“It’s time we talked about The Council of Death,” Donvath said, gazing intently at the two of them from his current seat. The High Prince’s darkened expression and cold tone were slightly offset by the fact that he was lounging back in one of his fancy bean bags, but only just. Asher had quickly grown used to the fact that Donvath seemed to appreciate comfort above just about all else, and he nodded from his own bean bag, reaching out to take Samantha’s hand as she did the same beside him.

  After coming home from a long evening of practicing with her new element, the two of them had been up late talking when Donvath had surprised them with a knock on their suite door. Getting a surprise, late-night visit from the ruler of the entire kingdom was certainly a surreal experience, and they had quietly followed him down to his private lounge so as to not wake Brian with their discussion.

  Technically, Asher could have just thrown up a Spatial Lock to solve the problem, but when the High Prince of the kingdom shows up in the dead of night to whisk you away for a secret meeting, it’s much more fun to go with the whisking.

  “Let’s start with the basics,” Donvath continued, gesturing toward them. “What do you actually know, for starters?”

  “The Council is made up of fourteen ancient liches who care little for the rules of nations and do whatever they want to further their own agenda,” Asher began, seeing Samantha nod in agreement. “At least one of them likes to summon demons to do their bidding, and if what Leighann said is true, they all came together to pile up their phylacteries in one room in order to force the element of Eternity to manifest.”

  “They also have no issue with kidnapping people to experiment on,” Samantha added, shuddering at the memory of being trapped within the lich’s tower.

  “Unfortunately, that is all true,” Donvath confirmed. “While many of the nobles are aware that The Council of Death exists and isn’t just some tale used to scare children, few people outside of the rulers of nations know that there are fourteen of them. Even fewer know that they rarely come together. The Council is scattered across our continent, and each of the liches resides within their own secret base. They are all immensely powerful wizards, and any one of them is deemed a kingdom-destroying threat.”

  “Hold on, can you explain what a wizard even is, exactly?” Asher asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Take Richard for example. I don’t know what he did, but he was able to bypass my Hidden Presence skill almost instantly, seeing my elements as if I didn’t have the defensive skill active at all.”

  “That’s actually a good place to start,” Donvath said, leaning back in his bean bag. “When you use a skill, what happens?”

  “I mean, it depends on the skill… But if you mean in a more general sense, I suppose I get tired? It feels like my skills eat through some sort of energy that replenishes over time.”

  “Yes, that is exactly the case,” Donvath said, snapping his fingers. “That energy has an actual name, called tritessence. Pioneered by some genius scholar thousands of years ago in the kingdom of Gostoria.”

  “Wait, I know about that kingdom!” Asher said, growing excited. “I read about it when I was researching the different realms of existence! I don’t know much, but I know they were responsible for much of what we know about elemental advancement and utilizing enchantments.”

  “In that case, I assume you read about what happened to them as well?” Donvath asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yeah… They told everyone that their research into the void realm was progressing well enough that they were going to attempt to create a Void element, and the next thing anyone knew, the kingdom was gone.”

  “Gone?” Samantha asked, looking curious. “Gone as in it disbanded?”

  “Gone as in it was erased from existence,” Donvath said coldly, causing Samantha to gulp. “Tens of thousands of miles of land, millions of people, all erased without a trace. It’s the reason why the Void element is banned across the world, and why researching the void realm is highly regulated. The void realm is a realm of pure nothingness. They should have known what was going to happen, but in their thirst for knowledge, they caused the greatest calamity this world has ever known. Prior to your element of Eternity, that was the last known instance of a new element being discovered.”

  “Oh…” Asher said, withdrawing into himself a bit at the realization of how dangerous his element might truly be.

  “Hold on, Asher’s element isn’t anything like Void,” Samantha argued. “It’s all about keeping him alive, rather than consuming or destroying.”

  “Is it?” Donvath countered, pointing a finger directly at Asher's chest. “Sever the Thread is perhaps the scariest skill I’ve ever heard of. While there are ways around it now, it’s still only a tier 1 skill. Likely evolving it to the second and then third tier will make Asher truly the most dangerous person in the entire world. Though that is a conversation for another day,” he said, slowly lowering his finger and letting himself sink into his bean bag as he closed his eyes. “We were talking about wizards, yes? Wizards are people who, after decades of intensive study and hard work, have achieved the ability to harness their tritessence, or energy, to cast magic. Think of it like freeform skills. Their magic is more costly than regular skills are, but they can do far more than any normal person with just their select few elements. Mastering this ability is so time-intensive and difficult that most kingdoms have no more than a single true wizard under their rule, though many have a good number of wizards-in-training working to one day achieve the class.”

  “So they can just use whatever skill they want?” Asher asked, blown away by this revelation. “There are thousands of skills! Tens of thousands, if not more!”

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  “Indeed. Which is why they are so dangerous,” Donvath said, nodding with his eyes still shut. “The main drawback is that they have to master each skill on its own, which takes time and effort. It is possible to create entirely new skills as well, though this is something only the true geniuses are capable of. Once they learn a skill they can use it again at their leisure, but obviously, a person only has so many years in their life they can devote to this. Which brings us to The Council of Death…”

  Donvath sat up, finally opening his silver eyes as he took on a grave expression. “The Council of Death is made up of wizards who decided to sacrifice their humanity to extend their lifespans. By binding their souls to this realm, they have conquered death and are able to devote as many years as they wish to their magic and research. The only thing more worrisome than a wizard is a wizard who has had a thousand years to stockpile spells and knowledge. Because they are so scattered, attempts to root them out and destroy them are difficult, as the rest of the Council always retaliate without fail on any kingdom that tries such a feat. Which is why the two of you are in the perfect situation for what needs to be done.”

  “What do you mean?” Asher asked. “Based on what you just said, if we attacked the Council, wouldn’t they just collapse on the Noala Kingdom?”

  “No, and it’s because you’d be operating as independent agents,” Donvath explained, growing excited. “The Council went after you first, the both of you. By plucking you from your world and Samantha from her village, they picked this fight all on their own. I’ve sifted through the streams of time, and I haven’t been able to find a critical point involving the Council descending on the Noala Kingdom as long as the two of you take the fight to them all on your own.”

  “This sounds like a really roundabout way of telling us you’re not going to give us any shards or actual support,” Asher said slowly, earning a chuckle from the High Prince.

  “You’ve got the support of a man who can literally see into the future,” Donvath said, giving him a wide grin. “Sometimes. Though you are correct, my help when it comes to things like finances is a different story. I can take Brian off your hands and ensure he is safe and well taken care of as he works toward achieving the origin element of his dreams, and I can pull strings here and there, like getting you a nice fancy room in the Grand Auction. But I can’t empty out the royal treasury to help you. Trust me, I’d love to do just that, but I’ve seen how that future goes, and it never ends well for my people. I don’t even know how the Council is able to tell if I help you or not, but somehow, they always figure it out.”

  “So there’s actually a chance we succeed in taking down the entire Council?” Samantha asked. “There’s a future like that?”

  “Again, I can really only see critical points, and the further out I try to view the more murky things get, but trust me when I say there’s a future for just about everything,” Donvath confirmed. “Honestly, the two of you wouldn’t believe some of the futures I’ve seen. I mean really, there’s even a future where-”

  Donvath’s expression almost seemed to stutter again, and Asher’s Secret Seeker skill helped him notice what happened. He was getting used to picking up on when the High Prince used his Timeline skill to undo something he’d said or done, and he was always curious as to what it was.

  How bad had their reactions been to whatever future he was about to tell them about that he decided to rewind time just to save himself the hassle of reassuring them?

  Even stranger was the question of why Donvath only ever chose to partially unwind what he was about to say. Why not revert back to when he or Samantha had been talking so that he wouldn’t have to cut his past self off?

  While Asher pondered these questions, Donvath continued, waving off his previous thought.

  “Anyway, to answer your question, yes, I think the two of you can pull it off,” Donvath said, nodding toward Samantha. “It will take a lot of luck and a lot more power than either of you have right now, but you’re on the right track.”

  “Alright, well seeing as you’re still giving us information, in your opinion, what should be our next move?” Asher asked. “The two of us aren’t just going to sit around safely in the capital for the next few months practicing our skills. The Council burned down Horntho village, and we’re going to make them pay for that.”

  “Before that, you should take this,” Donvath said, pulling something out of his pocket and tossing it Asher’s way. Catching it out of the air, Asher blinked at the smooth sending stone with a single rune engraved at the top, and a second one on the right. “That top rune is a direct line to my own sending stone,” Donvath explained, chuckling at Samantha’s dropped jaw as she stared between Asher’s sending stone and him. “Yes, I know. I doubt you ever imagined you’d have a direct line to the emperor of the world, did you?”

  “Will this work if I keep it within my rift?” Asher asked, rubbing his thumb against the smooth stone. With how thin it was, he felt like he should be able to snap it in half fairly easily, but something about the sending stone made him feel as though it was a lot more durable than it looked.

  “Stick it inside and see for yourself,” Donvath said, pulling out another sending stone. Doing just that, Asher waited for Donvath to tap on one of the runes on his own stone. The moment he did, Asher felt a subtle vibration within his very core, and he shuddered as he summoned his new sending stone into his hand as quickly as he could.

  “Alright, that’s a remarkably unpleasant sensation.”

  “Good to know, that means you’ll actually pick up if I try to call you!” Donvath said, grinning all the while.

  “So if you’re the top rune, who does the one on the right contact?” Asher asked.

  “I figured that would be obvious,” Donvath scoffed, pulling out yet another sending stone and tossing that one toward Samantha. “Can’t give you a sending stone without giving your girlfriend one as well.”

  “Me?!” Samantha stuttered, barely managing to catch the stone before her eyes went wide. “Why does mine also have two runes?!”

  “So you can reach me in the event Asher goes and gets himself killed again,” Donvath said, rolling his eyes as if it were also obvious. “I mean really, you think I trust him to stay out of trouble?”

  Samantha had been shocked to see Asher receive a direct line to the High Prince, but it seemed receiving her own sending stone with Donvath’s line attached had officially pushed her full circle back around to calm once more. Nodding her thanks toward him, she carefully tucked the stone within her pocket as if this was perfectly normal.

  “Glad to get that out of the way,” Donvath said, his smile turning notably more nefarious as he stood up and pulled the two of them to their feet.

  “Now then, back to the matter at hand. I'm sure you're eager to head back to the Grand Auction and see what that greater demon corpse of yours might be worth. But before you do that... How’s about the two of you pay our own personal bag of bones a quick visit to let them know they’re not wanted?”

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