdine grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered to him "Primarch, should we take care of them?" "No, they've done nothing wrong." "But they are besmirching your name. It's only fitting we set them straight." "No, they can think what they will, I know exactly what happened, I know I've done nothing wrong, these people can think I am a monster, but I am no more a monster than anyone here." The people continued gossiping as he left town, and as soon as he did, Lianetzieg went totally quiet.

As soon as he got home to Lancaster, Pierce started back on remembering the names of his Sisters, he still couldn't get all of them. "Alayne, Berdine, Beatrice..." he started, he didn't have any particular order, but he was recalling them more and more every day. "Blanch, Celia, Cecile, Catherine, Dorine..." he stopped a moment to gather his thoughts, the magic had scattered his attention all about his mind, "Ava, Ella, Mia, Morgan, Maya, Lily, Zoe, Jayne..." He trailed off again, he couldn't keep his thoughts in one line all day, it was particularly annoying. "Diane, Amber, Jocelyn, Melissa, Leona, Maria..." His vision was starting to blur, the magic was still affecting him to that extent, it had faded in and out all day, and he was becoming used to it, he figured it wouldn't last too much longer anyway. Alayne walked into the throne room and sat down in the chair nearest the throne, the room had several chairs that were installed after the war so that Pierce could do one thing that the other Optimi had not done: give audience. "Pierce, what are you doing?" "Just recalling the names of the Sisters." "I see, how many have you got down?" "Twenty-one." "What about Alexandira?" "After today, I don't think I want her to be a Defender. It's not for her." "But she should follow in your steps, she would make an excellent Defender." Pierce thought for a moment, he looked down into Alayne's eyes and spoke "We'll let her decide when the time comes." Alayne nodded her agreement and left, Pierce only had to sit in the chair for a few more hours before he could go watch over his daughter, he set back to work remembering names "Michelle, Lilith, Evelyn, Sophia..."