"Who are you? State your name!"
The ice mage, Tristan, immediately inquired after my name. He seemed stressed out at the appearance of a third party whose strength he couldn't quite tell.
"I am glad you asked. I am lord Raven."
Tristan seemed confused by my answer. Not knowing me even after I had introduced myself made my allegiance questionable. For all he knew, I could be someone he knew who was hiding my identity or someone he didn't which wasn't any better.
I could tell that he was preparing to launch a very large icicle at me that very instant. Prince Gideon meanwhile seemed to have made up his mind about something and called out to me.
"Lord Raven, I'm prince Gideon of the solar empire. I'm currently being assaulted by insidious assassins that wish to take my life. I ask for your assistance in purging these cretins. Should you offer your assistance I will make sure that you are greatly rewarded."
If I was reading the situation correctly then Gideon was trying to take advantage of the fact that the assassins couldn't let anyone know about what happened here. Now that I knew the prince's identity the assassins couldn't afford to let me go.
I was basically forced to confront them. Good thing that this had been my objective from the very beginning.
"Very well, prince Gideon I will gladly offer my assistance."
No sooner had I said it that a large icicle was launched at my face. A logical reaction on Tristan's part seeing as I had just declared myself his enemy.
I lightly tapped the icicle with my cane while channeling magic into it. The icicle couldn't take the density of my magic and shattered into glittering powder.
"He shattered the icicle just like that!"
"This isn't what we were hired for!"
"Should we just book it?"
The assassins were intimidated and from their words, they were hired meaning their dedication to the cause was low. I fired a bunch of spikes made out of darkness at the assassins. A few of them were directly impaled by the spikes while others dodged or blocked using their own spells.
Realizing that they had lost their advantage and would likely fail to fulfill their mission any way they began to back off. Tristan yelled at them and threatened to have them all killed but they had already lost the will to fight.
With all his efforts to keep them in vain, Tristan howled in rage and retreated under the cover of a blizzard spell. With me and the prince's entourage here he stood no chance of successfully killing the prince.
Some of the prince's retainers moved to pursue but he stopped them. Apparently, he didn't want to lose any more of his people. The corpses lying sprawled on the grown must have made him feel bitter. But there were bigger things for him to do.
"Lord Raven, I thank you for your assistance in my time of need. I will not forget this kindness and see to it that you get your due reward."
"It is too early to believe yourself safe, prince Gideon. This group of assassins might have given up but there is no telling if another might not be bold enough to try."
"You are indeed correct. My brother will not give up so easily and there are enough fools that are willing to stake their lives for a large enough amount of gold. Could I trouble you to stay with us for a while, lord Raven? Only if it doesn't inconvenience you too much that is."
"I am currently wandering aimlessly anyway so accompanying you for a while will be no trouble at all. Though I must warn you, I come from a faraway place and am ignorant of the customs of this land."
"Then it is settled. You will accompany us until we reach the capital and I can give you your reward. If the opportunity arises we can do some sightseeing on the way to teach you about this land."
After our talk, they buried their dead at the lake's shore and we left the valley. At the fissure of the mountain crest where the valley could be left, prince Gideon halted and looked back with a wistful look in his eyes.
"Prince Gideon, is there something more you need from here?"
"Oh, no it's nothing. I didn't find what I was looking for but I doubt it's even there."
"What were you looking for?"
"That's the thing. I don't know. Legend says that my ancestor, the one who founded the solar empire came here in his young days and received a revelation from our god. Like me, he was an illusion mage but after the revelation, he was said to have become unrivaled."
Ah, this ancestor of his must have seen the same mirage as I had. I wondered, what did he make of it, what did he see? If he had formed an innate understanding based on a phenomenon that could even temporarily affect me it must have been truly remarkable.
Prince Gideon noticed my weird reaction and began to suspect something.
"You've seen it too, haven't you?!!"
"I can't be sure but I did see a phenomenon that could benefit an illusion user. And before you ask I won't tell you about it. If you want to have a revelation you have to look for it yourself."
"Sigh, I understand. The high priest said the same thing when I asked for details."
Without another look back, prince Gideon hurried to the front of the group and we descended the mountain. This side of the mountain range was covered in a dense boreal forest that sharply contrasted the desert on the other side.
On the way down prince Gideon told me about the situation within the imperial family. The current emperor had three male offsprings. The eldest, Sullivan, the second, Gideon, and the youngest, Amon.
Sullivan was the crown prince and most likely to become the next emperor. He was always looking for ways to expand the empire and had started a few needless wars in the past that had only resulted in a large number of casualties with barely any territory or resources to show for it. However, as the next emperor, many followed him and his rhetoric and strategic abilities were outstanding.
Gideon was a prince of the people. He cared deeply for every subject of the empire. I got the feeling that he sometimes cared too much.
Amon was the youngest but most powerful amongst them. He was a rank two archmage and led one of the empire's armies. Prince Gideon described him as a fool who cared little about the world outside his battlefields.