On that serene morning of the first day of the third month of Airys training, tens of kilometers from them, there was a rock and metal fort, three stories high, the third being an observation tower that was rather used to send carrier birds and their breeding grounds. Surrounded by hills, it seemed an excellent place to defend against invading attacks —something they no doubt took into account when building it —a valuable addition to the true purpose of the place.
Inside, on the second floor, the only thing that stood out was the two-meter-wide and high mirror, whose name was for mere appearance as it didn't really reflect anything. Arkgas climbed the stairs of the left, instead of Archmage's ostentatious robes he wearied a nightgown and leather trousers, he advanced to the iron-clad guard and greeted him with a smile.
"Good morning Arkgas" said the guard with an exhausted smile.
"Good morning," replied the old man. "Did you stay up all night, Urion?" He gave him a quiet look.
Urion sat down on the wooden bench next to him, lowered his head and pulled his helmet off, tossed his gray hair and raised his face. He had no point in hiding the dark circles.
"What else can I do?" Urion gave the impression of being in his thirties, with that always half-grown black beard and deep expression of concern in his brown eyes.
"Trust in Zughan'ko's abilities?" Arkgas sat opposite him on the ground. "Seriously, that bastard can't die, his nickname isn't because he's an old man and that's it" he explained with a laugh.
"Heh, the immortal?" Urion gave an involuntary smile. "With a thousand respects, but the nicknames thing seems silly to me, I mean" he straightened up and stretched out both arms with open palms in front of Arkgas. "The other demon." Then he pointed to himself with the same gesture. "'The Life Forger', nonsense."
"Hey, I'm not always nice, people were afraid of me before" The old man frowned childishly, giving Urion even more reason.
However, that funny expression was not enough to bring Urion out of that state of stress. After all, laughing or talking about the cool —ridiculous —of his titles doesn't change the fact that Zughan'ko hadn't returned on the agreed date after going to see what happened with Sahuhr and Agatha. The day before Airys' presentation to the archmages, they had received a letter stating that Sahuhr had gone to the other side of the mirror and that he hadn't returned, Agatha decided to enter and she didn't return either.
"I couldn't even send Machia." Urion's pupils dilated.
Behind the fort a huge armor of more than five meters high, white with silver edges six inches thick and mysterious gaps that in mere sight cut the connection of the pieces and thus create the illusion that they were floating; extended his hand to the girl who was in the tower surrounded by birds, who in a couple of jumps reached the shoulder of the armor and happily pointed him to go south.
"Do you really think I don't know the difference between that creature and us?" Urion stared at the grayish ring in his hand, stroked it, and stopped when he bumped into the faded gem in the center. "None of my Golems come back, no matter how I make them." He focused his eyes on Arkgas and Arkgas recoiled from such sincerity. "I'm sure that when it solves the maze, I won't stop it for an hour."
Arkgas would really like to blame the boy's lack of confidence for such pessimistic thoughts, saying things like "it's his inexperience that leads you to say that." It's a shame that the boy in front of him is, without a shadow of a doubt, a man of great understanding.
"Hell, what happened to the silly youth of my time?" he downplayed the situation with a pathetic mockery, appealing for some glee from Urion, to no avail.
Arkgas was silent for a minute, trapped in his usual thought cycle. Should he take charge or forget? Did going to find them solve something? The only "innocent" involved in this roll was that lady, actually, why did he still care about these people? Collaborating with the other rings was the easiest way to avoid the future of which the legends speak... if it was true at all. The sound of the world, which was almost nil, disappeared for him.
"What will happen to me if I go against this damn pact?" He contemplated the option, biting his thumbnail with an insane gaze focused on his silver ring, extremely irritated and at the same time excited by the possibility of mocking fate.
Before Urion noticed the disturbing profile of "The Authority of Order" in front of him, a flame-eaten and unrecognizable body pierced the mirror from the other side. Black, crisp, with embers and a powerful smell of death that tore at Urion's face to the point of making him hold back vomit with the help of his hand. The body took a couple of steps, turned its head —as if he didn't know he had no eyes left —and parted his lips to release the most disturbing sigh Urion would ever hear.
"Sahuhr betrayed us" From how rough it sounded, they felt a strange need to clear their throats.
Arkgas soon realized who he was, on the other hand, Urion hesitated for a moment —since he had looked away —unconsciously incredulous. The calcined body; or rather, Zughan'ko, straightened up and struck the mirror with a powerful blow that caused hundreds of cracks and forced Urion to pay attention again.
The blood splattered on the pieces of glass that fell one by one.
"Arkgas" Like a miracle, Zughan'ko's tone of voice recovered. "It already started."
Urion believed it was from the stench, from being dizzy and not being able to distinguish the archmage's grimaces well, but he would swear that the emotion that Zughan'ko unleashed was nothing negative; on the contrary, he was overflowing with happiness.