Part 43

"Jonathan Forsyth," Jonathan replied with surprise. As he spoke, the entire group gasped. Jonathan took this to his advantage, "That's right. I'm the younger brother of Cathy Forsyth, the beast tamer and the leader of the Phoenix Guild. If you mess with Arthur, you'll have to deal with her wrath."

"This little twerp is protected, huh?" Anya muttered with anger. She looked to me, then sighed, "You can join us, but don't think we'd save your ass if you got in trouble. Let's move out, men!"

The twenty or so adventurers that came with Anya and Dave nodded, then made their way to the dungeon entrance. The ten or so adventurers that remained looked to Jonathan as if they were too shocked to do anything else.

Eventually, a few of them snapped out of their daze and turned to face the rest of the raid group. I turned to Jonathan, then said, "So what's the story behind this?"

"Kelvin made a big commotion at the guild," Jonathan sighed as he shrugged his shoulders, "I thought it would be a good chance to run into you again. Of course, Kelvin got lost on the way over, so we've been in the forest for a good eight days now."

"Eight days? How are your parents going to react to that?" I asked. Jonathan looked at me, blinked, then began to sweat from his brow. I smiled nervously, then began to chuckle as I realized what was going on, "They're not aware, are they?"

"No, they're not," Jonathan said. He looked away, his eyes wide with fear, as he said, "It'll be fine. Say, what have you been doing for the last few weeks."

"Training. Mainly with magic," I replied. I looked around and confirmed the absence of the other adventurers, before I turned back to Jonathan and spoke in a hushed voice, "I took a few days to get used to flying. Do you still want to go into the dungeon, or do you want to head back? If we do, I'll have to change the settings to make the Kobolds think I'm an enemy."

"Right, you'll have to be careful with that many people in the dungeon. Wait, settings?" Jonathan nodded. He shook his head to clear his thoughts before turning his attention back to me, "ah, never mind. Why don't we join that big group? I still don't know what the inside of the dungeon is like."

"Sure," I nodded. I turned away from Jonathan, then began to walk toward the entrance. Jonathan joined me at my side while the girls walked together and conversed for the first time in two weeks. Icarus walked in front of us as if he was leading the small pack, with his wings fluttering with pride.

As we walked, I looked back at Jonathan and asked, "What was that you said about your sister? I wasn't aware she had that big of a reputation."

"You mean Cathy? Yeah, she's pretty well known," Jonathan replied, "She lives in the capitol, Arke, right now, so we don't see her very much."

"Arke? Where's that?" I asked. Jonathan looked at me, surprised, then nodded.

"I sometimes forget you're younger than you look. Arke is our capital city. Arke itself is way larger than Hewe and is home to several million residents," Jonathan explained. I turned to him and began listening intently to his words, as he was beginning to explain information I desperately needed, "Hewe and Pyre may look big, but they're some of the smallest cities in the kingdom. Any smaller and we wouldn't even have walls. Along with Arke, there's a few other major cities, but those aren't as important."

"Tell me more," I insisted.

"More? Wow, you really don't know much," Jonathan whistled, shocked, "Well, where to start? I suppose the world itself, Woroch. Woroch is separated into three continents, each separated by a long stretch of sea. The continent we're on, known as Edera, is the largest. The other two are Aihorus and Omealaes, which are situated on the north and south side of Edera."

I nodded, too busy listening to his explanation to notice the lack of conversation behind us. Evelyn and Hazel had begun listening to Jonathan as well, even though they already knew this information.

"There are three nations on Edera," Jonathan continued, "First, the largest, the Aldran Empire, a militaristic state with a strong economy and new history. Of course, they have a major slave problem, but the emperor is slowly changing that. Their emperor, the grandson of the empire's founder, is Johann the Dark. He's a strong mage, but an even stronger leader. Second, the Helstar Theocracy. Out of all the nations, this one is the smallest, but its magical prowess sets them apart from the others. Of course, they're a religiously run state and consider themselves better than any of the other races. Finally, the Kingdom of Cefer Mor, a human-run state. Demi-humans, elves, dwarves, and beastkin aren't even allowed within the borders."

"Which one are we in?" I asked. Jonathan looked at me, then smiled.

"We're in the Aldran Empire," He replied, "It's not nearly as discriminatory as the other two nations, but you'll still find some human supremacist's here. Of course, the laws that have been put in place allow for any race to work their way to the top if they can, but humans are still usually found in a powerful position. It doesn't help that slavery is still legal"

"How old is the empire?" I asked.

"Well, Johann the Dark is eighteen years old," Jonathan replied, surprising me, "His father died when Johann was seven and only had the throne for three years, Johanns had it ever since. The empire's founder and Johann's grandfather, Decimus Nix, died about a decade ago, but was only in power for twenty years."

"Johann took the throne when he was seven?" I gasped, shocked. Jonathan smiled, then nodded.

"It's a thing of pride for the empire's citizens. Of course, he didn't actually start making any changes until he was thirteen. Until he was of age, the empire's nobles got together and voted on any changes, which isn't usually something they do."

"Johann's been in power for eleven years, his father was in power for three, and his grandfather as in power for twenty," I muttered, "So the empire's been around for thirty-four years? It's rather new, then."

"Yeah," Jonathan nodded, "The other nations have rich histories, but the empire barely has any. The founder, Decimus Nix, was a warlord that used a huge army to conquer much of Edera's untamed lands. That's where we are now, on the border of the Aldran Empire and the Helstar Theocracy. Further in the empire, the land gets less fertile and more dangerous."

"What about the other two continents?" I asked. Jonathan shrugged and shook his head.

"No idea. We only know they exist, but nobody's ever managed to cross the ocean to contact them. People have tried, but nobody has ever come back," Jonathan answered.

"Tell me about your sister's guild," I said, changing the topic. Jonathan nodded, then looked back to the cave system as we continued to walk through the dungeon. We had been walking for nearly three minutes now, yet hadn't managed to see anybody else yet. The main raid group, which still numbered over thirty, was nowhere in sight.

"It's called the Phoenix Guild," Jonathan answered, "My sister's super strong, not only because of her high rank and level but also because of her beasts. Beast tamers are rare, but they're limited. All beast tamers can only tame a certain amount of beasts. Sometimes, the stronger beasts take up more than one space, which is the case for my sister."

"So when you say phoenix guild," I muttered. Jonathan nodded once more, then turned to look at me.

"She's tamed a phoenix. That's how she got so powerful and managed to convince the empire to give her a noble title. She doesn't own any land, but her guild is one of the most powerful in the Aldran Empire."