During the rescue of the children.

Willem looked around and quickly found a black iron safe in the family leaders room. With an idea, he took the head of the family leader into his hands and focused intently on the brain of the leader. He pictured himself pulling out the memories of the leader, and soon was flooded with visions of the Golden Dragon family leaders life. He lived a life of poverty, scavenging for food in a wasteland of death. One day, a mysterious man passed through with a handful of people, heading North through the wasteland.

The boy followed him, hoping to pick up scraps from his food. Soon young and old joined them and after a while they were a force of a ten thousand strong. They quickly charged in and assaulted the Magical Beings living in the mountains. He watched intently as walls were made and business formed.

Houses were built and families formed around him. He found a wife and settled down, made a business as an Inn and became a prominent member of the upper class.

Sifting through his memories, Willem found the location of the key to open the black iron safe under the table. He opened the safe and quickly looted everything, taking the gold bars and papers into a backpack. In a small sack he separated fifty gold coins and once he was satisfied he had not forgotten anything, he left.

Downstairs at the main entrance.

The sack shook gently as Arin once again peered into it. One should know that fifty pieces of gold was equivalent to a years worth of food for a small family. After confirming how much was in the sack, Arin reluctantly handed it back to the robed man before bowing deeply. How could he dare take money from the benefactor that had saved his life. The other children including the two not part of the group bowed deeply as well.

Again, Willem thrust the coins into Arins hands, and as he did he turned and walked away.

Before they could even ask the name of their savior, he had already left the building and walked through a back alley, his young attendant following close by.

Dumbfounded, the children hurriedly ran from the Inn. They took one last side long glance toward the back alley where the mysterious person had disappeared and then returned to their respective families. Once they had all been confirmed alive and well, they gave the accounts of what had happened and the Golden Dragon Inn was investigated.

The official report said that the member of the Golden Dragon family had fled, to hide the awful truth. When the guards arrived at the Inn, they saw the walls dripping with blood. When they went up to the second floor, they saw that all the members of the Golden Dragon had their stomachs pierced. The only two whom were different were the elder guardsman and the leader, whos heads had rolled a bit of a distance from their corpses. They also clearly noticed that the black iron safe had been raided and there was nothing left.

The subsequent clean up and demolition of the Inn took part roughly two months after the events unfolded. Without bothering to inspect the property, a rich noble bought the deeds of the land and ordered for the complete destruction of the Inn. He had been eyeing this particular piece of land for a while and now that it was available, he had big plans.

Once the children returned to their families, Craig excitedly told them that he received a letter from Willem.

- To my dear friends,

I was scared that something awful had happened to you, and did everything I could to find you.

I searched for many hours but found no hope, except for a young Mage willing to offer his services.

In exchange for me being indebted to him, he said he would find and save you all.

Of course I immediately agreed, and he kept his end of the deal.

Now it is my turn to uphold my end of the bargain.

I will not be able to play with you guys any longer. Stay safe until we can finally meet again in the future.

Willem Saye -

The children now understood why the mysterious robed figure had come and saved them. Solemnly they all thanked Willem in their hearts and strived to become stronger so that they could show him how far they had come when next they meet.

Willem used the gold bars and deeds of land in order to by back the Saye family household before it got bought by another citizen. With the remaining money he hired housekeepers for a year to watch over the place while he would be unable to live in it.

That night, Willem and Kinsey slept under the same roof for the first time, though they were in separate rooms. Earlier in the day, Willem used a special runic symbol given to him by the Grand Mage to contact him with. While in contact, he arranged the caravan to leave towards the Magic Academy in a few days and ensured that Kinsey would be able to go with him as an attendant.

The old Mage explained that Kinsey would have to be branded with a mark on the back of her left hand to show proof that she is an attendant of a Mage, and sent over the glyphs and chant for Willem to use.

Willem gave an in depth explanation to Kinsey, even after she said yes to being branded. Willem felt it was only proper to explain that the branding was important but was also going to hurt her, and this would be the only time he would willingly cause her pain.

Kinsey had left behind the notion that she had traded a tyrant Father for a tyrant Master when she saw how gently he treated his normal human friends. No Mage with that amount of concern for the well being of normal humans could be considered an evil person in her eyes.

In fact, to her, Willem had saved her from the boring life she was trapped in. She already understood during the last encounter with her Father that he only treated her as a pawn in his own schemes. What was a little pain in order to see a brand new world?

When she was ready, Willem began to chant rhythmically while cutting at her flesh with a small iron dagger. The dagger had been sharpened to a keen blade that did not pull at her skin as it sliced. Fresh blood dripped down her hand as she quivered slightly in pain, biting her lower lip in order to endure.

When the process was almost completed, Willem jabbed his own hand to finish the seal, just as the Grand Mage said to do. Willem's blood flowed freely from his palm and dripped, congealing on top of the runic symbols carved into Kinsey's hand before combining with her own flesh and disappearing.

Even though she knew what she was getting into, Kinsey was not properly prepared for the constant pain of the glyph that was seared into her hand. For a woman who had gone through many "cycles" Kinsey was not unaccustomed to sudden severe pains.

When the next day broke, the pain finally subsided and the pact had been successful. To celebrate, Willem went to the market himself early in the morning and prepared Kinsey a breakfast feast.

When Kinsey was done eating, Willem dragged her along to see all the things in the inner city of the Bastion of Hope. For Kinsey, who was not allowed out of the Golden Dragon Inn, she was already experiencing wonders she had never seen before.

For Willem, he had already seen all of the things that the inner city had to offer, but now he saw them with a completely different set of eyes. The light shined brighter, the music sounded louder and the taste spread across Willem's tongue like wildfire, igniting all his senses and fusing them together.

The stimulus Willem felt was incredibly strong and incomparable to anything he had felt before.

Two days quickly passed by in the blink of an eye, and the time finally came where he and Kinsey had to leave for the Magic Academy.

When it was finally time to leave, Willem and Kinsey bid farewell to both the Saye family home and the housekeepers who would ensure that nothing would happen to it.

Willem and Kinsey walked toward the Northeast exit of the Bastion of Hope, where caravans had been prepared to head toward the mountains of the Magic Academy. Willem quickly showed the papyrus that had the insignia's of the Grand Mages to the attendant.

Once he had confirmed the runic symbols, the attendant bowed deeply to Willem. Kinsey revealed the back of her hand where a magic symbol had been seared into her flesh, a clear mark of a Mage's attendant. They both were allowed to pass and sat inside the caravan waiting to depart.

Soon the caravan filled up with fresh faced children, mostly female. Willem remembered that he had read fifty percent of women were likely to be potent magic casters while only twenty percent of men showed the same abilities. All the women in the caravan looked at Willem curiously before shyly looking down at their feet.

The caravan, once full began to slowly head up the hill toward the magic academy.

On the bumpy winding road leading to the Magic Academy, the boys and girls began to gossip about anything and everything.

Only Kinsey and Willem remained vigilant and composed.

"Only two boys in the caravan, hmm?" After four hours of driving, the caravan driver peered back into carriage for a moment while his horses rested.

Since the journey would take roughly two days by horse, they needed constant breaks in order to maintain the pace required to go up a mountain side.

"That is right, Sir! Can you tell us what the Magic Academy is like?" The other boy beside Willem piped up as he looked around nervously.

The carriage driver drank some alcoholic swill from his gourd and looked Kinsey up and down before grinning like a fool.

"Of course! However information does not come cheap, and in the Magic Academy, knowledge is everything." The carriage driver purposefully attempted to sit in between Willem and Kinsey.

Before he even understood what had happened, he was flat on his back and his gourd was completely smashed.

[Was I so drunk that I fell over?] The driver could not help but think as he attempted to sit up from his prone position.

"Uuurgh..."

Willem watched with a slight grin as the driver could not even gather enough strength to lift himself up. Even the other students felt bad for the drunk and attempted to lift him up. However since he could not gather any strength, he would just fall down over again and again.

"Master, did you do something to the drunk?" Kinsey whispered to Willem while gently holding his shirt sleeve.

"You are my attendant, Kinsey Dragon. For as long as I live, if someone wants to harm you, I will see to them. You just focus on keeping me happy." Willem whispered in reply.

Kinsey's face turned a deep shade of red as she watched the driver flail around uselessly.

After ten minutes of wrestling with himself and being helped up by the students, the drunk finally fell over for the last time and stopped fighting it.

"I think the stars are nice tonight." Were the last words spoken by the carriage driver before he blacked out.

The boy in the carriage tilted the driver's head to the left.

"In case he vomits, that way he does not choke." The boy said triumphantly, having been useful.

The girls of the carriage however paid the young boy no attention, as they all had their eyes dead set on Willem.

Willem had noticed that ever since he had circulated his magical energy throughout his body, more men and women seemed to not be able to keep their eyes off him.

Even when Willem and Kinsey walked through the market, many men and women focused on them instead of where they were going and caused many accidents, like knocking over fruit carts or bumping into each other.

Willem only had a vague idea that magic was somehow to blame for his sudden popularity.