I rode up to the castle gates having rushed past everything. My mare panted heavily; I’d pushed her rather hard. She was a good horse, though. I patted her neck affectionately and gratefully. She made a huff that echoed through her lips that perhaps was horse for ‘you’re welcome’. Several guards that stood watch at the castle gates approached me, wary of my presence and how I’d arrived. Understandably so. Only a crazy person charges at a castle.

“What’re ye here for?” the one closest to me asked, peering through narrowed eyes at me.

“I have to see the Queen!” I insisted, my fear coming through my words. “I have important information that she needs to hear!”

The guard rolled his eyes at me. “Right, sure, and my arse is made of raspberries.”

“What?”

“You’re full of shit,” said the guard, crossing his arm. “We don’t just let anyone in here.”

My heart sank, ending up somewhere approximately near my feet. I had to make sure these men let me in; could they not see the hell I’d been through? “I need to see Queen Selissa! Callie – Callisto = she’s in danger, aren’t you listening?” I shouted.

Callie’s name earned a few raised eyebrows. “Callie’s in danger?” said the guard slowly, concern winning over suspicion. “Are you sure?”

“Damn sure! Let me in! The Queen needs to know!”

“Alright, alright! We’ll let you in. That little lassie better be okay,” said the guard as he gestured to the others to open the gate. “Let ‘im through!”

The other guard cranked the gate, raising the metal bars that secured the castle walls.

“Thank you,” I sighed in relief. “I’ll do what I can to help her.”

The guard smacked my painted mare on the rear, and she lurched forward, leaping into the courtyard. “Right down the middle, you’ll find her in the throne room,” he said. “Now go!”

I didn’t answer, my mare already taking me through the pathway in the courtyard, much to the disdain of a few nobles who were lounging around inside. As I reached the front doors, I slid off of my mare’s back, ran up the steps two at a time, and slammed into the entrance. I remembered exactly where the throne room was. It hadn’t been very long since I’d been here last, although it felt like a lifetime ago. I wasn’t the same person I’d been when I’d walked through here, arrogant and churlish, toting a princess in handcuffs. A ghost of a smile graced itself upon my lips at the memory, unbidden.

I entered the throne room without knocking, just like before.

“I must speak with the Queen!” I shouted.

The noble that was speaking with the Queen about his grievance looked shocked at my outburst. Selissa waved him away.

“You again?” she yelled, annoyed. “I imprison you, and you abscond with the Princess!”

I coughed. “Ah, actually she technically absconded with me, your grace.” I said in a small voice.

She laughed. “I know. I’ve heard everything about your adventure from Old Sage here.” She pointed behind her to a small table in the corner where he sat, a bowl of fruit and a large pint of ale in front of him.

He waved.

“Your grace, we can catch up on details later,” I insisted. “Where’s Callie?”

“What do you mean?” she said warily. “She’s not with Hazuzu?”

“Your grace, I have reason to believe she’s in danger,” I said, emphasizing my point with my hands. “She was supposed to return here this morning.”

The Queen glanced around the throne room. “Perhaps it’s best if we speak in private. Everyone – go home. You’re dismissed.” She stood from her throne, watching everyone file out grumpily.

Old Sage stood as well, brushing crumbs from his shirt and taking one large drink from his mug. “I’m joining you,” he said.

The Queen nodded numbly, already used to Sage inserting himself into critical situations. The now empty throne room echoed loudly as our feet tapped, heading towards a small meeting room. We followed the queen inside, and we all sat down.

“Now, tell me everything,” she insisted, staring at me intently.

“Uh, right,” I said. “So, we’d met Hazuzu and sent Sage to tell you that he still stands by his alliance, yes? That’s the latest you’ve heard?”

She nodded. “Yes. Be quick with your summary.”

“Okay, okay.” I huffed, preparing myself. “Callie wanted to come here to say goodbye, I guess, and she was bringing the prince, Matthias, with her. They left early this morning and -”

“She was bringing Matthias back to me?” Selissa asked, an eruption of joy in her voice and a blatant twinkle of hope in her eyes.

“Why didn’t you go with her?” Sage asked, interrupting.

“Ah, I uh… went back to the guild,” I said sheepishly, ruffling my hair.

“Those knob-heads. Idiots, the lot of them.”

I paled, thinking of what I had left behind. He didn’t know what had become of our Guild, what was left of them. I didn’t know how to tell him just yet, so instead, I stared at him and said the first thing that came to mind. “But you’re a retired hunter?”

“Oh sure, but that doesn’t make them not dumbasses. I worked for them selectively for a long time. But enough about me – what happened to Callie?”

I silently thanked him for the subject change, for giving me a few more minutes before I had to depart with that piece of news. I wasn’t ready to talk about the Guild yet. “I don’t know. If she’s not here, then something happened to her,” I said, looking at the Queen. “She’s definitely not around?”

“No, not as far as I know. If she were in the city, my guards would’ve seen her, I’m sure of it,” she said seriously. “She could’ve just taken a stop somewhere. I know she’s not fond of the castle proper.” She sounded wistful.

“Well, there’s more,” I said. “I… something happened at the guild.” I wrung my hands. “I’m not really even sure what happened… I don’t know what to say.”

“Take your time,” Sage said kindly, earning a concerned look from the Queen.

“But not too much,” she warned.

“I didn’t get to see what happened in person,” I said, wringing my fingers and staring down at my feet. The words became much harder to choose, and even more difficult to form and let loose from my tongue, teeth, and lips. “There… uh, something… um.” I smacked my lips, chewing on the bottom one. “The Guild is dead.”

“What?!” Sage and the Queen exclaimed in unison.

I glanced up in fear, still clenching my fingers together and knotting them. “I think they released Zaavi.”

Sage blinked several times, mouth open wide. His hands ran through his sparse white hair. The Queen was simply shocked still, or maybe she didn’t quite know the severity of my words.

“Sage, the Guild… they’re gone. They’re all… gone.” I didn’t know what else to say, then I remembered the scrolls in my pocket. “But I have evidence.” I rummaged around for the sacred and magical pieces of paper I’d rescued, pulling them out for the two of them to see.

“Tomas, my boy, we believed your word without evidence,” Sage said gravely, his typical tone of pleasant mirth replaced with one of severe seriousness. “But I’d like to take a look at whatever you have to show us.”

“Perhaps it could enlighten us further on this…unique situation,” said the Queen, reaching out for the scrolls I held in shaking hands. The Queen delicately unrolled the scroll, the singed edges crumbling off into ash. She handed the other one to Sage, who held it carefully in his hands while they both read from the burnt one.

I gulped, watching them read the words on the paper, the understanding on their faces growing into a look of sadness and despair. More silence as they read and reread the words on the paper, my muscles tensing the more the silence continued. What were they thinking right now? The anticipation of the question they might ask terrified me. I didn’t want to relive what I’d seen, not yet, not ever again.

Sage’s eyes were filled with pity. I was sure he could read between the lines. An incomplete magical vow, the edges burnt and smoking, Would I have to tell him the details? He shook his head at me, nonverbally reassuring me that no, I wouldn’t have to say anything more than I wanted to. His familiar face comforted me. The Queen looked up at me, opened her mouth to ask me a question, then was stopped by Sage’s arm on her shoulder. She startled at the touch, their silent interaction stopping her question before it was formed into words.

“I’m all that’s left,” I said. I couldn’t add anything else.

Sage nodded. “I understand,” he whispered. Now that the burnt scroll was adequately and thoroughly examined, his attention turned to the first one I’d discovered. It was perfectly intact, the parchment beautifully preserved through magic. “Now, what is this one?”

I shrugged, grateful again to turn the conversation into a different direction, any other direction. “I don’t know. I didn’t get the chance to really read it. It was in the archives, though.”

“The archives?”

I nodded in confirmation. “I was hiding in there when it all… happened. The cabinet fell on me and sheltered me.” That was all I could say before the words choked in my throat, stopping all speech.

Sage read the parchment quickly, then passed it over to Queen Selissa so she could read it too. He didn’t look alarmed or concerned, not even remotely bothered. I hadn’t gotten the chance to read it either, had what I’d grabbed not been as important as I’d assumed? What if it was just, like, an accounting record depicting all of the stupid ceremonial robes the Guild had purchased over the years?

The Queen finished reading it then handed it out to me. I took it, fingers shaking, confused and alarmed at the lack of verbal responses from the two. My eyes slid over the inked words, the signed agreement, the short, yet clear paragraph describing the pact. This was dated back to the beginning of the Hunter’s Guild, the original agreement forming it. But it was signed with Hazuzu, his signature unmistakable. I read the paragraph again.

“Astounding, the secrets of our ancestors, aren’t they?” Sage said wisely, interrupting my thoughts.

“What does this mean?”

“Exactly what it says. Hazuzu helped form the Hunter’s Guild on the promise that the Guild would defeat Zaavi, imprison him, whatever,” Sage waved his hands as he spoke. “Does it surprise you?”

“I mean… yeah. I thought the Hunter’s Guild was trying to eradicate all demons, not make deals with them.” I thought back to the actions of the Guild. We were trained to kill demons so that humanity may live. I never would have thought that they would have struck a deal with the King of Demons. “Hazuzu must like to make pacts.”

Sage nodded. “It’s one way of getting things done. Usually involves slightly less bloodshed, I’ll admit. This one saved a lot of lives, I imagine, at the cost of Zaavi’s and his followers.”

“There’s one thing – well, there’s a few things – that I don’t understand,” I interjected, shaking my head. “How would Hazuzu have formed the Guild? How does his help do anything for them at all?”

“Ah, good question,” Sage said, wagging a finger at me. “His ability to portal is paramount to gathering good magical forces. When you can travel like that, it’s a bit easier to collect those who are magically talented. That’s how they assembled the original families. They were the most prolific human magicians the realm knew of. Later on, they became the founding families of the Hunter’s Guild, sworn in by this agreement to hunt the demons that dare step foot in the human realm – which would happen to be only those who follow Zaavi.”

The Queen had been silent for a while, taking in all of the history we had uncovered. “How are you so unsurprised by this, Sage?” she questioned. “This clearly isn’t common knowledge between Hunters.”

“I see we’re full of good questions this evening. I can elaborate later, but Hazuzu told me his history long ago. I’ve known him for a long time.”

“I see,” the Queen agreed. “This knowledge has been enlightening, to say the least, but we have more pressing matters to attend to. Such as the whereabouts of my son and Princess Callisto. If Zaavi is on the loose, he’s bound to try and apprehend her. She’s the perfect lure to get to Hazuzu.”

“I agree,” said Sage. “Hazuzu would do anything to keep her safe. And Zaavi’s followers have been after her since she was born; it would make sense she’s the first one he’d go after upon his release.”

“I don’t think we have much time,” I said. “If she’s been missing since this morning, she could be anywhere by now. Zaavi might already have her.”

“You’re right,” the Queen said, resuming her authoritative stance and becoming a Queen once more. “I’ll organize a search party, all of the men we can spare.” She stood, the picture of a leader ready for action.

“Your grace?” I asked, my tongue thick with nerves. “If I may, I’d like to join your search party.”

She nodded in agreement. “Meet in the throne room in fifteen minutes. Sage, you’re going too. I think we’re going to need your help.”

She left the room in a storm, shoes tapping on the marble stone, her voice barking out orders as soon as the door had shut behind her.