Cassandra opened her eyes and sat up on her bed. It was dark and a dim moonlight shone through the open window beside her bed.
'What was that? ' She thought as she stared out the window. She had undoubtedly felt a big disturbance in the flow of ether in the air. It was far away but big enough to be alarming. It could either be a spell or runic weapon, a weapon created with Ethereum metal and carved with runes which were special symbols that could invoke various effects using ether.
'Is someone fighting? Otherwise what could have caused It ? ' She pondered on the reason for the disturbance as she got out of her luxurious bed. She was staying at Baron Tolaga's mansion and the room he had given her was luxurious with a bed with silk sheets, beautiful curtains and decorated with expensive-looking paintings. It was luxurious, almost overly so.
'Could it be the magus my father asked me to meet? ' It was highly possible as there weren't a lot of mages in this town. Beside her, the priest from the church and that guy she had seen while on the way here, there shouldn't be any other magus. Except, the one that her father had told her to meet.
Baron Tolaga's family had no magus. It was too early for their family to start producing magus. But Baron Tolaga was a knight and not just any knight. He was a knight champion, a rank above true knight. So, his offspring have a slight chance of having the worthy talent to be awakened.
Baron had probably tried awakening his sons or daughters. It was an obvious choice for him to try as he was a noble. But the chance of them having better talent than inferior rank was minuscule. And if a newly awakened had talent lower than basic rank, then there wasn't even a slight chance of them getting admission at the Imperial Arcane Academy.
And if a noble family wanted to flourish in Ceres kingdom, having a magus of official rank or higher is a must, which is only possible if a magus has the talent of higher rank than inferior. Without a magus's support, a noble family would have no sway on the Royal court on capital.
Cassandra's family barely had any influence on capital because of the lack of magus. But she and her brother would change that. Her brother was already on the verge of becoming a Grandee and it wouldn't be long before she followed in his footsteps. That would cement her father's status in the capital and give them more influence. It was a dream of hers to help her father.
Cassandra shook her head and brought her attention back to the current situation. Whoever the magus causing the disturbance was, he wasn't a Neophyte. That was for sure. So, there was a very slim chance it could be someone from Baron's household.
She had to check herself to find out who it was. It could be the magus her father had tasked her to meet.
Cassandra quickly dressed and jumped out of the window. She had to go and check what was happening. She couldn't miss the chance of finding that magus.
Her red hair blew in the wind as her intricate dress stuck to her body due to air resistance. She was the embodiment of elegance as she glided through the air. Being a wind magus had many advantages and flight was probably the greatest one. But she couldn't fly for a long time as her ether pool was limited as an Official magus. But she was already hailed as a genius due to her ability to fly for short distances. Other wind magus had to wait till they became a Grandee to be able to fly even for a short period. It probably or rather had to do with her talent. She was a Magus with superior talent, one of the only three in the whole Ceres kingdom to have superior talent.
Other than her, there were only two people with superior talent and not a single one with a supreme rank talent. So, Cassandra was a treasured apprentice of the Imperial Arcane Academy.
Cassandra arrived at the scene where she had felt the disturbance. She landed on a roof of a castle. It was a lone castle surrounded by common two or three-storied houses. It was strange.
Cassandra closed her eyes and felt her surrounding using her ability to sense a disturbance in the air which she had named The Sixth Sense. A very apt name in Cassandra's opinion. This ability could allow her to sense any disturbances in detail within two hundred metres and in a vague manner within fourteen hundred metres. These specific distances had been measured by many days of practice and experimentation.
She felt nothing on the castle except a small blob of dense ether and a small trail of it leaving the castle. Someone had used a spell and left the castle at least half an hour ago.
Cassandra quickly landed on the ground and walked towards the spot where she had felt the blob of ether. She looked around as she walked through the castle. It was deserted, Cassandra realised after looking at the state of the castle. It was empty and the garden was almost bare except some grass that grew by themselves. Or that the owner of the castle was poor and couldn't afford to decorate it.
Cassandra mentally evaluated and made guesses when she arrived at the spot. She was instantly surprised at what she saw. A couple of dead bodies were cut in two with a trail of blood. A gruesome sight especially because of the innards that were laying on the ground.
Cassandra covered her nose with a handkerchief and walked towards the corpses. A very foul smell permeated through the air. This situation was strange. She had felt the disturbance just now which meant that whatever spell used to kill these people was used just a couple of minutes before too. But these corpses looked like they had been dead for days. The skin was black and dry looking and the smell was just too foul.
She hadn't heard of spells like these but the corpses looked similar to a zombie than a freshly killed human.
"What kind of spell does this ?" Cassandra muttered to herself as she walked away from the corpses. The smell was just too much.
"These couldn't be zombies, could they? " Cassandra whispered as she again turned back to look at the corpses which now looked more and more like zombies. Then that would mean that there was a Necromancer in Tolaga.
"Yes, these are zombies. My lady. " Cassandra heard a voice say as someone jumped down from the roof. He wore white armour with a Cross on his chest. A massive sword rested on his hip which swung side to side with each step he took towards her.
"Who are you? " Cassandra asked as she turned to face him. From his attire, Cassandra could guess that he was from the church. That much was clear. The Church liked to know every supernatural event that happened anywhere on Asterisk. So, it wasn't strange that there was a church's lackey visiting this place too. The priest at the church must have felt the ether disturbance and sent this man to check.
"I am Somar, a Paladin of the church and sword of Mahor. " Somar replied as he took off the helmet of his armour and bowed towards Cassandra. She was a noble and not just any noble but from a duke family. So, Somar had to give her adequate respect.
Cassandra nodded and said, " You said these were zombies. How do you know? "
"Because of the presence of a Necromancer in Tolaga. He is a young one but dangerous nonetheless. I have been searching for him and now it seems I finally found a lead. " Somar said as he crouched in front of the corpses and intently stared at them.
'Could he be that guy? ' Cassandra thought. It was probable that the blonde-haired guy was a magus with unknown attributes and a young age. "What does he look like? " Cassandra asked Somar. She had to know.
"I don't know. But I don't need to. " Somar said with a smile on his face and took out something from his pocket. He put it in his mouth and then...
A shrill whistling sound came from it. Cassandra covered her ears as the sound was hurting her ears. It was too loud.
"What was that for? " Cassandra shouted at Somar as soon as he stopped whistling. Somar smiled at her and said, "This will alert the soldiers at the wall. Now, we just have to wait for the Necromancer to make a move. And as soon as he does, he will be caught by Father. "
Somar gazed at the horizon where a small figure could be seen.
Cassandra too followed his gaze. She saw a golden-robed priest floating in the air with his hands behind his back.