"I am gonna do what?", Francis asked with a sharp look for he was greatly perplexed,"I don't understand what you are saying to me right now",
"The council has chosen you to join the expedition that will carry out this task immediately after we obtain the details of the map that is imbeded inside by your father. Although there are other reasons why we picked you for this, we also did this to honor your late father who never faltered and was always loyal, by entrusting this difficult task to his son",Habermok, leader of the Doxa clan, explained clearly as he brushed aside his long white which dangled down his chest
"This doesn't make any sense because I only came here to get treated and I didn't plan to go search for some lost sword beside Zari knows this and I am sure she has explained to all you. And I maybe Ranus' s son but I'm not as strong as he was.", Francis boldly replied without a sign of fear,
Then at that moment, Syclar, a Tyronite representative, stood up and promptly retorted,
"This mission is entirely meant for those who can volunteer to undertake it so you are free to reject this offer but I don't think that's the best option for you....." At this point, Syclar was interrupted by the leader and oldest member of the council named Makom, raising his staff to indicate him to stop talking and to sit down which he meekly obeyed. Makom had been waiting patiently and felt it was his sole right to disclose this secret which had been kept from the plebs. He stood up from his high seat and said,
"I expected that the son of Ranus will show some concerns about his father's prestige, honor and above all his clan as well as the city of Asteria and the entire realm but you only think of going back to your home after we removed the energies inside your body which contains clues to whereabouts of the lost sword. I am greatly disappointed about that but I must tell you something before you make any hasty decisions that would ruin your life. Your father was my friend and I don't want to see his son ruin his life because of stupidity".
"And what is that?", Francis curiously asked still not totally convinced,
"Inside you lies two energy which formulates the way to find the lost sword. One which is lethal and deadly which makes it stronger than the other one that is weaker but not hazardous even if it's inside a host body. Ranus fused both energy with a very strong and advance spell inside your body while you were little and I guess he also imbeded another healing spell into your body to soothe the effects of the stronger energy but It's started to wear off as you get older",
"So you mean that I suffered serious trauma because of this lethal energy?", Francis questioned now taken aback by sudden trepidation.
"Yes, you are absolutely right, we can remove both energy from inside you which will be added to the rest of the clues to complete a powerful but small map. But some remnant of this particular energy will remain even after we have taken it out from you". Makom answered and began descending down the right side of the beautiful decorated stairs from his high seat. The council members were seated on a raised decorative platform which had choral design of colors round it and which had two opposite stairs at both sides ran down to the floor where Sasan and Francis stood with facing them while a small door was well shut at the right corner of the room.
"Follow me, let me show you something", Makom ordered when he reached the bottom stairs and stride forward to the small door with his long green robe caressing the floor. Francis and Sasan meekly obeyed and walked over to the small door, standing behind Makom while the other council members gazed on from their seats.
"What I'm about to show you is something that happened to host body which your father fused the other clues which likewise contains the same harmful energy", Makom said and unlocked the door which revealed the carcass of an oglox that has stayed there for a long time but had part of it eaten up some dark substance which emitted a foul stench and a dark aura round it.
Your Father fused the other clues, which we have extracted from it, into it's body and sent it to us his through one of the hunters before he left to the human realm. After extraction, we thought all the energy has gone out, but we were wrong as the oglox began to die slowly because of this energy. Therefore, we had no other choice but to have it isolated from everyone else in order to curb the spread", Makom continued and shut the door, "But now thanks to more careful study of the energy and advancement of our powers, we were able to find a remedy that will make it ineffective". He said as he stride towards the stairs and began to climb up the platform.
"What will happen if I still reject your offer?", Francis asked now sure that there's no other way than to accept their offer.
Makom chuckled and said,"Then you will suffer the same fate as the oglox did". Francis knew that there's no way out now and he had no other choice but to oblige if only to survive because he doesn't want to end up like that oglox. Then he said,
"I humbly accept your offer as you all have decided as long as I am totally healed of this deadly energy inside me",
"Then it's decided that you should partake in the training for three moons which we'll set up later for those chosen to embark on this journey but before that you have to pick another name from your clan which you must do in order to carry out this mission because the name you answer was given to you on earth and not accepted here, so choose a suitable name for yourself. Later on, you can join the training after we remove the energy and you have already picked a suitable name", Makom said almost immediately.
"Okay, I'll do that without any further objections", Francis replied,
"You can now leave us to deliberate on urgent issues concerning the fate of the realm which also determines your fate as well", Makom ordered
"As you wish my liege", Sasan answered with a small bow and turned to exit the room together with Francis whom followed slowly behind as the entrance was opened by the guards.
Meanwhile, Harus had stolen a secret soul stone which gives the Agekians power to fight and rendered them powerless against the attack of Vedon's forces.
After shape shifting into a raven, he flew past the coastline of Ataxia and surf further into the clouds which obscured his flight into the land of the Zek tribes.
He almost bumped into a nearby tree which had no leaves and fell into a ditch but came out unscathed after using his dark powers. He tried to transform but couldn't because his power has greatly weaken due to many hours of flying around which had drain a lot of power from him as he continued to remain in that form for a long time.
Then he had no other choice but to venture into the dark forest with the soul stone inside his bagand continue to walk around not minding the little black creatures which looked at him from different branches with their green eyes which was illuminated by the moonlight. They watched him continuously as he tread on the thickness of the night on rough path which mde him feel so weary and hungry. His stomach continue to growl loudly echo most part of the empty forest.
He decided to rest a bit on the bottom of the black bark of a large tree that had no leaves.There he sweetly recall the lovely times he spent during the time in Ataxia when he was housed by that beautiful Ataxian whom he is now fond of and which pained him a lot to leave but he had no other choice but to fulfill his mission at hand. He looked beside him and saw two large red mushrooms on the bark. The mushrooms had a foul stench but had an attractive red top covered in white spots. Then he picked it up and devoured it immediately which rejuvenated his energy enabling the power to transform into a raven which he did and flew away to Vedon's castle. He alighted on his old room and then shapeshift back to his normal self. After that, he walked around and opened up a chest filled with golden objects and then removed a small box decorated with silver flowers which was effectively style with outmost skil.