Hello my few, but beloved readers! I have a new chapter for you today, I apologize for not finishing it or releasing it yesterday, some irl things popped up that need my attention.
If you find any grammar error or any issues please leave a comment! I always read every comment, even though there isn't much >.> I see you mf58, I always appreciate it when I have confirmation that someone reads my fiction, well unless ghosts are people.
Enjoy!~
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Arch Wizard Amesula Enhana's PoV
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After a long day of teaching I walked into my study, with a cup of tea in hand.
“I’ll have to review my notes on each of the student's performance. Then I have to write up improvement methods for them to study.” I noted under my breath, “But first I need to unwind.”
I plopped down on my leather reading chair with a sigh, and after placing my tea down on the small table next to me I closed my eyes and began rubbing my temples, “Oh my, today was a tough one. Teaching those rowdy young mages a new spell without enough mana potions is tedious.”
A slight grin then grew on my face, “But worth it.”
Grabbing the cup of tea that I just brewed, I pondered while sipping. ‘Theodor didn’t show up today. That’s surprising because he is usually the first one to arrive when I give a lesson on new spells.’
I shrugged to myself while continuing my thoughts, ‘I guess Lord Raingrip had something very important for him to take care of.’
While taking a sip of tea I focused my eyes over at the painting on the wall, right above the fireplace.
The picture was of me, my husband and the twins. A smile crept upon my face as I recalled the day we had the painting taken.
Zeke and I tried hard to get Imeena and Vossler to stay still since they were still young and full of energy. But it was well worth the trouble.
The harsh reality meant I would outlive my husband and possibly my children since he was a human and I was half elf. So having such an accurate painting of us together will help me to not forget their faces.
It was then that I began to worry. ‘Maybe something happened to him on the way here. There was that incident, about a week ago, when they found that guard dead in the fields.’
But I shook off those sort of thoughts, chalking them up to be unfounded worrying. Theodor was at the age where playing hooky is normal, even if he never missed my lessons without a good reason. There was still a first for everything afterall.
An hour had passed as I was reviewing and writing, when I heard a sudden loud knock coming from the door. It startled me because I was completely focused on my work.
After I calmed down, I let out a long sigh when I gazed down at the sheet of paper, half done, that now had a long line of ink going through it.
Humans wouldn’t be able to hear a knock so far away from the door, but I have sensitive ears, making it very easy to detect the knocking noises from anywhere in my house.
Most humans that knock either don’t know this, or don’t care, causing them to bang on the door knocker to catch my attention.
I got up and left my study, and when I reached the stairs, after a small walk, leading down to the first floor, another knock sounded from the door, but this time it was louder than before. Whoever was knocking was trying to catch my attention.
“Be right there! Please stop banging on my door…” I yelled while rubbing my long ears.
After descending the stairs I made my way to the door while thinking, ‘Who is here at this time of the night?’
When I opened the door a courier dressed in the city’s colors, green and gray, greeted me.
“Hail, Arch Wizard Amesula Enhana, I have word from Second-Lord Warnerius”
‘Second-Lord Warnerius?!’ I thought to myself, while waiting for the courier to finish.
“He has requested your presence to the courthouse, within his office, before noon. Your appearance is mandatory, failure to comply once is a fifty silver coin fine and another scheduled date of appearance. Failure to comply twice means the fine doubles to one gold bit and possible jail time.”
The courier then handed me a letter with the city’s seal of justice upon it. I took the letter and thanked him before shutting the door.
I stared at the seal, which had a rose and a leaf on the top left corner, and scales on the bottom right. A troubled expression appeared on my face, ‘Lord Warnerius has requested my presence? This can’t be good…’
I made my way into the study before sitting down on my reading chair. I then reached for my letter opened before I cut the top off the letter and pulled out a folded note.
The note read- ‘Arch Wizard Amesula Enhana, you have been summoned to the office of Second-Lord Warnerius, and must show up or else face penalties.
Arch Wizard Amesula Enhana, you have been suspected of criminal acts against the City of Mistvally and the Human Kingdom of Tikarum. But because of your membership with the Grand Academy, you will not be apprehended or have a bounty placed upon your head as a show of good faith. Failure to appear within the place you have been summoned to means fines, possible jail time and a bounty to be placed upon your head.
This letter will allow you to gain entrance into the courthouse without a wait time.’
After reading the entire letter I became annoyed. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been accused of “criminal acts”. I had been summoned to Lord Warnerius’s office on a few other occasions, all bogus or bizarre claims. Which was very unbecoming of a Second-Lord.
The Second-Lord Warnerius and I have a long, and very complicated history together.
It all started when he was young.
My husband was in his elder years and needed a lot of medicines just to get through the day. Medications and the occasional physical enhancement potion isn’t hard to come by when you live in Mistvally. But it does all add up over time, and soon he had burned through his retirement and my savings.
I didn’t mind spending my savings on my beloved, especially when I still had two centuries ahead of me, because all that mattered to me was his comfort and how much time we spent together before he passes.
I ended up getting a job as the personal Arch high-mage to the Warnerius house because we had ran out of money. He needed his medication and we both needed food, so I had to find something to sustain us, and working for a noble house was better than running a business or working at some mundane job.
The pay was really good and I was able to have a lot of free time. The work entailed various menial tasks a high-mage was expected to do, but because of my Arch status I also had to tutor little Darrius Warnerius the third.
Finding another Arch or Grand would cost more because they would most likely have to pay for travel expenses, as well as other fees the Grand Academy might charge for personal tutoring. So I was the perfect candidate to teach him.
He was a promising young water advanced-acolyte. While I was an Arch status water high-mage, the field of magic we both were proficient at was water.
It was a perfect fit, and since I was already enlisted in a contract with the Warnerius family, it made it cheaper and easier to have me teach young Darrius.
After a few years he showed remarkable progress and even became a low-mage in power. Another year later he had became a Novice at the age of twelve.
Mastering the basics of any school of magic at such a young age isn’t unheard of, but it was still very impressive and would put him near the top among his peers. With him being so skilled, and even earning an official rank, his parents and I had felt like he needed more space and competition to grow further. So they sent him to the Grand Academy in the capital to learn further and in better conditions.
He wasn’t against this, in fact he was ecstatic, and I was too because a boy of his potential could possibly shake the world one day, if given the chance.
We had a master disciple relationship going on and we were each a bit sad that he was going away for a while, and when the day came that he was suppose to leave for the capital he cried in front of the crowd of nobles that was seeing him off.
It was a heartwarming moment for us all, and he departed without any kind of dramatic scene or problem.
I put the letter down and smiled at the oldest memories with him, but when the newer ones came up my smiled soured into a frown.
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After reading the letter and brooding about the past I decided it was time to get some rest. My original plan involved me finishing the guidance papers all throughout tomorrow, but the summons I received changed my agenda to where I have to deal with this.
The next morning I was dressed up and already on my way towards the city.
When I was walking through the orchards, I had noticed multiple horse hoofprints. I thought it strange because they seemed to be somewhat fresh, and I couldn’t conclude it to be work horses, because there was too much of them, nor did I think they belonged to travelers because they trailed off into the orchards and then back again. Normally I would chalk it up to be nothing, however the sets of tracks led down the road.
As I continued down the road; I couldn’t help but look at the tracks every so often, but when the road I was on merged with the main one leading up to the city, I was then unable to find the tracks because of the constant traffic going up and down the main road.
Only after going through the headache of the newly set up checkpoints at each gate throughout the city, did I find myself at the courthouse. Along with the new checkpoints, I also noted the uneasy tense feeling every guard gave off.
‘Something must have happened yesterday that I was unaware of.’ I thought to myself, ‘This makes me more uneasy about my summonings to Lord Warnerius.'
I reached into the brown leather satchel that was around my shoulder, and pulled out the letter I had received the night before and walked up to the guarded doors. After showing them the letter they let me pass through without any trouble and I entered into the building.
When I entered the scene looked chaotic, different looking state officials and even more assistants were running about with parchment, scrolls and books overflowing from their hands and satchels they carried.
Paying no mind to the busy scene, I navigated through the halls to arrive at my destination; Second-Lord Warnerius’s office.
After taking a few turns and climbing up a small amount of steps, I arrived at two large double doors. Before I opened the doors, I inhaled a large breath through my nose, held it for a few seconds, and exhaled through my mouth. I then passively brushed a few strands of my long, light blue hair, behind my left elvish ear.
With that small breathing exercise out of the way, I strode forward and pushed the two large double doors open.
“Ah, Arch Wizard Amesula Enhana, please come in.” A man with devilish charm and blackish blueish hair wearing an elegant dark blue suit that matches his hair perfectly, declared with a powerful and commanding voice that betrayed his elegant appearance.
He then motioned to a comfortable looking chair that was located in front of the desk he was sitting at.
I greeted his gesture with a small elegant bow and walked cautiously towards the seat before sitting down.
He eyed my high strung attitude with a slight grin and commented, “I see you have noticed the state the city is in. A perfect reaction to what transpired last night.”
Hearing his comment, I narrowed my eyes while gazing at him.
“What do you mean? What happened last night?” Was all I could say at the moment.
His grinning face turned serious a split second after I asked my question, he then answered “Playing dumb I see?” A frown was my only response to that, he then continued.
“Yesterday morning the city’s counterspy team lost three members after pursuing a suspected saboteur into the orchards near your estate.” His gaze met mine and intensified, “The prime suspect got away and we lost three good men. Fortunately we apprehended another suspect at the scene.” His expression turned even more serious while frowning, “But unfortunately he escaped the same night from his prison cell.”
“What does this have to do with me? Just because this event unfolded near my estate doesn’t mean I had anything to do with it.” I spat out.
His frown curled into a small smile, “Have you ever noticed a shadow follow you Arch wizard?”
A frown appeared on my face, almost like it had jumped from his to mine, “What are you getting at?”
“The king has commanded the city lord and I with an important charge, Arch wizard.” Lord Warnerius then stood up from his chair.
“Everyone knows of the city of Mistvally and our important role. You especially know as an Alchemy Grand, what would happen to this city, to this country, if something happened to the alchemy factory.” He stated as he placed his hands behind his back in a casual manner.
“What is your point Darrius?” I asked him in a serious tone while addressing him with his given name.
Ignoring the disrespectful disregard of his title, he continued. “We have shadows trailing many people Arch wizard. Some trail at random, some trail specific people. We do this to comb for potential spies and saboteurs. It’s a very effective method.” He said in a lecturing tone.
After he said that a feeling of dread washed over me and my thoughts began racing, ‘What is he implying? I did nothing wrong, and I know my pupils, they have the sense not to betray the kingdom, what motivation would they have to do such things? That only leaves me to believe he is trying to lay some kind of crime on me again…’
Lord Warnerius stopped for a moment and looked at the distress I was in, with pleasure, before continuing.
“It just so happens to be that one of our shadows trailed a youth named Theodor Willard. I’m sure you are familiar with this young man.”
‘Theodor?!’ I thought.
“A shadow began trailing him after he left the Raingrip’s estate, out of random of course, and in no time at all since he left, the shadow witnessed him assassinate two of our fine men in cold blood while they were trying to perform their duty.”
It felt like a bucket of cold water was dumped on me. I was shocked, there was no way Theodor could do such things. He wouldn’t harm so much as a fly, his nature was too kind for that. I knew Theodor since I found him in that field, and I watched him grow to a fine young man, there was no way Theodor could be involved with espionage.
Lord Warnerius reached under his desk and threw a coin purse onto the table, “This was found on him when we arrested him. A full gold bit was within the purse, and we have reason to believe it's part of the payment he receives for such deeds.”
I quickly grabbed the purse and opened it, what was inside was some copper coins and bits, a few silver bits and one gold bit. My hands began shaking and I threw the purse back onto his desk, sending coins and bits flying everywhere and I yelled, “This cannot be! There must be an explanation for this!”
Lord Warnerius didn’t seem to be affected one bit at what I exclaimed and the throw of the coin purse, instead a grin curled on his face.
What Lord Warnerius said next made the feeling of dread become one of terror, “Theodor is wanted for treason, therefore his associates, even the Raingrips to an extent, will be highly suspected as well. We have already apprehended thirty-two suspects. Three of the suspects will have separate trials.”
His smiling face then deflated to one of seriousness, but his elated demeanor betrayed his face, “Twenty-nine of the suspects will be tried as a collaboration, if convicted, they shall share the same fate as Theodor Willard.”
My face paled and I started shaking slightly. It was obvious what he was implying, and after a minute of letting it sink it, I shot up from my chair, “TREASON?! Darrius, this cannot be!”
“But it is, Arch wizard, and I’m deadly serious.”
My hands were clenched and my teeth were grinding hard. Blood began to trickle from my fist, only to be devoured by the crimson red carpet, this was one of the most stressful situations I’ve ever been in.
“However, the suspects we are holding can be released without charges. But it would require you to do something.” He stated.
“What would that be?” Was the only response I could squeeze out.
“You were not arrested as a show of good faith towards the Grand Academy, like stated in the letter. But unless you can assist us with our investigation, you will be suspected as well, and tried along with the suspected collaborators.” He paused while picking up the stray gold bit, “We have good reason to believe the prime suspect will come to the ringleader for further orders.”
He flicked the gold bit in the air and let it fall into his palm before closing his hand with a fast motion.
My knees felt like gelatin and I fell down to the floor, ‘I can’t believe this is happening....’
“Wh-what would you have me do…?” Was all that I could choke out.
A beaming grin grew upon Lord Warnerius’s face.
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