In the middle of the wild plains in the darkness of the night under the light of the moons, the group of five people sat in a circle on rocks. The only light was from Isaac, sitting calmly and smiling while the other four had complex expressions.
Kiril and the others had given up on trying to attack their interlocutor for protection. The only solution of survival for them at the present time was to flee. Even if they managed to even injure the elf standing in front of them, they probably wouldn't stand a chance of surviving against the two golems he had brought with him.
The captain and the soldiers each decided to let Rita speak without intervening, placing their trust in her experience and hoping that she could contain her impulses.
- "I'm listening to you ... What are your questions?" she asked to break the silence.
- "Do you know the Administrator?" he ended up questioning.
Isaac didn't really have much to lose by asking this question. At best, they knew who it was and they could tell him, at worst, he would know that the Admin had hidden his identity, at least, from this village.
After a moment of silence during which Rita began to think and searched seriously in her memory starting to fail, she came to answer.
- "I'm sorry. I have no knowledge of that name. Maybe you could give me a description? I might be able to help you find this person ..."
Isaac then came over to shake his head. He didn't know what the old Admin looked like and didn't want to describe it at all. He didn't know what kind of reputation he had here.
- "It doesn't matter. Next subject, can you describe to me how the Kilguana kingdom and the principality of Durvador function and behave. In political, economic, military or geographical terms. As much information as possible is welcomed. "
Rita's expression then became puzzled and deep, deep in thought, carefully selecting whether to say. It was the first time that an elf had asked for anything compared to other human realms.
This was a rare Elven diplomatic contact. One misstep, and their plain could become a battleground between the two powers in the coming week. After ordering her ideas, she ends up speaking.
From what she said, Isaac was able to extract quite a bit of information. The Kilguana kingdom is an absolute patriarchal monarchy with the Church of the Sun as its sole religion, devoting divine worship to the sun and its purifying light.
The current King, Kylis Lubeillis, is 28 years old. He was crowned three years ago after the death of his father the former King, Trevor Lubeyllis. As a whole, the kingdom is managed by the nobility, which was to be expected.
The territory of the kingdom is the size of France, almost twice the size of that of the principality, and is divided into five large zones of equal size. A central zone called the Royal Domain administered directly by the King with the capital at its center, and four zones positioned at the cardinal points.
Each cardinal zone is administered by a Duke. All the zones are subdivided into sections, each managed by a Marquis and delegate their territory to Counts for the larger lands and Viscounts for the smaller ones. Finally, at the very bottom of the nobility scale are the Barons who can be appointed by the Counts and Viscounts in order to raise a commoner to a noble rank to reward him.
The principality of Durvador is in fact a theocracy having been annexed by the Draconic Empire twenty years ago. The religion practiced there was that of the White Twins, the name given to the two moons illuminating the night sky.
This earned them many religious confrontations with Kilguana until the Draconic Empire decided to invade them. At present, the imposed religion is that of worshiping the dragons, a race believed to be very ancient and remote in unattainable lands.
The region has since been renamed the Principality of Durvador with the Third Prince of the Empire, 36-year-old Thomas Draconis, as its highest authority. Kilguana meanwhile, not wishing to launch into a war against the Empire, decided to keep the plain as a buffer zone between their borders.
The hierarchy is very short and above all military with the Grand Generals administering large areas, then the Army Generals administering smaller areas.
Their small village did not know much economic level, the two kingdoms not doing trade with them, but political level, from the discussions with the merchants who passed, they knew two or three news. Kilguana was fairly stable with the King issuing numerous decrees to limit corruption and gain popularity among the people with decisions to, for example, reduce poverty through the creation of workshops, forges and mines.
At the principality level, the news was not that good. Besides because of the recent invasion, there were many tensions between the new and the old religion. The Prince in charge was ruthless, launching raids on the rebelling villages. A constant martial law had been established, creating a tense and unstable climate.
Isaac began to think about what that involved. On the one hand, a stable, large and possibly powerful kingdom headed by a visibly good but young King. On the other hand, tyrannical and unstable conditions with a foreign power of unknown size and power but probably as powerful or even superior to that of Kilguana led by a visibly experienced man.
He sighed for a long time, imagining the problems he would have once the news of the shrine and his presence reached the capitals, then looked up.
- "Have you informed the other kingdoms of the sanctuary?"
- "No, Excellency. We first planned to check that the report of our scouts were correct before sending a messenger to Agartha, the capital Kilguana. Despite our expertise, we are only villagers, we have no experience exploring magical tombs and ruins ... "answered the old one honestly.
The elf nodded in understanding. This reasoning made perfect sense to him and he understood that they wanted help from a great power. After all, a suddenly active thousand-year-old sanctuary was just another source of nearby anguish and threat to them.
- "You have nothing to fear from me or the sanctuary as long as I have nothing to fear from you or from the other realms" he finally said with a smile.
The atmosphere between them then relaxed slightly. The elder and the soldiers weren't sure what would happen to them or their village. Elves were often portrayed as beings who kept their word and so far most of what the stories described had been true.
- "Thank you for answering my questions" Isaac said, informing them that he had no more questions. In any case, for the moment. "Your cooperation is appreciated. I would like to thank you, is there anything I can do for you?"
He didn't necessarily want to be of service to them, but above all he wanted to know them and make them allies. These were the first people in this world he had met, and so far they were cooperative and friendly.
- "It's an honor for us, Excellency. We wouldn't dare you to dem --..." began the old one before suddenly being cut by Kiril.
- "Would you agree to take an apprentice?" the captain asked, looking Isaac straight in the eye, his gaze serious.
The soldiers suddenly turned to the captain, their expression terrified. Rita began to think before she finally understood where he was going. "Rebecca ..." she thought before turning to the elf, waiting for his answer.
- "An apprentice? What do you mean?" Isaac asked honestly. Presumably he must have been some sort of noble in their eyes for them to use titles like 'Excellence', so he wasn't sure what he meant by 'Apprentice'. A pupil as a student, but to study what? Sanctuary, magic or whatever he would like to teach her? Or a squire who would serve him and learn by watching him. He was curious to find out.
- "Without disrespecting yourself, you don't seem informed about our world and how it works, do you?" Kiril asked, receiving a positive nod from Isaac. "Have you ever been outside your sanctuary and met other people?"
He really hoped to find out more about the elf, but for now, he was just getting information indirectly from what he was going to ask. When Isaac nodded, Kiril continued.
- "For us humans, the gift of magic is extremely rare. A gift that cannot be quantified in terms of gold. For realms, a mage is a massive weapon that can spin the odds of a battlefield with the snap of a finger. Children with the gift are sent to academies to study and become magi in the service of their homeland. "
So far, Isaac could only agree, especially since at the same time, the captain was confirming his theories about the rarity of magic. "Cliché" he thought.
- "Our village is considered neutral and therefore foreign territory. So we cannot send children with magic to Kilguana, and we have no desire to send it to Durvador ... You seem to know to many things about magic and how to use it, "Kiril continued.
Isaac understood immediately.
- "You want me to teach what I know about magic to apprentices in your village." asked Isaac.
Besides making the village their ally, he didn't want to waste too much time teaching children and preferred to continue his experiments on magic rather than babysitting.
- "At the moment, not 'des' but only one apprentice. An apprentice to be precise" corrected Kiril immediately.
Isaac then remembered the young woman and her fireball, interested. "That fixes the babysitting problem then" he thought.
- "And what do I have to gain?" asked Isaac.
- "Our services" continued Rita. "Cram Village is nicknamed by other realms as Shadow Village for a specific reason. We are very proficient with shadow magic, infiltration and stealth missions. If one day, these skills came to be useful to you, we will fulfill all the missions that you want to give us without asking any questions. "
- "In addition to that, we will also send you our most fervent and qualified villagers for your daily needs. Consider them as your servants. They will help you take care of your home and --..." continued Kiril. before getting cut.
- "I do not have a home. That is a lot to gain, of course. Why so much enthusiasm for a single apprentice?" he asked.
The elder suddenly stood up, surprising the soldiers and Isaac who looked at her. His expression was slightly cheerful, partly because what the elf had just said also implied that what they had offered was enough for him to accept their request, but also because it gave them another offer to make. .
- "We will build one for you! Our builders are extremely talented and can create buildings that may not be worthy of nobility but large, spacious and in a very short time! We could lend you one of our houses. during its construction so that you can live and teach Rebecca in the village… "she said quickly.
Rita now had two goals. Have Rebecca become the elf's apprentice and thus give the village leverage against their possible enemies. But also, to bring the elf in their village and thus make him protect it. With an Archmage, any location, even their village, could be considered impregnable against an average army.
In the world, Archmages could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Many were already working for Emperors or Kings. However, they had before them an Elven Archmage who had never met anyone. It was a godsend she had to seize.
- "No" simply pronounced Isaac.
- "N-no?"
- "I do not wish to leave my sanctuary. Not for the moment, I intend to live there for a while. Your other proposals are nevertheless interesting" he declared, getting up.
Everyone stood up when they saw the elf turn around. The old one, thinking that she had exceeded the limits, prepared to apologize to Isaac but was cut by the latter.
- "I will think for the night and give you an answer tomorrow morning, at dawn. Do you have other things to ask me?" he finally said.
- "No, Excellency. We thank you" hastened to say Rita.
Isaac nodded positively before moving the arcane rotating in the sky towards the ground with a wave of the hand. The lines then began to burn into the ground, scorches on the ground turning to boulder before a white light began to stream.
"A rune ..." Rita thought, starting to look at the light patterns. Moments later, the rune sank into the ground, leaving no trace other than the barrier. In the center, a small luminescent stone like a campfire rising from the ground.
- "Remove the stone from the ground to cut the barrier and put it back in the same place to reactivate it" he said simply by waving his hand. The stone then rose a few centimeters and immediately the barrier dissipated. "Have a great evening."
He then began to float skyward, his aura covering him entirely and giving him a new luminous layer in addition to his clothes, before setting off up the cliffs under the eyes of the four humans.
The stone fell and the barrier reappeared after a few seconds.
- "Make this night be favorable to us" said the elder aloud, followed by the nods of the others, all in agreement, before starting to prepare their camp around the strange luminous stone.