The Challenge of Ebrado

By Aiden K.

When most of the population is united under one Kingdom there is no room for an inadequate king. To ensure that each heir is fit to rule and no bad seed would destroy the flourishing empire, a challenge was introduced to test the heir.

 

The challenge of Ebrado.

 

It is executed by an untouchable and mysterious cult; the Quillium, and it has shaped history by deciding which heir was to rule, binding the royal family to a tradition which grew ancient over the many kings.

 

Mark has embarked on this physically and psychologically arduous journey because as the rightful heir he had to, and Jonathan has joined him because he was chosen to. The enigmatic tradition proves to be a lot more complex than either of them would've initially expected it to be and holds many more secrets than could be easily unraveled by either someone as prepared as Mark or someone as sharp as Jonathan.

 

Once they do learn what the Challenge of Ebrado truly is, with the help of the given clues and forbidden interventions, they finally see the true depths of what they are up against.

Mark is doing what he was told to do, and Jonathan is doing what he was raised to do.

 

The fate of the Kingdom is at stake, yet both question if it's worth it.

 

 

 

A story, where the crisp narrative follows along Mark and Jonathan on the journey which changes both of their lives. The book raises a lot of questions about great-many things but eventually leaves it up to the reader to open whichever door they choose, because …'I can't nail down the moral high-ground, as it exists not. But among those many options, may these possibilities give you clarity.'…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aiden K.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393154983

Book preview

Train

Jonathan woke up far earlier than he was used to. He leaned over and grabbed his phone, on which he turned the first alarm off, followed by the successive ones. Fearing that he’d turn one off subconsciously, he always set a bunch each night, but this morning was different. On this particular dawn, which over the past few days had increasingly become more unlikely to arrive, he only needed the first.

He woke up but was still extremely tired and couldn’t will himself to do anything, not yet ready to begin the day’s obligations. He knew that this would happen; hence he woke himself up before he actually had to get out of bed. As he was lying in bed facing the ceiling, he didn’t care much about anything, and the value of things dropped so low that all he wanted was to go back to sleep.

After a little while, his priority list rearranged itself and went back to normal. He started to think about various things. First was his girlfriend: how much more she meant to him than he could’ve ever imagined. He knew that he wouldn’t be seeing her for a while, which made the already gloomy situation depressing. He then thought about the supposedly random selection process by which he had been selected out of the hundreds of thousands of other viable twenty-one year-olds. He wanted to believe that it was random, but it seemed so unlikely. He didn’t even know whether or not he should be happy about it. He vividly remembered the day he got the official looking letter, which looked like it could’ve come straight out of a movie. He’d never forget the concerned and stunned faces of his parents after he showed it to them, and how they refused to give any explanations, while their true emotions were written all over their faces.

In his head he went through all the steps he needed to take in order to get ready. He speculated the amount of time he would need for each step and assumed the remaining time he could spend resting in bed. But all of that seemed to lose its accuracy and importance the moment his mother stepped into the room with cried out eyes. She unsuccessfully hid her worry with a forced smile, while she was still holding some tissues in her hand. She told Jonathan to get out of bed and get ready for breakfast, which was already waiting for him in the kitchen, and then left the room with the door wide open.

Eyes red from crying, approaching but stopping at the door, telling him to come out at once without letting him rest a bit more, and leaving the door open like that, was all very unlike his mother, which made Jonathan wonder again what all this fuss was about. He got out of bed suddenly feeling late, despite previously assuming that he had another twenty minutes to rest. He washed his face, put on some clothes and headed out to the kitchen, just as his mother was coming to check on him again.

It was way too early for him to have a proper appetite, so he forced down a few chunks of scrambled egg, which were coated in various different toppings the way he liked them. His mother’s worried encouragement helped, but after those few bites he still gave up and was done with the breakfast, without even touching the toast. Instead he drank his orange juice, and went back to his room to finish getting ready.

The goodbye was at the door: his father already taking the car out of the garage and his mother standing by the door shaking in tears, no longer keeping the act up. Big kisses, and warm long hugs, but no words. It was so surreal to have only the observers but not the actual participant know what lay ahead, that it took the edge off for the one standing in the dark, and left him desperately trying to speculate what the future held based on the other’s behavior. After the hugs, the words did come in the form of a faint ‘I love you,’ merely stirring the air, but nothing followed them.

Jonathan’s dad took him to the train station, which was odd by itself, since his father should’ve been at work at this time, and he rarely saw his father miss work for lesser reasons than a graduation. Then again, everything about this lavish mess was out of place. These small bits and pieces were all adding up in Jonathan’s mind, foreshadowing that no matter what he might’ve thought, he was way too unprepared for what was coming. This filled him with a certain tension, which he didn’t like, and certainly didn’t experience often enough to handle with ease. Jonathan liked handling things with ease.

The first half of the ride was in total silence, interrupted only by the occasional cadenced ticking of the turn signal. In that silence was something Jonathan could hear: struggle. His father’s struggle to start a conversation he seemingly couldn’t, a feeling obviously new to him. In the dim light of the first rays of the day, his father was driving the car earnestly looking ahead, desperately trying to conjure up a face to match the many faces his son had seen him make throughout his childhood. This new, unfamiliar one was something neither of them had seen before.

‘How are you feeling, Son?’ asked his father, finally breaking the ice.

‘Kept in the dark, uncertain. I don’t know what is going on, but the way people are acting around me I feel it’s something big, yet I’m unsure what my purpose is,’ said Jonathan as he was looking out the window examining the passing houses with great care.

His voice was quite empty, as he had nothing to hold onto, nothing to compare the situation to, so he couldn’t even guess what was to come, simply that there was no way to be prepared. If anything, he felt frustrated by his parents’ betrayal of not letting him out of the dark.

‘Can’t you tell me anything, Dad?’ asked Jonathan with a little more color in his tone.

‘As we have already told you, we can’t. You have to go into this unprepared, blind. But maybe, just maybe these few lines might guide you later on, and be of company, when the time is right,’ said his father who then used literature to help him express himself, just the way he had done many times before when his own words were not enough:

All are architects of Fate,

Working in these walls of Time;

Some with massive deeds and great,

Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;

Each thing in its place is best;

And what seems but idle show

Strengthens and supports the rest.

Soft silence fell on the car as the final words settled around them. Jonathan’s dad looked at him to see his reaction. It was not a matter of liking it or not; it rarely was. It was a matter of understanding it or not, but Jonathan didn’t yet know what he had to, in order to fathom what his father meant by the quote. What his father wanted was for Jonathan to interpret it in a way that when the unknown knowledge was revealed, the pieces he was now handing his son would align in such a way to let him see what he meant.

‘How will this help me figure out what I’m doing here?’ asked Jonathan, jumping straight to the point.

‘What did you get out of it?’ his dad asked back.

‘How everything has its purpose, I guess,’ replied Jonathan unconvincingly. ‘Therefore, nothing can be deemed useless,’ Adding it just the way a young student would, when feeling that the previous answer was not to the teacher’s liking.

‘Good,’ said his dad, his eyes visibly gaining some spark, which went away as swiftly as it came, when he turned to a more serious tone. ‘Son, the following days will demand a lot; it will be an environment with challenges you are not fully prepared to handle, but still you should not forget how you were raised. You should not become a different person from who you really are. You’ll be stepping out of your ordinary life while you are there. You’ll notice that the world you have just entered is one you didn’t know existed. You’ll have power there, beyond anything you could have ever imagined. Don’t let it go to your head, nor should you forget that once it is over you lose everything you had, so you should aim to make an impact while you still possess it. Don’t forget your dreams, whatever they are. Fulfill the ones you can, while you can. Remember Son, whatever happens in the following days, is just as much in your hands, if not more, as it is in the heir’s, and you have the power to govern it, but only while you are in there.’

Jonathan didn’t know how to react to that. If anything, this just confused him even more.

‘Your mother and I love you,’ arrived his dad to the point he feared he would miss, due to all the other things he felt he had to say.

Just as everything necessary had been said, they rolled up to the entrance of the train station, where a disorganized group of officials was waiting for them. When they saw the car, which they must have been shown so as to recognize later, they quickly sprang into action. Two were stepping in front of the car, two stepping behind it, as it was coming to a halt. Another one opened Jonathan’s door then straightened and saluted, waiting for him to get out of the car.

When Jonathan got out, he saw that by then the other soldiers had formed a whole corridor for him, with one oddly dressed civilian standing in the middle, waiting for him to step forward. As he turned around, he saw his dad standing on the other side of the car, looking at him with eyes sparkling from tears. His father looked at his son with sorrow and love, while Jonathan looked at his father with eyes wanting more answers. Under the pressure of everybody present, waiting for him, Jonathan felt himself back away from the car, still facing his father, trying to prolong this fleeting moment with his dad as long as he could without feeling too uncomfortable. He was forced out of this moment by the sound of the man in the middle of the corridor clearing his throat to get his attention.

‘Welcome Jonathan, please follow me,’ said the man clearly in charge, who then turned around to lead the way.

The corridor formed by the soldiers wasn’t long enough to line their path wherever they were going, so when they were nearing the end, the soldiers formed a circle around Jonathan and the other person, from then on accompanying them in this way. All was arranged for them in advance, so they moved through the train station in no time. They had open gates, guarded doors, and empty corridors helping them make their way through the facility, which otherwise would’ve been a nightmare to cross.

They came out of the private labyrinth right where the door to Jonathan’s carriage was. It was clear from the first glance that it was no ordinary business or first-class carriage; it was the royal one. Every single detail implied its nature. It looked as if it was made out of silver and gold, shining bright in the dirty surroundings. It had no numbers or signs on it; the ones using it didn’t need any. Its shape was different, its design was different, its aura was different. It was intended to stand out, and without question, it did that well. Its delicate and meticulously-detailed appearance made everyone look up in awe, requiring the guards to keep the crowds from getting closer.

He was led up the stairs to the open door of the carriage, where he could glimpse into the room inside, which looked nothing like what you would expect on a train. The inside of the carriage looked like a smaller room taken out of the royal palace, which Jonathan remembered from when he visited the real one with his class in middle school. The room bore no signs of being on wheels, and the shaded windows made that illusion even more convincing. The elaborate design, the gold-plated furniture, and the breathtaking paintings on the walls made Jonathan look back, waiting for further instructions, because he dared not to go on, expecting guards to discourage him from even trying.

Jonathan was surprised to see that he was left alone in the room which was so similar to the ones where normally people were asked to step back when they neared the velvet cordon. Now that he had time to examine the luxurious surroundings, he found the seemingly most comfortable armchair, which must have been heavier than a small car. He sat down in the astonishing masterpiece, which was probably older than his school, and felt relaxed for the first time that morning. The cacophony of the train station was completely sealed off, and he could even hear faint classical music coming from somewhere.

As he sat there in admiration, he soon felt the train start to roll out of the station, so smoothly he had to check behind the curtain to be sure. The train was moving fast, and soon they were out of the city, so Jonathan moved the curtains out of the way with a push of a button he found, and looked out the window, while buried deep in his thoughts.

He had time to think about the morning’s events, which further deepened his uncertainty about the upcoming few days. The feeling of the unknown was never his ally, and this time was no exception. His thoughts then shifted back to his girlfriend, an area he always found comfort in. He felt remorseful about having had to cancel their well-thought-out upcoming plans due to this unexpected short-notice trip. He knew he wanted to make it up to her afterwards—not because she would expect it from him in any way, but rather because he genuinely wanted to.

The elegant, smoothly running train slid soundlessly along the rails, with Jonathan sitting in its most comfortable armchair, looking at the astounding view, and enjoying the gentle rocking. It wouldn’t have taken long for him to fall so deep into himself that merely a few alarms  on his phone wouldn’t have done the job this time, but just as he was going under to the other side, to catch up with what he had missed in the morning, somebody knocked on the door. It was a soft and polite knock, almost muffled behind the thick mahogany door and far from being loud enough to get Jonathan’s full attention. The knock was repeated, a lot firmer this time, and lasted longer by two beats. These he heard, but couldn’t answer in time, due to the lack of need, because as it turned out the intruder didn’t need his permission to come in; he was merely letting him know.

The same person who had greeted him and escorted him to the train entered the room and walked over to Jonathan to sit down in front of him. He was pleased with the situation they were in and felt completely in charge. What he was doing was obviously no more than an execution of orders, but he surely did enjoy doing it. His presence caused a vague stirring of unease in Jonathan, but he could not put his finger on what exactly. Maybe his uniform, which resembled a monk’s robe, with a modern touch, making the whole costume timeless, not belonging to the past nor the present. Maybe it was his face which radiated enough sheer will that Jonathan was sure he could have excelled in any area of life. Or maybe his authority, how he didn’t hide his superiority, deepening the impression that the knock was mere formality and in no way a request to enter.

The first part of the conversation was monotonous, lacking any feeling that the significance of it was immense. Jonathan was asked if he knew about the Quillium caste or the Ebrado trial, words he had never even heard of. The interrogator didn’t seem to be pleased or displeased with the answers; he was completely indifferent towards them. He acknowledged each one and went on to the next question. Jonathan was asked if he knew what the purpose of this whole thing was, to which he answered an easy ‘No.’. The following question was ‘What is the challenge?’, to which Jonathan said ‘I don’t know,’ wishing that instead of asking these things the man would rather explain it to him, as Jonathan was dying to finally find out the answers.

The next stage of the questioning came, which did put a small grin on the interrogator’s face. He took out a sophisticated looking metal bracelet from one of his hidden pockets and signaled Jonathan to extend his right arm. He snapped the bracelet around Jonathan’s wrist, around which it firmly closed. The bracelet was heavy and thick, cold but comfortable, neatly fitting around Jonathan’s wrist as if they knew the precise width of it. The surface was smooth with nothing but two small lights on it.

‘This is the most advanced lie detector in the Kingdom,’ came the explanation. ‘It cannot be fooled or tricked, so all efforts are in vain. After a statement either a red or a blue light will flash depending whether you lie or tell the truth.’

Jonathan could see the satisfaction on the man’s face, and he felt the gap between them widen even further.

‘We’ll go through the questions again,’ said the man, after which he paused a little. ‘Just to be sure.’

‘Have you heard of the Quillium caste?’

‘No,’ replied Jonathan, worried that his thoughts racing around in his brain would accidently lead the bracelet to draw the wrong conclusion.

The blue light flashed.

‘Do you know about the Ebrado trial?’

‘No.’

The blue light flashed again.

‘How does the challenge work?’ came the next question insistently, with the hope that a red hue might appear around the man’s malicious grin, who clearly wasn’t taking it into account that after the last blue light this question was quite pointless.

‘I don’t know.’

Blue again.

The man accepted the unchanged decision of the bracelet and took it off Jonathan. He set it on the table, leaned forward and looked Jonathan in the eye. He took a deep breath, his chest barely moving, and started talking, in the way an audio guide does when you hit play.

‘I’m a member of the Quillium, the caste responsible for carrying out the Ebrado ritual. A tradition older than history, upon which the Kingdom rests. Ebrado’s sole purpose is to determine whether the king-to-be has what