<h4>Chapter 247: The Arcane Assembly.</h4>


    Close to the mystic grove, in a small inn not far from the forest, Five men were holding a meeting around a table that was holding a jar of wine and three tes of roasted venison. The room was closed off with a magic barrier, keeping all sound inside.


    The men were different in appearance but they all shared one thing inmon, a tattoo on their inner wrist. It was a of a swordposed of interlocking runes with a triangle in the middle of the de. Inside the triangle was a me...a flickering ember of fire. Around the triangle was a circle.


    When observed under moonlight, in the middle of the me as an eye, serpentine in appearance, creepy to those that had seen it. Most of course, had not lived to describe the creepiness to others for they had been at deaths door.


    The tattoo was the symbol of an organization that called themselves The Arcane Assembly, a society of secret mages that walked between light and darkness. It existed in three empires so far, one being Medoris. They worshiped the Nyxara, The veiled mother who gave orders through her divine messenger Erythis.


    Their reason for being in Eldoria was one, the Eclipsion sword. It was the same group that had attacked the king and Romilda.


    There was a knock on the door and one man got up to open it. Nyssa, the warlock that led the mission entered the room, drawing back the hood of his cloak.


    She took one look at the jar of wine on the table and frowned. "I told you to stop drinking we must be focused for our mission."


    "Which is proving tougher than anticipated." Malrik, a spellbindermented. "We should have grabbed the old princess and brought her here. Xyra ruined it all for us by melting her brain. Now, the old bitch is useless."


    Xyra, the female mage who was a shadowseer peered at Malrik through the pupils of her pitch ck eyes. "You want to kidnap a princess, go ahead. Just count me out. I ruined her brain because I didn’t want others attempting to read her memories." She defended herself.


    All the mages were on the defensive, wary about failing the mission. Failure always resulted in punishment and Erythis’s punishments were more cruel than any they had ever witnessed.


    "So, what new information do we have? I am eager to leave this small kingdom already, something about it makes me feel uneasy." Veylin, the most silent of them spoke up.


    Aside from being the most silent, he was also the most cautious. Despite all the cautions they had taken to ensure that they were secure, he was looking around, acting jittery.


    Veylin was the kind of mage that liked to live and travel in the shadows. Nothing about him was known by the rest, with the exception of his name and yet he always seemed to know everything about others . He was a secretive man, unseen but ever present.


    He was right to be jittery, for outside, a team of Eldorian mages had been hiding...buried in the snow for two hours, waiting for the leader of the group to arrive. As soon as she arrived, a spell was cast around the inn, keeping everyone from escaping. And people rose out of the snow to do what had brought them to a small town.


    Inside the room, in the meanwhile, an argument had just broken out among the mages, started by Malrik who was drunk.


    It was getting them nowhere so Nyssa sat down and pped the table. "Enough, no more excuses, we shoulde up with another n to infiltrate the royal castle. Whether we take a princess as hostage or...."


    The door burst open suddenly, rming the mages who were not expecting another guest. They also didn’t expect Eldorian knights to catch up to them. Even Eldorian mages were not strong enough to track down them as they had more knowledge on magic and veiling themselves aspared to these mages in a small kingdom that had never seen the world.


    "Escape." Nyssa hissed to the rest.


    A sword pierced through her before she could take a step. Alistair, Mauve, Sigrid, Rnd, Cosmos, Elowin and the Lord mage entered the room. Their familiars came along with them.


    Cosmos waved a hand, freezing the strange mages and Alistair went around, putting magic-forged handcuffs around their necks and and hands. Weightless but unbreakable chains from the handcuffs engulfed the bodies of the strange mages, blocking their ess to all magic.


    Void, Rnd’s panther dragged them out and ced them onto the back of Sigrid’s griffin, Viper. The panther shrunk in size as well, climbed aboard and the griffin soared to the skies, transporting the prisoners the the mage estate’s prison.


    The prison had been built under the guidance of Sigrid and Cosmos but it had never been used. The strange mages would be its first guests. Everyone else sat on the back of Mauve’s moth and it soared to the skies as well.


    In the small town, where a mage had not been seen in thest fifteen year, residents were astonished. Not only had they met the Lord mage but they had seen the Crown prince and Princess.


    Those that had phones, called others to let them know what they had witnessed.


    That evening, Rnd was in a celebratory mood after capturing the killer of his father and he decided to sleep outside. He considered it a surprise for Sigrid who oftenined about hisck of a romantic bone. His men built arge tent in the royal courtyard-rge enough to amodate fifty grown men.


    The ground was covered with thick carpets and soft animals furs. Crystalmps lit with magic crystals were hung up, drinks, dinner and desert were made avable in the tent.


    When Sigrid was taken into the tent, blindfolded, she was surprised.


    "I will be damned, you do have a romantic bone in you after all." sheughed.


    "Is it better than a kiss under the hedges?" he asked.


    She replied by pushing him down on the soft fur and pressing her lips to his Adam’s apple. Without words, she showed him how much she appreciated the gesture. After dinner, she fell asleep very quickly, holding him tightly as she hade to do on most nights that they spent together. He soothed her back, snickering when she wrapped her legs around him even more like she was afraid he would run from her.


    In moments like this, when she was honest and vulnerable, he loved her even more. During the day, especially around the nobles and in public, she was like a hedgehog on high alert. At night, when it was just them two, she let down her spikes and became a well behaved kitten.


    He kissed her cheek and whispered, "I love you."


    Sigrid pushed his face away and muttered, "No Sunny, bad."


    Rndughed and touched her brows, easing the frown that he had caused by disturbing her sleep. He drew her closer and closed his eyes, listening to the sound of her breathing and gentle falling of snow.