There was an obvious tension in the air as the guards atop the battlements were ready to fire the ballistas at the first sign of trouble, but the loremaster did his best to keep things civilised. For now at least.

“You say you had to do things,” Regis tried to make the conversation return to its original direction. “Why didn’t you just leave earlier?”

“Because we couldn’t. We had a spell put on us. Or rather... a curse. If we disobeyed, we’d feel an excruciating pain that would leave us paralysed for hours. It took us a long while to find someone capable of negating the damn thing. And even after that, we needed time to put together our escape plan.”

“And you just so happened to escape now?”

“No,” she shook her head. “We did it a good two weeks ago, but it’s hard to travel unnoticed. We had to be careful to not leave any traces that could be followed. But that’s beside the point. You have to understand that we aren’t the only Argents on the Shardlands. Grandfather is here, along with the rest of the old blood. If you thought that I was the mastermind behind every move we made then you were wrong. They were his ideas and he’s not stopping.”

“I take it this is what you came to warn me about?”

“I’m not lying to you!” She said indignantly, trying not to scream at him in anger.

“I know,” the loremaster sighed. “But you’re not telling the whole truth either.”

“Because you’re not listening!” Natalie snapped, her voice breaking for a moment.

The atmosphere was tense but Regis could feel the anger in the woman turning into a mellow despair.

“Do you really think any of this was just some stupid series of coincidences? That King Mikkel died of old age, or that the succession war ended with Mikkel the Second winning due to his brother’s incompetence? It was all planned and executed by my grandfather and the court. Mikkel is nothing but a puppet in their hands and one that they won’t need for long. By the time they are done with him, Ecragurne will be theirs, an offering to their master on a silver plate.”

“Their... master?” Quentin repeated the word confused.

“Archdemon Ulgrath.” Etienne said the name with a clear distaste.

“Is that name supposed to mean anything to me?”

“Not unless you worship schemes and control through subterfuge,” Natalie replied. “It’s the archdemon the Argent family had dealings with in the past. The one that helped us mass migrate to the Shardlands.”

“So the rumours about your family were true after all,” the loremaster remarked. “But why come here to warn me? You said that you were leaving Ecragurne, yet you still came here. Why?”

“Because you have connections. If there’s a chance you can stop my grandfather or at least slow him down a bit, then I’ll take that bet.”

“In other words, you’re using us.” Quentin harrumphed.

“We’re using each other,” the woman corrected him. “I’m warning you so you could stall grandfather and we’d get more time to leave the kingdom and maybe even the continent. In return, you get a heads up about the fast-approaching apocalypse my family’s about to unleash on these lands.”

“Well, I guess this is the point where we’re supposed to thank you for telling us all this.” Quentin hummed.

“I don’t need your gratitude,” Natalie looked at the paladin with increasing annoyance. “I need you to survive for my own survival.”

“Where will you go now?” Regis asked while putting his hand on Quentin’s shoulder to calm him down.

“Harmarond is pretty much a goner at this point,” Etienne remarked. “So we’re heading for Menelrond. Our informants claim that the locals managed to finally get their shit together, so it’s actually liveable now. Not that we’ll stay for long. If grandfather succeeds, they’ll steamroll the whole continent in a month at best. Getting overseas is the only option for us now.”

“Menelrond, huh,” Regis nodded. “The mountain path toward it is a few days of horse ride from the Avellanet territory. It’s going to be hard to get through that unnoticed.”

“We have to try,” Natalie sighed. “Our illusion held up this far, although this detour took a lot of time.”

“I can help with that,” the loremaster said as he pulled off his gateway talisman. “I took a trip through that part of the kingdom a few weeks ago and synced up with their gates. You could cut down the travel time using those.”

“That would be much appreciated,” Natalie said with a tired smile as she held out her talisman, the loremaster passing on the arcane imprint of a few gates. “The only problem is the horses. We can’t get them through the gateways.”

“Use these,” Regis pulled out two seemingly uninteresting bronze rings from his satchel. “They can summon temporary mounts. Not the best I have, but should prove useful.”

“I… thank you! I don’t have much on me in coins, but you can have these two.” She turned towards the tired and somewhat skinny-looking horses.”

“You have enough supplies?” An unexpected voice made everyone turn, finding Valerie behind them.

“We… we were getting a bit short on it on the road, but now that we have a shortcut, it should be fine.”

“I wasn’t expecting you of all people to worry about our well-being.” Etienne said as she looked at the infernal woman.

“I’m not worried about you, prick. It would simply be rude if we let you starve to death after giving us a warning.”

“Figures,” the man chuckled as she watched Valerie walk beside Quentin, grabbing his hand. “Take care of her. She can be… challenging sometimes.”

“Get lost.” Val said as she flipped the bird in Etienne’s direction, the dark elf just giving her a smirk before summoning a glowing-eyed horse using the ring he just got.

The dark elf took some things and the saddlebags from their own mounts and put them on the summoned creatures before getting on top of one.

“We should get going. The others won’t wait forever.”

“Yes,” Natalie nodded before turning back to Regis. “Good luck, and try not to get killed, handsome!”

“There’s far too much left for me to do for that. Safe travels.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Regis and his friends watched as Etienne and Natalie rode away, disappearing in the distance after a while.

“This is bad.” Were the first words that left the loremaster’s mouth after a deep sigh.

“That’s an understatement.” Quentin agreed.

“I might have misheard it due to standing afar but did she really just confess that her family manipulated the royals and the nobility to a generation switch?”

“And now they’re planning to sic an archdemon on the kingdom to boot.” Regis added as he turned around and headed back toward the gates.

“You’re taking it surprisingly well.” Val remarked as the guards closed the gates behind them.

“What do you want me to do? Cry in a corner? That won’t change things.” He said, gears already turning in his mind to process the information they were given.

“We have to call together the team.” The paladin stated as they walked back up the stairs and into the secret room while the guards led the two new horses away.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious. By the way. Was it really necessary to give them those rings?” Valerie grumbled from the side.

"I figured they'd need them and those were 'trash' ranked anyway. They would be worth twenty or so silver each at best. On the flip-side, we got two actual horses out of it. The dark elf hummed as the runes of the gateway lit up sending them back to Thornfell.

“Listen up everyone,” Regis said as he channelled some arcana into his far-caller. “Natalie Argent just visited us and she shared some disturbing news with us so drop whatever you are doing and get over to the manor as soon as you can.”

“What the hell did she come here for?” Was the unified reaction of the group before confirming that they were on their way.

The dark elf headed back to his home followed by the paladin and the infernal woman.”

“Is everything all right, sir?” Euric asked when they arrived, the loremaster's sour expression being a clear indicator of the incoming storm.

“I wish I knew the answer to that,” Regis sighed. “Please tell Dana that the others are on their way.”

“Understood,” the butler nodded. “The tea should be ready by the time they arrive.”

“Thank you.”

“I swear,” Valerie chuckled. “It’s like we’re some old-fashioned British lords gathering for their noon-time tea club.”

“If only the subject of our meeting would be as mundane as that.” Quentin remarked while sitting down.

After a few strained minutes of silence, the rest of the group began to arrive one by one. When everyone was present, Regis looked at them with an obvious worry.

“So... what’s going on? What did that snake want?” Fabien spoke up first, his tone cold and sharp.

“Apparently, Natalie and her brother are leaving Ecragurne along with some of their people. They dropped by to fess up about a few things and to give us a warning.”

“A warning,” Osmond hummed. “About what?”

Regis took a deep breath to gather his thoughts, spending the next few minutes recalling the conversation he had with the Argent siblings. By the end of his story, the rest of the group was just as troubled as he was.

“Do you think she was lying?” Letty asked, her eyes betraying her fear.

“She started a conversation by asking me to use my ‘truth seeker’ domain,” Quentin stated. “She showed no sign of lying.”

“That doesn’t mean she couldn’t have used some kind of enchanted item the block your questioning.”

“From what I know,” the loremaster sighed. “There are no such items below the fifth tier and even those are just tales in books. The chances of her having such an item is pretty much zero.”

“In other words,” Amanda emptied the now cold tea from her cup. “She was telling the truth.”

“Well, shit.” Cruz cussed as she grabbed Osmond’s hand.

“That’s the understatement of the month.”

“What do we do now? This is way too big for us.” Sophie looked at the others, hoping for an answer that would calm her nerves.

“I don’t know,” Regis admitted. “I mean... we’re talking about a bloody archdemon here. If that thing sets its foot on this land, we’re fucked.”

“So that’s it,” Cruz stood up with enough force that her chair slid back a few inches. “Are we just going to lie down and wait to die? You’re a damn third-tier enchanter for fuck’s sake! You’ve been creating weapons that could level armies left and right. You said that the ‘domain heart’ you created would protect us from the undead and any demon they would send our way. Can’t you do… something? Anything?”

“I said that the domain heart’s barrier would be impenetrable by anything below the mid-fourth tier. This is a fifth-tier demon we’re talking about here. Even if I could somehow grind myself up to become a fourth-tier enchanter, it would take a shit load of precious materials and time to upgrade the ‘domain heart’ to a point where it could withstand that thing’s attacks.”

“We’re not alone in this,” Mary remarked. “There must be others who could help stop what’s coming. Stop the Argents from summoning this archdemon thing.”

“And who do you suppose we should ask for help?” Valerie asked back, practically fuming at this point. “Pretty much every noble swore their allegiance to the new king.”

“A king that’s said to be the puppet of the Argents and the Exiled Court.”

“What about the clergy?” Amanda suggested.

“They are supposed to be immune to demonic corruption or any other charming abilities due to divine protection,” Regis nodded. “But they won’t act without proper evidence.”

“Can’t they just use their ‘truth seeker’ domain to question the king?” Mary asked, earning a baffled look from the others.

“Sure,” Cruz facepalmed. “I can already see the head of the church walking up to the king with a couple of paladins.”

“Hey there your majesty,” Valerie did her best to imitate a pious yet threatening old man’s voice. “Would you mind if we openly interrogated you about being a demonic collaborator or a mindless puppet of the dark elf equivalent of the Illuminati?”

“An open confrontation so soon after coronation would be troublesome to say the least.” Fabien sighed.

“Forget troublesome,” Osmond looked distressed as he drank the last of his tea. “It could bring forth a civil war between the people of the church and the royals.”

“Even so, they are our best bet.” Quentin stated.

“I’m pretty sure that no high-ranked spellcaster would be willing to bow their head to a demon just like that either.”

“Not unless they were offered a lot of power and knowledge.” Osmond remarked.

“Arguing about it won’t help anyone,” Sophie said with a surprisingly firm voice. “It might be true that the royals have a lot of power, but so do the people.”

“She’s right,” Regis agreed. “Even if the royals have the new heads of the noble families under their thumb, they couldn’t have charmed every single soldier in their armies. You’ve seen how the people reacted when Lord Graham turned out to be a demonic collaborator.”

“They immediately surrendered and tried to prove they weren’t in cahoots with them.” Quentin recalled.

“Exactly. The people follow their leaders because that’s the established order but the moment you throw the word ‘demon’ in the mix, they will be willing to behead their own lords.”

“That still leads us back to the main question,” Valerie slumped back into her seat. “What are we going to do now?”

“Quentin and I will head to Atraune,” the loremaster said. “Master Felix is also a late-stage third-tier spellcaster and an influential one at that. If we can make sure that he hasn’t been compromised yet, then he should know how to proceed. I mean... the old man must have some connections, right?”

“And what if he is compromised?” Quentin asked what everyone was thinking about.

“Then I can only hope we’ll be able to fight our way back to the gateway without having to hurt too many people.”