The day was entering the evening. The residents passing by stopped their footsteps and whatever activity they were doing, when a pair of eyes came out from the apartment building filled with unconscious bodies. A man walked, holding a bleeding young lad. The man, Donar, managed to step in the doorway and was greeted by astonished wizards and civil guards. It was not natural for a member of parliament to walk in public with unkempt clothes and then carry his son, who was covered in blood. But it could not be helped. If there was a cause, there was an effect. An unexpected encounter with a group of Morganian wizards was the cause of all this.
The annoying barrier magic that enveloped the building was successfully extinguished. The two authorities combed the area for clues and evacuate the trapped occupants. When they checked the floor where Donar resided, they found no black magicians or any compromising matters. The wreckage of the apartment room was certainly suspicious, but it provided no evidence. A soar of griffins was deployed through the orange horizon. They gazed around the tower, and the findings of any suspicious flying mages were nil.
"I have to meet my daughter." Donar kept saying that to a magician inside the medical carriage. "They are after my daughter. You must report it to the Magisterium. I beg you to find her!"
A low-ranking mage, rarely seeking an audience in the sky castle, tried to calm Donar down. Besides, he too did not know what to do, so he went to report to his superiors and forwarded Donar's message to him.
"He's useless, Papa. He's an amateur. We should meet the Grand Magus Magisterium in person!" said his son, Leith. Leith was bare-chested, wrapped in a layer of bandage soaking his blood stains, but still slender his body was, carved by aesthetic abdominal knuckles. He tried not to support his chest, so he did not appear like he was in pain. But the dripping sweat and the rigid expression on his face could not tell the lie.
The father agreed. "Didn't mean to demean the mage earlier, but asking the Magisterium in person is indeed faster. Wait here. I will go straight to Skycastle.
"I'm coming!" replied his son.
"Don't joke, Leith. You're badly injured!"
"It's nothing, Papa, really!"
"Really? Go look at yourself in the mirror. Your face says otherwise. There's no need to show your pride and hide your pain. That's why so many people die young." Donar opened the medical carriage and crawled out. "Just wait at the hospital. Papa will be back soon!"
Overcame with pride and worry about his sister's fate, the younger brother could not care about his father's wisdom any less. He buttoned his shirt and jumped out, pursuing his father.
"Leith! What the..." Donar let out a resigned sigh. "Ah, whatever. If something happens, I won't carry you anymore!"
"I never ask you to carry me!"
Donar approached the head of the wizard unit, who was talking to the others near the engine carriage belonging to the civil guards.
"My Lord Donar!" said the head of the wizard unit, "You and your son should recuperate in the medical magic carriage first!"
"I dinnae have time for that," Donar replied. "My daughter may be in danger, I must find her immediately!"
"Yes, I know. He's already reported it to me," The man pointed at the low-ranking wizard earlier, "and I'm trying to call the Magisterium's office."
He pulled out a set of black wired telecomm. The wizard raised the handle, then pressed a few buttons of characters, forming a contact code. He put the handle to his ear. His feet kept tapping the ground without knowing when to end. Sweat complied with his countenance and his eyes darted all over the place—sometimes he saw the parliament member and his son staring back at the restless man.
Not long after, the wizard frowned. All he ever heard behind the voice transmitter was only an empty static sound. He tried to make contact several times, and the results were in vain.
Donar had a bad feeling. He then responded to the wizard's behaviour, "Is there a problem, sir?"
"Wait for a while. Something is wrong. It's unusual that I can't call the Skycastle."
The head of the wizard unit took out a golden mirror frame. He raised the frame to his chest, then simply let go of the mirror. The mirror frame remained to hover in place. Turning his wand gently, the wizard whispered an incantation.
"Visio Omnia!"
The mirror suddenly shone. The mage's reflection turned into a vortex of magical energy. He then said again.
"Ostende mihi Officium Magisterii Arcanum Planum!"
The mirror appeared to process the unit head's request–to display a portrait of Skycastle, the office of the Magisterium. How shocked he and the Crimsonmane family were when they found the castle shapeless. "Shapeless" was not in the sense of being crushed by a force. But it was without constant form. The building patterns moved in random so that from the mirror the palace resembled the absurd lumps.
"What am I seeing right now?"
"I have no idea, Lord Donar!"
Leith thought of a hypothesis of why Skycastle had become so chaotical. "They turned the building into an abstract object. Does this seem like Reality Bending magic to you?"
"Reality Bending? Like magic from the mystic arts of Sorcery?" asked Donar.
Leith just shrugged his shoulders, implying that was what he meant.
His father's eyes slowly widened. No wonder the celestial castle did not respond to the outer world. It was probably under siege! He did not know the motive behind the attack, but the battle in the magic office never bode well. Maybe it had something to do with his daughter, who holds the might of Arcane. Donar turned to look at the owner of the glass, who seemed to understand the meaning of his gaze. He summoned the other mages straightaway.
"Helios Unit!" cried the magic head. "Prepare your broomsticks and griffins, and head for Skycastle! I repeat, prepare broomsticks and griffins. We must soar to Skycastle right now! It is highly likely to be under siege!"
"We're coming with you!" Donar said.
"I told you both to rest!"
"I can't rest if I don't find my daughter! My daughter might be there, or at least have something to do with her whereabouts!"
Arguing over such matters served no purpose. A griffin landed on the road while howling aloud at the head of the magic unit. "If you insist, we'll use my griffin."
The sky let out a roar and the howls of the griffins answered each other. The Helios unit that shot through the air was now also supported by most of the Magisterium mages who were on duty in the Eidyn expanse. As they arrived, the castle was indeed oddly shaped. They could not even find which door to the castle, because one time the door was on one side, after that it moved to the other side, or was overlapped by a part of the castle building–which they also could not guess what it was, or even odder, the door could be split into several pieces, for it was that disordered! Firing them with magic also did not seem to work well, because again, they did not know what they were shooting at. They managed to damage the surface of the rock with magic, which to them looked like the exterior of a castle tower. Their senses were completely messed up by this work of abstract magic art!
"HEY! ANYONE! CAN ANYONE HEAR US?" one of the magicians shouted in front of the castle. There was almost no sound, except for the sound of friction between parts of the wildly dancing building.
They discussed with each other how they could gain access to the building. Some suggested blowing up the front of the castle, which the idea was flatly rejected. The problem was, which one was the front side of the castle? If they blew up what was in front of them, what they considered to be the "front side", one could say they basically would blow up the entire building!
This Reality Control magic was different from what they had seen in western-rite Sorcerers. They lack the experiences to help them solve the building puzzles. They could only stare as they racked their brains. []