Dark Magus Returns

Using his trusty piece of chalk, Raze was gliding it along the floorboards. The people had huddled in the center; there were around fifty of them, all of them a different age, different stages of their life, and different reasons as to why they were there.

Raze was no longer producing his wind spell that would silence words. As he continued to draw with the chalk, he could see a young girl who looked as if she was barely a teenager.

She had been holding onto her mother, and as Raze was drawing some runes, she whispered a few words.

"Thank you, mister," the young girl said. "I don't really know what happened, but you're doing this... to save us, right, from those bad people."

The mother quickly placed her hand over her daughter's mouth and turned around for fear that others would be listening.

"Don't turn your head," Raze sternly said without lifting his head, looking at them. "If you turn your head, they will know you said something or something is up."

Thinking about the young girl's words, he was wondering, are Alter the bad guys? These in Alter certainly didn't think of themselves that way, but it was clear that the Bonum Society was against them.

Amir had told Raze to enter their base and find out what Alter is really like, but with this going on, he could just describe it as a bad situation with a few rash people. It wasn't enough to say that these were bad people.

Otherwise, it would mean he was also a bad person as well. 'Who am I kidding myself, I knew I was no saint for a while now.'

"Also, you shouldn't be thanking me yet; I don't know the outcome of what this whole thing is going to be," Raze said as he continued on.

The rest of the Alter group was sitting over at a table nearby. They had pulled up chairs and even went ahead and got a few drinks from behind the bar. To them, they were treating this as if it was just another day.

"Barlan, I want you to keep an eye on that mage and make sure he doesn't do any funny stuff," Marcus explained. "You know how the new guys are like. They are the most likely to switch over to the other side or try to attempt to steal a few things from us."

"They have no experience or really know the effects of their actions just yet. And this one seems to be a covert one."

Barlan nodded as he kept a close eye on Raze, who continued to draw on the ground and was finally done.

"Everyone!" Raze said, standing up facing the group of people. "Right now, I am going to cast a spell, one that will make you all fall asleep. Before that, each of you will see a bright flash of light. This will mean that the spell is working."

"Everything set here has worked, and you will all fall into a slumber. When you wake up, you will have no idea what has happened, from before you entered this establishment."

"You will be asked questions of what happened, but none of you will know. I hope all of you will not be frightened of having lost your mind and be happy that you can live today and continue to live your lives. Take this experience as if something can happen at any time, and live your life to the fullest."

With his back turned away from the others, Raze elicited both of his hands, and from his fingers, a flash came out. It lit up the magic circle. It started to light up beneath their feet, and right after, the whole area started to light up.

It was so bright that even those from Alter had to cover themselves. When the light finally died down, they could see the rest of the people still there in the center. A couple of them were lying on the floor, as if passed out.

Then slowly, one after the other, they all started to fall to the ground, closing their eyes, breathing in as if they were all sound asleep. When all of them had gone down to the floor, Raze turned to the rest of the Alter group.

"The spell was a success," Raze stated.

"I can see that," Marcus said, getting up to his feet and clapping his hands. "Alright, let's not waste any more time. It's time for us to head back to the Dark Faction. You will meet up with Himmy, and we will head to the base from the Dark Faction route."

All was well, but Raze couldn't help but look at Barlan, but not a word was said, and eventually, all of them had left the Inn, heading through the streets and en route to the Dark Faction.

Inside the Inn itself, around ten minutes had passed, and that's when one person finally spoke.

"Do you think it's okay to open our eyes now?"

"I think it's been long enough, right? They won't return?"

"Yeah, and even if they return, we can just pretend everything worked out."

Slowly, from their state, they started to lift themselves one after the other. As they did, everyone had thankful smiles on their faces, knowing full well what they had just escaped.

"That young man, I nearly missed his wink," one of them commented.

"I did miss it, but when everyone else was falling down, I just didn't feel right, or that it would fit in, so I copied everyone else. Otherwise, I was worried I would drop dead like the others."

"I was wondering why he was explaining everything to us, but he did do something with that bright light."

The young woman from before hugged her mother tightly.

"That white-haired man, he saved us right, right?" she asked.

"I think that man did, I just hope he doesn't get in trouble for it himself," the mother replied.

While in the city, the group had managed to find a cart and a merchant that would head to the border of the Dark Faction. There were some merchants that dealt in more than one territory, and the wanderers could also head to different factions as well.

But there was a process to these things. Either way, they had decided to hire a cart to take them there as it was more relaxing than running on foot, and it would avoid undue attention on them as well.

Outside of the cart though, Raze was sitting away from the others, next to the man who was escorting them and controlling the horses.

Pushing through the curtain that covered the back, Barlan came out.

"Driver, get some rest; I have ridden a few shares of these myself."

The driver wasn't going to say no; if someone wanted to do the job for him and he still got paid for it, he was more than happy. As the driver went in the back with the others, he quickly went to shut his eyes, and now at the front of the cart, there was Raze and Barlan, the two mages together.

02:00

"Back there... I know what you did," Barlan said quietly, but Raze could tell he had activated the silent wind spell as well so the others behind couldn't hear.

"You do… then tell me, why haven't you told them about it?" Raze asked.