“I can’t reach him any longer.” Lord Daron said after about 5 minutes of trying to get to General Makon.
“Do you think he’s dead?” Binko asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe we should try contacting other Sungan Mages?” Lord Daron said.
They spent the next fifteen minutes trying to contact the other Sungan Mages, but not a single one responded.
“Well maybe they’re tied up in a massive battle?” Lord Daron suggested. “They may have had to turn off their spell dampeners.”
Lakan stood up and paced around the room nervously.
“Let’s contact Lord Arabambi.” He suggested. Lord Daron sighed.
“He and I are not on the best of terms.” He said.
“I’ll contact him.” Binko said, and set up a wave link. The room by now was filled with a smoky smell from the dozens of burned spell-bound papers. Small particles of ash had accumulated into some crevices in the wood furniture. Binko got in contact with Lord Arabambi and his voice boomed into her ears.
“Hello, Binko!” Lord Arabambi said into her ears.
“Hello sir! What’s going on in Odan?” She asked.
“I wouldn’t know.” Arabambi replied. “I’m not in Odan, I’m currently in Lainguro, it’s near the Navon border on our side. Is something supposed to be happening in Odan?”
“Well General Makon just contacted us now to inform us that Odan is under attack by Ganz?” Binko said.
“What??” Lord Arabambi’s voice came booming back into her ears. No one else in the room could hear it,
“He’s since gone silent, and we have been able to wave link with him.” Binko continued.
“Are you sure of this?” Lord Arabambi asked.
“Yes, also we’ve tried to contact all the registered Sungan mages we know of, there has been no response.” Binko said.
“I’ll wave to you later, Binko.” Lord Arabambi said and cut the wave link.
“He’s pissed,” Binko said to the men. “But he’s not in Odan at the moment, he doesn’t even know what’s going on.”
“You mean to tell me General Makon decided to contact us first before any of his own people?” Lakan said, “Wow, that's unusual for General Makon.”
The mages mulled over the entire scenario, after a while Lord Daron announced he was going to convene an impromptu Lord Mage meeting.
“What do we do in the meantime?” Lakan asked. Lord Daron grabbed his outer garb and wore it hurriedly.
“Do everything you can to establish contact with Sungan, with anyone there, anyone that will respond.” Lord Daron replied as he rushed out.
--
Hall Bolak was filled with students from the law enforcement class of the warfare mage school that were surprised when dozens of Lord Mages rushed in hurriedly. Lord Daron walked up to the teacher in charge of the students, a woman called mage katama, asking her to excuse the Lord Mages.
The students were herded out as the Lord Mages took their seats. Lord Daron located Lord Defon, the speaker of the house, and gave him a detailed summary of what was happening, to his credit, this did not cause him to faint. He nodded and took the stage. Then he announced what had happened to the rest of the Lord Mages, causing an uproar in the court.
“So he’s a madman then!” One lord said.
“Wipe that bastard’s face off the earth!” another said.
“Remove the Sungan sanctions! They were right to move against him!” yet another Lord said.
Multiple arguments arose in parallel, Lord Defon skillfully reoriented the group to search for a way forward. The discussion continued for thirty more minutes.
Stolen story; please report.
“We will have to wait a few hours to see the result of his invasion.” A Lord concluded. “There is not much we can do to help them now.”
--
But it wasn’t really an invasion at all, at least not the kind of invasion Pirun experienced. Lord Arabambi rushed back home from Lainguro, but when he got there, a few hours after Binko had waved to him, he did not notice anything different.
He first began to wonder if he had been tricked, there were no ruins, no explosions, no disruptions, at least near the gate.
He had his hovercoach driver make some rounds around the city entrance but the city was bustling as usual.
“Is this some kind of Aku’andan prank?” he asked his personal assistant, who was sitted beside him in the coach. She shrugged.
Then he got a wave from one of the Royal officials. He accepted the wave.
“Hello Rodric.” He said.
“Lord Arabambi, terrible news is reaching me now that every single Elite Sungan Mage that was in this city this morning is now either dead or missing.” Rodric said.
“I don’t notice anything different, Rodric.” Lord Arabambi said, fearing the worst but acting calm. “I am at the gates. What is this about?”
“We currently believe it was a city wide assasination attempt.” Rodric said. “All the bodies are missing. Including General Makon’s.”
“What?” Lord Arabambi gasped. “Makon is gone?”
“It would appear so. Although our evidence suggests that he was not easily captured, if he was captured at all.”Rodric replied. “There’s a hole above his room toilet, presumably where he escaped from.”
Arabambi cut the call and gritted his teeth. He instructed his personal assistant to convene a Royal Council meeting with the king immediately.
“Damn it! Rubric Makon, do not die on me!” he cursed.
--
“Arrgh! Arggh!!” The driver groaned through the large wooden stick Makon had shoved in her mouth, biting down on it as he realigned her broken forearm. Using another stick as a splint and some of his fabric as a string, he tied the arm in place. Then she spat out the stick.
“They were currently near a landfill in the south-east area of Odan. It was a relatively abandoned area and they were planning to hide there until it was night time. General Makon was very hard to disguise. Given his large and distinct frame, They had hidden in one of the adjacent buildings that were now abandoned.
The Driver sneezed a couple of times as they dusted away some of the dirt that had accumulated on the chair in one of the rooms they had found, General Makon found a mat and after cleaning it, got her to lay down on it, then he sat in the chair, which creaked under his weight.
“This stinks.” The driver complained.
“The refuse dump, your broken arm, or today in general?” Makon asked. She chuckled.
“You’re sweating heavily.” He noticed.
She nodded. “This hurts a lot.” she said, jaw clenched.
“Your forehead is bruised as well.” He said. She shrugged.
“You did well, woman.” He said with a faint smile.
“No problem, man…” she said in return, “It’s an honor to help an Elite mage. Everyone in Sungan looked forward to your recovery.”
“You know who I am?” Makon asked, slightly surprised.
“General Rubric Makon,” she chuckled. “Our finest warrior. How could I not?”
She squinted up at him.
“Bloody hell, you are a large man.” she concluded. Makon laughed.
“Wrong, everyone else is just tiny.” he said. “I don’t know about you, however. Except that you’re apparently an extremely skilled criminal.”
She laughed. “Yeah… am I in trouble?”
“You saved my life,” he said. “You’re fine, woman.”
There was a pause.
“You know, you don’t have to call me ‘woman’” she offered. “I have a name.”
“I rarely address people by their names.” Makon said. “But I’ll make an exception for you. What is your name?”
“Rollowikate.” she said.
Makon looked at her blankly.
“People call me Roe for short.” She added.
“Okay, much better. I would have just gone back to calling you ‘woman’, ” Makon said.
“Alright, Roe,” He continued, standing up to his full height. “We just need to wait here till night-time. And then we’ll move.”
“Should we wave to your fellow Mages?” Roe asked.
“I could,” Makon replied. “I could even wave to Mages from other kingdoms, But I’m concerned, I don’t know how deep Ganz’s web has gone, and right now, If my location is discovered, I’ll be a sitting duck.”
“So what are you going to do?” She asked.
“I don’t know yet, Wo--, Roe.” He said. “If you can, probably sleep for now, once it’s night time, I’ll try getting you out of the city.”
“Where will we go?” She asked.
“Aku’anda has the best hospitals, unfortunately.” He replied. “However, trusting them lately has been… difficult. They only care about themselves. About their own wealth, They only care about-” He stopped himself and sighed.
“We will go to Navon.” He said at last.