After the count reached the south tower, running with sword in hand, he found the room in total chaos. The wizards of his castle were famous for their lack of order, but that was too much. A yellow dust floated in the air, covering all the destroyed objects in the room, and preventing him from seeing clearly. One of the youngest wizards was busy with the task of manipulating the air to get the particles out of the windows but it seemed that the solution was worse than the problem.

Leander was lying on the floor being attended to by a blue-robed Acolyte who kept his hands pressed to the level of his friend's lungs while he kept coughing and spitting a yellow paste on the floor. From what he had been told, the wizard and the guards guarding the door had inhaled some of the powder that could have been poisonous if it remained in their bodies any longer.

Meanwhile, the castle had been sealed off. No one could leave or enter. All the guards had been alerted and were covering every corner of the vast fortification in search of the suspect. The Count would have liked to go with Olivia, but when he was told of the danger Leander faced, he sent another of his trusted men to escort her to him. It would be the safest thing to do and besides he wanted to hear from the wizard's own mouth everything that had happened.

“Alaric...” Leander began to say, forgetting the way he used to treat him in public, but before continuing he coughed several times, until he finally took a deep breath. His red face was drenched with sweat.

“Was it the arcantio?”, asked the Count.

Still lying down the wizard began to answer.

“No, the arcantio is safe. Nothing but old potion leftovers... although quite strong... Too bad we don't know what the combination was. It would have been such a discovery,” he joked.

“And the intruder?”

“I didn't get a good look at him,” the wizard continue. “He seemed like a young boy. Dark hair, green cloak, I think... Although there was a second when I thought I knew him from somewhere.”

“One of the disciples. An Initiate? An Acolyte?” he stared at the blue-robed young wizard who seemed to tense with discomfort.

“No, no one I recognized. But there was something...”

“What did the guards say?”

“It was all very quick. He must have escaped through the door after the explosion. They... couldn't do anything,” Leander explained. "It wasn't their fault... I..."

“No matter how fast he was, there was no way he could get out before the shields were activated. He must be hiding in the castle or he is one of us.” the Count concluded.

“Yes... although according to the wizards who were awakened by the explosion...”

Before the stunned gaze of the Count, Leander went on to explain that, when his colleagues attempted to activate the shields, it took several minutes for them to start working.

In the entire history of the castle, since the first wizards had been dispatched from the capital, nothing like this had ever happened. When they checked the seals, they found no errors in their design. The only explanation was that someone had manipulated them from somewhere else and throughout the castle there was only one person capable of doing so. The only one who knew the pattern of the primary key and shared with the Count the enormous responsibility of protecting the fortress and all its inhabitants.

Leander gave the Count a penetrating look.

“No one but us three knew that the chimera was here.”

The Count's breathing became heavier and heavier.

“Unless of course you think...” Leander continued.

“I would never think that of you” his childhood friend immediately assured him.

“So...”

“Has anyone seen Eldrin?” asked the Count.

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“He has been in his room all this time, my lord,” answered the Acolyte. “I know because, just before hearing the explosion, he sent for me to prepare some ointment for his legs. He apologizes deeply for not coming to our aid but the pain makes it impossible for him to climb the stairs.”

“Send two Masters accompanied by guards and have him transferred to the dungeon!” ordered the Count.

The Acolyte looked at him in horror but did not dare to protest.

“Leander, can you get up?”

His friend sat up slowly, holding on to the Count's shoulder.

“I'm sorry, I don't trust anyone else” said the noble. “See to it that the dungeon is tightly sealed until I get there.”

“Just in case, I'll need more than two other Masters. What will you do?”

“I'll get Olivia. She should be here by now...”

“My lord!” Cormac, the captain of the guard, was running down the corridor towards them. His pale face, which contrasted with his red hair, told him that something terrible had happened.

Olivia was not in her room. As soon as he heard this, Alaric's world came crashing down.

“The intruder has kidnapped her!”

His blood rushed to his head and he unsheathed his sword again.

“When I find him...”

Cormac held the Count by the shoulders, preventing him from running away.

“All the guards are alerted... but... sir...” Cormac brought a hand close to his lord's face to show him something.

A dark braid, the color of ravens. It had been found among the lady's clothes. Cormac himself had searched the room, noticing that her training clothes were missing, as well as the dagger he had given her.

Hearing this, Leander let out a painful scream and grabbed his head as if he wanted to tear his hair out.

“The boy! How did I not notice?”

For the rest of the night, no one spared any effort to search for Lady Olivia. Guards, wizards, servants, butlers, cooks, laundresses, blacksmiths, stewards, stables. All who were still asleep were dragged out of bed and no place was left unexplored.

The search took a new turn when, while inspecting the south tower, one of the wizards had noticed that the bookcase was out of place. At first they had thought it was a product of the explosion, but just in case they conducted a magic power trace and found the seal that opened the secret door. From there it became easier to know the course Olivia had taken, although, to the wizards' surprise, the magic trail ended in a passageway that led to their own latrines. From there, the tracks ended abruptly.

The Count himself went to inspect the place. He weighed each of the possible escape routes and, as much as he didn't want to accept it, he walked over to the narrow window and looked out. It had snowed all night, any trace should have been wiped away, but Alaric was no longer in any doubt.

Olivia was not in the castle.

He ordered the shields to be lifted, knowing that it had taken too long to do so. By then there were only two options. Either her daughter was already far away, going through the forest to avoid the paths where she knew she would be easily found.

Or maybe... she had died from the cold.

“My Lord,” said a wizard upon receiving the order. “Only the Leader of the Order can raise the shields.”

Alaric ran towards the dungeon. As soon as he saw Eldrin's figure behind the bars, he was ready to kill him at the least provocation.

“Raise the shields” he ordered.

“Of course, my Lord.”answered Eldrin, as if he had been interrupted reading in the library, although his hands were cuffed to the wall. “If you would be so kind as to ask my brothers to remove the seals that prevent me from leaving here.”

“I know very well that there is nothing to stop you from doing so.”

“My Lord flatters me. But I am not all-powerful. I can only deactivate the seals whose patterns I know, and my brothers have gone to all the trouble of inventing new ones that are beyond my knowledge.”

Alaric instructed the other wizards to remove the seals.

Immediately, Eldrin placed a hand on the wall and several golden lines crawled like swift snakes slithering through the stones. It was done.

“Leander, come” said the Count. “From now on I appoint you, Master Leander Kalas, Leader of the Order of Shadowrock. You are in charge of all the keys of the castle. I entrust you with the mission of revoking each of the seals created to date. I know it will be an arduous task.”

“It is an honor, my lord” Leander lowered his head.

After the announcement, the Count asked the rest of the wizards to leave them alone.

“The Council will not like that you have made the appointment without consulting them,” Eldrin said, unsurprised.

“I will deal with them when the time comes, now tell me where you have sent my daughter.”

“It was all my lady's idea. I had nothing to do with it. When you find her, she will tell you herself that I am innocent.”

“You helped her to scape. But before you convinced her to steal the chimera to...”

“So that she would escape and her betrothal would be annulled? But my lord... How am I going to risk everyting by endangering her life and angering the royal family. All my efforts would be wasted. But besides that... I've known her since she was born. I held her in my arms shortly after she was born. I've instructed her myself, like...”

“And for that great mistake I will never forgive myself ” the Count unsheathed the sword and rested its tip on Eldrin's neck.

“Alaric!” his friend Leander grabbed him by the arm, trying to get him to withdraw the sword. “If you kill him without a trial, the Council will take away your title and lands. You will never see your daughter again, who will be at the mercy of all these vultures.”

Slowly, the Count lowered his sword.

“Make sure that it becomes impossible for him to leave this cell,” having said that, he turned away.

“I have no reason to escape, my Lord. I will take this as a well-deserved rest, an early retirement” Eldrin said, raising his voice more and more as he watched his lord walk away. “And do not torment yourself! My Lady will appear, the marriage will be carried out and there will be no chimera to help you prevent it!