The worst part about the exercise was that the small ball of air had to be constantly moving or else Faylin would interrupt you to do it properly. It did not matter how much it was moving, it only needed to be. By the end of the class everyone was exhausted and left the moment they could.
Arthur's first destination after was straight to the magic object hall to meet with Calavia and tell her about what happened. When he entered the room he quickly led her out of the room with the excuse of taking a walk. “Is there something wrong Arthur? You looked quite stressed.”
“Im fine right now.” Arthur looked down both ways down the hall they were in before he continued. “But last night I was attacked by a vampire.”
“A vampi-” Calavia almost shouted in surprise before Arthur covered her mouth.
“Shhh! Don’t say that out loud. I'm not trying to cause a panic.” Arthur looked down the hall both ways again to be certain no one overheard Calavia’s gasp.
“I can’t stay here long because of that. I will try to fill you in on the situation if I am able, but for the time being I will not be able to spend a lot of time with you.”
“Are you in danger?”
“Not currently, but Captain Pelagius seems to think the vampires will try and strike again to not leave any loose ends.”
**********
Auria crept out of her hiding place within an old abandoned shack in the south of Antium. A handful of beggars and homeless people called the place home and the city guard in the south of the city was known to have a problem with corruption and a lack of law enforcement.
Auria checked the dirt roads for any sign of the city guards before she slipped off into an alleyway towards the Misery's end headquarters. Keeping out of sight of any guards, the only people she met on the way were either hiding from the elements or selling illegal contraband. Soon Misfortune the bar where Misery's end was headquartered was within her view and with a quick look both ways she darted across the street and entered unnoticed.
Auria brushed past several patrons and made her way directly towards the office of Hanno Metilius, the grandmaster of Misery's end. She basically ignored the guard standing in her way and broke the lock with a kick. “Just what do you think you are doing!”
“Auria? What an interesting way to enter. Is there something you need to tell me?” Hanno subtly reached for the dagger hidden on the bottom side of the table as he spoke. He could tell by the look in her eyes something was wrong.
“The vampire died.” Those three worlds caused both Hanno and his guard to pause for several seconds before they frantically began asking questions.
“What do you mean he died?!”
“How? Who killed him?!”
“Don’t tell me the cult is angry at us about it!”
“If the both of you would be quiet I will explain what happened.” Auria almost shouted at the duo. She sounded quite angry but the slight quivering that Hanno noticed gave away that she was actually scared.
“During the day we watched him go about his daily activities and when he returned to the inn and went to sleep the vampire decided he wanted to go in alone. That freak was trying to show off, I don’t know if it was for me or the guild but when he went against that mage he ended up dead in the hallway after trying to escape.”
“And you spent the night hiding somewhere from the city guard who after the commotion caused by the blood spawn vampire accelerated the investigation to full speed.” Hanno finished Auria’s description of the events of the night prior.
“The only question that remains is how the cult will react and if the city guard will get the royals involved in such a matter. Thankfully there is nothing that points to us, but for the time being we should tone down our activities in the city to keep out of the spotlight. Eventually things will calm down and we can return to our regular activities.”
“That is all I have to report to you sir.”
“That's fine Auria, just one last question. Why did you kick down my door?”
“That asshat you have standing guard likes to make things difficult for getting entry, this was definitely something I needed to tell you in person.” Hanno looked behind Aurio to look at his Nyxarian bodyguard who clearly was taking advantage of his position to cause problems. The bodyguard gritted his teeth as he noticed the look on Hanno’s face.
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**********
Two weeks passed as Arthur attended his classes and learnt more and more about magic, specifically in the arts of pyromancy and aeromancy raising both to level five. During that time he sent a letter to Mr. Calvus stating that he would like to take him up on his offer of an apprenticeship, but his current situation involving a dangerous group will keep him from attending for the time being.
Within a day Arthur received one back from his that said the following:
To Arthur
Thank you for writing back to me so soon. I do know what happened with the vampire attack on your life so you do not need to worry about me finding someone else to take my offer.
Don’t be all that surprised, as a warden in the mages guild I have access to information like this. For the time being just focus on your studies and when things settle down you can start your apprenticeship with me.
* Georgius Calvus
Arthur also noticed that for killing the vampire he received 150 Exp raising him to level eleven and giving him another ten points to spend wherever he wanted. Since his two lowest stats aside from charisma were strength and perception Arthur chose to put five points into each leaving him with twenty in both.
/- - - - - -\
Name : Arthur
Level 11
Exp : 8050
Next Level at : 9600
Mana : 33/33
Attributes :
Strength 20
Dexterity 30
Vitality 20
Constitution 30
Intellect 30
Perception 20
Charisma 10
Arcane 20
Available points : 0
Skills :
Pyromancy Level 5
Aeromancy Level 5
\- - - - - -/
During that time a group of heavily armored individuals who called themselves the Paladins of Solarius arrived in the city. In total there were about fifty of them each wearing matching plate armor with a symbol of a sword with golden flames pointing upwards with a pair of white wings on the hilt. Arthur was eating lunch with Alanus and Zinon on a bench when they saw the paladins march towards the city canter.
“Oh by Solarius. Those are paladins of the circle of fire!” Alanus frantically shouted as he realized who he was looking at.
“They look quite strong. I bet they could take on a whole army of vampires on their own.” Zinon said to Arthur as he pointed at the weapons and armor the paladins wore. “Whatever they are using is very high quality. It is only a bit unfortunate that they serve such a… ridged god.”
“Hey, show a bit of respect to them. They are here to protect us for nothing in return.” Alanus turned to Zinon as he heard the last remark.
“Is what I am saying wrong? To my knowledge Solarius is a god of justice not mercy.” Zinon stood up and being a good two inches taller than Alanus making him a bit intimidating.
“Well to my knowledge Xardas is no god of mercy either.”
“I do not worship Xardas. I worship Zephyrion for his wisdom and ever lasting change.”
Alanus, not having a response, simply took a seat on the bench and looked away from him.
********
Later than night at around midnight when Arthur along with everyone else in the barracks was sound asleep as a small letter slipped through the slightly open window via aeromancy and landed on his head. Since the night of the vampire attack Arthur was what one would call a light sleeper, waking up almost always at the slightest sound, so this definitely woke him.
Arthur opened his eyes and quickly sat up while he took his sword in his hands ready for any assailant who might be foolish enough to try something so stupid in the barracks. Soon he lowered his weapon seeing that there was no enemy in sight and the only thing out of the ordinary was the paper that woke him up.
When Arthur picked it up and turned it over he saw it was a letter addressed to him from the Lord Darius he had been hearing so much about.
To Arthur of Dom Badaher
I believe that a congratulation is in order.
You managed to defeat Mulier, one of my children on your own without the use of any magic items. Because of this I would like to invite you to my home to meet you personally. A man of your talents should be able to thrive in this world and not be held down by bureaucrats who have never needed to lift a finger in all their lives. With a simple gift I can give you those bureaucrats will be nothing before you, and your talent limitless.
If you are interested in my offer, return to the place where you defeated two of my followers to meet Axia tonight, another of my children. And be sure to come alone, we will know if you are followed.
* Lord Darius
Arthur looked over the letter several times and over to the slightly open window which was the only place it could have slipped in, but that would have required the use of magic, aeromancy specifically. ‘If whoever put this letter here is a mage then only this Lord Darius himself or perhaps this Axia could have done this. But Darius doesn’t sound like the type of person to do this himself so the most likely answer is that Axia was the one to put the letter here, and now she is waiting in the secret graveyard that has already been swept for any evidence and is now empty.”
Arthur gritted his teeth at the ingeniousness of Darius’s plan. No one would be at the crime scene now since they already look it over for clues, making it a great place to set up a meeting. But that leaves the shining question, should he or should he not go.
If he tells the captain for example he will send a team to capture the vampire and she will likely disappear along with any chance to find the vampires again. But if he goes alone there he wouldn’t know how to escape, or if he needed to fight if he was able to kill Darius.