Riding across the bumpy cobblestone road of the city, the carriage moved at a hurried pace. Its coachman whistled frantically to have everyone on its path move aside.

"It was a white, fancy-looking carriage that was known to be used by wealthy, high-ranking Rajs and occasionally mages. A sigil, recognized by most, was drawn on it: a white castle surrounded by orange flames. This sigil belonged to the Citadel."

With several thousand years of history behind it, the citadel was an organization that had its roots back to the establishment of mankind here in that place that most Arbians would refer to as the Iiris Continent or the central continent. An organization that, in spite of the many passing years, centuries, and even millennia, didn't wither against time but instead strengthened itself to become the unchallengeable powerhouse that it is today.

Contrary to popular belief, the Citadel does not exert any governmental authority over the territories of the continent. Nor does it aspire to do so, despite having the executive power to make such a claim. Instead, it recognizes that the rightful wielders of such power are the individuals known as Rajs.

The Citadel, a millennia-old organization, holds the steadfast belief that its purpose, much like at its inception, is singular: to maintain peace. Peace that it believes to be kept by closely watching over those who've been granted the power to wield the power known as prana-kinesis, for it knows well that here on the Iiris Continent, monsters weren't the real danger, but instead, it was people and their greedy and warmongering nature.

To aid in its quest, the Citadel armed itself with two branches: the Brotherhood and the Circle. The Brotherhood, consisting of the Citadel's knights, was responsible for executing most of the organization's "manual labor". The Circle, on the other hand, was in charge of information gathering, preservation, and classification for the Citadel's account.

There were many more branches and sub-branches within both of the main branches, and even more that were not part of either one. However, only recognized members of the Citadel as either scholars or knights were granted the privilege to receive a prana-core—the opportunity to become a mage—the dream of most, if not all Arbians. The two men riding the carriage were such people.

Riding across the city street, the carriage finally arrived at its destination. The door of the carriage opened, allowing two men to step out straight into a crowded corner where several similar carriages were parked around.

“That’s a lot of people,” the younger man remarked at the sight of the onlooking crowd standing outside the enclosed property of a wealthy mansion.

“That was to be expected, such a thing happening sparks curiosity.”

One of them was a tall elegantly-built middle-aged man. The other person was a young man whose age could not be determined exactly, but presumably, he was about twenty years old, for he still had the face that had yet to lose all its boyish features. In one hand, he clutched a sophisticated leather briefcase.

“Well, now let’s hurry up, newbie, we’d better not make him wait,” the older man declared as he made his way toward the crowd toward the mansion's heavily guarded entrance.

“That would not be our fault but his for leaving without us.”

“That might be the case, but that’s not upon us to decide, but him.”

Unhingedly and confidently making their way, the duo arrived at the mansion’s entrance where they were stopped by knights.

“Halte, no-one make it pas—”

Before the guard finished, both men displayed the silver necklace upon which engraved the Citadel’s sigil, before introducing himself, respectively, “Yuri.”

“Ramzi.”

“Mages, and respectively knight and scholar of the Citadel.”

After hearing both men's introduction, the young guard's attitude shifted from non-threatening to formal, and even slightly admiring, as he halted the duo. He greeted them with optimism and formality, albeit a bit clumsily. "My apologies, sirs," he said, "Please proceed."

With a nod, the two men proceeded to the mansion’s property.

"It reeks of death," remarked the older man, Yuri. "A lot of it."

"You can smell that?" asked his companion.

"No, but I can tell from what I'm seeing that if death had a smell, I would smell it," Yuri responded, wandering through the crowd of fellow mages on the property.

Based on their distinctive attire and the way they greeted the passing duo from a distance, it was apparent that some of the individuals present were fellow Citadel envoys. However, the majority of the crowd appeared to be Raj's personal mages, sent to inquire about the incident.

Ignoring them, the duo arrived by the mansion’s doorstep, where they were greeted by yet another fellow envoy, a Scholar.

“You two must be the knight Yuri and Scholar Ramzi, right?”

The duo exchanged a gaze, and Yuri replied for the two of them. “Indeed.”

“That’s a relief,

“My name is Mikhail, a representative of Valleyview’s local Citadel, we and Raj Kazimir have been waiting for you two,” the man said, introducing himself, before motioning the duo toward the mansion’s inner part. “Have you two been briefed on what's going on over here?”

Both men shook their heads.

“We’ve only been ordered to come over, Lord Kazimir didn’t mention anything else.”

"Certainly," the man winced, "Before we proceed, I feel obliged to caution you, gentlemen. I hope none of you have eaten breakfast, as what you are about to witness is beyond comparison."

On these words of warning the scholar led the duo inside, “we’ve tried keeping third parties out of this but since this mess has been involving mages and even Rajs, it’s much more complicated to calm people's curiosity down.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

As they walked past the door, the duo braced themselves for an otherworldly sight, but to their surprise, they were greeted with a large, yet surprisingly normal entryway. The air was thick with the scent of incense, which added a convivial atmosphere to the space.

"The next room and several rooms above it are where it all begins," the man declared, motioning towards an ajar door and inviting the duo to enter. "Please, after you," he added.

Albeit with some hesitation, Yuri accepted the man’s invitation, striding into the room closely followed by Ramzi. The man had just made a couple steps into the room that was stopped both by a smell and by a sight.

The scent was that of incense, similar to that of the previous room, but mixed with it was a smell that anyone familiar enough with it would recognize as that of blood, if not that of death.

The sight on the other hand was as the Scholar forewarned something entirely else.

Though the scholar did warn them, no amount of warning could have prepared them for the sheer horror of the scene. The duo struggled to keep their composure as they tried to make sense of the gruesome display before them.

The room appeared to be a combination of two separate rooms, with one half likely serving as a living area and the other as a dining space. However, its current appearance was chaotic, as if a tornado had ripped through it. The walls were now newly painted in a meshy nausea-inducing red color.

“Well you guys are holding it better than the—”

His hand covering his mouth, Ramzi ran past Mikhail in urgence as toward the door’s exit.

“—Or not. Well can’t blame him though.”

“What is this?” Yuri asked.

"This here? Well, it used to be the living room of the Rasulov family. It was once a hospitable place, I believe. But if you’re speaking about that big slimy smudge on the wall, that's what I think was one of the guards. That over there, that’s also a guard, or two of them, I'm not really sure. And that right there, that's one of the mansion servants," the man explained, pointing out the various human’s remnants that in a literal sense, littered, bathed, soaked the room.

At the sight of the people’s remains casually pointed out by the man as they navigated the room, Yuri at several reprises, swallowed hard.

“You’re reacting better than your friend did,” the man remarked.

“He’s new to this.”

“And you’re not?”

“Doing this job, I’ve seen a lot of things, if not too many of them.”

“Have you ever seen something like this?”

“I think I have and that very recently, but the corpse was chopped beyond recognition, not turned into mincemeat like this.”

“Chopped up corpse? We have that. In the room next door! But first, I think what might really interest you guys is here," Mickhail said, gesturing towards a small corner near a door frame, tucked under the overturned sofa.

“This….”

Beneath the overturned sofa, that seemingly had been hurled across the room, a colorful orb was there, lying on the ground atop a dusty remains of what could have only been a mage.

“Most likely the head of the family or the son. We’re still trying to figure that out. The fact that our body disintegrates like this after some time after death isn’t helping at all.”

“It was the son,” a voice responded from behind the two men.

“Lord Kazimir.” Yuri, mumbled at the sight of the man approaching them. The same man that had them over.

“The Father's corpse is up above along with… that of another mage. So what you’re seeing is most likely what remains of the son,” Lord Kazimir explained, holding in his hand enveloped into a white towel two colorful orbs.

“I see.”

“Yuri.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Where is Ramzi?”

"Over here, sir," Ramzi called from the doorstep, blocking his eyes with his hand as he approached the trio. "I apologize, sir. I'm not yet accustomed to the lighting. I'll do better next time."

“It’s fine. Now the briefcase please.”

"Ah, right. Sorry, sir." Ramzi clumsily responded as he reached out for the briefcase he was carrying. Upon opening it, he revealed an empty interior except for the custom-molded cushion with individual compartments, specially designed to securely hold several spherical-shaped objects. Objects that just happened to be the two prana-cores that Lord Kazimir had been carefully holding before placing them inside the briefcase.

“Yuri, the other prana core.”

"Yes, sir," Yuri replied obediently, carefully retrieving the prana core from the dusty remains before placing them inside the briefcase.

“This is all of them,” Lord Kazimir declared, closing the briefcase. “This marks the end of our business here.”

“What? Wait!” Mikhail called, taken aback by the sudden declaration.

“What is it?”

“Is this really all, you guys are really leaving?”

The Lord Kazimir looked at Mikhail as though he’d said something really stupid. “Yes, we are.”

“You mean we waited for you, held this mess for you all, just for that?” He said, a baffled expression on his face.

Once again the Lord Kazimir looked at Mikhail as though he’d made yet another moronic statement, "I believe there's a misunderstanding here. It seems you've assumed we're here to solve this mystery, but that's not our purpose. The Citadel has dispatched us to retrieve their property, the prana cores, and your orders were to receive us accordingly, which you already did. Now with our business here concluded we’re leaving."

Not needing to be told twice, Ramzi headed towards the door, followed by Yuri who, with a nod, said goodbye to Mikhail.

“Wait,” he once again called.

“What again?”

“So, what happens next?”

“What will happen next… I don’t know if that would be up to the local citadel, not onto us.”

“How am I supposed to explain this to the population and the local Rajs? They knew these people, they’ll wish to know what happened to them.”

"Perhaps you should do as others have done before you. Clean up this place, or maybe even burn it to the ground, and announce it as what it truly is: the aftermath of an animal attack—not a monster, but a beast. A wolf, a bear, or whichever animal seems fitting."

Mikhail surveyed the room, before letting out a sigh, “I can’t see how a bear or a wolf would have possibly done.”

"Me neither, but ensuring that it does is your responsibility. In any case, that will be all for me. You needn't accompany us; I know the way out. Farewell Mister Mickhail."

Without even waiting for Mikhail to bid farewell, Lord Kazimir left and joined the duo who had been waiting for him outside the house.

“Sir.”

“Yes, Yuri?”

"These corpses… this massacre, with the prana core untouched when it could’ve easily been stolen— Is this massacre related to the previous ones? Is this the doing of the same lunatic?"

"Same lunatic?" Ramzi repeated, cluelessly, looking towards Lord Kazimir in anticipation of an answer.

“Lunatic? By this, I take it that you think this was done by a human being. That would be a bold affirmation, wouldn't it, Yuri?”

“It might be,” Yuri continued without backing down. “But as gruesome as that sight was, I can’t imagine anything else… doing that Sir.”

At these words, Lord Kazimir studied Yuri for a moment before before announcing, “as I said earlier to the scholar Michkail we were sent here with a purpose, to retrieve the Citadel’s propriety which we did, to feel and to think about whatever was beyond this is not of our ressort. I hope I made that clear for anyone who was still confused about what we were here for.”

“It is, Sir,” the duo replied in unison.”

“Good. Now that we are done with what we came here it is time for us to take our leave.”

“Where do we head to now, Sir?”

“Will we already head back to the capital?”

At that question, the man remained silent for a moment before announcing, “Yes we are, but before I’ll have a letter to send.”