When the news ca to Sigrid, she was on the mage estate, preparing to interrogate the foreign mages. Alistair was the one delivered the news to her, having received it from the butler of the Fairfax family who was one of them.
It brought a smile to Sigrid’s lips and even gave her so relief. She could feel it in her soul that she was at the last stop. Once the Fairfax family fell, Emmah would have no more life line and no more helpers.
"What should we do next?" Alistair asked her.
"Nothing for now, let her settle in and get comfortable. I think I will give her a month or two then rip out the carpet from beneath her feet." She had to bring down the Fairfax’s along with Emmah.
She needed so ti, to set them up for treason properly and that would be in the spring or sumr. It needed to happen at a ti when tension between doris and Eldoria was ripe.
Sigrid stood up, not forgetting to carry the vacuum flask with hot tea along with her. Alistair reached his hands out, requesting to carry the flask for her. When she was handing it over, Lanai shoved him aside and she took it.
The maid did not forget to glare at the butler who was always too eager to please Sigrid that he blurred the lines between his duties and those of the maids.
Sigrid ignored their intense background eye battle, left her office in the tower, taking a magic operated elevator that went deep in the ground.
The magic prison lay down in the ground, hidden within the tower. It was a place where spells turned to mist, enchantnts turned to dust and escape was all but a hopeless illusion.
The mages that had been imprisoned down there knew this for a fact. They had not been separated but put in one cell from where they were plotting escape already. They were six of the most powerful mages across three empires and yet they had been captured by amateurs.
They were still in disbelief, refusing to accept the new reality, they would likely die down there and nobody would ever know. Their tattoos which were supposed to help them communicate with other mbers of there society were unresponsive. It was how they knew that they were in more danger than they thought.
"They are plotting escape." The Lord mage told Sigrid when she arrived in the cara room from where the prisoners were monitored.
The caras could also be accessed from the office of the Lord mage and her office. Those were the only places in Eldoria so far with computer monitors. As usual magic was how the monitors and caras functioned.
"What is their plan?" she asked.
"To summon a storm, turn the earth and carry them above ground. In the midst of chaos and confusion, one of them will tear a void open and they will escape through it."
Sigrid’s curiosity was peaked, she wanted to see this for herself so she lowered all the restrictions, allowing them to access their magic. She cast an illusion spell over the prison and waited patiently.
Three hours later, the escape mission was started. Outside, on the mage estate, a storm suddenly raged, flinging piles of snow, stones, trees and everything it could lift in the air. Luckily, everyone was behind closed doors as were the animals and magic beasts so no living being was hard.
The tower trembled and the ground broke open, corridors burned with flas and a black abyss appeared. The six mages who were now free, run in the direction of the black abyss which was the void, jumping into it with victorious smiles on their faces.
It was Veylin who noticed that sothing was not quite right with the situation. As the mage that could summon the void and tear open reality, he could tell that this reality was off.
He decided to close the void and test for any changes, and he noticed then that none of them had escaped, they were right where they had been and it had all been an illusion.
Laughter ca from the walls around them, as if the prison was alive, mocking them. Out of the darkness, Sigrid stepped out with the Lord mage and the mage that would be holding the position of prison warden, Orin Duskborne.
"Did you really think that you could leave?" she asked them, her voice cutting through the air cruelly.
The mages froze. Their spirits withered. All hope evaporated from their bodies.
"This one is the only one with brains." She pointed at Veylin. "I am impressed, and I will give you a chance to switch teams. I have an opening in my organization and I could use soone like you."
Veylin did not respond, he stepped back in the shadows and sat down.
"Aah, well, its okay we have all the ti in the world. You six are never escaping from this prison. Why don’t we have a talk?"
Alistair conjured a chair and he offered it to Sigrid. The Lord mage rolled his eyes as he had not been offered one. He conjured one for himself and sat down next to her.
"You are all mbers of The Arcane Assembly." She started....smiling when she saw the look of shock on their faces. "It is a society that has existed in the shadows for sixty one years. There are two hundred ten mages, from three different continents. Your secret society has established a church and gained a following in two empires.
The church of the veiled mother. You don’t have a footing in doris but you are trying to establish one which is proving to be difficult."
All the Eldorian mages were impressed, Alistair wanted to fall to his knees in reverence and worship. The crown princess never ceased to amaze him.
Nyssa’s eyes widened. "How do you know this?"
Before Sigrid could reply, Veylin ca out of the shadows, his dark eyes looked at her curiously like he was studying her. He tilted his head and then returned to the darkness.
Sigrid had never co across a shadow mage, he was the first and he was of great interest to her. The only shadow mage she had heard of was Dravos, the wielder of the Eclipsion sword. She wondered if Veylin had co to Eldoria for that exact reason, to receive the recognition if the sword.
While she had failed to get the sword, she wanted the shadow mage. It seed the mages needed to be separated so that she could have an individual talk with each of them.
"So, which one among you poisoned the king?" She asked suddenly. "Do I need to guess?"
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