Throne of Magical Arcana

Leaving the paper ball on the table, Lucien took out the letter from the crate. Within his expectations, a few lines of words just emerged.

“It seems like you received our gift already. The three fingers are just a warning for you. Don’t do stupid things, or we’ll have no choice but to kill Joel and his family. We can see you, and we’re way more powerful than you think. The ball is called Scene. Crumble the ball, and you’ll see what you want.”

Lucien already sensed the magnetism of the small ball, which should be able to function like a camera. Thus, without hesitation, Lucien destroyed the ball with his hand.

Dark smoke came out from the ball, and the smoke gradually took the shape of a black and white screen, showing Lucien a short moving scene.

In the video, Joel, Alisa and Iven were sitting around a wooden table. Iven’s eyes were half closed, looking rather sleepy, while Joel and Alisa looked very worried, with their hands swathed in bandages. From the window of the log cabin, Lucien could tell it was late at night. Few dim stars were hanging in the sky, and the silver moon was shaded by the clouds.

The moving scene lasted for a minute.

On the letter, new sentences emerged, “Mr. Evans, now you see they are still alive. We’ll send you more scenes when the weather changes. We believe that the weather, the stars and the silver moon can provide you with enough information to tell the different dates. You see, we always value our words.”

“That is a good relief to me,” wrote Lucien, “What shall I say if John comes back?”

While Lucien was asking, he was picturing in his mind the sky that he just saw from the ball. What he was trying to do was to tell what stars they were based on the stellar map drawn by the witch in her notes. Combining the season, the arrangement and the brightness of the stars, as well as the angle that Lucien was observing the sky through the window, Lucien was confident he could find some valuable information from this one-minute moving scene. After all, Astrology was his speciality. From the several apprentice meetings that he attended before, Lucien already had a solid understanding in apprentice level Astrology, and as a college student crossing over, his knowledge in Astrology was relatively more advanced compared with the ancient system.

The letter replied, “Just tell him honestly. We don’t care about a knight squire, and we bet he wouldn’t dare to risk his family’s lives. And you, Mr. Evans, be careful when you go to Ratacia Palace tomorrow.”

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Lucien was scheduled to go to Ratacia Palace to meet the princess and discuss music with her. If the princess had extra need, she would summon Lucien at any time, and there would also be an extra pay for him.

The words on the letter gradually disappeared one by one. Finally, the paper returned to normal blank. Folding the letter and wrapping up the three fingers, Lucien put them back into the crate.

…

On his way to the Musicians’ Association, Lucien’s mind was fully occupied with the stars.

“I made my request yesterday, then the ball and the fingers arrived today. So first of all, uncle Joel and his family should still be somewhere close to Aalto. A village, small town, or even a forest… all possible.”

Lucien’s brain was working hard. By comparing the stellar maps in his spiritual library and through lots of calculations of the coordinates of the stars, Lucien identified the few stars that he saw from the scene. Looking up the star list in the spiritual library, Lucien targeted one of the stars and found out its detailed record.

“The log cabin should be… about 20 kilometers west of Aalto. That is to say…” Lucien was looking up a simple map of Aalto and its surroundings stored in his own library, “the cabin is deep within Melzer Black Forest!”

Drawing a circle on the map, Lucien was very excited. Although he still couldn’t accurately locate where uncle Joel and his family were, and he was also not sure about how powerful the heretics were, knowing that Joel, Alisa and Iven were not far away from him provided him with a bit comfort.

Lucien hoped that the next time he saw the scene the log cabin would still be there. Then he would be able to narrow down the range further.

Trying to calm himself down, Lucien sighed silently, “Every step is so tough.” He knew that, currently, he was still not prepared to save Joel and his family.

…

The two ladies who were on duty today in the association’s lobby weren’t familiar to Lucien. One of them stood up and bowed slightly, “Good morning, Mr. Evans. Your personal office has been assigned by Mr. Hank. Please go to Mr. Hank’s office when you have time.”

Lucien was about to find a quiet practicing room. Now it was a surprise for him to have his own office, which was great for his plan.

A while later, being led by Mr. Hank, Lucien entered his own office on the third floor.

“Evans, this is your office now. Unless you join other countries’ music associations, until the last day of your life, the office will still be yours.”

The building of the Musician’s Association was magnificent. A courtyard was surrounded by seventy to eighty different rooms on the third floor, but almost half of them were currently vacant, since many of the famous musicians in Aalto had been invited to other countries.

The office was decorated with a brown carpet, fine statues, paintings and lights. The dark blue couch looked very comfy, beside which stood a decent red wood desk. A milk-white piano was in the corner of the office. And there was also a den in the office, where the musician could rest a bit in the bed without being disturbed.

“It’s a great room.” Lucien smiled politely, “Thank you, Mr. Hank.”

“You’re more than welcome, Evans. And just call me Hank.” Hank nodded.

After Hank left, Lucien closed the office door and walked back and forth in his office with great anger and anxiety.

He was holding back his emotion when he saw the fingers. Now he was by himself, Lucien could not take it anymore.

All of a sudden Lucien sat in front of the piano and pressed the keys with both of his hands. It was Symphony of Fate that Lucien was playing.

When the sound of the piano became louder and louder, Lucien started swearing in a low voice:

“Bastards! Jerks! You f**king evil kidnappers!”

…

The swearing was not only for venting, Lucien was testing to what extent the kidnappers could monitor him.

When he Finished playing, Lucien stood up and gave out a long sigh. Even if the heretics did hear his swearing just now, he could still explain to them that he was doing this was to prepare himself for the meeting with the princess tomorrow.

However, when Lucien came back to his home in Aderon, he only found a simple sentence on the letter.

“Music is an ideal way to release emotions, Mr. Evans.”

Although the kidnappers just wanted to remind Lucien that he was under their surveillance all the time, the message offered Lucien another piece of valuable information—the method the kidnappers were using couldn’t let them hear Lucien very well!

…

At two o’clock in the afternoon, Lucien arrived at Victor’s place on time.

Although without saying anything, the way Athy looked at Lucien was filled with gratefulness. Athy had been accompanying Victor for many years, and he was sincerely glad that the concert was a great success.

Renee, Colin and David were also there. They stood up and greeted, “Good afternoon, Mr. Evans.”

Although Lucien’s success was not yet well-known among the common residents in Aalto, Renee, Colin and David had heard about it from Felicia and Annie’s conversation. All of a sudden they felt Lucien became strange in their eyes, and they subconsciously treated Lucien the same way they greeted their teacher Mr. Victor.

“I still feel it’s sort of unreal until now.” Lott stood up from the couch and gave Lucien a hug, smiling.

Felicia also walked close to Lucien, and whispered in his ear, “Tomorrow afternoon, I shall be able to give you the roses.”

“Thank you. Thanks a lot, Felicia,” said Lucien sincerely.

Standing beside them, Lott almost could not believe his eyes.

“Since when they became this close to each other?” Lott wondered.