Reitz sat on his throne together with his wife beside him while Ezra was on below them on a pedestal beside Evan, Hearth and Caspian. The three were standing guard over Ezra and they wore a solemn expression on their face. Today was supposed to be the day that Ezra would first get to roam around Bren, he did go out before when he was kidnapped but never got an actual tour of the Fulmen Capital.
A man entered as he was escorted by a guard. He wore black leather armour all over and on his arms were steel armguards, he sported a trench coat like vest, and on his sides were two hand crossbows and two daggers and a whip on his left hip.
"This is Sir Deimos, a knight of the order of the Demon Hunter," said the guard as he introduced Deimos.
Reitz nodded.
"Thank you for seeing me Earl Blackfyre, I am Sir Deimos a Hellspawn Slayer of the Order of the Demon Hunter I have come to ask for urgent aid," explained Deimos.
The order of the demon hunters had ranks, the first one of which was Apprentice, Apprentices were not active and could not participate in missions they were practically new recruits and were tasked with servile work. The next was Initiate, this was when one became a full-fledged member of the Order but was given supportive roles. Demon Hunter Masters were the next in rank, these members were already given individual missions after Demon Hunter Masters, were the Shadow Binders, then the Shadow Blade, after which is the Hellspawn Slayer, and then the Hellspawn Assassin, and Hellspawn Destroyer and then the Head of the Order: Hellmaster.
Deimos, being a Hellspawn Slayer, was a high ranking member of the order.
Ezra sized up this man, for him he did not seem to be a knight, he wore no plate armour or any common weapons or armour a knight used for attack and defence. If Ezra did not hear that the person before him was introduced as a knight, he would not have known. For Reitz, it seemed he knew the uniform of the Demon Hunters well.
"I need urgent reinforcements, from the south, my party was attacked by Arcanists and we were split up, I am not certain if any of my team survived," Deimos continued.
"Oh? Arcanists this deep in Rex Imperium? That is a bizarre occurrence. This is truly alarming news!" Reitz replied with an incredulous look.
Ezra listened to the conversation, over the course of the book His Majesty gave him, he realized that Arcanists was just a term that could be put on anyone, not of the empire, it was like the term 'barbarian' for the Romans on Earth. So while he kept on hearing the word he also kept wondering how many of these Arcanists had a kingdom outside the empire.
"I will try to assemble some knights of Bren to aid you. Please be patient for the moment. His Majesty will need to hear of this news. Tell me everything about the incident and give me a full written report on the matter as well."
"Of course Lord Blackfyre, I already have a report on this matter and I will hand it to your Sergeant at Arms. We were assigned on a mission by a Baron on your bordering territory. Our mission was simple escort a merchant caravan going to Fulmen. There was a bandit attack on the caravan which we repelled, but due to unfortunate circumstances the son of the leader of the merchants got lost in the fighting. So we had to retrieve him. Two of my party stayed to guard the camp. When we found traces of him there were signs that there was a recent encampment in the area. We search further and we saw blood spatters, an hour later we found his corpse. It was fully opened up and there was a stake drilled on it. We were furious and then we finally found the people who killed the child. There were three of them, they were Shadow Walkers, our party of five fought and killed two of them, but the other one escaped. As we returned we were ambushed by more Shadow Walkers, and then I was split from my party trying to fend off those that were chasing me, I took two of them down and I suffered minor wounds as I escaped three days ago. I immediately went to Bren to seek your aid."
"I see, but what are Shadow Walkers?" inquired Reitz.
"Sire, since there have been no campaigns farther south of the territory then you probably don't know what they are. They are magic users that have that seem to disappear and reappear in the shadows. They are a very peculiar type of Arcanist, they make weird rituals of sacrifice and they especially target children. I am not too sure about everything about them but it seems that when they do not sacrifice a child of an enemy they sacrifice their own. That is what I have gathered from our headquarters." Deimos explained.
Ezra's eyes grew wide.
'What in the fuck? If that were true, there was simply no way I could possibly rationalize the phenomena of disappearing in the shadows. I need to see this for myself, I need to know what and how these people are doing it,' Ezra thought inwardly as he clenched his fist.
"Arcanists are such uncivilized as this. Why would they kill their own?" Reitz probed Deimos.
"We believe it is because of the god they worship sire. They have a sort of religion and from what our examination suggests, they believe that sacrificing to their god would continue to give them shadow magic,"
Reitz raised his eyebrow.
"Everyone knows that magic is not based on any deity it is clearly natural talent and training that gives us our magical prowess. These people should be purged from existence for believing such stupid superstition. Imagine, killing your own child. Even if I were to lose my magic I would never harm my son," Reitz said as he glanced at Ezra.
"Sir Deimos, although I would like to lead the knights I summon for the task personally, I am afraid I cannot come with you, I cannot leave Castle Blackfyre as of this time," Reitz said plainly.
Lord Blackfyre thought about the time he went on to lead a campaign on bandits but it was actually a distraction used to kidnap Ezra. He personally made a vow never to leave his family even if there was such a grave crisis.
"Tomorrow you shall have a party of five knights I have personally selected, they will accompany you to find your comrades, let us hope that they are safe for now," Reitz said.
"Thank you for honouring the oath your Lordship," said Deimos as he knelt humbly. He referred to the oath that each lord in Rex Imperia would swear and that they had to help the great knightly orders when they were requesting for aid of course with due compensation to their manpower.
"No problem, It is by a man's words that he is proven," Reitz replied as he stood up and concluded the meeting.