My feat with the sword had exhausted me mentally and physically more than I had first realised. I felt like I would never be able to get up. That was, until I waved my hands over my body, murmured a few words and made a few gestures. I jumped out of bed and rushed downstairs to see if Xandile or Crystal were around. When I got downstairs I ran into the middle of a conference. I immediately felt foolish for not putting on my normal clothes but sat down in the corner nonetheless. Looking around the room, I could see all my friends and faces I had come to know over the years and many others that I had yet to see. I also noticed there were some people in the room that didn’t possess magic. I realised the war with the Ickar must go a lot further and deeper than I had imagined. Because I didn’t speak up, Xandile decided that he would.

"Ah and here is our young hero now. This is the same man who is the wonder of the townspeople. The rumour going around is that he is an Ickar spy. I assure you that this is untrue and that he has performed great things in this very city.” At this point I was fidgeting a lot under the stare of more or less everyone in the room. I took that as a cue to start speaking, so I stood up and started talking,

"Well.… I wouldn’t say great. I mean…all I did was what some sort of alter ego did for me. I had nigh on no control on what I was doing. The only thing I did was draw my sword and then before I knew what was happening, there were gold armour clad soldiers kneeling before me asking for my orders. I couldn’t explain it if I tried. I had no real will of my own in what happened. It scares me.” Everyone muttered some sort of approval.

A few figures burst through the door. It was on the other side of the room to me but I saw lots of gold. The mass of gold gradually made it’s way through the throng of soldiers, advisors and generals until they reached me. The nearest of them bowed and said "We, your loyal subjects have gathered the information your majesty requested.”

He fell silent, I decided he was waiting for my approval before continuing, "Resume your report.” I acquiesced.

The ex-Fenswar member continued, "We discovered that the Fenswar Cult are an organisation that have been around for many, many years. Possibly even a thousand years.” He paused, "They are an ancient organisation that try and destroy The One from the day of his finding. From that point on they no longer have any sense of self. They work as a single unit, a unit designed to go to any length to achieve its goal. Beware of them your majesty, as they will not bow down to your might. As mighty as you are, they are mightier.”

"This seems to be the case. What would be your advice on this matter? Speak up for your majesty, even if it is the most trifling of matters.” I thought that they might have held back on something I missed, so I wanted to encourage them to point out the obvious, which would most likely have been the thing that I missed.

"Well, your grace, I believe that they need to be attacked at the source. You can’t have any real hope of destroying them all one by one, so why not take out the source and watch everything crumble away without it.”

"A very good plan from one as humble as you, but what would be the source?”

"I have gathered, from the information we procured on this excursion, that the source is located in the Garnet mountain ranges. There is a large area of unexplored terrain at the centre of this ring of mountains. This is because of the fact that the mountains are unassailable.”

"That is crazy talk.” Argued one of the many faces that I couldn’t put a name to. "If we can’t scale them then how can the Fenswar?”

"I also didn’t believe it myself. But how can you explain where the many members of ‘the cult’ that were seen to walk into the mountains, and did not appear outside of them for many days?”

"This is unbelievable.” I said. "This must mean that there is some sort of link through the mountains that is so well hidden that even the most renowned explorers haven’t discovered it. The small problem would be the fact that, if trained explorers can’t find it, how can we?”

One of the nameless people spoke up. "Perhaps if we used a certain spell that I was taught by a travelling monk by the name of Gyntheir. The spell lets you enter a subjects awareness without being noticed. This way you can monitor their movements without the enemy having the slightest knowledge of it. What do you think?” It sounded perfect, but perfect plans didn’t just formulate that easily, there must have been some sort of catch.

"What is your name? I can’t seem to remember gaining that knowledge. I can’t trust a source I can’t name, can I?” The man seemed unpeturbed.

"I am known as Bralgoth and I have served this land for countless years. There are many who would vouch for my valour.”

"That may be very well but can they also vouch for your wisdom, honesty and loyalty?”

"That remains to be seen but I can help you. I do ask for some small favour in return. I do not wish to discuss it before the current assembly though.” I considered his offer and decided that he should be allowed at least a hearing.

"I will listen to your proposal. As for the rest of you, take as much rest as possible as you will have very little to yourself over the coming months.”

"ATTACK!” Shrieked a soldier just before he became skewered with a hail of crossbow bolts. The whole meeting room erupted into action and arms were taking up or drawn on all sides. I drew my own weapon which immediately invoked the spirit that seemed to be within me at any time I was in danger. As soon as all of this had happened it seemed that the whole room had become flooded with winged figures. All that I could discern from the glimpses of faces mingled with the blood lust of battle was that they all wore masks depicting various mythical creatures. Also they seemed to be fighting with some form of scimitar or an extremely long spear. The spears were easily broken and soon the figures had been beaten back to a corner of the room. Although they were many in number, they seemed to be very poorly trained and only one had adequate armour. He seemed to be the leader of the ragtag mob of soldiers so I took him head-on. At least this particular character seemed to know how to use his blade. We exchanged strokes while moving around the gradually concluding battles.

As we moved across the room I aimed to remove the mask to satisfy my curiosity. It didn’t even occur to me that I could be putting myself into danger by trying to unmask my foe, all I could think of was unmasking the assailant. I forced my attacker into a corner of the room, slitting the mask up one side. As I made him work harder, by causing him to dodge many swipes at his chest and then a few at his face, the mask gradually began to peel off from the side that had been split. Eventually the mask hung over his eyes and I chose to take that opportunity to bring the fight to an end. As the mask fell over I delivered the stroke known as the Freingate. This involves stabbing forward into the stomach and then dragging the sword upwards so it re-emerges just below the neck.

As the man fell to the floor, the mask fell off, to reveal a face I had never seen before. I was partially disappointed as I expected to have found the one who would end my life, betrayed me and would have cheated fate itself. But I was also glad that I hadn’t been betrayed, at least, not yet.

I was relaxing in my room when I heard the sound of a horse approaching. I stood up to looked out of the window upon the person who had disturbed my rest. It seemed to be a messenger, at least he seemed to be one of the golden clad warriors that were converted to our cause by sword only a few days ago. When he came within hailing range, I shouted to him, asking him what his business was at such an hour. I looked at the position of the sun in the sky, and realised that the hour of noon had long passed. I quickly dressed and then invited him into the meeting room. It seemed the message was of great importance. I poured him a glass of my finest wine as he had been travelling quite a few days on horseback. I signalled, after his third glass of wine, for him to begin his report.

"Sir, the Ickar have begun their attack on the far western side of the continent. This is very many days travel and I believe you won’t make it there before the city of Grandel falls to the siege. Many of your loyal men have family living in the surrounding area, and I think you will rise in their opinion if you try to help them.