I scoffed. “What plans?”
“Killing Joren and taking his place in the top five, winning my way into an elite guild, but you stomped on all of it and now you are going to pay for it.”
Although his face was completely serious, I couldn’t help but laugh at his plans. “You do realise that he was going to pull through, the nurses were clearing your poison out of his system. I just threatened you to make the process faster. Your plan was going to fail all on its own.”
“You liar.” Drayton raised his fist and punched me hard.
I fell back onto the ground next to my luggage. I groaned as I tried to lift myself from the ground. My hand brushed over something soft in between the pavers, grass. That was my ticket out of there. The second I was back on my feet, I sent out a small wave of my earth magic and latched onto the grass under the pavers on the ground. Before anyone could notice anything happening, I conjured some vines from the grass and circled them around each of the wizards’ feet, making it impossible to move.
By the time they realised, everyone of them was bound by my vines. They tried using their magic to free themselves, but it was no use, as I walked past each of them to pick up my things, I froze the vines to their legs.
When I got to Drayton, I raised my own fist and punched him in the face. “No, Drayton, I wasn’t lying.”
I picked up my things and rushed into the train station, dodging any other wizards I could. I found my train right before it was about to leave. As I handed over my ticket, I could hear the screams of Drayton and the others outside. I wondered if they escaped the vines. The train whistle blew and signalled the train was about to take off, I rushed inside and found a seat, one where I could watch everything. As the train began to move, I could see Drayton and the others in the Phantom Labyrinth Guild running towards us. Drayton’s bloodshot eyes were now fully red to match his rage-filled face. I smiled and waved to him before sitting back in my seat and relaxing for the long journey.
A few days passed, and my ship finally landed in Ewell, the biggest seaport town in Hythe. Ewell was exactly as I remembered it. Along the port was a multitude of shops that carried weapons, magic spells, and food. The town was always filled with humans and wizards and was one of the most thriving towns in Hythe. As I walked through the town with my luggage behind me, I kept remembering what happened at the train station. Each noise that sounded around me made me jump. I wondered if Drayton and the Phantom Labyrinth Guild would follow me and try to take their revenge again.
I couldn’t dwell on the past events anymore, I needed to make my way to Terama. I quickly stepped into a few food stores in the market and picked up some food for the last part of my trip before I found a coach and flagged it down.
“Would you be able to take me to Terama?” I asked.
The driver nodded. “Sure. That will cost you three hundred silver.”
The cost hardly mattered to me, after being one of the winners at the Elite Wizard Games, we were also given prize money. I had enough to make my passage to the guild and maybe even rent somewhere to live, but I would need to find work quickly. That was the main reason I needed to get to the guild fast, the other was I had organised to meet Lilica in front of the guild hall so we could join the guild together. As I loaded my bags into the coach, I wondered what my new guild would be like, what kinds of wizards would be there, and what kind of new jobs I would be able to take on.
The coach took off and as we left Ewell, I headed into my new life. I knew it would take almost a full day to make it all the way across Hythe, so I sat back in the seat and just watched the scenery roll by.
As the hours passed, I watched the scenery outside change from dense forests to vast desert ranges. The sun finally set a few hours before we made it into Terama. I had eaten all my food and the ride was starting to take its toll. I had been travelling for days on end and it hadn’t stopped.
When we finally made it into Terama, it was the dead of night. I asked the driver to stop at the closest inn to the guild hall. When he stopped, he helped me with my bags, and I paid him a little extra as a thank you. I stood on the dead street and took in the inn, which was bigger than the one I stayed at in Tolia. It was four stories high and looked like it was built thousands of years ago. I quickly checked in and was asleep within seconds.
I woke the next day and I completely forgot where I was. As I looked outside the window of the inn, I saw the top of the Ivory Fox Guild hall. I remembered coming into the town of Terama the night before. I got ready for the day and noticing the time, I remembered I needed to meet Lilica. I left my bags and things in the room as I would be staying there until I could find a place of my own to rent.
I stepped outside of the inn and was surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the streets of Terama. Wizards and humans rushed around each other while others worked. Looking at each of the wizards, I searched for their guild emblems. A lot of them were from standard guilds, in fact, I didn’t see any from the Ivory Fox Guild. The town of Terama was bigger than I expected, each time there was a break in the buildings, I looked around for the top of the guild hall to find my bearings. By the time I made it to the front of the guild hall, it was already close to midday. I looked around for a moment and was in awe.
The guild hall was gigantic. It almost looked like a castle; the outer wall hid the vast building inside. There were two stories in the guild hall, but the actual building was huge. Outside was an area of picnic tables, there was a massive pool at the side of the building. It was incredible. I pulled my eyes away from the magnificent sight for a moment when I spotted the unmistakable familiar pink mist and long blonde hair that was Lilica. She stood just in front of the front entrance staring at the main door. I rushed over to her and stopped right beside her.
“This is it, isn’t it?” I asked.
She grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. “I’m glad you chose to come here with me. At least we can start this part of our lives with a friend by our side.”
I laughed and nodded. “I agree. Come on, let’s do this.”
I pushed open the door and what was inside stopped me in my tracks. The guild hall was filled with elite wizards sitting around and talking at tables. They all stopped what they were doing as we entered. I took a deep breath and felt Lilica do the same. As we stepped in, I looked around for a familiar face, one in particular, but when I didn’t see him, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. All the wizards continued to watch us as we slowly walked through the chaos and made our way towards Master Titus. He was standing at the edge of the bar talking to a large wizard with spiky black hair. When he saw us, he cut the conversation short, stepped past the wizard, and came to greet us.
“Welcome, Melanie and Lilica. I hope your trip was good. Let’s bring you over to the side and show you everything.”
The tour began, Master Titus showed us the job board and explained how exactly it worked, he showed us the bar and upstairs where the major jobs are. He showed us the library along with the sparring area and finally, he stopped us back in the main area in front of all of the other wizards again. Master Titus held a strange object out and smiled.
“Now for your emblem change. Who would like to go first?”
Lilica stepped forwards with a huge smile on her face, she lifted the long sleeve of her dress and bared her standard guild emblem to the master. He lifted the object and pressed it on her skin. Both her and I watched and a second later, when he lifted it off, her emblem had been replaced with a bright white Ivory Fox emblem. She squealed and stepped back towards me, her eyes lit up her face, and her smile was now beaming.
Lilica grabbed my arm and pushed me forwards, it was my turn. I lifted my hand towards the master, and he placed the object over my mark, a second later when he lifted it up, I felt a strange sensation throughout my body. My snake had been replaced with a white curved fox emblem. I stepped back towards Lilica again and waited for the master to speak.
“Melanie Atax and Lilica, welcome
to the Ivory Fox Guild.”
Epilogue
Royal Magic Council
The figure slumped in the corner of the room groaned as the other figures at the table began their conversation. Her hair was matted and greasy and the rags she was wearing had smelled. She had been a prisoner for months now, held in a cell not much bigger than her. This was the first time they were going to discuss her since she was taken there.
“Now that the Elite Wizard Games are well and truly finished, we need to discuss the matter at hand,” the man at the head of the table said.
The girl was now awake. She didn't want to move to alert them that she was listening in. She wondered where she was, had she been taken by The Order of the Awakened Sun again? She had no memory of what happened before she woke up in her cage. She quickly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. There were twelve people sitting at a large, long table in the centre of the room. Her heart raced at the sight of the people who held her against her will.
“But what is the matter at hand, Magnus?” A female voice spoke up.
“Dragons, Lydia, dragons. After the incident in the Games of a competitor transforming in front of thousands of people and the second dragon with The Order of the Awakened Sun, we need to work out what we are going to do about these dragons,” Magnus explained.
“Is there really a problem with having dragon wizards?” A new voice said.
“Of course, there is a problem with having them. They will become consumed with power again and history will repeat itself, Magnus said.
“We don't know that,” the second man said again.
“Gideon, you are naïve—"
“What are we going to do with her?” Gideon interrupted
They finally acknowledged her again. Her pulse raced at the thought of them knowing she was awake so she stayed as still as she could.
“That is what we are here to discuss. Our decision on what we do with her is what we need to do to the other as well.”
All twelve of them muttered to each other. The girl’s breathing became laboured as her pulse quickened even more. Why was she even in the room while they were discussing her? Was it to torment her? Did they need to experiment on her to see if she was dangerous? She wasn’t, while she knew exactly what she was, she knew her past and she knew she wasn’t a threat. That girl she met, she found out things about the dragon’s past as well, had she found out the same things, the things that could take down the Royal Magic Council as she knew it? Had they found it out, too? Was that why they wanted her?
The murmuring stopped and everything went silent. She heard the scraping of a chair before footsteps quietly came towards her. She closed her eyes again and tried to slow her breathing down. She didn’t want them knowing she was awake or they would possibly kill her.
“She doesn’t look dangerous,” Gideon said as he poked and prodded her arm.
I’m not dangerous, please, just let me go! she thought to herself as more of them came up to her. She could feel their magic touching her, testing to see how much strength she had. She knew she was strong, but that didn’t mean she would hurt anyone unless she needed to.
“Come back to the table, we need to start this discussion,” Magnus called.
“But Magnus, how do we even know they are a threat? There are only two of them,” Lydia said.
Magnus shook his head. “Only two that we know of. What if there are more out there, working together to overthrow us or even the king?”
“We can’t let that happen,” a different voice joined in, one she hadn’t heard before.
“Exactly. This is why we need to decide on what we do with her,” Magnus stated. “We have two options on what we could do. The first is to let her go and monitor her, see if her or the other one display any behaviour that shows they are wanting to overthrow the power. The second option is to kill her now on the spot and then bring in the other to kill as well. We will vote on it.”
The girl’s breath caught in her throat. They were voting wether to kill her or not. She opened her eyes slightly to allow herself to see what was happening, but she could only see three of them. Her heart was beating so fast as the three of them put up their hands, she hadn’t even heard what the choice was they were voting for. A few moment later, two people came up to the side of her. She quickly shut her eyes again and waited for them to pick her up. As she was taken out of the room, the fear in the pit of her stomach rose throughout her entire body. They hadn’t spoken in the room again and because she missed the voting, she had no idea what was about to happen.
She was taken back to her miniature jail cell and left on the dirty ground. After the guards left her alone, she moved. She tried to recall in her mind if she did, in fact, hear what the vote said but when nothing came up, she crawled into the corner of her cell and shook. She hated not knowing what was going on, she hated not remembering what happened before waking up in the jail.
As time went by, she had no way of knowing if it was hours or days, she hadn’t seen the light of day in who knows how long. When she had first woken up there, she tried counting the hours but lost track after the first few days. Shuffling sounds echoed at the end of the corridor before loud footsteps came her way. She curled up on the floor and closed her eyes. When she heard the clinking sound of her cell being opened, she prepared herself to be picked up again. She couldn’t tell where they were going as they went up two flights of stairs and around many corners, but did they double back? Was she being played? Another set of footsteps fell in line with theirs and when they stopped, the second person unlocked a room. When she was placed down, she was waiting for the hard ground of a jail cell again but was surprised when her body met something plush and comfortable.
As soon as the door closed, she opened her eyes again. She had been left in a large bedroom. The room had huge floor-to-ceiling windows and was furnished with beautiful wooden furniture. She walked around the room a moment and wondered why she had been put there.
On the back of the couch was a beautiful yellow dress and some shoes. She quickly showered and got all the dirt and grime out of her hair before dressing in the beautiful clothes. A few moments later, there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, she was met with a tall man with long silver hair and dark silver eyes. He gave her a small bow before introducing himself.
“Hello, my name is Magnus. I am the chairman of the Royal Magic Council. I am sorry for the confusion of having you in a cell for all this time. We thought you were someone else and no one checked this before they locked you up.”
She had no idea what to say to that, it was the Royal Magic Council that held her captive? She couldn’t let him know she heard their entire meeting about her. She just nodded and allowed him to continue.
“So, we are now allowing you to go free, but please do not let it be known to the public that we falsely imprisoned you.”
“I won’t say a word,” she finally spoke, her voice was croaky from lack of water.
“Good, now if you would follow me, I will show you the way out.”
She followed Magnus out of the bedroom and into a long hallway. As they walked out, she noticed everything was decorated beautifully. She wondered if she was in the Royal Magic Council chambers or if they held her elsewhere. The only time a wizard was allowed in the chambers was if they were being trialled for a crime. Magnus lead her to a large foyer with floor-to-ceiling glass doors. He walked her out and then stopped.
“Here you go, and I am sorry for this inconvenience again.”
“It’s fine. Goodbye, Chairman Magnus.”
“Goodbye, Aowyn.”
As she walked away from the tower of a building, she turned back and Magnus was still standing there and watching her. For some reason, they had set her free. As she waved her goodbye, Aowyn remembered the words said in the meeting chamber. They would set her free, but they would be watching her closely. For some reason, the Royal Magic Council thought she and Joren would want to overthrow them and the king.
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Aowyn needed answers and she needed them now.
* * *
To Be Continued . . .
The Elite Wizard Games (Elite Wizards Chronicles Book 1) Page 15