Aldric woke up to the sound of metal on metal, and the sharp noise of a key being turned. His head was pounding on one side, where he had felt the club hit. The orc that had discovered him in the tent, had not taken his break in well. As he tried to open his eyes his vision was still crowded with darkness, but not as dark as with his eyelids closed. Someone had put a sack over his head, it smelled like the nauseating sweetness of rotting fruits. The smell made his stomach curl.

  Wanting to remove the nauseating sack from over his head. He learned he was unable to move his hands and feet. They had tied him up pretty good. Aldric could feel the panic building like a storm inside. A calm clear sea, interrupted by big dark clouds in the sky. He started to breath in short shallow breath, going quicker and shorter.

  “It is alright my boy, calm down.” a friendly elderly, yet calm elegant voice whispered from aldric’s right. “Take some deep breaths.”

  For a short while, Aldric was fighting against the panic. Not able to power through the experience. He gave in to the stormy sea, feeling the big dark cloud of panic. Every breath became a bit longer and deeper, he felt the ocean becoming calmer and the sky clearer and after a couple of minutes, his breathing had returned to something resembling normal.

  Aldric felt himself being pulled up by his arm in an awkward way, to sitting upright. “There we go, do you have a name, young sir?” the friendly voice whispered.

  Realizing he wasn’t gagged, Aldric replied in a hoarse whisper: “Aldric… of Palewood.”

  “Palewood, you say?” the elegant voice inquired to no one, “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Aldric. I am Sir Martin Eurus.”

  “Where are we, Martin?” Aldric asked, while listening to their surroundings. He could only hear the familiar sound of horses dragging a wagon, but also the faint murmurs of people laughing and talking. To his left, he could hear the deep rusted voice from the night before speaking a language Aldric wasn’t familiar with. A new stab of panic hit him momentarily. Could it be Orcish or Dwarven?

  “Well, Aldric. We are currently in a wagon on our way to Deepwater, if I have read the area correctly, to be sold to a slaver, who will probably sail us south to one of the coastal city states, where we will be sold in slavery.” Martin replied, so matter of fact-ly, Aldric’s panic started again, feeling the storm grow, high waves over the sea, rain and wind.

  “Ah do not worry my young friend, we shall be freed long before any of this would have.” Martin added to Aldric’s change in breathing.

  “How can you be sure?” Aldric questioned, noting a bit of bitterness and panic in his voice, “and can you help me get this thing off my head?”

  “To answer that in order: if my brothers in arms get here in time, Yes we shall be freed.” Martin continued in the same calm polite tone. It was starting to get on Aldric’s nerves. “And I wish I could, my dear boy. But I am unfortunately in the same circumstances as you. Literally, my hands are tied. Haha.”

  “Funny. Wait? What do you mean by Brothers in arms?” Aldric turned his head towards the direction of Martin’s voice.

  “Ah yes, the Spellbane. A good 30 of them should be on their way to Deepwater.” Martin replied in the same polite tone. “I only hope they will arrive in time.”

  “The Spellbane? I have never heard of it, what is it?” Aldric asked, finally feeling himself calming down, the storm gave way to calm waters and a blue sky. As Aldric felt his curiosity take over, now he had something to focus on, then the smelling sack over his head and the bindings on his hands and feet.

  “By Akade’s wind! you have not heard about the Spellbane? What are you taught in your day lessons?” Martin replied, a distinct change in his tone, almost like he was hurt personally by Aldric’s statement, but also kinda amusement. “Did we fall so far from grace, that we are no longer taught about in school?”

  “I’m sorry, Martin. We didn’t cover much of history at all. Miss Dalewitt didn’t see the point in telling us about places we would never go to or topics we would never hear about again.” Aldric stated, a bit sheepishly.

  “It’s quite fine, my young Aldric. It is not your fault.” Martin replied back in his calm, polite voice. “The Spellbane is a band of adventurers who want to help their fellow man by investigating dangerous magic and being justice to rogue and dangerous magic wielders and spellcasters.”

  “That sounds amazing!” Aldric exclaimed, trying to find a comfortable way to sit. “But how come the Spellbane fell from grace?”

  “It was quite amazing in its day.” Martin agreed in a somber tone. “But for the past 20 years, the Spellbane has only been a shadow of its former glory.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.” Aldric replied, surprised by the emotions in Martin’ voice. “Can I ask, what happened?”

  “Thank you for asking, Aldric. Since we are not going anywhere and we have nothing to do other than talk, you and I. I might as well tell you the story of the Spellbane’s fall from grace.” Martin sighed, but still sounding amused. “Has it been 30 years since we began the Spellbane?”

  Aldric sat quietly, eagerly listening to whatever came next. Unable to see the elderly gentleman, Aldric should only wait and listen.

  “Yes, 30 years since the Spellbane was founded. I had decided to hang my adventuring coat and help train the next generation of adventurers.” Martin continued after the short pause.

  “My dear friends, Victoria Silverlight and Karl Hollowbroke, and I, we have dealt with many spellcasters over the years and knew how dangerous they can be, especially when they go down a bad part.” Martin’s tone went from friendly to stern. Like Miss Dalewitt did, when she was tired of the other children. “Aldric, if you take nothing else from my story here, remember this: Magic is dangerous and should be taught to be handled correctly.”

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  “Since the Seekers of Knowledge do not care how mages and other spellcasters learn to wield their magic. As long as they do not let the knowledge go to waste. Victoria and I believed that magic should be regulated and we proposed so to the Duke.”

  Aldric found himself smiling, even though the back left side of his head hurted badly. He was completely taken in by the elderly gentleman.

  Martin continued “See this was before Renard, Lucious and Edward’s little conflict started. Our plan was met with approval, as Duke Lapanimus’ nephew had been involved with some dangerous business, dealings with a necromancer and a cursed artifact and a mad mage had blown up the Seeker of Knowledge’s guildhall in Kingsport. You could say we had the lady of luck on our side.”

  Martin sounded joyful at the last part, like he was recalling a fond memory.

  “We met with adventurers and craftsmen of all sorts to recruit members. People of all stages of life came to join, see the same as we had. For the first 10 years, the Spellbane worked wonders. We hunted down hag covers, rogue mages and demon and devil worshipers and gained a great deal of popularity across Austpolia.”

  Martin sounded like a proud father seeing his son take on a difficult challenge and winning.

  “But when the Duke was called back to the Helio Isles, and the conflict started, everything went downhill. We had gotten too comfortable and too confident on the point of being arrogant. That was our downfall.”

  Martin sighed to himself. Aldric could have sworn he heard the elderly gentleman sob. A low short sound. He felt it more than he heard. Like an overcast sky with a low, but steady downpour.

  “When Lucious and Renard started fighting in the streets of Kingsport, we could not do anything, but help Edward Giledorn evacuate the civilians and the nobility out of the city. Since the Spellbane was not a military force - we were… we are a collective of many small adventuring parties, we were not built for big military campaigns. But we were too drunk on the popularity and glory. So, we tried and failed, but we managed to save half of the population and moved them to Frosthall. After this, many left the spellbane’s ranks to support Edward Giledorn’s effort to retain some manner of peace in his lands. A noble course to be certain. But it left the Spellbane vulnerable, especially after we have lost many members to the war. And there you have it, Aldric my boy, the story of the Spellbane glory days and the fall of glory.”

  Martin fell silent for several minutes, long enough that Aldric started to worry that something had happened to him. He could feel the gloomy overcast day again, the slow, but steady rain on an otherwise calm sea.

  “For 15 years we were only a handful of members left.” Martin started again, with a sigh. “We did our best to help where we could.”

  “But after the war had subsided. Out of the blue we started receiving requests from young men and women who wanted to join. Over the past 5 years or so, we have been training and helping everywhere we can.” Martin sounded so joyful. Aldric felt it as the gloomy overcast sky gave way to a beautiful sunlit cloud free sky. “Sorry, my boy. We were beginning to wonder if we would ever see the glory of the guild again.”

  “I’m glad to hear, you got back on your feet again, Martin. But how did you end up caught together with me?” Aldric asked, feeling some kind of closeness with the elderly gentleman. “If you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Now, my boy. Are you trying to get an old man to tell all of his stories?” Martin laughed. It was a wonderful sound, it was deep and authentic. Aldric shortly forgot all about his dire situation. A sunny sky over a calm sea, feeling the sun tickling and drying the salty seawater of his skin.

  “To tell the truth, I was investigating a magical anomaly near your hometown, Aldric. There have been sightings of a giant black wolf killing livestock and villagers for the past week or so.” Martin began in a serious tone. “A couple of days ago, I finally found my foe and it turns out, it’s not just a giant dire wolf with a taste for people flesh, but a Werewolf. As you can understand I was taken by surprise, But for some reason or other, the werewolf did not kill me but tied me up and put me on this wagon and fed me once every day.”

  “Do you mean Ashborn?” Aldric asked in a whisper.

  “Ashborn? Surely not Dorian Ashborn?” Martin contemplated. “Well now! That could explain a lot!”

  “Quiet back there!” the deep rusted voice sounded from Aldric’s left side. Aldric turned his head on reflex, not able to see anything. Feel the panic rising again.

  “My my, someone is in a bad mood.” Martin chucked in a whisper. “Not to worry, my young friend. I overheard them having a conversation earlier, before you woke up. They are not allowed to hurt you. They already got in trouble for the bruise you received last night.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, Martin. I don’t want to push my luck.” Aldric said after a moment of silence.

  “Be all means, Aldric.” Martin replied in the same calm friendly tone.

  The two prisoners sit in silence for a short while. But Aldric had to force on keeping calm. Every time his mind wandered, Aldric could feel the storm inside himself growing and building.

  Suddenly the wagon came to a halt and Aldric could hear the two deep rusted voices discussing something in a language he didn’t understand, before they got off the wagon and moved with heavy steps around the wagon.

  “No need to worry, Aldric. They were discussing if they could feed us now or later.” Martin hurrying whispered.

  The sharp noise of a key being turned in a lock, and the aroma of food made its way through the sack and all the way into Aldric’s nose. It was not the most pleasant smell, but it was food and Aldric was feeling the hunger growling at him for some time now.

  One of the orcs stepped up on the wagon, shaking the whole thing and shortly after Aldric was greeted by sunlight and the grim face of a broad shouldered green skin orc, with yellow tusks protruding from his lower jaw. He was showing his teeth and moved his big meaty arm around Aldrics back to loose his bindings.

  “Here, your food. Eat!” the orc demanded in a heavily accented deep rusted voice Aldric had come to associate with Orcs. Shortly after the same actions and request was done for Martin as well.

  “Thank you very much.” Martin replied with a big charming smile. “What do we have here? Some type of porridge? Looks delicious! Do you not think so, my boy. Aldric?”

  Aldric, completely terrified, only managed to nod. The Orc gave him a wary look and shook his head.

  “First time seeing an Orc?” Martin questioned. “Other than the smell, most of them are just regular beings, like ourselves. With a bit of a temper.”

  “No, this would be my first time talking to one.” The reply came out in a shaky whisper. Aldric looked away from the orc descending the wagon and took in Martin’s charming smile.

  He looked to be in his 60s, with a mix of blonde and white, and gold and silver hair done up in a messy ponytail. While his hair was still thick, his once blond and golden hair was losing the battle with age and the whiting. But for a man in his age, he was in great shape. A goatee and a well kept mustache shaped his mouth together with his deep and comforting laugh lines together with a two day stubble growth. His pale blue eyes carried a deep sorrow and kindness, together with the aged wisdom of someone who has seen too much of the world.

  “Now look at you, Aldric.” Martin smiled with his pearly white teeth. “I would never have guessed you, one of Feyblood.”

  Aldric could feel his heart beating faster. So fast, he could barely hear Martin’s next words.

  “It is very interesting, we could meet like this.”