Inside the castle, in a room unlike any other, built in rock, supported on glass pillars and decorated only by a small circular table and two exquisitely carved chandeliers from the finest of Lhimkio's crystals, were a little more than 50 people gathered.

The first group consisted of Albella and the nine members of her team: one ent, two ubax, and five lepiots.

The second group was that of Darthañan and Frigglene, with eight lepiots equipped with special armor disguised as humans.

The third group included Madame Dembe and the nine strongest quinoids of all her subordinates.

The fourth group was led by Enok who was accompanied by eight multrows and a crab like quinoid.

The fifth and last group was made up of Zihan and nine Voidmaws.

The other people in the room, who would not partake in the death pact, were those who were present to help with the procedure. Among these were Hegani and Veigar, one in charge of resources and the other of security.

An Endur was next to the small circular table in the middle of all those present. This humanoid bush was in charge of making the pact. When he received the signal to start from Albella, he directed his gaze towards the circular table that had a hole in the middle and rune inscriptions around it.

The endur placed various precious materials in the semicircular hole of the table and with the help of its branches set them on fire. The silver colored flame rose to the ceiling of the room, then dropped to a single meter in height.

Following this, the endur deposited all the materials that its dozens of branches carried from the beginning. The quantities, proportions, and order in which they were delivered for the flames to devour were directly related to the number of individuals who would make the death pact.

Finally, the endur took a small chest out of the branches of his thorax, when he opened it the magical energy that emanated from the object inside radiated to all who were there. Then the representatives of each of the five groups approached.

To carry out the death pact, a special parchment was needed, produced only on the imperial island. The technique for its creation was a secret that the emperor monopolized and that was guarded zealously.

In this parchment the interested parties had to write the rules to which they were submitted, the format was exactly the same as that of a common and current contract, but its operation was unique. As everyone agreed, each one had to deposit a drop of blood on the parchment, this step had to be completely voluntary or it would not work. Then, when the covenant was voluntarily accepted by all, the parchment was burned in soul fire. A silver flame that, as its name implies, is capable of burning the soul of the living.

Finally, the soul of each of the participants would be marked. In the event of breaking the covenant the individual would die.

In the most extreme cases, where the terms had been written with ambiguity or someone was to take advantage of some error that generated a loop in the magic configuration of the pact. The affected individual or group could request a review by the imperial attorney court. In the event of this happening, everything that took place from the moment of the creation of the pact to the request for revision would be made available to all the AI in charge of acting as judges in all kinds of disputes within the empire.

The information transmitted would be exactly what was perceived by the souls of the participants in the covenant. In other words, the mark on their souls also functioned as a black box that recorded everything.

These AI were the testament to the physical glory of their ancestors. Darthañan and Albella, belonging to the guardian families, knew very well the fact that these AI were relics brought from Tellurus when civilization was in a golden age where magic and technology were at their maximum splendor.

For all the other people it was artificial intelligences equal to those of the kingdoms, but with the guarantee that the empire would remain impartial and all the data of the souls would be confidential and only the machines would have access to them. At first these controversial conditions were difficult for the public to believe, but over the years the truth of the empire's words was confirmed on more than one occasion. So, today death pacts were even used in outlaw businesses.

This last part, was what reassured the five leaders, because they knew that no one in the high islands would find out about the mysterious object they were preparing to obtain.

When each of the leaders read and approved what was written on the parchment, they tossed a drop of their blood on the parchment. Following them, the other members of each group passed one by one to give their own blood, the latter did not read because their superiors were the ones who decided on what was written.

 

Meanwhile in one of the corridors of the castle a gorilla of almost two meters high ran with a basket on its back, from which four small heads peeked out curiously.

“I told you it was on the right.”

“But if the right hand is the one with which you write, why did we turn to the other side?”

“I say we should ask.”

“If we ask any servant they will find out we escaped and will tell our parents.”

“But I'm tired of Shimu stepping on me.”

“I already told you it was not my fault!”

“Stay still.”

The little ones were lost in the huge castle. Neither remembered which way to get to the stables. Elizabeth was the only one who could have memorized the path just by walking it once, but as she did not paid attention to the stairs and corridors where they had passed with Mr. Crispa her memories of the path were vague.

“Wait a minute, Lutza stop and rest while I think what we should do,” Elizabeth said with a sigh.

“Lutza can continue, not tired,” replied the gorilla.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and began to think about how to solve this problem, her plan was perfect, but she had not considered the route or the time it would take to reach the stables. Now all that remained was for the animal men not to live in the stable and not to be there when they arrived.

If her plan was perfect, why did it lacked so many details?

Elizabeth flushed, on one hand, frustrated in acknowledging that her plan had been so flawed, and on the other, she was trying hard to figure out how to get out of the predicament they were in.

“I know! The first thing we should do is start going down the stairs. The stables are on the first floor so if we get to the first floor we can find the stables easier.

“Eit!” Lutza replied starting to move again.

After two hours, after several turns in vain, they reached the stables. Thanks to an incredible luck accompanied by several coincidences, along the way they did not meet anyone.

“Stop,” ordered Elizabeth quietly.

“We have to see if there is someone watching the stables, if the animal handlers see us they will catch us.”

Each of the children began to observe the place and after finding nothing they began to approach the stables. When they were reaching the door they heard the steps of an animal. On instinct Lutza stepped aside and hurried to get through one of the windows of the stable.

Several voidmaws emerged from the door mounted on what seemed like quadruped golems with appearances that would be between those of a boar and a salamander. From the eight holes that formed their snouts, the animals expelled smoke each time they exhaled.

Fortunately, Lutza had ended up in an empty pen used as a deposit for acacia leaves, the main food for most of the animals in the stables, so her body sank into the mountain of leaves.

The presence of Lutza and the four children on her back in other circumstances would have alerted any of the people in the vicinity, but all the movement of the animals, the safety of the place where they were and the fact that none of the children emitted some murderous intent or was trying to peek, allowed them to go unnoticed.

When Lutza and the others were about to move Theodor interrupted them.

“Stay still!”

At that moment they could hear the voices of Kot and Radan along with others that they did not know how to recognize.

“Zihan and Enok are out, why is Madame Dembe taking so long?”

“It doesn’t matter, they already made the death pact and none of us can go on the raid. We can only stay at the inn from tomorrow and wait for them to return.”

“Stop crying, you are not the only ones who will not be able to participate in the raid.”

“Ha!” Radan sighed “I would have loved to participate, at least I hope they tell me what happened. It's not every day that we get missions like this.”

“Keep dreaming, with the death pact everything they do will be confidential, that's for sure.”

“Well at least we are not going to be in danger” Kot said trying to cheer up.

At that moment Madame Dembe and the group that accompanied her appeared and after a few small words explaining what they would do the rest of the day, all but Madame Dembe left the stables riding what looked like unicorn goats a little smaller than a unicorn horse. Madame Dembe got inside a carriage drawn by four of those same goats.

Seconds later the children stuck their heads out from between the sheets.

“Fuuu!”

“Ahhh!”

The little ones sighed after trying to hold their breath for so long.

“I don’t think we can leave the castle and ask what do they need help with” said Mushi pouting.

“Didn’t you notice?” asked Elizabeth.

“The rat man said he wanted someone to tell him what the raid they were going to do was like. We just have to go and when we come back tell him how it went” the beautiful girl smiled.