Cathrine woke up in the hospitable as she looked around in confusion. Her memories were a blur as her mouth felt like it had been stuffed full of cotton. She glanced at the bed in front of her and found her brother asleep in the bed… with both legs attached.

She sighed in relief as part of her wanted to make sure they were actually there as… as…

The young teenager rubbed her head as she tried to remember. Her brother had gone missing for a few days. Everyone was in a panic before that… that person. The police officer?

“No police officer was at the park.” She muttered as her mind felt like it was ramming itself against something.

A doctor came into the room “Ah Miss Catherine. Came to check on your brother again?”

She glanced at the doctor as she felt a little bit dizzy. Still he was okay. Just a bad kidnapping attempt before the police managed to find the culprit and now he was resting in the hospital as he had just been starved a little.

Practically skin and bones as he shouldn’t feel so light.

She nearly stumbled out of her chair as that thought came out of nowhere. Her mouth felt dry as… as she just needed some water. Ignoring the doctor’s stares she walked trying to navigate the hallways to find a vending machine to get a drink. Just a bottle of water, maybe some chips, and…

A gun. She was going to buy a gun if she survived this mess.

Shoving the random assortment of coins into the vending machine she grabbed the bottle of water trying to drown out the sickening feeling in the back of her throat. She devoured the potato chips trying to bury the gnawing hole in her stomach as she tried to stay calm.

“It was all a dream.” She muttered to herself “You just woke up from a nightmare as… as you can’t remember what happened in the nightmare.”

Catherine pulled out her phone before going pale as it was her phone, but somebody had replaced the casing to it. The phone certainly didn’t have the random array of black lines across it’s casing… and the checklist.

“It’s just a… just…” She tried to justify the insanity, but the fear only grew.

Running towards the hospitable room ignoring how it looked she bolted towards the door as the lights started to flicker. Her fears grew as there was a weight in the air as the words “They are far more common than you’d expect” whispered in the back of her mind.

Without a second thought she kicked opened the door as the lights had died. Before the bed a monstrous figure hovered over the bed that was far larger and wider than any normal human. With her sword in hand she swung without ever thinking about where the sword came from.

The blade cut into the fabric before it came in contact with something… an arm.

An arm fell on the floor devoid of blood as a metallic mask now stood face to face with her as the second hand shot out pinning her hands to the wall. The grip was horrifically strong as the light from behind the mask glowed a bright eldritch green.

“Amazing.” An almost human like voice spoke. There was an almost mechanical like tone as if he was speaking from a bad microphone or something.

Yet it couldn’t be human. Everything about it screamed inhuman like the monster from the cave. She stared into the green glowing eyes of the mask in horror as there was another one! Another one of those dam monsters had come!

There was a sicking sound of a joint being shoved back into place as her eyes fell down to the arm she had cut off. The limb twisted about in an unnatural angle before it fit back into place. The robes covering the creature seemed to shift as she saw dozens of red eyes underneath the mass of clothing before the body simply… condensed.

It now stood at the full height of a regular human almost looking human… if you had a human covered in black clothing with armor hidden underneath some of the wraps of cloth. The head was kept at her eye level as the grip increased nearly making her drop the sword before it was torn out of her grip.

It examined the sword “Amazing. He made one so quickly. Leng really is his father’s son.”

The creature chuckled as Catherine struggled managing to grab the sword from it’s grasp before making another swing. The blade nearly cut into the creature before four bands of cloth wrapped around her arm before twisting her arm into a position she couldn’t move it.

She tried not to cry out in pain as the creature spoke in awe “And you can see me! Truly amazing. I wonder what are the true limits of such a Pact considering the limited state in which it was enacted.”

“What?” Catherine couldn’t help, but ask as she tried to break free

“Why the Pact of course. In aid of your brother’s safe return you agreed to never forget what happened.” The creature spoke as if it was obvious “ The phone as a book to record. The Sword as a weapon to defend.”

Her arms stopped screaming in pain as the creature showed her that her brother was lying in bed, safe, intact, and not missing any limbs. Instead a small teddy bear had been placed at the edge of the bed stand with a get well card and some flowers.

“Let there be dragons. Let there be days in which not even the sun shall shine and monsters roam the lands…” The monster spoke right behind her “Yet let there also be hope. Let there be the days where the hero can rest. Let there be the days where things go right or a laugh may come. Let there be hope no matter how dark the coming days get.”

It released the grip on her arms as she turned around staring at the… thing in confusion as she had no idea why it had broken into this room just to deliver these objects?

The monster chuckled as if it was obvious “Because by summer’s start none of it shall matter. Our lives, existence, and mark upon reality shall all be for nought… so why not? Nothing shall be changed so by that logic there is no reason why I shouldn’t give a small get well gift to a child who faced a horror he should have never seen.”

The monster pulled out a red vial “Why not help aid in the recovery for my own peace of mind? Why not grant aid if not helping amounts to the same as help? Give him two teaspoons a day for a full recovery my dear… and you should also probably take a teaspoon yourself.”

It turned around walking into the hallway as Catherine followed suit almost immediately as she practically shouted “What is your name?”

The creature turned around and made a small bow “My name is Iobairt. If we succeed I would like to converse with you further. If we fail...” He chuckled “There is just so much left to do before The Darkest Day.”

Catherine bit her lip as she felt her memories returning as she remembered the monster that tried to kill her as Marcus. She remembered the cold dread as they tried killing the unkillable thing before those figures in black cloaks showed up and… and left her here.

“One last question… what can I do to protect myself and my family?” Catherine asked as the creature called Iobairt focused on her.

She could see the light intensify for a moment as it had taken an interest in her. She felt like she was making a mistake… but it would be a far greater mistake to let it walk away without answering her question.

“Amazing… you have seen it and still you wish to see more?” The creature spoke in a praise like tone “Truly amazing… Forty Two, Thirty Seven, Nine… Help aid her in her adventure.”

Three figures crawled out of his suit each carrying scraps of black clothing to form crude clothing or ‘bodies’ as they jumped down to the floor before walking towards her. Catherine held her breath as they approached her before making a small bow.

She opened her bag… the bag that had been left for her as the small spirit-like creatures gladly went into it before she looked back up at the creature.

“Unsee are simple spirits to make Pacts with. May they ease the burden you shall take now that you wish to see more before that fateful day.” The creature spoke before turning around “And remember… Do not forget. It would be simply rude to forget after you have come so far.”

The creature pulled out a key before placing it against a door. Catherine stared in disbelief as instead of another hospitable room she saw an open barren field with what looked like a massive workshop surrounded by scrap metal.

There were the sounds of children in the background as Iobairt spoke “Amazing. You have all grown so much. Now come along children… we have much to do. So much to do.”

The door closed as Cathrine glanced at her sword, phone, and the small bag holding three magical spirits. The smart answer would be to go back to her brother and simply pretend that this was all a dream.

What she was going to do…

The hospital had a wifi signal and she had a few things she needed to check the internet about starting with what the word Unsee translated to.

Chairman Antiarius rubbed his head as he walked through the Eastern Allied Magical Alliance Center…

On paper it was to show they were still unified as a whole and paid their respect to their european roots. Though in reality he figured it was because they were too lazy to refer to any magical governmental body as anything other than a Ministry of Magic.

Walking through the hallways he did his best to avoid the parasites that tried to cling to his robes. The talk with the Mundi Girl hadn’t given him the answers he wanted before her memories had been obviated. If anything they only brought up more questions which she couldn’t answer.

The fact that multiple children had repeatedly been kidnapped in such an area… Either they needed new wizards in charge of the area for that district or they needed more knowledge on how such an entity managed to avoid their detection before it blatantly revealed itself to goodness knows how many mundi…

He rubbed his aching head as it was a minor miracle they managed to stop the reveal of the magical world at that moment. The Black Cloaks he had placed under the specialized training thankfully moved quickly enough and selected the correct cover story to minimize the impact of the magical origin… to a more mundane origin.

One of the random problematic mundi groups had been selected to have been involved in child traffic, drugs, and whatever else was illegal. They were the ones who chased after the Mundi girl and the police officers who helped rescue the missing child. Any questions about damage were from the illegal weapons they held and the missing children… a sad, but a ‘Mundi reality’ as the criminals did criminal things.

Probably bad enough that they would be put on death row giving the Mundi their monsters to hang while the magical world was kept out of their sight.

“What is your response to Andrew Flame being picked up by the Black Cloaks!” One of the parasites shouted “How is his health considering the last four years…”

“His name is Marcus. He is fine. No ch… no injuries have happened as the young wizard handled himself better than most adult wizards would have considering the circumstances.” Chairman Antiarius replied.

Technically the boy didn’t have any criminal charges brought up against him because nobody would have believed them sadly enough. The dam Book Thumpers still followed the hallowed words of ‘Prophecy’ practically ignoring the reality in favor of their bedtime stories.

Had one of the British or Japanese Ministries of magic acted the same way believing themselves to be safely able to ignore the reality outside their doors when bombs were dropped during the Mundi second world war?

Or had they been following those worthless texts sure that the bombs wouldn’t wipe them because a book said that they would live (or die) that day?

More of the parasites moved forth pulling out their crude cameras as bright flashes nearly blinded his eyes. He kept the politician smile out for the blood thirsty ticks that he wasn’t allowed to swat out of the air. The masses needed to be given the cover story. They needed their bread and circus act to continue ignoring what was going on around them.

“The Foul Wizard… Arabtho had hidden one of his dark magical research facilities within the park.” He lied out loud

Countless wizards and witches flinched as he spoke the name. Still there was acknowledgement and hatred in their eyes as ‘of course’ it was ‘one of them’ who was responsible for the latest disaster. If only they got in line and learned from their betters then everyone else wouldn’t have to be cleaning up from their mess.

“The young Flame Heir had a special magical artifact in his possession that caused the dreadful magical abomination.” Which frustrated him that he knew so little about “Had activated the trap attempting to capture the Flame Heir before he managed to narrowly escape signal help for us to arrive as quickly as we could… before the savage beast ignored even the basic laws revealing itself to the Mundi populace in an effort to chase after the young heir.”

There were countless cries of outrage and a few of the more respectful reporters looking shocked that someone would train a magical creature to chase after children. The fact it had been doing this for a while was not an issue until it happened to a young wizard or witch.

“The abomination has been subdued. The dark magical research facility has been ceased and the cowards responsible for this are being hunted down as we speak by the Silver Cloaks themselves.” Chairman Antiarius lied to the public “As Chairman to the North American branch of the Albion Accord… I Shall Stop Them All.”

That brought out the cheers as he marched forward ignoring any more questions they tried to ask him. He continued using his fake smile to put them at ease and not throttle the idiots who asked which girl he was going to adopt.

His daughter had died. There was no replacement for her because ‘prophecy’ was written by a bunch of drunken old fools who couldn’t even get the third Flame Heir’s name correct! The wretched book humpers were probably coming up with an explanation for how ‘Andrew’ would actually translate to ‘Marcus’ from some made up nonsense!

Still he needed the boy for three things. His information on Arcadia was absurdly rare as he barely found any hints or traces about the elusive area. The… Grim Song matched some of the more obscure recordings of ancient magical creatures before Merlin’s time that seemed to have faded from history.

More than that was the Staff. It lacked any parts it should have as not a speck of wood, plant, or anything organic had been used within its creation. The Staff was odd… impossible to tell the truth, but it worked. The knife he had cut himself was goblin steel and instead of being brought to the closest hospitable the boy was sitting in a room without so much as a scar!

Too many questions he wanted to ask… and the answers he thought were held just out of reach as his parents were coming to pick him up. Even if he was the Chairman there were limits to his reach and power… and unlike a certain wizard… Antiarius lacked the ability to simply hand wave and claim that ‘Prophecy’ would excuse any and all actions he made.

Especially since his plans focused on keeping the magical world safe far long before those worthless texts doomed them all.

Walking past the parasites he entered the main hallway of the (Eastern Northern America Branch) of the Ministry of Magic. Glancing at the large map and the conflicted (because they were not at ‘war’ with each other yet) magical nations. Antiarius began to question if the magical world removing itself from the mundane one was done for their benefit… or for the Mundanes?

Their non-magical North America was split up into three counties and their USA had fifty states. By comparison the magical equivalent was far more heavily divided… and made worse by the Book Thumpers. He saw the ‘prophets’ proclaiming further division and conflicts which would happen because the ‘prophets’ had been given titles and the idiots they were shouting at wanted an excuse to fight with one another.

Chairman Antiarius tried to ignore them as he focused on the better half of the Ministry as the Markers (as close as reasonable as a self proclaimed prophet could get) were busy setting up meetings to fit everyone’s schedule or sending the proper papers through the air to reach their intended target.

The goblins were hard at work arguing with other magical creatures and wizards about goblin rights, deals… and apparently complaints about the splinter faction calling themselves Dark Goblins who refused to do an honest day’s work in the Bins.

He tipped his hat towards a Centaur ambassador who seemed surprised by this action before the wizard went off and stopped for a moment staring at the true pride and joy that the magical world (under his control) had been working on.

The magical transit system… countless wizards and witches working by hand (since calculators and computers didn’t work here) to figure out the exact distance side effects occurred by various acts of magical transportation. The amount of times it took before one became sick, and the exact cost it would take to allow a series of transit points to allow one magical being to start from the tip of North America before reaching the end of it in just under a day… without the magical recoil of magical transportation becoming an issue.

The Books of Prophecy proclaimed it wouldn’t be possible until the next hundred years. Chairman Antiarius on the other hand had already cut out fifty years and with a little bit more backing and research… they’d have it finished within four years... or one year if everything went right.

This was the power of innovation that the magical world had sorely fallen behind.

“Chairman… The Flame Heir is ready to see you now.” Sara replied with a hint of unease. He glanced at her as the Black Cloak sighed “It’s the… I don’t know what they are, but… his magical creatures do not get along with the House Elves.”

He slowly nodded opening up the door and preparing for the worst. Had the house elf been killed? Was there some sort of curse held on a delay… or some other unknown magical spell at play that prevented them from noticing?

The fact that the ‘Grim Song’ managed to act without interference for so long already made him question how much the wizarding world actually knew about magic… especially if the magic somehow deviated from the Albion Accords.

To his shock, confusion and surprise… nothing was wrong… well there was an obvious problem, but…

The House Elves stood at one side of the table as a unified force as Blipsy stood on on the chair shouting “They are ‘Sock Thieves’ and will steal your left sock if you aren’t careful! They can’t be trusted!”

The other house elves nodded in agreement or simply sneered at the odd magical creatures at the opposite side of the table as if they were some sort of magical stain that refused to be removed from the wall. House Elves despite popular belief were intensely prideful creatures.

While they may not work for money and prefer to serve… it was rare instances like this that a wizard or witch would see them in such a… such an instance.

The odd magical creatures seemingly made up or covered up in various colorful scraps of cloth made very rude gestures as one of them the size of a wizard wearing a robe… or made up from the robe… just hovered there as the hood somehow twisted to give the impression of a frown.

The orange robe had an orange orb for a face… or head “Not as useless as pitiful carpet scrubbers. Tell me do you ask for the enemies of the families you protect to not dirty up the rugs while they attack your owners? Are your services so cheap that you’d gladly toss them all away if a stray sock hits your head?”

Two House Elves held one of their companions back while a few others pulled out pots, frying pans, and a few kitchen knives. The odd magical creatures on the other hand pulled out wands… maybe not true wands in the strictest sense, but they could unleash one of the spells that had been woven inside their containers.

The one sitting at the middle of the table nearly banging his head against it’s hard surface groaned as the Black Cloak named Betty who was supposed to be keeping an eye on him was now busy trying to defuse the situation “Edmund didn’t mean to state that you are disloyal Blipsy as he is trying to defend his quality of service to the Flame Heir.”

She actually shot a small glare at the orange robed magical creature “As from what I understand… they have tried to copy your superior policies and traditions to serve a wizard.”

Instead of standing dignified and proud the House Elf smirked in the most mocking way the chairman had even seen… just how did the house elf learn to do it like that? The magical creatures now tried to move forward only to be held back by their fellows as Edmund moved one of the sleeves of the robe and guestered it across his neck.

“This is not my fault. I’m just a bystander.” The Flame Heir muttered to himself “Nobody told me about the House Elves. Nobody told me about the Unsee and their dispute against them.”

The Chairman took one deep breath as he had been expecting many things… and ironically enough this was much better and worse than he had been expecting. It was worse simply due to the fact that House Elves knew more about what was going on than most of the magical world (sadly including himself) though the bright side was that he now had one (slightly flawed) source of information he could interrogate later.

For now he had to reign things back into control, do damage control, and then get this back on course. After all the Duel of Fates Festival/Tournament was being prepared and the selective process was… troubling.

He only had one of his two possible candidates as the rest that were ‘viable’ were far from tolerable. The fact the Flame Heir had ties to Arcadia, able to survive the ‘Grim Song’, but more importantly held stronger tied to the Rite of Old than how it had become a Tournament/Festival… It felt like Fate was dealing the cards.

“Blipsy. Please calm yourself and your allies to not be seen as unbefitting of your stations as the Ministry has chosen you to help represent and serve us.” The wizard stated making the House Elves stand in attention “Please bring the proper refreshments and items needed for me to talk with our guest.”

The moment they apperated to some other room within the Ministry he focused on the Unsee “As for you… do not needlessly antagonize our servants especially since you had all failed in your duty to keep your master safe when he was dragged into that creature’s den.”

They all flinched at that remark as it was the Chairman’s job and duty to protect his employees while stopping any more conflicts from popping up. To his relief when the House Elves returned they did not antagonize the Unsee who in turn tried to ignore the House Elves in turn.

Now if only the regular citizens of the magical world were as easy as them.

Shaking his head he focused on Marcus Flame the third heir of the Flame family not marked by the Book of Prophecy as this wasn’t some red hair sickly child with large glasses who was struggling with the aftermath of his disease. Instead here was a dark brown hair youth with a dash of (possibly justified) paranoia and a host of odd magical creatures.

He stared at him fully expecting something bad to happen… but his unease was more focused on the House Elves for some odd reason. Especially considering that the Chairman was the most important (and dangerous) person within the room.

“Do the House Elves disturb you?” He asked politely.

They turned to stare at him in disbelief as Marcus seemed to have been caught off by surprise before he shook his head “No… I mean… I am simply not… used to them.”

The young boy glanced at them “I’m not used to being around creatures that can… teleport so freely.”

The House Elves looked smug, but they kept it to a tolerable level while the Unsee moved closer to protect their master… and suddenly the Chairman understood as it would be a fair bet to claim that Arcadia didn’t have many House Elves on hand.

“They apparate… in theory it sounds similar to teleportation, but in practice it is more akin to sympathetic magic.” The Chairman carefully explained “They are in service to the Ministry and in turn it’s magic and… domain for a lack of better term. This is linked to them allowing them to ‘appear’ anywhere within the domain of their residence.”

There was still the slight look of unease as he continued “Sympathetic magic by it’s nature tends to be non-combative… so I highly doubt you could get a house elf to simply appear behind you to slit your throat.”

“Oh no I mean House Elves are… smaller than I expected.” The boy lied as he tried to play off his paranoia as something else “There are another set of creatures going by a similar name… only much taller, and far less… noble.”

The House Elves nodded though a few seemed slightly distrubed at the thought of something like a House Elf that would cause a wizard to be uneasy by their presence. As if the natural idea that a House Elf would even be a threat to a guest or master of a household to be… something from a horror story.

“I highly doubt that they kidnap babies and replace them with changelings.” The young wizard spoke as if as an afterthought.

Sadly for him the House Elves had yet to leave the room as they shouted “What foul creature would do such a thing!”

A small group of the Unsee on the table walked over to the edge. The Chairman watched them sort of… gestures… they didn’t talk, but the House Elves seemed to understand as some of them looked horrified at whatever the smaller Unsee was telling them.

The young wizard wore a guilty smile “Like I said… it’s complicated.”

Antiarius nodded his head as he tried to field his questions as he glanced at Marcus’s fingers. The right hand had the noble house ring of the Flame family. That ring alone marked him as the Heir of the Flame house as the magic as old as the Albion Accord itself was like a beacon to all those with the magical talent to see it.

It was precisely because of its… magical light… that Antiarius was able to spot the second ring which stood as the exact opposite of it. The ring that stood on the left hand that evaded his eyes but stood out like a black spot on a white wall. The ring he couldn’t spot rested on the young wizard’s finger, but it was not being hidden on purpose.

The fact that it gave off the same uncomfortable feeling he got when dealing with… the man in yellow. That meant the magic predated the Albion Accord. The fact the boy had chosen to use a knife to cast a spell instead of using a wand meant he had been taught magic that was not a part of the Albion Accord.

A champion of ‘old’ so to speak.

“I am sorry if my actions may have seemed… blunt.” He paused trying to carefully let the words sink in “But I have heard rumors about the fallout between your parents and…”

“The Old Goat.” The boy spoke with open venom and disdain.

The Chairman kept his smile hidden as that was one problem he didn’t have to worry about “I thought it was odd that a dead dark lord was responsible for destroying such a valuable artifact. Then again he always claims that ‘Prophecy’ was the reason and nobody bothers to look any closer.”

With those last few words young Marcus just went up a few notches in his book as the young wizard rolled his eyes not believing the Grand Excuse a select group of wizards could use to justify any action they committed that a regular politician would give their first (and second) born child for.

“My father was going to adopt me. He refused to respond. My father said it was going to be official as I am…” Marcus held up his right hand “Blood adopted and an official heir. One week later his response came in the newspaper along with everyone preparing for them to kick the bucket.”

Antiarius nodded as that ironically sounded a lot more reasonable than the… truth. The Book of Prophecy had already set the day his parents would die. He didn’t know if Luxarious knew the date, but it seemed like an obvious conclusion that his adopted parents would die the moment The Red Stone of Legend was destroyed.

Judging from the glare in his eyes the Chairman decided to hedge his bets “I take it that’s why you accepted the job? Because you were working for this… Velkear individual to obtain the missing ingredients to allow your parents to craft a new stone?”

The young wizard stumbled as he tried to make an excuse and failed. The kid lost points for failing to keep a composed face, but still earned a few more by actually trying something rather than letting the vague word of Prophecy dictate their deaths.

Foolish… but the kid felt guilty at seemingly being the one responsible for cutting their lifespan short. He’d feel like a heel tomorrow, but the chairman needed more pieces on the board… and even if the worst happened if the kid won… it would still be better than letting any of the others win.

Heck a House Elf would be a better pick and they probably would even fight any of the other chosen students.

“So a child that has a Staff since it is illegal for one to own a wand without going to a magical school… shows up with a creature no one has even seen before.” He let the words sink in “Who just happens to be the only one to find where it was lurking and helped rescue two mundi when the monster had been killing various mundi children.”

The boy seemed prepared to defend himself not that he couldn’t blame the child. It sounded like a blatant scheme to get a bit of fame and fortune to force his name into the spotlight to learn proper wizard magic.

He might have even believed it if not for how upset the child had gotten at them erasing the memories of the Mundi. At how the staff seemed to fly at the face of basic wand crafting… and most of all that he had been hired by the demon in yellow.

Velkear was on the move again and now he was dangling a pawn in front of Chairman Antiarius when he needed one.

That was the problem when dealing with the demon in yellow. It was hard to refuse the offer.

“So I had to check to make sure if throwing my name to nominate you to go a magical school would bite me or if it was stupid for an old fool to refuse you because your name didn’t match a random one written in an ancient book written before The Vanish.” Chairman Antiarius replied much to the kid’s shock.

He smiled “I’d put faith in the book if they didn’t miss such a major detail.”

One of the House Elves handed him a small note as the chairman knew that the Flames had entered the building and were ready to protect/talk to their son. The bait had been set out, the parents were about to arrive… all that was left was to haggle out the details.

He had a champion of the ‘new’ and he was missing a champion of the ‘old’.

He was not going to let his second champion slip so easily out of his grip.