Kinsey enjoyed the festivities in her name for a few hours before feigning fatigue, so that she could return to her room and look after some things that had been bothering her. Despite the important guest of the event leaving and the Grand Mage being nowhere in sight, the major and minor families kept drinking and talking well into the morning. By the time the party ended, all but the hardiest of drinkers had retired to their respective areas.

Time seemed to pass by irrevocably fast, as more and more minor families joined Willem's Private Sanctum, effectively cutting ties with the Bastion Of Hope. Those who had aligned themselves with the Grand Mage found life abundantly easier, whether it was work, food or pleasure. To anyone who struggled with any of the three, steps were taken by the community to make them useful in their own way.

Botanists, Hunters, Gatherers, Miners, there was no shortage of positions needing to be filled as they slowly and methodically planned and excavated the mines near the Bastion of Hope. Willem took every precaution to make sure the local wildlife stayed away from the mines in order to control population size within the forest.

Every day, for at least an hour, Willem would disappear without telling anyone where he was going. No one would dare question the Grand Mage on his movements, but the more curious folk were starting to notice his absence.

Willem was, quite naturally, scouting and tracking the progress of everything that he had put into play. Besides checking on Zira and her two adopted chimpanzees, he was constantly moving between observing The One True King and checking the advancement of the Magical Beings across the southern hemisphere. The only variable he could see negatively affecting his plan was the Stinging Blood Tortoise.

The One True King was perfectly distracted by the doll Willem had made in the image of the Queen. Implanting the Queen with the attitude the previous Queen had, without the memories to match had proven quite difficult, only due to the mind magic required to successfully implant that level of manipulation into a non-living entity being incredibly complicated.

However the results were undeniable, though Willem could not have predicted that The One True King would discard the real Queen as if she was the doll while he made love to a doll specifically made to placate him. The real Queen just happily sat and stared as The One True King satisfied himself with the fake doll Queen, day after day.

Willem also kept track of the marching army of Magical Beings that would at least take a few more months to reach the marked equator.

With a successful campaign, Willem could see a decisive victory within a year or two as a strong possibility.

With each passing day, the nerves of the soldiers continued to increase as they made their final preparations to march forward against Blood City. The fear of the previous campaign against the Red Dragon and how close they had come to dying still clinging to the back of their minds. Their only solace was the howls of laughter and affection from Zira and her two chimpanzees.

Many citizens felt there was a great change about to befall the Bastion Of Hope, whether it was good or bad remained to be seen.

One day before the planned march against Blood City, Willem left early in the morning to speak with the Stinging Blood Tortoise. His body crawled into the dark of a nearby lamp and quickly drifted through The Void as he tracked the movements of the Great Magical Beast.

The lands that the Stinging Blood Tortoise walked was impossible for any normal human to move through, as the area was covered in a dense poisonous fog that kept even Magical Beasts from entering.

Since Willem was not in the material world, the fog did not affect him.

As Willem got closer to the Stinging Blood Tortoise, a mental connection was formed with the Great Magical Beast.

"Reveal... Yourself!" The Stinging Blood Tortoise had noticed Willem despite him being within the Void. A blast of mind energy invaded Willem as if to engulf him in agony. After a few seconds had passed, the mind energy retracted swiftly.

"Great Stinging Blood Tortoise, I am Willem Saye, a Grand Mage of the Bastion Of Hope. I have come to offer you something in exchange for your assistance." Willem spoke with an even tone, not overly harsh or demanding.

"Hmph, what have you to give me..." For the first time in a thousand years, the Tortoise halted his movement. The ground quaked as the full weight of the Beast rested upon loose dirt.

"What is it you seek? If you ask it of me, I will do my best to obtain it. All I ask is that you ally yourself with me in this upcoming war between humans and Magical Beings." Willem had just now reached the head of the Stinging Blood Tortoise as he was still floating through the Void.

"Why should I care about a war I have nothing to do with? I have a near immortal life span, compared to the short existence of you small ones." The Tortoise spoke slowly, but each word was filled with ageless wisdom.

"If you do not care, why grant your protection to the Magical Beings inside you?" Willem retorted wittily.

"Hmph... I have made a pact with the Magical Beings. They will assist me in seeking revenge against my greatest foe." The knees of the Tortoise began to quiver slightly.

"Please, tell me your story, so that I may understand." Willem knew better than anyone that holding a grudge for that long, the only thing you can do is talk about it.

"Very well, child. This will take some time. My knees are weak, let me lie down." The Tortoise splayed his legs to the side and rested his head upon the ground, where the poisonous fog reached to his chin.

"Are you comfortable?" Willem waited patiently while the Tortoise laid down.

"Child, I have not been comfortable since this poisonous fog appeared a hundred years ago. I know not how it got here, nor why it harms me when nothing else can. That is not why you came, though." The Stinging Blood Tortoise heaved a massive sigh, and the resulting gust of wind knocked the dust and dirt around within a 30 feet cone in front of him. "Come, touch your hand upon my head, and see my life. See what I have suffered."

Willem prepared himself for the immense amount of pain that sharing memories with an almost immortal being would give him. No matter how long he waited, though, he was only gifted with warmth and a mysteriously beautiful connection.

"Relax, child. I could sense the touch of the Void on you. If not for that, I would have killed you without hesitation." The Stinging Blood Tortoise snorted once more, kicking up more dust in front of him.

"Such a mastery of mind magic, I have never seen this strength before..." Willem unabashedly admitted.

"You are still young, but I have existed since the world was still forming. Still, I do not possess the same level of power my allies of the same time do. Especially... The Gate Keeper." The Tortoise shuddered and the ground moved beneath him.

"The Gate Keeper?" Willem questioned. This was the first mention of such an existence.

"One thing at a time, Child." The Tortoise blinked slowly. "First, the memories you came here for."

Swirls of circular images began to fill Willem's view, just slightly out of reach.

"Please, go ahead and touch one." The Tortoise was no longer a Monstrously Large Magical Beast, and instead showed himself in a vaguely human form. Save for a large shell on his back, one would easily take him for an elderly human.

"As you wish." Willem reached out his hand and touched the memory that the Stinging Blood Tortoise had summoned.

"Ah, good choice, Child. My first and only love. The reason for my existence." The end of his sentence was twinged with regret.

The memory overtook Willem and the human formed Tortoise as the sky was dyed red and the fields shades of green. No longer west of the Bastion Of Hope, but in a new area that Willem did not know.

"Where have we gone?" Willem questioned.

"This is the birth of the world you were born into, Child. A mere thousand years after the Old Gods molded it for us who could not touch divinity directly. We were sent here to cultivate our strength and make another attempt at reaching ascension when we felt we were ready." The Stinging Blood Tortoise snapped his fingers and suddenly in front of Willem was an entire group of baby Tortoises, the Mother and Father watching over them proudly.

The baby tortoises snapped at each other playfully while the Mother looked on satisfied. However the face of the Mother was slightly distorted, like a blur.

"My poor little children..." The old man was hunched over, trying to touch the memory, only to have his hands slip through the mirage. The small Tortoises each went there own way. East, West, South, North, far from the vision of the memory. The Mother and Father Stinging Blood Tortoise cuddled against each other, tails entwined.

"What happened?" Willem squatted down and held the shoulder of the old man.

The old man spat on the ground and swiped his memory away, leaving only darkness. "The phoenix descended."

Within the Bastion Of Hope, the inner city.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Ashley was looking around warily to ensure they were not spotted.

Six cloaked figures quietly hid among the trash as they watched a man visit certain houses, talked to whomever answered, and then immediately left in the dead of night.

"According to my sources, this is definitely the guy working for the Grand Mage, Grandia." Eleanor renewed the stealth magic that she had learned at the Magic Academy.

"This seems wrong, Aren't Grand Mages supposed to be an unbeatable existence? What if this angers them?" Veeta spoke his apprehensions about what they were doing.

"Go home if you are scared, otherwise, keep quiet." Eleanor readied the spell to hide them while they moved forward.

Making slight finger movements, the spell warped and hid them in a one hundred eighty degree arc.

"Hurry, before we get spotted." Craig motioned for them all to move to the next hiding location.

As they moved forward, Red accidentally kicked a small container over. The resulting noise got the attention of the emissary.

"Idiot!" Eleanor made more gestures with her spell and wrapped the group in a shroud of camouflage. Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead.

The emissary excused himself from the people he was speaking with and made his way closer to the noise. Slowly and deliberately, he drew his sword before stepping into the dark alley.

"Show yourselves lest you be harmed. Do not blame me for being impolite." The emissary took a readied attack stance.

If the encounter had been thirty seconds less, Eleanor would have been able to successfully hold the camouflage magic. However her magic was exhausted, and the magic ended abruptly.

Six figures in cloaks appeared in front of the sword-drawn man.

"Speak your names and ranks." The emissary kept his sword at the ready.

"Eleanor Shard, Pre-Mage." Eleanor spoke first.

"Craig Wyvern, Laborer."

"Arin Gevild, Hunter."

"Ashley Trell, Pre-Mage."

Red Lavenge, Laborer."

Veeta Unskal, Seller."

Following Eleanor who did not lie about who she was, the rest of the group spoke truthfully.

"Pre-Mages, out of the Magic Academy? Interesting..." The emissary thumbed through the list given to him by the Grand Mage while having his sword still drawn. The magical tool that the Grand Mage gave to the emissary that notifies him of any deceit did not once go off.

On the page labelled Important Guests, all six names were listed with elegant penmanship.

"Forgive my impudence, you six are on the list of important guests to the Grand Mage of Darkness, Grandia." The emissary hastily retracted his sword and sheathed it, bowing slightly to the group. "Will you speak with me as an ambassador to the will of the Grand Mage?"

Eleanor quizzically stepped forward and nodded.