Artiel suddenly awoke from his sleep and looked around, his face drenched in sweat. The last thing he remembered was a sight of Rebecca being assaulted by someone, then a vague sight of a fight before he fell unconscious.
- "Rebecca!" he finally yelled, looking out the window.
Outside, lights were visible and chants could be heard in the distance. It was already pitch black, the sun had set. As he started to get out of bed, he suddenly felt a pain in his stomach and making him growl. The door to his bedroom suddenly opened and a middle aged woman appeared.
Her gaze shifted from joy to annoyance when she noticed Artiel on the edge of his bed.
- "You are not going to get out of here for a long time, the elders condemned you to your room" she said coldly entering with a pitcher and a glass of water which she handed to the young man.
He had been undressed and you could now see his fairly well-built soldier's body. After all, he had undergone military training while Kiril watched. Seeing the glass of water, Artiel noticed he was thirsty and grabbed it before drinking it. He took the pitcher and refilled the glass before drinking again. After four glasses of water, Artiel looked at the lady.
- "Why ?" he asked.
- "You really don't know who you attacked, hm?" She said, picking up the empty glass and the half-empty pitcher which she put on the bedside table next to it. "Why don't you confess your feelings to her before she leaves?"
The youngster's expression brought up a face contracted with nervousness and frustration. He had attacked immediately when he saw Rebecca's scared face in the distance. He never took into consideration who it was. He had just returned from a patrol in the forest.
- "A merchant like the others, right? Otherwise, he would never have been able to enter the village" he said simply before looking again towards the window.
The lady then laughed lightly and then started walking towards the door before suddenly being stopped by Artiel's panicked voice.
- "Wait! What do you mean before she leaves? Who's leaving? Rebecca?" he asked.
She turned then rolled her eyes for a moment before starting to tell him exactly what had happened and told him everything she had learned from the other villagers. Of course, among these were exaggerated rumors, and Artiel was used to it and could therefore try to assess who the stranger really was.
He had pretty much had the story, nevertheless an Archmage in the village in a remote hole like that? Impossible, it was probably another exaggerated rumor. Anyway, he was going to see for himself and stop Rebecca from making the worst mistake of her life and leaving the village.
When he started to get up, the lady suddenly came over and punched him in the stomach, making him growl in pain and forcing him to sit back on his bed, writhing in pain. After a quick moment, he looked up at the door to see the lady's pretty face.
- "I told you, condemned in your bed by the elders. You will have a lot more trouble if you go out, believe me. If he could have done these injuries to you, do not imagine what he would do if you try something like that again "she said as she left the room.
As soon as she was outside, she didn't wait for an answer and closed the door before the sound of a key was heard. The lock closed and blocked the door as Artiel swore before walking to the window to see what was going on outside.
Up the hill he could see the people around a large fire with tables set around it. You could see large dishes that were carried and brought with them a powerful smell of typical dishes of their village. Roasted or marinated wild boar in sweet mushroom sauce, it all gave him an appetite and his stomach started to growl.
With a small sigh, he then came and sat down at the bottom of the window with his back to the wall and came to place his arms around his curled up legs, seriously thinking about what he was going to do. Then suddenly, the outside lit up with a powerful light illuminating the room.
Puzzled, Artiel decided to get up and look out the window before widening his eyes.
Rita was dozing in her bed. She really wasn't young enough to stay up that long late at night and attend banquets. Although she was the one who had organized it so quickly and really wanted to go, she knew that her health would not allow her. Not after several days of travel. She had to rest.
This was what she had planned until the chanting beside the house stopped and a powerful yellow light invaded her room. Immediately, the old one opened her eyes and started to stand up before heading to the window.
In front of her was a huge celestial spectacle. Immense northern lights were visible, crossing the sky from all walks of life and breaking the sky to focus above their village.
The aurorae were so powerful that they emitted a light almost as powerful as the sun and illuminated the surroundings of the village with force. Everyone who weren't at the party was now at their window or outside, their eyes fixed on a central point.
A sphere of golden light floating above their village to which the aurora seemed to be focused. Seeing this, Rita went downstairs without even taking the time to get dressed and suddenly opened the door in front of which a guard was standing, gazing skyward.
- "Fabien! Go see if they don't need help at the fences" she pushed to make herself heard by the guard who jumped for a moment and turned around. He nodded before running off to the fence gates.
Rita wasn't sure what was going on. But if so much energy had gathered, the old one was sure it was something important. After that, Rita headed for the banquet and more specifically Rebecca.
- "Rebecca? Do you know what's going on? Where is his Excellency?" she asked.
The young woman still astonished and alcoholic took a certain time before being able to regain consciousness, to deal with the question of the old one before answering by pointing to the sky and in particular the sphere.
- "There ... He is there ..." she said.
Rita looked up at the sphere again before activating her mana vision. Her eyes widened, surprised by the enormous concentration of mana around the sphere, but above all the concentration of divine energy coming from the sky itself.
She had never seen so many in her life, even when she was an adventurer. Even a priest or a bishop could not concentrate such an amount of divine energy. Without waiting, she turned to the motionless villagers.
- "Everyone stay calm, Rebecca, try to find out what's going on. Let the soldiers prepare for anything. Come on!" she ordered towards the villagers.
Immediately, they threw water on the fire in the central and extinguished it before going on their own. The soldiers towards the barracks and the villagers towards their houses. The sound of doors closing and locking was heard everywhere for a while before silence fell.
Before Rebecca could leave, Rita stopped her before telling her to follow her. They then started to walk and entered the building next to the Elders' House to go up to the top and get a better view of what was going on.
Once at the top, the two women then observed the heavenly formations, unable to know if it was a bad omen or a divine blessing. All they and the village could do was wait and pray.
Rebecca then observed the sphere of light, her gaze contemplative and worried. "Master ..." she thought.
Isaac didn't know what was going on further down in the village. His concentration was focused on one thing: the Northern Lights and their enormous amount of divine energy.
He wasn't sure what to do. He had initially planned to collect divine energy from the inscriptions to find out more about them, however, his perception had totally changed.
Now his aura and his eyes were radiating new sensation and new energy. He saw the world in gold and black with the auroras as powerful as the sun. The night had become as bright as the day.
Where did this energy come from? He had no idea. But it made him want to study it even more. As he was thinking, his mind began to calm down before the aurora began to dissipate bit by bit before totally, leaving no trace behind.
Immediately he went down seeing that the banquet was over before noticing the old one. Her divine energy was much greater than most people, she emitted a greater golden aura than normal, so Isaac was able to locate her quickly.
Seeing her Master approaching, Rebecca took a long breath before he got in front of them and waited for him to speak to them. She did not wait long since as soon as he got close enough, Isaac said to them:
- "I'm leaving immediately for the sanctuary. You will join me there to start your training" he said simply with a small smile on his face. He couldn't wait to study this new energy and couldn't do it here without risking unnecessary lives.
Without waiting, Isaac floated in the air before suddenly activating his arcane, causing a pulse of wind to blow across the faces of the two women before disappearing into the darkness.
Rebecca who was below was speechless and unable to say or do anything. Several seconds or even minutes passed until she could react. Immediately she grabbed her bag, her things and some food before running to the stable.
- "Rebecca, wait!" pushed the old one. She took the young woman's shoulders and hugged her before looking her in the eyes. "Take care and write us letters!"
- "But Master told me ..."
- "He told you that you could not receive visitors, that does not include sending letters from time to time to give us news, hm?" the old woman said with a sly smile on her face.
The young woman came to smile at him in turn, took the old one in her arms before quickly going down the stairs.
From the top of his window, Artiel had been able to watch the whole spectacle and was unable to do anything. He didn't understand what had just happened or what to do, but he was much more relieved when it all stopped.
He was about to return to his bed to take a rest when he heard the footsteps of someone running down the street. Curious, he leaned down to see before noticing the shiny hair of Rebecca under the light of the moons. "What is she doing ?" he said to himself before noticing the direction of the young woman. "The stable? Why is she ... No ..."
Immediately, the young man began to change and, despite the pain, jumped over the ledge of his window on the first floor, descending, gripping as best he could. As soon as he touched the ground, he started running towards the stables.
Once there, he had to suddenly back up when he saw a horse come out, a rider on it. "Rebecca ?!" he thought. Quickly, he entered the stable, untied a horse by saddling it and began to follow the young woman screaming behind her: "Rebecca !! Wait"
She turned suddenly on her horse before throwing at Artiel:
- "What are you doing, moron? Where are you going to go?"
- "You need someone to accompany you! The woods are dangerous at night" he replied without saying more.
She wasn't in the mood for debate and decided to let him come. She had no time to waste. She was going to join her master as quickly as possible. She wasn't going to waste her one chance to become a true mage.