Stopping his thinking process Brad Saloman looked at something that caught his eyes. It was laying on the table in front of him. It was a paper.

He picked it up and then opened it, there was writing in it. And he knew exactly what it was, it was an address for him to go, to meet the person that could give him the power. There was a note at the end of the paper: “Come alone!”

He folded the paper again and put it in a pocket. It was late at night right now so he will probably have to go tomorrow. That in mind he went to his bed and slept for the night, sleep came to him fast as it was waiting at the door before.

The next day

In the Firebird city streets there were a lot of people selling, buying and stealing. There were a lot of things in the Firebird city and had a very big market. People from all the races you can find are there. Inside the crowd there was a figure walking, a figure of a man. He wore black robe with a hoodie that covered his face and his body and he walked towards a place in mind. After some time he found another little street on the left and went inside after walking for over two minutes, he found a door! He opened the door and walked in after walking in he took off his hood and it was none other than Brad Saloman.

Behind the door there was a long corridor. It was not entirely dark but there were little lights to see. He started walking and he could see some candles on the walls around him but it gave a little bit of light so he could just see where he was going but not see where he was headed. The corridor was very silent except for his footsteps which he found very disturbing because no place is this silent without something very bad happening in it.

After approximately walking for five minutes he finally saw another door. The door was metal, it was black as the night and there was a symbol. Symbol of a raven, and the raven's peak was dripping blood.

Without much thinking he took the handle of the door opening it and walking in. He was ready to see something weird or terrifying, a person waiting for him or a monster waiting for him. But, the thing that he saw made him more afraid than thoughts of a monster. He saw six people sitting around a table. The six people had something that made him shudder in fear. They wore a raven's mask and one of them wore a golden raven mask. At that moment he knew who they were. The six blood lords of the blood raven syndicate. He has been betrayed!

The man in the gold mask stood up from his chair: “Lord Saloman, it is an honor. Please take a seat.” He motioned him to an empty seat in front of him.

Brad walked and sat there, he was still scared. Because the reaction he got from them was not of surprise or anger but like they expected him to come.

“ You are probably wondering why we tricked you to come here?” Asked the Blood King

Brad made his face as emotionless as he could and answered: “ I am actually, may I know why I’ve been tricked into coming to the meeting of Blood Raven syndicate?” His voice was also emotionless, he was an heir after all and was trained everyday in politics. And his Father always said: always seem emotionless in front of everyone, you could never know who would use the emotion you show against you.

The Blood king answered him, he was more relaxed and oddly respectful: “ I'm sorry for tricking you my Lord, but we need to talk and we couldn’t come into your mansion and speak with you. So we send one of those spies to come to you and give you this address and promise of gaining power. We need to talk to you about something, we know you are backing the giant syndicate! Don’t worry, we will not hurt you. We simply have a better offer, you see from my experience I know that you took the Giant’s syndicate offer because they will make you a Lord. But you need to know something, when the joints in the kit get defeated, who will back you? No one. So here is the offer: you can work with us, you can back us, and we will guarantee that you will get the position of Lord and even maybe something more. Something bigger, better, more prestige. And believe me, we can do that.”

Brad thought about it for a minute: “An interesting offer indeed, but “your grace” you see, you don’t have any proof that you can do that. I know the Giant syndicate will betray me on the first corner but at least they give me something. I can’t see anything from you, you're only six blood lords. And maybe I don’t know 1000 members in your syndicate, the giant syndicate has over 3000 members. They have more manpower. I admit you have better spies but what's the purpose of spies if you don’t have enough manpower to pursue the information. The offer is pretty good but there is no way for you to win and then still be loyal to me.”

The Blood king looked him in the eyes: “ The points you raise are very fair. But you have to know something. It's true we have less members than the Giant syndicate but we have better members also. You see before the members join us they must go through two weeks of extreme training and only three out of 10 get out of it. So in my mind, our thousand can destroy the 3000 that they have with ease. But who said that we will fight a battle? My Lord we are not warriors, we are assassins. I will give you a little bit of insight on how we can defeat the giant syndicate very easily with your backing and with your financially supporting us and maybe supporting us in manpower. Do you member that the person that came to you yesterday and gave you the address to this place?”

Brad nodded

“ Well he’s sitting right beside you, you see the real person you hired was killed. He was not killed immediately but the second blood lord “played” with him a little and he gave us all the information we needed about your mission. So the fifth blood lord disguised himself as the person and came to you.”

Brad was shocked at the revelation. This organization is very dangerous, they had the chance to kill him but they didn’t.

“My Lord you should also remember something, the third blood lord here is our master spy. She knows every secret about every noble in this city so if you decide to work with us I can guarantee by 100% that no one will ever think of rebelling or disliking you even. Of course you can take your time, we will not push you but you should make your mind very soon. We intend to end this war with the giant syndicate very soon. And trust me, when the time comes. You want to be on our side. Because even if you were the lord's son you would still be dead.”

Brad was a Lord’s son, he did not like being threatened. But when the blood king threatened him he was unable to respond. Not because of fear, but because he knows the man spoke the truth. He will kill him!

After thinking about it he decided to accept his offer. Even though he was backing the giant syndicate, they didn’t even respect him. They thought of him only as money. Also he was 100% sure that they would betray him immediately when the thing with the blood raven ended.

“ After thinking about it, I have decided, I will accept your offer and I’m looking forward to working with y’all. But I have one condition, I want to be Lord by the end of this year.”

The blood king thought a little: “ No problem. We are still in winter so we have time for you but first we need to end this conflict and then we can focus on your thing. Are you OK with this?”

Brad pondered and then answered while standing and heading for the door: “I am okay with this arrangement, Ladis, gentlemen. I look forward to our work together”

He then went out of the door and walked the corridor again. His heart was pounding, he may look calm on the outside but he was a mess on the inside. The meeting was very stressful especially with six people that are basically your enemy sitting in front of you telling you that if you don’t accept the offer they will probably kill you.