I went to the Port of Asshai to welcome Yuri, Laura, and the eight apprentices who had returned from their mission. After almost nine years of collecting soul stones in the terrible battlefields of Essos, they returned, bringing with them a huge load of soul stones.
It was a shame that 2 apprentices lost their lives, but this risk was part of the mission. Their families would be well taken care of by the Order and they would lack nothing.
While I spoke face-to-face with Yuri and Laura for the first time, they told me about the trip and began to give more details about the apprentices' mission. I then went to the brothers' cabin and put the various chests full of soul stones in the inventory.
Laura was shocked to discover that my blood clone only had a single "fake" bag on its waist. Despite being the best of its kind, it wouldn't have held all that.
After that, I was taken to the cargo floor where several pirates captured during the trip were. The reason I was there was not because of the pirates, but because they wanted to show me "something" that one of the apprentices had captured while they were on a mission.
I was shocked when I lifted the cage curtain and saw what was inside. I quickly dealt with everything in great secrecy and personally escorted all the prisoners with the brothers.
After they were left at the Yin Yang Tower, I began a tour with the brothers around the city. Since they would be the new Black and Orange Sages of the Order, I made sure to show them all the workings of our group within Asshai. We went from the Yin Yang Tower to the Tower of the Sages, and finally to the Tower of the Assassins, which belonged to the Faceless Men.
At the Tower of the Sages, I introduced Liza, Vitarys, and Zaya. I also showed them our spiritual root plantation and its uses, the animal garden, and the Order's mission control station, which Vitarys currently supervised.
In the Assassins' Tower, I showed them our food crops, and in the old tower of Master White Shadow, I showed them the rabbits that Laura and her brother had already consumed, sent by Henry and his fleet. The brothers were fascinated by the Order's natural resources, and Laura was even more excited when she saw the immortality tree that would soon bear its first fruits.
Not being a Master of the 3 professions, Laura was having trouble extending her lifespan. Although it only worked once, this single-use fruit would give her at least another 60-80 years without any side effects, very different from the rituals and potions she had used until now.
When it was almost 2 pm, I had taken the brothers to lunch at the new Sage Store restaurant, which had recently opened next to the original store. The store had expanded to the two buildings on either side. On the left was the new restaurant, and on the right was a store that only met large-scale demands and focused on exports.
Tasty foods like protein bars, cakes, sweets, and powdered milk had become popular beyond Asshai, especially on the islands and other nearby cities. Therefore, many ships would come here just to export a portion of these items or even to try them for themselves. Due to the short shelf life of cakes and sweets, Laura and Yuri had only tried these items a few times in Pentos, thanks to the storage bags.
But even that was rare, so the brothers were really happy that they could now try these delicacies whenever they wanted. The success of the Sage Store had also started to arouse greed in many people, especially the new leader of the two merchant conglomerates. But I didn't tell the brothers that, and let them enjoy their day, since we had a meeting tonight.
After lunch, I still showed the brothers the Mage's Throat, where they would receive their mid-level body refinement, along with our lower soul stone farm. Although we only had two of the eight floors, I briefly explained our agreement with the Adventurer's Alliance. By the time I finished touring them, it was already late afternoon, so I let them rest in their quarters and began to prepare for the meeting.
***
Deep within the Shadowlands, in a secret place called the Holy Land of the Shadowmen, there was a castle made of the same black rocks as those in Asshai and Stygai. The Master of Whispers was inside a study room, while he looked closely at several documents that were written by shadow golems, most of them writing things that were happening in real-time thanks to the supreme skill of their master. The Master of Whispers was then interrupted, when, behind him, a secret passage opened.
The door raised a cloud of dust and it seemed like it had not been opened for decades. An old man with one eye came out of it, he wore the same robe as the King of the shadow men. This was Master Odin, a Master Shadowmancer and also known as the second King and leader of the Shadowmen. It was a common fact by many that the shadow men had several Masters throughout their history, but currently, only three were known to outsiders, and Master Odin along with the Master of Whispers was one of those three.
"Welcome back Master Odin! Will you be the only ones participating in the attack on the dragon and the auction this time?" asked the Master of Whispers.
"Yes, my ability to see the present and future of the Shadowlands continues to fail, and Master Mazda is still busy with a certain experiment to help me in this matter... Has something happened in the last 50 years?"
"Yes, a small peace agreement was made 30 years ago, something unheard of in Asshai, but I think that agreement is long gone... A huge battle took place 8 years ago, but only today did I receive details of that fight. 8 Masters joined forces and assassinated Master White Shadow, who was the leader of that peace agreement. During the fight, he killed 2 Masters permanently and seriously injured 3 others.
"Do you know the reason? The power to gather so many Masters… was it that organization?"
"They are the main suspects, right now I'm seeing signs of another fight brewing, this one involving a new group that has become quite popular..."
While Master of Whispers explained, Master Odin approached looking at the documents. In it was information about Rafael and the Order of the Wise. There were even details about the newly arrived Masters of Pentos. In other papers, there were requests from several people trying to buy information about the Order of the Wise. Among them the Master of Beasts was the one who caught Odin's attention.
"What is that senile old man planning?"
"White Shadow's death has left him agitated, everyone knew how strong he was, and now everyone is seeking more power, you know that in the Shadowlands war is always the quickest way to power..."
"What are you going to do?"
"I have decided to hide the information from these two new Masters for now, if I sell this information I would be making the Red Sage's life very difficult by revealing his two new trump cards. Furthermore, he was the one who found out about White Shadow's murder, I must provide them with a little help to compensate for such valuable information."
As soon as he finished speaking, King Odin turned his gaze back to the papers. And he saw the names of the other groups that wanted information about the Order of Sages:
-Garden of Beasts
-Union of Assassins
-Dark Assassins
-Master Baron Bones
-Master Ezio
-Vall Alliance
***
Special thanks to the Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan!
Magical Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, frimorigo, Scott Robertson, Takatchi, Leery Falcon, Austin, mandeep singh, and Kobe Robertson!