William gratefully accepted the piece of meat that the giant handed him before he inconspicuously smelled it and then bit into it. Unseasoned, the meat tasted very dry, yet clearly better than the things they had eaten in recent weeks. Hungrily chewing the warm meat, he swallowed and took another bite.

At the reaction, Basil cleared his throat in amusement before handing the food to his other guests as well. He seemed very happy and towards the group he had completely discarded his hostility. Only Theorik continued to be brusquely dismissed, so he almost felt sorry for the man.

Inconspicuously, William started at Theorik. A young man who had to be around 20 years old and came from Winstest. How did it happen that a High-Magician from Sylve knew an outcast? Had Cale met Theorik on one of his travels when he was younger? But if that was the case, when? How old was Cale then and was Theorik still in the woods then?

"You have kept your promise, now I guess it is my turn to do my part. What would you like to know about the Kormandent?"

"Kormandent?", William repeated in wonder as he held up his hand and swallowed unobtrusively.

"This creature you're looking for. I nicknamed it Kormandent because when we met, it had led a group of creatures and was the only one that could speak."

"It can talk?", Aaron repeaded as he held his portion in his hands without having ingested any of it.

"Do you know anything at all about these monsters?"

"Admitted, not very much, no. Just that it's very fast," Aaron interjected.

"Wrong, it's not fast. It teleports."

"Teleports?", Ben, William and Aaron gave in unison, while the others listened silently to the conversation.

"When I first met the monster I was just a child. It had attacked my village at the time and captured most of the inhabitants. It marked us all with this thing..." explained Basil, as he pulled down her jacket to present a black, oddly shaped mark on her back to the onlookers. "... And after a few hours, we all couldn't use mana. He had an easy time killing all of us, however, he had overlooked me at that time. I don't know how I made it out of there in one piece, but that thing is life threatening."

"A healer from Frignez commented to me that the mark targets the mana center and steals the mana from its victims to use for itself," Aaron announced, dropping a quick glance at the three adventurers before biting into the meat as well.

"Really? Didn't know that, but I don't remember some of it from back then anyway. All I know is that it worked for the rebels and hunted us down like animals."

"Doesn't your mana regenerate at all?", Aaron asked cautiously.

"I don't know, you tell me. I never learned to consciously perceive mana, so I can't tell you. I've lived my whole life without it."

"It was alone, wasn't it?", Aaron spoke up after some time. The statements didn't seem to please Aaron much, but he kept the comment to himself.

"At the time, yes. But it always spoke in the plural by itself, which is why I suspect there are several. Maybe even a whole colony, who knows. I wasn't sure until today, but you said one of them was seen in Altona."

"Correct, though it was lost in the mass during the attack."

"You guys were pretty lucky, if that thing had gotten into the city it would have ended badly. Just be glad he only led the creatures and didn't join in the attack," Basil casually added before taking a large bite, chewing a few times and swallowing whole. He was unaware that the Kormandent had indeed joined in the attack.

"A High-Magician built a barrier over the city, which is why it couldn't gain entry," Aaron explained carefully.

"A High-Magician? You must kiss the man's hands and feet, without him your city would have been razed to the ground, I can assure you. Look at what they've done to Tsuke."

"Tsuke?", Aaron repeated in surprise.

"Yes. I come from this gods forsaken patch of misery. After the great war and the conflict between the Paserus and the rebels, one thing had led to another."

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

William felt a shiver down his spine. Tsuke was considered an uninhabited continent and most people deliberately avoided the region. The creatures should have multiplied there so much that you can no longer see the ground. Only people who were tired of life would go there. Not in his life would William have expected that people still lived there.

"May I ask how old you are?", the High-Magician gave to voice.

"Me? Barely 150 years", Basil replied simply, before Theorik choked, coughing loudly as William and his group stared at the man, stunned.

"What?", Theorik's echoed statement throughout the room, stifled by his cough.

"I'm a primal human, Theorik. Didn't I always tell you not to think of me as your equal?"

"You could have mentioned that this means you are immortal", Theorik replied, stunned, and William could well understand the confusion. How could he live so long, most people barely reached the age of eighty.

"Primordial humans are not immortal", Philippa calmly admitted, as if she herself had not just been surprised by the statement. "They merely have a longer life expectancy, much like the Apostles. Isn't that right?"

"Exactly. We merely have an iron body and therefore decay more slowly over time. How that is with the Halflings, Apostles as they are called here in Winstest, I'm not sure though. I've never met one, but judging by stories, they are said to live up to 500 years or more", Basil explained with amusement, tossing the bones aside as he indulged in the next piece.

"This is abnormal. How come I don't know about this?", Theorik admitted, slightly disgusted.

"What do I know, you can't exactly be said to be smart", Basil replied dryly, which led to an argument between Theorik and him.

William tuned out the conversation. His mind was buzzing with the number 500. 500 years. That was more than six times the amount of time a normal person spent in this world. But what frightened William all the more was the fact that he had recently come up with the conjecture that 3rd stage mages were the Apostles, who were worshipped in the Three Gods Faith.

No wonder Aaron thought he was no longer a normal human being. This is a beastly difference. Inevitably, his eyes turned to the High-Magician, who was also listening to the conversation. He didn't seem to have heard much new, on the other hand he rarely showed his thoughts. But at the sight of the comparatively young-looking man, William couldn't help but wonder.

How old was Aaron, anyway?

How much did William actually know about the High-Magicians? Before he had left the palace, he had always assumed that the High-Magicians were merely mages who possessed an incredible amount of talent and were therefore among the best mages in the world. But ever since he met Cale, he began to learn things that no longer made sense. How did one become a High-Magician? How did they receive the Igrikum? Were they really the Apostles of the gods? Was it the gods who gave them this ability? Were they really immortal?

"Basil", the High-Magician raised his voice after quite a while, after the conversation had gone completely off topic. "Have you ever met anyone who was also affected by the marking?"

The audience fell silent while the giant looked at Aaron in surprise.

"No. Never. As far as I know, I'm the only survivor. However, I can't guarantee you that there isn't someone who also suffers from it. Same with the primordial humans. I've never met any, so I can't say if I'm the last of my kind."

The big man seemed little distressed that his race was dying out. What surprised William, however, was that it was the first time he had heard the whole story. He had had many unnecessary history lessons as a prince, so he actually always assumed he was relatively educated. But what had happened on Tsuke a good hundred years ago, he had never heard. Was the situation simply concealed from him or did no one know the story of what had actually occurred. Given the circumstances, it may well be that the last inhabitants had died without the world's knowledge.

But then how had it come about that the three swords had become such legends? William remembered well how an acquaintance of Ben's father had told them the story of the Kamas and how powerful the swords were. However, the historian had not addressed the background about their creation, though William also did not remember everything the man had told him.

Silently, William stared into the fire. If someone had told him a year ago that he would find himself in Winstest talking to a real Kama, accompanied by a High-Magician from Altona, he would have thought the person was crazy. Yet here he sat, several miles away from his home, wondering how much he still didn't know about the world. Humans, mages, primordial humans and Halflings, what else would await him? What was the war all about? How were the swords involved in it? Why had the creatures attacked Exarion and what exactly were the dragons up to?

Were the dragons trying to take back the land? Was this why Cale was always so extremely cautious? Was he afraid that the dragons would become aware of him, precisely because of his earlier encounter?

"I would have one last question, though I suspect you don't really have an answer to that either," Aaron raised, causing William to snap out of his thoughts and listen to what was going on. "Do you know how to remove this mark?"

The calm question from the mage, who held the two documents in one hand, made the prince look up. They hadn't really learned much new, but they had a huge problem. If the creatures were indeed teleporting, how would they ever locate him? Even William was aware that this was the High-Magicians' goal. If Basil couldn't give them any more information, then they now had to focus on the creature itself - which in turn meant they had to find it themselves.

"Unfortunately, no. You'd have to separate the marrow from the body somehow or kill the source, but first find the creature that doesn't want to be found", Basil replied matter-of-factly. Something about that statement made William suspect that the man had already spent several years hunting the creature. But what would be left for them to do? Currently, there was no way to separate the markings, so they would inevitably have to hunt the creature. But how long would that take, and how long would Grischa last?

No matter how William looked at it, they didn't have much hope. And to his regret, Aaron thought the same.