Chapter 6: In the city

34th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

At the gate of the city a man is studying all the people that come through it. His name is

Bertin Halle, a royal guard that received a secret mission from the king itself. Right now he is posing a guardian of the city for intercepting someone very dangerous.

He looked at a kid who just come through the gate and now is coming his way.

“Hey! sir, where is the closest inn?”

“It's one on the main road, if you look closely you will find it.”

“Thank you very much, sir.”

” Hey kid, where are you from and what business do you have in the city?” the guardian asks with a unexpected question so Zephyr starts speaking.

“I'm from Cadun and I come here to learn how to become a priest.”

“Where are your parents?”

“They died few years ago and since then I lived by myself.”

“Fine, but be careful, even if we are in a city, the thieves and bandits are among us.” The boy noted and walked away.

‘He must have had a pretty tough life.’ the Guard thought himself.

Zephyr revolves around the main street almost thirty minutes and he finally finds a inn. He opens the door and start walking towards the bar. Looking around he could see that it isn't some luxurious place, which is good because he doesn't have a lot of money. All he has are the money he took from one bandit. He arrive at the bar and begins to talk.

“I want a room for tonight”

“Are you even young enough to stay here?” The barman asks.

“That shouldn't concern you.” Zephyr puts five darns on the table.

The barman looks at him and says:” Fair enough. A night is twenty five darns.”

The kid puts on the table another twenty five coins and takes the key from the man. As he is walking upstairs, he can see all those looks who are watching him. A little kid, alone and with money at him is a jackpot for the theives.

He enters his room and sits on the bed. It was a long day and tomorrow he will have to look for some work. The ninety five darns he have left is not much and he will run out soon.

***

35th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

After the breakfast he left the inn and started searching for a job.

‘There are not many places where a kid can work so finding a good one it would take some time.’

He is walking on the alley getting close to the center of the city. The streets are very crowded and he can see a lot of different people: Merchants, Priests, workers. He stops in front of a blacksmith and is staring at the man who is hitting with a hammer the hot iron.

The man looks like he's in his forties and on his face and clothes are traces of soot. Suddenly he stops hitting the iron, he looks at the boy and start speaking.

“There is something I can help you with?”

“Actually, that's what I wanted to ask you, sir. I just got here so I really need a job.”

The man, stroking his beard, is analysing the kid before him.

“How old are you?”

“I just turned ten a few days ago.”

“What can you do? You worked with a blacksmith before?”

“Yes, I worked a few months in the place where I grew up and I know the basic things.”

“What's your name, kid?”

"Zephyr."

“Come here and try to make this sword. I will pay you depending on you performances.”

Zephyr picks up the hammer and starts hitting the piece of hot iron. With every hit, the iron chunks starts showing more and more like a blade.

After he finishes the blade, he mounts the handle and shows the sword to the blacksmith. The amazement could be seen in his eyes. He doesn't expected that Zephyr will make a relatively good sword.

“It's a pretty good sword. It's not for a knight or a soldier but a mercenary or a citizen will be happy with it. You have some skills but you will still need polish them.”

Zephyr noted with his head and got back to work..

It's almost night and Zephyr is on his way back to the inn. The blacksmith

congratulated his work and gave him fifty darns for this day.

‘Maybe the things would really work here. Now that I have my payment I should go and buy some new clothes. I can't start a new life with only one pair of clothes.’ He smiles and enters in the clothes shop.

‘I approached the beautiful lady that sells clothes and I asked her if she have something of my size. She took me to a room and showed some clothes. I decided to buy a few pairs of pants, a few t-shirts and a suit because you never know when you will need one.’

After he bought the clothes he headed home. On the way back, he had a bad feeling, something was wrong. In the darkness of the night three people are following a child.

***

35th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Cadun

Captain Stephyn Moore is walking on a corridor and stops in front of a door. He knock at the door and waits for an answer.

"Come in"

Stephyn hears the words and opens the door. Ahead of him is the duke Geoffry Bexley Pheley, the most trustworthy noble in the service of the king. He is sitting at his office surrounded by tons of papers. With enthusiasm in his voice, he asks the captain.

“So, Stephyn, do you caught the leader?”

Stephyn hesitated for one second, then he replied

“No sir, we failed to catch him.” The enthusiastic state of the noble it changed in an instant. On his face anyone could read the anger.

Geoffry calmed down and spoke: “Did he managed to run away?”

“No sir, when we got to the fortress all the bandits were already dead and the leader was just a few chunks of meat.”

Geoffry's state changed again, but this time in amazement.

‘Could it be that the Phomes Fordaye find out what I intended and silenced the bandits before I can get my hands on them?’

Phomes Fordaye is the most powerful noble in the kingdom, and he always works against the king. Because of his political power and influence over the little nobles, the king can't do anything about him. Geofrry knew that Fordaye was working with those bandits and because of that he hunted them for many years. It was the best way to take down Fordaye, and now is gone.

“Captain, is possible that the duke Fordaye is the one who sent those bandits to death?”

“I don't think that he is involved in this, sir!”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because when we prepared to assault the fortress, we came face to face with the killer.”

The duke's eyes widened.

“So, how does he looks like, and why didn't you restrained him?”

“He was a child of at most ten years with red eyes and red hair but he gave the impression of a demon. I decided not to restrain him because I knew that a fight with him was certain death for all of our man. It would be a loss on our side, beside that, we couldn't be able to report the events back.”

Geoffry tries to understand how much power that child have. He become even more worried than before.

‘Not only that we lost the chance to bring that shit down, but now we have a very dangerous person on our heads.’

"At least we know that the child doesn't work with Fordaye"

“Excuse my impertinence sir, but how we know that?”

“Because, if that child would work with Fordaye, the king would already be dead.”

The captain tries to say something but the noble speaks before him.

“Use whatever resources are necessary and find that kid before anyone else.”

Stephyn left the room and Geoffry starts thinking: ‘It would be the best to call that man.’

***

36th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford

In the middle of the night one person is walking on the street. Behind him, trying to hide are three people, who are blindly follow the person. Zephyr decided to make a little detour before going back to the inn and the three man followed him.

He enters a clogged alley and wait. The three people follow him and enters the alley. Zephyr is standing in front of them and begins to speak:

“I was starting to think that you wouldn't show up.”

The thieves put a face of amazement.

“So, you knew that we were following you and you still didn't run away.”

“Pretty courageous from you, but still a big mistake.” Another thief says.

The three of them start walking towards the boy. As they get close, Zephyr sees that they are young thugs, with some rusty swords and cheap clothes. They probably saw that he is a single child and decided to rob and kill him. He lets a smile on his face and utters:

“[Sound-proof]”

A weak wind starts spreading around the area. Soundproof is a third tier spell that blocks any sound on a radius of ten metres from its user. The downside is that it's blocks any sound from outside the sphere created by the spell. The thieves didn't even observed that Zephyr used a spell, and they were still approaching.

He points a hand at one of the men and utters: “[Ignite flame]”

In the next moment, the man starts burning with black flames. He doesn't understand what's happening, all he knows it's that his body is burning. The pain is unbearable and he tries to put out the flames, but he fails and a few seconds later he is reduced to nothing.

The two remaining men are astounded, the just witnessed the terrible death of their friend. On of them take a step back and says:”M...Mage”

"He is a mage...”

The other man realises what is the child before them , and start attacking at him.

Zephyr dodges his attack puts his hand around the man's neck.

“[Enchanted body]”

With those words, his hand start crushing the adversary's neck with a inhumane force. The man falls on the ground and Zephyr starts walking towards the last thief. The thief knows what's going to happen. He just watches with fear the demon child which is approaching . He is not prepared to die.

The child stops and begin talking: “Do you want to be spared?”

“Yes, please speare me!” The man spoke without any delay.

“What's your name?”

“Gylan”

The boy looks at him again.

“You will work for me for a couple days and in return you will keep your life. After that, you will be free to do whatever you want.”

At the hearing of those words, Gylan mind went empty. He knows that working for the little boy will be like working for the devil, but if it's his only chance to survive...

"So, do we have a deal?"

"Yes"

***

36th day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Traford – Cathedral

In the Higher Bishop's chamber inside the cathedral two people are talking. The first is Ephes Payne, the Higher bishop of the church. He is an old man wearing a blue robe and carrying a wood cane with him. The other person is a priest in the service of the church. Payne has a angry face and who could blame him.

“What's so important that you have to wake me up this late in the night”

“I'm sorry higher bishop, but we have an emergency. Few minutes ago, the surveillance team sensed a powerful explosion of aether within the city."

"How big it was?" The bishop asks.

“If it was a single person, he would have to be a sixth tier mage to create such powerful spell. We think that more weaker mages channel their power together. There are not much mages that can use sixth tier spells, and priests at the sixth tier are even fewer. From what we know there are no such powerful mages in the nearby areas. So probably it was more people that created the burst of aether”

“Send some people to search the place and find out who those men are.”

“Understood”

‘Now, lets get back to sleep.’