Chapter 155: The Custodians
In Highcrest, the capital city of Aurenvale.
"This can’t be happening again!" A man stands in front of what appears to be a giant crystal ball, hovering mid-air.
Inside the crystal ball, thousands of colored light dots shimr faintly. It is dominated by white light dots, several green ones, a handful of blue, and a single purple dot.
The man freezes when he sees the purple one light up.
He quickly pulls out his phone and sends a ssage to a group chat.
"Another purple dungeon just showed up on the Sphere. This ti, the color is darker than before. We’re opening Council in ten minutes.
– Thomas Calder –"
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Exactly ten minutes later.
"This is not a good sign. It’s another purple. Another dangerous one," Edmund Hale comnts.
"We need to help in clearing it. Currently, there are no Sentinel teams equipped to handle this," Catherine Rowen says.
"Hah! Help in clearing it? What an arrogant remark!" Richard Halvorsen scoffs. "What makes you think we can do it?"
"Yes, we can use magic, but we are not trained like Sentinels. Going into a mutated dungeon and using magic there will reveal that magic exists," Lucien Markov adds.
"So we’re just going to do nothing?" Catherine asks, disbelief clear in her voice.
"The problem is we can’t do anything. Not without revealing that magic exists," Lucien replies.
"And that’s not a bad thing," Martyn Voss says calmly. "It’s ti for the world to know that magic has returned to Altheon."
"We can’t just announce it to the world. And not everyone deserves to learn magic!" Richard insists.
The conversation quickly shifts to another focus.
"Magic should be for everyone. That was how things were a long ti ago," Jonathan Ludwig argues.
"And where did that take us? Look at our world now. Basically no mana left," Paul Harrington fires back. "This is exactly why we cannot reveal to the public that magic has returned. We need to be careful and select carefully whom we bestow this gift upon."
Everyone starts voicing their opinions on the matter.
Thomas Calder remains seated in the sa room as the Sphere. Twelve other n and won are not physically present, their images projected through holograms, making it appear as though all thirteen of them are gathered in the sa space.
While his colleagues argue among themselves, Thomas turns his attention back to the Sphere once more.
The single purple dot stands out sharply against the sea of white, green, and blue. It is a frightening sight.
The last ti a purple dungeon appeared, many people died. Only a handful survived.
Thomas values life highly. Saving lives is important to him. He cannot understand why the others are so focused on arguing over whether magic should be shared with the world or kept hidden. He does not care about that debate.
He cares about people’s lives.
There are four others who share his view. Among the thirteen gathered, five are wearing white robes.
Three wear garnet red robes. They are the ones who believe magic should be shared with the world.
The remaining five wear erald green robes. They believe magic should be kept within a tightly controlled group.
Thomas sighs softly. He does not know when they began to drift apart, only that they now stand divided into three factions like this. There are only thirteen of them left, and they are arguing over what feels like trivial matters while lives are being lost.
Thomas sighs again.
"We need to do sothing," he says quietly. "Lives will be lost if we don’t."
The others fall into sudden silence.
Paul exhales. "I know, Thomas. But what can we do? Richard and Lucien are right. We simply do not have the ability to clear the dungeon. Especially a purple one."
Silence settles once more.
These n and won are not bad people. They are desperate people, burdened with knowledge they lack the power to act upon.
"Where did this dungeon appear? Which country?" a white-robed man asks. He has been silent the entire ti.
"Concordia, Arvion," Thomas answers.
Soft gasps ripple through the room.
"Isn’t that the sa place as the last purple one?" the white-robed man asks again.
Thomas nods. "Yes. It was."
"What is it about Arvion that two purple dungeons have appeared there within just a few months?"
"I don’t know, Victor. I don’t know," Thomas replies.
"I can send my Apprentice to Arvion to observe the dungeon and inform us if things turn dire," Jonathan says.
"Who cleared the last dungeon?" Edmund asks. "Maybe we can sohow inform the sa person, and—"
"And ask them to clear this dungeon too?" Paul interjects, skeptical.
"It was a young, mysterious woman nad Aldriana," Isabelle Crowley answers.
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Three days later, Maeve Collins flies to Arvion under the pretext of procuring ancient texts being auctioned at the Arvion Auction House.
It took the Council several days to establish the next best course of action. In the end, they agreed to send Maeve, Jonathan Ludwig’s apprentice, to Arvion to observe the situation while attempting to find a way to contact this Aldriana.
Maeve arrives in Arvion with a mission she does not know how to complete. She cannot possibly clear the dungeon herself. Archivist Ludwig had warned her to stay away from the dungeon, a warning she has no problem following.
She is, at heart, a librarian. She knows nothing about clearing dungeons. Her daily work, aside from learning and practicing magic, consists of curating books and preserving historical records for the largest non-profit organization devoted to a single purpose: collecting the histories of Altheon.
This organization is called the Library of Altheon. The na is not an exaggeration. The Library is the only institution in all of Altheon funded jointly by multiple countries and governnts to serve as the world’s central archive.
What outsiders do not know is that the Library is rely a front for the secret magic society Maeve belongs to, known as the Custodians.
At present, there are only thirteen Custodians left, along with their Apprentices.
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