Edited by: KenChi死

The Capitan of city guards entered his office, walk to his chair, sat on it while laying his legs on the desk. His hand grabbed a bottle from a small, hidden shelf and poured the liquid into his mug.

What a shitty day. And it barely started.

He was about to take a sip of his favorite dirty vodka, but just when the mug was supposed to touch his lips, someone knocked the door.

“For fuck sake! I told you that I am not to be interrupted you stupid cunt!” “Ah, so this is how you treat ladies when you are left alone… good day to you… Edon…” “What the hell, Eadric, the hell are you doing here!?” “Don’t call me that name.” “Pardon me, ROGUE… I was sure you are better than in the past. Good ol’ days are still haunting you?” “You wouldn’t know. Anyway, I am here on business… quick one. There are a few more places, that I would be grateful if your people would… avoid.” “Some kind of story I should prepare? Weird noises? Haunted house is out of the question. They would send exorcists right away so…” “No sounds… No smells. We took care of that… No, we do not intend to make people disappear there either. Just… First slums, right near the sewers…” “I wouldn’t send my men there... well, maybe, just maybe, one idiot… anyway, you can pay with coin… but in the name of friendship… would like to share some info with me?” “What do you want to know.” “White haired mage. Who he is, what does he want, where does he come from…” “He is… not your concern. Oh, that reminded me. Do not touch him. Whatever would happen,” “He is under your strict protection or what?” “I wonder… sometimes I think, that I am under his… I like you Ed, really, but this man is Taboo. If you would find out that anyone wants to scratch him… kill him… or tell me… at the same time, if you would try something funny with him…” “I will wake up with a sliced throat, would I? Ya could tell me that earlier… we had… an “episode” with him here… just an hour ago.” “…Continue.” “Nothing much, he almost choked to death one of my men… if he wouldn’t have had that confident aura around him, I would have probably ordered him killed… But you, know… once, just once I saw a gryphon playing with a man. He was carrying him with his talons, flying up to the sky, dropping him, just to catch him as he was about to hit the ground, he was tearing his body apart without killing him, not because he needed, not for revenge, just cuz’ he could… the boy had the same aura… if I wouldn’t know you as good as I do… I would tell you to be careful. Even if you do business with him…” “He wouldn’t hesitate for a second to simply break our agreement when it would be no longer be profitable for him… I know… the kid is scaring me, even more since he is not a h…” “He is not what…” “… this conversation never took place…” “Pfthaha, sure boy, I am about to tell my mama that I am being bribed by some villain.” “He is not a human. Something bigger... Didn’t you notice some changes in behavior of the furries? “Beastmen? They became quiet lively lately… especially thieves… and still are talking about some kind of call… what’s the connection?” “Who’s call do you think they want to answer?” “I have no idea, this is why…: “No, no, no. Think harder and answer me: Whose call will they answer?” “You are shitting me… the kid? Why?” “To reach the answer for this question I needed to dig pretty deeply. Into never written legends of beastmen, steal a few works of archeologist… especially scripts of Hieronymus Kleir were interesting. He is a Divine.” “… Divine rank monster… May the trinity have mercy on us.” “His roar almighty shall shake the flighty,

Our prayers of slaughter shall wake him from nightmares,

And when you would hear his voice, you shall answer the call,

For he is the one, who brings on the blight,

The foolish shall fall, and weak will bawl,

And as you hear him roar, remember… to answer the call…

Or so they say. There are conceptions, that he is but an Avatar, a concept that is given life every few millenniums… He appear few times… and those creatures are not teddy bears… Every time one was born, a war began. A big one.”

“Just from curiosity – how big?” “You ever heard about humans and demons to unite? Or elves and dwarves? And then human with demons and elves with dwarves? And then a few other races? His march is called a blight “And trees were bleeding at the mere sight of him, the earth beneath his feet will rot, and the souls of those who will be devoured by him shall be doomed to know no peace, but to live within him in torment…”” “…Just in case things would turn dirty... How do we kill it?” “… I am working on it. Just in case… of course…” “Pragmatic as always… this is why I work with you, you always have a way to kill someone you are working with…” “For now he will be busy. Someone already made an enemy out of him. We just need to help him… from time to time… and take a good care of things, so he would never completely run out of enemies…”

I’ve been sitting here, with priests, for an hour already… and I am already going nuts. They are so fucking annoying! Their magic is so time consuming!!! But is efficient… if we would make a competitions who would cure more men within a day, I would lose miserably… BUT WE ARE NOT GOING INTO QUANTITY TODAY FOR CHRIST SAKE!

“M… Mr. Zariel! Please slow down! You are surly performing a spectacular magic, but it’s so aggressive that it is breaking our spell nets!”

See? Why the fuck would you prefer to create a bloody net from mana threads just to through them keep healing? Can’t you directly stimulate the body to regenerate?

“I would love to slow down, but I am afraid that Lady Blackwood is standing with one foot in the land of death, so…”

Door was opened and breathless runner came in holding a book I asked for

“H…h..here it… is… Page.... 237… Crimson… Swan…”

I wrenched the book out of his hand, opened at page, and began reading aloud

“Crimson Swan – the poison of great subtlety, the ingredients required to prepare it are: Red Dust, pollen of Aragis Tarantum, leafs of Reaper’s Bell… what the hell, none of these can be found here… in this climate… “

I recalled reading about those from the books in Hanna’s hut. Aragis Tarantun is a carnivorous plant preferring humid and warm swamps… Bell of Deathbringer or so called Reaper’s Bell is in cold places…. Like a tundra… How the fuck anyone get even the idea to create this shit? But what is more important…

“… the actual skills needed to prepare it are not high. One can create it even without professional equipment… and books like these are casually lying within the library? Any noble and mage apprentice can walk in there and read those? How the fuck do you not have more causalities?” “They don’t. Every alchemy recipe is lying within the section that is owned by the Alchemist Guild. We took it only because we told them that we need to act immediately as the life of Madam Blackwood is in danger…”

… well, I, once again, am both happy and mad. Happy -> cuz we will have not many potential pensioners running through the streets, and mad, because of the monopoly of this shit. Oy! Don’t ya know you should share knowledge!

I don’t give a damn, that my reasoning is simply excluding each either! I am pissed!

“Let’s see… specification… The poison itself needed to be served repeatedly to have a deadly effect… We know it already… Blah, blah… ah, here antidote… … … … What the fuck is Avaco Derium?” “Kind of easily soluble mineral… pretty common, it is sometimes used as base of potions, instead of oil or alcohol…” “Let me ask you the other way… can you get me the things from this list?”

And now Richard’s father joined the conversation

“You are within the mansion of one of most influential houses of the kingdom… And you are asking? Do you want some special kind of this bloody Avaco something? From west coast? From Mountains of Fallen? Even if we are honorable and usually are not getting involved with underground… I think we could co operate… this time” “Aha, I could redirect you to a certain someone from underground, who I know, maybe you would get a discount?”

The strange silence took hold over the room. Speaking about my connection was probably a faux pas… was it?

“Just sayin…” I rolled my eyes “Can you have them by evening?” “You will have them in an hour, kid.”

Hoo, okay, you wanted to impress me? Well, I am impressed.

“Okay, I think I will last up until…” Your skill [Nature Healing Magic level 9] has leveled up [Nature Healing Magic] is now level 10 [Vipers Blood] manifestation of [Nature Healing Magic] has been learned [Vipers Blood] Buff spell. The target of this spell will have improved regeneration ability and be will less susceptible for all kind of poisons, venoms and toxins. Hp regeneration up

Skill [Poison resistance - low] will be grantedDuration: 30 min

You have a new message: Keep doing your best! Remember! You can do it! Just do it! Kisses!

Oh, you weren't suppose to get this skill RIGHT now, some strength buff instead... hope you are not mad. xoxo

-Aira

…

“Okay, I will definitely last this long.”

Honestly… girl… I think I will build you a bloody monument made out of onyx with nothing but my bare hands…

Let’s use it right away!

Rogue was heading back into his quartets through corridors made out of old sewers. He was about to get into one of his chambers, but as he reached the end of corridor, but from around the corner he encounter Daralon.

“… Well, I think that I should redefine the meaning of SECRET passages… I used to think that they are passages that no one expect a certain one would know about em’…” “Oh boy, I know this city better than anyone… you know… there is such a funny spell, you are attaching small [Curse Word – Follow] to a body. Everywhere when someone would move it would leave a small trail. Invisible even for other mages… after you add them to few dozen… okay few hundreds… OKAY! Thousands of people they would draw a nice map… a map I can freely visualize in my mind… oy’ ya know that even the king has his own whores… pardon me, secret concubines?” “… Is there anyone you do not spy on? As a spy I feel offended.” “Sure thing! There are a few guyz I didn’t mark in the entire city… simply I have no time to mark every drunk worker… but a few in every caste… well and Zari… My magic was sucked into him, thanks the goddess, he didn’t notice… Aaaand this is how we started talking about Zari, which is perfect, because about HIM I wanted to talk with you…”

Daralon grabbed Rogue by his shoulders and pinned him to the wall

“I heard your little talk with Ed’… which part was interesting? That you are looking for a way to kill him? Now, lemme tell ya… you will stop looking for em’. You will not even think about a way to kill him, even “just in case”… not. Period. Or maybe you want a certain [Curse word] in your body to be shifted into [Pain], then [Agony] Just to end with grand finale which is my own creation [Dance Macabre]… is that clear, sunshine?” “… Why do you care? Just asking.” “Why? WHY? Well, great question mate… You see, everyone caries within em’ a small seed… seed of darkness. Well, or how it is actually called by priests and mages… corruption. If you would let this little seed bloom… your point of view changes. There are many triggers: hate, despair, anger… love… there are many ways to kick em’ into working… in my case it was a Codex… the moment of blooming… is a bliss, you wont be able to understand the PURITY of this feeling! For in that moment you understand… that nothing shines brighter than the darkest nigh! It is… unspeakable! And every time anyone blooms… each dark mage nearby share this wonderful feeling! There are many… intensities… of that feelings… depending on the power of the corruption itself… usually – the harder it is to make it bloom, the more powerful corruption and stronger sensation… I bloomed after merely touching the Codex… THIS KID IS CARRING ONE… so how strong will it be? How wonderful? I shiver just by thinking… how BEAUTIFUL he will become… I am talking about inner beauty, you will not understand… I was looking for similar beauties in many places… crypts, graveyards… someone’s insides… a fun fact, kings do not bleed with blue blood… “You… are insane…” “… No way… so you noticed…” “It’s not funny…” “He, what daya mean? It’s hilarious! Aaaand um, I like you… we made few nice business… we helped each other a few times… we killed a nice bunch of people… even if you nor directly… so can you please promise, that you would stop these researches? Would you?”

Rogue felt something inside him moving. Something like a giant worm twisting and shivering… like if it was readying itself to devour him from the inside.

“I promise…” “See? That was easy! Wasn’t it? It was! Ummm… I am definitely not threatening you right now, but I will just say aloud, that I do really naaaaaaaasty things to folks that lie to me… Okay we are chit-chatting here, but I have a job to do, you know, everybody dies yet some people need a little help… and I am such a small helper!... no touching Zari, ya hear me? No touchy!”

And he vanished. Just like that. Without any spectacular effects. He just turned into air.

The worm inside Rogue’s belly calmed down, but not Rogue. His heart was still pounding hard. How long was he spied on? No, it’s impossible for Daralon to spy on everyone at the same time. He probably set a few actions, maybe key words, to drag his attention. “Zariel” must be one of these words… Damn, looks like he had to once again start using ciphers. In the end, as a spy he really loves his privacy.