The first thing Rild heard when he woke up in the middle of the night was the rain beating against the glass of his window. The young mage sat up on his bed and stretched his arms. His robe was neatly folded next to him. Rild did not even touch as he felt he would soon fall asleep again. The young mages stretched as he started to examine his reconstructed body.

Rild closed his eyes and started to inspect his body more thoroughly with the help of his soul. He could feel the pure magical energy coursing through his veins. The purifications of his blood brought him quite a lot of benefits. From now on, his spells would be more in synch with the magical energy of the world, which in turn would make them stronger without him needing to supply additional magical energy from his inner reservoir.

Next, he looked at the balance of the elements in his body. Although he could not do it as precisely as when he swallowed the magic essence, he could still feel a faint feeling of balance throughout his body. Rild smiled with happiness since this was the main reason for visiting the mansion.

At last, he went into his soul hall. He needed to examine his souls in order to find out why they suddenly developed a „splitting resistance“, as his teacher called it. After a while, though, he had to give up. No matter how he looked at his multiple souls, he could not find anything that would differentiate them from a normal one. They weren't more materialized, nor were they harder or more robust in any way. They were simply normal souls.

Disappointed, the young mage let out a sigh. He would need to examine this problem further since he could not start opening gates of magic until his soul was split into eight parts. For now, he could do nothing about it, so he decided to focus his attention on other things.

“Bez,” he whispered in a silent voice.

The earth spirit immediately appeared next to him with a bowl of steaming soup in his hands. Bez handed the bowl to Rild without saying a word. Rild felt a wave of hunger wash over him and slowly ate it. Bez waited patiently until Rild finished the soup and would begin talking. The young mage put the now-empty bowl onto the small bedside table standing next to his bed.

“I think we need to have a talk,” he said in a calm voice to the spirit. Bez just looked at him expressionlessly as he waited for him to continue.

“I can not imagine about what,” the spirit answered with a deadpan expression after a while when Rild, who was clearly waiting for an answer, did not talk.

Rild just looked at the spirit for a few moments before understanding dawned upon him. He nodded once again, laid on the bed, and closed his eyes. Bez disappeared nearly immediately.

Rild controlled his breathing in order to pretend to be asleep. After five minutes, Bez appeared once again next to him.

“Did you isolate us this time? Why not do it immediately?” asked Rild as he once again sat up.

“Because I am an earth spirit. Although I can use the space crystal in the mansion, it is still not my native element. It takes far too much strength to make it do something outside of its core directives,” answered the earth spirit annoyed. ”It would be too strenuous for me to isolate your room to prevent eavesdropper continuously since I did not know when you would wake up. You could have woken up after a week or so!”

“Fair enough. How long was I out?”

“About two days.”

“I see. Well, let us talk about some things. Especially about how you probably know something about the lost artifact of the worldmages and did not tell us about it.”

“What makes you think I know something?” asked Bez innocently as he tried to use his childish form to garner sympathy from the frowning Rild.

“Cut it! Do you think I believe it is a coincidence that the manor appeared before me and the others just after the fairy told me about the golden blood of their royal family? The same golden blood which apparently belongs to the so-called golden guardian? The one you mentioned when criticizing me?” asked Rild, irritated. “To be honest, I do not remember you EVER mentioning something like this. In all the years we lived here together, that was the first time you did it. It was obvious because you wanted me to know that you know something about it.”

Bez did not reply and just continued to look at Rild with a pitiful expression for a few moments before just dropping it and reverting back to nonchalance. The spirit just continued to be silent as he looked at Rild, clearly waiting for him to speak once again.

“Well, spit it out! Why have you not told us about it? Why now?”

The earth spirit just sighed and shook his head.

“The most important thing is that you know about it. You know that the royal fairies have the blood.”

“And why exactly are you not willing to tell me something about the artifact connected to the blood? Is it not the whole point of me knowing about it in order to find it?”

Bez half smiled as he looked at the agitated Rild in front of him.

“Not even remotely. I do not give even the slightest damn about the cursed artifact you all are so obsessed over. You will need their blood for something different. As for why I do not tell you anything about the artifact, the answer is because I was asked not to by someone I deeply respect, and more importantly, I do not wish to see the damned thing ever again. If I could rewrite time to prevent it from ever being created, then, believe me, I would do so.”

Rild looked surprised at the spirit in front of him. He did not expect Bez to react with so much anger when he spoke about the artifact. It was obviously something he did not want to talk about. Rild decided not to push any further at this moment but decided that he will get the answers he wants from the spirit sooner or later. Instead, he decided to ask about something different.

“By someone you deeply respect? Who exactly is it? Who is it that can make you withhold this information from me?”

The expression of Bez immediately turned serious when he heard that question. For a moment, he was debating with himself whether he should answer the question or not.

“The first, second, and third worldmage,” he finally said.

Rild did not expect this. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. At first, he believed he misheard what Bez said. Rild never thought deeply about how old Bez was since he believed, it was not very important. Most spirits were born out of an element and merged back with it after a millennium or two, so Rild thought that Bez was at most a thousand years old.

“Bez... How old are you exactly?” he asked curiously.

“I am old Rild. I was already beyond ancient when your order formed. That is all you need to know,” answered the spirit in a tone indicating that he will not answer any more questions on this topic.

“Then... Do you know how the scar came to be? If you served the first worldmage, then you should know it right?” Rild excitedly asked. If the worldmages knew how the scar was created, then they would also know, in which direction they should research, to close it off permanently.

Bez simply nodded to Rild's question. Seeing this Rild was absolutely ecstatic. That would probably be the greatest bit of knowledge the worldmages have obtained since their founding. Unfortunately, his mood turned sour after mere moments.

The young mage looked at the silent earth spirit in front of him and asked with a cautious voice in the hope he was wrong.

“You can not tell us, right? Or else you would have done so already.”

Bez nodded in response.

“Don't you find it somehow strange that your predecessors have not written down why the scar even appeared?” asked Bez the young mage. “And even if I told you how the scar was made, none of you would be able to close it. That is simply not something that a human is capable of.”

Rild thought about it for a few moments. He thought that the worldmages did not know about how the scar appeared. Rild presumed that the worldmages came into existence when the goddess needed someone to watch it over it, but according to Bez, this was not the case. The first worldmages appeared to know more about the scar than he thought.

“What is preventing you from telling it to me?”

“I made a few oaths I regret now. As you know, a spirit is bound by oaths. Back then, we thought they were necessary, but now we know that they are a stupid burden that prevents us from doing what must be done. On the other hand, there are some things that you should not know at your current level of power. Knowing you, you would disregard everything and dive headfirst into the chaos that is brewing right now.”

“I have a few questions. First: We? Who are the others? Second: I presume the chaos you are talking about are not the eaters since I am going to deal with them one way or another. So what is it? And third is the most important one: Are you on my side?” asked Rild as anger began to rise in his voice.

“I can answer two of the questions completely and the other not fully,” said the earth spirit.”The 'we' refers to me and the other ancient lords of the elements. At least those who are still alive. Sadly by now, only me, water, and fire remain. I can not tell you about the chaos. Let me just tell you that the one behind the invasion started to grow impatient and made some deals with someone from this world to get what he wants.”

“Can you at least tell me who that person made the deals with?”

“No. I can only tell you about this because you already know and suspect it. If you were in the dark, then my oath would forbid me from even mentioning it.”

Rild started thinking about what the earth spirit just said. After roughly a minute, he raised his eyebrows and asked in an annoyed voice.

“The church? Did they finally stop pretending to serve the goddess and fully betrayed her?”

Bez smiled and nodded. Then he shook his head.

“The church is also one of the forces that struck a deal, but while the church is one of your problems, there is another one who made a deal, and you can believe me Rild when I say, that one is far more dangerous and troublesome than the church or anything else you can imagine. You will need to surpass how you were before dying and be at your strongest if you want to be able to face that person. Most likely, he is the one who is controlling the eaters of this invasion.”

Rild sighed heavily and fell backward onto his bed. Things just got a lot more complicated. While he already knew that the eaters were only the servants of a higher power, he hoped that the one controlling them this time was at least on the other side of the scar. Now he found out that the person in control is from this side. Someone who lived in this world, and made some sort of deal with the one behind the eaters. This someone is also strong enough for Bez to say that Rild needed to surpass his previous self to challenge that person.

“And about my third question?” he asked the earth spirit without standing up to face him once again.

“I am completely and utterly on your side for as long as you try to protect the world.”

“Thank you,” said the young mage sitting up once again. ”Also. You seem to know something about the staff, or else you would not have taken it when you fought against Agatha.”

“Let me just tell you that in all my extremely long life, you are the third person who wielded something like this. And the fourth one is to receive a blessing like the one when it helped you reconstruct your body. The last one was... one of your predecessors. It was a long, long time ago.”

“So you are not going to tell me what that thing is. I should have known since you started to be secretive for some reason. At least I know that it is not malicious to me.” Rild yawned as he laid down once again.

Bez just disappeared without answering, leaving the young mage to once again slip into his dreams.

–

The next morning Rild asked Neln about the kind eater he encountered and decided it was already documented in the last invasion. This species was like an extremely big and fat snake with mouths across its entire body. Its weakness was the segments between the mouths, but the problem was that even if you cut the snake in half, the part with the head will continue to try to eat you until you cut the head itself into pieces. This kind of eater can survive more but is still very susceptible to magic.

The problem was that it symbolized the start of the second wave. 

Last time there was one specifically troublesome eater in the second wave.

It was a pretty small ball of flesh with teeth, and unlike the other species, the teeth were on the outside, which made the eater look like a fleshy morning star without the handle. That type of eater was their first long-range fighter. The ball could shoot his outside teeth at an alarming speed, and these teeth were extremely sharp, and the force of their ejection was enough to tear plate armor to shreds. Luckily they would lose all their force if they hit a magical shield. Although it was a problem, Rild did not think the world would not be able to adapt to it. His worries were because the second wave started way sooner than it did the last time. This meant the third one would also start sooner. The third wave had eaters, which were immune to some kinds of magic, and Rild did not even think for a moment that the one who was controlling them this time, will not use this to attack and weaken the mage families. For Rild, who wanted to use them, this was not good news. 

The young mage started preparing for the journey south. He decided he was going to get the shadow ring first. It was not that important for himself, but he could still use it until he reached the fourth gate of darkness after which it would become useless to him. Rild decided he would give the Ring to Tyler afterward, just to mess with him, since the priest was someone using light magic.

“Hey Bez, about the cart with the horses we left behind in order to get into the mansion before it disappeared...” Rild asked the spirit, who helped him pack the rations for the journey.

“Of course, I got them into the barrier,” answered Bez while cutting dried meat into slices.”They are in the barn.”

“We have a barn?”

“Of course we do. Where do you think all your food comes from? Master used the space crystal to create a subspace, which I am using to plant food and raise animals.”

Rild stopped what he was doing and looked at the spirit incredulously.

“There is a subspace here?”

“Yes, there is. You ignored it when your teacher told you about it because there was nothing magical in there. It is purely agricultural and not that big.”

“Still, don't you need at least to open the sixth gate of space to open up a subspace? Master Sen did not reach that level.”

“True, but he had an extremely rare space attributed crystal and Atsurio to help him. Even then, he only managed to open a pretty small space which can only be used for agriculture.”

“Ok, I can see how that might work, but why are you doing the agricultural work? You are a lord of earth!”

Bez looked at Rild with disbelief.

“I am an earth spirit. Agriculture is literally one of my core domains. I rule over the earth that nurtures both the plants and the animals that eat those plants.”

“What about the animals eating those animals?”

“Not my problem. Hunting is more winds responsibility.”

The young mage and the spirit continued their small talk as they continued preparing rations. Rild did not need to help Bez, but he helped the earth spirit simply because he enjoyed his company. After a few hours, when they were finishing up, Bez tensed up.

“Problems arrived,” he said with an annoyed face.

“Something you can not handle? Don't forget we have two high-ranked mages as a backup.”

“No. It's just... annoying,” the spirit answered with a frown “It's one of the kingdom's princelings. If it were the second or third prince, it would not be a big problem, but the one arriving is the fourth prince. I will get Neln and pretend this mansion belongs to the mage families. But, for the sake of the golden guardian: DO NOT LET HIM SEE THE FAIRY! The moron is, completely and utterly, controlled by his dick!”

“How do you know all this?”

“Because I want to know on whose land I am teleporting around,” said the spirit while rolling his eyes at Rild's question. ”Just to know when I have to run away to protect the mansion and... Oh crap...” The spirit's face changed immediately to worry. ”The fairy just went outside to catch some fresh air. I need to find help as soon as possible!”

Saying this, the spirit immediately disappeared. Rild furrowed his brows as he thought about the implications of a prince visiting the mansion. He did not want to get into alterations with royals as long as he was inside the kingdom and as weak as he was right now. He would have no problems if he was powerful enough to just burn them all to the ground, but this moment was still far in the future.

–

Samuel Triant was the second son of one of the two ducal houses of the Kingdom of Sulios. With his brother being the primary heir to the household, Samuel had little chance of inheriting his father's estate. The only way would be if his brother was not suitable enough to do so, but this was not the case. Samuel knew that if he tried to compete with his brother, it would only split and weaken the ducal house, which in turn would only benefit the other noble houses, who always wished to weaken his family in order to expand their own power. Knowing this, Samuel decided to simply accept a lower position in the royal court and take a government post instead of fighting with his brother. Although he did not receive a position as a minister as he hoped, he did receive one as the aide of one of the princes.

Unfortunately, the prince he was assigned to, was the worst of the lot by far. He was a moronic troublemaker, whose only concern was on how to bed the next best girl and on how to best drink himself under a table. The prince, named Warton, was notorious in the capital for his behavior. He openly abused his position as a prince in order to blackmail and oppress anyone who spoke out against him or tried to defy him. Although he was not the crown prince, he was the favorite child of the Queen. She wanted to give him the successor position instead of her oldest daughter, but it was impossible since he made an enemy of most if not all of the important noble houses by harassing their daughters, and it would most likely lead to a rebellion once he ascended the throne. Even now, most of the noble houses tried their best to suppress him.

This time, they took their horses and rode out in order to visit the mansion, which was discovered by a patrol two days ago. Samuel knew that this mansion had no permission to build in the outskirts since he had friends in that department, and he was sure they would have mentioned someone asking for a permit since it is not something that happens very often. Most of the people, who could afford to build something near the capital, have already done so, which in turn would make every newcomer the talk of the palace for at least a week or so.

The fourth prince was given the task to “investigate” the mansion and fine its inhabitants for building it without a permit. Of course, the Queen's men observed the mansion for a day to make sure it was not one of their higher nobles, who just forgot that he needed a new permit for every mansion he built and the one he already had for the first was not enough. Warton just took his “knights”, who were just some failures of the knights who managed to weasel their way into his entourage with fake compliments and bootlicking, and made his way to the mansion. Additionally, the queen sent one of her court mages with them as an assurance. This mage was not part of the mage families but someone, who was nurtured by the previous king. It was in order to have a magic expert who was loyal only to the ruling monarch, instead of the mage families. Samuel and that mage were probably the only real fighting force this group had.

Fortunately, the mansion was not that big, and the people walking outside of it were not known to the agents of the queen. It was most likely, built by a merchant who only recently earned enough money to move into the higher layers of society and did not know the finer rules yet. The fourth prince was sent to intimidate the merchant and bring him in as a subordinate. Although such a small-time merchant would not be a big help in grander schemes of the political scene, the fourth prince needed all the help he could get since he managed to lose all the support from the nobles he had.

Samuel was sure this would be a quick affair until he saw the mansion himself. After only a quick glance, he had a very bad feeling about the whole situation. To an uninitiated eye, the mansion did indeed not look very luxurious, but it looked completely different to someone, who knew what they were looking for.

First was the garden around the mansion. The garden was full of different kinds of flowers, and Samuel immediately recognized a few very rare and precious flowers which were not that easy to come by, and some of the flowers should not be able to bloom in this climate. The size of the garden itself also spoke for itself. It was quite difficult to plant and maintain such a large garden of so much variety.

Second, were multiple holes in the ground around a specific part of the garden. To the prince and his goons, it looked like it was just baldy taken care of, but Samuel saw it differently. The holes were quite big and from their locations to each other, Samuel could deduce that they were from a fight and a quite brutal one at that. Since the mansion was not damaged, it was apparent that both parties tried to avoid it, which in turn led him to conclude that it was not a fight but a spar between two mages. Although there was a possibility, that it still was a wealthy merchant who could employ two mages, it was quite small already. If those mages were employed, they would not damage the property of their employer with a mock fight. It was more likely that one of the mages owned the mansion.

This alone brought a headache to Samuel. There was now the danger that it belonged to someone from the mage families. Although it was not one hundred percent sure since the western part of the continent was a haven for mages from all over the world, the chances of that were high. A lot of mages who were not part of the three mage families were looking to marry into them and had therefore at least some contacts in there. If it was a single mage without an affiliation to the families, then they could still pressure him with the authority of the queen, but if the mage was part of... In that case, they would need to politely ask the mage to acquire a permit and then scram off as fast as they could before the prince had a chance to somehow offend the mage families and Samuel knew the prince well enough to know that given enough time, he WILL somehow offend the mage families.

Third, was the atmosphere he felt once they stepped into the garden. Samuel was not a mage and could not truly understand what he was feeling, but the mage in their group was different. He immediately grabbed the arm of the prince and hissed “We need to leave, immediately!” as quietly as he could. This behavior alarmed Samuel right away since the mage was not part of the prince's group but a court mage from the previous king's generation who has already proven himself decades ago.

It was obvious this was not the mansion of some merchant, who managed to move up in status not too long ago. Samuel gritted his teeth. It was clear they were sent here to fail horribly, and Samuel had a strong suspicion about who was behind this scheme. Samuel was sure the second prince bought out the queen's agents to deliver wrong information. Out of the princes and princesses, he hates the fourth prince the most. It was not the first time he tried to get rid of his brother.

Samuel was now sure that this mansion belonged to someone from the mage families. This was a trap, and they needed to get out of it as fast as they could. As a law enforcement unit, they had every right to be here in order to ask for the permit, but they needed to flee because of their leader. Unfortunately, luck was not with Samuel this day.

Just when the prince was about to head the advice of the mage, he saw a young woman in leather armor exiting the mansion. The woman had long black hair with some red streaks in it, and while she was wearing leather armor, it was quite obvious that she had a slim, well-trained body. Her face was also quite pretty. Good proportions and youthful vigor. 

Warton immediately forgot about the warning of the mage accompanying him. His only thought was about how he will get the girl in front of him into bed.

Before Samuel could intercept the prince and diffuse the situation, the girl in front of the group noticed the kind of looks the prince, and his knights were giving her. She took a combat stance and tried to unsheathe her sword, but she noticed that she did not have one strapped to her waist at the moment. Nevertheless, the royal party noticed that movement.

It completely and utterly enraged Warton. In all the years, he ran rampant in the capital, not even the nobles dared to threaten him. He could do whatever he wanted, and his mother would protect him from all repercussions. The only person who has ever dared to raise a sword against him was his older brother, the second prince. That day he escaped only because his oldest sister told his brother to stop. The second prince, who was a high-ranking general, was purely a military man and had no desire for the throne. In his opinion, dealing with the nobles and their schemes was tiring and unrewarding. Therefore, he pledged his support to his oldest sister, which in turn solidified her position as the heir to the throne. The second prince was everything Warton was not. He was accomplished, honorable, and had a near spotless reputation. He had friends among both the nobles and the high-ranking officers in the army. Many of the common men, who served under him, sang praises once they were released from the army, which made the commoners see him in a favorable light. The noble ladies were naturally attracted to his heroism, and he did not need to rely on the authority of their mother to get one into his bed, not that he would do that anyway. Because the second prince was not really afraid of the consequences and because he had a bloody grudge against him, Warton hated him with a burning passion. His brother, who was everything he was not, was the only one who dared to try to kill him. The fact that the girl in front of him dared to try and raise a sword against him was not something that made him this angry, but the fact that it reminded him about what his older brother did. He stared hatefully at the young woman in front of him. Once he is done playing with her, he would break her legs and arms, and sell her to a brothel. It did not matter who this mansion belonged to. He would use the full authority of his mother to make them bend their knees before him.

“Catch that little slut!”, he screeched to his knights. ”I will let you have a few rounds with her once I am finished with her!”

Samuel nearly fainted when he heard this. He knew they were in trouble now. Whoever this mansion belonged to was not someone they should provoke. He was desperately thinking about how he could deescalate the situation. Before he could think of something, the knight started running at the young woman in front of them while laughing and making obscene sounds and gestures. Surprisingly the young woman did not even flinch when she saw that. Black flames started to envelop her hands as she patiently waited for the knights to get closer. Samuel felt his blood drain from his face as he saw that. He was no mage, but he knew that one needed to be at a fairly high level to conjure flames without incantations or magic circles. Samuel wanted to scream for the knights to stop immediately when suddenly an explosion was heard, and Samuel saw the knights flying above his head. Seemingly out of nowhere, a mage in a gray robe appears between them and the young woman. The mage had a long beard, stretching nearly to his feet, and equally long gray hair.

“Who do you think you are, you old sack of shit? Do you know who I am? Do you know who my mother is? I will have you...”, before the prince could finish his tirade, the mage accompanying them swung his fist and landed it on the back of the head of the prince.

As he held the unconscious body of the prince, he bowed slightly to the gray mage.

“Lord Neln, I am terribly sorry about what just happened. The royal family will issue you a formal apology at a later date. I ask you to...”

“Just fuck off already,” answered the gray mage in annoyance before turning to the young woman and asking her if she was alright.

When Samuel heard the name of the gray mage in front of him, he once again nearly fainted. While he has never met or seen Neln, he has heard of him. Now they've done it. Of all the people to offend, they just had to pick Neln Kelliar. Unlike the other members of the council, who governed the mage families who were shrouded in mystery, Neln was a well-known figure, and from what Samuel heard, he was incredibly influential even within the council itself. But this was not the reason Samuel was so fearful. It was well known, that the west of the continent was controlled by the three mage families. It was also well known that not all the kingdoms there liked it. Even his queen was always searching for a way to diminish their influence and expand their own. One of those kingdoms decided to rebel against the mage families and declare their independence. They amassed quite a big army, and about 100 mages, with four of them being arch-mages. Everyone thought that the mage families would simply take the loss since war would drain their resources, and it would not be worth it to reconquer a kingdom that would be economically damaged from the war. They were wrong. The mage families sent ten people to suppress the rebellion. At first, everyone thought they were sent to negotiate, but in that month, the mage families proved one thing: In magic, quality is far more important than quantity. Out of the ten Neln was the only arch-mage while the rest were mages, who opened the fourth gate of magic. The war, if you could call it even a war, was around three and a half weeks long, and in this short amount of time, Neln showed the true power of the mage families. He alone devastated more strongholds than the other mages combined, and at one point, he even fought against two of the four arch-mages of the enemy side, killing one and gravely wounding the other. The war ended with Neln simply running into the royal palace at a speed nobody could stop and butchering the top echelon of the kingdom within minutes. Meanwhile, the other mages were slowly but surely making their way towards the capital while destroying every army outpost in their way. One of the arch-mages tried to stop them, but through far more advanced tactics and abilities, he also was slain. This was a huge shock for the other kingdoms since it was believed that no matter how many fourth gate mages assembled, they would not be able to beat a fifth gate mage since they would need to chant or draw magic circles while the fifth gate mage could cast his spells instantaneously. The mage families proved to them that a millennium-old heritage of spells, techniques, and bloodline could bridge that gap with only a handful of fourth gate mages.

After the war ended, the names of these ten mages spread through the entire west, and Neln was the one mentioned the most often. 

Samuel looked around and noticed that most of the knights have already fled the scene after being flung through the air by the gray mage. He silently took the limp body of the prince from the court mage and made his way out of the garden of the mansion, with the court mage following him. He needed to find a way to remedy this situation or the repercussion would be too much. 

–

“This will have consequences”, said Bez while standing next to Neln.

“You think so? I think I scared them pretty good.”

“You simply don't know the stupidity of that prince. He is simply so far beneath your notice that he probably never even made it into a report about the kingdom that landed on your desk.”

“Really? How stupid can he be?”

“He once hired a tug to kill someone who works for the second prince and plant evidence that the second prince did it himself. The plan was to turn the second prince's loyal supporters against him.”

“So? This seems like a normal thing to do in politics.”

“He accused the second prince in front of a crowd, while the “killed” person was in that crowd. The idiot never even verified if the hit was successful. Unfortunately for him, the man he wanted to assassinate was a combat veteran who easily subdued the thug. He thought it was just a common robbery, so he did not really look into it, but then that accusation in front of everyone happened.”

Neln looked amused at the earth spirit.

“How did he weasel himself out of it?”

“He is mommy's little boy, so she shielded him”, said the earth spirit. “ And you can believe me if I say that he is far too stupid to simply back down after this. He will try to get revenge.”

“So what? I do not fear him!”

“Of course, you don't. But a fly is still annoying until you clap it.”

“Well, it seems I will need to clap a few flies more.”

Bez looked at Neln with an amused smile.

“So you figured it out?”

“I may not be as old and wise as you, spirit, but I am no moron. Someone was planning on using me like a knife to do his dirty work. I do not like being used.”

“Then what about Rild? You do realize he is using your entire mage families, right?”

"We are using each other, so we are even," said Neln as he walked back into the mansion.

“Even? Not even close. Right now, you are benefiting far more from Rild's knowledge than he is benefiting from you. But believe me, that guy WILL get even, and you will not like it,” murmured the spirit as he once again teleported away.