When Elena awoke she was confuzzled. She remembered having a struggle with Kroft and didn't understand why she was still alive. She had thought that she would surely be put to death. She felt cold and felt around herself, she was handcuffed, and chained at the neck while being blindfolded. Then she heard footsteps as light flooded into her vision she comprehended Kroft standing there in a block robe.
"What is the meaning of this!?" Elena was furious, never in her life had anyone treated her so harshly, she was a beautiful lady that no one would dare offend.
"Shut up and speak when you're spoken to, wench." Kroft responded harshly.
"How dare y-" Elena was cut off mid-cry as a slap rang out silencing the room. Kroft had hit her, she could barely believe it. Then the memories of him slowly taking her breath away came coldly back to her. Terror spread throughout her body and she decided it would be most beneficial to listen to what the young man in front of her was going to say.
"You are to guide me to wherever I demand, if you refuse then you shall become a dedication to science and I will enjoy cutting you open to figure out what makes you tick."
"Cutting me open? What kind of sick son of a bit-"
"Let's go." Kroft said a simple statement as he unbuckled the chains that surrounded Elena. Instantly Elena invoked her magic, pheromones spreading around the office.
"Stop with that nonsense." Kroft commanded and with those four words Elena withdrew her magic.
"What the fuck?" Elena was absolutely puzzled. That's when she noticed the collar around her neck.
"This is from my own stock, but how did you activate it? You need a special password programmed specifically by an Enchanter!"
"Let's go, first though, you are not to speak to anyone without my permission, you are not to harm me in any way, shape, or form. Plus if you are to get separated from me you are to instantly commit suciude. These are absolute commands, the primal rules you shall follow, you have no choice. Obey or die." With that Kroft picked up a bag and walked out of the office to the front door.
Elena and Kroft walked along the street of Praven, but this city is not the same that Kroft was traversing earlier when he first arrived at the butcher's shop. Praven used to be the trade capital of the Eastern continent, but since then it has evolved to become a hub of the Eastern continent, not only trade, but academics, manufacturing, agriculture, you name it Praven is advanced in it.
"When did magic become so commonplace?" Kroft questioned Elena as they walked along the road.
"What do you mean? It isn't commonplace to say, but for as long as anyone can remember the elites of the world have wielded magic."
She's wrong, Kroft thought to himself. Magic when I arrived was only talk of the legends. For it to be so common that the rulers kingdoms and empires have hold of it means that something must have happened while I was gone. A major breakthrough on how to harness magic perhaps?
"How did you learn magic?"
"..." Elena didn't answer. Kroft didn't seem to care though as he was staring intensely at the inside of a store window.
"First pick for Hartford Academy." Kroft read the sign out loud.
"Hartford Academy, you mean the magic academy where all of the top sons and daughters of the entire Eastern Continent gather?" Elena questioned.
"Isn't that a bit cliche though?" Kroft snapped back.
"What?"
"Nothing." Kroft continued walking along the road.
"I'd bet that an academy would have quite an extensive amount of knowledge on the workings of the world right?" Kroft asked.
"Of course, the academies are the prized possessions of all on the Eastern Continent, to be accepted to one would put your family on the map and allow for you to gain employment anywhere!" Elena responded.
"I'll have to pay a visit to these academies then." Kroft said, ending the conversation. Kroft continued to walk and arrived before a grand building. He had been here before but it had drastically changed since then. The building he arrived at was the Fighters guild.
"Well well, haven't you expanded a bit eh?" Kroft stated to no one in particular. He came here because he wanted to see the changes of the city after such a long time and the Fighters Guild did not disappoint. He didn't plan on going in though,
I'm sure someone who registered over 2 thousand years ago showing up as if a day didn't pass isn't exactly an everyday occurrence. Right now I'm not exactly all that keen on drawing that much attention to myself.
"It's time for you to repay what you tried to do to me earlier Elana."
"What, uh, what do you want?"
"I know all about you. You seem to have thought you were slick in hiding your information but it was all for naught to me. You have ties to many organizations, to think that my very own slave would be such a well respected interrogator, hm, is that what you would call it?" Kroft thought back to the contracts he read through in the shop of Elena, she earned eye boggling amounts of money when prying open the mouths of nobles, traitors, kings, you name it she most likely has gotten them to squeak.
"Why don't you help me get into an academy?"
"You're crazy! I can't even get into one!"
"I wasn't asking you to get into one, I was telling you to help me get into one. Now listen I don't want to just get into any old school, I have some requirements. The first one is it needs to have a large amount of information about magic, history, and this world itself. Secondly I don't want to be shoved in with some snotty fucking nobles who think there all that, I've read enough books to know howannoying some stupid teen rivarly with get in a magic academey. Thirdly, I want to be able to learn quickly, I'm not trying to have an entire arc about academy life."
"An arc?"
"If you don't understand then obviously it doesn't pertain to you, so learn not to be so retarded, ok?"
"Yes."
"Good, now I want you to go and get me a list of every academy in the city, return back to me in 10 minutes, I will temporarily nullify the rule of you killing yourself if you are separated from me."
"Um, ok thank you."
"Go quickly, you only have ten minutes, if your not back by then you will have to kill yourself."
Elena's eyes widened a bit, but when Kroft didn't add anything else she quickly ran away to complete her task as soon as possible. While Kroft waited he went into an alleyway and sat against the wall, he opened his bag and took out one of the few items he grabbed from Elena's storeroom.
This wasn't documented in her inventory, it is one of the few items which she apparently picked up from the office of a king. To think such a bitch actually had dealings with a king. Kroft thought to himself. I'm still scanning this item, it must be quite complicated for me not to be able to comprehend its purpose very quickly.
The item which Kroft was holding was a green orb the size of a marble. It has a clear tint to it and was smooth all the way around. Kroft continued to examine it for a while and finally put it back into his bag and stood up. He left the alleyway and returned to where he was standing before. Approximately 2 minutes later Elena returned to Kroft. She was holding a scroll in her hand.
"I've gained a list of all of the academies in the city along with a description of all of them!"
"Good job. Give it here." Kroft congratulated Elena in a sarcastic tone and took the scroll from her. He opened the scroll and scanned over it. There were hundreds of different descriptions naming all different types of academies. There was Hartford, Cramz, Redmine, DarkDuz, Doofs, and many more names. Kroft read the scroll and understood the information in less than a second, yet continued to stare at it to maintain a facade that he was reading to Elena. Internally though, he was having a conversation.
Hartford and Cramz are obviously the best picks as they are the top choices in the entire continent, but those are for the highest of nobles and very exclusive. If it was up to me I'm sure that I could pass any academic test that comes my way even if I am slightly ignorant of the ways of this world still, but it doesn't just depend on that, does it? There's politics to these schools and I don't really feel like getting involved in such troublesome things. A school did actually catch his attention, Doofs, an academy that isn't very popular, but not because of its lack of education, but because of its student geniuses. It seems like prodigies are always shooting out of this school, but not in a good way. From my understanding of society, light and dark magicians are able to keep eachother in line because of their equal footing. They seem to dislike one another as they counteract their magics but also their ideologies. Doof seems to foster many great dark magicians, but they seem to go crazy, not mentally, but societally. One tried to take over Praven, another tried to wipe out an entire kingdom. When powerful magicians that are also not stable are always popping out of your academy it usually sways the opinion of people not to try to join. It seems that it doesn't help that the requirements in order to join are quite strict too. Hmmm.
Kroft continued to think to himself and finally came up with a decision.
"Elena, I want to see what is needed in order to join Doof Academy."
"Doof!" Elena was absolutely bamboozled. "Why would you want to join Doof?!"
"Because I said so."
"But everyone knows that Doof is cursed! You can't join Doof you'll go mad!"
"I didn't ask for your opinion, I just told you what to do. Anyways you can't believe everything you hear. It's usually a bunch of bullshit."
With that said Kroft and Elena headed off towards Doof Academy.