Derek put the looking glass away and readied himself. He had dealt with in his life with many ancient and powerful people, but no one had the same effect on him as the knights had.
The two riders approached now closer than ever, he could see them easily now, one of them was human, Teron, he recognized him from a couple of years back, and another younger knight, probably a recruit, a high elf with long platinum white hairs flowing in the wind, it was common for the knights to keep long hairs but not everyone did.
Teron as he remembered looked as enthralling as ever, he had a strange symbol right underneath his left eye, some kind of tribal tattoo. He wondered where the elf was from and how he had gotten so lucky that he was recruited by the knights, he wondered what he had that he didn't all those years before and neither did the old man.
"Derek, it's been a while, how are you?" asked Teron getting off from his horse and shaking his hand. Teron was probably twice as old as him but still looked a decade younger than him. It was the weird magic that all knights had once they became one which made even the short-living races like humans live longer than normal.
"It's good to see you too, thank you for coming, " said Derek.
"Yes, we received your letter, I had just returned from a mission and thought why not hear you out, although we don't deal with such matters it's not because we don't want to, it's just because we have other more important things to deal with that only we can, " he said.
"I understand, well as you know, " Derek began.
"Wait, I forgot, this is Waqar, I have been mentoring him for a while, thought I'd bring him along," said Teron.
The high elf wasn't going to shake Derek's hand, but he remained modest in front of Teron. He must be new still because an official knight doesn't have even a shred of ego or pride, the knights are truly strong people, and people with real strength are never insecure and have enough maturity to not have baseless biases against other races.
"Now tell me everything in detail, " said Teron.
"Well as I mentioned briefly in the letter, the barbarians have attacked a port city of the half-breeds, they have sat anchor with a large force and have captured the whole city, " said Derek.
"It's worrying and barbarians are indeed pretty dangerous opponents, but I assumed half-breeds won't back down and are capable of dealing with them, especially with Ramon as their king, I am surprised he hasn't already launched an attack, he is pretty hot-headed from what I have heard, " said Teron.
"He is, after all, he is half lion, but things are a bit more complicated in the city castle, are several nobles and also Ramon's daughter, " said Derek.
"Do the barbarians know about it?" asked Teron.
"They don't think so, but there are more worrying questions too, why that town anyway, and why have been they so quiet so far, both the barbarians and the half-breeds," said Derek.
"I see what you are insinuating, there are a number of possibilities, but I must warn you, we are not allowed to interfere if a matter arises between humans and half-breeds, you are both races with good and bad people, who have so far been away from demon influence, the barbarians though able to think have proved time and time again that they are too far gone on the other side to talk to, right now as I take it, our priority are the people who are captured by them, they are ruthless sacrificial ritualists who don't shy from blood, and Ramon knows that first hand, it is surprising he hasn't done anything till now, " said Teron.
"Yes that's what I am talking about, either he is acting like this as a father worried about his daughter or something else might be the reason, " said Derek.
"Half-breeds are intelligent and they live by strong ideals, even if Ramon has somehow in the love of his daughter lost his judgment there will be others, " said Teron.
"And there are, that's why we are talking about all this now, otherwise we wouldn't have known it even now, but the fact remains that if we don't do anything three races could be involved in something massive," said Derek.
"Hmmm, that is true, this thing could get worse, I mean if you look at it simply, it's a barbarian attack, and if the half-breeds were not capable of handling them and asked us for help then we would have helped them, I think you were right in informing us, we will try to find something out through our contacts, but I'll not mention your name, the half-breeds shouldn't know yet that we are in contact, we'll meet again soon, I'll send you a message beforehand, till then I think you know what you need to do, we should get out of here, I think you have some friends approaching," said Teron looking over the hill.
"Goodbye," said Derek nodding and Teron and Waqar left.
Derek turned around and then wondered why Teron had said friends. He had told Isanna to come alone. He couldn't sense anybody coming, as expected Teron's senses extended very far then he had thought possible. After a few minutes, he finally saw Isanna riding on her horse coming from the forest and she was indeed alone.
"Geez, it gets cold in these parts doesn't it," she said looking around.
"I thought there would be something here, so why are we standing out here in the middle of nowhere?" she asked.
"We'll talk about that later, first tell me, did you bring somebody with you?" he asked.
"No, and I didn't see anybody following me and I still don't," she said.
"There has to be someone, maybe that assistant of yours Vanessa did?" he asked.
"Not possible, I left her in charge of others, she wouldn't leave them even if she wanted to," she said.
"No one else that might have followed you?" he asked.
"No, there's n... wait," she stopped talking turning around.
Ron and the others had been riding for more than two hours now, and the weather had just started to get a little colder, Rin had clearly not remembered the address as well as he would have liked, but thankfully she was a good tracker and had been able to track Isanna and found their way.
"We should slow down now, I think we are about to reach the place," began Ron but then he stopped in his traps when he heard riders coming towards them fast, he looked up to see Isanna and Derek coming towards them and Isanna had a bad expression on her face.