7-1 Sir Wilfred

“Welcome to the capital city, Your Grace,” greeted a female Umbrum with a shaved head, donned in a cloak that hid her stature and most of her appearance.

Stepping through the large hole in a large stone fence, Dorvus looked around the area that was filled with emptiness and dilapidated buildings. The brick roads were teeming with moss, and more than half of the tiles were missing. “It’s quiet,” said Dorvus. His gaze continued to wander as if to scour every inch and corner of the area.

“Of course, it’s quiet. There’s only us here. Following our accord, your people will be taking the apparent concealed roads, so to speak, while your arrival would be more obscured. Rest assured, none will know of your arrival until it’s too late.”

“Do you take the people for fools, Yinsun? The arrival of my acolytes would naturally suggest my advent.”

The Umbrum tittered. “Be that as it may, Dorvus, no one will know the exact time and place of your arrival. They could doubt. They could suspect. But they will never know where you are, as long as you follow our accord.”

“Who else knows about this place?”

“Too many to list.”

Dorvus frowned with an eyebrow raised. “This road is known to many, and yet, you take me through this path?”

“Your concern is needless. This is a well-known path, but no one will think of using this path.”

“And why is that?”

“Follow me. I will explain as we move.”

Dorvus hid a grunt and followed the Umbrum across the ruined district that smelled of dirt and death. He didn’t have the nose of a Beast-kin or a Fae, but even he could pick up the ominous scents. Evidently, a great number of tragedies must have taken place in the area for the smell to persist for this long. The walls of the torn buildings were stained with blood. It had long dried, but the patterns remained as clear as ever despite the constant exposure to the elements, a stark reminder of the terrible past that couldn’t be easily erased.

“Years ago, there was an alchemist. He was ambitious and with… little care for morality. More than anything, he wanted to become an Alchemist of the court, much like many people. Although he had a great vision, sadly, he had little talent to back up his vision and ambition. What little care he had for morality, it was completely snuffed out by his desperation for acknowledgement. And so, he resorted to very unsavoury actions.”

Dorvus chuckled. “A tale as old as time. Savagery out of desperation. Nothing new. This state of this district is a result of his actions, I gather?”

“It is. He would experiment on a lot of things. Animals, plants, and people. Especially people. Old, young, women, sickly, anything and anyone would do. Anything for acknowledgement.”

“And the city just let him be?”

“This part of the city was known for its many unruly activities. People die or disappear all the time. The numbers increased; that was all. Nothing of concern for those nesting comfortably up on the golden hills.”

“How typical.”

“The alchemist tried every field of study,” Yinsun continued with the story. “After some time, he found one particular field that he had some semblance of talent in. Explosive substance. He formulated quite a few of his concoctions, using the least amount of materials for the most… range and damage, shall we say.”

Dorvus chortled, grinning. “That’s not much of a talent. Explosive substances are easy to concoct. One requires only a functioning mind.”

“You jest, Your Grace, but he managed to concoct a very dangerous explosive substance, one that is responsible for the sad state of this district.”

Dorvus raised an eyebrow and peered at his surroundings closely. The buildings did look like they had suffered an explosion, but they were still standing. Much of their current state was a result of time and neglect. “I reckon time and neglect have done more to this district than his invention had.”

“That assumption of yours will be wrong.”

“...Explain.”

“Tell me, how long do you think this district has been abandoned?”

“A decade, at least?”

Yinsun laughed. “It has only been four years. Three years and ten months, to be exact.”

“Not even five years and this is the state of the district?” If time was against him, Dorvus would have stopped walking and taken a moment to gather his thoughts. “It must be a hell of an explosion to cause this tragedy.”

“The explosion itself is nothing to write home about. It was what came after that made the district the way it is. You see, the alchemist’s experiment went wrong one day. It exploded in his lab and he died in the explosion. The fumes and residue of the explosion remained. No one gave it much thought. No one considered the lethality of the lingering effects. Despite the explosion that destroyed an entire floor, no one gave it any thought. Days went by. People got sick in terrible ways. People were bleeding from their eyes. Their skin turned black. That wasn’t all. Soon, the fields turned dark, as if it was becoming the night sky. The trees and plants wilted. Buildings lost their strength and collapsed. It was a horrifying month.”

“I have never heard of this.”

“You wouldn’t. The high nobles went to great lengths to conceal this… event from the people and the world. As far as the mass is concerned, a sickness was spreading in this area, and the king had the place sealed off for a year before the seal was lifted. The court alchemists declared the district to be free of the sickness. By then, no one dared to enter this place in fear of catching the disease that can even corrode plants and objects.”

“Yet, here we are. A toxin that can even affect the buildings and land. Does the toxin no longer persist?”

“Oh, no. It still persists.”

Dorvus widened his eyes. “And it’s safe for us to be here?”

“Us? Yes, of course. We’re both beyond the fringe of level seventy, and I’m sure you also have a good amount of level in your Toxin Resistance. Therefore, you and I have nothing to worry about. But I must caution you to be careful of the buildings. One of them might collapse at any moment. We won’t be wounded or even hurt, but I’m sure it would still be quite painful.”

Dorvus couldn’t figure out whether the Umbrum was joking or not before she stopped in front of a building that was in a state like any other. He glanced at Yinsun.

The Umbrum tittered and entered the building without even knocking on the door. The door creaked open with a single shove. The door was barely hanging on to its hinges.

Dorvus glowered at the Umbrum until she disappeared into the building. He had no choice but to follow. He stepped into the building and followed her footsteps. They went down a corridor. The planks underneath their feet cried out a squeak with every step. All the rooms in the building were without doors, except for one, and they stopped right in front of that room.

“After you,” said Yinsun.

He eyed her dubiously, but he entered the room regardless of his suspicions. Umbrums had a poor reputation regarding their integrity, but he didn’t believe this one would be so foolish as to hamstring him.

Within the room, there was only one person. A man with years of martial and fighting experience behind him. Not just anyone could tell at a glance, but Dorvus could. The man was young, no older than thirty, but the man carried himself in a way that only those acclimatised to battle and death would. He had a smooth complexion, but his countenance was firm and tempered. Discipline might have been this man’s bible. The young man was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed. It was no manner for someone of his stature to be sitting in it, but it was a ruse, a form of intimidation. Dorvus took care not to fall for it. The man was no greenhorn when it came to dealing with the underside of the law.

“I would invite you to sit, Your Grace, but I’m afraid I have the only chair in the room. If you would like, I can have Yinsun fetch a chair for you from another room,” the man opened with an explanation for the most trivial thing in the room.

“That won’t be necessary, Sir.” Dorvus waved the offer away. He could hear Yinsun tittering behind him, but he did not let his pleasure show.

“Sir? You must be mistaken. I am no—”

“Cease your denial. It’s no use trying to deceive me. I know who you are.”

“Do you, now?”

Dorvus walked right up to the young man, staring down at him. “I do, Sir Wilfred. This won’t take long, will it?”

“It won’t. Unless, of course, you don’t plan to be amicable or malleable in this discussion.”

Dorvus snorted and backed away a few steps. “I hope you didn’t forget that I know who your master is, and I know what he has done. And no, I don’t have any proof. I don’t need proof. Are we clear on that?”

“Very clear, Your Grace. Now, let us begin,” the young knight said and produced three folded parchments in his hands, which he then handed over to Dorvus.

“What are these?” Dorvus asked.

“Your first instructions.”

Hesitantly, Dorvus took the parchments. One by one, he unfolded them. There was nothing written on the parchments. There were only portraits of people he had never seen before. “What is this meant to be?”

“These people are your marks, Your Grace.”

“My marks?” Dorvus frowned. “You intend to use me as a hidden blade?”

“Amongst many other things.”

Dorvus folded the parchments back up. “Just who are these people?”

“Significant oppositions.”

“Whose oppositions?”

“My master’s oppositions, of course. And also yours, Your Grace.”

“How are they my oppositions? I have never met them before.”

“No, you haven’t, but they are well aware of your faith and your divine. They are firm denials of your faith. They even sought to have your faith eradicated. They see you and your faith as a radical bunch that acts on selfish motives while disguising them as divine causes.”

Dorvus laughed. “So, they’re hypocrites.”

“They are many things, Your Grace. The most important thing is that they are hindrances to my master’s plans. They need to be removed from his path.”

“They will be removed if the returns are met justly.”

“The returns will be met justly,” the knight said and produced another folded parchment. This time, he flicked the parchment over to Dorvus.

The Apostle caught the parchment, and he unfolded it. “A deed to a land?”

“A land in the white district. The streets of faith, as the people had taken to call it. This is the biggest land of them all. You can erect the sanctuary of your faith there, and this is just half of the returns.”

“What’s the other half?”

The knight grinned. “A passage.”

“What kind of passage?”

“The passage to the successor of the Dragon God’s throne. If you completed all of the tasks that my master has requested of you, you shall have the passage to Aedan Tagrun.”

“Tagrun,” Dorvus scoffed. “He’s no Tagrun, and he’s certainly no Dwarrow.”

“Who he is, it’s no concern to me or my master. But it is a very huge concern for your, Your Grace. So, do we have an accord?”

“No.”

“No?” Wilfred frowned. “Do you perhaps find the reward unappealing?”

“It has nothing to do with the reward, Sir. It’s you, and your master.”

“Is there something about us that upsets you?”

“There’s quite a numer of things about you and your master that are upsetting. Most significant of all is the absence of your master. Will you make an accord with the dog instead of its owner?”

“Dorvus Huj, mind your words. This is not the wilderness. The is the capital city.”

“And you think being in the city will stop me from hurting you?”

Wilfred clenched his fists. “...What do you want?”

“A meeting with your master, the crown prince, Leovin.”