New Age

Only a month had passed since Otorn took the council of mages with him to the grave. Yet news travels fast especially when it involves the death of all of the strongest known mages. The order of mages had fallen apart. Many mages were deep in the power struggle to fill the suddenly empty council. But the council had only seven seats and the infighting to claim a seat on the council lead to even more deaths. Be they honest in the form of a duel, or in the shadows of night. The assassin guild suddenly had many anonymous clients requesting various influential high ranking mages be silenced.

An albino man with white hair, red eyes, and a lean build smiled as he read a stack of papers. He was known as Ghoststrike given to him by the kings guard after a particularly successful week of killing. He was the assassins guilds pride. And he had three new contracts for three ambitious mages. Ghoststrike loved killing mages not only because those contracts always brought in the most gold, but he loved the way their arrogant faces would fill with fear as they saw their end nearing.

The capital of this kingdom is Remore, it is near Veoson but where Veoson is home most of the lands mages due to the council, Remore is home to the majority of the lands knights as the king resides there. Though in the last few weeks due to the high number of killings many mages fled Veoson for safety.

The lord of Veoson wrote a letter detailing the recent news to the king and gave it to his most trusted and experienced knight to deliver to the king, he had to be made aware of the current situation.

The sun had set by the time the knight arrived with the letter, and was only granted access to the the inner city within Remore due to his status.

The kings stewards forehead was slick with sweat. When the knight had arrived long after the palace had settled to sleep for the night demanding the king receive his letter immediately and not in the morning he knew it would not go well. He'd managed to convince the knight that if the king was to be awakened in the middle of the night it would be better if by himself than a knight for Veoson. The knight relented and went to the barracks where knights and soldiers from other cities slept.

The steward held his candle in one hand and the sealed letter in the other and softly knocked on the door to the Kings chambers. When there was no response he knocked louder. He heard a muffled curse and his throat went dry. He knew as far as Kings go his would be considered benevolent but that didn't mean he would be pleased to be woken in the middle of the night.

The door opened to a half asleep king

"This had best be important "

"Your majesty, a knight arrived within this last hour and demanded you read his lords letter immediately"

"He demanded! If this letter does not merit immediate action I'll put him in a cell for the fortnight and raise his lords taxes"

The steward only handed him the letter in response. The king broke the seal and read the letter the the stewards candle light. His face changed from sleepy and pissed to confusion, to worry. Then he rolled to letter up

"Gather all my lords who are in the city, have them report to my throne room within the hour"

The king turned back into his chamber and closed his door. The steward was baffled. What could the letter have said that would demand a meeting with all of the lords in the middle of the night? He ran through the corridors to the nearby barracks and banged the door open to the sleeping area. Using his candle to light as many lanterns as there were in the outer chamber he yelled

"Attention guards you are all responsible for having the lords brought to the throne room"

Once the guards realized this was an emergency they were out of bed and dressed in tunics and boots in minutes. The steward divided them up and sent them running.

The king dressed slowly as to not wake his wife. And headed for his throne room noticing there were additional guards patrolling the corridors.

Sitting in his throne he pulled out the scroll and re read the letter to make sure he hadn't misread anything. Looking up as lords arrived and seated themselves at his war table. Gods he hoped there wouldn't be a war. With as much chaos going on his kingdom would not be able to defend against an invasion.

Once all the lords were seated in various levels of clothing he put the scroll down

"My lords, I have grave news. Though this is the first I am hearing I am sure some of you are aware of it, at least to a small degree. The mages council has fallen. We do not know how. But I'm their absence the mages have gone into complete chaos dueling in the streets and hiring assassins. With no higher power to answer to it is getting out of control."

"Your highness, I thought we had a tight leash on the mages, why don't we tighten it. Make a few examples and the rest will fall in line"

"That worked when the council was supporting us and understood that the kingdom and order of mages would rise and fall together. But now.. I cannot see the mages falling in line. The mages have fled Veoson regardless. And I hear this is for the worse as other city's and villages are not able tor restrain rogue mages. The lord of Veoson has even heard whispers that the forbidden Magic's have returned."

Silence cut through the throne room, so quiet that some of the lords must have stopped breathing.

"So we hunt down the rogues, and regain order!" One of the younger lords yelled, almost as if the sound were a comfort to the horrid truth they'd just learned.

"Unfortunately, that is the only thing we can do, my lords we have just entered a new age, a darker age and I pray to the gods it is a short one."

The lords nodded in deep thought, each mentally processing the news and what they would have to do to cut the losses.

"You're all dismissed, those of you who have lands to return to, return with haste for it may not be the same as you left it."

The lords who had lands looked the most worried and quickly rushed out followed by the rest. Each of them had many preparations to make. The king signaled his head guard who had slipped in and was standing by the door.

"Tell you men to be on high alert. In the morning send every guard we can spare to their new station in the nearby farmlands, if mages start burning our crops we'll be in real trouble"

The guard nodded and left, the king stood and approached the war table which was covered with a map of the kingdom he inherited from his father. Looking it over to begin planning which cities he could afford to lose to rebel mages and which he need to fortify.