Following after Trevor and Charlotte, I stare at the glass cases which have caught my attention. Inside each of them are people, or at least what looks like people, all of them possessing at least one feature which distinguishes them from normal people. One, a man, has three pairs of eyes instead of one. Another, a woman this time, has horns coming out from her temples and below from her jaws. On and on, each one of the people in the glass cases have something abnormal about them.

“What are those?” I ask about the glass cases. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious why those things are here. “Are they real?”

“They are real people.” Trevor answers, I don’t fully believe. People don’t look like that. Unless…

“Are they mutated?”

“No,” Charlotte says, “They are vessels.”

“Vessels? For what?”

“In the old days before you Laen took over, there were gods - very powerful Fasurus. For some reason they didn’t like using their powers on their own. They preferred to possess people anytime they wanted to use magic, those people are the same ones you’re seeing in the cases. They look like that because the gods, for some sick reason, liked to modify their appearances, but each one of them is crazy powerful.”

“Then why are they in cases? If they are people, still alive, and crazy powerful why are they in those cases?”

“Well,” says Trevor, “after you guys took out their gods, they became like that. Immobilized… unconscious or something. So someone got the bright idea to display them. To be honest, I do not want to be here if they ever wake up.”

I begin to move closer to one of the cases, and after a short pause they follow me. “Wait, so they can still wake up?”

“Yeah. They’re vessels remember. If the gods that used to possess them ever come back, then they’ll probably awaken.”

The one I am staring at is a woman. She isn’t wearing any clothes and her body is curled up in a fetal position with her eyes closed, she looks as though she is sleeping. Besides her green skin - which reminds me of leaves - and her massive size - I am confident she is over ten feet tall - there is nothing else strange about her.

She is floating in the case, her dirt-brown hair flaring up around her as though she were in water. Even though she is doing nothing, something about her strikes awe into my heart. “How long have they been here?”

“Over two hundred years.” Trevor takes a step closer to the case.

“And they are still alive. So, the ‘gods’ know the secret to immortality.”

“Probably,” Charlotte says. “Want to know a fun fact, I heard most of them here moved two years ago, after like centuries of staying still.”

Two years ago? I had heard of a war the Laen took part in which happened a few years ago. So, the last time these vessels moved should have been toward the ending of that war. Was there any correlation or was it just a coincidence?

After our little break, Charlotte and Trevor hurried me. At the end of the hallway is a door leading to a large room. There is a small crowd within this room, most of them gathered around a large green board which covered the wall to the right. Excited Charlotte and Trevor go to the wall and begin perusing the many small notes posted on it.

I move closer to the board. Each note has a similar layout. It first starts with a string of numbers and letter as a header, following that is a description of a task, a difficulty, and finally a reward.

Most of what I see however has to do with Fasurus. Either they are asking someone to defeat a Fasuru, or to capture one - why anyone would want to capture a Fasuru is beyond me. However, in between all of these are some weird ones. Like a very high difficulty task which has a simple description: ‘Kill the following five Iolis,’ before going on to list some names. The reward is tempting though, thirty thousand plus an artifact and a sigil. It seems those Iolis have offended someone very rich. There is a disgusting one though, where the description asks for the saliva of a virgin. That one causes me to pause, why would anyone want that? And the reward isn’t cheap either. In the end I force my eyes away from that one, afraid of what it would mean if I was able to understand why someone would want that.

Charlotte and Trevor quickly find tasks and pull the respective notes off the wall. They then motion to me, and we live the room. On our way back one of the many doors in the hallway opens and a group of adults come out. Each one of them carries themself as though they are important, and I can see prideful looks in the eyes of more than a few. Though their dressing is different, each one is wearing the same black glove on their left and on their foreheads is what looks like a noer. But unlike the Laen mark, theirs is visible even without second sight.

An elbow to my abdomen causes me to turn. “Stop staring,” Charlotte hisses.

I am about to ask why when an invisible pressure begins to weigh on me, almost forcing me to the ground. I instinctively fight back, barely managing to remain standing. A small humph allows me to pinpoint my assailant, a middle-aged man who looks as though he hadn’t combed his hair this morning.

“Leave him alone, Peter. Bullying those weaker than you doesn’t exactly do good to your reputation,” a familiar voice says.

A moment later the pressure disappears. “Next time,” Peter says, “don’t stare. It’s rude.” Then he walks past me. I turn and behind him I spot the owner of the familiar voice. Tahku. He winks at me before also walking away.

Once they are all gone, I turn to Charlotte. “Who are those?”

Trevor butts in. “Dude, you need to be more careful. Those are the upper members of the Ascendant Union. They are used to being respected wherever they go so they don’t take it kindly when you do things like stare.”

“You couldn’t have expected him to know that,” Charlotte defends me.

“Even if he doesn’t know, to stare at people so blatantly without knowing how they’ll take it is dumb. Especially when you’re dealing with magicians.”

“Whatever,” I say letting out the breath I had been holding in. “Let’s leave.”