When the fireball smashed into the top of the hatch, the ground vibrated and a flash of heat washed over him. For a moment there, exactly as the explosion must have happened, he only saw whiteness.

The explosion sent enough of a shockwave to make him stumble and fall on his back. His ears rang as he regained his wits. First there was a bit of a daze as he’d never experienced anything like this, then excitement filled him as his heart beat powerfully in his chest.

Zaak had casted a fireball. It was one of those spells everybody knew about. What he hadn’t expected was the sheer power of it though. He hadn’t thought that much magical power was possible from somebody without a tattoo.

Was it the staff?

It hadn’t looked like much but looks could be deceiving. The inside of the wand could be filled with all sorts of runes, or the wand itself could be made out of a particular material, or well… Noah really didn’t know anything about magic, so he wasn’t going to guess anymore.

Apart from the fumes going up into the air, there wasn’t much fire around. The fireball had produced more of an explosion than it had actual fire. Noah wondered if that was intentional.

The two guards laid unconscious on the floor, and Noah couldn’t help but feel a little bit bad for them, but they didn’t look seriously wounded. Although, he didn’t want to be around them when they woke up.

When he looked back, he saw that Zaak’s face was pale, white. The boy put all of his weight onto his staff as his chest slightly rose from the deep breaths he took. Noah guessed that anybody would be exhausted after casting such a spell, but he hadn’t expected Zaak to collapse down on the floor.

He glanced between the hatch and Zaak. It was open and he could easily run down there, but that would never have been possible if not for Zaak’s sacrifice. He’d come from a village too. He had the same dream as Noah.

He bit tongue, cursed, and stood up. With as much grace and speed that he could muster, he made his way over towards Zaak and leaned down. One, two, three slaps didn’t seem to wake the boy up, or get any reaction out of him really. Noah could easily have mistaken him for dead.

He grabbed him around the waist, and grit his teeth as he jerked him up and over his shoulders. Noah realized that the staff was much heavier than he thought it would be. It was certainly not made out of common wood. His shoulders and arms hurt as he pushed his way to the hatch.

I have to hurry. If more guards come and I get tied up into this business, my life’s going to be over.

As he thought that, a pack of guards turned the corner into the street. Twelve guards jogged in a 4 by 3 formation. They instantly spotted and eyed Noah, who started cursing vehemently beneath his breath.

He gazed down the hatch and realized that there were stairs there leading deep into the darkness. Carrying a boy around his shoulders was already difficult enough on level walking ground. He didn’t think he was going to be able to descend the stairs, especially not with enough speed to avoid the guards.

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“Let’s hope this works,” he said as he tossed Zaak down the stairs. Noah couldn’t help but cringe each time he heard the boy’s body hit up against the stairs as it rolled down to the bottom.

But with a major weight off his shoulders, running was much easier, and he practically leapt down into the stairs, away from the sunlight and into the darkness. He had to rely on the shape of the previous stairs and hope that they continued as he couldn’t use his eyes. Each time he took a step, there was a moment of pure falling, and each time he felt like it could extend forever into the deep abyss, but then he’d feel the next step.

After he’d descended far enough he looked back to see a couple of guard faces gazing downwards from the top of the hatch. Fortunately they didn’t seem to be following them.

Why not though?

He kept up his light-jog as he descended the stairs, and after about two minutes of traveling through the darkness, he saw a torch that lit up the path, and Zaak’s hunched over the ground. As he got closer he realized that the boy was grunting with pain.

Zaak’s head jerked towards Noah, eyes full of fear, but when he realized that it was only Noah his fear vanished.

“You threw me down the hatch didn’t you?” Zaak guessed, but kept on talking before Noah could answer. “Well, thanks for not abandoning me, either way we’re still late, let’s keep going.”

He stood up whilst grunting like an old man. Noah almost felt bad. The stairs were long and a mixture of Zaak’s head, back, and legs had taken the most of it, but there wasn’t much use on dwelling on it.

They continued down the hallway which grew more sharp as they continued along. Zaak hunched his way forward relying on his staff to do most of the work, whilst Noah wandered a little bit behind. He thought he’d stay behind as if he walked ahead he might walk too quickly for Zaak to keep up with.

The hallway didn’t turn or bend but continued straight. The torches on the stone-cut walls shone of blue flame which produced no light or heat. Something evident by the chill that Noah felt.

Finally, after three minutes of walking, they reached a large double door which was shut close. Noah could heard a loud voice behind the door, and wagered a guess that the initiation was being held.

He felt himself grow excited as new-found energy spread around his body. Zaak also seemed more excited as he walked faster towards the doors. Once they both stood in front of it, Noah grabbed the handle and pushed open the door.

On the other side there were roughly a group of sixty people his own age of both men and women.

The room the door opened into was huge, and looked nothing like the corridor leading into it. Although Noah didn’t really look at the details of the room, his sight stuck on the large crowd of people his own age of both men and women, who had turned around to stare at him.

The person who had been speaking, a large, old man with gray hair and a thick sword hanging on his back, stared daggers at Noah. Veins throbbed on his forehead as the man turned red.

To the right side of the man stood a large man rippled with muscles and tattoos that stretched from all over his body in runic symbols. The man had thick, black, braided hair which fell down onto his shoulders, and he also stared onto Noah gave a bothered glance at Noah.

To the left of the man stood a tall but skinny man, who smiled widely at the scene.