When I lost my place in the council, I felt no anger, I had not been put there by my will, but because of my magical abilities, then I was banished, the order for this did not even come from the pen of the leader, his secretary signed everything, so I ended up in a small village, although my magical field could extend several kilometers, I was destined to a place of no more than thirty houses and their stores, a village between the cities of Bloody Coin and Storm Hammer, as I said, I was not complaining, I had plenty of time to study, to understand the magic and the history, to be a little cunning, to regain my old life as an adventurer.

When the crisis hit, only those of us who are Capablanca understood the nature of the attackers, they are sensitive to fire magic, light magic does nothing to them, elemental magic damage works but on a low scale, although there is the so-called sacred magic of the priest is a combination of light and fire, so its effects are less than what the leaders assume, however, keep them away from our population is easy, the field we used to serve, That is where my city became famous, from a place rarely visited except by those who had families in the big cities, it suddenly became an oasis among all these enemies of the living, my camp expanded to its limit allowed me to increase the population, serve as a refuge for wildlife and even launch some sacrifices to the distant cemeteries that had to be cleaned to give shelter to countless soldiers who perished during the first waves.

Fortunately, a priest who is smarter than those who serve the Phaladins or those who live in my hometown has managed to place some inscriptions that I do not know on the bodies of the dead so that they no longer rise, at the moment only his group of priests know how to do it, but he has taught the weak mages who come to my town to perform their social service to record these marks when I told my superior he did not believe me, Even now, when the call of duty came in the hands of one of the powerful Capablanca, they did not ask or ask for details about this revolutionary way of keeping the dead at rest, they only indicated that they had come to replace me, inside the envelope came the details, I had to accept and attend the next day to an event, the escort, horses and food were waiting outside.

I asked them for an hour to pack my luggage, while everything was sorted (in a bag anyway, except for my books that I always carry in a backpack and a wineskin on my shoulder) I read the note, the Supreme Chief of the Capablanca wants me to infiltrate a meeting of some supposed "high elves" where all the people of my city will go, there will be food and protection for everyone, so I did what they asked me, but in my way, just as I was leaving the city the two envoys realized I was not there, I hate ceremonies.

The road is easy if you know how to move, my experience as a traveler allows me to find the most elusive routes, added to my little or unknown ability to reduce my field until it practically disappears, so I travel as an old man, an old man who tells stories among the travelers, someone to whom they talk about how things are going in the village, in their lives, their dreams and fears, someone who will have a very serious word with the leader once I go to him and talk about how stupidly mismanaged everything is.

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I arrive with plenty of time, in the forest large magic lamps light a path, on the sides of the same mercenary troops of the tundra wolves, armed with equipment that has obviously been given away, because you can tell by their posture that they do not know how to use it at all, Arriving at the coast, I can admire the boats of the elves, despite the rumors that they came on mystical creatures, I only see some deep draft boats from which some humans and dwarves come out, from here they seem to be fine, but it's hard to say at this early hour.

Dinner was sumptuous, we all ate well, except for our hosts who curiously stayed away from the food, a shiver ran through my body, fearing to find poisons I tried to clean myself very discreetly, holding as best I could a tiny soul stone, that was the utensil I was given to spy. The stone even stores the remaining magic, it has engravings in small characters, they are the instructions for which it was cut, it will project what I see and it will do it directly on the crystal of the chief Capablanca, strangely it did not contain any poison, only a substance which I poured into a vial, just when the wine began to flow abundantly and the people had forgotten the reason why they had come, the "king began to speak".

I'm on my way to the master's tower, I'll have to avoid all the mercenaries, but while I'm doing it, I can't forget what happened there, not the miserable elf who spoke on the podium, he just gave a demagogic speech, assuring the evil of a human who betrayed the elves' attempts to vindicate their past, even accusing him of all the evils of the present world, the people looked at him with a convinced expression, This is not normal, we the citizens of Stormhammer are not people who are guided by speeches, simple but always looking for our interest, the concept of universal good does not apply here, that's why they chose the city inhabited by a capablanca, all comforts zero restrictions, except for the civil ones, but the police chiefs are corrupt so there are not many restrictions.

I just finished another patrol in the dark, I will definitely have to talk to those who designed this, I just finished the speech in which he asked those who wanted to know how strong they were to get a tattoo on their neck that would change color depending on the level of the wearer, At that point I looked at all the mercenaries present, all of them wearing that crap that looked more like a slave collar, then he said that those whose tattoo turned red would be paid for fighting the traitorous Darklord and that they should do it for the sake of saving the races.

I had just taken out one of the scouts, I should be no more than five kilometers from the city, but this seems an impossible distance to me because of the enormous amount of enemies surrounding me, just as the speech ended I saw a starving animal enter, a wounded and injured hippogriff, its skin raw and its beak broken, but the whole audience reacted as if a magnificent and completely mad beast had appeared, The hippogriff was frightened, not angry, it flapped its wings almost without feathers and made little screams, suspicious but still eager to confirm it, I took a small sip of what was in the food, then I saw it, no animal of this species would grow so much, they had no red eyes or sharp teeth, they used a beak, how do people think they have teeth? When I looked back I saw the speaker again, only this time he was magnificent, every fiber of my being was happy to hear him, when he told us that the elves would defend us and help the families of the city, I almost screamed with the others, but luckily I used very little of the potion, just as everyone was running to line up to be marked on the neck as a loyal follower of that vile and manipulative race, the jewel I was wearing began to glow, so much so that it was a flash of light in the middle of the darkness of the night, immediately cries of alarm sounded, it is obvious that no one with magical knowledge should be there, I immediately went out and lost myself in the night.

The stone still shines, it is a proof that they use some magic of revelation, not to waste any more time, I take it out and look at its engravings, I send a summary to whoever is on the other side, then I tell him my plans, I will go to the Dark Lord, if he is so hated by the elves, I must discover everything possible... I do not know, perhaps he is a potential ally.