꧁ Home Among Warriors ꧂

꧁Chapter 20.꧂

Katolis, somewhere in the castle

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Opeli asks as she shuts the spellbook close and hands it back to Claudia. "I have no doubt your father may have had something to do with the assassinations, but are you sure this could have been his doing?"

"The spell requires a special candle made of dragon wax and the ashes of something deceased, the night Florian and his wife were killed, my mom had seen that the "assassin" was carrying a khopesh."

"I was in the tower the night my dad was killed, I did see an elf carrying that weapon you mentioned." Callum adds. "I think I did see the weapons the other elves were carrying, maybe we can ask the other rulers who probably witnessed the attacks to confirm this."

The group luckily had managed to grab Opeli earlier to drag her into a "secret meeting" in the tailor workshop instead of the throne room like they had originally planned, hoping this would be a little more secret and descreet. Damian was more than happy to let them use the workshop for a meeting place as long as they didn't make a mess of it while he left to give them privacy, after leaving them with the spellbook that now had a simple dark brown cover.

"Okay but if Viren was behind all this, what did he have to gain from killing four rulers?" Callum asks as he takes his book back. "It's not like he could have tried conquering the other four, Kasef, Aric, Cira, Silas and Aanya would have fought back if he tried seizing their thrones thinking they were weak without rulers."

"My mom told us that the other four rulers had refused to send armies to fight against a "rising threat" in Xadia, by eliminating the four standing in his way, Viren would have been able to possibly manipulate four newly crowned kings and queens who were all too young to take the throne and make level headed decisions." Claudia explains holding up four of her fingers and began to push them down one by one. "Kasef must have heard from his father about Viren's request and after seeing his father get hurt by a dangerous foe from Xadia, he made the choice of gathering a portion of the Neolandian army and taking it with him because it's what Viren requested - the same thing happened with king Silas and king Aric. And let's not forget that at this time, everyone assumed he was the official regent, when he wasn't."

"So he just manipulated a bunch of new rulers into giving him their armies, right?" Ezran asks, raising his hand. "In doing this, he just had to get rid of the four current rulers and use their families' grief to get what he wanted."

"Sounds exactly like something he would do." Opeli mutters with a frown. "I should have had him executed, he was too dangerous to be left alive. I can't even imagine what he would have done to the kings and queens if they said yes to his request and went with him to Xadia to lead their armies."

"They probably would have faced the same fate as Kasef and those soldiers, turned into a monster of stone and fire." Enya responds with a shrug. "Opeli, what are we going to do now? We just found out that Viren is possibly alive thanks to Callum and Rayla's discovery at the Caped Caldera, should we send word to the Xadian rulers to warn them and be on the lookout for him and Desmond?"

"Wait, he's alive?" Claudia asks in horror and Soren stiffened. "How is that possible? Soren told me that your elf friend knocked him off the top of the Spire, and if my knowledge of Xadia serves me right, that mountain is very high and a drop from it would guarantee a straight path to the afterlife."

"We're not sure, but Rayla told us she saw him in some sort of cocoon when she dove into that space between life and death and saw him open his eyes." Ezran explains. "So it is possible he's still alive, and she left to go find him."

"Ah, that explains her absence." Soren says with a shake of his head. "Shame, I was looking forward to catching up with her, introducing her to my sister, maybe even wiggle in a little sparring match to see who is the better warrior."