The Order of the Night.
A notorious group of sorcerers that have gained fame across the world, with its members wanted by many kingdoms across the different continents. They have been called many names - 'the Cult of Doom', 'the Brotherhood of the Dark' and 'the Devil's Kin'. Harbingers of chaos and destruction wherever their feet walked.
No one knows their origin, and not many know what they are after.
Now, in the basement of the Labronkath was a cell that held one of these devil's kin who tasted defeated at Nyne's hands - Maelo.
Master Kelluen turned his head to face Vorgard before posing his question. "Vorgard. You said he's one of them?"
Vorgard nodded. "Yes, master Kelluen. He is a member of the Order of the Night."
Maelo sat in front of Vorgard and three masters, his hands bound tightly behind him and his body chained to the seat. Maelo was bound but the sorcerers of the Labronkath were not stupid to assume such could hold a devil's kin down.
Maelo sat within a binding circle that drew power from two Aepari that sat in a corner, focused in doing the one task the masters gave them. Maelo might be able to tear through the physical chains but the binding circle only bent to the will of its casters.
Maelo's eyes fluttered open. The room spun around and his head ached. It felt as though a hundred men drummed inside his head. His face grimacing, Maelo looked to his captors and only found that his vision blurred but this cleared as time passed. He felt stiff and could only make flicker of movements with his fingers. It has been over ten days since Maelo was captured.
"I see," he whispered. Maelo noticed he could not move his body as he pleased. He chuckled and turned to his sides, glancing at every one of his captors present.
He scoffed. "Well, I'm as harmless as I can be right now."
Vorgard turned to master Kelluen and continued in the line of the question the master asked him earlier. "We encountered four of them while on the mission to retrieve Nyne."
Kelluen was surprised but did well in hiding it. He was not aware of any such mission involving Nyne. The master turned to master Reshi and in an attempt to clear his confusion asked, "Do you know anything about this, Reshi?"
Reshi signalled the two Aepari to allow him pass through the barrier of the binding circle.
He stepped into it and sauntered towards Maelo and crouched in front of him. He lifted Maelo's head by his jaw revealing his burned face. Reshi clicked his tongue and shook his head as he looked at their captive in disappointment.
Reshi looked at master Kelluen from the corner of his eyes. "Yes, I knew about the mission," he said, standing to his feet, "but as for their encounter with the Order of the Night, I have no knowledge of it."
"If he won't talk," master Jaehermeth said, ushering himself into the conversation, "then he's not useful to us."
Master Jaehermert was not wrong. The members of the Order of the Night were known for their strong conviction and unwavering loyalty to their cause. Few times in the past, the few captured chose death over living for exchange of intel.
Maelo threw his head back and burst out laughing, shaking on the seat and dangling his chains around.
"What amuses you?" Reshi asked.
Maelo leaned forward and looked up to the master. "You don't get it, do you!" he shouted.
"The world is changing. The darkness has come and is slowly eating up the world until there will be nothing left. You cannot stop it. It is what is fated to happen. It is here."
His words sounded like those of a mad man. Vorgard and the other masters paid him no heed but Reshi's eyes glued to him.
"What nonsense!" Jaehermeth blurted out. "We should send him to -"
"He tells no lies," the voice said, cutting Jaehermeth short in his sentence.
The masters turned hastily in the way of the voice. Each one reacting differently to the voice, all ending in shock. They had not heard this voice in such a long time. He was the least person they expected to be present.
They chorused, "Master Tu Tu?"
Tu Tu's skin colour and bulging eyes stood him out among the masters. The one master nearly all Aepari of Labronkath had yet to see. The dark-skinned man came down the stairs into the room, seemingly struggling with his robe that hid his feet and dragged on the bare floor. He walked towards them.
"He tells no lies..." Tu Tu said again, adjusting his big glasses, "for now at least."
"What are you doing here?" Kelluen asked.
Tu Tu walked past them and towards Maelo, and around the captive. He sighed. "Hmm. He is an interesting one."
Kelluen clearly popped a vein, and gritted his teeth in silence. He did always hate master Tu Tu's guts. In fact, he now believed the younger masters lacked the most manners.
Tu Tu turned in Kelluen's way. Truth be told, it seemed master Tu Tu could feel master Kelluen's hostile emotions towards him.
"Oh!" He exclaimed. "Master Trathmir requested my help. That's why I'm here. I believe you received visitors who only just returned some days ago."
-
Kingdom of Cucurel, in the continent of Nortvard.
Clothed in a long hooded robe and covered in wood dust from nesting in the ship's basement all through the journey, Gaia stepped out of the ship and looked around, lifting the hood of her cloth and allowing her face to bask in the warmth of the sun.
She breathed in with much enthusiasm and satisfaction. There was truly no place like home. At long last, Gaia returned to Nortvard and sadly, alone.
"It's been a long while," she thought.
She saw a man harassing a young boy in the direction she walked. "Get away!" the man yelled. He was taller and bigger, and appeared to be the head of the crew the boy served. The boy ran away at his command to escape his whip.
Gaia nudged into the man as she walked. "I-I'm s-so-sorry," Gaia said, stammering.
"Watch where you walk, woman!" The man yelled, pushing her aside and rolling his whip to his side as he walked away.
Gaia walked hurriedly when she was past the man. The man only realized what happened later on but Gaia had disappeared from sight with the small sack of coins that hung on the scarf around his waist.
"That woman!" the man cursed, running in the same direction that Gaia took to seek her out.
The sorceress became part of the large crowd in the market, easily blending in.
"I'll have two of those," she said, pointing to the fried fishes on the table. Their aroma had drawn her to its seller. Gaia felt uneasy, and looked around more often.
"Can I get one of those too?" She asked.
"Of course," the seller answered. The owner of the shop walked inside to get her requested item.
"Where did she go?" he wondered on returning with what Gaia requested. She was gone. He wondered where the woman who was just there disappeared to. His fishes were gone but there were coins on the table. Enough coins for the number of fishes she took. He leaned into the crowd and looked to find her but Gaia left no traces.
"How could they?" She thought. She roughened up old papers she took from the fish shop, so much that their lost their original form. Gaia crept into a corner, her face leaned to the wall as she tossed the papers away. On them were wanted posters of herself and other sorcerers. The deceased Trys was not left out either.
"How could they?" She thought as two sorcerers walked past her.
There, on those papers she threw away was her face. It was not just hers but Trys' too among other wanted sorcerers. The main guild of the continent of Nortvard branded them fugitives that were to be captured and returned alive.
Gaia dropped to the floor. Her head bowed against her knees. The will and courage she mustered to return home was crushed in a moment. She still mourned her loss and now, she had to flee the one place she yearned for all this time - her home.
"I need to go," she said, standing. "I need to leave this place before they find me."
As soon as she moved to flee, a hand pressed down strongly on her shoulder. Her buttocks hit the ground again. Shocked, she looked up to see the one behind it.
The voice spoke, striking deep inside her. "Hello, Gaia."
This man was one of the least persons she had expected to see and the last she wished to run into. Gaia could not overcome the strength of this man.
"J-Julian?" she whispered with gaping eyes.
-
"At first when Trathmir sent for me, I thought it was a sorcerer chasing fame but this guy seems like the real deal. To think they'd come out of the blue after all this time." Tu Tu spoke, moving around Maelo in a circle.
"Any ideas why?" Reshi asked.
"I can't say. Even he doesn't seem to have that information. All I know of these guys is that they are seeking out what they tagged, 'The Fragments'. I have no idea what those are yet but I'd like to find out."
"The Fragments?" Reshi said softly.
Tu Tu stopped walking and stroke his barren chin. "Yes. They seem to be sources of power or something of sorts."