Damien was meditating in the banquet hall when Felix walked in, looking around nervously, as if trying to avoid stepping on a bear trap.

“What's the status of rebuilding?” Damien asked, his eyes closed.

“Almost done, Master Damien,” Felix said as he casted a worried gaze at the young lord. Half of his chest and shoulder were covered in bandages. “How are your wounds, if I may ask?”

“They'll heal,” Damien said, opening his eyes. Even though he had used blesser's touch on himself several times, the burn of the life dust attack wasn't completely gone. They were waiting for a wielder who specialized in healing.

Felix grimaced when he met the young lord's gaze. He could tell something had changed in his demeanor since the break-in on Triumphant Day. His usual benevolent look seemed to have disappeared. There was an almost perpetual scowl on his lips and anger seemed to bubble in his eyes.

“What news have the spies brought us?” Damien asked, rising from the floor.

“As of now, there is none,” Felix said hesitantly. “A lot of people travel to Diamond Veil on Triumphant Day for various reasons. Those two could've been anyone among the tourists.”

Damien nodded and draped his long coat over his shoulders. “What about the records of unauthorized wielders?” he said as they walked out of the hall.

“I had the High Marshal of enforcers look into the unauthorized wielder incidents that happened in Rose County,” Felix said, “There have been 70 incidents involving such wielders. But none of them fit the description of the intruder who broke into the Keep.”

“It was just a child, Felix,” Damien said. “And he had a mental attack skill, a defensive skill that let him go toe to toe against Sir Quentin. Yet he could fire life dust like a Marksman class. All those skills belong to different classes of wielders. Yet that child was wielding them all alone. How many wielders do you know who are capable of that?”

Felix felt his throat run dry before he said, “Currently, there are only four wielders who have such powers. One of them is our Master Gabriel.”

“Yes, that means someone who merged with a dust bloom without the state's permission has the capability to get as strong as Gabriel. I want you to double the amount of spies looking for that boy. We need to find him before he gets any more dangerous.” They entered the castle library. One of the guards had laid down a map of Rose County on a long desk. Several blue marks were made on the map. “Besides that we need to replenish our dust reserve that we lost that night.”

When Damien woke up from being passed out by the boy's attack, the first thing Felix had told him was that the underground containment chamber had been destroyed. All the agmium containers had been crushed under the rubble. All the dust blooms were dead and useless.

Damien leaned over the map and pointed at the blue circles. “These are the locations where more dust blooms were found in the wild. Set up an expedition group of wielders to go and harvest these dust blooms.”

Felix nodded and gave another nervous look to the lord. “I suggest we send a word about what happened here to your father as well.”

“No,” Damien said.

Felix was surprised at the young lord's brief yet stern rejection. Before he could say anything more Damien cut him off.

“Don't question my authority, Felix. Father left the county under my care. It's my job to fix my mistakes. Not his. Now do what I told you.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

###

Gabriel DeCroy admired the flowers in the Emperor's garden. He had arrived at Goldhaven with his father the previous evening. The meeting of the Counts was going to commence in the afternoon. All the grown ups were going to sit around a table, discussing what needed to be done, regarding the shapecrafter attacks.

Damien was dreading it. He was starting to develop a hatred for sitting down and hearing people talk. Being out there and doing something suited him a lot more. It also brought him more comfort than he would've liked to admit.

“Master Damien,” a voice said behind him. It was Sir Rayne. The head of the emperor's Castle Guard. “The gate has been opened for you.”

Gabriel nodded and followed the knight as he led him out through the garden and into a stone building behind the castle. Even though Gabriel dreaded the afternoon, he was still thrilled about what was going to happen now.

He clenched and unclenched his gloved fists, almost unable to keep his excitement in as they walked into the building and down a stairway. This was the castle's dungeon where they kept the high profile outlaws under special containment.

There was a basilisk wielder on every corner of the hallways inside. Sir Rayne led Gabriel to a holding cell at the very end of a hallway. This particular chamber was guarded by four wielders. Inside the cell, a man sat chained and shackled against a wall, dressed in tatters and bleeding from a dozen different wounds. Gabriel could make out the tattoos on his arms in dim light around the man. A shapecrafter.

“He was the one they sent to attack Goldhaven,” Sir Rayne said.

“Just one?” Gabriel asked.

“He had two other accomplices but they managed to get away. This one was too weak to escape on his own.”

Gabriel's eyes were intent on the prisoner. “His elemental affinity is light,” he said. He could tell by the soft glimmer that seemed to illuminate the place around the man even though there were no windows in his cell.

“Yes. But he doesn't seem very efficient with how he uses it,” Rayne said. “The reason why he got caught. However, his resolve is quite strong. We've had at least seven different wielders have a swing at him in different ways. He didn't budge.”

“It's not his resolve,” Gabriel said, narrowing his eyes at the man. “I can see his soul. It's chained with a vow. Shapecrafters have chains on their souls that stop them from revealing certain information or doing certain things. If that man breaks any of those vows, the chain will strangle his soul and kill him.”

Sir Rayne frowned. “Then how do we make him talk?”

“That's why the emperor summoned me, didn't he?” Gabriel said. “Open the gate. Let me take a better look at him.”

Sir Rayne let him into the cell. Gabriel took off his left glove. Without another word, he seized the man by his head and closed his eyes as he focused.

After a moment, the shapecrafter began to shiver, his shackles rattled. Gabriel didn't let it falter his focus. He kept his hold steady on the man's head. Then the shapecrafter’s tattoos glowed. Then there was an explosion of light inside the cell.

Sir Rayne almost unsheathed his sword and rushed inside. But when his vision cleared up, Gabriel had already let go of the man and was wiping his hand with a handkerchief. “We're done,” he said, stepping out of the cell. “They are going to gather three hundred more children in the next three weeks. Then they will–”

Before Gabriel could finish his sentence, a loud scream rang out from inside the cell.

Rayne and the other wielders whirled to look back. The man was slumped against the wall, limp in his shackles, head hanging low. One of the wielders checked his pulse. “He is dead.”

Rayne's eyes went wide. “H-How?” he said.

Gabriel shrugged. “I extracted the information by looking into his future. The chain strangled him because he let the information slip.” He then gave a dismissive wave. “So as I was saying, they are going to gather three hundred children. Their next attack is going to be in Bellecombe city.”

“Did you manage to extract why they are doing this? Or who their leader is?” Rayne asked as they walked out of the stone building.

“The name ‘Marcel’ kept coming up in the visions,” Gabriel said. “I saw some kind of ritual being performed with the children. It looked like a mass sacrifice.”