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Ben Medinets / story2o

Chapter 15: The Disappearance of the Blue Mage

There must have been an attack, thought Benny, but who?

As if reading his mind, Soren said, “there must have been someone here who saw what happened and seen who was responsible.

So at this point, the two of them along with Princess Lisa looked around for any clues, none of the guards were present, and the three hoped that not all of the guards that were there had parished. Soren and Benny entered the building, while Princess Lisa stood by the entrance of the HALL. They quickly found all the guards tied up. There were 4 Imperial Soldiers, and 6 soldiers from Wembly also.

The soldiers were quite happy that it was Soren who arrived, and not the return of the invaders to finish them off. There must have been a strong and overwhelming force to overcome the Elite Imperial troops. 2 were laying dead in front of the GUILD HALL, while 2 more were taken captive along with the BLUE MAGE. Soren figured there was only one who was ultimately responsible for the attack, the evil BLACK MAGE.

Once the rest of the guards were untied, Soren had them go outside, and assume a defensive posture. When all of them went outside, and the place was completely secure, Soren called out for someone to come forward and retell what happened, to see who was responsible, and to figure out a logical plan of action.

All of the soldiers were eager to share their stories, but only a senior member of the Imperial Elite was chosen, primarily for his rank, but also because he had seen nearly all of the whole event take place.

He was taken aside and the three (the Elite Guard, Benny, and Cletus) stood watched while they conversed about the invasions. It happened just after Benny had left. That must have been the sign for invasion. What was surprising was that it was not the BLACK MAGE directing the initial attack, but a mysterious man wearing the colours of Blue and wearing the Eagle on his chest.

The Falcons from Brunswick. Why would the Duke of Brunswick attack the GUILD HALL and kidnap his own adopted son, Tommy? And the Falcons were not alone, for the BLACK MAGE did have a hand in the invasion, supporting the attack with sending in some of his (undead) skeletons.

Once the guards had been securely tied up, and the BLUE MAGE captured, Claus then entered the hall and took only one book, a manuscript from the GUILD LIBRARY written by Soren about the strengths and weaknesses of each Crystal. He would use this knowledge to best plot out his malicious devices and hate-filled plans.

The defenders at the GUILD HALL would need to split in order to rescue Tommy and to keep an adequate defense on the GUILD HALL. Soren and the remaining 4 Elite Imperial Soldiers would look for Tommy, while Benny, Princess Lisa, Dickie, and the 6 Soldiers from Wembly would stay at the HALL and keep an eye on it.

Soren took Benny’s horse, event though he could fly. For this mission he would need his wits about him and the ability to quickly perform his magic lore. He would also need some back-up. He would have preferred to have Benny with him at the moment but under the current circumstances this was the best plan they could hatch.

Soren and the Imperials left in the direction of Buckingham, where he was sure the Falcons (with the captured Tommy) were headed. They had been travelling for a while when Soren told them to stop. He dismounted his horse and had two soldiers follow him, while the other remaining two soldiers kept a watch on their backs. Beside a large rock, there was a little boy, who was sitting like nothing was happening in the world, deep in thought, remaining nearly motionless. The boys looked very young, perhaps looking 8 or 9 years of age.

Soren got on his knee, while the two guards with him just stood and watched. “Hello. Its been a while since I saw you. Where is your master?” Soren asked the boy.

The boy answered, “Hello Mr. Soren. Its been ages since we last met. I do not know. I am not my master’s tracking device.”

“Ha Ha. That is quite true, insolent boy,” laughed Soren. “Come ride the horse while we begin to find your master.”

The soldiers with Soren thought that he had finally went over the edge of insanity. What they saw was just a gorgeous, rich-looking rock, not the small boy apparition that Soren saw. They thought that he was brushing stupidity as he talked to the Crystal/boy. As Soren put the Crystal/boy gently on his horse, the guards thought Soren did indeed suffer from insanity.

Soren ignored their comments and feelings, and told them to continue to look for clues and be prepared for anything. He mounted his horse and continued to converse with the apparition. While the search continued, the apparition told Soren that Tommy had dropped the Crystal in order to help in finding him.

Soren then began to ask the apparition about the details of the invasion to shed some additional light on it. It told Soren about the attack, which Soren knew most of what the apparition had said, but the apparition was able to tell him who was most responsible on the attack.

It was Tommy’s Uncle George, the Duke’s younger brother who was still upset that Tommy was made the heir to the Duke. With the Duke’s health beginning to fail, “Uncle” George being in charge of the Duke’s troops, decided it was the perfect time to put Tommy out of the picture, even permanently. Especially, with the BLACK MAGE providing additional support. George and his troops would do most of the dirty work, allowing the BLACK MAGE to enter the hall unmolested and to trespass unabaided. The apparition confirmed that Claus only took the one book.

That was all the appariton knew, or as far as it had gotten. In the distance, they heard a loud thundering of hooves. Not knowing who or what it was, they ducked for cover. They thunder grew quickly and progressively louder. In a manner of a short time span, the thunder approached them, and fortunately turned quite friendly. The noise turned out to be a reinforcement of Elite Cavalry from Wembly led by Sir Richard the Elder and with him rode the GREEN MAGE. Soren could not be happier with their arrival.

Soren and the Imperial Guards lowered their weapons and welcomed the 8 new mounted soldiers. The pace was quickened as they were in less danger than before. But it wasn’t too fast as they new guests told how they were alerted to the danger.

Princess Sara (the Green MAGE) told Soren how one of the Elite Imperials had escaped the clutches of the Black Falcons and went to fetch help from nearby Kingdom of Wembly, which was a stauch ally of the Empire.

King Leon had Sara go with Sir Richard and a group of cavalry to help with the rescue. Another group of cavalry went to the GUILD HALL to help reinforce the guard there. Six soldiers, (Sir) Cletus, and the RED MAGE went there.

“That ought to make Benny very happy to have his old friend there at the GUILD HALL,” Soren said.

“For Sure.” replied Princess Sara, “I was just thinking if your would have asked me six months, even six weeks ago that I would be on the same side as the great Soren on this mission, I would have told you no way.”

“Quite the irony, isn’t it?” said Soren quite rhetorically, “now we must ever be on our guard, we are near the entrance to the dense forest.”

Not too much later, they rode down the path, and hesitated briefly as they came to the entrance to the dense and dimly lit forest. As they entered the tree-line, they prepared for anything.

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