Rumors

Hirana walked into Alleria's office after receiving a request of her presence. Wondering why Alleria would summon her this late, she approached the anxious girl who was contemplating in silence. Before Hirana decided to pull Alleria back to the gravity of the situation, she observed the room. There didn't seem to be anything in the room that could cause mental discomfort other than the letter with the purple rose. Hirana thought to herself: "The Magic Council's intelligence unit? This is awfully strange." Deciding to keep Alleria waiting no longer, Hirana tapped her on the shoulder.

OOC:My table is facing the door so I would have noticed you if you went in the room. Also ever heard of knocking? XD

IC: Alleria must have dozed off for she just suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, staring at the letter in front of her must have caused her to partially space out. She look at the owner of the hand that gently rested on her shoulder. It belonged to a violet haired, black eyed girl. "The new recruit." she thought. Nevertheless she was happy for finally somebody came to her summons. It was the newly inducted council member Soleice. The girl was young to be a member of the magic council which meant she must be exceptionally talented. Remembering the reason she requested for a witness she decided to skip the plesantries and cut straight to the point.

"You must be wondering why I requested for any member of the council to come at this time of night, as you can see a letter with the seal of thr purple rose arrived and I need a witness who would testify that I received the letter sealed and that nothing was tampered." she paused for a while as she grabbed the said letter and showed the other council member what she meant.

After assusing Soleice the validity of the letter she continued to speak. " As you may have known the MC intellegence are currenty monitoring the activity of the dark guilds, I still do not know the contents of this letter but that's the reason your here. So can I open this now, I've been itching all day to rip this letter open." Alleria said as she waved the letter with her hand.

"Yes, please do. I am also curious to see what is inside the letter." said Hirana. She put her head beside Alleria's and twisted it as if to show a curious desire. "Personally, I don't believe that you would tamper with the letter, but if you want me here as your witness, then I will gladly be your witness." said Hirana with a cheerful tone.

"Finally." Alleria thought.

She tore the side of the letter, letting the content slide out. She clasped the letter in her hand and began to read it out loud.

"To the council member, the once empty halls of the dark guild Savage Skull is now buzzing with activity. Apparently a new Master has been appointed and he had been busy recruiting. New recruits were initiated thru trial of blood. They are dispersed to various locations and instructed to do atrocities, leaving behind a trail of carnage and destruction." Alleria paused, her face showed that she was greatly concerned. No news of such activities were ever mention, probably because they were done at the far ends of the kingdom.

She continues on "However, we do believe that the current master is just a pawn and that someone is pulling the string, orchestrating mass hysteria to cause fear in the hearts of the people. The only informant that survived managed to snag one of this."

Alleria shook the envelop and out came a piece of cloth, she picked it up. "This isnt cloth, its a piece of skin!" the girl exclaimed. On the piece of skin, there was something drawn on it. A symbol..."The symbol of the Lich!" her face went pail. The blood drain from her face and a cold feeling came over her.

Though shaken she continued to read the letter.
"Through archive magic, we found that the sign is the emblem of the Lich but thats all go got. Access to the information was classified and we were not able to retrieve more information, however you may be able to shed some light on this. We will continue tagging them and do our best to uncover their plot. Until next report, Captain Hayato Mikagami."

"This is bad...we have to talk to council member Slaine as soon as possible." the girl said as she slumped into her chair.

As if saying his name aloud conjured him out of thin air, Slaine stepped through the doorway.

Over the past few weeks, Slaine had been tagging along with the intelligence unit. In the shadows, without them even realizing. On many occasions he lauged at their sloppiness and lack of stealth. If he could keep up with them for such a long time without being discovered, so could others. Slaine still found it good practice for his eavesdropping and shadowing skills.

Although it had changed his mood significantly. As he tailed several intelligence units, he had been forced to watch from the shadows as units got slaughtered by Dark Mages. He could not risk being discovered, by anyone, which rendered him powerless. Although what he learned through his investigations, was worth those lost lives.

A name, a nightmare, a legend, a whisper.
Lichborne

There were only a handful of people alive who still new that name and what it really was. The Magic Council's elder members and those who were entrusted with the information many years ago, and Zeno Sombras, Eclipse Soul's Guildmaster. Slaine thought back, travelled back in time in his mind. The look in Zeno's eyes before his... transformation. That look, had been horrifying. Even for him. Then he compared it with the stories he had heard, and the information he had been given on the Lichborne.

He clenched his jaws. Lichborne was even worse than Zeno's dark side. It was disturbing and exciting at the same time.

"You called?" He said with flawless pokerface.

OOC: No posting order here so im gonna go post

Just a few seconds after muttering Slaine's name, the door that Soleice left ajar creaked open, and a figure entered through the portal.

"You called?" said the guest. It was Slaine, he stood their, face blank as always.

"Yeah I did." the girl pondering if her fellow councilmen just arrived or he arrived earlier and was just eavesdropping. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she invited him to have a seat.

"Please, have a seat. I wouldn't be a good hostess if I wont let my guests at least take a seat." she said as if trying to be a good hostess.

"A letter came here this morning from the intelligence unit, attached to it is something I know you are pretty familiar with." she walked over to her new guest and gave the piece or drawing along with the special ops report.

"Does it look familiar?" Alleria asked.

"So you've finally received word of it..." He replied, giving a short sigh at the end. He calmly made his way towards the desk and sat down in the chair. He gave Soleice a nod in acknowledgement of her presence.

"Yes, I recognize that symbol. It should not come as a surprise that it means bad news... Very bad news, in fact." He continued as he brought his fingers to his chin and stroked it pensively.

"During the last chaotic war, the one for which many blame Zeno Sombras, a 'side-event' occured. It was covered up because of all the hectic battles and politic situations, the land was already falling apart. Publicly announcing such an event would have destroyed Fiore..." He explained and looked at his fellow council members.

He raised his eyebrows when he realized they probably did not even know what exactly Lichborne meant.

"I am talking about mass genocide. An entire city eradicated in mere moments, soul siphoned entirely. It was never disclosed to me what exactly was responsible for it... Well not by elder councilmen anyway." He said and on his face appeared a crooked smile.

"After some digging I found that the Lichborne event was much more intruiging. Vague myths and legends claim that an actual entity murdered all those people and stole their souls. Although, that is all speculation and hoax. Facts are that there was a covered up mass genocide of sorts referred to as the Lichborne event." Slaine said and then leaned backwards in his chair, his elbow resting on the armrest and hand pensively placed on his mouth.

His observing green eyes making eyecontact with both council members, shifting from one to the other.

Alleria's face went pale. Her head began to throb and her knees buckled. Disturbing images seemed to flash before her eyes as a voice softly whispers. "Remember, remember..." Alleria shook her head, she was having one of those times again. She came closer to her desk, swiped a flask of rum hidden among the books piled neatly on her desk, and took a sip. When she was sure that her voice wont break when she talked, she spoke.

"So what your telling us is, a huge crime against humanity was perpetrated by just one man and the kingdom did the opposite of what they should have done?" Alleria said as she sat back down in her couch, with rum still in tow.

"And how was one person able to do that and get away with it? And why is it happening now? Who is the puppeteer pulling the string?" asked the frustrated mage.

When she was young, there were tales of the Lich told by grannies and nannies to scare children. They say if you roam around at night, the lich will steal your soul. She wasnt sure if this was the same lich that horror stories told to straighten delinquent children. Slaine's admission proves that he does exist.

"You know he is real, you despise him after all..." came the soft voice again.

Alleria took another sip of the rum then said "What do you propose we do now?" he asked Slaine.

"The event happened roughly 12 years ago. Fiore was experiencing a major crisis, and you know just as well as everyone else how politicians deal with such heat. Also, I never said that Lichborne was an actual person. The myths and legends depict it as an entity. A demon, or worse. Something capable of stealing the souls of thousands of people instantly... I can hardly imagine it being human." Slaine replied and stood up.

He tightened his outfit, straightened his back and portrayed control itself.
"It's very simple. We will form our own intelligence unit, and investigate it ourselves. I suggest we start by gathering reports on recent Dark Guild activity, anything suspicious that pops up. Then we start looking for clues, any leads that we can follow." He continued as he walked back to the door.

"...Or we could go ahead and interrogate a few Dark Mages. Either way... We should be sober."

"Twelve years ago, odd, that is the exact same time when people from nearby villages from my home town went missing. I cant quite remember much, but I knew that was the same year when the tale of the lich spread." She thought as she tried to connect dots, she was desperately trying to remember something, something that bests stay forgotten. She remembered that she had guests and spoke.

"The council would never approve of taking harsh actions, you know too that interrogating dark mages without probable cause is deemed illegal.After all,the evil citizens of the town needs rights too right?" Alleria let out a resounding laugh.

"So I guess its the first choice then. Me, her and you? And dont worry..." she paused as she made a gesture pointing at the thing in her hand. "I would not be bringing this there."

"Twelve years ago, odd, that is the exact same time when people from nearby villages from my home town went missing. I cant quite remember much, but I knew that was the same year when the tale of the lich spread." said Alleria.

Soleice evaluated the two options, then she spoke:"Alleria,I agree with you. We should form our own intelligence unit and investigate this case ourselves. This case must be kept in the dark for now, announcement to the public would strike fear into the hearts of mages." Hirana strutted across the room and looked at the fire, she pondered for a moment, then said: "The question is, who do we recruit?"

OOC:Please read what slaine read, also you quoted me not him.

Alleria looked at Soleice, she was disappointed. "I believe Slaine did not make a choice, he was merely asking us which option we would approve."

"Is that what you want Slaine?" she turned to the stoic council member.

Slaine sighed with a smile, blinked, and gave his fellow council members a deep, focused look.

"Discretion and stealth are key. The public has no need to know of this information until events escalate to the point where it is in the plain sight of everyone, and we can no longer keep it hidden." Slaine said as he stepped through the doorway.

"Oh.. Hold on.." He said in a higher tone.

Slaine shut his eyes, chuckled and calmly placed his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose.
"I can't believe I did not connect the dots earlier. Reports came in about a raid on Blue Pegasus warehouses. Many were killed. It was quite disturbing. It is clear that this is no coincidence. I believe that is where we should start.

I'll meet the two of you there." Slaine said before the poral zapped him away.