Alastor stared at the massive dark silver, circular structure built into the wall in front of him. It had runes written all over it, some bright red, some black, some blue, some green – it gave the metallic structure, a Rune Teleporter, a certain sense of beauty. Mystique. Contrary to its appearance, though, these teleporters were quite easy to make – well, kinda easy to make. His sense of easy was a bit broken though, being surrounded and fighting with Archmages and Half Step Archmages.
This Rune Teleporter would need at least ten advanced mages in collaboration to make – or two Half Step Archmages. One of these was present in every kingdom’s capital, either in the city center for more ‘developed’ and thriving kingdoms, or within the king’s residence for not so developed and not at all thriving kingdoms.
Some filthy rich dukes also had these present within their residence – such as the duke of Enaj, for example. These could be used for an emergency escape or to tour the world – or more affluent kingdoms – whenever they wanted, after all. Unlike standard teleportation – it would take an Archmage a hefty chunk of his mana to teleport himself and a group of people to another kingdom due to the distance – it took a far lesser amount of mana to activate these Rune Teleporters. Even an advanced mage could operate them with his mana.
Hecate approached the dark silverish structure and touched one of the runes present on the upper part of the circle. Then, branching from that rune, he glided his hand to several other runes, inserting a trace of mana into his hand – it formed a beautiful sight. Runes lit up as he touched them and a light blue glow followed his finger, seeping into other runes and complementing the silver shade of the teleporter.
Then all of a sudden, a light blue ball of energy appeared within the center of the Rune Teleporter, spreading itself into a veil that attached itself to the runes the Head Mage had touched. Hecate turned towards him, a small smile present on his face.
“Come on in, Alastor.”
Alastor nodded and stepped forward, touching the light blue veil. Before he could even process what was happening – damn his mortal body – he appeared on the other side, in a room that was quite similar to the teleportation room in the king’s castle. The only difference was the paint they’d chosen to use for the walls of the room – the king had decided to use a… tasteful gold, while the duke of Enaj had decided to be more subdued with a soothing sky blue.
Hecate popped up right next to him, and before Alastor could even turn and nod to acknowledge the Head Mage’s presence – which was a completely unnecessary and purely self satisfying action that Alastor felt was cool, like come on, imagine a cool stoic nod two comrades gave each other – the door at the end of the room opened, a guard walking in.
The guard bowed low for a few seconds and then stood up straight, asking politely, “Honored guests, could you please state your identities and purpose?”
Hecate stepped forward, his voice taking on a regal and stern tone. “I am the Head Mage of Deidamia, and this is one of the goddess’ sons, a Hero. Let us meet the duke this instant – we have a message from the king to deliver to him.”
The guard blinked and then nodded. “Right this instant. Could you please perform the identification spell for me to verify you are indeed one of the royal mages, honored guest?”
Lifting his hand up into the air, Hecate whipped it to the right in one swift motion. Black flames that looked like they’d come straight from hell burned the air in front of Hecate – they were hot enough that the guard took a step back. The flames twisted and turned, morphing into the flag of Deidamia. It unfurled itself proudly, the dragon within it looking at the guard with a glare intense enough to kill.
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“Your identities have been verified, Head Mage.” The guard bowed low once more. “Please, follow me.”
—
Tyler Enaj leaned back into his comfortable mana based chair – this thing improved his back pain by amounts he did not think was possible – and tapped his black, diamond encrusted pen on the desk. This pen, too, made by the same mage as the one who made his favorite chair, suited his needs incredibly well – it flowed smoothly, didn't have that usual scritchy feeling, and felt luxurious.
Truly, he didn't know what luxury was till he fully began leaning into mana based products – no matter how ludicrously expensive they were to make and maintain. Well, the fact that they were so ludicrously expensive were what made them luxury items in the first place—
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
“Come in.” He ordered, leaning back onto his desk once more, donning his usual noble, authoritarian look.
One of his guards – the one that guarded the teleporter, if he remembered correctly, though he could totally be wrong because of how their shifts and positions change every now and then – stepped in, bowing low.
“Your Honor, a royal mage – the Head Mage – and his companion – a Hero, have come to meet you. They hold a message from the king.”
Tyler stopped tapping the pen on the desk, instead dropping it onto it, his eyes narrowing instinctively. Not due to suspicion, but due to confusion.
“I see. Guide them in,” he ordered, standing up from his cushy chair – as much as he hated to, the people who'd come to meet him were of sufficiently high status that he had to. But he had to admit, it was very interesting – as if the high mage, that stubborn old fogey, visiting him wasn't odd enough, a hero had come too. This early. This soon. And the king apparently allowed it.
He could sense that this was going to be something very important, this meeting.
Tyler nodded politely at the first person that entered in – the Head Mage. It was indeed him. Then, he smirked as he looked at the second person who entered – a young man donned in somewhat shabby robes, probably of the Head Mage’s conjuring, this must be our dear interesting hero.
“Welcome,” he greeted them, “it is always nice to see you, honored Head Mage. And of course, to be able to meet a hero at such close quarters, I must consider myself blessed.” With a small pause, he continued, “My guard tells me you have an important message from the king. What may it be?”
To his surprise, Hecate didn’t dismiss him with a stern glare as usual. Instead, he politely nodded back and answered, “We do indeed have a message from the king.” Saying so, he whipped his hand, a scroll appearing in front of Tyler like magic. Well, like magic since it literally was magic.
The hero too politely nodded at Tyler as he grabbed at the scroll. Which wasn’t really a surprise to Tyler – the hero was still new to this world, after all. He skimmed through the contents of the scroll once he fully unfurled it.
Honorable duke, it started in the king’s handwriting,
Due to a few matters of immense secrecy, I have sent this hero to Enaj. Please accommodate him to the best of your ability and let him do whatever he wants to. Also, listen to the Head Mage and whatever he says keenly, and obey his words like you would obey my words.
Signed,
Belial Deidamia
And there was the king’s stamp below his signature – Tyler rubbed his thumb on it. It felt fully real, as far as he could tell. He looked at the hero with a warm – well, as warm as he could muster – gaze before turning his attention to the Head Mage. He had a few ideas of why the king had ordered such a thing; they apparently had a genius hero on their hands.
He bowed lightly to the pair, one hand in front and the other – holding the scroll – behind. “I have received the king’s orders.”
Well. It seemed like it was time to curry favor, Tyler smiled.
—