Caeden sat in Oswin’s guest parlour at the Mage’s Guild, watching the enchanted blue obsidian crystal floating midair. It made a soft puffing sound and periodically blew off mild gusts of chill air. The enchanted runes carved into its hexagonal surface glowed two at a time, on and off. A magical invention reverse-engineered by the guild from the Dorcan Illuminaris, though it lacked its predecessor’s longevity. He wondered idly at the viability of installing these Ice crystals in the castle. No, it could not work. The magic required to recharge it could be better spent on more important matters.

Caeden shifted in his seat, stretching his legs out. The unease he had felt in the temple slowly ebbed away as he sat marvelling at the runic hexagon. The hallucination had felt so real but now it was hard to tell, so different it was from his mad episodes in Landon. A result of my exhausted mind and body perhaps.

The door opened slightly ajar, and he heard Oswin talking to someone before he entered the room, along with all the hustle and bustle outside. The guild was abuzz when he arrived. Many of its residents rushed about in a restless hurry to organise. It was surprising to learn that the court had heeded his suggestion to evacuate the borders along the Ashen Fields. More so, that the emperor had delegated the immense task to Kael. Would it be too soon to hope that he was finally becoming a leader I could follow?

Oswin and a scrappy man in white robes bowed as he stood to greet them, their arms filled with scrolls, heavy parchment and a rolled-up tapestry. They placed them all on a table nearby.

“Your Grace, allow me to introduce Adept Graeyson,” Oswin introduced his unkempt companion. “He has been assisting me with some of my research.” There was strain in his eyes and voice.

“A pleasure…”

“The pleasure is all mine, Your Grace!” the man blurted enthusiastically. “I cannot believe I have the opportunity to study a rare species!”

“Pardon?” Caeden asked dumbstruck, sending a questioning gaze to Oswin. The man’s excitement was overbearing.

“Adept Graeyson is a biologist with specialisation in anthropology, Your Grace. We worked together on a Beastkin study before going into our respective fields. I have enquired about Ava’s differences in likeness to typical demonkin…”

“Typical demonkin! There’s nothing typical about them. A physiological curse that only affects most half-race offspring. Why, despite their differing parentages, are they all born with horns and feathered wings? To what goal and purpose is this curse intended? They have never been seen working together but will always collect an afflicted child. Most curious societal behaviour, indeed!

“My working theory is that environmental factors may have caused Miss Ava’s mutation. There were no hybrids birthed in Spectermere recorded to date! Though I will not rule out it could be a result of her sex,” Graeyson rambled joyously.

“Her sex?” Caeden asked, stifling a smile.

It was amusing to see Oswin subtly try to silence the overexcited Adept and fail horrendously.

“Yes, did you know that most demonkin are male? There are females, but they have been few and far between. Only five sightings in 1,132 years of recorded history! But these are only theories. I cannot say for certain until I study her blood work, Your Grace. At the very least, it could identify the nature of her birth parents.”

He seemed to be asking for permission. Did Ava disapprove of them taking her blood? It would be hard to believe her doing so when she sought the answers it could provide. No, judging by Oswin’s sour expression, something else occurred.

“What is it?” Caeden prompted Oswin.

Oswin's form puffed up with a deep breath and then released it with a heavy sigh of defeat.

“My apologies, Your Grace. I feel it would be unwise to study Miss Ava at the Mage’s Guild. We encountered Grand Master Gildaen a few hours earlier, who seemed adamant that she be taken into guild custody despite the emperor’s royal decree allowing her to walk freely. It was only through Prince Kael’s interference that we managed to rebuff his attempt. Their interaction was uncomfortable to witness and given our suspicions of the Grand Master, I am loathe to share any information with the guild that could be used against her and this mission,” Oswin admitted sheepishly.

Caeden had figured Ava would be far too important for either man not to swarm around her eventually, but to have them show their hands this quickly. Yet, Kael seemed at odds with both his mother and the Grand Master. Cracks were forming between Kael and his foolish future advisors, now would be the ideal time to reconnect with his brother and establish his position as the future emperor’s sword arm and military advisor. The Casimir Empire would see him acting with his brother in this mission instead of against him.

“Establish a private research team on my order and relocate it to the castle. You will conduct your research with Miss Ava there. No results will be shared with anyone without my explicit consent,” Caeden commanded.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Wonderful!” Graeyson exclaimed. “I will pack my things immediately.”

The Adept turned and pranced excitedly out of the room, oblivious to Oswin's dismay and unsaid objection.

“My apologies, Your Grace. Graeyson forgets himself in his excitement, but his ability to retain and archive massive amounts of information would put most mages to shame and will be invaluable in this endeavour. Unfortunately, he has not had much interaction with nobility, I will admonish him on his impropriety.”

“I took no offence, Oswin. Are you sure he can be trusted?”

“He holds no magical aptitude and is therefore beneath the notice of the Grand Master. I do not know him to be easily swayed by those who have shunned him in the past, nor will he pass up the rare opportunity to study the enigma that is Miss Ava. Therefore, I trust him to act with the utmost integrity and discretion.”

“Then I will be satisfied. I will issue an official request to the Guild for your research team. Gildaen cannot deny it,” Caeden confirmed. He pursed his lips, raised a brow and thought for a moment. “What do you know of Gildaen’s former apprentice?”

“Shaennen? Very little, he was gone from the guild years before I was first brought here. From what I have heard, he was considered a prodigy, Gildaen’s pride and joy, and rumoured to become Grand Master after… Ava’s wizard. Gildaen was the one who exposed his illegal experiments after he noticed Shaennen’s assistants acting strangely. He died soon after he was found out. Or did he go missing?”

Who knew? The Grand Master had had a moral compass in the past. “Well, which is it? Did he die or go missing?”

“I cannot rightly recall. I seem to remember hearing another rumour that he was burned at the pyre as well. For such an infamous character, it is odd that his end is a mystery,” Oswin pondered through the conflicting stories with bunched brows.

“Find the truth of it,” Caeden commanded. “It may uncover who this second sorcerer in Spectermere is.”

“Indeed, I shall, Your Grace. I have found some interesting information in the ancient archives on your order. I could not find anything on Azael or the Shadow King. Graeyson does not recall seeing records pertaining to a wraith with burning red eyes. But his ears pricked up at the mention of the conversation between Miss Ava and the Leviathan, mainly the part of setting her on the correct path.”

Oswin indicated to the parchment piled on the table. They unfurled them, laying them out over the floor and table. They were all etchings and sketches of different places in the ancient times, depicting one of two scenes, all except the tapestry. Both scenes featured a shadowed figure. In one scene the figure guided a mortal away from the path they were taking and onto a new one. And in the second the figure was depicted stealing a mortal soul from the receptive palms of either Holden or Fern. Each mortal soul was etched with a saddened expression on their faces.

Caeden moved to the tapestry. The images sewn into it told a story of a human hero, faithful and bathed in the light of the gods. In each step of his journey, each battle he had, the shadowed figure was there, prompting him further and further away from their light until the hero followed him into darkness as a spirit. There were beasts and humanoid figures along with them in this last scene. Caeden’s eyes lingered on one. A woman in a flowing dress made from wind and snow.

Perturbed, Caeden frowned and rubbed his fingers across his forehead. Is that the future I would lead the Empire to with Ava’s mission? A time of darkness or possibly…

“I cannot decide on how to interpret them. I can only assume this recurring shadowy trickster figure is the Reaper,” Oswin said after a time.

“I can understand why but no, the depictions of Holden and Fern are post-ascension. They would have already banished him to the Deep. And why deviate from his depictions as a hooded shade? Besides, the Reaper is not known to have much interest in souls, his aim has always been to sow chaos among the living,” Caeden replied.

“His demonkin, perhaps? No, they would have been depicted with wings and horns.” Oswin’s eyes darted from etching to etching as his mind searched for answers.

Caeden ran his fingers over each shadowed figure. In every scene, the figure had a different form, an elf, a four-armed orc, a tiny dwarf or a burly human, always matching the race of the ancient mortal it was attempting to influence. In one scene it bore the curves of a woman, in another a man and in yet another it had the tiny frame of a child. There seemed to be something about the figure’s eyes the original artisan wanted to focus on. They were always prominent and unobscured by shadow, but their meaning was lost over time or in the artist's interpretation as he copied it from the ancient records.

“Multiple people with a shared purpose or a singular shapeshifting god?” Caeden asked, hoping Oswin would latch onto his train of thought.

“Yes, the Other would make sense given current events. However, his intentions do not seem to be benign in these etchings. The faith does not show him to be openly antagonistic toward Holden and Fern,” the mage opined.

“I cannot speak to the grand dance that the gods have among themselves. However, the shadowed darkness in these depictions could mean the unknown rather than a malevolent void. I will go with the former until we find out more. Would it be possible to see the original records?”

“I would advise against it, Your Grace,” Oswin moaned painfully, rubbing the space between his brows. “I compared them to determine their accuracy. Even with all the protections in place, the originals are torturous to look through when accompanied by their ancient script.”

“I see. What does Miss Ava make of these?” he asked, holding up the tapestry and trying to make out the rest of the spirits surrounding the hero and shadowed figure. He recognised none, except to assume that the lizard creature who stood ablaze could be the Wyvern. He would need more time with the tapestry to match them to the ones he knew about.

Oswin stared at him in confusion. He looked at the mage equally confused and sifted through their interaction thus far to determine if he had missed something. Now that he thought about it, it was odd that she had not been with Oswin and Graeyson when they arrived.

“Oswin,” Caeden bit out and glared at him. “Where is Miss Ava?”

“Your Grace, I sent a messenger earlier to inform you that she was with Prince Kael,” he blurted nervously.

“Gods dammit, Oswin!” Caeden growled, immediately dropping the tapestry to the floor and storming from the room.