War of Dark Ages: A Unicorn's Journey

Latoyia and Raden reach the Barracks Storehouse and hand over a letter to the guard standing outside.

Upon reading the instructions, the guard folds the letter, “Follow me.” She turns and walks inside approaching a man standing further inside at a desk and hands him the letter.

Lieutenant Knox beckons both of them forward. “Seems you are here to help us out.”

They move forward standing a few him. Raden extends his hand, “Let’s hope we can get a lot done.”

Lieutenant Knox clasps his hand and then gestures to the crew. “I’m Lieutenant Knox, and as you can see we have a lot of slackers. Mind you I can’t fault them for it because it’s their first year but still I wish they would pick up some slack. It leaves everyone tired.” He gazes down at the letter. “Where would you like to start first?”

“I’ll take the ship reports,” Raden confirms.

Latoyia replies in a calm voice, “I’ll start sorting the relics and weapons by their design and what they do. Then we can start on tracking the payments that came in and from whom and where they were brought in.”

“Sounds good, I’ll warn you though it will be a struggle working with them, Miss Latoyia.” As Lieutenant Knox puts the paper down, “Soldiers who are involved in the sorting of relics, I need your attention. Come over here.”

The soldiers reluctantly move to stand in a group in front of them. Latoyia glances around looking at them as a sour look comes across her face.

Raden takes a few steps back and stands rigidly with his hands behind his back.

With a wave of his hand towards Latoyia, Lieutenant Knox speaks up in a loud voice, “This young woman here will be in charge of the sorting of relics and weapons. You will follow her directions to the letter as it was commanded by Riley.”

All at once, soldiers start complaining.

“I ain’t working for no woman!”

“Why isn’t the Commander here?”

“This work is too hard, I don’t feel like it.”

The lieutenant is about to speak up when he notices Latoyia’s stance has changed. Takes a few steps backward, and continues to watch her.

She steps around the desk with her ears drawn backward and her tail rising off the floor. Looking up at them with her eyes ablaze with anger and disgust causes silence to descend in the room. “Alright you douchebag, scum butter-headed, Ignorant Morons who can’t even stand on their own two damn feet to make their own families proud of them! You Listen Up! Because I’ll only say this once!” She points her finger at them, sending waves of her anger directly at them. “If this is the kind of Bull-Headed Legacy you want to leave behind so you can be remembered as the WORST GUARDS this world has ever seen, then I’ll march right now down to the Market Guild and the Academy here and give them a full detail information of how lazy you are and how pitiful your Commander is in training you!” Latoyia takes a few steps forward and smashes her fist into her hand, “If you want to make your Commander proud! Then those who want to make something of themselves better pay attention because we are getting all of this done tonight! No questions! You soldiers over there!” She points to the left causing a few soldiers to jump in salute.

“Yes Ma’am!” the three soldiers echo.

“Pick up those boxes behind you and I want them sorted by each Relic and Weapon!”

The soldiers start rushing, picking a box each and carrying them to the station behind them. They quickly begin sorting.

Latoyia points to two soldiers behind them, “You, take any weapons and document the symbols on the script then pass the parchment to the next area!”

“Yes Ma’am” the two soldiers echo and give a salute as they rush off to get started on their work.

Lieutenant Knox and Raden watch her continue to bark more orders at the soldiers. Knox can see why she is quite the person when it comes to getting work done. “She is scary for her size.”

Raden smiles as his eyes rest on her, “You have no idea.”

Lieutenant Knox gives a shaky laugh. “Let’s go get to work then, shall we? We wouldn’t want to be outdone by her.”

As they walk to the other side, Raden looks over at Latoyia one last time and can tell Latoyia is enjoying herself.

Three hours pass by as the relics and weapons are sorted, categorized, and documented by their use. Latoyia brushes her forehead with her right hand and smiles. She looks back at the soldiers, “See, I knew you could do it.”

The soldiers give a shaky laugh as it echoes around the room. Some even collapse on the floor, heaving from the work. “I take it you’re leaving then?”

“I still have the transcripts to finish to show where they came from and who bought them. Also, I have to put the pricing on them.” Latoyia walks over to the counter at the back where the paper is filed. Grabbing some new paper, sits down and starts to write.

A couple of minutes pass as the soldiers look at each other and look back at her still working. One soldier walks over to the counter, grabs another stack of papers, and starts writing. More soldiers follow suit for it seems they don’t want to be outdone by her.

With a shake of his head, Lieutenant Knox smiles at the scene. “She is definitely quite the woman to do what she does. I am glad she is here to give them the lessons they need.”

“We are almost done here. Then we can help her out.” Raden pauses and looks out the window perceiving it is already dark and getting a little late. “Knowing her, Latoyia will stay up all night to finish this.”

They finish a few minutes later with the ship’s routes for all the items and join everyone else writing down the last of the documents.

Three hours later Latoyia gives a stretch standing up from her chair. “Finally finished.” She yawns.

Raden walks over and picks her up in his arms with her instantly falling asleep with her glasses almost falling off.

Lieutenant Knox sets them up on her forehead, “Take her home, both of you need the rest, and thanks.”

With a nod of his head, Raden leaves the Barracks Storehouse.

“Alright everyone, you have done an awesome job! Make sure you rest for the remainder of the night.” With more documents in his hand compiling the list to be reported, Lieutenant Knox heads out to the Barracks.

Ragnar is on his way to the Barracks when spots them moving boxes around very quickly inside the Barracks Storehouse. He enters the Barracks knowing his next objective, and that is to obtain information from those two no matter the cost.

Inside he spots a few soldiers along with one of his rangers standing at the shelves. Beckoning the ranger with his finger, she walks forward bowing to her superior. “I want you to bring Mr. Durdley and Mr. Rysen with you to the Training Grounds. Take a few soldiers with you and tell them Commander Kail ordered it.” The ranger gives a short nod and departs heading down the hall to the Jail.

Ragnar sighs and walks to the back of the room where two rows of shelves hang. On the shelves, are a couple of Tempa Armbands needed for this assignment, and picks them up letting them dangle from his fingers.

Without giving a second glance, Ragnar walks out of the Barracks down the lane to the Training Grounds. Upon entering, no one is around, and waits in the middle. His thoughts drift to the accident before when he killed a few people that were not connected to anything, and let his emotions get the better of him. Since that time, he has strictly controlled himself. Meanwhile, the sky turns reddish orange because the sun is starting to set.

Ragnar closes his eyes knowing full well this is a start for him to make sure never to hesitate again whether it is right or wrong, always looking for answers. Upon hearing a sound, he opens his eyes looking right towards the door as the prisoners are brought in by a ranger with a few soldiers behind them.

The ranger takes them to the middle of the square, where they stand mostly naked except for some undergarments over them.

Quite a few soldiers stay near the entrance, Ragnar observes. “You may take your leave.”

At that moment, the ranger turns around to stop without looking back, “You’re going to torture them, aren’t you?”

“Are you going to stop me?”

With a look of determination the ranger turns around. “No, but if I’m to be a good ranger may I watch? It might be a skill I will need in the future.”

Ragnar nods and turns towards the two before him on the floor. They are staring at him with a strange expression as the ranger walks to the other side where the soldiers are.

“You can’t do this to us, besides I showed you how to turn off that device!” Mr. Durdley screams.

Mr. Rysen stands up straight using an authoritative hard voice, “You dare to hurt a man of the clergy!”

“Some man of the clergy you are for taking payments and selling corpses to someone,” Ragnar speaks dryly.

A few gasps from the soldiers next to the ranger could be heard.

Mr. Rysen narrows his eyes, “I have no notion of what you are saying! You will suffer the consequences for making an enemy of the Kingdom of Saluden!”

Without even blinking an eye, Ragnar draws his fist back emitting a light blue aura. He sends his fist straight through Mr. Rysen as several wind-pressure strikes pierce his body.

Mr. Rysen flies across the grounds to the wall hard enough to spread cracks up and down. With a shocked look on his face, starts coughing blood and falls to the floor with pieces of the wall falling forward with him.

“Try not to piss me off before I put these on you, please? I was ordered to torture for information not to kill you. But as I’m feeling tonight, I might just do that in the end.” Rangar kneels down in front of Durdley and puts an armband on him.

Durdley’s face goes white as his eyes grow large with panic.

Ragnar stands up and walks two feet when Durdley struggles to his feet, “Please let me know what you want, I’ll talk I’ll-”.

Ragnar turns around, thrusting a punch upwards into his stomach area. Blood comes out of Durdley’s mouth as he floats in midair for a few seconds before falling to the ground clutching his middle region.

Looking down at Durdley with absolute disgust on Ragnar’s face, “Do not speak to me unless I ask you a question.” He starts walking to Rysen who is looking at Durdley and back at him.

Rysen sits back on his feet staring in shock at Ragnar who is striding towards him looking incredibly determined to accomplish his goal.

“If you want to know why you’re still alive after that blow, you can thank the armband you’re wearing. It’s called a Tempa Armband. It allows me to throw anything at you and you still get to feel the full weight of the pain I deal. It protects you from dying.” Ragnar stops in front of Rysen who looks terrified. His voice was soft with a rage echoing, “Unless, of course, I break it.” Placing an armband on Rysen, he grabs him by the neck, dragging him to the center of the field using a vice grip that serves him well, and tosses him to the middle next to Durdley. Raising his right hand flexes his fingers, causing them to pop one by one. His fingers stop and he slowly raises his eyes to gaze at his targets with a nasty smile crossing his face. Lowering his posture with his hands stretched out on his sides, “Let’s Play,” Ragnar lunges towards both of them.

Both Rysen and Durdley give a blood-curdling scream.

The soldiers watch as Ragnar tosses them with different skills back and forth across the training grounds. One of the guards has their hands clenched.

The ranger spotting their disapproval speaks softly, “There will be times when this has to happen because of how dangerous the situation is. In those times you must stand tall, watch, and listen to what they say. So, you can be proud to tell your Commander the news of how even though you might have disapproved, you didn’t look away.”

The soldiers looked on to the torture scene in front of them. Listening to every detail that was given.

They leave the tavern turning right towards the potion shop. As they pass a few houses Trise spots a small group of female humans from the academy to the right. He stops and walks in their direction.

The group of girls turns towards him. The girl in the middle speaks up, “What brings you here, Trise?”

“Hello Bresbain Sisters. Me and my friend were out walking, and I was telling the story about what you told me. However, I don’t remember all of it so when I saw you, I was glad you were here. Would you mind telling that story again?”

Fiona looks over at Winfred raising her eyebrows and glances back at Trise with a shrug, “Well sure, I mean it’s just a story.”

Trise motions with his hand at Winfred to come over. Three girls sit near the bench with Fiona in the middle, Flona on the left, and Fura on the right. They talk to Trise and Winfred who stand before them listening to their story.

“Well, it started about twenty years ago. I remember our father talking about it one night. The disappearance of people in the Cave of Solace.” Fiona starts and continues in a lower voice, “He said that workers used to go in there to gather something valuable. The story begins. . ..”

“Durman is trailing one of the men inside the cave when he stops and smells something awful. Taking a step forward, Durman glances to the left and right as there are three paths laid before him. He takes a couple of steps forward pausing until he smells the odor stronger and his face stretches into fear smelling fresh rotting flesh and a lot of blood. Panicking, he takes a step backward as he hears a blood-curdling scream. Jumping backward, Durman turns around and rushes down the path for a few minutes stopping and drops to his knees breathing heavily.”

Looking to the left and right of her, Fiona continues as her voice drops even lower, “Looking around Durman didn’t know where he was, and there were two paths to the front and three behind him. Glancing to the right path an odd sound is heard, and he moves forward to a huge cave with a lot of people, young and old, enslaved mining this large room looking for something. Casting a glance to the left Durman spots a mercenary walking towards him with a weapon in his hand tapping it in his other hand. Durman quickly steps backward and hides against the wall, not daring to breathe as the mercenary stands at the entrance. He hears a terrifying scream again and catches a glimpse of a decayed arm reaching upwards in the middle area as blood is spewing forth draining down from his-”

Fura suddenly screams and closes her eyes and puts her hands over her ears.

“Oh, come on, she isn’t even on to the best part yet,” Flona complains.

“I know but I hate it when she uses that creepy voice of hers, it makes the story sound so scary!” Fura keeps her hands over her ears.

Trise interrupts, “What happens next?”

Fiona shrugged, “As the body is bleeding, a few other mercenaries step forward casting some sort of dirty fire magic making sure the corpse is gone. The other mercenary steps away from the cave entrance allowing my father to escape. But when my father tries to leave the cave, it takes him three days to leave it. says he kept getting lost.”

Flona giggles, “I like that part the best.”

“Thanks for the story you three. Have a good day.” Trise waves his hand and they both walk away.

Winfred casts a glance at Trise, “That was pretty clever.”

Trise shakes his head, “I think I got lucky there, let’s see what we happen to find next.”

They move down from the Living Quarters and reach the forge on the right. As they start past the forge, they both stop as a woman’s voice around the corner is very loud.

“How many times have I told you, don’t follow what everyone else does! Evaluate things for yourself first! No need to mess up someone else’s place because they think something different! Honestly!” As they approach her, still shouting, Trise spots Madam Cartwing from the Academy shaking her head at three young students.

The students walk away from Madam Cartwing and look at the building called “Books and Magical Trinkets.”

“Is everything alright-” and stops when Trise looks inside the shop. The shop is in complete disarray with books scattered throughout the back counters with some pages torn. Trinkets are scattered on the shelves, and some of them are burned.

Winfred raises her hands to her chest with a look of astonishment. “What happened Aria? Good lord, it’s a complete mess!”

Madam Cartwing shakes her head and crosses her arms. “Those boys got told that the owner of this establishment chose the side of the devil creature and listened to every word they said. They didn’t know that I owned this place. Still, teaching youngsters has become a lot harder in the past forty years since that bastard Durdley showed up.”

Trise sighs. “Geez, that’s awful. I wish I could help however I am going through town listening to any stories anybody wants to tell.”

Madam Cartwing glances at Trise, “Any stories?”

“Yes.”

“I have one if you want to listen. But it’s not a nice story. And this has happened more than once which is why I try to keep track of all my students,” Madam Cartwing starts tapping her right foot.

Her ring inside her cloak turns on as they both listen to her story.

“It started forty years ago, a few months after that Durdley fellow and his crew came along. I had about ten students at the time, and we were preparing for them to take the test so they could enter the Magical Academy of Feldorea. I was out in the fields to the west of town near the forest so I could train them. We were training for an hour when a light came out around us. When the light passed, I was alone. I cast a search spell realizing they were deeper in the forest, much deeper.”

Madam Cartwing pauses and looks into her shop, placing one hand on her hip before continuing, “I came across them after an hour of speed racing with my wind magic. However, by the time I got there, four of my students were dead on the ground with another four monsters lying on the ground. I heard a scream and rushed over as a monster was about to kill the young woman. In that instant, she attacked him with fire and burned him to a crisp. As he was burning, I couldn’t understand why she was crying and kept apologizing, over and over again. As she stood up the monster turned, slicing her open through the middle. I rushed over, not sure what happened. I looked at the monster and realized. . ..” Her voice trails off and Madam Cartwing presses her lips. “When I looked at the monster, he had the face of one of my male students who got transported when that light came.”

Winfred gasps. “How did that happen?”

“I have no proof!” Madam Cartwing slams her first into the wall beside her. “But I know that damn Durdley was responsible and there was nothing I could do about it!” Her shoulders shake and look at Trise with anger, “So there is your story, I’m happy Durdley got jailed but I’m not happy that I couldn’t make him suffer for it!” She storms off inside the shop, never looking in their direction.

Winfred turns off the memory ring with a frown resting on her face, “That is a horrid story.”

“True, let’s leave her be for the moment. We still have more stories to find.”

They both continue walking past the other buildings reaching the town circle. Decorations and stalls are being taken down as the statue is being removed by a few soldiers.

“Guess the celebration will be on hold for quite a while,” Trise remarks.

“Probably,” Winfred replies.

Trise is about to take a step forward when a conversation to the side caught his ear. He beckons Winfred over and holds up a finger to his mouth.

She quietly steps over, turning on the ring.

“Do you know the tale about those creatures from the Ruins of Talmeshia?” an older woman asks.

“What do you mean? I know we are taking down the decorations and removing the statue but what does that have to do with any of them?” a young girl questions.

“Well, let me tell you. Some people think these creatures came a hundred years ago when Talmeshia was destroyed, but I heard this from the original owner back when he was here. he said,” the older woman pauses and after a few seconds continues, “These creatures have been here for quite some time, and they always come to eat the trees. Before they came the people would try to stop them. When they did, with one swipe of their claws, the people would be shattered into a million pieces and their blood would spill on the ground. The old mayor also said that even with them dying to protect the trees, the trees would eat the fresh blood that was spilled.”

Silence passed and after a couple of minutes, “That sounds awful, but what happened to the creatures? Surely some of them got eaten?”

“Nope, they did not. Seems these creatures for some reason are immune to it, some say they are even friends with the trees.”

As they listen to a minute of pure gossip Winfred turns off the ring as they start walking away.

“A very odd story to say the least.” Windfred remarks dryly.

“Indeed, and it was one about the trees,” Trise replies.

They pass the bakery making their way past the restaurant, when a young chef Trise met a few times, looks in his direction. Trise waves his hand at him pausing as the young chef looks around him nervously before approaching him.

The young chef glances around him and in a frightened low voice, “Can I speak to you in private? Jera is nervous about something, and he is scared. He just keeps saying he should’ve listened to the other chef who was here twenty years ago. Please?”

Trise gives a silent nod and follows the young chef to the restaurant with Winfred following behind.

As the young chef reaches the back door, looks towards Winfred with a nervous expression as if the young chef is about to bolt.

“It’s alright Goru, she is with me. I can assure you; that Winfred is very trustworthy.” Trise says in a calm voice.

Goru gives a jerky nod and opens the door, stepping inside to sit down next to Jera. He places his arm across Jera’s shoulder who is shaking his head back and forth mumbling under his breath, “I should have listened... I should have listened. . ..”

Trise looks at Winfred raising his finger to his lips. Winfred gives a nod and they both sit down at the table across from them, waiting for them to speak.

A minute passes, and Trise speaks in a quiet and calm voice, “What happened?”

Jera stiffens and doesn’t move a muscle as fear spreads out through his whole body.

Goru, still looking at Jera, replies nervously, “I don’t know, but last week he had to go up to the mansion to help prepare some food for the night.” Goru glances at Trise, “He was only up there for a few hours when he raced back here straight through the people with a look of horror on his face.” Goru rubs his hand up and down Jera’s back as he continues, “He has been like this ever since. Can’t cook, can’t clean. Doesn’t even sleep but he keeps saying over and over again about how he should have listened to the cook from twenty years ago.” Jera has not moved an inch.

Trise, not wanting to scare Jera, “Why don’t you let him rest in another room, then you can come back and tell me the story about the other chef. I think it might upset him a bit hearing it.”

Goru looks at Trise with relief on his face. Giving a nod, Goru grabs Jera by the shoulder, takes him to another room, and allows him to sit down in another cot. Jera curls up into a ball burying his face down into the cot with his arms over his head.

Goru comes back and sits down at the table with his arms crossed on the table. Looking down gulps and starts, “It started about twenty years ago before you came, Trise to this town. The original chef of this restaurant had been here for quite some time. The chef was pretty good at what she did and didn’t care who she cooked for either as long as they got paid for it.” Goru pauses and draws in a deep breath before letting it out, “One day the chef got a request for a banquet at the Mansion. Seems Mr. Durdley had two to three different groups coming and needed a bit of extra help. The old chef didn’t mind, of course, she was going to get paid very well.”

Goru rubs the back of his neck and continues, “The chef went down to the mansion and went upstairs to the second floor on the left side. She helped for a couple of hours and decided to take a break as it was almost finished, and they just needed to deliver it downstairs. She went to the other side to walk around and found a red room and it was creepy. As she looked around, the chef suddenly went very still hearing the sound of someone crunching down on a bone. A door to the other side that was slightly open and looked inside and what she saw scared the crap out of her.” Goru squeezes his eyes shut and grabs his hair clenching it.

“What did she see Goru?” Trise asks.

Goru gulps and looks up at Trise, “What if what that old chef saw was what Jera saw? What if-”

Goru is interrupted by Trise, “What did she see?”

Goru looks down, “A lot of strange creatures, they looked so pale that they looked dead. They had long pointed ears about them and were eating fresh corpses with blood dripping down their mouths and fangs out of their mouths. She said one of them looked directly at her and scrambled out of the room down the stairs. That day she came back panicking and left that night.” Goru closes his eyes.

Trise looks at Winfred who just shakes her head.

Winfred turns off the ring unsure of the story.

Trise looks at Goru, “I think both you and Jera should leave the town.” Goru looks up at Trise, nearly panicking. “Just to protect both of you, until we figure out if this story is true. I’m currently working with Commander Kail, and you know him, he will not stop.”

Goru nods and stands up with his legs shaking. “I can...,” he gulps, “get him to the Port of Hydamere. We have a side job there.”

Winfred stands up, “Let me go to the stalls and get you a carriage. It can take you both there by tomorrow.”

Trise stands up and watches Goru pack his things as Winfred steps out of the restaurant heading towards the stalls.

They finish packing and help Jera and Goru get out of town and watch for a brief moment as the carriage disappears out of sight.

They continue throughout the town for the remainder of the day to morning, collecting all kinds of stories from the trees to the very town itself. For it seems that this place has more to tell than what was being told.

They leave the tavern and part ways with Torin heading down the path towards Gringel and Brooks Forge. The one assignment he didn’t tell Riley about was learning what those devices did and making sure to find a way to destroy them.

Torin stops in front of the forge and takes a deep breath knowing this conversation wasn’t going to be easy. He raises his hand and knocks loudly on the door. No sound is heard for a minute and knocks again.

“Dammit, who in Nastrond’s graces is up at this damn hour!” a snarling voice growls from inside.

“It’s me, Torin. I have a favor to ask.”

The door swings wide open and there stands an angry Gringel dressed for bed. “You do realize how late it is Torin. Night falls and I have to be up before sunrise.” Gringel walks back inside beside the forge and turns on a light.

“I know, and I do apologize. I think you’re the only person who can help me with this in saving San.”

“San?” Gringel looks at Torin with his eyebrows raised.

“Oh right, you haven’t heard. The young woman with the carbuncle you saved earlier today. The adult carbuncle that everyone is talking about is called her San.” Torin explains.

“Well now, so that lass does have a name. Curious.” Turning to face Torin, Gringel crosses his arms. “Al’ight, let’s hear you out.”

“You’ll help?”

“Well, I like how that young lass smells, only smelled it once before.” Gringel grins. “So, what do you have for me?”

Torin takes out two burnt fabric cloths and lays them on the forge in front of him. “Kail wants you to identify what these are and how to destroy them. He wants this assignment done on a hush-hush basis so he can protect San and other creatures like her from being abused.”

Gringel gives a puzzled glance to Torin and gazes down at the burnt fabric before him, placing his hands over the cloth. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He opens a medium box beside the forge, taking a small device used to magnify items. Holding it up to his eyes, looks at the symbols upon it. “Never thought in my days these types of things were real. These are not symbols but ancient sigils. Where the hell did you obtain these artifacts?”

Torin looks at Gringel in surprise, “Artifacts?”

Gringel was about to reply when a young man’s voice shouted downstairs, “Father, is everything alright down there?”

“Get your Arse down here Brooks! Looks like I might need your help on this!” His son rushes to get out of bed and downstairs. Looking at Torin, “This artifact is from the old world. My grandfather carried with him stories about it. Stories that no one would believe. It talks of an ancient war and a time when darkness ruled this land.” Gringel looks down at the sigil in front of him.

Brooks stepped from the stairway turning left, going past Torin beside his father.

“Look at that boy, that there is a damn Sigil.” Gringel points to the fabric.

Brooks takes the small item and puts it up to his eye and looks through it at the sigil. He looks up at his father in shock. “But they don’t exist. It was just a story.”

Gringel places his hand on his side with a look of interest stretching across his face, “Some story, seems like there is some actual fact to it.” He looks at the fabric, “Al’ight, give us some time with it. This will not be easy to determine what it is or how it can be destroyed. Hopefully, with my grandfather’s knowledge, we can figure this out.” Torin smiles as a look of relief crosses his face.

As he turns around, Gringel questions, “Staying out late tonight?”

Torin responds, “Yes, I have other business I need to take care of.”

As Torin left them, they were busy at work identifying the item and how to destroy it. That went better than planned. He thought that the old fool would fight him tooth and nail just trying to prevent him from helping. He will admit to being curious about that smell he mentioned and might ask about that later.

Reaching Granger’s place, Torin walks inside the meat market to the door at the back and pauses one foot before the door. He places his hand in a fist with the middle finger sticking out a little bit and makes a Tap, tap. . . tap tap tap.. Tap Tap sound on the door.

After a minute the door opens with a Granger standing there with a hand on his hip. He jerks his thumb behind him and walks to the table sitting down.

Torin follows him inside, closing the door behind him.

Granger sits forward with his fingers tapping together on the table. “Something tells me this is not a house call visit.”

Torin sits down and glances at Granger. “Well, there are two things I need help with, and you can choose if you want to do both of them or just one of them.”

Granger pauses his tapping of the hands and gives a questionable glance at Torin “Spill.”

“Right now, Trise and Winfred are going around town learning all types of stories from here dating from now to about thirty years ago.”

Granger rests one hand on the side of the table and leans backward in his chair. “You want me to organize that information don’t ya.”

“Well, you are the best at that old friend.”

“That won’t take me long at all. So, what is this other job you have lined up?”

“Well, you know that old building in the middle of town that no one can buy or wants to?”

Granger leans forward with both hands in front of him with his elbows beside him on the table and nods.

“Seems Kail found out that house used to belong to the merchant that lived here. But Durdley lives on the outskirts of town. So why would Durdley keep that building like that for thirty years?”

“Seems like a good puzzle to solve. Honestly, that sounds a bit more exciting than the other one. Wonder what we would find?” Granger smirks and his eyes gleam with mischief.

“Care to find out? One last adventure perhaps?” Torin’s eyes gleam with mischief.

Granger sits back for a brief minute, “You know me too well dear friend. I can’t resist the temptation to figure that out. Let’s go before the kids realize I haven’t gone to bed yet.”

Torin gives a low snicker and they both depart the store making sure all the lights downstairs are turned off. No one hears a sound or sees anything as they leave the building in shadows going behind the registration office building. They head towards the empty building next to the Magical Item building.

Reaching a side door to the house, Torin watches Granger check the door for traps. He loves and admires how his hands work over each panel using that magic trick of his to reveal anything he touches.

The door clicks and becomes unlocked. Granger opens the door and steps inside followed by Torin. As they closed the door, what would await them in this empty house for thirty years?

Riley walks towards the Barracks after he leaves the tavern. In order to even negotiate with the Duke, Count, or the King, you had to be of a certain standing. With Kail out of the picture, He has no idea how this is going to go, talking to either of them.

Upon reaching the Barracks, Riley enters, spotting only a couple of soldiers are present, and turns left and walks down a few feet towards the hallways leading to different offices. He steps into the first office walking towards the back of the room past the large desk in the middle and places his hand on the cupboard hanging on the wall in front of him. After a few seconds, a click sounds and a drawer opens at the bottom of the cupboard. Grabbing the seal, he closes the drawer and leaves the Barracks.

Past the North Gate, clear meadows can be seen as the path turns right. Riley is constantly gazing to see which area they set camp for the night. Night starts to descend with the path closing and leading back towards town. A small campfire can be seen in the distance. Riley walks towards the campfire spotting a few of the Royal Guards standing watch.

One of the Royal Guards spots him and instantly draws his spear with a green circle symbol around the blade pointing in his direction.

An order from behind the guard, “Stand down, it’s just Riley.”

“But Sir, we were ordered to stand guard.”

A Royal Guard of higher-ranking steps around the other guard wearing a thin plate of armor from the neck down to his arms and feet. The armor carries a symbol of the kingdom of Feldorea on the front. “This is Riley, As I’m aware he isn’t a monster or someone you need to attack. I’m well aware you want a piece of him just because he rushed past you before you could see him. I’ll let you know this; you don’t stand a chance against him. So, Stand Down.” Captain of the Royal Guard Uri, crosses his arms in front of him and glares at the soldier.

The guard draws back his weapon making a mmph sound with disappointment on his face.

Riley glances at Uri with a smirk. “Nice to know Uri, you still haven’t lost your touch.”

“I could have let him fight you to teach him a lesson.” They proceed to walk through the camp. “Something tells me though you’re not here for a fight. You’re here to talk to the Duke and the Count, correct?”

“Yes, I am.”

As they approach the large tent in the middle, Uri questions, “So I take it because you brought the seal, you’re here to talk strategy about how to deal with this whole mess?”

Riley stops beside Uri in front of the tent entrance. “Something else actually, so you might want to join us for this conversation.”

Uri looks at him in surprise and opens the curtain to let Riley step inside. Uri follows behind standing to the right as the curtain falls.

The Duke of Bringenton and the Count of Nesis are standing in the far corner of the room conversing with each other. Riley stops before them, giving a deep bow. The Duke nods at Riley and walks towards the table to the left sitting down.

The Duke motions with his hand for Uri to come forward. “What brings you here at this time of night, I thought Commander Kail would be here.”

The Duke is six feet eight inches tall with short grey hair and streaks of black on the side going back to his neck. His eyes are black, is a very physical man for being human.

The Count stands at five feet nine inches tall with pointy ears and a much thinner frame with long burgundy hair that he brings up in a ponytail behind him. His eyes are as green as the forests around these parts.

The four of them sit at the table.

“Commander Kail would have been here; however, he is preoccupied at the moment with protecting a certain individual.” Riley sits back watching all of their reactions.

“You mean this creature named San?” The Duke sits back in his chair.

Riley nods, “Let me tell you the events of what happened so far to bring you up to date. Then I shall tell you what Commander Kail’s orders are concerning them.”

The Duke glances at the Count.

The Count gives a nod and listens intently as Riley starts the story of how they met and what happened afterward.

Three hours pass and Riley sits back watching everyone take all this information in. It was unbelievable, he knew that. However, it is the truth, and hope they will at least listen to the next part with open minds.

The Count is sitting back with his hand on his chin.

As Riley casts a shrewd glance towards the Duke, he is sitting forward resting his chin on his hand. Meanwhile, Uri sits back in his chair.

With a glance towards Riley, The Count questions, “This is a lot to think about. I take it you want answers now as time is of the essence concerning the trees and everything else?”

“Yes. This next part concerns both of you.”

Uri exclaims, “What does he want them to do?”

“Easy Uri, let us listen first before we start complaining,” The Duke cautions.

“Indeed, perhaps you should tell us the next objective.” The Count agrees.

“Because of the incident you and your men caused in town, He wants you to give a formal apology to the Town for making a mess of the situation,” Riley says.

The Duke raises his eyebrows at Riley as the Count looks at Riley in astonishment.

Uri scowls at Riley, “No hold on! You can force-”

Riley holds up both hands in defense, “Listen up before you start, Kail wants to protect San, the person you just met in there.”

Uri stands up with both hands on the table. As he opens his mouth to say something, the Count taps the table. The Count, having Uri’s attention, shakes his head. Uri clenches his fists gripping the table, his anger rising and turns pushing the chair with his feet, and walks over to the other side.

Riley sighs inwardly, hoping for a good situation but was prepared to be beaten by the Duke whom he didn’t stand a chance against. This right here would tell if they could get the other two items done that Kail wrote down.

The Duke frowns and lowers his hand. He looks towards the Count, “We don’t have a choice, do we?”

Both Riley and Uri look at the Duke in astonishment.

At the same time, the Count laughs. “Well what pisses the Duke off more than being wrong, is someone using him to ensure he does hurtful actions that affect him protecting the people.”

The Duke sighs and stands up pacing the area slightly ahead of the table. “From what you have told us, there is a lot going on here. And it seems this Temple of Dierie is involved. Even if it’s called that at all, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Then I take it that is the other order is it not? To go to the Temple and force them out of our kingdom until pending investigation?” Casting a glance at Riley, the Count sits back in his chair.

Giving a shaky laugh, Riley puts his head onto his hand with his elbow on the table. Glancing up at them, “Guess it is. I honestly didn’t plan on this going well.”

Meanwhile, Uri is still standing in shock and the Duke walks over giving a hard slap on his back causing him to move forward a few steps almost falling to the ground. “Snap out of it, Captain of the Royal Guards. You’re going to be the one leading the group to the Temple with the Count.”

A dumbfounded look still resides on Uri’s face as he rises and turns to gaze at the Duke.

At the same time, the Count stands up and walks to the end of the tent grabbing a blank document and writing tool and bringing them forward back to the table. “Then I take it you’re going back with them to issue the formal apology to the town. I will write my letter to take with you. Afterward, I will report to the King and the Court in a manner where it doesn’t hurt the creature San and we can stop any more fighting in the kingdom.”

“I never told you about the letter to the King and Court!” His amazement spreads on his face and body.

The Count smiles and continues writing, “Might need to give a certain thank you then to your Commander for being smarter than all of us.”

Riley realizes why Kail admires the Duke and gives these orders. He smiles inwardly knowing he was going to have to kick his butt when he got to see him again.