CHAPTER 58: NEW MEMBER

Walking out, Baruch rubbed shoulders with another mage that was entering.

The murmurings of the hall filled his ears once more. Turning his head away from the chambers’ tall metal doors, Baruch’s eyes met the smiling face of that young man with black hair.

"That was quick." The young man said, walking up closer to him. "You’re with us now."

Baruch’s brow furrowed with a question.

"In our cohort. And I am your superior."

Saying this, Haldon twisted on his heel, and with two of his fingers gestured for Baruch to follow.

They passed by some mages and left the left wing of the palace, entering the main hall.

There were other mages in the main hall, but like the rest of the palace, it was empty of any furniture or wall hangings.

The young man led Baruch to a long table.

"Pick four, he said."

Baruch’s eyes followed his pointing finger. On the long table were more of the blood clotted robes.

Baruch reached out and did as told.

"If we all wear the same robes, will it not be hard to differentiate..... "

"Why would we give our enemies the benefit of knowing our paths?"

Baruch looked around the room at the other mages.

"Wh- who are our enemies?" he asked.

The young man shrugged. "I have my guesses." He said.

Baruch bit his lower lip seeing the young man didn’t plan to continue.

Guesses? He doesn’t know either?

Hadrian, floating in that dark space, wondered. He’d left the dull white space since it was a strain for him to stay too long.

It seemed wherever he was, his perception through Baruch was yet to be cut. In case it did cut, he sent out "revelations" of the woman to Baruch.

Of course, since he was in that dire situation, he made his intentions clear.

On the matter of "enemies" he’d had his suspicions. Everything had happened too fast. The decree, the swearing of the oath, someone was preparing for something.

If that woman is with them, where does she intend to take me? and why drag me into all this?

Receiving the mental images of the woman, Baruch’s lips parted. He’d met her in the dungeon hall where he thought they had planned to kill him.

What does that existence want with her?

He looked at the young man and cleared his throat. "The woman from before, where is she?"

The young man’s brows rose and he smiled. "Why? Do you have feelings for her too?"

Baruch shook his head with a bewildered look.

The young man took a deep breath and placed his arm on his chest and with a sincere look he said, "I truly don’t know. Probably whatever layer she came from."

The young man’s eyes went to the robes in Baruch’s hands. "You should put those on. See if they fit."

Baruch took off his clothes and put on the robe. For him, and for the people of Gritjor who lived under such heat, modesties were least of their concerns.

In the dark expanse, Hadrian’s eyes twitched. Through Baruch, he could see Haldon right in front of him, but still couldn’t do anything to him.

The rank two sword floated in front of him. The same way he’d taken it into that space, he’d brought it here.

Since mystical artifacts use their own essence, their essence can be depleted from long usage.

For a mystical artifact that was probably rank four or five, Hadrian imagined it would take long.

Still, he brought the rank two sword, so that he could add the depletion rate of the metal box’s essence.

He imagined that’s why the metal box was empty. As one of the woman’s preparations.

In truth, he didn’t think it would achieve much, but it would be good to have a weapon if he were to be summoned out of the metal box and didn’t have any other option.

He grabbed the sword and swung it around, testing how he could influence the effect the mystical sword manifested.

He’d actually never used it since that night.

There was nothing much he could do in here, and he found himself not as afraid as he thought he would be.

Of course, there was still the panic in his heart, and he wished he could shout into Baruch’s mind for him to hurry up but he felt it had not yet gotten to such a state.

His swings came to a stop. Back in the real world, Haldon had introduced himself to Baruch, and was bringing him toward a small wooden door.

The hallway they walked through was thin compared to the other lower ones. They’d gone up two flights of stairs and turned to the right.

"Oh." Haldon came to a stop some distance away from the door and looked over his shoulder to Baruch, "you could ask the other one. The old one." he said.

Baruch thought back to the cloaked woman he’d seen on the dungeon hall dais and gave a slight nod.

On their way here, Haldon seemed to be a rather easy person to talk to. And even though he was stressing over that existence’s assignment, he’d found he’d been given time to think and relax after everything that had happened.

The old "witch" seemed to be talking about a dead son, and the other woman related it to me. Perhaps I could use that.

Haldon didn’t knock. He pushed the door gently, and from its creaks, you could tell its age was not young.

Led inside, all Baruch saw were four more strangers. Hadrian, meanwhile, frowned.

The room was small, to the left of the door they’d entered, three people sat on a bench.

Leaning against a small desk was a man with wide shoulders, short black hair and sharp eyes.

Bagdona.

Hadrian was more annoyed than surprised.

How long will this take? The more time passes, the further and harder it will be to locate the woman.

Actually, since everything had happened, it had only been an hour.

"Which path is this one?" Bagdona asked, his face seeming to be in an eternal frown.

"Flesh," Haldon said.

Baruch’s eyes darted from Bagdona to the three bench sitters and Hadrian took the moment to glance into their essence seas.

They were rank one mages, and though he couldn’t see what path they were, he had his suspicions.