August ignored the warlock’s question and proceeded to enjoy the view outside the window, leaving me to converse.
“I think that gorgeous man over there and myself are good guys. And good guys don’t do things that get people killed, unnecessarily. So, tell me,” I touched the books lining the walls of this man’s quarters, “won’t destroying the Star of Fahzul remove Baruum’s main defence? Won’t it cause your own people to be slaughtered by neighbouring enemies?”
“It certainly will!” the warlock answered with a proud smirk on his face. “My name’s Rakaz, mage. You see, the reason we want the star destroyed is simple – balance.”
“Balance of what, Rakaz?”
“Balance of power. The Baruum Empire is a superpower that carelessly uses its strength to decimate other countries. Mage, we are the bad guys. You need not take my word for it. I’ve to report to my higherups and plan to depart in a couple days. When we get to the emperor’s court, you may sneak into our strategy room and eavesdrop as much as you desire; see our real motives. Until then, why don’t you make yourself at home? The dungeon clearly wasn’t comfortable enough.”
A chilling silence brushed amongst us. “Is he lying?” August asked me.
“Nah, he’s good.”
Rakaz chortled, “You can tell when others lie? That’s,” he cleared his throat, “disturbing.”
The conversation was ended abruptly by a man asking for Rakaz’s presence on some irrelevant matter.
“You people are fools,” Dillon said candidly. “What do you think will happen when the star’s destroyed? You think our enemies will cull us as if we’re an out of control wolf pack? They won’t stop ‘til we’re all gone!” His fists clenched, “Please don’t just come here without proper knowledge and do things you can’t reverse…”
I pondered about his words. Hell, they hit me pretty hard. What he spoke of was a subject that placed me between a rock and a hard place. Exploring and adventuring were very clearly one of the most important things in my life, but as my power grew, I became hesitant about truly enjoying these journeys. It was a simple question, quite relevant to what Dillon spoke of. How ridiculous was it for somebody – by some random stroke of fate – to suddenly appear in your world and tip the scales of whatever was going on and completely shift the balance that the world had developed. August and I are two of the most powerful beings I know. Is it fair for me to take a side here? I pondered. But, wouldn’t one argue that having the power to change the world for the better, yet refusing to do it was the same as making it worse?
Those questions made adventuring into a moral dilemma I’d kept pushing to the back of my mind until Dillon said the things he said. He was right. We didn’t know near enough about this world. This wasn’t just some game, these were real people with real lives. Big flashy battles and abusing my power to get whatever I wanted could really mess people up; and I’d probably remain ignorant of the more subtle changes. “Hey, Aug, maybe we should just go home.”
“Aaralyn is much happier now,” August randomly commented about the ex-Sword Paragon. “Ah, Bianca too. By Hydra’s ass, Eric, Ulanosians don’t have to risk their lives in military service just to have a good life anymore. The entire country is now self-reliant,” he pointed out.
I wasn’t quite sure where he was going with this. What was the point of telling me things I already knew?
But, even with my befuddled face, the man continued anyway, “They’ve made a lot of treaties and even established trade. They’ve made good with many other countries.” He grabbed his longsword suddenly, causing Dillon and Miranda to flinch. “Do you remember how that came to be? Do you remember why we went to Ulanos in the first place? Revenge. Hatred. They wronged us, and we took it out on them a hundred-fold, yet we left Ulanos in a much better state than we found it. Reflection is good, yes, but do not doubt your own moral compass. That isn’t Eric.”
A short and quiet snigger escaped me. Thinking about how accurate he was made me laugh even harder. Hell, it turned into a boisterous guffaw when I realised how quick he caught on to exactly what I was thinking and was able to give excellent advice at the drop of a hat. “Man, you really my best friend, y’know?”
“Damn right I am!” he said snidely. “For now, let’s just woo some ladies in town ‘til we get to Baruum. We’ll learn what we need to, then do what we think is right once the time comes.”
Dillon scoffed and left. He may have been the biggest question mark to me since coming here. He switched his master’s blood on purpose, painting the picture that he didn’t want the Avatar of Chaos to be summoned, which meant he didn’t want the Star of Fahzul to be destroyed, which meant he had his own secret objective. Was it that he feared an invasion from the neighbouring countries?
Miranda was getting a bit fidgety. She seemed downright nervous and couldn’t keep proper eye-contact with either of us. “H-how did, you two, escape the…” she didn’t have the gall to finish her question.
August looked to me, and I to him. We shrugged simultaneously. “We walked out?” he said, not quite sure what she wanted to hear. “A question for you now. Why’d you join the Order of Warlocks?”
A dreaded look came over her. “W-well…”
“Relax,” August placed a hand on her shoulder, “we’re not enemies anymore. You don’t have to answer. Anyway,” he turned to walk out, “see you around.”
Now that just she and I remained, a question that was circling about my mind had resurfaced. “The guardsmen outside this town only made our carriage an issue when they saw August. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve only heard rumours – Rakaz probably knows the whole truth – but, an extremely powerful man, beyond anything our armies can conjure occasionally attacks the Baruum Empire. They say he looks like nothing more than a homeless riffraff that went insane. He asks for his mother’s heart every time he attacks us. Anyway, apparently, your friend gives off a similar vibe.”
Something in me found it strange. Similar vibe? Homeless? Mother? If that ain’t Leo then Hydra’s ass isn’t magnificent. Leo was the only powerful man I knew who looked homeless. I began getting suspicious of the Baruum Empire. Why would Leo attack them? With that question in mind, I went outside immediately and flew to August.
“Hey, dude, let’s go visit Leo.”
He didn’t even bat an eye at the random statement. Instead, he simply nodded. In a minute, we appeared in the darkened hive of the shadow beasts. Leo was already upon us, but retracted his strike when he noticed who we were. “Ah, it pleases me to see you both well. Tell me, how can this one help?”
“By giving us information. Do you know of a world called Pargat? Specifically, a country dubbed the Baruum Empire?”
His grip tightened, the veins in his forehead almost looked ready to pop. “Those scoundrels…” he muttered under his breath.
“We were just there, Leo. They say you kept asking for your mother’s heart. Can you tell us everything that happened?”
“The Baruum Empire was on the brink of destruction,” he began, walking through the nest. We followed along whilst he inspected a few young shadow beasts. “A farm boy came here, just a single farm boy. He was desperate, and begged the mother, a creature who stopped other shadow beasts from attacking him, endlessly. Eventually, she gave in. This happened many moons ago, when the shadow mother harnessed her full form. What you see now is a mere shell of her former self. It is like living quintessence without a body to reside in.” It was obvious this topic frustrated him greatly. “The Baruum Empire used the mother’s heart to survive, but became greedy and kept it. She is now reduced to what she is now. But take not my own words to heart. Seek your own truth,” he advised.
“Nah, I’d know if you were lyin’,” I commented with a shrug.
“Leo, there’s a group of people called the Order of Warlocks trying to destroy the Star of Fahzul. I’m certain that ‘star’ is the mother’s heart. But I’ma still need you to confirm.”
Leo paused and turned around; half his face lit by the amber crystals’ luminance. “You can go there indefinitely? Mother can only afford me a limited time.”
“I can’t, but he can,” August pointed his thumb at me. “You know how these mages are with their whoosh-whoosh swirly spells.”
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“It’s called Riftshear,” I corrected.
He nodded his head, “Yeah, that’s what I said.”
I palmed my face. This guy… In a minute, we were back at Rakaz’s house. I made sure Leo remained hooded and if he gained too much suspicion, I’d simply cast Invisibility on him.
“We’ve got two-ish days ‘til we depart for where the emperor resides. We’d most likely find the heart there,” August advised. “So, ‘til that time comes, what do you say to a drink?” he asked Leo.
We found ourselves a neat tavern that evening and had a seat on the wooden benches with good mead in our mugs and had a heck of a good time. Leo was quite the quiet soul when intoxicated, but his laughter was funny and contagious. After spending a few hours with women whom we couldn’t even remember the names of, the place was just about ready to close up. We got up, totally drunken, and was quickly stopped by an employee at the tavern.
“You have to pay!” she shouted, and by the sound of it, she was quite used to the occurrence.
“Ohh, yeah, yeah, one second,” I told her, trying to maintain balance. My hand rummaged about my body, and that was when I realised, we hadn’t a dime on us. Despite being well-off back home, that didn’t mean I was wealthy in Pargat. “So, listen,” I chuckled nervously, “you not gonna believe this, but we, we got no money!”
At this point, all the customers’ eyes were plastered to the scene unfolding. A brute of a man appeared out of nowhere.
“Okay, okay!” I put my hands up, “Tell you what, I’ll give you five kegs of mead,” I held a hand up and wiggled my fingers. “That’s way more than we drank. Deal?”
Instead of being happy about it, the little miss looked at me like I was a dumbass.
Eh, right. Because who in Hydra’s ass does transmuting anyway? I thought, and just did it without her answer. Blocks of ice formed, then they turned into the uncovered barrels. One by one, water was transmuted into mead. “So, where do you want them?” I asked the aghast girl, who could only weakly point behind the bar. Not wanting to lose my cherished drunken state, I made a clone do it after he purged the alcohol from himself with Renew. I couldn’t trust myself to float five barrels of mead over that counter.
I awoke to jarring noises, and then some more. A fight? I thought, finding the sound similar to weapons clanking on each other. A big yawn escaped me whilst I stretched and had a mini-seizure. Peering out the window of Rakaz’s home, I would see August and Leo sparring.
My eyes opened wide. The hell is August doing?! I pondered, and as fast as I thought that, I became distracted. Their spar was, beautiful? It almost seemed like a martial art. Their techniques were similar and the force they used seemed to be perfectly balanced. Blocks, parries, dodges, ripostes, kicks, punches, there were so many elements to their simple sword fight. Of course, they didn’t break a sweat. It felt more like a live performance than an actual match.
Suddenly, August rolled away and then immediately hurled his sword at me. It stopped right in front of me before I could properly react, then flew back to his hand. “I know I look hideous on mornings, but could you maybe not try to kill me?”
“Hydra’s ass!” He stepped back as if in fear, “It can talk!”
We stared at each other for a few seconds. “Well? I know you didn’t throw a sword at me for nothing. Explain.”
“Qora,” he replied flatly.
A question mark popped up in my mind, because I didn’t see the spirit lord of space, Qora, actually pop up when he said her name. Wait, was her name the explanation? “She taught you space magic, huh?”
“It’s lovely of you to notice!” he shouted.
“Gentlemen,” Rakaz suddenly interrupted, “preparations have finished earlier than expected. We can depart now, if you wish.” He kept looking at Leo, who was basically another person entirely. He was almost clean shaven and his hair was cut low. He wore proper clothing and looked appropriate for his environment, which basically gave him a disguise. Rakaz quickly surmised that Leo was a friend of ours. “We’ve enough space in the coach for another. Would your friend like to come along?”
“That I would, grand warlock. Forgive my rude and abrupt appearance at your place of stay. It pleases me to make your acquaintance; my name is Leo,” the Hyzek paladin greeted, his tongue that of aristocracy.
“Leo, the pleasure is mine. I go by Rakaz. Now, gentlemen, what do you say to an early departure?”
And so, we were off. The carriage, or coach as he called it, was surrounded by four warlocks, each apparently the same rank as Miranda. Yet, she rode in the coach with us. During our quiet journey through the woods, a thought kept revisiting my mind, but I ended up blurting out something else entirely. “What is a warlock?”
The question had Rakaz taken aback. There are times when one becomes so good at his craft, that he forgets the very definition of it. If one was to ask me what a mage is, I’m not sure I could give them an accurate answer.
“A warlock is any being that is able to use mana to conjure magic,” Dillon gave a very basic answer, thinking I wouldn’t have enough know-how to appreciate a more detailed answer.
“So, basically everyone’s a warlock? I guess that makes me a warlock too. In my world, that’s what a mage is. There’s gotta be a difference.”
“Well,” Miranda chipped in, “what types of magic do mages use?”
“Draconic, arcane, void, mind, space. And warlocks?”
She chuckled, “I can’t say I recognise any of those, but I can kind of guess what they mean. Warlocks use curse and shadow.”
“And draconic,” I answered, remembering one of her warlock partners using earth element. “Say, this shadow type,” I drew attention to that, “what’s it about?”
She looked to Rakaz, who was less than pleased about allowing her to tell us about warlocks, but he yielded. I figured he remembered she said that we were dangerous, so his fear won out.
“Shadow is, an agent of death, like a poison. Once a living organism is struck by shadow magic, there’s a very high mortality rate, but it may not be instantaneous. In fac–”
“H-how about you tell us about mind magic?” Rakaz intervened, stopping the prattling Miranda.
How is this possible? Emily said light and shadow magic aren’t known. Why would they know shadow magic? Something’s not adding up. Maybe the shadow magic they’re talking about, and the shadow magic Apollyon uses are two different things? I shivered, hoping that they were indeed different things and that the warlocks of the Baruum Empire simply used the wrong terminology. “It’s what it sounds like,” I began answering, “it can give–”
Just then, something thudded against our enclosed and posh carriage. One of the warlocks’ life was slipping away extremely fast. Life Perception made me curry to use Vivify, but that didn’t help fast enough. The man was already dead.
“We’re under attack!” a warlock yelled out.
Another one clicked their tongue, “The damned rebels!”
As I was about to head outside to fight off the onslaught, Rakaz stopped me, “Pay no mind to it, mage. The warlocks have it under control.”
“Dude, one of them just died,” I replied and his expression totally changed to one of disbelief, then he quickly barrelled into a quiet rage. He made his way outside into a storm of arrows. A strange magic, reminiscent to fire spread forth in its dark green and yellow mixtures. The very ground seemed to die as it latched onto the legs of our incoming attackers. They slowed down, trying their best to continue, but eventually seven of them keeled over and died.
There were about thirty more attackers, but they quickly retreated upon seeing their allies dead in a matter of seconds. “Retreat! Men, retreat!” someone yelled out.
Looking at the aftermath, a lot happened in the short span of the attack. One warlock’s head was almost severed off; it was just a little pull away from completely coming off. Another warlock had a few arrows sticking into him. And the icing on the cake, the horses pulling the carriage were wounded.
Interesting… Those guys were rebels. Red Stars, right? The arrows were ripped out the warlock and he yelped in pain, but Renew quickly set him straight again. His eyes opened even bigger at the fact that he was no longer injured. The horses were then healed and the other warlocks looked on in awe.
“A-amazing!” August said, pretending to be fascinated.
“Shut up,” I snapped back and returned to the coach.
Rakaz wasn’t too sure what to make of ‘mages’, as he so explicitly said after we were making another move. “Healing unlike any I’ve seen. Biological preservation,” he commented on Crystalline Slumber after I used it on the deceased warlock, “even a creature made of…”
“Arcane,” I clarified on Skyer who now floated directly behind our carriage in his ethereal form.
“Grand warlock, Rakaz,” Leo pilfered the man’s attention from me. The way he said it would make one feel unsafe. Dillon and Miranda’s eyes were focused on the paladin. “This artefact which grants you protection, the Star of Fahzul, would you mind telling me about it?”
I felt at ease as Leo simply wanted information. Thinking back, most of my knowledge of Pargat came from Dillon, who seemed level-headed enough, but it could never beat the experience and wisdom that age accumulated; Rakaz was no whelp.
“I’ll say this now,” Rakaz cleared his throat. “Whatever I tell you is subject to be inaccurate. The truth about the Star of Fahzul, past the fables and legends that were spun, are only known to the emperor, his empress, the Star Sorcerers, and the Grandmaster of the Order of Warlocks.” He warned us of his ignorance, but still continued to tell us what he believed it to be.
Every time the man spoke, I could feel the air become tighter, heavier. Leo was furious when he learnt that the farm boy who pleaded and begged the mother of shadow beasts for power sacrificed his life, thinking that those who were left behind would do the righteous thing and return borrowed power.
Dillon, who’d been awfully quiet the entire time, raised his head up, “Forgive my arrogance in thinking that I know better, grand warlock, Rakaz, but is it not more beneficial to the Order to simply deactivate the star instead of destroying it? Why not keep it for ourselves and simply use it without the empire knowing?”
“You’ve a sharp mind, boy. Of course, this has been brought up countless times. Even our grandmaster is wary of using the star. The Star Sorcerers have linked their very lives to it. They’ll know where it is and what it’s being used for. Besides,” he exhaled calmly, “the goal is to get the star out of the hands of those who seek to abuse it. The goal is balance.”
As he said those things, I monitored his mana closely; the man wasn’t lying. Still though, that doesn’t mean his higherups think the same as he does.
August leaned forward, “Where’d the Star of Fahzul come from?”
“When the farm boy brought it back, no one cared where he got it from. We only cared about saving our hides.” Rakaz shrugged, “No clue where it came from.”
“What if you knew its place of origin? Would you return it?” Leo questioned.
At this point, even the dumbest person could tell Rakaz had a bad feeling about Leo, but even then, the man remained steadfast to being truthful and calm. “No, there would be too much death. If we try to take it, the Star Sorcerers will decimate us. If we do manage to take it and place it elsewhere, they can still find it. In the end, unless we can kill the Star Sorcerers, we can’t take it. And getting to those six requires breaking down the most heavily manned fortress in the entire empire.” I could almost see the frustration in Rakaz’s eyes as he stared into space.
Leo leaned forward, “I am a paladin from Hyzek. I’ve come here to reclaim the mother’s heart, your ‘star’.”
Rakaz chuckled nervously.