“You may enter sir.” The royal guard stated just as emotionless as before and handed me back my invitation. The second guard who was blocking the door moved out of the way to allow me to pass and enter the castle to join in the party.

I didn’t wait and took back my invitation and quickly stepped through the door to see what type of party I was about to experience, and to my surprise it was rather interesting.

The castle was built like a large tower on the outside but anyone would have assumed that it would have been separated into different floors at certain elevations at a consistent rate. There were of course different floors but they were more akin to balconies that went around the inside of the wall allowing for a large opening directly down the middle. Along with the fact that most of the interior of the building was decorated with banners and other sorts of insignia related to the kingdom and its history.

In the center of the building was an area dedicated to the guest with tables and chairs along with food and drinks. Several of the horizontally larger guests were already taking a look at the selection that was on display.

Like outside there were many royal guards on watch within the building as well, most remained along the walls and on vantage points to keep an eye on any suspicious activity. With nothing else to do to pass the time I decided to take a closer look at all the decor and the food and drink.

The most important bits of the decor was the symbolism which involved lots of weapons crossed in an x shape along with many depictions of odd humanoids. These humanoids I found to be far more interesting than the weapons due to the fact that they had oddly thin faces and still seemed to show great power with each of the images they were in.

Their faces in particular almost looked sunken, like they were starving for weeks at the point of depiction. I wasn’t sure if it was just an art choice or if it meant something more.

“Taking a look at the tapestries are we?” A youthful voice suddenly came from behind. I nearly jumped where I was out of surprise but quickly composed myself and turned to face the origin of the voice.

A young human man that couldn’t have been any older than I was looking up slightly with a sly look upon his face wearing something between a young noble's garb and a leather cloak that was attached to his shoulder piece. He seemed rather interested with my opinion of the decorations he called tapestries. “Yes I was, I am very interested in the humanoids being depicted in these ones. Do you know why they look the way they do? They almost look like they are starving.”

The young man looked up to the tapestries I was referring to and gave a smile. “Those tapestries are depicting some of the early angles of the second era. As you can see they are fighting against the forces of darkness.” The young man pointed to the largest tapestry as he gave his explanation.

“But why do they look so unwell? Do all angles look that way or is it just an artist's flawed depiction?” I quickly asked again almost the exact moment he was done speaking.

“Well from what I have learned from the libraries I have been to, the way an angel looks is dependent upon which god created them. A god of fire might shape his or her angels to look like they are made up of fire, a god of death might shape his or her angels from bone or dead flesh. Gods with several circles of influence often mix several together when they create their angels creating something unique to them.”

I looked up to the largest tapestry, this one showed in the very middle of the thin looking angels punching an ink black monster in the body while others like it fought against smaller monsters that looked suspiciously like goblins. “So the god that created the angels shown in these tapestries…”

“Created them specifically to look that way.” The young man finished my sentence. “There are no records of which god it was as most of the records that did exist at the time were destroyed in the various wars that followed. All we know is that these tapestries were created in the early second era by a skilled dwarven weaver in the region.”

I looked upon the tapestries for a while longer wondering about the intent and reasoning behind the art designs, but eventually the young man next to me grew a little unhappy with my actions and spoke up. “So what brings you to this fine party? I don’t recognize you from any of the other parties the crowns have held.”

“I was invited for my service to the city and the kingdom.” I quickly turned to answer, realizing just how rude I was being. “I killed four vampires that were living within the city and exposed the cult they had built up to worship them. It was a rather messy series of events with the assassination attempt and how the leader of the vampire tried to convince me to join him.”

The young man's eyes widened when I spoke the words “four vampires.” He blinked several times in rapid succession as if that would somehow make what I just told him make more sense then it did before. After a couple of seconds he managed to collect his thoughts and speak in a coherent voice.

“That… was you? You killed those vampires?” The disbelief in his voice was more than evident, but I could tell he was torn between believing me and dismissing what I said.

“Very much so Mr. Hiberus. I read the report itself when it arrived at the court.” An old and familiar voice came from off to our side, we both turned to look and found an old man with grey hair walking towards us with a soft smile on his face. This old man was wearing the familiar robe that all priests of Xardas wear and he was someone who had shown great kindness to me during my past interactions with him.

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“Ah, good evening Claudius. I didn’t know you were attending the party.” The young man next to me whose last name was Hiberus said in a half nervous voice.

“I wasn’t for quite some time, I was dealing with some issues regarding the temple when I heard that our local hero was attending I just had to meet him in person.” Claudius said as he stepped forwards and took my hand with his own before shaking it. “I read the report that was delivered to the crown about the events of your vampire slaying. I must admit I am very impressed with what you did given how you are only an evoker at the moment. So how exactly did you manage to slay all four of those vampires?”

Claudius was being more than just kind to me as he spoke, he was far more interested in how I killed the vampires than he had been when speaking with me before. Perhaps it was because I did something I shouldn't have been able to do with my limited skill set, perhaps it was something else that was out of my control.

“Well… I didn’t kill them all at once. The first vampire I killed was an assassin that was sent to kill me, he tried breaking into the room I was renting when I awoke and discovered him. I quickly used my magic to stop and kill him by conjuring an earth vine to grab him by the neck.” I quickly deflected to my official story on how I defeated the vampire assassin, I could see that Claudius took what I said as fact, likely as he read that in the report.

“Yes yes, I know all about how you have already learned how to instantly cast tier one magic. The report on the situation was very thorough regarding your feats of magic you were willing to show. But what about the other vampires? The reports said you fought the last three in the same location.”

I was nearly taken aback by how well informed Claudius was with the situation. I was also a little interested in how he had access to such information.

“I was invited by the leading vampire calling himself Lord Darius. I was brought to his hidden base of operations by one of his vampires and then he tried to convince me to join him. I refused and he ordered his two remaining vampires to fight me.”

“And then you killed them before killing this lord Darius as well?”

“That is a bit of an oversimplification, but yes I did. First I killed the young vampires, then Darius stepped down from his throne and fought me personally.”

“He was sitting on a throne? How humorous, he must have been very arrogant to believe that he was someone worthy of sitting on a throne like a king.” Claudius half chuckled as he spoke, finding the idea of the vampire on a throne quite laughable.

“Darius wasn’t taking the fight as seriously as he should have been, though he was still far stronger than I. I was forced to block several of his attacks with my sword as my hands became numb and started to hurt from the sheer power behind each of his attacks. Eventually I had an opportunity To cast several earth vines and restrict his movement. I ended up casting more than twenty total just to keep him from moving while I casted a far more powerful spell to deal serious damage to him.”

“If I recall correctly it was stated to be a geomancy spell.”

“It was, the spell was tier three and conjured up a weapon of my choice. I chose to conjure a longsword which I used to repeatedly stab him in the chest.”

“And this was what killed him?” The young Hiberus asked as he looked upon me like some sort of idol. I had accidentally captured his attention in addition to Claudius.

“Eventually it did, but before that the earth vines faded and he took a few steps towards me with great effort before decapitating him to be certain he was dead.” While my recounting of the events was just an attempt to paint a realistic picture of what happened I could see that the young Hiberus lad was enthralled by what I was saying. He looked at me like a child hearing a campfire story from an uncle he looked up to.

“Very nasty those vampires are. Thank Xardas that we had you there to save the common folk and expose them to the world.” Claudius abruptly said, interrupting the daze the young man was in. He quickly collected his thoughts and joined back in the conversation.

“Do you often fight such dangerous creatures? What are they like?” I could feel the mix of nervousness and eagerness in his voice as he asked. It wasn’t just curiosity that was driving him to ask such questions, he wanted to do what I did and fight against dangerous creatures and monsters.

“Now now Adamus, you are a court mage after all. You can’t just leave and do whatever you wish at your whims, you have duties to the kingdom and the crown to attend to.” Claudius was quick to jump in and stop the lad from asking any more questions of the type. Both I and Adamus could tell it wasn’t to be hurtful, he told the truth and there likely wasn’t any negotiating when it came to one's duties to the crown.

“How long have you been a count mage Adamus? You seem to be well taken care of given the clothes you have on your back.” I asked, wondering if there was some sort of opportunity that the young court mage had to go out into the world, even if it was only for a few days.

“I joined when I just turned sixteen at the request of my family. Since I am the youngest I never really had much chance to lead the family, it was actually my mothers suggestion as we didn’t have any living mages in the family. That was a little over a year ago, why do you ask?”

“As a court mage you should have some time off to pursue your own interests. A day or two to spend however you wish every month or so?”

“Well I am still a rather young mage, I still have lots to do before I have any such privileges. Most of the work that I do as a court mage isn’t particularly hard, just tedious. Though I do have time at the end of the day once all the work is done to study and sleep.”

“So the lack of free time is just an issue of rank and authority?”

“I suppose so. Why, is that important?”

“I would say so. You just need to become a more powerful mage and I would assume that you will be given such privileges. What exactly is it that you spend most of your time doing as your duties?”

“That would be alchemy. I mostly make common alchemy objects that are used by the royal guards such as their fire seeds. You can see the pouches that they use to carry them.” Adamus smiled as he pointed to the nearest royal guard and the little silk pouch he carried on his belt, it was located right next to his sword sword.

“So I take it you are a novice in alchemy given that you are making rather simple alchemical creations at the moment.” I said as I reached into my bag for a piece of paper and one of the ink pots I always carried around with me.

“Yes I am. Are you by any chance an alchemist as well?”

“I have a few books I think you would be interested in.” I brought out a simple piece of paper and a half filled ink pot from my bag. I quickly wrote down the names of a few books that helped in the past when it came to learning alchemy. “These should help you learn more. I would expect becoming an apprentice in alchemy should change your situation.”