THE THIRD MAGE

"We are heading towards a greater nation!" a barber said inside a tavern where most middle cla.s.s male converge to talk and gossip about everything.

"Well," the wealthiest merchant said. "I seriously think that we should start answering to those a.s.sa.s.sination attempts. If other Kingdoms dare to that to us, then why don"t we do the same to them?"

The barber refuted, "Our Kingdom is not yet ready! Yes, we have powerful Knights and Commanders but we don"t stand a chance to the other Kingdoms. They have a whole legion of each magical attribute!"

The foot soldier, Emong, was among them and he joined the discussion. "I agree, we are not yet ready. But, I think it"s high time that we think and do something about our military prowess. Our neighboring Kingdoms are eyeing at us because we have the most favorable site for economy and business."

Gina, a female a.s.sa.s.sin-in-training and Emong"s girlfriend added, "Yes. And I do believe that some of the royals are eyeing the throne."

All people in the a.s.sembly looked at her.

Gina crouched down and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I heard somewhere that a royal wants to take over the throne. It"s someone who believes that Crown Prince Amon got no guts to become King and conquer Kingdoms."

"But you heard the King earlier," the barber said. "We are impartial. We should not be too ambitious to think to conquer more. What we have is enough."

"But other Kingdoms don"t think that way," Emong stated. "It"s either we fight and defend; or we fight, defend and conquer. That"s the only thing we could do now. And if what my Gina said is true, we should be more focused on improving our military to prevent instability within the royals. A coup could happen any moment."

The fish vendor pa.s.sed by them and reminded them, "That"s why the King is holding up a special exam to create a legion of the most elite fighters. I heard that this exam is going to be a test of strength and power. And it wouldn"t only be to guard the Crown Prince; they were to be defending the whole Kingdom."

Emong stood up. "Those are just hearsays. Our Commander didn"t even inform us about this elite force you were talking about!"

"Well, what do you know? You can"t expect your superiors would share that. You"re just a mere foot soldier after all," the fish vendor mockingly said as he spat to the ground and walked away.

The merchant consoled the foot soldier. "Emong, that"s enough. Those kinds of people are so low that you don"t even have to answer to him. Just let it be."

The barber added, "Yes. And we will all patiently wait of what would happen in the near future. We would all know soon enough, in a week"s time."

Inside the smithing section of the Capital, sword smiths and armor smiths gathered round and discussed the prowess of the Crown Prince"s sword.

"Well," said one. "Did you see that mighty sword conjure a whole block of solid ice to protect the Crown Prince? That was one h.e.l.l of a master piece."

"I really couldn"t think of a way to give that kind of power to a sword. That was so impressive. I wonder if the royal smith has something to do with it."

Gregory, the royal smith"s brother, replied cautiously. "I doubt my brother could make that sword. He made the Aiden, but that sword was just like normal swords. It was special because of the special materials used to make it."

"But how did that sword made that ice appear? We all know ice-wielders are only found in the Kingdom of Nomosyne. Ice can"t thrive in our lands!"

"Yeah, I gathered it is. I remembered that even emissaries from that Kingdom who were ice-wielders were rendered powerless here! They couldn"t even perform a single drop of ice magic!"

"I really think it was the sword"s doing."

"But how does one give that power to a sword?"

An old man, the oldest smith alive, spoke up all of a sudden.

"A long time ago, there was a crafting school here in Oniro. It teaches people to develop their own crafts: pottery, woodworking, stone carving, and smithing. It was established by King Triton, Queen Iris" grandfather. In my time, pieces made from this school hold a special kind of power. But I am not really sure if it is this power they were talking about because I was a child back then. All I could surmise is this: the one who made Crown Prince Amon"s sword is definitely from that crafting school."

All the smiths fell silent, contemplating on the things the old man said.

"If what you say is true, then we should definitely enroll in this school."

"Sadly," the old man turned sullen. "The school was closed down when King Triton pa.s.sed away. But they say, all learning and crafting materials were left there untouched but preserved, courtesy of Queen Iris herself."

"Well, where can we find this school?"

The old man sighed, longing for that school to appear again, so that he could learn more about the art of crafting. "No one has ever known where it existed. It"s as if, that school was lost in history forever."

The smiths sighed and fell silent once again.

One man broke the silence, "Well, we just have to continue and improve our crafts. Maybe someday, we could decode the secret of that sword and create more of that."

"Well, it is a pretty thought," the old man mused.

In the no-mage district, a certain old woman was smiling at a group of girls talking about the events of the Coronation. She was dressed rather too anciently, her all-white hair tied in a messy bun, red eyes glowing in the setting sun.

She said to the girls all too suddenly, "The time is at hand."

The girls looked at her, and one asked her, "What is at hand, Granny?"

"It"s almost time. Who do you think made that sword for Crown Prince Amon?"

"The royal sword smith, maybe?"

The old woman chuckled. "Even that good of a boy couldn"t make that wonderful sword. It really is time."

"What time do you mean Granny?"

"I"ll tell you soon. If you could reveal the person behind that sword, I"ll tell you."

And the old woman walked away slowly while silently chuckling at the dumbfounded girls.