The black wolves returned to the capital in great pomp, applause, petal throwing and compliments fell on them as victorious, they headed towards the palace where they were expected.
On their faces, smiles were rare, they had discussed what would happen next and Barkha had told them that he was going to resign from his position at their head to pursue freer occupations and create a private company of adventurers or mercenaries at the service of the highest bidders.
This announcement from Barkha divided the troop between those who were not expected by anyone to be able to follow their leader and those who had a family to take care.
Without Barkha, the troop of black wolves will be a company of ferocious dogs but that's all, not wolves. Those who had decided to stay did so out of obligation to their spouses or children .
In the end, a little over 500 men were going to follow Barkha and for him, it was perfect, it was even more than he had hoped for. It was at the ball given in honor of the wolves and their exploit that announced to the emperor and the court that he was retiring from the military after only 2 years of service where he climbed the ranks at an insolent speed.
Octave tried again and again to dissuade him but his decision was made, he even offered to increase his salary by 5 times and Barkha was seriously tempted, he would have given in if he had not imagined in his greedy mind all the gold of the treasures promised by the Skull Knight.
The news of his resignation spread quickly throughout the empire and neighboring countries, Barkha was an extremely popular person and when the Midland heard this news, they prepared their next confrontations against Tudor in the coming years because the most powerful brigade on the entire continent was now disbanded.
The days that followed after Barkha had collected his rewards from the crown and the money that Octavian owed him, he received various letters that were proposals made by lords who wanted him in their services and one of them, the head of the high class noble family Vandimion, Frederico de Vandimion III.
Barkha had not given an answer and was still hesitating, this family was rich, scandalously rich. The richest family on the continent whose budget easily matched that of a prominent kingdom and the owners of the Vandimion Bank the largest bank on the continent dominant in almost all kingdoms and frequented by an insolent number of noble families.
Time passed and the day of the meeting with the Skull knight arrived and this sinister guy was there. Barkha, eager to know the location of his future treasure came well before dusk and with a bag containing a detailed map of the continent as well as other maps including that of the empire and neighboring kingdoms.
They took the time to talk at length and S. K explained to him everything he needed to understand about causality, the apostles but especially about him.
According to S. K, Barkha was what is called a deviant, a unique and human being born outside of causality and capable of incredible things.
According to him, people like Barkha were horribly rare since the creation of the world and appeared about once every 300 years. Beings over whom causality and destiny had no hold .
Dragon-slaying knights, creators of the first kingdoms or empires, inventors who made human civilization evolve or marked their time.
Their births were always marked by an impossible event and S. K guessed Barkha's by his astral smell slightly similar to that of an apostle.
He was born from an apostle and a human, a fertilization yet impossible
The truth was that S. K himself was a deviant before Barkha, an emperor who had managed to unify the continent a little over 1000 years ago but what he could affirm is that never at Barkha's age would he have had the capacity to beat an apostle. There were apparently deviants with greater talents than the others.
Barkha explained to him that he will not accomplish the task that S. K gave him alone and wants to do it with his men. He told him that he needed a safe place to stay with them, a place big enough to serve as their lair.
S. K said he was against the idea of involving other men but Barkha told him that it was his condition, he was quite aware of the fact that nothing could be done alone, he would need men to establish an information network to identify individuals who could be apostles for example but also for other things.
S. K looked at him for a few moments and said to himself that as deviants, Barkha could really create something to bring to his fight so he showed him the location of a place that he himself used a long time ago, the mythical underground fortress of Golm, a very large underground and fortified building hidden from all that had been built by the dwarves and the very first high elves in the very distant time of chaos.
He specified that the place was in the interstice but since Barkha could see the interstice thanks to the astral energy in his genes by his apostle parent, he could enter this place 'cause it was like an anchor or a key of passage for those with whom he walked. There was a magical entry point allowed to exit or enter the material world to beings who could do so like witches, fairies or dwarves.
When they parted, S. K told him that he would meet him there at the next full moon next month. Barkha sighed and went back to make his preparations with those who wanted to follow him.
They took the road to join the forest of the lost woods a few places from the port city of Vritanis, the largest city on the continent where many wealthy noble families lived including the Vandimion family.
Luckily, the location of the treasure that S. K promised was on the way at the bottom of a certain chasm more frightening than anything else. For his treasure, Barkha went down there himself despite the disagreements of Duro and the others but he was determined to take this treasure, it was his treasure and he had killed a fucking apostle for it.
In the end, there was a treasure and it was not small. Two old, damaged and rusty chests of medium size with gold coins, jewels and precious stones were there alongside old human skeletons, horses too and several pieces of wood. It looks like these people transported this wealth in a vehicle and fell into this abyss with it.
Because the old chests were broken during the fall, Barkha determined asked for a large cloth to be thrown to him in which he had gathered all the treasure to make a large bundle that he attacked on his back to start climbing the wall of the chasm with the skill of a gecko that was after a fly on a wall.
When he came back up his men looked at him strangely, Barkha had blood on his fingertips from climbing with this atrocious load on his back and he could have died if he had fallen but in love with money that he was, he didn't even hesitate.
Now the treasure was there and the men still wanted to see it. Barkha to please them showed them his treasure for a few seconds before quickly packing everything up and putting everything in his metal wagon that he locked.
In this troop, no one would dare to even try to rob him, the first reason is because they all respected and admired him greatly but the second reason was that stealing Barkha's money was tantamount to a terrible suicide.
They stopped from town to town to stock up on food and medical tools as they continued on their way and after more than four weeks of driving, they finally saw the forest of the lost woods from afar.
S. K had predicted Barkha that this gigantic forest was connected to the astral world and was populated by monsters in the interstice.
In the physical world, the immense forest was gloomy and with a permanent fog, there were strange legends about creatures inside but no one had ever seen one.
The only really strange fact was that at a certain level of depth in this forest, people got lost for an unknown reason and they have never been found .
Barkha knowing that he was an anchor like S. K told him warned his men that they might see some creatures and to keep their cool. Some in terror wondered why they were there, they had fought monsters last time and were not used to them.
Many as they advanced saw strange movements and shadows in the fog and some took out their weapons while Barkha asked them to stay calm.
They arrived at the location of a large clearing far, far away in the forest where in the middle they saw a hill with a very large iron wall at its base, it was the entrance to the underground fortress of Golm.
The full moon was going to be in four days and Barkha asked his men to set up camp. The camp was set up there and even if the men expected monster attacks, nothing happened.
During the day they'd see some at the edge of the forest looking at them before growling and returning to the forest as if they were afraid to approach this clearing.
One evening, Barkha wanted fresh meat and he went hunting despite the pleas of his men not to leave them there and he returned in less than 30 minutes with the corpse of a monster that he skinned and cooked.
Despite the discouragement of his men, he ate the meat of this monster and was pleasantly surprised to find this meat good.
These beasts were in the interstice and constantly came from the astral world so their bodies contained astral energy in small quantities but still superior to that which the cursed soldiers of Korsa had.
The consumption of their meat restored energy and could allow a man to quickly recover from fatigue.
The evening of the full moon arrived and S. K found them there, he came out of the forest on his mount and the men thought it was a monster attack and Barkha told them that he was their ally.
S. K congratulated him for not only arriving here but especially for being followed by courageous men who had plunged into an unknown and dangerous world to follow him.
The wolves looked at S. K and could swear on both their parents that this guy was the scariest being they had met so far.
He went in front of the huge metal door and said a simple word that automatically opened the door, it was just a simple word in the dwarven language that was a kind of password and that he had Barkha learn.
They entered the huge dark cavity while on the top of the walls some kind of torches lit up automatically with blue fire on stones and the men remained in awe as they began a certain descent into the passage big enough for the horses and even Barkha's wagon.
The place was actually a habitable fortress with old but usable fittings and Golm was divided into three large shaped floors, the whole in the form of a pyramid as the three sections became larger and larger as they descended.
The first floor was where he left the men and horses before following S.K with Duro and the captains. The first floor was huge and could house a population of several thousand people to be comfortably housed.
They took a mechanism resembling a distant ancestor of the elevator and went down to the second floor which contained the dwarven alchemist laboratories, forges, armory and training areas.
They were fascinated when they entered there with everything they saw and when they passed near the armory, Barkha felt Sylver vibrate slightly, there should be a magic source and as he wanted to go see, distant hammering sounds were heard.
"Boss, the place is inhabited!!" Duro said and Barkha looked at S.K meaningfully before asking his men not to panic.
They arrived at the source of the sound to find 6 dwarves working in what was the largest forge.
They were Alfgest, Halius, Alviss, Andvari, Atvaror and Haustri, old acquaintances of S.K who had asked them for permission to house allies of his here shortly before Barkha and his men arrived.
They were a little shorter than average humans, stocky and above all very hairy with full beards.
"Show respect and let them talk, they are the masters of the place." Barkha told his men who just nodded their heads as S.K went to talk with the dwarves then, one of them approached the black wolves and looked Barkha up and down while circling him.
"Even for a deviant, you are special material. How old are you ?" The dwarf asked him and Barkha told him that he would soon celebrate his 20th winter and the dwarf looked at him carefully before introducing himself as Alfgest, the leader of this group and that he would only accept their presence in this place on one condition, Barkha had to learn to forge.
The wolves, S.K and the dwarves looked at Barkha who nonchalantly accepted and when asked why he had accepted without question, he replied that the profession of blacksmith was the one that brought in the most money for a commoner.
The black wolves behind lowered their heads in embarrassment at their leader's greed. He asked Alfgest why this condition and the dwarf leader told him that it was personal.
After S.K left who had exchanged a few words with Barkha before his departure. Barkha asked the dwarves what was on the last underground level, they told him that they were the green gardens, one of them guided Barkha and his men there where in front of them stood a heavenly expanse illuminated by a ceiling set with large luminous crystals.
Fruit trees , a river of crystal clear water and many other magnificent things were there but everything was dominated by an enormous cherry tree.
Amazed, Barkha asked how such a beautiful place could exist and the dwarf told him that the High Elves and the fairies populated this place with their king in the time of chaos.
They went back up and during the coming days they organized themselves. Barkha drew up an even more intensive training program for his men over two more years and he'll do the same while also being trained by the dwarves in the art of forging.
So, for the next two years, the wolves disappeared from the face of the world to sharpen their fangs and claws intensively because when they reappear, they'll face their swords not only men but especially creatures of the night.
Barkha was creating what would become the Brotherhood of Shadows, the organization that would make the apostles and other monsters their prey.