Chapter 12

98 day of Finore, year 853 A.C.

Cadun

The sound of a carriage resounded through the streets of the capital. The carriage destination was the royal palace, in the middle of the city, and three people were standing inside it. The first one was marquis Aving, the second one was his eldest son, Oswyn, and the third person was, of course, Zephyr.

They were heading to the royal palace to have a meeting with the king and celebrate the victory of the kingdom's army over the invaders. Zephyr was pretty surprised when the carriage came to pick him up this morning. He wasn't expecting that the meeting with the king would happen so fast. Only yesterday morning he went to the library to find out more about the Kingdom and the Magocracy.

What he find out is that the Magocracy is not a country ruled by a king and nobles, but is ruled by a chamber of twelve mages. Those mages are the most powerful in the country and they take all the decision within it.

What caught Zephyr's attention was that any citizen of the Magocracy that is a mage, priest or enchanter can challenge one of the council members. If the challenger wins the battle, he automatically takes the place of the defeated council member in the council chamber and hence, he becomes one of the twelve rulers of the country.

This was the reason why the council members are the most powerful mages in the Magocracy. Those challenges doesn't happens too often and when they happens, the council members are far more superior because they are in possesion of great magic items. In the last 50 years, none of the council members were defeated.

“Are you nervous because you will meet the king?” Aving asked Zephyr, breaking the silence in the carriage.

Zephyr rises his look to Aving and speaks.

“No, I was thinking of something.”

Aving nodded in approval.

“Have you met the king before?” Zephyr asked curiously

“Yes, in a few occasions. Even Oswyn here, met the king once.”

“He is a good and kind man. Maybe too kind.” Said Oswyn with a low voice.

“I will have to agree with you on that my son.”

“Does something happened?” Asked Zephyr seeing the bad mood of the two persons.

“Well, you are a trustworthy person, so I can reveal the truth to you.”

Zephyr make a sign to Aving to start talking.

“Right now, This kingdom isn't in good shape. The king holds only forty percent of the power and the nobles hold thirty percent. Even if the king holds more power, he keeps losing it” Aving made a pause, then he continued.

“We think that in five years, the nobles will hold forty five percent. The problem is that the greed of the nobles will eat this country alive.”

Zephyr looked at the man before him and asked: “There isn't any way to diminish the power that the nobles hold?”

“Not without involving the kingdom in a civil war. If that happens, while we are occupied fighting among us, our enemies will take the opportunity and invade us.”

Said Aving with a trace of sadness and anger in his tone.

For the next thirty minutes, everyone in the carriage sat silent. The carriage stopped and the a buttler opened the door. Outside, Zephyr could see the entire yard of the palace. It was a huge garden with different flower, statues and other decorations. The palace was an immense building in the center of the garden. He was build from white marble and in some parts you could see weak traces of obsidian.The door was made from two layers of wood. One layer was green wood and the other layer was white wood.

The white wood and the green wood are a very special type of wood that could be found only in the red forest. The white wood has a good resistance against magical attacks while the green wood has a very storng rezistance against phisical attacks

They walked through the palace for a half an hour before reaching the door that opened the throne room. The butler pushed the door revealing the people inside.

At the end of the room was a middle aged man sitting on the throne. At his left was a beautiful blonde woman with blue eyes and pale skin, and at his left was a young man, probably in his early twenties, His hair was blonde and his eyes were green. He was the second son of the king, Riffin Philippe Wims. The blonde woman was the queen, Riffin Agnata Sistina and the man in the middle was the king himself, Riffin Lifinch Ralphye.

Few metres from them, on the sides, were captain William Wylcey and Bertin Halle, the royal guard captain. There rest of the people in the room were, on the left side of the red carpet that stretched from the throne to the door, Duke Geoffry Bexley Phelrey and Stephye Moore, which became captain of the first legion under Geoffry leadership after some unknown event, Duke Phomes Fordaye and Duke Gauward Wyarde.

On the left side were Ephes Payne, the cardinal of the church and two other persons. One was a man called Zoirik Prulim. He was the new head of the mage association, after the death of Margaret Lyne in the battle. The other person was a woman named Mirinda Filam. She was appointed leader of the mercenary guild since Raffin Reeve suffered the same fate as Margaret Lyne.

“Greetings my friends. It's a pleasure to see you.” Said the king.

The three persons got closer to the king, bowed before him said in unison:”Greetings, your Majesty!”

“It's been some time, Aving” said the king with a smile on his face.

“Indeed Majesty.”

“Is your family good? I see that your son got quite big since the last time I saw him.”

“They are happy and healty, Sire.”

The tension could be read in Aving's words. Even if in private he could speak with the king as with a good friend, in public with so many high ranked people, he couldn't do such rude thing.

The king turns his look to the you boy that was in front of him.

“You must be Zephyr. I heard a lot of good think about you.”

“Everyone, please let me introduce you to Zephyr, the person that had a big contribution in the winning of the war.”

The room started to get noisy. Almost every present person was curious about who is the kid and what he did to change the fate of the war.

“On the battlefield, he used a spell that annihilated six fifth tier mages, but unfortunately with the cost of 100 of our priests.”

As the words left his mouth, the room exploded.- How could this be? He really beat six powerful mages ? What is that spell? Could we have it?- Those were the words that filled the room and that everyone was asking them. The only one that was lost in his thoughts was Payne.

‘How could this be? This must be a lie. How could a kid like this know about a spell so powerful and I never heard of it. Who is he?’ Those were the thoughts that invaded Payne's mind.

‘But this should be the truth.’ He said to himself.

‘This would explain what happened to the priests and why we won the war.’

Without any further delay, he stepped forward and spoke: “Could you teach us the spell you used? That would be the undeniable proof that this event is truth.” Before he could say anything else, Zephyr spoke.

“Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the spell or teach anyone. I made a oath that I will never reveal the spell.” Of course that there wasn't such a oath, but Zephyr couldn't say that.

“Enough with that Payne.” Said the king with a annoyed tone.

“This man helped us more than you think. I will not question his facts and I will not ask him to violate his oath.”

Hearing the angered king, Payne stepped back in his place.

“Of course. I apologize for my behaviour.”

Ralphye nodded in agreement and switched his attention to Zephyr.

“I wish to reward your loyalty and contribution. Say, what do you wish?”

“A reward of 100.000 thousand cooper was already been delivered by the Marquis Aving here.” Said Zephyr.

“Indeed, but that was Aving's token of appreciation, please, do me the pleasure and ask for a proper reward.”

Zephyr started to think. What he could ask for? he already had money, so he could buy most of the things.

A few seconds later, a smile is dawning on his face. ‘That should do.’ He tought.

“As you know Majesty, I follow the path of magic. I'm already a third tier mage, so the academies in the kingdom can't polish me enough.”

His words surprised the people in the room. A third tier mage at his age was unheard. Usually people reveal their truth potential around the age of twenty.

“I would like to enrol in the Magocracy Ather Academy.”

“Well, this is something that can be arranged. But you know that on the period that you will attend the academy, you will become a citizen of the Magocracy?”

The Magocracy Ather Academy was the best academy on the continent. Only the most richest and talented ones could attend to it.

“Yes, I'm aware of that!” Said Zephyr while a deceptive smile appeared on his face.