Violet pushed me into the waiting carriage and sat in front of me.

“Go,” Violet ordered to the coachman, without looking away from me. Her gaze was intense.

The silence stretched out, yet her eyes didn’t blink.

“So… what is this abo-” I started asking.

She interrupted me. “I think you know what this is about.”

It probably wasn’t about my little trips. I had been careful at opening the portals only during other official commissions. And more importantly, not getting stuck elsewhere with no means of return, since the Kingdom had dispatched mages to disrupt the opening of portals within our territories.

Yes, I knew, of course. This was about Allen Smith.

This was too much excitement for an old man. I hadn’t experienced such dread since my past adventures with Vallachio. Funny how I had aged so quickly in comparison.

Must have been all the dread I endured.

“Am I going to be executed, then?” I asked at last, resignation in my voice. She didn’t answer but the air grew colder.

I closed my eyes and waited. Violet sighed.

“This is no time for your jokes, Amadeus,” She said tersely. “It is necessary to rectify that mistake.”

Of course, I knew I wasn’t going to be executed. The fact that she hadn’t taken measures to disable my magic, meant there was another purpose for dragging me along. She knew well what I was capable of, after all.

I may be only versed in one type of magic, and well past my prime, but when it comes to spatial magic, I’m peerless. The kingdom couldn’t afford losing me, yet.

What more, my suspicions had been right. For whatever reason, Student Allen had caught the eyes of the two Archmages. I knew something was up when Vallachio mentioned having found an interesting student. The very same he had brought to that stunt at the Fire Lizard Den.

I remembered it clearly.

I wonder how many participants had been aware that the purpose of that group had been to prune incompetent noble firstborns as a sink or swim last measure. The battlefield was the place that would reveal a man’s—or woman’s—true character. Weakness was not an option in these times of strife.

And yet—against all expectations—Vallachio had returned with only one casualty, and not one of the survivors could be considered a liability.

To most his methods may appear inane, but having experienced them firsthand, I had to side with Vallachio. Learning magic in life-and-death situations was magnitudes more effective than within the safe walls of the Academy. I could vouch for the effectiveness.

It was in life or death situations that the spirit became more receptive to learning, more awake. An undeniable truth dismissed for safety and comfort during every cycle.

I’m always surprised how quickly people forget.

The carriage stopped, as did my wandering thoughts.

“Follow me,” ordered Violet, opening the door. A quick look around revealed me we had arrived in front of the royal castle’s gates.

The guards made no move to stop us, or inquire about our credentials. The perks of having an archmage at your side.

We crossed the gates and entered the palace, Violet steered me toward some utility corridor. Stark stone with no decor. Then we climbed down several flights of stairs, to my chagrin. Halfway through, Violet, annoyed by my decreasing speed, lifted me in the air with telekinesis, and so we continued down until we reached a small obsidian room. Someone was already inside.

It was the Archmage of Forbidden Knowledge, whose head was resting on a round table in the middle of the obsidian chamber. He lazily rolled his face in our direction. He looked haggard but a little better than last time I had seen him, all battered and covered in blood.

I had entered obsidian chambers before, but never the royal one. The novelty made me anxious.

This was a place were crucial matters were discussed.

“My goodness,” He said with a pained voice. “Why did you call me here? I’m still recovering from the ordeal, you know? What happened to finding whoever had sabotaged the magical armor?”

“Summarily executed for treason,” Violet stated without further exposition. “On the spot.”

Sabotaged armor? I was not sure what they were talking about. Could they be talking about the big magical armor I saw walk into the portal?

“Oh? That fast! I’m sure the the Institute of Magical Regulation will be thankful for not having to deal with the paperwork,” He said with an hint of sarcasm. “But why are the three of us here?” He said, shooting me an accusatory glance.

I wanted to know as well.

Violet stared at him in silence, then turned to close the door behind her and enabled the magical mechanism to discourage eavesdroppers. We were enveloped by a noise-canceling magical shield. I took seat one of the empty ornate chairs. All those stairs had played a number on my poor back. Alas, teleporting within the royal palace would have been bad etiquette, beside a punishable offense.

Violet sat down last, her back to the door. “What we discuss here won’t leave this room,” She warned.

I nodded, while the Forbidden grunted.

“Allen Smith,” she said. “We need to retrieve him.”

“Impossible,” The Forbidden shot back, pushing himself upright. “There’s no way he survived. He reported suffering a curse from finishing off the Demon Lord, and wherever the Demon Lord was, the Grand Vizier was close behind. The linked spatial communication ring was confirmed to have been destroyed soon after,” The archmage paused for a moment. “He’s gone.”

My eyes went wide. I heard something absurd. That guy, finished off the Demon Lord? How? But I kept the questions to myself.

“You don’t understand. We cannot afford the chance of the God of Nightmare turning him to his side.” Violet stressed.

Her hands were clenched so hard I could see the knuckles going white.

“Speaking of which,” The Forbidden said. “What were you waiting to inform us that we had a potential Chosen One with extreme compatibility to the Aspect of Fear right under our nose?!”

That made me raise my eyebrows. Or perhaps they were already raised from all the preceding revelations.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Divulging that information was deemed unwise,” She replied coldly. “Measures were being taken to prevent the Dark God from corrupting his mind.” She lifted her chin in confrontation.

“Well, look how well that turned out! Blackfist and I could have called better shots during our operation, had we been aware,” He retorted, his voice rising angrily. “That secret put our lives in jeopardy. His presence amplified fear-aspected magic even beyond our countermeasures!”

“I never authorized for him to be used in your stunt,” Violet said with apparent calm, but the air got colder. “Neither did you inform me of your plan.”

The Forbidden scowled without replying, his eyes becoming small fissures. I felt the magical energies vibrate in the ether.

I felt terribly uncomfortable and out of place watching these two argue.

Then Violet unclenched her fists, taking a deep breath. “Nothing will come of arguing,” She inched back on her seat. “You must be aware of the Shattering of Prophecies,” Violet said.

“Of course,” The other archmage replied. “There was quite the talks back then. As if a powerful seer or fateweaver had upturned the strings of fate worldwide… perhaps even a God.”

“Perhaps even a being beyond Gods, but that’s irrelevant,” She said. “What you don’t know, is that it resulted in a new prophecy, with two possible outcomes. In short, with Allen Smith on our side we have a chance to end the Dark God Feras. Forever.”

The Forbidden blinked, momentarily at a loss for words.

“How?” He asked. “Are you perhaps thinking of having him uproot the God of Nightmare from his seat? That’s ludicrous!”

“The how is uncertain,” She admitted. “All we know is that he must not side with the Dark God or else…”

“Let me guess,” grunted the other archmage, waving his fingers. “Bad things?”

“The worst outcome… A new Dark Age.”

He tensed.

I looked from Violet to the Forbidden, completely at loss. I’m not supposed to hear this. Why am I even here?! Prophecies were bad news. I stole a glance at the exit, wishing I could open a gate somewhere remote and take a well-earned vacation.

The door, as the walls, was lined with oppressive black obsidian.

The Forbidden grimaced. “Such an important prophecy, and I had not been made aware of it.” Accusation heavy in his tone.

“Amadeus,” Violet called, startling me. “What are our options for approaching the Obsidian Citadel?”

Approaching the Obsidian Citadel?! The way she was staring at me told me she was completely serious.

“I uhm…” I cleared my throat. “We don’t have options. The Obsidian Citadel is unapproachable from the outside, both physically and magically.”

I wasn’t privy to Blackfist’s plan, but if they got inside the demon’s palace, then they must have exploited a portal that had been opened from the inside. Just like us, demons were preventing large scale spatial magic from working near sensitive locations.

“What’s the closest we can get?” She asked.

“I don’t have any unblocked location marked in the proximity. And even if I had, it wouldn’t solve the problem of entering the citadel. By water, land, or air, no one has ever made it as far as the walls.”

I never went to see myself, but it was common knowledge that the Obsidian Citadel was surrounded by deadly monsters, without even accounting for the insurmountable defenses. It was diminutive to say that Blackfist’s men had been extremely lucky to secure an open portal, let alone keeping it open long enough to escape. There was no chance in Gaia that the Demons would allow another such misstep.

“What if we attacked at night? I could fly you both inside,” Violet suggested. “The Forbidden could conjure a distraction, and Amadeus could open a gate back to safety.”

The Forbidden and I exchanged looks.

“Violet,” I said. “I’m too old for this sort of action,” I was confident in my abilities and defending myself, but my best years were long past gone.

“That’s just plain suicide. We don’t even know where he may be kept, or if he’s even alive, and no doubt the Demons have reinforced their inner defenses since our incursion,” The Forbidden pointed out. “Besides, do I look in any condition to do anything?” He pointed a finger to his pale complexion and tired bloodshot eyes. “I’d need another five days to be able to fight, and a full week to recover my full power.”

Violet waited, perhaps expecting us to venture suggestions.

“We can’t just let the Demons use the prophecy against us,” Violet stressed, tapping a slender finger on the table. “Our best are elsewhere, engaged in the war. The only ones with the power to change this fate are inside this room.”

It was then that it struck me. A prophecy of this scale would be reason enough to start the war early.

Violet stared at us in silence.

“We can’t afford doing nothing,” She said at last. “We already lost two days. It might already be too late.”

If I didn’t know who these people around me were, I’d presume they were insane. But there was something I had overheard that was gnawing at me.

“Keeper of the Forbidden,” I interrupted the silence. “You said that ‘he suffered a curse from finishing off the Demon Lord’, is that correct?”

He stared at me. “Yes. Your point?”

“Can I assume a Mana Shock was performed to deprive him of his magics?”

“Correct. And not just that. We did so, in a concerted effort and at great cost, but he had other cards in his sleeves,” He recalled. “Blackfist sacrificed himself to protect me while my mana was depleted… may he return to the Great Flow.”

“I see,” I said. “Then Allen must have met the Demon Lord as he was recovering from Mana Shock…”

That explained why he hadn’t been killed outright.

“What are you getting at?” Replied annoyed the pale Archmage. “I’m even surprised he managed to cast a spell in that condition.”

“Nothing, I’m just a little confused that he would spend his last breath casting a curse instead of healing himself.”

The timing was possible but it felt off, considering the nature of a Demon Lord. A lapse in judgement then? A miscalculation?

It was just as the books said, dealing with people involved in prophecies was bad luck.

As I was mulling over my thoughts, the door opened suddenly without a sound, due to the sound barrier. Violet, who was sitting with her back to the door, noticed our surprise and turned as well.

“I asked not to be interrup-…” Violet’s complaint went silent as she saw who had intruded.

An unfamiliar smiling old woman stepped into the chamber, and calmly walked into the sound-absorbing field. A new face I hadn’t meet before, but the two Archmage appeared to know her.

“Happy to see me in your moment of need?” She said, before letting out a cackle.

“Who-” I started asking.

“Mistress of Spirits?” Violet said with a rare tone of deference in her voice. She stood up and bowed her head.

I arched my eyebrows. I had heard about her, one of Astaril’s most prized citizens, the oracle who communed with spirits. Very few knew where she lived or what she even looked like. I stood up as well and bowed my head in respect.

“Oracle, I thought you were busy foreseeing the effect of the Demon Lord’s death,” The Forbidden said casually. “Did they let you wander off?”

“What a silly question to ask, boy,” She scoffed. “Of course not! But I go where I please, to do what needs be done and see what needs be seen. You know better than to question my methods.”

“Please, grant us your wisdom,” Asked Violet with unusual respectfulness.

The Mistress of Spirits sniffed loudly. “The thread we cherish is yet to be severed.” She announced, her lined face growing serious.

The old woman took a seat beside me. We all sat down again, everyone fixing their gaze upon the Oracle.

“In a future I saw a girl… She could speak in dream to the Outsider, but it was too late when she came to us, Violet.”

She turned a palm up and conjured the illusion of a face, a young girl with blond hair. I remembered her. She was a student at the Academy and had introduced herself as Ellinoria Val Arinn during the announcements of the Turning.

She had been quite the talk after the Bodystealer attack.

“I know her,” Violet said, her eyes narrowing. She seemed about to move but the Oracle raised a finger.

“But you won’t find her in the city, my dear,” The old woman said. “She was away in a quest.”

“I’ll find her”, Violet promised. “But how does that help us?”

The Oracle smiled.

“Sometimes knowledge that something can be done, is all that’s needed. We need the girl to deliver that knowledge.”

Violet nodded, and without further ado, sprung into action leaving the room. Leaving me here, among these two important figures I was not accustomed to.

Right after that, the oracle winked in my direction, catching my attention.

“And you,” she said pointing a finger toward me. My heart skipped another beat due to the unexpected event. “When the token is passed on, be strong, for the legacy lives on.”

Token? Legacy? What did she mean by that? I couldn’t possibly imagine but I already felt my guts twisting with dread.

“Wha- What do you mean?” I asked confused. Was she foretelling my own demise?

But the old lady only smiled mysteriously.

I had never received a foretelling before. I was not prepared for this.

I’m too old for this…

And yet I could not ignore the warning, whatever it meant.

“Oracle… I need to know about the prophecy,” The Forbidden interrupted, casting a sharp glare in my direction. “Do you mind…”

That was my clue to leave. Unfortunately, my back was of a different opinion.

“My back… the stairs…” I said gravely, feeling drained as I stared toward the exit with hopeless eyes.

The Oracle cackled again, only adding to the archmage’s frustration.

Funny woman.

Had we the time for jokes, though?

The situation seemed quite dire.

Well, if there’s one thing I learned from Vallachio, is that it’s when things are most dire that we need a laugh the most.