One turn consist of 4 months; Hira, Crusa, Rjutal and Snith. The months was seen as blessings from the gods to every creatures in the continent. One whole turn is considered to represent a life cycle of every creature in the continent. Hira was the start of life; the month where new plants grow and animals started to appear again after a long hibernation in Snith. Hira then followed by Crusa, the month of maturing. Crusa is the month where plants are maturing and life is blooming where people are out and enjoying the sun. Then, Crusa replaced by Rjutal, the month of abundance. Rjutal is when farmers harvesting their crops and pay homage to the gods following the great haul they have during the month. This is when the people celebrate by holding large festivals to honour the gods for their patronage all year around. Last but not least, Snith end the turn with its presence. Snith the month of contemplation also known as the month of the dead. By the end of the year, the weather becoming harsher and people contemplate their year during this period. Those who survive the harsh condition will grew stronger for the upcoming turn.
Each of the four months last for a period of 3 moons each. A moon’s duration is directly correlate to the moon phases in the world itself. Each month indicate a full circulation of each of the 3 moons across the world. Each of the moons appear for 28 days each and 84 days will indicate a full month; full cycle of the three moons. The first moon; Jade gives out a pale green light in the first of the three cycles, Cressila the second moon is giving out a blue radiance and Amber the last moon shine with a reddish hue. Both creatures and humanoids; demons, beast men and humans are affected by the moon cycle. Some magus believe that the fluctuation of the magic essence are also cause by the three moons. However none of these conjectures have been proven by the magus that supported the idea. Many unsupported groups have been banned for performing rituals to prove the hypothesis due to their unethical practice on demi-humans and unsavoury human’s experiments.
Amarath, Styr Quarter ( Rjutal, 20th day of Cressila 600R.T)
The Rjutal sun is shining brightly in the sky. The clouds are nowhere to be seen and this make the day heated by the uncovered sun. People are bustling in the magic kingdom of Amarath. Amarath, the city that centre the whole kingdom was full of activities. Amarath, under the rule of King Invania Sirvin was divided into quarters which each of the quarters governed by representatives selected by the king with approval of the quarter’s resident. These representatives gained authority from the royal families however their authority is quite limited to public orders and enforcing the King’s command on the public. By the end of each month, each of the representatives are required to report to the king about any improvement or deficiency their quarters experienced. Each representatives can be replaced after a turn however retaining the current representatives after a turn are normal especially when the current representatives are doing great jobs in maintaining the public order.
One of the representatives is Lord Gustav as the representative of the Styr quarter. Assigned to the post 2 turns ago, he was one of the youngest nobles to be honoured with the responsibility. Lord Gustav was having his brunch under the shade at the corner of his large mansion’s open space. He is accompany by two more people attending to his needs. His face shown drowsiness from his late sleeping hours due to attending his business alongside managing the complaints received by nobles in his quarter.
“Bancs, where is the prince? I heard that he left the mansion early in the morning. Did you assigned anyone to accompany him?” Lord Gustav directed his questions to the butler standing beside him. The butler, almost 50 turn of age never neglected his master or his master’s guests needs. He can deftly managed the whole mansion with the help from the maids and remember every details of his master’s preferences. Well-received by the maids and warriors employed by the lord, he holds the highest authority in the mansion straight after his master and the guests. His greying hair displayed experience and his pride in his occupation.
“Yes, my lord. Prince Faris left the house before dawn without informing myself or the maids. However I managed to instruct two of our best warriors to tail him and protect him from afar. It seems that the prince was quite distraught but it is not my place to say anything about that.” Bancs presented his findings to his master.
“Not a problem Bancs. You have been with me for quite a long time. Please do explain.” The lord asked Bancs to further explain him matters concerning the prince. His face show concern for the young prince. His best friend, the king of the Drummend Empire, King Irvin has honoured him with the care of his sole prince while the prince studying in Amarath. He can still remember their first encounter with each other a long time ago. The king was just a young uncontrollable prince and he was just a visiting noble’s kid that roaming through the streets of the Drummend. They met each other and out of several bad slurs exchanged, they end up beating each other while the other kids was cheering. Since then, they have been exchanging pleasantries and news with each other. Their bond strengthen more when the prince decided to marry his youngest sister, Valeera Gustav making Lord Gustav part of the royal family of Drummend and uncle to the young Prince Faris.
“Yes my lord. The young prince might be frustrated with his lack of progress for his school’s entrance test. It has been 2 weeks since the day my lord and the prince attended Amarath School of Divinity and the prince has shown no progress in mastering the spell. He also becoming more recluse and less talkative. I hope that the lord could talk to him about it.” The butler explained further for his master. He also developed a concern for the prince after knowing the prince for about 2 weeks. The prince is a hardworking boy. Much more than the average boy of his age. He sympathised with Faris’ circumstances however there is nothing he can do to help the pitiful boy.
“Is that so? I’ve been busy lately with King Sirvin’s demands that I’ve neglected my responsibility as his guardian in Amarath. I’ll talk to him when he get home later this evening. Sola, is the shipment of iron ore has arrived?” he asked the quiet person standing next to Bancs. Sola, the lord’s personal secretary is a cat beast woman. In the Amarath Kingdom, beast men and humans are free to mingle with each other and slavery is severely condoned by the Kingdom. Both races are equal in the eyes of the citizen and the administrators of the kingdom. However this does not stop the long deep rooted slave trade that manage to evade the kingdom watchful eyes.
“The shipment will arrive tomorrow with an addition of 25% more of iron ore. The mercenaries asked for an increase in their pay due to that extra burden with the load and some incidents along the way with bandits. I’ve arranged a meeting with their leader once they arrived in Amarath to discuss their pay. Also, we have received two more reports on nobles purchasing illegal slaves in the quarters. Should I include these into the report for King Sirvin’s attentions by the end of the month?” Lord Gustav nodded attentively after Sola finished her reports and considering the move he should make concerning the matters he had been presented.
“Thank you Sola. I hope you can arrange the meeting to a more secluded location like one of the district in the Curr Quarter. I bet they’re more comfortable over there. Besides, there’s no other place to go if we want something dealt with a little “persuasion”.” The lord emphasised the word persuasion signifying a hidden agenda in his word.
“Yes, it will be arrange. How about the report?” Asked sola as she attentively writing notes into her small book that she carried with her all the time.
“Yes, the reports. Please exclude the reports from the one we’ll be handing to the king. I’ll personally look into the matter and Bancs please prepare a couple of warriors to accompany me this afternoon. I have somewhere I need to go.” Said the lord full of conviction while trying to finish his already cold brunch.
Amarath, Curr Quarter
“How long does he want to spend inside the store? It’s already 2 freaking hours since then and I have to take a leak so badly.” The wolf man asked impatiently to his partner Wein. He was dressed as a commoner in his baggy pants and sleeveless jacket showing his muscular arms. Both him and Wein has been assigned by Bancs to protect the prince from afar as the prince wanders around Amarath. In order to blend in with the crowd, they have left their conspicuous warriors’ equipment behind and only equipped with the sword on their waist.
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“I don’t know Marr. I don’t know how the nobles’ thinks. Plus if you are really that desperate to use the toilet there’s an alley over there. I heard that dogs mark their domain by pissing on it. You can claim yours over there.” Replied the girl named Wein to her partner’s complaints as she directed her arm to the alley near them. She was also slightly annoyed with the wait. They were standing in one of the store shade opposite the store the prince have entered. Even though they were standing in the shade, the heat from the sun has started to affect their morale for the bodyguard task.
“Well, ain’t you a fucking bitch. We, the proud wolf man never will succumbed to that heinous act. Especially when you are trying to equate us with street mutt.” Marr gives out a deep growl and bares his teeth towards Wein. His face contorted a bit blazingly displaying his displease with Wein’s previous statement.
“Sorry Marr. I guess the heat is affecting both of us. Let’s go in and check…” before she could finish her sentence a gust of wind blown out from the store the prince was in followed by a loud boom creating a large hole replacing the front door of the magic store that was once stood over in front of them and the sound of clattering of glass items fallen to the ground followed instantly afterwards. The two storey store that once stood in front of them was reduced to rubbles soon after the explosion. A sense of panic started to sweep through the surrounding and people started to disperse while shouting for help from the area of the blast.
Holding their sword hilt ready to withdraw their sword, Wein and Marr quickly rushed into the store. The store was in a mess. Everything in the store was either toppled down or broke into thousand pieces. Their eyes frantically searched the whole store for any sign of the prince under the chaotic scene in front of them. Guilt and anxiousness flooding their brain as they raked the wreckage of once a magic store.
“Faris! Prince Faris!! Are you here?” Wein screamed anxiously while wadding in the wreckage. Marr’s nose was furiously twitching searching for the prince scent among the rubble. However the keen wolf man sense of smell was hindered by the dozens of potion and chemical vials that broke during the big explosion.
“Urgh..” A small groan can be heard beneath the rubble. Wein and Marr quickly searched for the groan in the further side of the store. They dug and searched underneath the rubble only to find the magus that owned the store was lying unconscious with blood flowing from his head. His hand shown a significant amount of burnt damage and his clothes was singed all over his left side of the body. They saved the owner trying to wake the old magus demanding a few answers from him and the whereabouts of the young boy that entered his store.
Just before Wein and Marr could manage to wake the magus up, enforcers have come after the reports of the large explosions by the masses. Equipped with their official black and red garment with wands and other magical items as sidearm; yes, the enforcers are selected magus that did exceptionally in their school years. The enforcers are organisation centred in Amarath and branched to all of the other cities that have a magic academy in it. They’re originally alumni of the Amarath School of Divinity and other magic school. They were scouted to join the enforcers straight after graduation by the Magi Association to serve in their respective cities. Aside from allowances, they were given a privilege to travel among the cities without being hold for inspection on the city gate.
“What happen here?” Captain Damca asked the two civilians in front of him. Judging from the size of the explosion and the remnants of the magic essence left in the surrounding area, the explosion was due to the influx of magic essence on one single point in space. The magic essence in the store was distorted and infused with each other. Magic essence also known as mana can be detected by experienced magus and tapped in the beginning of any spell in order to perform the selected spell. Mana also can be separated by their purities, elements and compositions which are further required in order to perform highly effective and more complicated spells. However, mana of different purities, elements and compositions are usually naturally separated and only a high wizard and above can manipulate or infused the mana without causing disruptions in the mana flow.
“Captain, the magic here is…..how do I say it…..corrupted.” The lieutenant of the squad spoke as he tried to grasp the magic composition in the accident area. A sense of wariness can be detected from all of the enforcers’ face. Disruption in mana means that whether a high wizard was attacking the place or something was forcibly infused the mana causing a large explosion at the spot. Bith of the aforementioned situation brought a sense of dread to the mage platoon.
“Enough chatter. Help the civilians so that we can investigate this area. We also need to gather few eyewitnesses to get the full story of what real happen. Most important thing is to get medical attention to Old Man Albus here. He’s the key witness to this event.” The captain gave perfect orders to his subordinates after briefly inspecting the situation. Like clockwork, his subordinates split into groups realizing each other’s task without further instruction from Captain Damca.
After a few seconds, a crowd was gathering on the scene trying to sneak a peek on what had happen to the store. Two of the enforcers already trying to heal the owner’s injuries and the other’s was trying to gather information on what had transpired at the magic store. Luckily there was no other injuries can be located. The captain himself was interviewing Wein and Marr who was at the scene.
“Like we said. We were assigned to protect the Prince of Drummend, Prince Faris when the explosion took place. I don’t know what happen and I would like to continue searching for the prince please.” Wein was insisting that she and her partner have no knowledge about the incident and they should continue to search for the prince among the rubble. A distinct tone of annoyance and guilt blanketed her voice as she explained to the enforcer’s captain. Marr was nodding in agreement to Wein’s explanation without averting his keen sense of smell from the rubble. Suddenly, Marr’s pairs of pointy ears and tail was straighten as if something had caught his attention.
“Found him.” He exclaimed with heavy sense of relieve rushing to his heart. Wein and Marr, both without the tendency of magic, can’t feel the sudden rush of magic essence gathering at a single point among the rubble. The captain and his squad noticed the sudden change started taking defensive stance while holding their respective wands and relics directing it to the gathering of the magic essence.
“Get back!!” Shouted the captain to the gathering crowd. Alarmed and aware of the captain’s order, the crowd started to seek refuge behind stalls and in the nearby alleyway without averting their eyes on the scene. As if expecting new revelations, the crowd was unaware of the dangers of a mage’s battle causing the captains sigh in disappointment. He wanted to scream at them to scare them away however he couldn’t afford to divert his attention from the moving rubble right before him.
“That’s him. That’s him. That is the prince I was talking about.” Wein was frantically screaming while pointing at the moving rubble. She was detained by 2 mages from rushing to the scene. Marr was crippled by a paralysing spell from moving. Due to his larger and stronger physique the enforcers was forced to paralyse him from advancing.
The rubble started to shake and a sudden burst erupted from it causing a smoke of dust wafting and hindering the line of sight towards the centre of explosion. Quickly recovered from the abrupt explosion, the enforcers was ready to attack before halting in disbelief at the sight presented in front of them.
“I did it!!!!” Screamed the blue-eyed boy with a wide grin on his face.