Chapter XVII

"Lucius!" he heard a voice from far away. "Wake up!" someone was shaking him. Lucius opened his eyes. It was dark around.

"You must lack so much sleep," he recognized Uriel's ironic voice. "Where would you be, you are leaning onto my bed and, as I see, still sleeping?"

"What bed, what is happening?" he tried to rise, but banging his head against the bed, he had to sit down again.

"What's wrong with you? Did you see a bad dream?", Uriel tried to calm him down, but how could he calm down after everything he had seen.

"Where am I?" he asked once again and looked around. His eyes got used to the darkness and he could see the surroundings better.

It was the same room in the palace where his wounded friends were staying. Laili was tight asleep next to him. Others were also in their beds, except for Uriel. However, there was another person in the room, the officer who had taken him to the commander.

"Lord Felix wants to see you," the officer said politely.

Lucius was staring at him in bewilderment. He could not understand why people around him were behaving as if nothing had happened.

Uriel poked him, however, he could not understand why, because he had to follow the officer or his friend just wanted to wake him up. He got up, took Uriel's jacket, and followed the officer.

"Did I dream about all that?" Lucius asked himself for the hundredth time. He could not believe he had such a vivid dream.

He remembered when the officer took him from the room; it was still broad daylight; when he woke up, he looked around, because the sun was peeping into the room through the window. Did all that he had seen happen in reality? He woke up at different times in that case, but why would the officer and Uriel behave that way then? They behaved so normally.

The officer talked to him as if he saw him for the first time. This meant that either Lucius had a nightmare, or he was the only one who remembered what had happened.

When they were going down the stairs, he heard the moans of the soldiers, but as it seemed to him, they were not as intense as previously they were much more reserved and soft.

They went through the hall, walked up to the wooden door that looked distinctly familiar and this feeling doubled the suspicion. If everything was a dream, why did the door look so familiar? He had never been in that hall before. Or how did he know that Lord Felix was a commander?

They opened the door and stepped into the study: the commander was relaxing in his armchair, there was a marble bust in the corner and a wolf's head attached to the wall, as well as a stuffed wild bird. Everything looked familiar to Lucius.

"Oh, is that you?" Lord Felix opened his eyes and looked at Lucius. He looked more tired than strict than he showed the last time they had met.

"It gets dark pretty early, doesn't it?" the commander did not wait for an answer, pointed at the armchair in front of the desk so that Lucious would sit.

This time, Lucius give in quickly and sat in the armchair.

The yellow lights from the candles and torches were dancing on the smooth surface of the desk.

"I want to talk to you about Lord Marcus!" the commander started after a while and Lucius guessed once again he knew something he shouldn't.

"What do you want to know, My Lord?" asked Lucius, pretending to be confident and calm.

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"What did he tell you this morning when he was with you in the room?" the commander asked without beating around the bush.

'First, he asked about my friends' health and when we dared to ask him what we could expect in the future, he told us it would take the help ten days to arrive."

"I know that. Did he mention who is helping?"

"He mentioned the Fire Temple, my lord."

"I have never heard of anything like that," murmured Lord Felix. "anything else?"

"Nothing I can think of, my lord."

The commander was deep in his thoughts when Lucius took advantage of the silence and asked nervously:

"Do you know where Lord Marcus is?"

"No, but he is not in the neighborhood, that I am sure of."

"Did he take anyone with him?" Lucius felt how his heart started beating faster.

The commander stared at him strangely.

"Why are you asking that? Was he planning to take anybody with him?"

"I don't know, my lord, he hasn't told me anything."

"Why did you ask then?"

"I don't know, I was just curious whether he went alone or had a company," lied Lucius, hoping nobody would notice he was lying and he would not have to admit the truth he was not sure of himself.

The commander looked at him suspiciously for a while, asking nothing, leaned back in his armchair, and closed his eyes.

"It's a strange night," he murmured to himself.

Lucius did not know what to do and just sat in the armchair, feeling uncomfortable. The conversation with the commander had confused him even more. If not others, the commander should have remembered what had happened, but just like others, he did not.

A knock on the door scattered these weird thoughts. When the commander snarled that permission to come in, Lucius saw a figure clad in a black robe with golden symbols on it.

Lucius did not know what to call the emotion he felt when he saw the wizard: fear, surprise, anger, happiness...

Happiness because as the wizard was not outside, he could kill nobody.

When Lord Marcus entered the room with amazing grace, the commander attempted to stand up and greet him, but Marcus showed it was unnecessary.

Lucius wanted to let the wizard sit in his chair, but he soon realized it was unnecessary as he headed towards the window. He then drew back the curtains without a word and stared at something unknown in the sky of Mondelay.

Lucius, the commander, and the officer waited for the wizard to speak.

"I have to ask you something, Lord Felix," the wizard finally started talking. It sounded like a rhetorical question and the wizard did not really expect the answer, even though the words were obviously directed at the commander.

"Say it, Marcus," the commander did not hesitate to answer. Lucius knew right away the commander would definitely fulfill his wishes unless it exceeded his powers.

The wizard turned around, approached the desk, and gave some papers to the commander. He took them, put them on the desk, and peered into them. There was something like a map painted on the paper. He had marked several places on it.

"This is the map of the noble neighborhood, which I borrowed from you this morning. The highlighted places are the areas where I need to ask you to make huge bonfires and boil water with the largest pots you have." the wizard made his instructions absolutely clear. However, this was only the beginning. Only making the fires and boiling water was not enough.

Marcus took out little pouches from the pocket. There was some kind of powder in them, which they had to add to the water and bring spears, swords, and shields to the designated areas.

It was obvious the commander did not know why they had to do all these he gave the officer standing nearby the map and the pouches. The officer left the room swiftly to fulfill the command.

"May I ask why we should do all this?" the commander asked the wizard. The latter was still standing at the window, staring at something in the sky.

"Before the help arrives, we will have to protect ourselves from the red-eyes on our own. I am preparing for that now," Marcus answered calmly, but this calmness caused weird, unsettling feelings in Lucius, especially after seeing that dream.

"But how will boiling water and the weapons around it help us in the battle?" Lord Felix was genuinely surprised.

"It will be a real challenge to fight against them with ordinary weapons. The boiling water is necessary to prepare the liquid that we will use to wet the weaponry. This will help us at least fight them, as using only ordinary swords we don't stand a chance," Marcus explained and turned to Lucius - "How are your brothers?"

"They are fine before the help arrives. I guess, they will walk already," Lucius sounded calm. He did not want the wizard to know what he had seen in the dream (unless he already knew).

"Ten days for the wounded is a luxury. We will need every person to defend the city. Your brothers have already shown me how skilled they are in killing the monsters," the wizard said with a smile that looked oddly unnatural on his face.

"But their wounds are not healed yet. How will they fight, if they can barely walk?" Lucius asked, surprised.

"I will take care of every wounded person, they will soon start running around," smirked the wizard, and to prove himself to Lucious' astonishment (and to the commander's as well), he healed one wounded soldier on the spot. Lucius and the commander could see a pinkish line on the soldier's body instead of two deep wounds.