1 The Foreigner

Two young priests knocked on the door of a smithy. To be precise, they were not yet true priests; they were still only priests in training hence why they were here to collect taxes for the Church as a test of their character.

Having priest-apprentices alone on a job that handles money would be unwise, so there was an older priest following them. He was making sure they were doing their jobs properly, observing them from the distance. If they decided to steal some of the collected money, they would be hanged. Normally, money would be collected from nobles, but Blackhorn kingdom was temporarily an exception, in order to properly apply pressure on the people who were unwilling to accept the Church.

"Open up, we are collecting taxes for the Church." said the taller one while he knocked on the door once more.

The door finally opened. From the inside of the house, its owner came out, an older blacksmith, one of the important members of the local blacksmith guild. From behind of him, a young woman was staring over his shoulder. The blacksmith looked at both priest apprentices with disdain, but it was obvious he did not fear them. He believed he would be safe because of his connections.

"I pay my taxes to my guild and to the king, why should I pay to you as well? I don't go to your temple, and I have enough of the arrogance of you and your church. You arrived at the kingdom just a few months ago and yet you are already acting like you own everything here. Others might fear you, but I do not."

The shorter of the two trainee priests sighed. Another person that openly stated his disbelief. All who would not bow down to the Church had to be removed. Now, they had to escort him to the prison and in the next few days, he would be executed. The Blackhorn Kingdom has given the Church authority to do so. Well, not like they could choose. If the decision was his, he would let it be, but sadly, there was an elder priest observing them, so they couldn't do so.

Moreover, his comrade did not look like he would be willing to let this be even if there was no one observing them. He was much more zealous in his belief. He belonged to the group of people that, if they were to have enough talent, would become part of inquisition, and if they lacked the necessary talent would still become inquisition's dogs. The shorter priest trainee believed that his comrade belonged to latter. The tall apprentice was already opening his mouth to preach something to the blacksmith, but suddenly, another voice spoke from behind them.

"Might I ask what is going on here?" asked the newcomer.

Both priest-apprentices of the Church turned around and their sight landed on a young man in foreign clothing, He had black hair, was about twenty years old, not much younger than them and was wearing a long black cape with mysterious red symbols neither of them recognized over a black robe. It was obvious he was a foreigner, yet his language was on the level of a native speaker, lacking any accent. He was supporting himself with a long wooden stick that was probably of magical origin.

"These bandits want their protection money, that's what is going on. Oppressing king's people and stealing their money, simply because they're too strong." answered the outraged blacksmith first, before they could say anything.

The expression of the youth changed. He started emitting a scary aura that made both the young priest-apprentices step back.

"Good citizen, worry not for I shall protect you!" the youth said archaically and with a swift step, he moved between the blacksmith and the two priests.

"What a day, to think we would meet two heretics here. Tomorrow, there will be nice roasting, don't you think?" said the taller young priest. The shorter one only sighed again.

At that moment, however, the older priest who was observing the two juniors and hiding until this moment stepped out and entered the scene.

"Young sir, I don't think you are doing a wise thing. I have no idea where you fare from, but we are not some bandits, we belong to the Church. That heretic is rejecting to pay the taxes to the Church."

"Heretic? Church? I don't understand the meaning of those words." said the young man with a hint of confusion in his voice and then he took out a book.

"They are not even in the dictionary." he said after a moment.

The old priest groaned. He did not like this job. And he certainly didn't want to fight against a magician who has randomly interfered without any understanding of the situation, regardless of how young and unskilled that magician was, but right now, it was important to suppress anyone who dared to question their authority.

"I am warning you for the last time. Stand away from that heretic and let us do our job, else we shall also declare you a heretic." he tried to threaten the youth.

"I will not move." stated the young magician.

At that moment, the tall young priest-apprentice decided to attack with magic. He collected a ball of light in his palm and sent a beam of light against the young foreigner. But young foreigner calmly smiled at the beam of light and made it disperse with a simple gesture.

The old priest gulped. He realized that he has met an enemy way above his abilities. He did not even bother to try casting any spell and immediately started running away. But before he could even make five steps, he felt a palm touching the back of his head.

"Sleep, old fool." he heard a silent voice as his vision blacked out and so did his consciousness. Meanwhile, the tall young priest trainee realized his mistake and was already running away in the opposite direction. Luckily for him, foreigner did seem anything but interested in chasing him. Instead, he looked at the short young priest.

"Young boy, you don't look like an evil person. Why would you work with criminals like these?" the magician chastised the young apprentice.

The young apprentice of the Church was still stunned. What he has seen has scared him a lot. None of his thoughts was focused on the fact that magician who was probably even younger than him called him 'young boy'.

"I... I..." he tried to answer, but his tongue betrayed him.

Ignoring the young priest, blacksmith laughed.

"Thank you very much, mister foreigner." he said. However, the young magician had a dark expression on his face.

"These are not all of them, are they?" he asked as he turned to the blacksmith.

"No, there are about fifty of these rats in this city." answered the blacksmith with dissatisfaction.

"Where could I find their residence, then?"

"There." the blacksmith pointed towards the main square. "They have a temple on the main square. It's a large ivory white building with a big symbol of a golden droplet, same as they have on their clothes."

"In that case, good citizen, I will have to go. It seems to me like there is work waiting for me to do." said the young magician as he started walking towards the main square and the temple of the Church.

***

"And despite all the warnings the Church has issued, this heretic, not belonging to any official magic organization, used magic without the approval of the Church. For her transgression, she will now be burned at the stake." declared the old priest in charge of the execution. Protecting him from the angry crowd of people, ten younger priests were holding magic barrier with the help of their magic staves.

Firewood was ignited and slowly, the air was filled with a scream of a young woman, or some would say a girl still. At that time, the young foreigner finally arrived at the scene.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asked.

"Those bastards are executing a young girl." said the woman who was standing a bit away.

"What did the girl do to deserve that?" asked the foreigner with a voice filled with anger.

"She used magic and alchemy without the Church's approval, in order to create remedies for people." she answered.

"Church again." repeated young man with angrily and then he dashed towards the barrier. His hand was covered in a grey smoke-like magic, as he punched into it, completely shattering the barrier. He then rushed towards the girl at inhuman speed, leaving all the mages of the Church confused. While he was on the move, he summoned grey smoke magic that extinguished the fire in a single second and then he suddenly appeared out of thin air right next to the unconscious girl and untied the ropes that were restricting her. The young mage touched her forehead and the burns on her body started disappearing.

"Who are you and how dare you interrupt the execution?!" exclaimed the outraged old priest.

"You damned bastards. Extorting people for money is one thing, but to think that you are also child murderers... How dare you?" said the angry young mage.

The old priest, unable to understand what was going on didn't know what to do. Therefore, he chose the easiest option.

"What are you doing? Attack him!" he turned to the ten younger mages of the church, who were confused at the moment.

Being used to follow orders, when they heard the old priest's words, their confusion was instantly gone. All ten of them attacked at once. It was easy to see that each of them was much stronger than the young priest-apprentice who previously attacked the young mage. However, not even their combined power was enough to penetrate the magic barrier that the young mage wearing a black cape raised to his defence. The old priest supported their offence with his own magic attack, but even with his addition, the barrier stubbornly resisted and didn't break.

All eleven of them stayed on the offensive, throwing spells against the shield, but suddenly, the angry mob no longer held apart from them by a barrier attacked them from behind. Before they could react, it was already too late to react. Angry people, having their sanity suppressed by anger hit and attacked Church's mages with everything they had. Only the old priest, who stood further away from the crowd managed to avoid their retribution. But he did not manage to escape retribution of the young foreigner. In a blink of an eye, the young mage closed the distance between them and touched his forehead. The old priest felt his magic energy escape out of his body as it completely vanished in a single moment. He could do nothing, not even move, his body was not responding to his will.

"Burn." said the young magician and suddenly, the priest felt like his whole body was on fire. On his skin, burn marks appeared. He couldn't breathe as if there was smoke in his lungs, even though there was no real fire around. After just a few seconds, the young mage removed his hand from his forehead and released him so that he could move again.

"That was only a mild taste of what you made her suffer through. Was it not for my distaste for blood, I would kill you where you stand." said the young mage. The old priest fell to his knees and coughed, trying to breathe. The young mage turned back to the girl and carried her through the crowd.

Two women and one man followed him until he carried her out. Then they took the girl from him.

"She will probably not wake up until the night fades. Her body and mind went through a terrible shock. Bring her to safety, and in the meantime, I will handle the rest."

The man, kneeling next to the girl turned to him with tears in his eyes.

"I... thank you... you saved my daughter... I don't know how to thank you enough." the man said crying in joy that his daughter was alive.

"It is my duty to help those who are too weak to help themselves. As for your wish to thank me, I only want to know one thing. What can I expect in the pit of these snakes?" asked the young foreigner.

"Their temple is residence to about fifty mages of the Church. But you've already dealt with eleven of them." answered the father of the girl.

The young foreigner sighed. There was no new information.

"You should be careful since there is a delegation from the Inquisition visiting. Mages of the Inquisition are the most dangerous ones. They are a group of nine mages and they are really terrifying... you will easily recognize them." the man warned him with visible concern for his safety.

Without any more words, the young mage once more started walking towards the temple that was now in his plain sight. A small distance behind him, the angry crowd followed.

Mob madness was over and those priests who somehow survived started crawling to safety, hoping to get as far from the angry mob as possible.