We arrived at the end of the corridor. The door was large and metal, with similar pieces of shrapnel wedged into it, like in the dungeon, but here it actually looked decent. Not just randomly spread through the whole thing, those actually were placed on purpose, in some sort of pattern. It didn’t seem like it had any other magical properties though, most likely it was just done for the decoration.

Without hesitation, the king placed his hand on the door, and, like with any other, the crystal pieces lit up for a moment before the door opened and we saw the inside of the room.

I expected many things. A cell, another dungeon, or at best just some regular room. I did not think that I would be entering some kind of royal chamber.

The room was about as large as the whole last floor of the Red Edge, if not bigger. Obviously, as I already learned to expect, the whole interior was made out of wood. A large, queen sized bed was standing on the right side, covered neatly with a green cloth, along with two small tables on each side with a rather large piece of glowing crystal wedged in the wall above both them and the bed. The walls were covered with some kind of green tapestry, looking almost like leaves. On the opposite wall, facing the bed, there was a large wardrobe along with a bookcase, covering its whole length. The one remaining wall was basically just a large membrane window. Facing the outside was a large armchair with a neat-looking coffee table right next to it. The floor was covered with a rug, you guessed it, also of a green color. Besides that, considering its size, it looked pretty empty.

Looking through the window was Harsh, standing right next to the coffee table with the kid in tow, looking very out of place.

I couldn't help myself but to whistle with amazement.

-Wow, I mean you said that you don’t treat slaves as slaves, but damn…

That snapped Harsh out of his trance and he finally noticed that someone entered the room.

-Your Majesty! And… you. What is he doing here?

-I could ask you the same thing. Why did you bring the kid - snapped at him Odar. - Weren’t you supposed to escort him to his chambers?

-I did. But there is no one to stand watch. The guard force is still scattered and many people are still missing.

-Damn. Where the hell are those idiots…

-You still didn’t answer the question. Why is he here?

I gave him a brief look but I did not respond.

-I am talking to you, you…

-Silence.

The one word was enough to make them both shut up.

-I guess there is no helping it. He will stay for now. But…

He approached the boy.

-You need to be a good boy and not tell anyone besides us about anything that you see or hear here - he said, grabbing him and Harsh by their shoulders. - Understood? Same goes to you too, Harsh.

-Y-yes sir.

-Yes sir!

-Good. Now, for what you’ve seen…

Harsh quickly repeated a story that we heard from the one guard that came to us in the dungeon.

-Both of them?

-Yes, her daughter is also missing. I wanted to be faster with his marking but…

-I already notified His Majesty, there were some issues.

-Whatever. The most important part is to find out if they are still alive. And if they are, where the hell they have been taken.

-Maybe they ran away? - suggested Harsh. - Who knows after what happened today…

-You think that no one would notice? - puffed Odar, annoyed. - I mean sure, my men were missing, but not like someone can just disappear in this castle.

-Oh, they very well could. Considering what just happened they might have just used the commotion to give us a slip.

-That is impossible - said dryly King. - I can understand my people better than both of you combined. Neither of them would be that dumb to try.

-Wasn’t one of them able to use portal magic? Why wouldn’t they just…

-Don’t talk about subjects you don’t know shit about - interrupted him Odar. - To teleport you need an anchor in both places and both of them have been searched thoroughly.

-So how do you explain this immaculate room? There are absolutely no signs of struggle.

-Maybe she just did not want to stay here and would rather go with the captors? - I mentioned taking a look around the room.

-How dare… - I think Harsh was about to yell at me but Odar butted in before that.

-You really think that after seeing this room? After what you’ve heard?

-Well, some people care more about freedom than money. This looks like a golden cage to me. Maybe she’s not one that would care much about status or money, as long as she had what she needed. I wouldn’t be surprised if she decided to go willingly, just to escape from this room, thinking that she would have better chances escaping them than you people. Looks like she was at least right about the first part.

Everyone looked at me with surprise, even including the king.

-And how would you know that? Do you know her that well?

-Sure… more or less… And you don’t need to know someone to see this as a golden opportunity.

-I knew I should’ve talked with them earlier…

Frustrated king started pacing next to the bed.

-Why do you even need her to stoop so low as to kidnap a child? - I finally asked the question that’s been bothering me for a long time.

-Kidnapped? Hardly. We saved her from…

-From what exactly? Her mother?

-It was supposed to be from the Insight, but we see how that panned out… - replied the king, starting to walk even faster now.

-Hah. That’s funny. An old hag had better success hiding and protecting her own child than a whole fucking country. Good job.

-I AM AWARE. CAN YOU SHUT IT FOR A SECOND.

That was the first one. He was yelling. For the first time since I’ve met him, the king looked clearly pissed and was not even trying to hide it.

By now he’s been basically running from one wall to the other instead of pacing, and even at some point he managed to flip the whole armchair upside down along with the coffee table and not even get slowed down.

-Your Majesty, please calm down - started Odar, crouching to pick up the furniture he knocked over, but as soon as he reached the floor, he froze.

-Hm. I think she might not have gone without a fight after all…

Intrigued, we looked down to where he was reaching.

Under where just moments ago the armchair was standing, there was a set of scratch marks. Along with a set of small holes peppered around it.

-It hardly looks like anything to me… - shrugged Harsh, squinting at it. - Bark beetles maybe? Nah, they don’t touch living wood… And scratches…

-Yeah. Hard to tell what exactly did this, but that’s definitely not something that should be here.

-Now we at least know what we are looking for - announced king. - Search the room. And the corridor outside while we are at it.

His hunch was right. Not only we’ve found a couple more of similar marks in the room itself, there were also a couple of them just outside the room. Where the guards were supposed to be. All of them were pretty shallow though. If we did not know what we were looking for, they most likely have been missed.

-But what does that mean exactly? - started pondering Harsh when we got back to the room. - Whatever those marks are, they are not helping us get closer to the kidnappers.

On the mention of “kidnappers” I had a very hard time suppressing my laugh.

-I need to think - the king waved us all off, essentially telling everyone to piss off.

-Yes sir.

Everyone slowly left the room, back to their business, bowing to him, and soon we were the only two left in the room.

-You can leave too. I am not really in the mood for more talking.

-It’s not like I have anywhere else to go - I shrugged, sitting on the neatly put bed.

-Right… - he raised his head and finally looked at me. - So what do you want?

-King, can you tell me, what exactly do you want from them?

He closed his eyes and frowned even more.

-I see the talk about you being God to my church has gotten into your head, since you’re asking so bluntly.

That was not completely incorrect. While I still had my fair share of doubts about the story of the Lost, them and that whole cult, religion, family or whatever they wanted to call themselves, I strangely felt compassion for the man in front of me. And what I’ve seen of him so far straight up did not add up to what I've heard.

-I do not know how to talk to nobility and such, especially kings, that’s why I am going to be blunt.

-You’ve been blunt this entire time, but go ahead.

-So far, from what I’ve heard about you, you were supposed to be a cunning, wise, great leader. And so far, it straight up does not fit. Why do you want that girl so bad? Some grudge?

His forehead wrinkled even more.

-I guess you are indeed one of the Lost, so I should tell you at least this much. I… or rather we, made a promise.

-Promise?

-Yes. A long time ago, when I was still just an adventurer, I traveled along with a group of companions. Some we found along the way, some found us, others just came to be. A long story short, we got powerful. Too powerful in fact. It came to a point where we couldn’t even enter a town without being challenged by someone at best or straight up being resented for being “inhumane monsters” and kicked out.

-If you were so strong, I don’t think something like that would be able to stop any of you.

-Yeah, I thought so for a good while too. I didn’t care about the opinion common folk gave us. If they challenged us, I happily obliged to accept, if I was being kicked out, I either left without a word or just straight up paid more money so they would shut up. But not everyone was like that. One person in fact. He was the one who created the whole idea. At first, our task was to help other people. We had mages with some unique talents among us, so we decided that we should use them to start creating instead of just killing monsters and such. The houses, Red Edge… we created it all. Not long later, we founded this city and managed to build it up to what it is today.

-I feel like that’s a bit too good of a story.

-Yeah. A bit after establishing the country, one of us suddenly disappeared. But before that he came to me and asked me to, if he was to ever disappear and not come back after more than a year, to find his wife and bring her here, to show what’s he created and to protect her. But I never expected that he wouldn’t tell her about us…

He looked distressed.

-So after the time was up you made Odar kidnap her child and bring her here?

-It was not supposed to be like that! - he said, slamming his fist on the table. - When we finally found out where she even was, I instantly sent my men after her, but when they arrived, she was already gone, and my men just found that kid instead. She obviously had no idea what’s going on and, of course, retaliated. The rest you know.

He fell silent.

-So, what are you planning to do now? - I asked after a brief pause.

-What? Find her, obviously. Too bad it looks like it’s impossible right now, I did not manage to forge a pact with her…

-Forge a pact?

-What’s a better way to protect someone if not to forge a mutual pact with them? Not like that matters now though…

-Ah, you mean enslave her. Hah.

-You say it as if it’s a bad thing.

I gave him a concerned look.

-I mean I am aware of your strange predisposition to that, but that is still enslaving…

-And why are you concerned? You did it as well, and only one way to boot.

-Ever heard of saying, do as I say not as I do? I also am not someone who anyone would look up to, like a king for example.

-You say that, but you are one of the Lost, of course some people will.

-I am still not convinced about that. But that topic aside, even if you’d bound with her, how would that even help you?

He stretched out on his chair and gazed briefly around the room.

-I guess you are still an outsider so you don't know. The blood contracts that bind you to each other are not just for show.

-I know, you can modify them and set different conditions, so your “property” will be obedient and all that.

-Yes. And besides that, they also allow tracking the person in question.

-And how would one do that?

-Curious? I guess you do own For, that’s right…

He stood up and started rummaging through the room. He finally found what he was looking for: from one of the drawers nearby he got a stack of plain paper and put it on a table next to the chair he was just sitting in.

-You just need a clean piece of paper, or, even better, a map. You then focus on a contract with whoever you want to find, pouring mana through your mark towards the paper. If it’s a map, it will give you an approximate location of your quarry. If you use a clean sheet, you just get a direction.

-Interesting…

I approached the table and took one of the sheets from it.

I guess there was no harm in trying. I focused on For and, following his instructions, started pouring my mana into the paper.

The effect was almost immediate. I felt a sharp tug towards one of the walls and at the same time, the paper lit up in white flame - the same I’ve seen multiple times when used with contracts. It quickly burned out the whole sheet but did not disappear, instead started floating towards one of my sides, to the same direction where I felt the tug.

-Yeah, like that.

-Useful - I said cutting the mana flow and ending the spell. - Is it detectable?

-Detectable?

-I mean if someone can track it, or if the target can feel something when I use it?

-If you are only bound one way, no, you can’t. If both of you share the blood binding it is said that also the other person can feel the slight pull towards you, but that’s it.

-Very useful. Your Majesty, do you have a map?

He tilted his head and pointed to the stack of papers on one of the shelves.

I quickly stepped towards it and pulled out something that looked like an old, a bit worn out map. It was still decently readable though.

-Good enough. Well, let’s try.

This time I focused not on For, but on our missing target.

Again, a white flame sprouted, but this time from my palm. It was a lot smaller though, just about as big as a candle’s flame. It slowly started floating towards the map and, hovering above it, it moved towards the middle of it, where the capital was marked.

King was observing the movement, first amused and almost distant, but when the flame reached the city and started moving away from it, it grabbed his full attention.

The flame finally slowed down about a few kilometers away from it, and was now barely moving.

-Who is that?

-Good news, Your Majesty. I think I can find your precious Melle.

Not everyday you have a chance to meet a monarch, and even rarer you have a chance to baffle one with your actions, nevertheless both happened to me.

King Axelrod was now slumped in his chair with absolute disbelief written all over his face.

-So. What do I get for finding her?

That snapped him out of the initial shock and the disbelief got immediately replaced by frantic thinking, I almost could see the cogs in his head turning.

-So that’s why the initial attempt failed… she… why… that means… why is she like this…

I let him mutter like this for a long while.

-I am not going to ask why you have her as a property, although I really want to. At least for once this is a good thing… She’s nearby… - he finally said louder, looking at the map.

The flame finally stopped moving, hanging above some spot not so far from the capital, towards the coast.

-Isn’t that on route towards the coast?

-Looks like it… I need a better map. GUARDS.