Gaia darted through the dense forest, her demonic senses sharp as she weaved between trees, her horns catching the faint glimmers of moonlight. The flaming dragon that soared above moments earlier had already vanished, its fiery glow a fleeting signal to her.
Something's wrong, she thought, pushing herself faster toward the village. The forest felt unnaturally still, the animals sensing the movement of someone with a tremendous amount of mana.
Her fingers twitched, ready to conjure her magic. She had to reach Fang and Isgram.
Her legs were beginning to tire out so she summoned her large golem to carry her.
The golem was made of mostly rocky dirt and boulders, his head overlooking the forest from above the treetops.
He crouched to let her climb his hand and brought her to his chest.
There. she built herself a small chair in the middle of his chest, allowing her view going forward.
As the giant made his giant strides, she fused rocks on her limbs to stay in tune with his movements.
With a couple of steps, he gained momentum and accelerated till he reached the speed of a moving truck.
'I need to reserve my mana from now on, just in case there is a battle on the horizon.'
Meanwhile, inside the clinic, Alona worked diligently, her hands glowing with a soft green light as she hovered them over Fang's injured shoulder.
Beads of sweat trickled down her brow; the poison was more potent than she anticipated, its spread slower but insidious. She could see the pain etched into Fang's face, though his breathing had become steady.
"You're reckless, you know that?" she muttered, pushing more healing energy into the wound. Her mind wandered briefly to their recent argument, but she forced herself to focus.
'That can wait, but he is sure as hell going to increase the amount of herbs after seeing my skills.'
She glanced at the door. Isgram was likely pacing outside, his impatience heard even through the clinic walls. But Fang needed time, and rushing the treatment could only make things worse. 'Stay with me, Fang.
We still have too much to figure out.'
The teenage healer was worried her secret was close to being discovered, as the empire never showed any interest in this village.
That was the only reason her father was worried.
He knew that a war could uncover many hard truths, including the absence of all of Davra's men from the last war.
He was the only one who set out to fight, representing his village and thus protecting the hidden power of his daughter and his most trusted aid.
"Dad, I hope you'll make sense of it all, 'cause I can't let this opportunity slip by me," Alona whispered to herself as she extracted another dose of poison.
She is impressed that Fang can still breathe unaided even though the poison went straight to his lungs.
'I never heard of such a poison, one that attacks the lungs and only the lungs. It seems someone aimed to disable him and not kill him, but this dose should be deadly to any other mage on his level. Father can't survive that amount of poison, so how does he do it?'
A couple of kilometers to the south, just under the forest and easter to the valley a frosty weather unsheathed itself. The snow began to pile on the thatch roof of the houses, and the road's smooth stone was slippery.
The village sat cloaked in shadows as the mysterious man stood on the outskirts, overseeing the scouts as they prepared to leave. His eyes gleamed with cold ambition, his lips curling into a slight smirk as he addressed his men.
"Ride quietly, and report back as soon as you see anything suspicious. We need confirmation that our little distraction succeeded."
One of the scouts hesitated. "What if the assassin failed?"
The man scowled. "Then we'll deal with it. My father may not approve, but the dwarves have made their move, and we cannot falter now."
The scouts mounted their horses, their cloaks blending into the night as they galloped toward Davra, leaving the young man standing by the gate, a dark satisfaction rising in his chest. Soon, Davra will be caught in the crossfire, and none of them will see it coming.
As they disappeared into the distance, he felt a knot of anxiety tighten in his chest. It wasn't the risk of failure that concerned him, nor was it the possibility that the assassin had been killed. No, what bothered him was how cleanly this situation was playing into someone else's hands.
The dwarven kingdom's advisors had been clear: keep the empire distracted, and weaken their ability to fight the coming war.
He hated the dwarves like any prideful elf yet his family didn't understand that being banished to his part of the world was even more humiliating. He thought that he would soon take back the rightful place of his family in the royal courtyard!
He clenched his fists, staring toward the horizon. He couldn't shake the feeling that, despite all his careful planning, the strings of this plot were being pulled by someone much larger than he could comprehend.
The hours passed by, and Gaia reached Davra enveloped by a giant golem. At first, the guards thought it was an attack, yet they grew calmer once they saw the elegant lady crumbling her golem in front of their eyes.
She was escorted to Isgram's resting quarters, and the hug she gave Isgram made him stutter at once.
"G-Gaia! I am alright, it is Fang who is injured!" Isgram tried to recollect himself and took her hand in his.
Hearing Fang was injured, her mana started to spiral, and silverware and plates started to float.
"If this has anything to do with the village, I will raze this place to the ground!" He never heard her so angry, he knew how much she appreciated Fang's attempt at peace.
Even though she didn't believe in it, she believed in Fang.
"Relax. I don't think it was the village, all signs point to the empire right now but we have a lead on someone else."
"You're telling me that someone else tried to take out Fang then?
"When we investigated the hideout the assassin used, we spotted an insignia of the empire. No assassin would be that stupid to leave something like that behind, let alone forget to erase it.
The main suspect right now is one of the nearby villages. We have a hunch that they're trying to pull us and the empire into a war, and then they'll exploit the opportunity to claim more land and resources in the outskirts of the empire's land."
"Who has enough balls for brains that he thinks such goals are attainable? Not only is he underestimating the fact that there are three chosen ones here, but also another silver mage with war experience."
Isgram nodded his head stiffly, truly confused by their lack of information or rather lack of fear. It means that either they have someone who can counter them, or they just truly don't know how strong the factions at play are.
"It doesn't matter Gaia, we are going to bait them into scouting this village, hoping to catch at least one of their men to extract information."
Gaia smiled a devil smile only befitting a satanic figure:
"Dibs on torturing the first prisoner."
The flames of dusk colored the sky as Alona checked the bandages on Fang's shoulder, her hands moving with the same steady precision she'd practiced all her life. Yet, despite the calm exterior, her mind was racing. Fang lay unconscious on the table before her, his breathing shallow but steady. The poison still lingered in his lungs, clinging to life with a tenacity that troubled her deeply.
She leaned back for a moment, wiping the sweat from her brow as she gathered her thoughts. How could a poison this potent be so specific? It was unlike anything she'd ever encountered. And yet, Fang's body was fighting it off better than any mage of his level should. His strength was beyond human, beyond elven, even beyond anything she had treated before. A chilling thought crept into her mind, but she dismissed it for now.
'I know death magic is banned by all empires, but I heard the stories. Immortal mages from the demon race have delayed the war with the humans for decades, which turned the humans into monsters of death. If Fang achieved a lower form of immortality, then it would make sense. I need to get father's advice.'
As Alona finished her work on Fang, she took a sip of water, watching his ragged breathing from above.
She turned to one of her clinic workers:
"Alitero, make sure no one enters this room other than you. Make sure to monitor him and switch with any of the other healers once you get tired. I am available at all times, I will be at the chief mansion."
"Yes, Miss Alona." He slightly bowed, and she walked out of the clinic.
The first thing she saw was a short man arguing with a tall woman, almost a head above her.
To her, it was kinda funny, as they looked like a mother and son but the one who yelled and grumbled was Isgram.
Isgram's gaze snapped to the closing door, and his look was met with a small smile.
Seeing the salvation in her easiness, Isgram's heart sparked with joy.
"Is he alright, lass?"
His rough speech widened her smile, her teeth now showing their bright shine.
"Yes he is, kind sir. May I ask for your name, ma'am?"
She giggled and brushed her fair with both hair hands behind her ear, and she laid eyes on the rumored demon.
"I am Gaia, the third member of our group. And you, lass?" She emphasized the last word with a small smirk, purposely noticeable by Alona.
Alona let out a little laugh, which spurred Isgram to laugh as well.
"I am Alona, nice to meet you. I hope you guys are ready for the good news and the bad news..."
"Hit us with the bad first." Said isgram, his expression stiffened and his left leg tapped on the ground audibly.
"The bad news is the Fang is still not out of the clear. He was poisoned by a very specific poison, and the dose is several times larger than anything I encountered in my life.
The dagger had a hidden syringe in it. It injected Fang with 5 times more poison than any silver mage could deal with..."
Hearing such detailed information, Isgram felt more relaxed as he was sure that she had a way to deal with the poison.
"Are you sure he is ok?" Asked Isgram, still slightly tense.
Alona just nodded with a meek smile, her confirmation was still hesitant.
"I've never seen anyone survive a dose like that. It shouldn't be possible without… something more."
"And the good news?" Asked Gaia, her eyes going back and forth between the clinic shack and Alona.
"Well, the good news is that he is stable. I extracted most of the poison, but he will live. I am not sure if he'll be as healthy as before, but that leads me to the next question...
Did he ever tell you about his immortality?"
"You can't be serious, he is in no way immortal Alona."
"I agree with Gaia, Fang has been injured many times now whether in training or fights. He is in no way immortal."
Their minds raced back to the night earlier that week, the one he met the god of death.
If mana increase isn't the only gift he earned himself, that would explain her confusion. Isgram knew that Fang had secrets, but he never suspected immortality. He read in one of the books in the capital that the demon race had immortal beings, superior mages of death.
"Look, all I'm saying is that Fang was not supposed to survive such a large dosage of poison, specifically one that was aimed at his lungs. If he doesn't possess immortality spells, how can he survive something like that?"
Isgram and Gaia shared a look of concern, but once their eyes lingered on each other for a couple more seconds the doubt was planted.
The words floated in their minds, but their hearts grew heavy with concern. His meeting with Osborne shaped his decisive nature, emboldening him.
'Is it possible Fang hid that ability from us?'
"If Fang has immortality traits as you suspect, doesn't it make him a golden-level mage?" Asked Alona, fearful of the answer that Isgram would give.
"Lass, while I understand your doubts about his strength, he is no gold. I will tell you the truth, we both never heard of or seen such an ability displayed by him. If he does have something like that, he never told us."
"Look, this is the only explanation I have for this situation. I haven't identified the poison yet, so it can still have other factors."
"If Fang has some secret immortality, and he's hiding it from us…" Gaia began, her voice low and dangerous.
Isgram cut in, his voice grave. "Then we need to find out the truth—before someone else does. The empire will not like this..."
While Isgram worried about their reaction, The empire's diplomat rode through the dense forest, the path narrow and winding as twilight bled into the sky.
His brow furrowed beneath the weight of his mission—a peace talk that could change the course of The elven empire's fractured alliances. His mount trotted cautiously, sensing something wrong in the thickening silence.
He reached for his pouch to check the scrolls, the royal seals still intact. But before he could even loosen the string, a sharp whistle cut through the air. The diplomat froze, eyes widening as he realized too late what was happening. The woods erupted with movement.
A swift figure darted from behind a tree, a flash of silver catching the fading light.
He reached for his sword, but it was over in an instant. The dagger slid between his ribs with expert precision. His mouth gaped open, no words escaping, only the sound of his breath rasping as his vision blurred. His attacker wore no insignia, no mark of allegiance—only a blank, cold mask that betrayed nothing.
The diplomat collapsed from his horse, the weight of his task never to be fulfilled. As the light left his eyes, the assassin reached down, retrieving the scrolls bearing the royal seals.
With a cruel smirk hidden behind the mask, the assassin lit the papers aflame, scattering the ashes into the wind.
The empire would never know what became of their envoy, and the fragile peace he carried with him would be buried with his body beneath the forest floor.
.........
Hi everyone, I would love to hear your thoughts about the last couple of chapters. I feel a significant improvement from the first few chapters. I hope you managed to find grace in the opening of this book, but from now on we are entering tough times for Fang and his group.