Chronicles of a Mage, Book One

Chapter 23: Arrested

With our new weapons (I hid my knife in my wrist sheath and Mathra had his scabbard hanging from his waist, as usual) we walked into the cathedral, and what do you know? The archbishop and 5 of the holy guards were standing there, wearing their white and gold armour and adorned with the symbol of the church, the flaming sword.
"I knew you were going to be trouble the moment I laid eyes on you, mage. And to think that you would be in league with him as well, Mathra." The archbishop stated
"Archbishop. To what do I owe this fine pleasure?" I said as calmly as possible, despite my legs shaking.
"Don't play coy with me! I know what you've been doing! I so graciously give you a place to stay and heal your wounds and what do you do? You contact devils, and Yishna knows what other foul rituals you have performed, here in the goddess' own cathedral! I will not stand for this!" Dedaim shouted angrily. He wasn't wrong about the part where I contacted a devil, though it's more accurate to say I was the one being contacted. Devils usually aren't as feared or hated as demons but they are viewed with a certain amount of distrust, especially in a church that worships the queen of heaven. A mage contacting a devil would certainly raise an eyebrow or two. But does he know I've been talking to one?
"Contacting a devil? I've done no such thing." 
"Spare me the second rate theater. We have proof of your crimes. I have seen the runes carved in your room, it is obvious." Runes? I genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. Could it be that someone fabricated incriminating evidence against me while I was out of my room? "Seize them both" before I was able to complete my thoughts however,  the guards came up to us and put our hands in shackles. They had an apprehensive look in their eyes when they ordered us to follow them. As we followed the two guards I looked back at the crowd that was staring at us. There were a mix of emotions. Some shocked, some apathetic, but there was one orange haired girl who had a look of outrage.

"This sucks! I was so excited to go to prison but nope! It's just a few empty cells. Where are all the gangs with tattoos on their arms!?" Eeuna was going on about her hopes of having prison tattoos and gang riots, but she was sorely disappointed. We were in the dungeon of the grand cathedral, but it was really just a room with a cell in one corner. The only furnishings was a window with sunlight beaming through and a wooden bench. Oddly enough, there were no guards here, but it's not like anyone needs to guard this place anyway. To my right on was Mathra who was sleeping, his rapier lying on the ground outside the cell
"That's just delusional." I said matter-of-factly
"Just think about it. Can't tattoos make mages more powerful?"
"Well yes, but magic tattoos are a rare and dangerous art. Besides, we'd need to find someone capable of-" I suddenly hushed my voice and stood up as I heard footsteps "wait, someone's coming."
Then, a hooded figure wearing purple robes walked into the room with a key in his hand and turned to look at me. For some reason, where his face should've been I saw only darkness.
"The archbishop has need of your aid" He then opened the cell door with his key
"Very well" I said, as he unlocked my shackles "What about him?"
"He'll be left there for the time being. Now follow me" He then turned around and started walking. Wait a minute, he's being awfully careless. He just took off my shackles and now he's not even looking at me.
"Guess I'll take advantage of this" I thought as I quickly tried to put him in a headlock. Tried being the key word, as where I should've felt a person I only felt thin air and the robed figure then disappeared. I then heard the sound of fabric moving and saw a faint sliver of movement on the other side of the room. I was always ready for an ambush in the sewers, so I reflexively drew my dagger (which the guards didn't notice when they arrested me. The security in this place is worse than I thought) and simultaneously raised my arm to cast a flame shot. The flame instantly shot from my hand and hit the other end of the room, scattering as it hit the brick wall. Then a familiar crackle of freezing air narrowly missed my face. "Wait that was a frost snipe" I thought again. In retaliation I shot another ball of flame, which didn't hit whoever was hounding me but came close, as something caught fire and as if out of nowhere, the very same hooded figure appeared but this time I could see his face. This guy was definitely a magic user of some kind and from my own experience the best way to fight a magic user is to get up close and ruin their concentration. Knowing this, I charged at him with my dagger. At the same time he casted a spell, creating 4 images of himself around him. I slashed at him with my knife but he jumped back and casted a frost snipe which I avoided. My next few attacks should have hit him, but I hit his mirror images instead which then flicked and disappeared, leaving only 2 images. He shot another frost snipe at me so I ducked back and casted thunder jolt, dazing him for a few seconds. In the split second, I slashed his leg. The man stumbled and fell, giving me time to recite the chant to my glue spell and pin his extremities to the stone floor.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Tell me or I'll cut you up" off course, I wasn't actually going to kill him. I may have been killing monsters for the past few weeks but this is different. This is an actual person who can think, feel and be reasoned with. My uncle always told me that my magic is an incredible source of power, but I should never use it to become a tyrant and bully others. Besides, this person is clearly more than meets the eye and I'm almost certain that this was the cause of the blur of movement I saw in Dedaim's office. Could it be that this man was impersonating Yishna to manipulate the archbishop?
"My name is unimportant as I serve the dark god Zaleu. Zaleu will soon rise again!" Wait who is Zaleu? There are many dark deities which aren't worshiped openly (at least not in this country) but I have never heard of Zaleu. Before I could continue my thoughts however, there was a crunch sound and the man started foaming at the mouth before he quickly stopped breathing. A pulse check revealed the man was dead. It seems he consumed some sort of poison to avoid interrogation.
"*sigh* Well I believe the church of Yishna is about to experience a coup. I should go help those People. But before that, I'd like to go somewhere else"
"And that is?" Eeuna said
"My room." I answered