Ignis awoke to a familiar sensation, a rodent biting into his ankle.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm up. Stop it already, I'm up!", he mumbled groggily, slowly rising to a seating position. The hall was now completely dark, causing him to cast
'Whew, can't remember the last time I had to cast this much high-tier magic in one day.', he thought to himself, as the tell-tale symptoms of what was known to many as the "wizard-sickness" started to make itself known, an ailment which befell all those who pushed their limits in terms of magic a bit too far. Trying to ignore the massive headache and the room spinning before him, he closed his eyes again and searched his pocket for something edible.
"Eugh, only apples left. Mira, did you eat the last strips of charred lizard already?", he asked his furry little friend, who squeaked in response.
"Alright, alright. Once we get out of here, I'm going to get us something proper to eat. No arcane rations, no apples!", he assured her as he slowly rose to his feet, which seemed to brighten her mood, as she happily climbed his leg and jumped back into her home away from home inside his robe.
Meanwhile, Ignis reluctantly chomped down on the apple and started to loot the corpse in front of him. The sword of Rainier was irreparably morphed beyond recognition by the heat of his spell, with the late hero's armour having been burnt to ashes. However, around the remains of his neck he noticed a key which seemed completely pristine, as if it had not just withstood fire as hot as the sun itself.
"Jackpot!", the old man whispered as he snatched the key, and approached the sarcophagus.
Just as he had anticipated, he spotted a small keyhole, perfect in size for the key he just found. He inserted the key and turned it counterclockwise, causing multiple small clicking noises within it, before the heavy lid of the sarcophagus started to slide off. To his chagrin, he found nothing but another corpse and two pieces of paper within it. He quickly skimmed through the contents of the parchments, the first being instruction for a summoning ritual, and the second one talking of some sort of curse. Feeling a hunch, that the pages could prove useful at some point, he stored them within his pocket.
"Well, I guess that's it. Let's go back!"
Dreading having to climb the spiral staircase all the way back up to the entrance, he briefly considered just casting flight magic on himself, though he quickly dismissed the thought, as he did not want to strain his soul any more than he already had, considering that he had cast 3 high-tier spells in one day, with the last being the strongest he had in his repertoire. Thus, Ignis spoke a quick prayer to the Gods to not suffer a heart attack midway up, and started what he would later call his hardest challenge: Climbing the sheer endless staircase back up to the surface.
What felt like an eternity and an uncountable number of steps later, he arrived at the doorway at the top.
"Thank the Gods, the door is open! If I had to find a way to open it as well, I would have probably collapsed for good!", he burst out, still out of breath, as he clung to his staff to stay upright.
Taking a few seconds to calm down from the ordeal, Ignis leaned on the stone wall next to the entrance and examined his surroundings. It was cold and dark, but the twin moons in the sky gave off enough light to make discerning shapes possible. He looked around the oasis, and found that the acid lake, which had laid in its midst before, was now gone, possibly evaporated by his spell, as an about cartwheel-sized hole could now be seen in its place.
"Well... At least this is going to safe some poor soul from confusing it with water, I guess.", he muttered, as he looked at the hole.
As the old man continued to look around, he noticed a glowing dot on the horizon, quite far away from his position. He tried to make out what it was, but, seeing as the only proper light source right now were the twin moons high in the sky, he could see it as nothing but just that, a dot. As he kept focusing on the dot, he suddenly felt vibrations in the ground.
An enormous centipede, easily 7 yards long, broke through the ground between him and whatever lied in the distance, and, to his luck, seemed to head for the dot instead of him. Ignis watched the enormous insect crawl towards the unknown object, as two more broke the surface and followed their brethren towards what they believed to be an easy target. Seconds later, a light flashed through the desert, and the three centipedes crashed into the ground before ceasing to move all together.
"HOLY...", the old man yelled in surprise, his curiosity quickly turning to horror about whatever had just killed those creatures.
'Whatever that thing is, I want nothing to do with it!', he thought, as he started to walk in the opposite direction of the danger in the distance. Before he left the oasis, however, his inquisitiveness got the better of him, and he looked back to where he had just seen the centipedes die. The wizard both thanked the gods and deeply regretted his choice, as the dot now seemed to hurtle towards the oasis at alarming speeds, if the enormous gusts of sand it was blowing left, and right were any indication.
Following it were another three enormous centipedes and three smaller dots, but the old man spared not a second to take a better look at them, as he quickly cast acceleration magic on himself and sprinted away from the incoming threat as fast as his magically powered limbs could carry him.
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A pale, frail looking young woman, dressed in a raven-black, frilled dress and her entourage of reanimated corpses, 3 of which enormous insects known as Emperor Millpatt Centipedes, which she had just added to what she lovingly refers to as her "collection", and her apprentice, a rather short man clad in a dark robe which was embroidered with golden symbols and runes, quickened their pace towards their destiny, the tomb of Rainier, as they had just noticed an artificial light-source within the oasis. Despite their fast pace, the woman, whose face was hidden behind a dark veil affixed to her head of ebony hair with a mythril diadem, did not show any signs of laboured breathing, or any breathing at all, as she, just like the beings surrounding her, had been an undead, though of much higher rank.
"Mistress, the light is moving away from the oasis.", her apprentice called out to her, as the group continued to hastily close the distance between them and the oasis in front of them.
"It matters not. Whoever it was, the desert will surely claim them anyway, considering the time being mere hours past midnight. I was just curious about the kind of person foolish enough to dare and even approach those cursed grounds, is all.", the woman answered amused.
'Make haste! That man has caused more damage than you could possibly fathom! ', the voice of her master cried out to her, clear as if he stood right beside her, yet impossibly far away and out of reach.
The tone of his voice turned her amusement into panic, as she increased her pace towards the oasis.
Once she had noticed that the hidden entrance to Rainier's chamber now laid bare, and the emerald lake had been drained, her panic evolved into absolute dread.
"This...this cannot be! Quick, descend the stairs and report the situation! Do not engage in combat, but go as far as you can!", she ordered her apprentice, which, after bowing deeply, hastily made his way downstairs.
As she waited for her underling to return, the woman's thoughts returned to the source of the light they had spotted before. Could it be? Could that person have reached the fallen hero, or worse, could they have already defeated him, making him useless to her cause? Controlling an undead hero should no longer be impossible for her, seeing as she had reached the greatest heights of necromancy, having herself turned into an ankou, the highest of liches, a being said to be on par with even the likes of the Unborn Lord which emerged during the Edenian War in terms of strength. Reviving one of the god's chosen heroes, however, especially after they received enough damage to be laid to rest eternally, was still far from anything she could accomplish. And what of the page he hid in his sarcophagus?
Just as she had ended her last thought, her apprentice had returned, kneeling before her.
"Well?", she commanded impatiently.
"Mistress, the chamber serving as the entrance lays in ruins, with its guardians completely obliterated. Ragnar's charred remains are splayed in front of the sarcophagus he protected, with its contents nowhere to be found."
The necromancer's pupils began to widen in fear as her apprentices' words confirmed her greatest fears. Her mind started to race. This could not be a coincidence. The gods must have finally realised what it was that Rainier was guarding all these years and sent someone to retrieve it. However, did they realise that the page contained not only instructions of how to summon celestials, but her master as well?
"FOOL! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! THERE IS STILL TIME! AFTER HIM!", her master screamed at her in her mind, ripping her out of her stupor.
"All of you! Chase after the source of the light we saw earlier and retrieve the pages! CHASE HIM TO HELL AND BACK, IF NEEDED! GO!", she yelled at her underlings, who left without even prostrating themselves to her, as they feared her wrath.
"Have no fears, master, we will catch him in time. I shall cut off his path in the valley he is headed towards! He may have defeated Rainier, but he will stand no chance against me!", she assured the voice before opening a dark gate.
"This is not the time for empty promises!", the voice responded threateningly, causing shivers to run down her spine as she stepped through the gate.
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After running for some time towards what looked like the entrance into a valley, Ignis chanced a look behind him, and, as he saw what looked like the centipedes and the three smaller dots still following him, he noticed that his staff still exuded light.
"Ah, damn it all! How could I have made such a simple mistake?", he cursed his foolishness as he extinguished the light. Seeing as that did nothing to slow down his pursuers, he came up with a plan.
"Hmm, this might just work. CONSURGE, PULVIS NUBES!", the wizard aimed his staff at the ground as the magic took form.
Whirring up sand, the spell formed a tremendous cloud, which engulfed both Ignis and his pursuers. The old man used the time gained through this diversion, and cast flying magic on himself, which he now used to quickly escape the scene.
'And so, I get to live another day.', the wizard chuckled in his mind, as he continued forwards, now at much higher speeds, as he no longer needed to use his feet to accelerate. During his flight, he downed another one of his potions, as the
"Eugh, I'll never get used to this. I think I'm gonna hurl.", the wizard grumbled, as he dropped the vial and sped up towards mountains in the distance.
The view from high up was both breathtaking and immensely horrifying, as he overlooked the beautiful sand dunes and rock formations being overrun by all sorts of monsters, tearing each other apart as they scavenged the desert for food. After a while, he made it towards a river, but decided against resting there for the night for two reasons. The first and most obvious one was that the light emitted by the water, which he at first attributed to it reflecting the light of the moon, was in actuality emitted by the river itself, for a reason unknown to him. Secondly, he observed several of the gargantuan insects and arachnids he had watched during his flight fleeing in a panic as soon as they came near the water. As this reminded the old man too much of the acid lake of the oasis he had just come from, he instead chose to continue his flight.
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"WHERE IS HE?", the necromancer yelled at her subordinates, who kneeled before her, and her apprentice decided to speak up.
"W-...We have lost him."
"YOU IMBECILES!", she yelled at her servants, her vision turning red from anger.
Just as her apprentice was about to try and calm her down, the ground started to shake, and he looked up from the floor, just in time to see the other undead servants around him being torn apart by the furious necromancer. From an outside perspective, it resembled a child tearing apart her toys in a tantrum, an almost comedic sight, though the toys in question here were undead creatures, which had been reinforced by powerful necromancy, turning this entire spectacle into a situation which made even the dulled senses of the undead apprentice scream at him to run away from it. However, he knew that if he was to even move another muscle, his mistress would immediately focus on him, so he decided to wait.
After a while, his mistress had calmed down and was once more addressed by her master.
'Though this may be a less than favourable outcome, there is nothing to be done now. Proceed with the plans, though move them forward so we may free my brethren before that fool can do any real damage to our plans. As soon as we freed them from their shackles, not even the combined forces of creation will be able to stand a chance against us.'
'I shall do as you command!', the necromancer answered in her thoughts, and the presence of her master faded into nothingness once more.
"Very well. Liam! Despite your incompetence, not all is lost yet. Notify the council of the three Archons and tell the All-Seeing to hunt down the interloper. The Gaolithe and the Evolved are to prepare the ritual to free the Archons from their prison. The next Lunar-Eye-Eclipse will be in 2 weeks' time, have them be ready by then."
"As you wish!", her apprentice answered her command before using teleportation magic to run away.
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'Hmm, this potion is beyond my expectations! I mean, it was already weird how I was able to cast all these spells back at the oasis without dying of exhaustion, but now? Flying for what felt like at least an hour without even breaking a sweat? I should apologize to that merchant if we ever meet again.', Ignis thought to himself, as he noticed the sun beginning to rise. After a while, he could see a caravan approaching from the distance, and decided to meet up with it, as they might be able to provide him with some food and water.
Ignis decided on touching ground some distance in front of them, and approached them casually, as not to frighten them. However, an old man flying past someone at high speeds in the middle of the desert is anything but a normal occurrence, causing the guards of the caravan to point their swords at him as he approached. The closer he came, the more he realised that this caravan seemed to have been under attack not too long ago. The cart they were pulling had been damaged, as was the armour of the soldiers guarding it, and Ignis had a feeling that the entire caravan seemed to consist of less people than they had started with.
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"Halt! Who goes there!", one of the guards commanded, his voice wavering slightly, as he believed the man in front of him to be a most powerful spellcaster, which, in his defence, was not far from the truth.
"Just an old man wandering the desert in search of food and water!", Ignis answered with a smile he meant as showing that he was harmless, but instead looked to the members of the caravan like the smile of someone who could and wanted to kill them with ease to take their possessions.
Even though this spellcaster seemed out of the realm of what the guards could handle in their current state, the man who addressed him earlier still pressed on, trying as much as he could to suppress his fear of the man standing before him who could end their lives at any second if he wanted to.
"What kind of 'armless man could possiblé cast flying magique? Oui ar' far away of even the closest of oasis, and as far as oui know, you might be one of those terriblé bandits who attaqued us mere heures ago!", he stated in a thick western accent.
"...That might be true, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm just here to get some food and water.", the wizard answered, his unfaltering smile still creeping out the people in front of him.
"If oui give you food, will you leave?", the guard continued through a terrible voice crack, desperately trying to keep himself from showing any weakness.
"Of course, I even have some money here, just tell-", Ignis said, but was interrupted mid-sentence.
"No moni! Take! Leave!", one of the unarmed people, who looked like the servant of a noble, cried out in broken Common while throwing a cloth sack in front of Ignis.
"...Alrighty then. No take backs! See ya!", the old man shouted as he quickly grabbed the bag and sprinted away, fearing that the merchants might change their mind if he overstayed his welcome.
The guard, which had not only successfully conversed with this incredibly powerful spellcaster, but also seemingly managed to prevent any bloodshed, broke down on the floor as he saw the old man leave, as he felt an incredible weight being lifted off of his shoulder. The other members of the caravan ran up to him to praise the courageous man, and years later stories would be told about the fearless guard standing his ground after he had valiantly defended his mistress, the Duchess of Faucon, against bandits, before facing off against what would over time be exaggerated to be an Archdevil, an infernal monster of the highest order, and still live to tell the tale.
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The southern half of Ceruceil was regarded as the safer of the two regions which were divided by the Embrasé river, not because the northern half was home to more ferocious monsters, as there were almost no living beings to be found at all, but because it was easier to lose one's way if one was not careful. There were 6 known fresh-water oasis in the entire region, and no real landmarks on which to orientate oneself. One had to carefully follow a path marked with hidden way-stones, which only revealed themselves if one knew how to find them, from one oasis to the next, until one arrived at one's destination, which usually was either one of the towns protecting the massive bridges built over the Louplàbas river, which served as the border between Ceruceil in the south and Chóratonippotón in the north.
The heat during the day caused mirages to appear, making it seem as if one was following the mountains in the distance, but in actuality, one was just running in circles, a fate which could even befall seasoned guides. This led to many a death to occur in the northern half, and an increase in undead, as all who died on these cursed lands were doomed to join them. These very same undead made it almost impossible to travel at night, which made rationing one's food and water essential to survive.
Ignis, which could not care less about such trivialities, decided to brute-force his way through the area by casting
He remembered how many people tried to find their way in the desert by fixating mountains on the horizon and walking towards them while in actuality they would just walk in circles and decided to orientate himself on the position of the sun instead. Though this meant that he would probably run in an arc, he would still be able to make it to his destination, wherever that would be.
The wizard used the time it took him to traverse the desert by eating, drinking, and trying not to fall asleep out of boredom. He had heard many a horror story about the dangers of Ceruceil from merchants which passed by him, but so far, it had been an underwhelming journey, as he refused to count his encounter with the undead Rainier, as it technically happened below the desert.
As he contemplated his next actions, he stumbled over an object, causing him to land face first in the sand as if he was diving into water. Spitting up sand and cursing all the while, he returned to the tripping hazard to see what had decided to so abruptly grind his journey to a halt. Before him laid a human body, halfway buried in the sand.
"Well, now I just feel bad.", he mumbled as he studied the body before him. Though he had gone quite numb to death over the decades he had lived through, he still considered himself compassionate enough to not just disrespectfully kick a dead body on the ground. And so, the wizard removed his hat and spoke a quick prayer for the poor soul before he kneeled next to it and started to pilfer it for valuables.
Suddenly, a hand jumped out of the sand and grabbed his ankle, causing him to scream in surprise, 2 octaves higher than one would assume he could, and jump away from what he had believed to be a corpse.
The body slowly shook off most of the sand it was buried beneath and revealed itself to be a human woman clad in the attire of the people of the desert, silken robes of white cloth, with her hair and face hidden behind a hood and a mask.
"L'eau...woh-ter?", she asked with a raspy, dry voice, while miming the motion of someone drinking water.
Ignis, clutching his fast beating heart as if fearing to die of a heart attack in surprise, calmed himself with deep breaths, before he procured a water-skin from one of his pockets and carefully handed it over to the woman, who quickly snatched it out of his grasp to down the life-saving liquid. Though she consumed the water ferociously, she made sure to not spill a single drop. After having her thirst quenched, she returned the now empty water-skin to the still wary wizard, and fell to one knee, thanking her saviour.
"Merci, mon sauveur!", she proclaimed in the language of the west. Ignis, though not knowledgeable in this tongue, still recognised the phrase as proclamation of thanks.
"Erm...yes? You are...welcome?", he said, still unsure about how to deal with the situation.
The woman recognised that her saviour did not understand the Language of the West, but seeing as she was not able to speak the Common Language either, as most of Ceruceil had yet to adapt to the changes outside of it, she decided to speak slower and added hand gestures to aid her in making him understand what she wanted to tell.
"S'il vous plaît! Aidez... à trouver... une ville... ensemble?", she asked, while pantomiming the meaning of her words.
"Please...find...house? No... village? You and me? Do you want to help me find a village?", he questioned the woman, which just observed him to determine if he understood her.
'Hmm... It would certainly help if I had someone who knows their stuff around here nearby... Let me think... What was the western word for yes again? ', Ignis thought, before giving his answer.
"Erm...vooi?" he said, hoping that the word was not just some curse he picked up from a merchant. Considering that it was met with a friendly smile and a bow, it was probably the right answer.
"Soléne", she said, pointing at herself, indicating that it was her name.
"Ignis", the old man reciprocated the motion, and the two continued onwards. Seeing as he was now followed by someone, he travelled at a much lower pace, which displeased Ignis greatly.
'If this goes on, I will get stuck here during the night. I've had enough of undead for this week.', he mumbled in his beard, as he tried to come up with a solution. A few minutes later, the solution dawned upon him.
"THAT'S IT!", he yelled out with glee, startling his companion.
"Qu'est-il arrivé?", Soléne asked, looking around nervously as if something was going to peek out of the sand and attack them at any minute. Ignis paid her no mind and started to forage through his pocket.
"Aha, gotcha!", he exclaimed, and retrieved his hand, which had his pet rat in its grasp.
Ignis excitedly showed her to his companion, pointed at her and Soléne.
"Mira, Soléne, Soléne, Mira!", he introduced the rat excitedly.
Soléne, still confused as to what was going on, now looked at the rat, which somehow managed to look at her angrily.
"...Salut Mira?", she greeted her, unsure of what to make of this situation, but the rat just turned her head and tried to escape the wizards grasp.
"Now, now! Don't be impolite, Mira! I was the one who woke you up, not her! Now come on, I know you spent the entire day eating the food we got from those merchants, it's time for you to do your part!", he chastised his furry companion, before placing her in the sand. Realising that it would probably be a good idea to follow the advice of her moving hotel while still in the middle of nowhere, Mira complied and got into position, as she already knew where this was going.
Ignis motioned Soléne to move back a few steps, which she did, before slamming down his staff and releasing one of his favourite spells.
"AUGEO!"
The woman next to the wizard jumped backwards in fright, as the rat suddenly grew to the size of the gargantuan arachnids that wandered through the southern parts of Ceruceil.
"Par la lumière! Qu'est-ce que c'est?", she started to scream in shock.
"Impressed, eh? Wait until you see how fast she can go!", Ignis remarked, as he started to climb onto the rat's back.
Having reached the top, he looked back to Soléne, who still sat on the floor, frozen in shock.
"Well? Get up here!", he demanded impatiently, patting the fur behind him in a motion universally understood as 'This seat here is for you'.
However, the woman just shook her head in fear, and started to slowly scoot away from the massive rodent.
"What? Oh, for crying out loud! Mira, would you kindly pick up our friend over there? It seems she's a bit shy.", he commanded slightly annoyed, but also partially amused at the thought of her reaction to what would happen next.
As his mischievous smile grew ever so brighter, the rat whipped around and approached the frightened woman, whose eyes had shrunken to pinpricks as she realized what was going on. She only managed to shriek and shield her eyes in fright, as the gargantuan rat picked her up with her mouth, before turning once again and facing into the direction her owner pointed towards.
"Onwards, Mira! I will point the way!", he declared as he tried not to burst out into laughter, and they continued their journey.
A few hours filled with screaming and mad cackles later, Ignis managed to see what looked like a town in the distance. Considering that this was far enough away to remove any worries about him being held accountable for any crimes he had committed in Éclat, he decided it would be the perfect place to hide for some time, thus steering Mira towards it.
One hour passed, and they finally arrived near the walls of the town, which appeared to have been built out of sandstone. Its style differed greatly from any wall Ignis had ever seen before, but he could not care about that right now, as he contemplated if it would be wise to approach the gate with a giant rat holding a resident in its mouth. Coming to the conclusion that it was indeed a bad idea, he demanded Mira let go of Soléne, which she did. While Ignis climbed off Mira and undid the enlargement spell, Soléne immediately babbled all kinds of phrases of thankfulness in her language while kissing the sand on the ground, as if it was her greatest joy to be back on her feet.
Her joy quickly turned to anger, as she started to bombard Ignis with insults, slapping the old man all the while, who defensively raised his hands.
"Enough, enough! I know what I did was not okay! Enough already!", he pleaded, as though the slaps to his body did nothing but remove sand from his robes, the slaps to his face did sting quite a bit.
"Stop! Look behind you! We made it!", the old man continued, pointing behind Soléne, which halted her assault on him long enough for him to quickly pick up Mira and run away.
It was true, the city was mere yards away, she had finally arrived at her destination. However, as she looked back to the wizard, he had already started to run away from the city.
"Attends! Je ne t'ai pas encore remercié!", she called out for him to return as she wanted to pay for his expenses as a means of thanking him for having saved her life.
Ignis, however, began to run even faster, as he misunderstood her words as her wanting to take her revenge on him.
"Well, guess this town won't suffice either. What a shame, I miss sleeping in a proper bed.", he lamented, as he ran away from the town and towards the river not far away from it.
The mighty Louplàbas river now laid before the wizard, its strong rapids flowing violently past the bridge to his left, which seemed to connect two different towns with each other.
Ignis could not find a single boat or ship floating on the river, which was hardly surprising, nor was he able to assess how far away the other shore was. Seeing as he did not want to go anywhere near the town, he thought of another way to cross the river. He was against using flying magic, as it was tiring, so the only thing left would be a spell he had never used before, the
"Let's do this! VENTUS!"
Violent winds surrounded the wizard and quickly formed a sphere around him, which became visible, as it contained sand.
"Ooh, I forgot I was in the desert. Quite pretty, but now I don't know where I'm going.", the old man complained, but not for long.
He just shrugged and continued forward, as he knew that if he just kept on going forward, he was bound to hit land at some point. His strategy seemed to work, as the sand was quickly replaced with water, proving that not only did his spell work just as intended, but it also opened up a way for him to hide inside water in case he had to flee from something. Satisfied with the results of his experiment, he continued forward, though he did not move straight up north like he wanted, but west, thus following the river's flow instead of crossing over to the other side.
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"Halt, state your name and business in this town!", one of the 5 guards in front of Soléne called out to her in the Language of the West.
"I am Duchess Soléne Janine de Faucon. I demand to be escorted to the Lord of this city!", she answered, showing a large golden medallion depicting the coat of arms of the Faucon Duchy, a falcon attacking a snake.
"My deepest apologies, Your Grace! Please forgive us for failing to recognize the new Duchess of Faucon! We simply assumed someone of such high status to never be without guards! Philippe, Charles! Come with me and help me escort Her Grace to the Lord's residence, the rest of you hold position and explain the situation to the evening shift, as they should arrive in a few minutes!", the guard hastily bowed to Soléne, before barking commands at the other guards, who saluted him in response.
The guards named Philippe and Charles took position behind the Duchess and their leader, as they made their way through the town.
"If it is not too rude to ask, what happened to Her Graces personal guards?", the leader of the group asked.
"After my father died and I inherited his position, I received my first order from King Alexander himself, to aid Duke Renard in the matter concerning recent banditry on the caravan routes in his territory, though I fear that we were betrayed. We were ambushed by the very same bandits we wanted to get rid of, and their leader mentioned to be on the duke's payroll before attacking us. At least half of my man fell during the attack, the other tried to buy time for my escape. Though I managed to flee, I still got lost in the middle of the desert. If it was not for the man named Ignis, who found and brought me here, I would surely have succumbed to dehydration or the undead wanderers of the night."
"I am sorry to hear about this, but as Her Grace probably knows, a mere guardsman without noble background is not authorized to comment on this matter any further before proper investigations have taken place, as it involves the duke of a different territory, though we had our fair share of problems with bandits as well, so I will definitely stay vigilant in this matter. However, did Her Grace just mention the name Ignis? A spellcaster clad in grey robes?", the guard inquired, which confused Soléne.
"Indeed! Have you any knowledge of this man? I wanted to thank him properly by inviting him to stay within the city free of charge, but he took off immediately. The least I could do is to make sure he receives my proper gratitude."
"Hmm... There have been rumours about him, which reached quite far, considering he lives south of the Rideau Blanc. It is said he is quite the odd one, a magical genius and kind-hearted soul, as well as a scatter-brained pyromaniac who does as he pleases.", the guard explained.
"That... sounds about right.", Soléne chuckled, before shuddering at the memory of how he decided to carry her here.
"I wonder what fate brought him this far? Maybe the gods had sent him to prevent Her Grace from falling prey to the desert?", the guard suggested.
"I wonder as well...", she replied, as she continued to walk towards the city-lord's residence.