A week after my divine visitation I was in Gerald's personal chambers. We were sat around Gerald's rough wooden table sharing tea. Our additional guest was Archmage Tika, who had finally awoken. He looked even more careworn and rough than ever before, but I could now always see the power thrumming beneath his skin, as if I was looking deeper into the surface. When I had walked in and saw Tika, I was ecstatic. "Tika!" I exclaimed, rushing over to him. He held out a shaky hand to me and slowed me before I bowled him over. Instead, I gingerly gave the old man a hug. He returned a few pats on my back before I let him go. We sat around Gerald's table, and I poured tea for everyone while everyone scrutinized me. Gerald had seen my wardrobe change happen in real time, but Tika was seeing it and all of the people resembling me for the first time. "I see that the rumors were true," Tika said quietly as I passed him his cup, bowing low over it in thanks.

"Yes, I have created an organization to pursue the Aurelian mages and all black magic practicing magi," I said bluntly, and Tika's eyes widened slightly at my directness and intensity. I could see him wonder where the boy he helped raise had gone, and it saddened me.

"Quite a dangerous goal you've set for yourself Zerial, and mightily dangerous opponents you're pitting yourself against" Tika whispered in that dry-as-paper voice.

"Yes, the Magi and the Church and potentially the Dukes and the Kings. Potentially even powers outside of the continent," I said to Tika, not liking his direction very much. Yes, I am but a man barely out of boyhood - by Pervalian laws - but that did not mean I have not considered the ramifications and the magnitude of my task.

"Damn it son why are you pursuing this course of action? Why pit yourself directly against the Temple of Pervalia? This cannot end well, and you are damned smart enough to know that!" I sat quietly staring at him, and I could tell that he was growing uncomfortable with my scrutiny. That was unusual, since I had seen Gerald in a great many tense situations and he had seemed as unflappable as a mountain. Time seemed to have had an increased effect over the man, as for the first time I saw the careworn wrinkles that had begun to crop up on his temples and around his eyes. I felt an intense flash of sadness before it was once again washed away by the quietly burning fury in my chest.

"This is what I feel must be done, and damn the consequences," I said at last. The quiet conviction in my voice seemed to rock him back. "What I have seen and felt is just the beginning of something larger. I started something that I am no longer fully in control of. That is something we will all have to live with, since there is no way to retract the roll of this particular set of dice. And I would not attempt to backtrack even if I could." my voice had risen at this point and while I wasn't quite shouting it was clear that both men felt uncomfortable. "To do so would stain my honor, the honor of my crusaders, and it would taint the memory of our noble dead. I will not undo what I have done. No more effort needs to be made on that front, for it will be wasted on uncaring ears," I finished hotly.

Both Tika and Gerald considered me for a moment before Tika surprised us both. "Well said, Zerial. I was merely concerned that you had not given this topic serious consideration, nor that you understood the magnitude of the task. I can see that I was wrong on both accounts, and for that you have my apologies," Tika bowed low in his chair, and his honesty dampened my anger. Damn, I would have to try and maintain a tighter leash on that bubbling fury in my gut. It was not right to utilize any type of hostility against two people who were just concerned for my well being.

"No, I am sorry. I lost my temper, and it blinded me to the obvious concern both of you have for me," I dipped my head in apology to the both of them, and the rest of the conversation moved onto safer pastures.

Two weeks later found us on a rough dirt road surrounded on all sides by rolling grasslands and pouring rain. Gerald and I had a few more uncomfortable conversations over our down time at Darkhallow, and the man apparently found me very frustrating to deal with now. While I had all but forbidden those closest to me from trying to talk me out of my course of action, they were all very intelligent people and I had to deal with various forms of deflection. Jordan tried to get me to soften my approach to the Church of Pervalia, and Gerald tried to get me to submit to more traditional authority, effectively taking everything out of my hands. Tika, thankfully, accepted my choices and either approved of them or decided to live with him. I wasn't brave enough to ask which one.

I guess divine furor was an annoying character trait to have in an adopted son. As I rode knee to knee with Roderick and Gaspard, I considered our next steps. According to mage-relay messages, the head priest of Pervalia's official church was headed to the front to see "What the upstart crusade" was all about. As expected, the man was royally pissed off. He probably felt that my crusade was infringing on the rights of his priesthood, and he was likely very jealous of those prerogatives.

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"What do you intend to do about Jasper?" Asked Roderick as we rode. Jasper was allegedly the name of the head priest on his way to tear me a new asshole for my temerity. Sucked to be me, I guess, with everyone and their extended family coming to tell me about how my choices were wrong. Sucked to be them too, because I wasn't going to change anything for them for any reason.

"Not entirely sure. I think appealing to his character and morals will get me approximately nothing, so it will probably just come down to a conflict between us," I said honestly. Gaspard shifted uncomfortably next to me and Roderick just grunted.

"Is that really the best choice?" asked Gaspard after a few minutes of silently plodding along. I glanced sideways at him and caught his eye.

"I have no intention of showing my belly to these priests just because they think they have the monopoly on Pervalian theology. Not that I will get into a theological debate with them," I snorted.

"Probably for the best," spoke a dry voice behind me, "Your grasp of theology was tenuous at best, which makes this even more amusing," Tika laughed dryly. He excelled at laughing dryly, considering his voice reminded me of a parched desert on the best of days.

"And what would you counsel?" Roderick asked Tika, shifting to the side and making room for the mage. Tika spurred his horse in between Roderick and I and met my challenging gaze with a smirk before responding.

"The only outcome is conflict. Jasper is a pretentious ass, and he will definitely see this as a personal slight. The world revolves around that one, apparently, and he will seek to subvert, discredit, or crush us. Luckily Jasper and Eddard hate each other, so we can likely count on Eddard casting some support in our direction if only to spite Jasper," Tika said, and I didn't miss his use of a possessive word. Neither did Gaspard..

"We? Then you intend to cast your lot in with us, Master Scholar?" he asked inquisitively. Getting support from Tika would also likely guarantee support from his daughter Theresa, and with two arch magi on their side as well as a good portion of the countries military magi, it was likely the rest of the magi would fold their support in two. Even if the Royal Mage opposed us, there was a giant gulf between the Royal Mage and the authority and respect that Tika and Theresa commanded.

"It is vital that a mentor supports their young charges in their foolish endeavors, right Roderick?" Tika was still casting an amused eye in my direction.

"All too true," Roderick said ruefully in his ruined voice. It sounded haunting, yet I knew that he was very amused by the small crease beneath his eyes. Bastards.

"Just for that, you two are in charge if I die gloriously," I snarked at them, and everyone had a laugh at my expense. Let them laugh and see how they react when I suicidally charged an entire line of pike men by myself, just to spite them.

Oh who was I kidding? Roderick would think that was a grand time, and would probably decimate the line just to make sure I still suffered under him.

"Well we can count on the magi then, no matter how dubious their leaders are," Tika pretended to look wounded, "and King Eddard's tacit support wont hurt. With Roderick and Tika, we can likely count on support from the duchy. That is not a bad start, and we should look to the Seaward and Greenward duchies as our next steps," I said to the three, who considered the beginnings of my plan in silence.

"The Green Duke likely won't appreciate us suborning his rangers, but we might be able to placate him. He is a very reasonable fellow, and there is no love lost between him and the Church," Roderick said after a while.

"We can bribe them, too. Templar forces stationed on the iron border would likely go a very long way towards ensuring cooperation from them," Gaspard added, and I nodded along. It was well known that the Hexenguardian and Greenward duchies had an intense rivalry with the Iron Duchy. Greenward had the best rangers in the land, but they lacked the population to field a large army against the Iron Duke. Hexenguard as an ally to Greenward made up for a lot of that disparity but it could not abandon it's borders with the Kairen and Daeser duchies, both of whom supported the Iron Duchy since it had a stranglehold on their economies. With the addition of Templar forces garrisoning their border forts, Greenward would not have to worry so much about an invasion from the Iron Duke or Daeser.

"Seaward will be a little harder, but it should be doable with some diplomacy. Duchess Seaward was smitten with Jarrod back in the day, and she might view Zerial favorably. As far as I know, there is no acrimony between Duchess Seaward and Duchess Hexenguard," Tika said thoughtfully.

"Seaward fears no attack from any duchy," Roderick stated the obvious. Seaward was Pervalia's gateway to intercontinental trade, and trade with the isles. They were easily the richest duchy and commanded a massive navy. No one wanted to try and fight the giant mercenary armies that Seaward could hire from within their own enemies duchies.

"We could be a better solution to their piracy problem," I said. "Their marines are excellent, but they are few and far between since their naval academies are small. We could provide Templar forces and magical assistance in a way that the other duchies do not want them to have."

"That would piss off almost all of the other duchies, I think. Greenward and Hexenguard would not care over much since they are allied with Seaward, but the other four duchies would feel hostile about that," Roderick said, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

"Good," was all I replied and my three compatriots chuckled.

"Say, Master Scholar Tika, what would your role in the Templars be?" asked Gaspard.

Tika, Roderick, and I all looked at each other before I turned to Gaspard.

"Why, the same role he plays in ducal and kingdom level politics," I began

"By doing whatever the hell he wants," Roderick finished for me while Tika nodded sagely next to us. We all laughed at the consternation on Gaspard's face. Well, it was true!

Not very many people told an Archmage what to do and saw any success unless said Archmage agreed with them or was going to do it anyways.