Leo woke up. He slept well during the night. A bird flew beneath the grey clouds, and Leo stared at it. He stared at the bird, for it was free—truly free, unlike him. It wasn"t chained to a coat as a form of branding.Leo got up and noticed that no one was in the first floor of Raynark"s inn. He looked in the kitchen. He looked in the street. He wondered to himself, "Where could Raynark have gone to?"
(Where had Raynark gone indeed)
The city was empty. To the left, and to the right, no matter where he looked. Leo found no one. And then he sensed demons moving. They were moving toward the center of the city. Leo followed.
He ran for a good half mile, until he came across a group of children. He recognized some of them. They were the kids from the slums. They were also the kids from the middle cla.s.s of the city, the children of merchants and tradesman. He could tell by the quality of the clothing they were wearing—by the contrast between the well off and the impoverished children"s clothing. He hid around a corner, while the demons moved the children to a door outside of Ahab"s palace.
"Does the door lead to beneath the palace?" Leo thought.
Leo watched the door close behind the demons and children. He also saw two men guarding the door. They wore black robes, and Leo could sense residual traces of the fire element from their clothing.
"Where have I seen them before?" Leo thought.
A man appeared from a dark portal in front of the door. The man"s abnormally low cheekbones seemed familiar to Leo. He couldn"t recognize him until he heard his voice.
The man who appeared from the door said in a shrill, high voice, "Open Sesame."
The guards said, "Welcome, Lord Harumi."
Leo was shocked and confused. He remembered the lanky man with a shrill voice that followed the Fang who chased him off a cliff of the Kingdom of the Seven Mountains.
"Wasn"t he a bandit?" Leo thought, "Why is he here? And what was that portal?"
Leo wondered how he could enter the room, but he didn"t know how. He didn"t want to alert the two guards, and he didn"t want to run into Harumi, but he couldn"t let the children go without him. He didn"t know why that was the case, but heirs heart wouldn"t let him. He made a sheepish half-grin, "I can"t fall that far... now can I?" Leo decided. He would kill the guards.
The situation was odd. The city was empty, and the only lead he had was at the bottom of Ahab"s palace. He couldn"t worry about the morality of killing two guards. The lives of the children outweighed theirs:
Leo thought, "But how will I do it?"
He thought of all the magic he learned since he was a child from his tutor at the Dukedom of Lionsmane. Nothing could solve the situation. The only magic that came close was flame-bolt, but noise and explosive power from that magic attack would attract more guards. He furrowed his brow.
He contemplated for a while, until he remembered what Solomon said about void magic.
"When the way becomes void, the void becomes the way," Solomon had said during their travels...
"So if all the elements are connected, which element would best complement my fire element for a silent kill. Or better yet... Maybe I don"t even have to kill them."
Leo remembered seeing a water spell that put its target to sleep. The spell need to be executed within close proximity of the caster.
"What if I combined..."
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"No. That"s too risky. I don"t even fully understand what it means for the way to become void..."
Then Leo realized, "Oh! What if I use the earth magic circle Solomon inscribed on me to drop them into the earth. I can close the hole afterwards too!
So, that"s what Leo did. He concentrated in the earth magic circle engraved into his body. He opened two holes, and the guards fell in. Leo made sure not to make the holes to deep, so they didn"t have time to scream, and he close the holes as fast as he could to prevent their screams.
Leo walked to the door and opened it. And so, he walked away from the rolling sky, to the depths of Ahab"s palace—where darkness lay.