***** The Prince’s POV 6:45 AM *****

“Well, that was just as painful as I expect it to be, even if he did cave faster than I expected,” I said as Broohn and I left the former Lord Ubaro’s workroom. Sadly, he’d read too much of The Prophesy to give completely coherent answers. What coherence there was told me which role he played in it, and that alone was enough for me to sentence him to death.

I was just glad that I had Broohn with me as he was far better at disabling dead-man triggers than I’ll ever be, and Ubaro had had far too many of those on his person for my comfort.

“Could have been worse. He could have had some way of killing himself before we could stop him or disable any of the dead-man switches,” Broohn replied.

“True. It’ll be a while before we’re able to sift through all of the reports from that hidden safe though. At least now we know how to rescue the rest of the people in this castle. What kind of lunatic has his servants and guards hide themselves under the basement using unsupervised mind-control on a hair trigger?”

“A paranoid one apparently. Somehow I get the feeling that there will be other things he didn’t want found down there with them waiting to be destroyed if he died.”

“Undoubtedly. I hope we can get them out of there before it’s too late.”

“God help us all.”

***** Elsewhere, in the shadows *****

“Master, Lord Ubaro is dead,” reported the man standing at attention. “The Prince and that dragon are in control of his castle.”

“And we’re not dead? Good. That means the dragon is indeed as skilled as I’d hoped.”

“Your orders sir?”

“Initiate Phase 2 of the suppression plan and keep me appraised of Royal movements.” Finally, after all these decades of hiding in the shadows, watching as The Kingdom rots from within, we are free to act. I had lost all hope that this day would ever come.

“Phase 2 Sir? What about Phase 1?”

“Most of the things that were designated for Phase 1 were directly controlled by Lord Ubaro. If those two have his castle, they’ll doubtlessly find all of those pieces of the puzzle before the day is out and deal with them far more quickly and effectively than we ever could. As for the one group on that list Ubaro didn’t control…

“Do not worry about them, there is another interested party that will gladly take care of them for us.”

“Sir, Yes Sir!”

***** The Queen’s Private Office, twenty minutes later, Guildmaster’s POV *****

“You called for me Your Majesty?” I asked as I came in and closed the door.

“Yes, I did,” replied The Queen as she spread several wanted posters across her desk. “I have it on good authority that these… people will be at that old abandoned castle in central Pastu in roughly one hour.”

“Wait, aren’t those the people that killed your husband and stole your son?”

“Yes,” replied The Queen, furiously writing on a Piece of Royal Edict paper, shortly followed by the thump of the Royal Seal being applied. “I have a message for you to deliver to them. Personally.”

“Oh? What message would you have me deliver?”

Why would she want me to deliver a message to them? I could see her setting a bounty on their heads, but this…

“It’s a simple message, only one word: your Name.”

“Oh. That is one message I will gladly deliver, Your Majesty. The only problem is it’ll take me more than an hour to get there from here.”

“Will you need to get any supplies or anything?”

“No, I’m ready now.”

“Good,” she replied, waving her hand at a blank section of wall where a portal appeared. “This will drop you at the top of one of their firewatch towers about twenty miles east of the castle. Report back to me when you’re done.”

“Message on the way!” I said as I stepped through the portal.

***** Broohn’s POV *****

When we finally got to the prisoners under the castle basement, we found far more than just the prisoners. I don’t know how he did it, but there was an entire secret bay under the castle and it was chock full of pirate ships and golems.

The golems weren’t much of a problem. They were all stored out in the open in neat rows with no guards, so I took advantage of the high ceiling, covered the area with a strong muffling spell, then carefully pulled all of their power cores.

With that out of the way, The Prince started sneaking around the edges of the room quietly taking out the sentries, while I carefully ported the power sources out of all the ships’ enchantments. Can’t have any of the pirates teleporting away in their ships! That’s just rude!

Besides, I want to collect the bounties on all of these pirates. I may not be bound by greed as some dragons are, but there’s no way that I’m passing up an easy source of income like that!

{“Sentries are down, go ahead and hit them with the sleep spell,”} said The Prince via his smart wrist bag. I would have hit the sentries as well, except they were all in positions that were well shielded against most kinds of magic. However, they didn’t stop someone from just sneaking in and punching out the sentry. Sure, we could have taken them down last, but where’s the fun in that?

{“They should all be asleep in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Alright, let’s go see what we’ve got.”}

The answer turned out to be quite a lot actually. In addition to the pirates and the castle inhabitants we’d been expecting, there were several hundred slaves of assorted races.

But that wasn’t the biggest prize. No, that would be the giant communication crystals that occupied one corner of the cavern.

“Well, I think we’ve found who was messing with your communication system,” I said when we finally met up again.

“Yup. I’m just glad that Ubaro’s guards were willing to swear fealty to my mother without any qualms. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to handle this myself now that you have to run off.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Bud needs my help to get Amandine and her people acclimated to their new forms.”

“I understand. Take good care of them.”

“Don’t worry, we will.

***** In the shadows *****

“Sir, The Queen just sent Guildmaster Marybothane to deliver her name to a castle in the middle of nowhere in Pastu. The same castle where that one group you told me to forget about is currently located.”

“Oh? Well that was fast. I knew she’d move quickly, but it didn’t occur to me that she’d send her. Strike them from the records and reallocate all resources elsewhere. No point in having all of our scrying gear watching a newly reabandoned castle.”

“But Sir, she didn’t bother to remove the bugs from her office before she gave the orders. They’ll know she’s coming and clear out before she gets there! For that matter, why didn’t she remove the bugs first?”

“No, they won’t. You forget that The Queen can open portals on occasion. Between the portal and the Guildmaster’s ridiculous speed, there will be no chance of a warning. As for the bugs, she wasn’t actually trying to keep this particular meeting a secret. She wants the world to know what happened to those men without shouting it from the rooftops.”

“But what about the message? Why would The Queen send one of her most powerful supporters to deliver such a simple message? What’s so special about the name Marybothane anyway?”

“Foolish boy. What makes you think that she’s delivering her birth name? That’s just silly! Do you remember the Name that she earned as an adventurer before she took over the guild?”

“No, Sir!”

“It was before your time wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir! Decades before my time Sir!”

“Pity. It seems many have forgotten about her Name and why that specific castle was abandoned. It’s fire season on the plains of Pastu, and the Guildmaster will be right at home.”

“Sir, please stop dancing around the subject and just tell me what her Name is!”

“Spoilsport!”

“Annoying old geezer!... Sir!”

“That I am! Anyway, the Guildmaster is the reason that castle was abandoned in the first place the day she earned her Name. However, I think I’ll let you find out for yourself. It’s more fun that way.”

“But Sir-!”

“No buts! Now go!”

“Yes sir,” he sighed.

***** Guildmaster’s POV *****

I stepped out of the portal onto the platform at the top of one of Pastu’s famous firewatch towers, an impressive needle of imported stone towering more than twenty meters above the plains. At the start of the summer, the views are incredible, as the wind sweeps through the knee-high grass in waves, stretching for miles in every direction.

Since summer ended a month and a half ago, the views are still incredible, but now they’re a uniform golden brown instead of a vibrant green and prone to catching fire at the slightest provocation.

Once the fire started, it wouldn’t stop until all of the plains were burned to ash. Which is why the firewatch towers were built, so that all of the plains knew as soon as a fire started.

“Gah! Where did you come from!?” yelled a young man behind me.

“Guildmaster! Welcome home grandaughter! May I say that it is good to see you again my dear?” said the old man standing to his left.

“Not this time gramps. Not this time.”

“Why not!?” he demanded as I closed my eyes and carefully loosened the chains I’d placed on my power.

“I’m not here as your granddaughter, old man. I’m not even here as Guildmaster. No, I’m here as a messenger for The Queen.”

“What’s the message?”

“My Name,” I replied, opening my eyes.

His eyes widened as the orange glow of my own eyes lit the inside of the tower.

With my warning delivered, I raced down the ladder as he dove for the signal flare controls.

Not that the warning would do the people in the castle any good. They would think that it was just another wildfire sweeping the land, and for most that’s exactly what it would be. They’re dangerous to be sure, but everyone who lives on or near the plains knows how to protect themselves from a wildfire.

Unfortunately for the fools in the castle however, the name I earned wasn’t Wildfire.

No, my Name might be born of a wildfire, but it’s far less common.

When the warning flare went off behind me with a roar that could be heard for miles, I was closing the door at the bottom. With the door closed, I took off towards the castle and began counting.

When my count hit one hundred and twenty, I let my power soar to the heavens.

For the second time in my life, this castle would burn and the world would be reminded why I had earned the Name Firestorm.