"Wake up Kante", came a strange voice, causing Kante to have a deja vu of the previous times he had woken up to that call. He was tired of hearing that statement already. He opened his eyes to see a handsome face with crystal blue eyes staring at him.
"Who are you? And where am I?" Kante asked the strange man who woke him up and helped him get up on his feet. Kante looked around to see that he was surrounded by a wide sea on one side and a forest of tall trees on the opposite side. A small clearing which was covered with fine sand lay in-between. He must have passed out earlier, in the whirlwind and must have been dropped in the sea and washed ashore by the waves, he thought.
"I'm Andromeda" replied the stranger, "Andromeda Raszhini. You must have been washed ashore by the sea. My father made sure I found you"
Kante could see the resemblance now, he recalled where he had seen such eyes before. it was similar to Jimoh's. He could picture Andromeda as a younger version of Jimoh. Andromeda was tall and handsome with long smooth hair which he gathered into a bun behind his head. He had a pointed nose and his perfectly rounded lips were lilac soft. He was fit and had a muscular body with broad chests and abs that were as strong as stone. Though he was much older, he didn't look a day over 30.
"Raszhini? Jimoh Raszhini is your father?" Kante asked.
"Yes indeed, I see you've met him" Andromeda replied.
"Of course I have. He's the reason I'm here" Kante replied.
"Ahh! you must have gotten on the wrong foot with him for you to wind up in the sea" Andromeda replied.
"Yeah, I guess you can say that. Where is your father now?" Kante asked.
"No idea. I just got a message from him earlier, asking me to find you and make sure you're ok" Andromeda replied.
"Oh! So he almost kills me by sending me off in a windstorm and suddenly cares what happens to me and sends you to find me?" Kante said, snorting angrily.
Andromeda let out a little laugh before saying: "Well what can I say. I guess when you're The archmage you can do that too". He beckoned on Kante to follow him through the woods. He walked on a path in the forest and Kante followed closely. The smell of pine and cinnamon, emanating from the trees and mushrooms, filled the damp air of the forest. Kante admired the orderly arrangement of the tall trees in the forest, they were lined up like trained soldiers about to do a march past.
"I'm not going to be your archmage" Kante shouted, after thinking about Andromeda's last words for a while, taking them literally. "All what your father said is bullshit, even if it were true, I cannot be forced to be the archmage if I don't want to".
*Whoa! I didn't mean it literally. How can you be the archmage? My father is the Archmage and there can only be one archmage at a time. Are you even a mage? Wait,... what did my father say?" Andromeda said looking utterly confused.
"Oh I thought you made that statement perhaps because your father had also told you what he told me, but I guess he couldn't. I mean it must be so hard to tell your family that you're going to die soon right?" Kante said. Andromeda froze for a second or too before turning to grab Kante angrily. He grabbed Kante by the neck and slammed his back on a tree while choking him.
"What is this rubbish you're saying? Do you think this is funny?" He asked Kante with a terrifying look on his face. Kante's heart must have jumped to his mouth. He feared that he may have caused his own death with his words, for Andromeda looked like he was going to choke the life out of Kante.
"Uh... I'm… wait… I can ex..." Kante was coughing and choking, struggling to breathe as Andromeda's grip tightened. "Your… dad… said… it...". Andromeda finally got a hold over himself and released Kante's neck, apologising for his aggressive behavior. "I'm sorry, your speech shocked me and I lost it. But do not make such jokes about my family again." Andromeda said as he watched Kante breath deeply, gasping for breath.
"You… I'm not joking. Your father was the one who told me that. He's a really strange man, your father. I thought he must be crazy to say something like that. Well is he?" Kante said, still breathing heavily.
"He's not of course. Why should I believe you anyways" Andromeda replied.
"I don't know. I asked myself the same thing when your father was blabbing about how he's soon to die because the arcane scroll has chosen me to be his successor." Kante said.
"Hahaha" Andromeda laughed out. "Nice try, you almost got me there" he said, concluding Kante was either joking or trying to deceive him, because like many others he believed the arcane scroll to be myth. "I was starting to believe you but now I know you're joking because everyone knows the arcane scroll is a myth" he added as they began walking through the woods on the forest path.
"Oh right, your father did mention that it is top secret and believed to be a myth by many, but I didn't think he'll keep it a secret from his family too. I mean I was pretty damn convinced that you must also be in the order as your father is it's leader" Kante said.
"Order? You don't happen to mean the order of the arcane scroll, do you? Cause it's just a story, the order isn't real"
"Whoa! Ok I see I know much more than you although I've been here for just a day. Look I've seen the scroll, ok! I touched it and it somehow teleported me here, to that old, crumbling tall building" said Kante.
"What building?" Andromeda asked, to which Kante replied: "I don't know. I didn't see it from the outside.I just appeared inside. I could tell it was really tall because there was a hollow in it that goes all the way up and I couldn't see the ceiling from where I stood. And it's walls were brittle, looking like they were going to cave in any moment"
Andromeda thought for a little while before saying: "The arcane tower? But it has been abandoned for a while now, you can't even get in caused it's locked with a powerful spell"
"Locked by who? If I may ask. Anyone other than the archmage? The same person I'm telling you had a conversation with me inside there. I'm sure it's a secret hideout for members of the order. Curious isn't it? That an already abandoned building was locked with a secret powerful spell. On second thoughts, it doesn't seem that curious, right, it's kinda obvious why" Kante went on to say as they continued along the bushy path.
Andromeda was silent, visibly consumed by thought, a sad look on his face. Perhaps he now believed Kante and was hurt because his father had been lying to him all his life, keeping secrets from the family. They walked on without speaking, covering a good distance till they could hear sounds in the distance. As they got closer to where the sounds emanated from, Kante could tell there was some sort of celebration going on. He could hear the sounds of different musical instruments playing in harmony and the shouts of people rejoicing. They walked on further till they finally came out of the forest onto a road, and Kante could see the source of the noise now, just across the road. His eyes widened as he beholden a beautiful city bustling in a frenzy of excitement and jubilation.
"Welcome to Arcania" exclaimed Andromeda, happiness etched on his light-skinned face.
"Arcania?" asked Kante, in bewilderment, to which Andromeda replied: "Yes, Arcania, my home, the largest of the 3 city of mages in Omega-North"
"Whoa! Your home? It's really beautiful and… What's the occasion for this celebration today?"
"It's The Festival"
"The festival of what?" Kante asked.
"Well it's just called The Festival. Every year the reason for celebrating could change so we just call it the Festival. This year, we are celebrating peace" Andromeda replied.
"Every year, you have the same festival on the same day for a different reason?"
"It's not done on the same day every year. We randomly pick the date for celebrating every year and then we come up with a reason. If we can't think of any reason, then we celebrate peace or we just celebrate" Andromeda replied.
Kante was astonished at this tradition of the mages, he thought it was a weird tradition, but he kept that thought to himself.
"Peace, you say, why peace?" He asked.
"Well we have enjoyed peaceful times for a while now and it has not always been that way. There was a time back on earth when the mages were divided by tribalism. There are four tribes, the ice/blue mages, fire/red mages, lightning mages and white mages as there are 4 elements, water, fire, earth and air. Each tribe had the ability to control one of the elements and to use it as a magical source. The mages were constantly in civil war then, as each tribe fought to dominate the others. Mages weren't even allowed to marry anyone other than a mage of their kind. Even till date mages marry only mages, though we intermarry within tribes now, we still don't marry wizards or any other creach. Only one female mage had done that, marrying a wizard and it created a lot of problems. Also about 30 years ago a war ensued between the wizards and mages but all that is in the past now so it is fitting to celebrate peace whenever we can" Andromeda explained.
"Oh! I see. Well let's go celebrate peace then" Kante said as they walked into the city amidst the celebrations.
The city was colorful, adorned with beautiful decorations. The people also wore really beautiful and colorful dresses, some wore masks and other costumes, some even painted their faces, adding to the beauty of the festival. They hadn't walked too far into the city, before they were forced to join in the partying. A group of colorfully adorned dancers had dragged them to join in dancing to the music played by some musicians who sat at the corner, playing their instruments and adding life to the event. The dancing party was soon joined by a larger crowd and Kante got separated from Andromeda amidst the crowd. Kante searched for Andromeda for a while but couldn't find him due to the large crowd. Andromeda on the other hand wasn't worried, he felt Kante would be alright even on his own so he just went on partying. Kante danced on for a while before moving out of the dancing crowd, he felt happier and at ease. He left the crowd smiling as never before and walked on, exploring the city and the good stuff that came with the festival, like the food. Different varieties of foods, drinks and fruits were displayed on tables and stalls all around the city. Kante got to taste a lot of them for free from the vendor and he was flabbergasted by how good they tasted.
"You like eh" came a soft sweet voice that seemed to mesmerize Kante. He turned around from the food he was tasting at a stall to see an alluring beauty, with fiery red iris that sparkled like glitter, dressed in shiny red armor standing behind him with a smirk on her face.
"Yeah, it's... it's great, uhm, hello, do you..." Kante was saying but was interrupted by the beautiful stranger who said: "Grilled kelpie is my favorite too. they go well with mushrooms you know. You must be new here"
"Yes today's my first day here" Kante replied, looking bewitched.
"Good thing you came today, you get to enjoy the festival with us" said the stranger, "Are you a mage?" She asked.
"No, I mean I don't know. I'm not sure what I am" Kante replied.
"You're him, aren't you? You're the explorer from earth. Kante is it?" Asked the stranger.
"Yes, I… How did you…"
"Sorry got to go, that's my platoon" the stranger cut in, pointing to a troop of warriors dressed in red armor, similar to the one she wore, marching in a battle array, chanting and singing a song Kante guessed was a song for warriors. Kante watched the procession of the soldiers in admiration as they went by. He caught sight of six hefty men among the warriors, carrying a palanquin like those used to carry kings in some areas in Earth's asian continent. A man seated in the palanquin poked his head out and looked in the direction of Kante, before making a sound with his mouth. At first glance Kante could almost swear it was Andromeda in the palanquin. The procession halted as soon as the sound was made and the lady Kante had spoken to climbed into the palanquin and joined the man.
"Wait, I didn't get your name" Kante shouted as she got into the palanquin. "Andromache" she shouted in response as the procession continued.
Meanwhile, Bonclyde and Lightning had tracked Kante down, and they were now in Omega-North. Bonclyde had used a tracking spell, one of the basic spells wizards learn,to track Kante. An object belonging to the person to be tracked was needed for such a spell, so Lightning provided Bonclyde with Kante's pen and Notepad which he used in making notes during his orientation. She ran at lightning speed to and from the hotel with the materials before Bonclyde could finish making the request for her to go get them. Bonclyde held the objects close to her face as she muttered the incantations:
"Ostende quaerite!
reveal and show,
what I seek,
what I must know"
Immediately, she saw images, flashing before her eyes like a scattered vision. She could make out from the images she saw that Kante was in Arcania, in Omega North, land of the Mages. So the duo immediately set off on their journey to arcania. They travelled by air as it was the fastest means to get to Omega, though Lightning would have preferred to run all the way there, as she would, if she was on a solo mission. They used a specially designed UIA aircraft that looks like a star shaped jet plane, which was very fast, moving at a speed twice that of the regular jet despite being bigger than the regular jet plane.
"You still haven't told me how he got kidnapped" Bonclyde said as they travelled.
"Can't we just focus on rescuing him?" Lightning replied,"does it really matter how he was kidnapped?"
"Oh I'm just curious to know how the best female agent in the UIA let a person of interest disappear under her watch" Bonclyde said.
"I'm not sure, that's what I am but I'm sure it's what you were once, until you also let that slip out of your fingers right?" Lightning replied. At that, Bonclyde stared furiously at Lightning, like she was going to slash her neck with a spell. Lightning reciprocated her stare in like manner, not speaking any further in order not to reopen old wounds. So the duo remained silent, not speaking a word to each other until they finally arrived at Omega-North, swiftly approaching Arcania.