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Tell was a farm hand during the final years of the wizard wars.
No one knew, of course, that those where the final years. During the time he was growing up they were as hard and brutal as ever. The people were facing mass starvation, for the only ones to plant and harvest were the very old, the very young, and the invalid. All able-bodied men and women were drafted into the wizard's armies.
Most of lesser wizards had formed an uneasy alliance against another. Vaeldric's power, combined with the wizards he'd worked to his side was a threat to the entire realm. And he was winning.
Tell's parents had been killed long ago, but families no longer mattered in the war-torn land. Soldier's came home crippled from terrible injuries, scared by what they had seen. Unnatural fires devastated miles of land. The realm was scarred, burnt, and broken. It could no longer supply the resources the war demanded so Vaeldric crossed the mountains into the world of ignorant mortals and lured them back into Elleys with promises of wealth and power.
Tell was always small for his age, and as the recruiters came he succeeded in hiding from them, unwilling to leave the small band of survivors who depended so heavily on him. One day a soldier came, with a wooden leg and a scarred face, when Tell was sixteen. He offered the soldier his place and his work and left the next day for the army.
For two months he worked in the camps, seeing for himself everything he'd been told. He was devastated by the destruction, the wasted lives. Sorrow tightened in his soul, and a plan began to grow in his mind. One morning the wizard commanders awoke to an empty camp. All across the realm the armies had deserted en masse and were hastening to meet with Tell. The wizard's fought back futilely. They were too few, and the armies too many.
Vaeldric retreated with what remained to him of his mortal army to the walled fortress called Yen. He sent to the remaining wizard's who joined him, frightened of an insurrection they could not understand, and could not control. Tell kept his army hidden in the mountains surrounding the fortress and pondered what to do. Mere force could never defeat the wizards once they knew where he was.
The answer was brought out of the very mountains he camped in. The last of the pure-blooded Elloi had seen the destruction of their land, and grieved helplessly. They had fled from Conrad and Zephyr's rule for fear of this very thing. They were angry and justified, but their land was being destroyed. In Tell they saw their only hope. Overcoming their prejudices and fears they offered him an allegiance and the power to take Yen. Tell accepted.
With the help of the Elloi the city was breached. Fighting broke out within the walls, fierce and terrible as the wizards battled for their lives. They were overcome by sheer numbers, and even a wizard's life can be ended with a sword. In the tower that overlooked the whole city Tell found Vaeldric, and there the great wizard surrendered.
He offered Tell a compromise. A promise that was almost a dream. He swore to never fight again, and to serve only as an advisor. He offered Tell the power to prevent such a war from ever happening again. Tell was no wizard, but he understood people, law, and rule. Vaeldric had the power to bind the laws Tell wrote into the earth itself, so they could not be broken, binding the rulers to the people and the people to the land, and the law to all. Once again, Tell accepted. In exchange he gave Vaeldric and the other wizard's their lives.
For many years scholars and kings argued about what Tell did. Had it been worth the price? Was it truly the right thing to do? Shouldn't all the wizards have been killed? Was the great king tempted by the lure of such power? But the law was written and bound. For twenty years Tell lived in Yen writing that law and the result was the greatest accomplishment of Elleys and stood for thousands of years after. Tell's heirs carried on his work and his legacy in an unbroken line for all those years, a gift of peace that no other realm had achieved.
The wizards were bound forever. No wizard could rule, only advise a ruler, and eventually they all retreated to the mountains where the race destroyed itself. That is how Tell, of unknown parentage and brilliant leadership skills, became the First King of Yen and the undisputed Lord of Elleys.
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Floyd was frozen where he stood. He struggled to breathe, but the air smelled of blood and death and guilt. He tried to formulate a name, to ask, but language was meaningless, and words would not come. He tried to scream but the sound got stuck in his heart, shattered into a million pieces, and scattered to the wind.
In a world without superheroes, who will stand against the forces of evil?
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