Walking towards us slowly, the man says, “You might be the king's guests but know this, you won’t get off easy for this behaviour.”
In the most convincing voice I have, I say, “We just happened to find out about this place.”
“I have been following you for an hour and what I have seen tells me that you both were intentionally looking for this door, and the very fact you know about its existence is a national crisis.”
Atalanta fires a volley of arrows at the man and picks me up. As we run away, she says, “Anto teleport us!”
Seeing the man approaching us I throw my dagger and teleport us away as he attacks.
When we reach our new position Atalanta runs at full speed. Looking at her I ask, “Are you ok? Your body is way more injured than mine.”
“Don’t worry I can still run, and don’t think for a second I am going to let you get busted for my mistake.”
From my right side, I hear, “How sweet,” Before Atalanta is hit sending her flying again.
As we land on a building, I feel even worse than before and continue to cough. It is like someone just shook all my organs all at once. Looking over to Atalanta I see she is struggling to get up.
Turning my head, I see the man approaching us at a high speed, so I throw another dagger and teleport us away.
As we hang in the air, I say, “I will get us away even if I have to use all my daggers.”
I throw dagger after dagger teleporting us higher and higher. Due to me throwing the daggers upwards, I am unable to catch them in the position I teleport to.
After I teleport us a fair distance away, I look behind me to see the old man still coming, he lunges from structure to structure and even across the sand a frightening speeds.
In my arms, Atalanta says, “I will handle this.” Then using her bow she lets out repeated volleys of arrows directly at the old man.
The old man seeing this stops in the middle of the sand then after making a strange movement the sand starts to spin and then turns into a hurricane which blocks all the arrows.
As we move Atalanta says, “He is like the rabbit.”
“What rabbit?”
“The one that fought the giant wonderbeast when we got here, he is controlling sand and is attacking us from the inside out just like the rabbit did.”
“But if he can fight the same as that little devil-.”
“Then we are in big trouble!”
I teleport us and run from building to building as Atalanta tries to ward the man off with countless arrows, but he manages to dodge or block them all.
Seeing the door through which we came, I say, “Where almost there.”
I throw one more dagger which will allow us to reach the door, but as I do the old man lets out a giant whistle and moments later a giant wonderbeast with a big open mouth comes out of the sand and eats my dagger mid-air.
Then behind us, I hear, “Gotcha.” Atalanta is then hit right in the stomach, but the moment she is she throws me away and I am sent flying towards the door.
Φ Crap, I am going to pass out any second now.
The old man in front of me says, “You used the force of my technique to send the boy flying away, quite a quick thinker.”
“Getting hit by an attack is the best way to figure out what it is.”
“Spoken like a warrior, now go to sleep.”
As he prepares to hit me again, I scream, “ANTO RUN!!!”
Φ Hearing Atalanta's words I run away at full speed. I need to find Orb.
-Break-
Φ As I sit in front of Ahmed and all his companions I say, “If you’re going to tie me up you could have at least made it pleasurable, this rope work is completely amateurish, I have felt better from getting my bitten by bugs.”
Angered Scheherazade says, “How dare you, my rope work is top class.”
“Then you must have been sleeping with the teacher then.”
Easifatan says, “How dare you slander my beloved Scheherazade.”
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“She is your beloved? That didn’t seem to come up when you wanted to sleep with me.”
Beside him, Scheherazade gives him a death glare and says, “What!?”
“It was a lapse in judgement, I was tricked.”
Feeling a fiery presence, I see the old man say, “You’re the head guard, head of this country's security and you allowed yourself to be tricked!!!”
“Sorry Grandpa!”
Hitting him directly in the stomach, the old man says, “You will be sorry after your re-education training.”
Running onto Ahmed, Easifatan says, “Please help me!!”
Ahmed punches Easifatan on the head and says, “Act your age.”
Walking up to me, Ahmed asks, “How did you know what was in the labyrinth?”
“I read a book on your country, and using my keen deduction skills I figured what I would be looking for would be buried in that tome. You see I was interested in one of your king's research on legacies.”
“That research on legacies was not in that room, I have all those papers in my study.”
“Well, I made an honest mistake then.”
“Old man Naji told me when you saw the symbol on the door you excitedly ran over to it, which must mean you knew what was behind that door.”
Feeling sweat trickle down my face, I say, “The book I read had a similar symbol so I simply thought it was the door I was looking for.”
Φ “You see that is what bothers me, because there are no written documents about that, my family passed down that information from word of mouth, so you're telling me some random village has a book about a secret passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation in my country.”
With a bright smile, she says, “Yes.”
Annoyed I say, “To the east is the continent of Enotita, to the northwest is Molstoria, and far up in the north is Victoria now known as Fimbulwinter. And since I doubt you’re from the dragon continent to the west Avesta, I would really like to know where you’re from.”
The woman freezes for a moment and says, “I am from a shitty insignificant little village on Terrafide, no place fit for humans.”
“And this book you read, is anyone allowed to read it?”
“Not everyone, but I would say the number of people who have read it surpasses 200.”
“Did you know on Terrafide there is a country called Cordum, and the funny thing about Cordum is they offer exchanges of pure gold for information. So, it is almost improbable that not one of those 200 people who live in your small shitty little village wouldn’t have exchanged said information, especially since your living conditions were as you put it, not fit for humans?”
“We didn’t know such a thing.”
“Cordum sends out people to scour the world looking for small villages to exchange information with.”
“We never saw such a person.”
“I know how thorough Cordum is, unless you're living in the underworld I can guarantee they would find your village.”
“I am telling the truth you got to believe me.”
“ENOUGH! I was trying to be thoughtful, but you have pushed my buttons too much I will just check your soul right now.”
Using my legacy, I extend chains to try to attach to her, but upon making contact with her they bounce right off.
Adi to my side says, “What happened?”
“It is possible to use spirit energy to ward off things that directly attack the soul.” Looking down at her I say, “You do realize how suspicious this is.”
“Sorry, but I have some things I would rather no one knows about.”
After she says this I kick her in the stomach and say, “If your concentration breaks then I will be able to enter your soul.”
“Unless you feel like burning me at a stake, I can guarantee my concentration won't falter.”
Turning my head towards Easifatan, I say, “Go arrest Orb and his companions.”
“Yes, my lord.”
With a panicked voice, she says, “They have nothing to do with this, it was all me!”
“I want to believe that, but I can’t until I check each of their souls.”
“You bastard!”
“I gave you a choice don’t forget that.”
Φ After he says this to me his facial expression changes, and then he says, “Easifatan stay here, it seems Orb will probably be coming towards us, and he won’t be happy get all guards to stand on standby we have no idea how strong he is. I am going to need all your help.”
Scheherazade, Adi, Easifatan and Naji, bow and say, “Yes my king.”
Confused I say, “What do you mean Orb is coming?”
As Ahmed is about to say something in response, he suddenly starts to hold his head and falls to his knees. All of his people run to his side and Adi says, “This is a bad time for this, we need to get him an apple immediately.”
From behind me, I hear, “Don’t worry I will do it.”
Turning around, I see that Cyrus's sister has just entered. Walking over to him and picking him up, Adi says, “Lady Pari don’t bother yourself with this.”
“It isn’t a bother at all and what kind of fiancé would I be if I leave my partner to rot.”
Did she just say, fiancé!?
“I will be on my way now.”
Adi says, “Naji please bring this intruder to a prison cell.”
Φ As my Pari takes me by the shoulder out of the room all I can think is; why Raqiue, did you really feel that much hatred?
Φ Walking back into Raqiue’s room all around her body, I see chains. “It is just like Yamal,” I say running towards her.
Looking over her sleeping body I see her toss and turn while saying, “Baba, Mama,” with tears in her eyes.
“This isn’t good, this isn’t good.” Composing myself I say, “If I wake her she might panic, right now what I need to do is go straight to Ahmed.”
Walking down the stair of the house I head to the door where I see Cyrus walk in with Anto on his back. With a worried look, Anto says, “Orb we have some trouble.”
-Break-
With a slight annoyance, I ask Anto, “Why were you sneaking around in the first place.”
“Atalanta was acting weird, and I thought someone should keep watch of her.”
“Sorry for losing my cool, you were right to watch her. But anyways we need to head to the palace to get her back and ask Ahmed to release Raqiue.”
“Orb isn’t it strange that he can even keep his legacy on all the time? I can only keep it active when I am awake.”
“When we met earlier Ahmed said he hasn’t slept since the Rasartine war began, at first I thought he was lying but judging by his behaviour I don’t think that might be true.”
“How is that possible?”
“If I had to guess I would say that apple he was given, I have no idea what it was but when Yamal bit into it he woke up. So, his legacy must turn off when he falls unconscious like the rest of us, this will help us.” Because I am not sure if I can settle this whole matter peacefully.
Standing up I say, “Let’s go straight to the palace.”
As I stand up, Cyrus says, “O-O-O-Orb can Ahmed use these chains to control people?”
“I believe he can to a certain extent.”
“Then he might have messed with my sister.”
“Why do you say that, Cyrus?”
“Sister, Pari was acting strange. It is almost as if she is a completely different person, if he used his legacy, he might have done something to her.”
“In all honesty Cyrus, I don’t know if he would do such a thing or not, but we will know if we knock him unconscious, but I would rather it not come to that, ok.”
“O-O-Ok Orb.”
Heading outside, I use my legacy on my legs, and then me and Cyrus run directly towards Ahmed's palace.