"The Priests or as the masses call them, the Voice of God. The main job of a Priest is to keep the believers happy and make them pray to their God. The Priests other job is to preach and, to get new believers. For every prayer from a believer that was introduced by the Priest. The God will give that Priest a little bit of divine energy, a bigger quantity will be given if the Priest makes the God gain new followers. A trained Priest can use that divine energy to make small miracles happen. Smart Priests will use miracles to gain more believers."

-Bee May, the faery of knowledge

"Some Priests are really good for the believers and the God itself... Others? They are poison."

With the Arthus kingdom elite forces and a familiar face, the surviving villagers of the village inside the hardwood forest descended from the rally point. Among them was Todd.

"Tha-Todd!" Brielle corrected herself. "It's so good to see you are alive sir!" She saluted.

"I'm alive because other people chose for me."

The old man said bitterly.

"What happened sir?"

Asked Brielle, she was looking around, trying to find who was still alive and who she would never see again.

"The fight was easier than we thought but, we were betrayed and we paid for it dearly. Then the snow started falling, we were trapped, we had food but we had not enough wood to burn for a snow this long, many decided to go somewhere else to look for other ways of survivals. There are only kids and some parents here."

Todd said scathingly.

"Where is-"

"Sidon?"

"Yes."

"Little Wolf stayed back in the village, so that the villagers could flee in the tunnels. When his son was not coming, the First Hunter decided to collapse the tunnel and ran to support his family. When Fianna found about it, she -" Todd sighed. "- She took the droppers and fled towards the village."

"So are they?"

"Eh, the - "Todd made the Shadow's simbol to Brielle" - me will tell you they could not survive. Not the army that was in the village, not the wolves that we heard and absolutely not the snow that fell after."

"So they-"

Started Brielle but was interrupted.

"But, the Todd in me... He says that Little Wolf will be alive, Sidon would not let his village, his family down, so he will be alive too. Fianna, she's a reckless lady but, she probably is alive as well."

"We should go back to the village, with the army here and our guidance we will do short work of any opposition, be it beast or man."

Said Brielle coldly.

In the following days, with the villagers and the scouts as guides the army came into sight of the remains of the village or what was left of it. The walls were broken and toppled, as if a giant pushed them down. The longhouses, the houses, the pens, the herb gardens, everything was burned down, the villagers were prepared for that, they put the fires themselves, they did not expect to not find walls. They did not expect to find the village empty too, there were no bodies, it was eerily empty. There was something else, even if the earth was black from soot, even if the snow and the rain after washed the land. It STANK of blood, as if thousands of people died here.

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The villagers, witht the army help, scoured the surrounding spaces, but found nothing and no one. They took some herbs to burn so it would take the smell with them, the army had to dig into the earth too, the earth under the soot was red from the blood it drank. They started to secure the position, the wall was unusable. they had to dig holes and cut new hardwood trees, they would make a new village. It would take years to make it but they had to.

Inside a tent, surrounded by elite guards, Brielle was telling Todd of her travel and stay in the capital.

"Why did they not call for me? Why keep it hidden?"

"Apparently after you destroyed the Federation of Blades army and the king sent you here to rest, he asked his Shadows to keep you in the dark..."

"THE SHADOWMASTER IN THE DARK! What was that idiot thinking?"

"The Shadow leader that you left there was killed in a drunken fight, then the king was poisoned. They wanted to call you back, the king told them not to. Then royal blood started spilling left and right, we were isolated in the village... It was bad luck on our part and good luck on the enemy side. Unless..."

"Unless they planned it from the start."

"Yeah... But how could they move the forest like that? And what happened to them now?"

"They could have conquered the coldstone mines with an ambush, the fourth was an idiot. The king sent advisors with him, he got them arrested and put into the mines by his mercenaries, he put the guards and anyone that had something to say against his rule."

"What!? You knew that and you let it happen!?"

"I got news from the caravan, a shadow found the timing to send a message. As for the Federation of Blades plan, with the mine conquered, they could have hunted the droppers and pushed them towards the forest, the wolves? Trained drogs and wolves, for the entire forest silent? That I don't know, the forest has always been full of life, not even Arthus the first could really conquer this forest."

"When you sent me on the scouting mission with Sidon and Little Wolf... You already thought of that?"

"Yeah... If they filled the forest with men, you three were our best chance to find answers and come back alive."

"But they were not, there was only that horde coming towards us and the wolves..."

"I know... I hate to now know! That's why I became the Shadowmaster and, they kept me in the dark all the same."

Said Thaddeus sadly.

"What about the fifth princess, are there any blood of Arthus remaining?"

"This information is only known by the king and the Shadowmaster. Arthus the first... He was not a normal man, he was bigger, stronger, faster. He used his strenght to make an army and he conquered everything he could, until he was too old to continue. As the story goes he had over five hundred sons at the time of his death. On death his orders were to not conquer anymore, to keep what he took, some of his more ambitious descendants tried to expand, they failed. He asked to be put to rest inside this forest, the legend says that the wood of this forest was lightly stronger than normal, when the body of Arthus was put under the ground and the trees feed from it, they became the hardwood we know today. That's why there are tunnels that start from King's Rest and roam the forest, every blood of Arthus is to be brought to the forest."

"So there is still blood of Arthus around..."

"Yeah, King's Rest, the village... While Arthus the first was superior to any other man, his sons and daughters were not, their blood was not pure enough, not strong enough. The blood of Arthus gives them strenght sure, but not as much as the original. King's Rest was made to train Shadows, to live with other normal humans, to keep their secret, to not get discovered."

"I did not know about the blood power, but I did the Shadow training, you taught me."

"And you still are impatient, you need to wait and listen, Shadows need to move only with the king or when he is in danger, if a Shadow moves, it will be seen."

Said Thaddeus with a smile.

Brielle turned her head so she would not see his smug smile and snorted.

"The village-" Thaddeus continued "- has another function too, to make a new Arthus."

"Wha-?"

"The villagers and even some Shadows all have some blood of Arthus, almost all of them. They are trained in a harsh environment, they have sons and daughters, when there is too much blood mixed, we bring new people, we are using the same method of the Bull Riders. They want the strongest bull, we... We want the stronger man, or woman."

"Well that does explain why the hunters are so strong..."

"Yeah, this generation we have been lucky, both Alfonse and Kitty seems to have a high blood purity. But, if you are looking for a king... Sidon is the only choice."

"Sidon? We don't even know if he still lives!"

"He is the son of the king's brother, the prince came to the village years ago, there was an harsh battle and the prince fought too. At that time the village made a festival, where women would sleep with the heroes that fought hard. Sidon is one of the fatherless sons of those festivals."

"And how are you so sure that Sidon is the prince's son?"

"I'm not sure about anything right now but, I have seen a painting of Arthus the first and he looked like our dear First Hunter. His physical capabilities and his looks, Sidon is what King's Rest was made for."