27 Distress (1/2)

The man turned towards it and continued – ”It is uncertain… but I received information of a strong bound spell that was unheard of… the mage was able to fend off two rune users, without showing itself, also...” He paused for a moment fearing the reaction that his next words could cause – ”he was able to break into Callas lair… and killed him.”

•”How did he break in?” The shadow continued inquisitively

•”The men outside saw no one coming in and the portal crystals are gone - he got inside using them.” The man commented.

The shadow figures flickered- ”You think that this mage is one of those that survived the shadow fiends?” Questioned another shadow clearly knowing what happened in the mine already.

•”Perhaps it's Ursula's family… she is a crafty old hag, if given time to prepare she can prove herself a worthy foe” One of the shadows spoke out

•”We investigated all noble families in Allard, none had such mage amongst them… Bound spells are not that common” said the man confidently.

Another shadow spoke, this one for the first time - ”Which can also mean you failed to find this mage amongst them… It is known that the Allard families hide their secrets with their lives.”

•”No my lord… please, you must understand that I did all I could… even now, I sent Gilliath to stir conflict in Allard. As we speak an army of orcs and goblins are preparingto assault Brigantium city, it will surely hinder their defenses now that most of the court mages are gone…” Explained the old man desperately.

The entity at the throne moved for the first time and all shadows seemed to quietly turn towards it in respect.

An ethereal dark voice echoed with a deep tone through the room – ”You didn't serve your purpose. Your lack of new information will not be forgiven!”

•”My lord… please if you give me another chance I will certainly…” before he could complete the sentence the shadow around the dark entity grew bigger. The man knew what would come next and began to slowly step back.

Trembling and mustering all his power he erected a mana barrier between him and the throne. It was very thick and extremely strong. He then quickly turned around and began to desperately run with all his might to the exit.

After just a few steps he heard a shattering noise and felt a hot sensation in his chest, quickly spreading all over his body

Looking down he saw a spear made of black fire, piercing his chest and burning his body. The pain kicked in as the flames burned his skin and organs from the inside out. H dropped to the ground.

It took only a moment for him to die… but the screams and struggle clearly demonstrated an extremely painful death.

The body on the ground continued to burn even after his death. A few moments later nothing but ashes remained and the black fire finally disappeared.

•”Tessai, you will be personally in charge of Allard, do as you see fit. I expect better news on the next gathering” Said the entity, as the shadows remained silently listening.

•”Now… have you found it yet?” The entity asked the room.

A few moments of silence took place until finally one of the shadows spoke:

•”No, whatever passed the barrier 2 months ago is still to be identified, we sent many scouts into the rift inside the Endher but none has returned yet”

The entity remained silent.

•”It may still be lost inside the forest” the second shadow suggested.

•”Or if it's a living being, it could have escaped by itself” said another shadow

•It's been almost 2 months of search with no results. Anything alive would have brought attention by now… Also do not forget that the half breed was near the area when the rift was created… perhaps he found whatever it was.” The fourth shadow said

•”It's possible, he also can travel inside the Endher” The third shadow commented.

•”But didn't he die by his disciple hand?” The first shadow asked.

•”The body was never found” The third shadow replied.

The entity moved once again – ”Send agents to Allard, investigate the disciple laboratory - find his body and if the magus is alive, find him, if there is a chance that he has information, we need to know it”

The shadows flickered simultaneously as if in agreement. The sun shined once again. The two at the door turned around and left the room as the chairs and throne were once again empty.

-------------------------------- The Trio's view

Askjell filled with renewed strength, because of the mana enhancing his body, rushed forward swinging his sword with extreme speed and power at the boy. But every swing hit nothing, as the boy masterfully dodged them by side stepping on vertical swings and back stepping on horizontal ones.

Askjell pushed on until the arena ended, Riou had nowhere to run and so Askjell thrusted his sword towards the boy's chest. He wanted the boy dead.

Riou parried with his sword pushing Askjell thrust to the side, but Askjell was able to continue from the momentum and generate enough power to come in a horizontal, powerful swing from that position trying to get Riou unprepared.

Noticing the danger the boy brought his sword up and straightening it horizontally, forcing the opponents swing to slide on Riou's sword edge, ending up hitting his guard near his hand. Askjell overextended his swing and only the tip of his sword was near Riou's sword core and gravity center, which allowed the boy to create a leverage, which Askjell was not able to overpower even with his strength enhancement.

Riou pushed his sword once again against the noble's sword pressing the opponent's blade to his right. Askjell was unable to attack Riou, with the norse sword still near his guard. Riou applied more pressure to it to prevent Askjell from trying to remove his sword from there. If he did a mortal blow, he could easily be thrown at the noble that tried to prevent Riou's sword from approaching further.

•”Look how he dominates the opponent's sword. The man is completely exposed to Riou's weapon… he was disarmed the moment Riou straightened his sword after the last swing” Said Therese to Leona.

Riou in a quick movement, using the leverage once again, bumped the noble sword, making it lose all momentum to counter. He followed the bump by thrusting his sword towards the man's face, stopping only when it touched the man's nose.

Askjell froze once again, even with physical enhancement he was not able to win against a regular boy. He was furious with the thought of the shame he once again would suffer.

The boy gestured with his head towards the man's sword as if saying to drop it. Reluctantly Askjell complied.

•”Say it!” Commanded Riou.

The Norse man took a step back and looked around.

The crowd was silent watching without believing their eyes, he looked at the balconies and saw no authorities. The guards were not of the king's personal army… a thought crossed his mind.

Taking another step back, the disarmed man shouted to his companions.

•”This farce has gone long enough! To arms! This commoner has no right to challenge me, join me my brothers as I call you upon your vows!”

The crowd were mostly noblemen from Askjell Party, and about 12 of the noble's guard shouted in response quickly getting their swords and shield ready to advance upon on the arena, they began to surround the boy.

Riou lowered his sword and looked very seriously at Askjell.

Leona's eyes widened and she stepped forward in the direction of the Arena.

Noticing her disciple movement, Therese quickly touched her shoulder. When she turned towards Therese, she saw her master shaking her head from side to side slowly.

Riou was about to step forward when something got his attention - ”Enough!” a feminine voice said loudly gathering everyone's attention.

A gorgeous blond walked elegantly into the arena. She passed the boy and went towards Askjell.

His face was distorted as he was cornered and furious because of the humiliation.

*SLAP* resounded through the whole garden

Eileen hit Askjell vigorously with her open palm as the noble brought his hand to his face. Eileen turned around and faced all the men that were about to attack Riou.

•”Are you not men of the north? So why do you act so shamefully?How can you willingly accept such a petty request? Do you have no honor?” She said very displeased - ”You are not men of the North, leave! You are not welcome here” Eileen said loudly and eloquently to all of them.

The men in arms looked at each other… noticing that some of them began to step away, soon all followed sheathing their weapons. Askjell looked around not believing his eyes that his men accepted the princess command so easily.

She looked at Askjell for a moment with revolted eyes and turned back going towards Riou.

Infuriated, the noble began to move towards the princess. As soon as he stretched his arm to grab her, Eileen turned around dodging his hand. She stepped forward and violently punched Askjell's face. The noble fell down on his back, flat on the ground unconscious.

Eileen turned towards Riou, despite being happy for his actions she felt she needed to set things straight– ”Thank you for helping me... but this was unnecessary, I didn't tell you what happened to get your help. There is no point for all my training if others fight my battles” She said seriously to the boy who was still in the center of the arena.

Her words hit deep within him ”She is right…” He thought.

•”I'm sorry but, it's just… when I noticed I was already there. Then he started to talk and it got me, all I wanted was to kill the bastard” Said Riou looking at the man on the ground who his meen carried away.

The princess nodded slightly – ”But keep it in mind… if I ever want your help, I will ask for it” she replied seriously.

Therese listening to Riou's comment looked at him squinting her eyes without turning towards her disciple, she whispered to Leona

•”What do you see when you look at him? Does he resemble any of the clans?” – she asked in a low voice

•”No, strange enough he looks like a regular human boy, he does not have any of the clan's physical traits” replied Leona

•”So you don't sense the youngsters fever within him?” she continued in a low tone

•”Now that you mentioned it, he does have the scent within him… its faint. But don't humans suffer it too? The age seems right as well” said Leona.

•”I don't think so, something is amiss” Completed Therese pondering on that fact

•”Do you think he needs a shaman?” she asked concerned.

•”Maybe, but for the moment, go to the city and find some yellow fruit from the purple crown tree, there should be some in this capital” She said to Leona.

•”Understood” Leona replied, immediately vanishing from her side.

Riou returned from the side of the arena with the rapier in hand. When he was near Eileen he threw the sheathed sword at her, as she grabbed it surprised, he said – ”You should take better care of a legendary sword. If you lose it one more time I will confiscate it” He said smiling the first time since the incident happened.

Therese looked at the sword and the way Riou handled it ”Why did he call it legendary and then treats it as an ordinary object?” pondered Therese puzzled.

Riou seemed much better, his usual face was looking at Eileen. Therese was able to tell his anger had subsided.

Eileen smiled – ”It won't happen again, you have my word on that” she said promptly.

-------------------------------------- Back to Riou's view

After a while they went back to Riou's room, he was accompanied by Eileen and Therese.

•”So, why do you want me in the room? Shouldn't we find Bhalrom, I need to talk to him” Said Riou.

Eileen shook her head – ”Bhalrom and some of the council mages are in Brigantium. Meanwhile you will tell me what happened inside the mine” she said seriously

Riou sighed and sat down on the bed - ”After I went inside I tried to follow the mages. I ended up finding Ursula exhausted and helped her out, then I went back for the others. But before I could find them I found a portal, thinking it could have been made by our mages, I followed it. Unfortunately it closed as soon as I stepped inside. There I found another black hooded mage that mentioned the name Callas the Undying and his teacher in the city of Iris, he also told me that Rodrick is a pawn in the council's hand. After dealing with him I noticed I had ended up in the coast village to the north of the Capital, took me a week to get back here with a caravan” Riou paused and looked at both of them – ”So, have you heard that name before? Callas the Undying?”

Eileen shook her head while Therese thought for a moment finally saying – ”I heard of such name belonging to a death mage… it was said that he used the lives of children to increase his own, he is very old… I don't recall anything else”

Riou nodded agreeing to her remark and continued asking both of them – ”Do you know anything about runes on a person's body that can store mana and allow common people to become mages?”

Eileen widened her eyes - ”You mean that the high tiered mages we faced so far were not mages?”

Riou nodded – ”Thugs trained to use magic using the runes that way the council can produce mages very quickly.”

Therese seemed concerned – ”Do you think Argos can do that as well?”

•”I suppose so, the twilight council is working with Argos, it would not be strange if they exchanged this kind of knowledge” Answered Riou.

Therese clearly became even more preoccupied after hearing that. The war with Argos would prove problematic if the amount of mages on their side would increase even more.

•”So what's going on in Brigantium?” Asked Riou.

•”An army appeared from the forest in the north… Goblins and Orcs are riled up approaching Brigantium. The First army was sent there to help in the defense of the city.” Said the princess

•”Who is in charge of the defense of the castle?” questioned Riou.

•”The green and yellow banner” Said Eileen already knowing what Riou would say next

•”This is not good… we can't trust Rodrick and his men… he is not directly under orders of the council, but there are reasons to believe he is being used by them” Said Riou.