"BY THE MOUNTAINS!" An angry roar shattered the quiet evening inside the great hall. Grand Lord Greenmane glared at his clan kin who delivered a piece of most unsettling news to him. "The Third Prince has gone missing? And unexplained murder everywhere in Iron Gate?"
"What of his knights?" Grand Lord Greenmane paced around the smooth stone floor of the great hall. "Who are the assailants?"
"The city guard has no idea who the assailants were..." The messenger's voice trailed off. "But... the Prince's knights... were all among the dead..."
"No!" Grand Lord Greenmane came to an abrupt halt in his pacing. "The Prince must no die!"
"Do you understand the consequences if he were to die inside the Cartel?" Grand Lord Greenmane roared. "And under our clan's protection?"
"He is to be the next Crown Prince!" Grand Lord Greenmane hammered a fist on the armrest of the stone throne. "The Iron King has already lost a son! Now to lose another? It will be war!"
"And we lost the prince under our watch! We will be the ones taking the fall for this!" Greenmare cursed. "Rock and stone! Our enemies will no doubt force this down our throats!"
"Find him! I don't care what resources you use! FIND HIM AND MAKE SURE HE IS SAFE!"
-----
Border of the Iron Kingdom, Combined Expeditionary Fleet of the Iron Kingdom and Tri State
"What is the meaning of this?" Duchess Manarva demanded as Iron Kingdom soldiers levelled their weapons at her people and her. Even to the crew of the Iron Kingdom ships that had returned and docked on the air field. "I am Duchess Manarva of the Tri State! This-"
"My apologies, Duchess, for this disrespect," An Iron Kingdom officer stepped forward with his retinue. The rank bars on his shoulders identified him holding the rank of General and the officer waved his troops forward. "Search the ships!"
"All of you will be confined for the time being under investigations are completed," The Iron Kingdom General said. "Or until proven innocent."
"What is going on?" Duchess Manarva frowned as several soldiers surrounded her and led her away. "I demand an explanation for this!"
The General let out a sigh and gestured his troops to back off. "The Crown Prince Yemen... is missing and assumed to have perished. All of you are now suspects in his mysterious disappearance!"
"Impossible!" Duchess Manarva protested. "That spineless little shit ran and left us all to die!"
"Please," The General gestured for the Duchess to quieten down. "The investigators will ask the questions later."
"For now, can you please tell your people to stand down?" The General asked politely. "I am just doing my duty."
Duchess Manarva turned around and saw all those ships and the crew who had followed her through hell and back waiting for her order. If she gave the signal, there was no doubt that they will rebel and fight against the soldiers here. She took a deep breath and said, "Stand down... We made it through... that hell... and are finally back to the Old World..."
"Don't waste your lives!" She firmly said. Her crew hearing her words lowered their weapons and allowed the Iron Kingdom soldiers to disarm them. "Cooperate with them! We have nothing to fear for we did no wrong!"
"This way please," The General said with more respect. "I will make sure your crew will be treated fairly."
Duchess Manarva gave a snort and she raised her head high as she was escorted away towards the airfield barracks together with the rest of the crew of the combined fleet.
-----
The Old World, The Cartel, Iron Gate
Blake watched with a critical eye at the dwarvan pilot who took over the helm of the Old Ugly. The dwarvan pilot from Iron Gate drove the Old Ugly with casual ease through the windy peaks of the pass. The Old Ugly was smoothly navigated through danger zones and winding passages before the view abruptly opened out and the narrow mountain walls disappeared, revealing open green plains ahead.
"Yaah! We crossed safely!" The dwarvan pilot laughed. "By the Mountains, and here I thought this old ship was junk! But the way she moves! You must have a great master steam work engineer to fine tune this lady till it runs so smooth!"
"Why this old lady might be old, but she still has plenty of life in it!" Trism smiled as he replied cheerfully to the dwarvan. He took out a small pouch of coins and gave it to the dwarvan. "Here a small gift for your help!"
"Rock and stone! Thankee sir!" The dwarvan happily accepted the gift. "Next time when you need to cross the pass again come look for me! I shall ensure your ship gets through the pass swiftly and safely!"
The dwarvan pilot placed extra care on landing the Old Ugly at the Iron Kingdom border air field to await the customs officers' checks. The dwarvan pilot departed the ship while customs officers from the Iron Kingdom arrived and they did a quick inspection of the ship's manifest and cargo. As the inspection was going on, Trism stood beside Blake and gave a quick report of what he found out in a short amount of time.
"Seems like the Prince is here on a business deal," Trism glanced over at the inspectors, making sure they could not hear his words. "He went out a hunt and talked some business with the local Cartel clan before he left to visit taverns to get drunk."
"There was a report about a case of fighting with several dead and wounded outside a tavern," Trism added. "The local city guard arrived and took away everyone involved in the fight... But strangely enough, there weren't any arrests recorded."
"I'm guessing that that incident involves the Prince and his men," Trism said softly enough only for Blake to hear. "They failed in killing him and the city guard came and took him away."
"Some of the city guard commanders must be part of the plot on his life," Trism continued. "They must have tried to take the Prince somewhere out of the city, most likely to kill him off silently... But somehow he escaped."
"After his escape, the city was locked down, I guess to prevent him from leaving the city," Trism said. "But they have to reopen the city in the morning to prevent the higher ups from finding out about the murder attempt."
"From what I found out, the higher ups and the local Cartel clan here are highly supportive of the Prince," Trism said as he looked out of the viewport to the deck where the Prince was standing hidden in the crew. "If they know that the Prince being chased, they would do everything to protect him."
"So why did he not find help with his allies?" Blake asked. "They will do anything to protect him."
"I guess he does not know who to trust... yet," Trism gave a shrug. "And somehow he came to contact with Dr. Sharon and the rest."
"What do we know of the Prince?" Blake asked.
"Hmmm... He's the third son of the Iron King, born from the Second Queen," Trism handed a file over. "Herod Skystar, aka the Prince of Fire, age twenty five. He took his mother's maiden house name instead of the Iron King's Winterborne surname."
"His title of Prince of Fire was given to him due to his support and aggressive promotion of steam works and industrialization to the Iron Kingdom," Trism said. "Hmm... recent reports have rumours of him being the next in line to the Iron Throne as Crown Prince."
"Could the assassination attempt have something to do with this rumour?" Blake asked. "His other brothers wanting him dead to prevent him from getting the throne?"
"It is possible," Trism replied. "The current Crown Prince might be afraid of getting ousted out of his position."
"Well, if that is the case, this is gonna be messy," Blake sighed. "I rather not get involved with a country's political struggle... Especially at this time..."
"I understand, sir," Trism nodded. "But like what Dr. Sharon had pointed out, this is really a good opportunity for us to gain some allies within the Iron Kingdom."
"Against the Protectorate, we might be superior with our firepower, but numbers and resource wise, we are still severely lacking," Trism said. "Also we need intel on the ground which the only way I could think of is to enlist the locals of the Iron Kingdom to help us gather."
"With the support of a Prince, the difficulty of getting intel from within the Protectorate lands will greatly lessen," Trism said. "After all they have been facing the Protectorate for generations, so I am pretty sure they have spies inside the Protectorate."
"Rather than us blindly inserting into the Protectorate lands in search of information on the Princess," Trism continued. "The Prince's influence and help would greatly accelerate our mission in locating the Princess..."
Blake closed his eyes and lowered his head before he nodded, "Yes, you are right. Trying to find Sherene in the Protectorate lands is like finding a needle in a haystack... We totally have no idea where to look for her..."
"Continue to gather more intel on the political scene here," Blake said with a sigh. "Find out who are the major factions and players, who are against or with the Third Prince..."
"If we are to protect him... at least we must know who our enemies are!"
-----
The talisman flared into blue flames and blackened before crumpling into ashes. The robed male seated in a lotus position dusted his hands clean and slowly rose up. He walked to one side of the chamber and picked up the sword from the sword stand. He drew the sword out of its scabbard in one smooth move and gave it a few experimental swings before he kept the sword back in its scabbard.
He left the chamber and tossed a bronze token with a red tassel to the male servant kneeling on the side, "Tell the thirteen disciples of the Dark Moon Hall to assemble at the ancestral hall!"
The slim elf headed straight for the ancestral hall. He sat down in the only chair in the hall and closed his eyes in mediation as he waited for the people he summoned to arrive. A board carved with the flowing words of the Suugon tongue hang above the seat, reading "Dark Moon Hall" in bold.
Tapestries of poems and ink paintings decorated the rest of the hall and a long table filled with spirit tablets of past ancestral warriors of the Dark Moon Hall behind the chair with fragrant incense smoke that slowly coiled into the air. The incense slowly burnt until half when there was a whisper of wind and the soft fluttering of cloth.
"Greetings Hall Master!" Thirteen shadows suddenly appeared from nowhere and together as one they kneeled down and placed their fists together and bowed. "We have assembled as summoned!"
The mediating elf opened his eyes slowly and glanced over the gathered warriors. "Rise..."
"Thank you, Hall Master!" The thirteen shadow warriors replied.
"The main branch has issued down a decree..." The Hall Master said. "There is a person that must be removed from the existence of this world..."
"Give us the order and it shall be done!" The shadow warriors chorused.
"The Third Prince of the Iron Kingdom..." The Hall Master frowned. "Herod Skystar... must disappear from the face of this world!"
"The Prince will become a hindrance to the Eternal Emperor's plans!" The Hall Master said. "The decree has been passed down from the Master of the Underworld Chapter personally..."
"Find him... and remove him! Failure is not an option!" An intense aura of bloodlust burst out from the Hall Master as he gave his command. "For the Eternal Emperor!"
"We hear and obey!" The shadow warriors bowed and saluted. "FOR THE ETERNAL EMPEROR!"