Cale lay exhausted in his bed. To his left, Aletta slept, as he had had no strength or motivation to bring her to her own bed. To his right lay Grischa, whose mana had mostly refilled. The Eldest stood before him and handed Cale a cup of fresh tea, which he had just prepared, before also taking a seat on the large bed. He had tied up his hair and taken off his uniform, only in the dark shirt the experienced mage now squatted in front of him and took a look outside.

The sun had been setting for some time and slowly the stars could be seen. The Eldest had given Cale bed rest, wanting to take tonight's night shift himself. But even though Cale was exhausted, he was uncomfortable falling asleep in front of the Eldest.

"How old are you actually, Caleb?", the Eldest raised after a while, taking a sip of his own drink without turning away from the sky.

"Depends on how you look at it. I'm 304 years old, if you don't count the lost 25 years until I was 5", Cale stated matter-of-factly. After Grischa had also asked him once on this tpoic, he had to follow up. In his first life he became 25, then 73, 42, 98 and finally 69 years old. With his current 22 years and the lost 25 years he finally came to his theoretical age. At least that was the number of years Cale had lived so far. It was hard to give a specific number, but 304 years should be about right.

"You're older than I am..." the Eldest noted, dropping his cold gaze to Cale. "... in a strange way, at least."

"Psychologically, yes. You could say that."

"When I was young, as old as you are now physically, the Magistrat did not exist", the Eldest began a moment later. "Altona had been through a civil war and the whole country was divided into hundreds of bishoprics. It was pure chaos. You couldn't say or do anything without seeming disrespectful to a foreign liege lord. Everyone had their own rules, there were constant quarrels, not even clear boundaries between countries. Wasn't a nice time to grow up, especially as the son of such a lord."

"You're noble?", Cale admitted in surprise.

"I used to be once, yes. Fiet's family owned one of the largest estates and I was the only heir. My father died and I automatically became his successor, my fiancée became my wife a few days later and my mother received the title of lady of the house. As long as I didn't have a successor, she was next in line to inherit Fiet's family, even though she was a woman", the Eldest explained, sighing softly before taking another sip of his tea. He didn't seem to have noticed that he had caught Aletta's and Cale's favorite tea in the process, but from his demeanor, he seemed to like it. Or he knew it beforhand and Cale simply did not know it. Wouldn't necessarily surprise Cale if the Eldest had kinship to Frignez. Judging by his appearance, it was quite possible. "She died six months after that. I don't know why, to this day. She was in perfect health until that day and suddenly she was dead in her bed."

"Poisoned?", Cale cautioned, but the Eldest just shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows. Could have been my wife, but I don't know for sure. My wife died when she gave birth to my son", the Eldest explained dryly, but Cale paused in surprise. Not only did the Eldest have a family of his own, but he also had a son? "It was my son who, during the time of my reign, began to conquer the other lands and lead them under the regency of our family. He was also a good mage, up to a certain point he was even better than me. But then, one day, I reached the third level."

His tone told Cale that the Eldest was not pleased with the situation at that time.

"I saw the Altona of today, along with the wonderful capital that had just been destroyed. From one day to the next, I found everything we did meaningless. People were fighting themselves, only to be destroyed one day by the creatures that you didn't really get to see at the time. I stopped taking my official duties seriously and the older my son got, the more I realized how little power I actually had. And one day I received my first vision, triggered by my Igrikum. The next night, my own son would kill me."

Horrified, Cale slapped his hand in front of his mouth. The Eldest noticed this reaction, merely smiled at it.

"As you might guess, it turned out differently. That night I killed Neonar, my son. It was a cruel feeling. No father should have to watch his child die, especially by his own hand."

In disbelief, Cale stared at the High-Magician, who merely took a sip and looked at Grischa.

"I set fire to the entire Mansion that night and fled. Ironically, I built the Magistrat on the same spot almost 100 years later, along with Aaron."

"The city was built on your actual property?"

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"Yes, it was. However, that was due to Aaron. He hates the family of Fiet."

"Pardon?", Cale threw back. That was all he could bring himself to say.

"He doesn't know my real name. To him, I'm Raphael Maron, just like I was to everyone else who got to know me after my son's murder."

"You haven't told anyone who you are? Not even Aaron?"

The Eldest shook his head.

"I missed the right moment. Aaron's family was killed by my son's soldiers, which is why he hunted us down. Neonar had dozens of women and children that Aaron had sought out and killed."

Cale didn't even know what to think about that, he was so speechless. Aaron and the Eldest always seemed relatively close, hard to believe there was such a past.

"I never asked if he killed all the descendants of my family, but over the years there were definitely quite a lot. Aaron was known as the Noble's Slayer. They called him Aaron the Seeker. If he hadn't also been an Apostle, I certainly wouldn't have joined up with him."

"How did you find out he was an Apostle?"

"He told me. In his insight, he saw me setting fire to my own mansion. He thinks to this day that I also detest the family of Fiat. Partly... it's true, yet he doesn't know the whole story behind it."

"Didn't Aaron become an Apostle after you?"

"Yes, he became."

"Then how could he have seen you set fire to the building?"

Silently, they both looked at each other. The Eldest seemed never to have thought about it, probably because he was too busy trying to conceal his identity from his companion, who was hunting his whole family. What would have happened if Aaron had learned who the Eldest really was?

"I... never thought about it, to be honest. But otherwise, I don't know how else he would know."

"So Aaron didn't receive a vision of the future, but something from the... past?", Cale spoke up. The two High-Magicians stared at each other with mixed emotions, neither having a logical explanation. Either Aaron was a gifted liar, or something about the whole Apostle story had been different with him. "Sorry, go on, please."

The Eldest himself seemed completely taken aback by her new knowledge, but for now did not concern himself with it any further.

"When Aaron and I met, we were not alone. He had his whole group with him as an entourage, who literally followed him wherever he went. When we met then, he didn't know that I was already over 100 years old. Over the next few years we kept running into each other and as his group got smaller, we both started spending more time together. One day, I think he was just turning 70, he asked me if there was anything strange about him. I returned the same question and asked him if there wasn't something strange about me to him. It was pretty interesting to watch as he realized I hadn't changed much since the day we met."

"He never... realized?"

"Not really, no. It was because I hadn't really shown my face openly, though. He knew I was in my 60s when we met, but then to look at the same face dozens of years later pretty much left him speechless. I then told him how old I was, one of the few times he gave a proper reaction and didn't have that killer look."

At the statement, Cale felt a chill run down his spine and immediately thought of William, Ben and Philippa. Suddenly, he realized that he was his friends in the presence of a mass murderer. The thought made him queasy and he wanted to make his communication crystal appear, but he decided against it. He knew William and Ben. They would not willingly reveal their identities, that much was certain.

"After that day, we were pretty much no longer traveling separately. We reached a beautiful base, which became a small village, and at some point other Apostles appeared infront of us. The decades passed, the village became a town and its origin was forgotten. In fact, there are still books about the family of Fiet and Aaron the Seeker, also about the origin of the capital, but our faces are very poorly documented there."

"And Aaron? In all these years, he never found out who you were?"

"At least he never said anything. I think he's convinced he decapitated all of Fiet's family members", the Eldest countered, but the thought only caused Cale more concern. So Aaron's strange behavior had a rather sinister background. "Whereas, maybe he'll find out in the years to come and catch me then. Against his Igrikum of gravity, I can't really compete with my foresight, despite a warning."

The death of the Eldest. Momentarily, Cale had to think of his past. The Eldest had died during the 2nd wave, but were the creatures really to blame? Had the Eldest perhaps decided at the last moment to tell Aaron the truth?

"Aaron's going to find out, isn't he?", the Eldest gave voice a few moments later, only making Cale realize that he had stopped responding altogether.

At the question, Cale winced. He didn't dare look directly at the Eldest. How could he, after that story? The man had basically just told him that his family's assassin was his closest ally. On top of that, he gave Cale a free pass to kill him without Cale getting his hands dirty to do it. In short, he risked his life, which was probably his own way of showing that he trusted Cale.

"Let's put it this way... you should have met your demise by the 2nd wave, just like the other High-Magicians", Cale replied, taking a sip of tea as he had to suppress the feeling of not being hostile towards Aaron. "The thing with your name... is still better left between us."

What in the world was Aaron thinking? He had become so well known for the murders of Fiet's family that Cale even had read about him. But never in his life would he have expected that the aloof 3rd seat and the well-known serial killer were the same person. Was Aaron so distraught over the loss of his family that he wanted to exact revenge?

A moment later, Cale paused.

Who was he to judge Aaron like that? After all, Cale was basically the same? He didn't care much about people as long as he could keep his friends safe. They were therefore quite similar, even if Cale was a lot more discreet. He didn't actively kill people, but rather let them die on purpose.

Up to a point, therefore, Cale could understand how Aaron must have felt. Or still felt. Had he found his peace by now, or was Aaron really a danger Cale had never seen before? Should he get rid... of him for safety's sake?