Prehistory, Earth

"Where are the rest, boy?" the Grand Magi asks without preamble, sounding rather bored and irritated.

"The rest? What rest?" the Prince mumbles incoherently while spitting out another mouthful of sand that had lined his lips. Outside of himself and the Grand Magi, the Emerald Ocean was devoid of life. The Prince had no idea what the Grand Magi was talking about.

"The rest of your tribe, idiot boy!" the Grand Magi snaps, "Or your clan, or whatever you savages refer to yourselves as. Do I need to spell everything out for you?"

"Uh, yes?" the Prince stutters, "I'm not in any tribe, I think?"

"Idiots." the Grand Magi huffs, "Its been years ever since you lot left the Emerald Ocean and you're still as stupid as ever."

The gears in the Prince's head begin to turn as the pieces of the puzzle slot in and realization dawns.

"I'm not a nomad." the Prince declares as he shifts to a more comfortable sitting position on the parched ground, "This is my first time in the Emerald Ocean in fact."

"I see ..." the Grand Magi murmurs while furrowing his brow, "Did they forget about me? Impossible, the Invisible Hand would have compelled them to honor the debt owed."

As the Grand Magi sinks deeper into his ruminations, the old man idly plays with the golden chain laced around his wrists and ankles. The metal is so thin that it should snap at the slightest movement, but no matter how much the Grand Magi tugs absent mindedly at it, the chain binds his limbs fast.

"I was told to find you -" the Prince begins but the old man cuts him off with an annoyed wave of his hand.

"Save it." the Grand Magi scoffs, "I'm not in the mood to be granting any boons, especially to someone who might be connected to the Order of the Invisible Hand. What happened now, those incompetents messed up again and want me to save their skins?"

"We need -" the Prince begins again but is cut off once more.

"I said save it." the Grand Magi rolls his eyes, "I'm not interested."

"You were the one who asked a question." the Prince murmurs sourly to himself. He had managed to complete his quest, finding the Grand Magi. But now a new problem had emerged. The man who was supposed to be his savior turned out to be a complete asshole who had no intention of helping. The Grand Magi closes his eyes again, dismissing the Prince entirely.

"Grand Magi, could you at least tell me what happened here?" the Prince asks, hoping to draw the old man out of his standoffish shell, "Why did the nomads suddenly all disappear?"

"They didn't disappear." the Grand Magi grumbles, "The nomads were supposed to find a way to release me as payment for a debt owed. I thought those savages finally returned when you awakened me. I've been left waiting here for years! Years!"

A bad feeling creeps up the spine of the Prince as the implications of the Grand Magi's answer start to sink in. The nomads attacked without any warning or provocation. None of the king's advisors could figure out the reason for this sudden burst of aggression. Swallowing hard, the Prince presses on with the questions, yet dreading the answers that he might receive.

"What debt did the nomads owe you?" the Prince cautiously asks, careful not to provoke the Grand Magi.

The old man harrumphs, finally opening his eyes again. Lifting one his legs up, the Grand Magi, shakes the dust off his foot, revealing the sole to the Prince. The Prince looks on, thoroughly bewildered by this display as the Grand Magi's temper begins to worsen once more.

"Look closer." the old man snorts, "Use your eyes stupid boy."

Taking heed, the Prince leans forward, scrutinizing the Grand Magi's foot. But other than the pungent odor from not being washed for years, the Prince can detect nothing out of the ordinary. Narrowing his eyes and making one final attempt at understanding what the old man had been hinting at, the Prince desperately scans the dirty sole. Failing to answer the Grand Magi's question would no doubt result in the failure of this quest, and that's something the Prince simply could not afford. As the Prince scans the lines that scrawl over the sole of the Grand Magi's foot, he finally catches something. A thin, almost imperceptible scar cutting across the old man's heel.

"Good, you see it." the Grand Magi answers, "That should explain everything, shouldn't it?"

"But I don't understand anything at all?" the Prince blurts out as he sweats hard from the position the Grand Magi had put him into.

For a moment the old man merely glares at the Prince, debating whether or not to just dismiss the boy again and go back to sleep. But the memory of the accumulated boredom of the years rears its ugly head in the Grand Magi's mind and the need to take a break from it by talking to someone, anyone, wins out.

"No, I suppose an explanation is in order, stupid boy." the Grand Magi finally sighs, "I had been exiled to this place by the Order of the Invisible Hand, you know that already, correct?"

The Prince nods mutely, exhaling in relief that the Grand Magi had chosen to humor him.

"The Order chained my body." the Grand Magi gestures weakly at the golden shackles binding him, "And marched me over the border of the Emerald Sea. They thought that this place and its barbarians would be enough to end me."

"But it wasn't." the Prince says, encouraging the old man to continue.

"No. It certainly was not." the Grand Magi sneers, "The barbarians quickly got wind of my presence and surrounded me, mounted on their horses and brandishing weapons. They thought I was easy prey. One of the savages pushed me, and a blade of grass cut my heel, drawing blood."

"The scar." The Prince nods.

"Yes. The scar you saw." the old man agrees, "And that was the mistake the barbarians made. Blood has value after all, and by drawing out a drop of my blood, the land itself fell into debt with me."

The Grand Magi folds his legs and continues his tale as the Prince digests the implications so far.

"Debts need to be paid. That is the fundamental law of the Invisible Hand. And so I extracted the payment that was owed to me. Both from the land and from its inhabitants."

"So this desert ..." the Prince begins, utterly aghast.

"I can't help it if the land cannot sustain my reasonable demands." the Grand Magi smiles maliciously, "Nor can I be blamed if the barbarians find themselves unable to pay. Its not my fault that their lives are worth so little compared to mine."

The Prince starts to scramble backward, horror overtaking him. The Order was correct in exiling the Grand Magi. The man was insane, and if he was not, then utterly evil. Why had the Treasurer chosen to put his faith in such a man?

"Afraid?" the Grand Magi laughs, "Don't be. I'm harmless, to anyone associated with the Order at any rate. This blasted chain prevents me from collecting any debts owed by you lot."

The Prince's palpitating heart immediately calms down upon hearing this admission. Of course. That's how the Order managed to exile the Grand Magi in the first place. The old man was neutered as long as the golden chain bound him fast. But the Prince was not truly safe from the Grand Magi. He was merely protected by a case of mistaken identity. The moment the old devil realized that the Prince was not a member of the Order, all bets were off. The Prince could not count on the Grand Magi on being quite so affable then. He needed to tread carefully. Very, very carefully.

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"So the savages prostrated themselves before me," the Grand Magi takes up the story again, fully engrossed in the retelling and not noticing the shifting expression on the Prince's face, "Begging for forgiveness. And I'm a reasonable man after all. I forgave their impertinence, and even gave them a discount on the debt they owed me."

"You ordered the nomads to invade." the Prince comments.

"Most certainly not." the Grand Magi scoffs, "I merely told them to find a way to free me. How they interpreted my instructions was completely out of my control."

"i understand." the Prince says evenly, a plan forming in his mind, "But your story has nothing to do with why I'm here. The Order calls upon you once more, Grand Magi."

"I knew it!" the old man crows, "Can't hold back my pet barbarians, can you? Here to finally free me, to beg for mercy?"

"The nomads were defeated." the Prince smirks.

"What?" the Grand Magi stutters, caught off balance, "Impossible, you're lying."

"They've been defeated for several years already." the Prince smiles, "That's why no one bothered to check up on you. Until now."

"YOU'RE LYING!" the Grand Magi roars in fury.

"Then how did I manage to get to the heart of the Emerald Ocean without being stopped by the nomads?" the Prince points out.

The Grand Magi's eyes widen in shock but he quickly regains control of himself, "Then why are you here now? For revenge?"

"The Order needs your wisdom." The Prince shakes his head, "A new power has risen, something we can't fight by ourselves."

And so the hours passed as the Prince related his tale to the Grand Magi, telling the old man about the Priest and the pursuit of the royal siblings, the new power that had been awakened in the Emperor, but always careful to omit any reference of himself. And the Grand Magi listened quietly, drinking every detail in.

"You are all idiots." the old man finally declares, "The answer to your problem is right in front of you and yet you can't figure it out by yourselves. But I suppose that's why I'm the most powerful member of the Order and you are, well, whatever you are."

"So you know how to defeat the Priest and free the Emperor?" the Prince asks hopefully.

"Not so fast." the Grand Magi raises a hand, "Let's talk terms first. Are you going to release me?"

"I'll tell the Order of your cooperation." the Prince shrugs, "What the elders decide is out of my hands."

"Not good enough." the Grand Magi snorts.

"Its all you're getting." the Prince side eyes the old man derisively, "Your nomads have been defeated. No one is coming to rescue you. You're lucky we still need you and I was not told to execute you on the spot."

"And I suppose if I don't cooperate ..." the Grand Magi trails off meaningfully.

"Then the Order doesn't need you." the Prince shrugs indifferently.

"Fine." the old man frowns hard, "I suppose I've no choice then, do I?"

"You have choices," the Prince smirks, "just lousy ones."

"Don't you dare sass me, boy." the Grand Magi snaps, "I'm still your elder. But to answer your question, yes, I know how to stop this priest and whatever he summoned. The Order won't even need to fight this new power if you follow my advise."

The Prince gestures at the old devil, urging him to continue. The Grand Magi instead raises the golden shackles, turning them in the light so that the Prince can see a tiny keyhole by the side of the cuffs.

"All locks need a key." the Grand Magi continues, "Lose the key, and the lock won't open. And sometimes, smashing the lock is out of the question. Isn't that right, boy?"

"Yes ..." the Prince nods dumbly, waiting for a further explanation.

"Fine, I'll be more direct then." the Grand Magi makes an irritated expression as he explains, "To break the power of the being this priest summoned, you need to prevent it from fully manifesting itself. Its not of this world, as I'm sure you're aware. That's why it needs a host body, the Emperor you were telling me about."

"I understand so far." the Prince replies.

"And why does the priest want the Emperor's children? They're the keys obviously, to allow a complete manifestation." the Grand Magi raises a finger as he lectures, "So to deal with the summoned being, all the order needs to do is to arrange for one of the keys to be conveniently lost."

"But the Emperor -" the Prince interrupts but is waved away by the Grand Magi.

"Yes, yes, the Host." the Grand Magi grunts, "He's irrelevant. If the summoned being is trying to fully manifest, it would have made changes to do the host's body to accommodate the manifestation."

"Changes?" the Prince repeats, mind in a whirl.

"Yes." the Grand Magi answers, "The summoned being isn't human, boy. Its not going to share our physiognomy. So the being would have changed the host's body to better support it. And that also means that the being has firmly anchored itself to the Emperor. After spending so much energy remaking its host, the being is not going to be strong enough to linger once the host expires. It will be forced to return to wherever it came from. At least temporarily."

"But that would mean I would need to -" the Prince hesitates, the Grand Magi's advise giving no comfort.

"Kill your sister?" the old devil jeers harshly, "Oh, don't look so surprised boy, I knew who you were the moment you stepped foot into the Emerald Ocean. I may be trapped here, but my senses range far and wide. The birds and beasts saw your flight from the castle and I heard their cawing and grunting carried over the wind."

"Shut your mouth." the Prince hisses and threateningly draws a knife, "Remember that you are still bound by the golden chain. I can end you whenever I wish."

"And remember that knowledge has worth, boy." the Grand Magi smirks, "And I would like the debt you owe me paid."

A sharp pain tears through the Prince's head, forcing him to his knees. The boy screams in agony but the pain keeps building and building, like a tidal wave.

"Stop. I'm sorry for threatening you -" the Prince gasps, "Just make the pain sto -"

And the Prince's head explodes like a ripe melon, pelting the Grand Magi's clothes with grey brain matter. The old devil scoops up some of the sludge with a finger, lifting it to his mouth for a taste.

"Salty." the Grand Magi grunts, "But that's really neither here nor there."

Closing his eyes again, the Grand Magi returns to dreaming, satisfied that he has played his part in keeping humanity safe, for the time being.