8 Mage problems

Mage Ademon had caught a notorious criminal in Wild Wood known under the nickname "Fierce Wind." This outlaw had organized protests against digeniche herb gathering and had worked against the Queen. Now that Ademon had caught him... or rather, *her*... he wanted to use this as an opportunity to be noticed by the Queen. To do so, of course, he would exaggerate the outlaw's crimes and his own contribution accordingly.

Few vampires at all had magical abilities. Ademon had escaped into Allyria when he was young. Thanks to his talent in magic (although it couldn't be compared to Aristhaeus's), he had been recognized. He couldn't stand Aristhaeus, probably because he perceived him as a rival for the Queen's attention. He wanted to show that he was much more reliable.

Meanwhile, Aristhaeus was walking down the corridor, and his thoughts were far from Ademon's. He'd had a very strange dream that night and he kept thinking about it... In his dream, he'd seen a "spirit guardian," a creature said to protect individuals or sometimes whole families or even nations. He'd seen many such spirit guardians before but there was something very unusual about that one... There was an amulet on the spirit's neck. Spirits did not wear jewelry as decoration. It was the source of the spirit's power.

And that was the second strange thing. It was an incredibly powerful spirit guardian. In fact, such spirit guardians simply did not exist... But still there it was... If he hadn't seen it, he wouldn't have believed.

If only there was a way to find out more about this amulet! But he could swear he had never seen or read anything connected to it in the ancient books in the Castle's library. It wasn't even mentioned. How was that possible?

Aristhaeus would look like an average mage if it wasn't for his black cloak, decorated with various unintelligible runic inscriptions as beautiful in their appearance as dangerous in their purpose. Their skillful workmanship revealed they couldn't be the possession of just anybody. The archmage moved quietly, smoothly, almost imperceptibly through the corridors. Yet there was something about his aura which made people either feel uneasy or turn their heads round to stare at him.

When he finally entered the throne room, he seemed to be interrupting something. Ademon was just reporting to the Queen on his success.

Aristhaeus had to say that this morning he'd planned to completely ignore Mage Ademon...~~

But this time, he was really pissed off.~~

Ademon was like an insolent bug, always flying around the Queen, bragging about his successes.

So this time, instead of ignoring him, Aristhaeus decided to add fuel to the fire.

An amusing idea crossed the archmage's mind...

~~Perhaps since you try so hard to get my attention, I should honor you with it.~

Of course, what was entertaining to him was often not so much fun for those around him.

Aristhaeus was very polite. He congratulated Ademon; he praised him in front of the Queen. He suggested he should be rewarded. Ademon did not want to disappoint anyone, so in order to confirm that he deserved the compliments, he added more and more details about Fierce Wind's bad reputation and turned Fierce Wind into an absolute legend.

Finally even Aristhaeus wondered at Fierce Wind's feats. The vivid description of the "dangerous as death" criminal tickled his fancy.

Only Leritte, Aristhaeus's pet eagle, felt something was wrong. When had Aristhaeus ever paid so many compliments to someone, especially Ademon? Sure, a few compliments might be due this time, but...

The archmage revealed his intentions neither in words nor in gestures, and he even managed to look carelessly out the window as if he was absent-minded. The hood of his cloak was down, and so a faint ray of light had ventured to shine on his pale face. It did not make his appearance scary but somehow warmer. The scary part was that the ray permeated through his raven-black hair, and the dark color seemed to become even deeper.

Aristhaeus left the throne room together with his pet.

"Let's go," he whispered to the white eagle.

"Where?" the bird answered telepathically.

"To take care of Fierce Wind, of course. We have to free him before he reaches the Dungeon of the Lost, you know…" he announced.

Finally, Leritte understood the reason for all the compliments. Ademon was so happy and contented that they'd finally caught Fierce Wind… The greater this achievement appeared, the more severely punished and frustrated Ademon would be after he failed...

"So that's the plan? You want to throw Ademon into despair by freeing Fierce Wind? Queen Lyneanne will probably punish him severely for letting such an important captive escape!"

"…Probably."

"But this morning I thought you wanted to ignore Ademon."

"Let's say I just changed my mind. He needs attention so bad."

"What if he… I mean… Fierce Wind is indeed as dangerous as Ademon said?"

"Well… if things begin to look pretty tough, we'll flee," the archmage tried to calm Leritte down.

"I am not kidding. Since when do we patronize the local outlaws?" the eagle bristled with indignation, but once again he was reassured that there was nothing to worry about and that someone would soon catch Fierce Wind again. They both disappeared into thin air.