Calen and his companions were sitting in their common room, reading, making small talk and generally relaxing before going to bed.
"I don’t know if you should read that Isa." Calen chuckled. "The guy must have been crazy to create a leech because someone was indirectly mean to him."
"I doubt he put anything dangerous in here." Isara rolled her eyes. "Besides, as stupid as that move was, it was an impressive display of power."
"Sorry, but what exactly is a Leech?" Elira interjected. "Cassian didn’t mention it when he described the undead."
"Leech is essentially a pseudo vampire - you can’t produce a real one without killing someone, and bathing the corpse in fresh blood, but what you can do is magically juice up a Devourer to the point it’s roughly equal to one in terms of physical power." Calen explained.
"The biggest issue with them is that they CAN become real vampires if they consume enough blood." Isara added. "Creating one inside of a city is a very, very bad idea, even if you’re substantially more powerful than it and located five floors underground."
"I wonder if he was so reckless because of how long he’s been alive... and dead I suppose." Elira hummed.
"I don’t think so, master is just as old, if not older, and he never did such dangerous things."
"Well, we don’t know if he didn’t, all we have to go off of are his stories." Calen pointed out. "Same thing with his age actually, don’t get me wrong, I know master is ancient, but the things he told us are simply ridiculous."
"For once I agree with Cal." Cassian nodded. "My father seems to believe him, but the stories he tells are simply unbelievable."
"What do you mean?" Elira asked with a hint of interest in her voice.
"Well, if we are to believe Alarion stories, he’s not only the oldest hunan archmage in history by a ridiculous margin, but also one of the original humans created by the Elder God."
"But that would mean..." Elira’s eyes widened.
"That he survived two extinction events and three global wars? Yes, his claims are... insane."
Isara shrugged as she lazily flipped the pages.
"I believe him, there would be no point in lying to us - what does it matter if he’s two or seven millennia old? It’s a timeframe none of us can comprehend anyway..." She trailed off as something in the book caught her attention.
"What’s up?" Calen stood up from his chair and peered over her shoulder.
She was still reading the introduction, bit the contents were rather intriguing.
If you have any questions about anything, I advise you to contact one of my esteemed colleagues;
Beneath was a list of four familiar names: Princess, Hermit, Huntress and Devil.
What was even more important, were the real names written next to them.
Well, most of them - the one for the Huntress was illegible, as if the ink was partially washed out by water, despite no evident damage to the page.
’Magic.’ Calen was almost certain
"At least we know the speculations about the Princess were correct." Isara noted.
That left them with two more options - the Devil was someone called Lucian Silverblood, a surname Cassian quickly recognised.
"Silverbloods are a very old and powerful noble house, said to be the only family strong enough to keep the King in check."
"They’re also conviniently based in the capital, which means that even if we knew he was alive we have no idea where to find him." Calen sighed.
"What about the Hermit?" Elira questioned.
"That one’s not much better - it says here that the Hermit is called ’the Sage’, which is obviously another pseudonym."
"I think that I’ve heard of at least five mages who used that moniker." Cassian rolled his eyes. "No way we’ll find anyone like that."
"So we’re basically back at the start."
"Not necessarily..." Isara seemed to consider something. "The fact that the distortion over the Huntress name is still active means she’s certainly still alive, and since it’s a technically just a form of illusion I could try to see through it with the help of Moon Eye."
"It can’t be that simple, can it?"
"Oh, I doubt it will work right away but it might give me a clue how to continue."
She picked up the gray glass from her necklace and inspected the page through it.
"And? Did you find something?"
She dropped the artifact.
"Nope, the name looks identical through that thing - but that in itself is a huge clue."
"It is?" Cassian raised an eyebrow.
"Of course, now we’re certain that it’s not an illusion but something else."
"Could be a dozen things, a blessing, a curse, a memory alteration, a protection spell..."
"Which also means our chances of finding out who she is through Sylara dropped significantly." Calen clicked his tongue.
"We can still ask." Elira shrugged. "Plus we’ll be talking with her tomorrow anyway, it would be wasteful not to."
"I suppose we’ll see tomorrow then..."
Alison greeted them in the morning with an unexpected news:
"Lady Sylara won’t be able to attend your next briefing."
"What? Why?" Elira asked. "Is she unwell?"
"No." The capitan’s voice sounded almost annoyed. "She’s been reading that book non-stop since she got it and copying relevant information to different archives."
"That seems fairly important, no? Especially with the threat of a Blightborn invasion hanging over your heads." Cassian pointed out.
"Sure, but the meeting would last five minutes at most, she wouldn’t have lost much time by coming." Alison sighed. "No matter, I only told you that so you’re not surprised when you don’t see her, Tiana is perfectly capable of briefing you by herself."
When they entered the usual large chamber they indeed saw Tiana sitting where Sylara normally would - but that’s not all, she was accompanied by someone.
A young man a few years older than them was sitting right next to her. He had brown hair, murky blue eyes and was rather well built - he was also wearing a few pieces of armour: chestplate, a single pauldron and arm guards, all of which were marked by the same crest; a shield envelopes by flames.
There was no doubt about his identity.
"Hello, I know we haven’t had the chance to interact to much so far, but I hope our cooperation will change that." Tiana greeted them. "I also heard you wanted to meet the ambassador from the Order, so I brought Alfred with me."
"Wasn’t that because my presence made your workers uncomfortable?" Alfred raised an eyebrow.
"That too." Tiana chuckled. "Someone constantly standing over them gripping their sword like they’re about to attack isn’t particularly good for their concentration, you know."
Alfred spread his arms.
"What else am I supposed to do? I’m there to protect them in case the plan goes wrong, I should be always ready."
"Well, that’s part of the reason I requested the help of our friends here." She addressed the group. "The project we’re working on involves creating a vast network of underground tunnels, connecting every human settlement sheltered from the Blight."
"And how are we supposed to help with that?" Calen asked.
"I was about to explain; the tunnels are already dug, but they’re not properly protected from the blight outside of the city limits - your job will be to accompany Alfred and someone from the guard as an advance party. You will clear the tunnels from any potential threats, while my subordinates will install array extensions behind you."
"How many tunnels are we talking about?" Cassian questioned.
"Four are ready, and one is still under construction, but you’ll be working in only two of them - the one leading to Greenheart, and the one ending in Order’s fortress."
"Why not the other two?"
"The Tower still hasn’t processed the documents needed to open their tunnel, and the Riders are currently out of their base so we need to wait until they come back."
"Where does the fifth one lead?" Calen asked. "And why isn’t it finished? Also, how does this work if your city can teleport?"
"As for your first two questions, the tunnel leads to Sage’s summit, and it isn’t finished simply because it’s much farther than the other locations. I’m afraid I’m not qualified to answer your last question, as I know absolutely nothing about how the enchantments work - my foreman will be happy to explain it though."
"You mentioned that a Guard will be joining us on this job, should we wait for them before going to the site?"
"No need to wait, she’ll be here any second now..." Alison mumbled.
Suddenly, a familiar blonde guard burst through the doors.
"Sorry for the delay!" Maya looked around the room. "Did I miss anything?"
"Yes, everything." Alison said with a deadpan expression. "I’ll explain things to you briefly on our way there, I don’t want to waste a y more time."
Tiana clasped her hands together and smiled.