As the Honean fleet approached the keep of Lorithstad, a yellow ball of light was launched high into the sky from the commanding ship. Its color signalled for the rest of the fleet to halt as the ship went to complete its business alone.

Giris pulled the tracker from beneath his robes. The orb within the glass ball pointed straight down towards the forest below. He scratched his head, he would only be able to do one of the two things that he had previously planned. Looking out towards the keep, he remembered the deal he had made with the cultist in Holy Light. "That must be it!” He thought excitedly. "The only reason for the cultists to stop at a place such as this would be because it relates to the key." He thought about what his subordinates would think of his plan. While the shipmaster had no reason to not follow his orders, the captain who stood next to him would likely be quick to object. The man had easily grown furious after hearing of his inability to capture the Dukeslayer and had spent many days complaining of the Brighthawk’s incompetence in the whole affair. It gave him a headache, one that had unfortunately lasted from the departure to where he was now. Negotiating with that man would be dangerous. If the captain thought that his actions were treacherous, he would rally those loyal to him and force Giris to carry out his designated objective. Even so, he could care less what the captain thought. He would not waste this rare opportunity because of a whining man in his way.

Giris confidently approached the shipmaster. “No change of course, we’re landing next to that castle."

"Yes sir." The man said briskly as he began to lower the ship’s acceleration.

Yeon looked at him with a raised brow before fully realizing what the High Mage had just ordered. He quickly approached the man, getting close enough to his face that they were nearly touching. "What are you trying to do High Mage!" He said with a poor attempt at containing his anger.

Giris backed away a step, unfazed by the captain’s blatant hostility, "There is something in that castle that I would very much like to see captain. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say but please realize that yelling will not help in your case."

Yeon began to approach him again. "Do you not realize that you are disregarding the orders of his excellency? We have the Dukeslayer cornered, why must we take a detour at such a critical moment?" The captain had once again closed the gap with the mage. Giris did not dare to move now, instead meeting the captain’s eyes with a glare.

"I believe that the Arch Duke will see this as much more beneficial. Finding the key serves no purpose if it has already been used."

Yeon backed off. His anger had slightly subsided but was far from fading. "What do you mean it's been used?" He said with less aggression.

"Why else would he decide to stop here if he knows that he is being chased?”

The captain nodded as he returned to looking out into the horizon. "Fine, but if you lie you lose all the respect that I’ve had for you."

"Huh, I didn’t even realize that you had any." Yeon harrumphed as Giris also returned to where he was standing. A white blip in the distance had gotten his attention. "Can we get a spyglass on that shipmaster?" Giris said pointing towards it. The shipmaster nodded and quickly pulled the spyglass to one eye.

"Colorless ship sir! Heavily armed, I think it may be a cruiser. They're wearing white uniforms. Might be mercenaries."

It may have been a coincidence, but Giris felt his skin crawl. "I don't think those are mercenaries." He told the shipmaster. "They're Brighthawks."

"Brighthawks?" Yeon asked in confusion. "Why would Brighthawks be colorless in their own borders?

“An informant in Holy Light helped me identify them. I’m not exactly certain what they are, but they’re definitely Brighthawks."

"Even so, we saw a patrol ship over Lorithstad. Wouldn't it have been easier to send one of those over to the castle?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"They’re ordinary soldiers. Nobody will know what they would do when left unsupervised."

"Fine." The man said looking away. "But if they stop us from entering, you may not like what I’ll do.”

"Don't worry, I've got something in mind."

The ship made a calm landing at the bottom of the keep’s hill. As the crew began to lower the ramp, the white bannered ship lowered itself opposite of it. Yeon looked at Giris with a tense frown. The man’s lack of transparency made him nervous of what would happen during a confrontation with the Order. "What’s next High Mage?" he asked, urging them to move.

"See those men approaching us?" Giris said as he nodded toward a trio that was approaching the ship, A man in robes orbited by two men in plate armor had been dispatched as negotiators. "I’ll come up with a reason for them to leave us alone, then we can get into the keep.”

“I doubt these are the type of people that would look away for even a second.”

"I have taken that into consideration." They turned to the newcomers, descending the ramp to meet them.

"What brings you, Honeans?" The man in robes started with passive aggression. "This is personal business of the Brighthawks and we will have no issue reporting your fleet to our superiors."

Giris wished he could wink at Yeon but instead made himself as unreadable as possible. "My apologies, we are after a dangerous fugitive from our nation. The tracker spell I had used brought us here. He has since fled into the forest so we have decided to stop for a moment to check the condition of our ship before continuing.”

"And what threat does the man pose that leads you to believe you have the authority to enter our territory with your personal fleet?" The man's tone showed that he cared only for getting rid of them.

Giris had already expected them to be so welcoming and decided that he cared little for how the man felt. "Enough to enter and exit the palace of your ruler uninvited."

The man raised a brow. "I was informed of no such event."

"You weren’t? I would expect someone of your position to know of this. It happened just a few days ago. I was allowed entrance to warn your king of our fugitive before he managed to flee once again."

"Do you honestly wish me to believe what you are telling me? There is no way a mere criminal could enter the palace undiscovered!"

The man’s temper almost caused Giris to let out a chuckle. "One of his friends had disguised himself as a royal archeologist and had gained the ear of one of your princes. They then escaped with the speed of his own two legs. Did I mention that he is good at running away?"

“Was it an assassination that he was planning? If so, why is it that it is not one of our own fleets that is chasing him?”

"I believe the thing he was looking for was within this keep? if he wanted to kill your prince he would be dead already. That man is just as good as killing as he is at running." Out in the distance one of the soldiers came to them at a brisk walk, his heavy breaths were mixed with his calls for the mage. "Seems one of your friends wants to speak to you." Giris said, pointing towards them.

The three men all looked behind them at once as the soldier came to a halt. "The doors have been opened sir! The high mage wishes to see you now."

"Lead on then." The mage ordered before giving a final long glance towards Giris, one that acted as a warning.

Giris quietly watched them go before turning to Yeon. "Just as I planned. Now that we have confirmation that there is something in there, I believe it is in our best interest to have a look."

Yeon had yet to recover from his conversation with Brighthawks, his face was set in a deep frown. “I was thinking that this plan was foolish at one point. But now that I know how little manners those men have, it would slander my honor to not help. What’s your plan?”

"Come to my quarters for a moment, this is going to surprise you."

As soon as they had entered his quarters, Giris began to sift through one of his books. “Do you mind explaining this plan of yours?" Yeon asked, looking over the man’s shoulder. “Unlike you mages, we prefer to affirm our ideas.”

"Give me a moment to find the spell. Ah, here it is." He engraved a new spell into his magiglove and pointed it towards Yeon. As he squeezed the handle, Yeon flinched as a green light began to surround him.

"What’s this?" Yeon asked fearfully.

"Manipulating light to change the color of your uniform." He lowered his hand, "See for yourself."

Yeon looked down to find that the fabric of his uniform had been turned completely white. "Please tell me you can reverse it."

The mage chuckled. "Of course I can. The original color remains underneath that layer, all it takes is a little magic to remove it."

Yeon sighed as Giris worked on his own clothing. "Are you going to explain it? The plan?"

"We walk right in."

"We walk right in?"

"Yes, who's going to stop us if we are dressed exactly like them?"

Yeon looked at his uniform again. "I suppose so, but what if they recognize our faces?"

"Then we run away."

Yeon stared hard at him. "This is quite an underwhelming plan."

"Think you can come up with something better?"

"We could always ki-"

"Killing them will be less useful than leaving them alive. We still have much we can learn when they are living."

"Fine, let's just walk in then."

They passed the two guards at the front gate without catching much of their attention. They were busy inspecting a trio of bodies that laid on the dirt. They appeared to be dead at first, but they were still breathing. Unlike the others, they looked like what one would expect a soldier would instead of those in the white surcoats. Giris guessed that it was the Dukeslayer’s as he had also left the palace guard’s in the same state.

The grounds of the keep were being made into a temporary settlement. Deckhands and other laborers dressed in white worked on setting up tents and bringing supplies within the walls. The two men headed directly towards the keep, where they both guessed they would find what had brought such surprise to the soldier who had rushed to the ship before. All the while Giris' heart pounded quickly against his chest, he was not used to being in such tense situations.

The keep’s doors were left open and led into a much cleaner place then the mage was expecting. It was the obvious working area of a mage and the fact that the soldiers inside were messily scavenging through it made Giris feel sorry for the owner. One of the soldiers approached them as they noticed the two wandering in, "Whatever you're looking for is down through the metal door sirs, his eminence and the others are already below."

"Thank you." Giris said, looking away in hopes that the guard would leave him alone. The mentioning of the one called his eminence caught Giris' attention, it would make sense for such a group to have their own form of leadership but to have a leader with such a title was highly strange. It was another eerily similar detail that pointed towards the Order. They quickly descended the staircase until they arrived at a large opening in the earth. Within that opening was a crystal, an object that one of them instantly recognized. "So it is possible." Giris said, holding back visible excitement as he slowly walked forward.

"What is?" Asked Yeon who was even more surprised then he was.

"A crystal pylon. A solid object made from pure magic!"

"What? But that goes against the laws of the Four doesn't it?"

"Don't mention the Four here." Giris whispered hastily. "It is possible to do so whilst using multiple magics at once. The one who made it must have unbelievable magic aptitude.”

The circular room ahead was filled with many mages as well as others in white who had an equal thirst for knowledge. They scoured through every shelf and crevice, writing down their findings on parchment. "Good to see that they allow us to take notes." Giris commented as he reached for his own quill. The two men approached a bookshelf which already had another mage attending to it. Giris eyes were temporarily drawn toward the only mage in the room who was wearing golden Brighthawk robes. He guessed that she was the resident of the keep due to her audience. A man in a white, gold rimmed officer's coat was speaking to her. His cape nearly flowed to the ground and at his side was a longsword inside of a luxurious scabbard. If that man was not the superior that the guard upstairs was referring too then it would be the old mage who stood beside them. That man’s robe was made in the same style as the soldier. Giris decided to avoid looking at them again to prevent their suspicions and turned back to the shelf. He began to scan through the spines of the book for a title that caught his interest. There were a large amount of records and journals but nothing that he had enough time to look through.

"What do they say?" Yeon whispered from his side, unable to do anything due to his inability to read in Old Empirical.

"Nothing of interest." Giris answered, attempting to be too quiet for the mage beside him to hear.

As he continued to look through what the now dead writers of the empire had to offer, shouting arose from nearby. Giris immediately turned to the scene to find that the military man who he had assumed before to be the leader shouting at the woman in gold robes. "You just let them take it?" The man yelled, gaining Giris’ full attention. The woman responded, too meekly to hear. "And do you know where they went?" Giris wished to hear what the woman had to say but did not dare to move closer. While he could interpret what was being said by the leader’s answers, he still wished to know what the ultimate goal of the Dukeslayer and his friends was. The man was also too quiet to hear now as he began to tell the woman something that made her start searching through a nearby desk.

The woman found a document from one of the drawers and handed it to the man who quickly looked over it. He nodded before looking around the room. "Listen here all of you!" He said loudly enough to get everyone’s attention, some of them less excited than others. "Here in my hands is a list of where our ancestors hid geokeys." Giris' eyes widened, this meant that he had a chance to learn something useful. "But the High Mage of this place has informed me that those who were here before us may already be on their way towards them. I advise you all to rally our forces and act quickly. Get assistance from the Kingdom if you must, this could mean we are one step closer from returning this world to its rightful owner." Both Giris and Yeon looked at each other with raised brows. Whatever these people wanted, it was far from clear. "Write these places down, I do not wish to run the risk of ruining this document." Giris quickly raised his quil and notebook and began to quickly jot down every location that came out of the man’s mouth. "You are free to take the teleporter home if you wish. Our initial investigation here will be less lengthy than previously expected so don’t you dare dilly-dally. Remember that he awaits his rebirth!" Giris patted Yeon on the shoulder and gestured towards the exit. They had stayed long enough.

The two were completely silent as they headed for the castle's exit. The tents inside the walls were all set up now and the workers began to set up flooring. Outside the walls, other workers began to chop down trees for wood. "How about that." Giris said, "Does that make you wish we went for the Dukeslayer instead?"

“I must admit that I did not expect that man to be able to make good use of that key. I believe that returning to Hien should take priority now. The Archduke will most likely start mobilizing our forces once he hears of that list."

"Yes, if we’re not quick we may be beaten to all those geokeys."

"What that man said about a teleporter being in his ship. Was that true? How could you be able to power a teleporter from within a ship?"

"It should be impossible. But, from what I've seen today I think they may know a few things that go against the Four."

"Have a better idea of who they are?"

"I still haven’t come to a conclusion yet.” He lied. “From what we’ve seen today, I can guess that they wield more power than the whole Brighthawk Magikaynium."

Yeon looked at him and cursed. "This is one of those moments where I'd think it would be a good idea to shed some blood."

Giris looked at him sideways. “When do you think otherwise.”