The traumatized civilian had its hands tied to a table, while his feet were hold in place by heavy metal spheres.

His bended body could barely move and, still, the table crook back and forth.

Its mouth foamed and its bloodshot eyes were clearly insane.

A black mage entered the interrogation cell.

“- Is this correct? A lunatic is all that remained?”

“-…Yes sir.”

Black magicians where the ones which possessed the black seed - blessed by birth with powerful control over magic.

And, still, they were also those cursed by the heavens, for angels and demons, human and elves, dwarves and beasts and all the free races without exception - All would pursue them.

The monsters appreciated their magic - the demons would steal their souls and create awful abominations under their control. And the free races could never forget the Treason.

It happened a long, long time ago. Millions of years, if the annals of history were to be trusted.

In an era after the Peoples drifted through the Seas and Lands, much latter from the time the first civilizations crawled from the World Tree, Cultivators began to descend from the Heavens.

Their cursed black seeds and black magic could keep even the Angels away.

It was an Era of Darkness, when the Dark Seeds ruled over the free peoples.

Still, good prevailed in the end.

Except for the awful demons which lurked in the shadows and had always revered the dark arts, the Free Peoples of the Surface saw themselves free of their torment once the Cultivators where imprisoned and banished from this world.

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How many angels of god had lost their lives to these sinners who can’t even be touched by someone without corrupting their very souls?

It was impossible to say.

Still, after millions of years, total eradication of the dark seeds remained impossible.

No matter how many of them got trapped and banished to emptiness. No matter how many of them got sealed inside the Burial Grounds, to never come back to life.

They would somehow always appear again under the sun.

So, once branded with the Seal of Fate, they would be made into Black Magicians - servants of the White Crown.

Ishtar was the only city in the kingdom of Durkik who had Registered Black Mages looking over it - looking for rogue black seeds and preventing demons from assailing the city.

Not that those things would be able to do much against the Holy Powers of the Church, but the powerful spells of clerics, even while very effective against the vile race, would still take a long time to kill one of them.

A priest couldn’t kill. No one could directly kill a Dark Seed except for another Seed of the same kind - otherwise their poisonous souls would immediately kill the one who did it.

And that is why imprisonment or the actions of a Black Mage where the only way to do it.

The Black Magician’s eyes shone in the darkness.

“- A rogue seed…”

He looked at the civilian in the table and muttered.

The apprentice at his side trembled.

A rogue seed was something very difficult to find. Usually a Seed would be identified since birth - how could they slip by if even the ones who smacked their buttocks as babies would die upon doing so ?!

He must have been the son of another rogue Seed - or worst, the unbranded son of a Black Magician.

The apprentice touched the mark on his right shoulder. That would immediately lock his soul into a Soul Trapping box if he died for some reason - or if he was sentenced to death by anyone with an official title of nobility.

Even an honorary knight could decree the death of an apprentice like him. His master was safer, since the Crown wouldn’t like if he died.

The Royal Insignia on his chest was a bold declaration and a safeguard medallion at the same time. He could only be killed by a member of the Royal Family.

Now, holding a rogue dark seed captive without warning the Lord of the place?

That was death penalty even for his master.

“- Stop trembling, stupid child. Do you think I would release this frenzied beast out in the wild? I will give him for branding as soon as possible.”

The apprentice relaxed a bit.

“- Now, lets’ see what happened…”

The Black Magician touched the prisioners’ forehead with his staff, and an image began to form around them.