The amulet of the spirit guardian from his dream greatly intrigued him. But Aristhaeus knew next to nothing about this amulet. It didn't remind him of any other magical artifacts he'd seen before. He didn't know anything about the spirit guardian either.
It seemed he'd have to go on with his daily routine as usual. He couldn't do anything about the amulet now. He got up.
As soon as he went out of his room, two servants followed him quietly. He moved calmly, almost imperceptibly, yet there was something about his aura which made other people in the corridors turn their heads after him. Aristhaeus would look like an average mage if it wasn't for his black cloak, decorated with various unintelligible runic inscriptions as beautiful in their appearance as dangerous in their purpose. Their skillful workmanship revealed they couldn't be the possession of just anybody.
His pet eagle Leritte soon flew in through one of the nearby windows. The bird greeted him with a scream.
"I've got news," Leritte said.
"I'm listening," Aristhaeus glanced at the bird, his usually arch tone now full of curiosity. It looked like for the first time he had forgotten about his midnight dream.
"It's connected with Mage Ademon. I am sure he's planning something against you. Be careful," the bird stated.
Aristhaeus was unimpressed.
"Yes…" he sighed, "So typical." His imagination preoccupied again with the amulet, he said, "Leritte, I've got a special task for you. I want you to find an investigator for me. Ancient artifacts investigator."
"Investigator?" The eagle was surprised. "Investigator?" Leritte repeated, "For what? Are you sure?"
"You will soon understand. Just find me one."
Perhaps an investigator could know something about this peculiar amulet?
***
On the same day, Mage Ademon was in an extraordinarily good mood. He had caught a notorious criminal in Wild Wood known under the nickname "Fierce Wind." This outlaw had organized protests against digeniche herb gathering and had worked against the Queen. Now that Ademon had caught him... or rather *her*... he wanted to use this as an opportunity to be noticed by the Queen. To do so, of course, he would exaggerate the outlaw's crimes and his own contribution accordingly.
Ademon wanted to report to the Queen as soon as possible. The victorious smirk on his face could hardly be mistaken for anything else.
Few vampires at all had magical abilities. Ademon had escaped into Allyria when he was young. Thanks to his talent in magic (although it couldn't be compared to Aristhaeus's), he had been recognized. He couldn't stand Aristhaeus, probably because he perceived him as a rival for the Queen's attention. He wanted to show that he was much more reliable.
Meanwhile, Aristhaeus was walking down the corridor and his thoughts were far from Ademon's. He'd had a very strange dream that night and he kept thinking about it...
In his dream, he'd seen a spirit guardian. He'd seen many such spirit guardians before but there was something very unusual about that one... There was an amulet on the spirit's neck. It was the source of the spirit's power. It was an incredibly powerful spirit guardian. In fact, such spirit guardians simply did not exist... did they? Well, one existed for sure.
When he finally entered the throne room, he seemed to be interrupting something. He looked ahead to observe the following scene: Mage Ademon was just reporting something to the Queen with a self-satisfied expression.
"Good morning, Your Highness!" Mage Ademon turned to him. He stood in the archmage's way and bowed. He seemed to be in a hurry to show off,
"Have you heard the greatest news of today? We managed to catch a notorious criminal in Wild Wood. Fierce Wind. ...Such a daunting task! He's currently escorted by twelve magi to the Dungeon of the..."
Aristhaeus gave him a look full of contempt but Ademon obviously did not get the hint.
Ademon was like an insolent bug, always flying around the Queen, bragging about his own successes. He was especially happy if he could do that in front of Aristhaeus, as if in this way he could take him down a peg or two.
This time, instead of ignoring him, Aristhaeus decided to add fuel to the fire.
He was fed up with Ademon's "tricks." An amusing idea crossed the archmage's mind...
*Perhaps since you try so hard to get my attention, I should honor you with it.*
Of course, what was entertaining to him was often not so much fun for those around him.
Aristhaeus was very polite. He congratulated Ademon; he praised him in front of the Queen. Ademon did not want to disappoint anyone, so in order to confirm that he deserved the compliments, he added more and more details about Fierce Wind's bad reputation and turned Fierce Wind into an absolute legend.
The archmage spoke in a soft and calm voice, with a scarcely perceptible shade of hypocrisy in it,
"So, Ademon, you claim it was not an easy task? Fierce Wind – yes, I've heard the name. Wasn't he the 'nightmare' of Wild Wood… if my memory does not fail me?"
"Yes, precisely. Fierce Wind pretended to defend the forest, organized protests and even dared steal digeniche from your caravans, Your Majesty…" Ademon turned to look at the Queen. "We've been in pursuit of the outlaw for days until, after continuous efforts, we finally caught him. He is to be locked at the Dungeon of the Lost. May I add," Ademon continued as Aristhaeus's faint smile grew wickeder, "that I believe we should celebrate the fact that this bandit won't be at liberty to cause more trouble. I am ready to provide a whole report of everything that happened in case Your Majesty would like to see it."
"Obviously, you don't waste your time like many other mages…" the archmage pointed out. Incited by the archmage's words, Queen Lyneanne suggested that Ademon deserved a reward.
Ademon bowed, "Thank you, Your Majesty. I hope you know well that to be of your service is a reward enough for me."
Aristhaeus, still leaning against the window-frame, stared at the vampire's back with disdain, then added, "Perhaps you would like to pass sentence on Fierce Wind yourself?"
"I would be honored to do it," Ademon replied, absorbed in his own short-lived triumph.
Aristhaeus had to admit that the vivid description of the "dangerous as death" criminal tickled his fancy. So he tried to remember if he'd heard anything about this Fierce Wind before... But except for the nickname, he couldn't think of any particular story involving Fierce Wind and certainly none of the ones Ademon was talking about.
"So what's his real name?" Aristhaeus asked. But Ademon remained silent. "Fierce Wind's. Don't tell me his mother just had an awkward taste for choosing names."
Only Leritte, Aristhaeus's pet eagle, felt something was wrong. When had Aristhaeus ever paid so many compliments to someone, especially Ademon? Sure, a few compliments might be due this time, but...
The archmage revealed his intentions neither in words nor in gestures, and he even managed to look carelessly out the window. Soon Aristhaeus left the throne room together with his pet.
"Let's go," he whispered to the white eagle.
"Where?" the bird answered telepathically.
"To take care of Fierce Wind, of course. We have to free him before he reaches the Dungeon of the Lost, you know…" he announced.
Finally, Leritte understood the reason for all the compliments. Ademon was so happy and contented that they'd finally caught Fierce Wind… The greater this achievement appeared, the more severely punished and frustrated Ademon would be after he failed...
"So that's the plan? You want to throw Ademon into despair by freeing Fierce Wind? Queen Lyneanne will probably punish him severely for letting such an important captive escape!"
"…Probably."
"But this morning I thought you wanted to ignore Ademon."
"Let's say I just changed my mind. He needs attention so bad."
"What if he… I mean… Fierce Wind is indeed as dangerous as Ademon said?"
"Well… if things begin to look pretty tough, we'll flee," the archmage tried to calm Leritte down.
"I am not kidding. Since when do we patronize the local outlaws?" the eagle bristled with indignation, but once again he was reassured that there was nothing to worry about and that someone would soon catch Fierce Wind again. They both disappeared into thin air.