All of the End

Chapter 02 - Than Never

Igni Ashenworth, the man who was the representative of the magic world in Arkstead and the clan head of the fire mages, jumped up and fell from his seat after he had fallen asleep on his desk when an overwhelming sense of dread rushed over him.

Something had just entered the city, something which could be very dangerous, but what it actually was he had no idea, just a vague sense.

He went to his window and scanned the area and waited for just a moment to see if he could hear anything.

But no, there were no horrified screams of innocent victims being preyed upon by an evil beast nor light coming from the sky as a sign that some being has arrived.

Compared to most, Igni was an excellent sensory mage but even that didn't mean he knew what he was sensing.

He paced around his study.

Only recently he had taken over as leader and that responsibility meant that he had to protect his clan, but he panicked.

"Oh jeez, oh god. What the actual hell am I gonna do?" He thought but then quickly an idea sprang forth, "I know! Guards!" he called to his office.

"Guards, there's- uh..., something or somebody, I dunno, in the market district. Henceforth I order you to contain it, them, he, she, whatever it may be and then... deal with it in a proper manner, yeah. That's the plan. Go, Go! What're you just standing around for?"

The guards left in a hurry.

"Let it be someone else's problem," He laughed to himself, "genius," then he fell asleep on his desk again.

In the streets outside the in the fire mage quarter of the city nothing was out of the ordinary.

Instead there was a raggedy boy looking at a few stalls of fruit, he knew of a few of them. Apples, pears, cherries but also a few he didn't know.

Picking up one, it was green on it's outside but when he oped it it was red on the inside. He bit into pulp and it was very sweet.

The fruit vendor, who was a round, stubby little woman by the name of Asyet, didn't know how to react, normally the fire mages were a very gentle and polite people who would never think to take something that didn't belong to them, "...Eh, I guess you can have that one."

"What kind of fruit is this?"

"Oh, that's a Zino. It's like an orange, much sweeter thought. A delight, I say."

It was her late husband's favorite and she was always sad when looking at one.

The boy also loved the taste of the sweet fruit and perused a few more of them, to the dismay of the woman, until when a few guards came along her way searching for some unknown, were called by the fruit vendor.

"Guards!" She yelled, "could you get young man to stop eating my fruit without paying?"

The guards stopped and look at each other. Their names were Hector, Aliansa and Olp.

They were the personal guard of the Mage Representatives. Dressed in fine but very protective robes of colorful nature just a glint towards their direction made their allegiances and position very clear.

They knew that Master Igni and his mind was not always the clearest, oftentimes so were his commands.

Was this boy the very thing the Master wanted?

Nowhere else in their district was a disturbance, there usually wasn't.

They shrugged. He was as good as anything they could present to the Master

Taking him into custody they kept a sharp eye on the boy in case anything suspicious arose.

Though nothing came off it. To them, and any onlookers, the scene portrayed three grand guards were escorting a shaggy-looking boy to wherever they deemed fit to bring him, but he didn't seem to mind.

Arriving at the seat of the fire mage, which was directly in the center of their quarter, they brought him up to the office, chaining him just beforehand.

The scene that unfolded just a moment before was the Master arguing with a young, redheaded woman, just a few years of age older than our boy.

Whatever the argument had been, only the two of them knew, but their muffled yelling at each other was clear to hear, even with closed doors.

Storming out, the woman almost trampled our boy in her way. She looked at him with passing interest and he at her, before she continued her irate flight out of the office.

Hector, the oldest of the guards, announced that they had found the disturbance.