When Kerios woke up he was giddy. He hadn't felt like that in a long time. The day before one of his men had come to him and told him of seeing that brat, Makim on the city, all he had to do was wait for his men to bring her and he would have his revenge. He decided to ignore for a while the fact that the man had known of him before and hadn't said anything about it, he would decide what do about him later.
His focus today would be nothing but what to do about her. She had ruined his life over nothing, in a few weeks she had destroyed what had taken him over twenty years to accomplish, all of it over a peasant girl. He was a noble and a mage, the most he should have been forced to do is make some restitution, instead she humiliated and tried to kill him. She was responsible for how his life turned out, forced to pretend to be dead, living with filthy, uneducated criminals. If he couldn't go back to society, he at least would get the satisfaction of seeing her humiliated before killing her.
When it got dark he started to become antsy, not able to wait for so long. He was pacing back and forth in the lobby of the building. He still didn't know who built it, since he didn't believe in the story that it was the old boss of this gang that built it, It was too well made.
All these thoughts left him when he saw the carriage approach. he stood up straight and waited inside the lobby for his men to bring her in, he knew that it was theatrics, but he wanted to see her face when she realized it was him and realize what's in store for her. He had instructed his men not to touch her or say who it is, just so he could see that reaction.
When she was brought in, almost being dragged by the men, it didn't disappoint, he saw her gaze look around the room before settling on him, widening her eyes in surprise, then she redoubled her struggle. Just that desperate fight made his day, it was good for her to feel what he felt, but unlike him she wouldn't survive. But only after a long time of torture.
Next he was surprised when two other women were brought in after her.
Before he was even able to ask them about it, Makim who had given up on trying to struggle interrupted.
«How are you alive?» She asked.
He smiled at her and did not answer just to remind her who is in charge here, and it was not a good idea to reveal it in front of his men.
«It must be painful to see me, isn't it?» He asked, reveling in her obvious discomfort «after you tried to get me killed»
«The men reported your death, they were honorable men, you couldn't have corrupted them» she said with certainty
«Are you sure?» He asked, stepping closer to her. His man was still holding her hands behind her back, he still remembered the scar she gave him when he got too close. It was his main motivation to training his powers as much as he could. He won't make the same mistake again.
He watched her face, seeing the agony of not knowing whether or not she had put her faith in the wrong hands. Things were turning even better than he had predicted.
He stepped around her toward the two women, suddenly Makim jumped at him, trying to get to him, the man holding, had gotten careless, but before she was able to get close he jumped creating a field of force in front of him that pushed her and the men around her away. His level of power and control might not be on par with the mages in the capital, but luckily, he was skilled enough to take over this criminal enterprise. He still regrets leaving the sanctuary too early after his awakening, but he had time to catch up on his own.
The men who were still standing went to capture the girl, once they did it he allowed himself to turn and inspect the new women. They were both wide eyed, clearly surprised at what they'd seen, he held himself a little straighter, it's likely they'd never seen a mage before.
The first thing he noticed when he got closer was their fragrance, he hadn't let himself get close to Makim but he sure did miss women's fragrance, well clean noble women's fragrance.
He took a closer look at them, one of the women was extremely light skinned almost pale with big breasts, the other was the opposite, darker skin and smaller breasts but better hips. The only places he knew where he would find people with their skin tones were either the wildlands or some Lycan cities. Since they were near the wildlands it was obvious these women were savages.
«Why are they here?» He asked his men
«They were together, so we brought them as well» One of the men answered. Friends of the brat, probably why she lunged at him when he approached them. One more avenue of torture, seeing her friends suffer might make her suffer even more.
He grabbed the light skinned one's face, she tried to recoil but was stopped by the man behind her, he looked at her closely. She was good looking but probably only a little younger than him. Pity she was with the brat, or else he could have gotten a lot of money selling her.
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But better not to try even so, some of his business partners might take offense of him selling one of their own. Better to simply kill them when he is done with them and burn away the bodies.
He proceeded to inspect the dark skinned woman. She looked younger, probably the same age as the brat. She tried to slap him, he caught her wrists.
When he grabbed it, he felt something underneath the sleeves. She said something he couldn't understand, but he was focused on her wrist, he pushed the sleeve down revealing an artefact.
He heard his men gasp, then hold their breath. They hadn't realized what she had hidden, if they had he was pretty sure they wouldn't have brought the girls. He had culled any man who acted too ambitious for their own good, but an artefact could be worth a small fortune, especially if not split between so many men.
The artefact looked pristine. Who walks around with so much wealth on their wrists? It was asking for that hand to be cut off.
«Take this off» he told the girl. She looked at him with a frightened expression, but was not taking it off. He grabbed and pulled it, but he didn't want to damage it «take it off» he said more forcefully.
This time she obeyed, and took it off, he grabbed it, inspecting it closer. «Where did you get this?» he asked, she was still looking frightened and not answering his questions.
He inspected it, it looked almost new, there was a commotion somewhere in behind him but he was too focused on the artefact and what it meant. It was a possible way out of this. This did not only give him wealth, but it might get him a life where he doesn't have to hide with filthy ignorant men.
He was born as the second son of a minor noble, in an almost forgotten city. His brother would inherit the title and the family business and he would have had to live forever in his shadow.
Deciding it was not for him, he bribed, begged, and almost groveled to be allowed in the sanctuary in the capital. Life in the capital was even worse, the nobles treated him worse than commoners. But he endured, for almost twenty years he endured. He endured when his brother took over the family business and decided to only give him a small stipend unbefitting of a man of his status. He endured when Merlan scorned him believing she was above him, he endured it all.
When he finally awakened his powers in force magic, he thought it would all be all right, but it wasn't. He still had to walk around like a beggar to get a job. His brother had hired another mage and wanted to pay him almost nothing. Other noble families went for other mages, but he kept looking. When he finally got his job, his perfect job, his perfect life, that girl destroyed it all.
Now, not only would he get his revenge, but he was holding in his hands a possible way to recover some of the prestige he lost. And if this girl was walking around with this much wealth on her wrists she knew where to get more.
He was brought out of his reverie when he heard shouts from his men, looking behind him he saw smoke then the men who were near the smoke fell.
He looked around and realized that they were probably under attack «get back» he yelled at his men. He remembered where he heard about these types of attack. Some of the savage tribes of the wildlands used attacks like these. He remembered how to deal with a situation like these.
He might not have enough control to shape a field of force as he wished, but all he had to do was create a field of force big enough to cover the door and direct it away from him.
When the wind entered the field it was pushed in the direction of the force blowing the smoke away. It had enough intensity to get rid of the smoke.
«We are being attacked, search for the intruder» he said. His men left to search for whoever it was that attacked them.
Whoever came here had to have come for the girls. He grabbed the light skinned one by the neck and dragged her outside, she and her fiend screamed but he paid them no mind.
«bring these two» he said to the men holding the two other girls.
When outside he brought out a field of force ahead of them in case someone tried to attack. Most of his me went to search the other side of the building since this side was clear, and whoever attacked them had somehow reached inside.
He was thankful of his foresight as soon as he felt the drain. He looked around trying to see where it was coming from, when he saw something on fire being pushed away by his field of force, looking up he saw what looked like a man also being pushed away by the field. He increased the strength of the field and saw the man being thrown farther away.
When the man landed he was surprised at what he saw, whoever it was big and was wearing an ancestor suit. He recognized it from the painting on the palace.
Kerios looked up and realized that the man had probably jumped from the roof of the building, and if so, he had been planning on landing on top of him, it would have killed him instantly.
The suit the man was wearing would be worth even more than the artefact the girl had on her, who were these people that walked around displaying this amount of wealth like it was nothing. The savage tribes were very protective of their artefacts, they wouldn't simply let one if their own to walk around with artefacts, which means, they found some yet undiscovered cache and instead of selling it, they were wearing it like idiots.
The man took something that was attached to the suit like a shield and threw it at Kerios. It was thrown with such a force that it probably would have hurt a lot. Kerios had to drop the man in order to deflect it. The only reason he was able to do that was because of all the training he had been doing on his own. He had to step up his training.
The man tried to run sideways toward the tree line, clearly someone with experience fighting mages, the man was someone not to be underestimated, better kill him quickly.
Kerios didn't want to ruin the suit, it would have made him rich, but a broken artifact was still worth a small fortune. He might not have the power or control to simply crush a man's head, but he had come up with a way to deal with warriors that was effective.
Lifted the man up to a height beyond the building, since he had tried to jump down from the building, it was time to see what he thought of falling down of even a greater height with a force pushing him down.
When he was high enough, Kerios cancelled the field that was lifting him and created another field to push him down. He was already feeling some exhaustion for holding someone for so long, but he knew it would work because that was how he became the leader of this gang, by challenging the previous boss on a fight for leadership and then crushing him.
But something was different, when the man hit the ground instead of him being crushed, he used the ground to jump forward and when he touched the ground again he started running toward them. The move was so fast that Kerios almost didn't react on time, his heart almost skipped a beat of how much it scared him.
He managed to lift the man up again, but this time he was closer, but now Kerios didn't know what to do, all he knew was that the man had to die, if he sent his man forward he would be caught in the field of force as well, but it might be better than nothing, keeping the man afloat was draining him.
Before he managed to give the order something happened that put everything he thought he knew into perspective.