Ziggy checked the walls of the tunnel several times as they walked, trying to see whether there was any threat hiding behind a fake rock or something similar, yet it was just what it appeared to be—a tunnel to somewhere unknown. The people in front of them kept their pace, a bit slower than they could go, probably, to let him and Mary keep up with their pace.

  Their goal was unknown to Ziggy. Honestly, every part of him screamed to just transform and burn them all, but he dismissed the idea already. If they were an immediate threat, they would have attacked the moment they found them alone, and if not, then they’d attack the moment the tunnel closed behind them. But so far, they only kept going forward like an arrow, guiding them through the forks of the tunnels with the confidence of someone who walked these paths a hundred times.

  The walls themselves seemed to be ancient, reinforced with metal rebars, made of dirt and chunks of ornamented stone. Their purpose was lost on Ziggy, but he had no time to lament on their origin. Not like he learned enough history to be able to discern anything anyway.

  He tried looking at the people in front of him again, but he couldn't discern who they were. They were clad in black robes with no ornamentation on them, and they were all shapes and sizes. The dim torch light didn't allow him to see into their faces either.

  But the people in front of him weren't his only concern.

  A few minutes ago, he began hearing soft footsteps somewhere behind him. At first, he assumed that some of these people were behind them as well, trying to cut off their escape, but there simply weren't enough sounds for that to be the case. Apparently, they had a tail, and he even considered telling someone about it, but to what purpose?

  He didn't know what these people were up to, why they needed to talk to Ziggy and Mary, and take them through these halls to god-knows-where. Already, he felt like he was failing Meriel in protecting Mary and himself. No need to make the people who looked like cultists dislike him, not even a little bit.

  Finally, a decrepit wooden door stood in front of them, and one of the three robed people stepped in front and knocked in a pattern. A knock, pause, three more knocks in rapid succession, another pause, and two more knocks, slightly delayed.

  Ziggy did his best to commit the pattern to memory, and the door opened with a squeak with one more person standing behind. The three robed people stepped inside, and one of them turned, motioning for Mary and Ziggy to do the same. He swallowed. Should he really follow? Perhaps he should transform here. Do his best to buy some time for himself and Mary to run away? But what of the person behind them? Would they be a threat as well?

  Before he could decide, however, Mary already went inside without second thoughts. He could only sigh as he followed. Worst case scenario: He would transform there, possibly shocking them to inaction.

  The room was as decrepit as the door was. There were two wooden tables with several chairs, if one could call them that, placed around them, and there was a wooden wall with papers all over it, pinned there by nails. There were maps, but not only that—there were also a lot of texts, magical circles, things Ziggy couldn't make sense of at first glance. Obviously, there was a goal to this whole meeting, but he still had no clue as to what it was.

  "Let's get this under way, shall we?" one of the people in front of them said, using the same familiar female voice that Ziggy heard at first. He couldn't quite place it, which was strange, for he hadn't met that many people.

  "First off, I would like to request something from you: Whatever you hear here, no matter how you decide, I ask you to not share the fact this conversation even happened with anyone. But I believe we are quite correct in our assessment," she said, and Ziggy noted the hesitance in her voice. Each word didn't flow one after another, and it was easy to discern that this wasn't a practiced speech, but the woman in front of him was truly pleading. Perhaps she hasn’t thought this out enough, perhaps they didn't anticipate getting this far in their plans.

  He would share this with Meriel only and let him decide what to do with the information, no matter what they learned. He told them as much. "Of course, I will tell Mev, but I won't tell anyone else. I promise."

  "Me too," Mary stuttered, looking around nervously, and she reached for Ziggy's hand. He gripped it strongly, letting himself focus more.

  "Very well, that much is expected." The woman sat and lifted the cloak above her head, finally revealing her face. Ziggy recognized her instantly.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "Miss? Miss Viera?" Mary asked, shocked. "What? Why did you call us here? This doesn't make any sense!" She stuttered, looking at the other people as they disrobed. Ziggy didn't recognize the rest except one more, the teacher who evaluated him, Mary, and Meriel, as they attended the entrance ceremony. What was her name? Lydia, if he recalled correctly? Already his interest was piqued, and his fear receded a little bit.

  "All will be explained shortly, child," Viera said calmly, not stepping closer, but not distancing herself either. Her face was etched with nervousness, yet she visibly forced herself to steady, and she sat on one of the wooden tables. "I called you here because I wanted to talk about something. About the three of you casting spells without a sword, without a spellblade, as our people call it. I want to ask something a bit more specific, about Mev, the person who came with you into my house, Mary.” She paused, letting the silence hang. “What is his true name?"

  Chills ran through Ziggy's back. Shit. Shit. They were already onto Meriel somehow? Or at least he hoped they weren't. But the fact that she was asking it all and that she suspected that Meriel wasn't who he said he was was already a cause for concern. Ziggy sighed; not saying anything more denying it would be pointless at this point. She was already convinced of her assessment.

  They wouldn't get out of this easily. Viera did state, however, that they could simply go away should they wish, and so he forced himself to calm. They could leave. He wouldn't be the one to rat Meriel out.

  Meriel, I suppose you failed in hiding your identity.

  Mary breathed raggedly next to him, visibly scared, and so Ziggy took charge. "Mev is Mev. That's all we will say on this subject."

  "Hmm." Viera smiled softly and nodded. "Well okay, I will not force you to answer any questions you are uncomfortable with, but I am fairly confident in my assessment on who he is. I don't know how he survived or how he’s still so young, but he looks exactly as my family records state he looked. But that's not the only reason we called you here. Since Meriel has been gone for a century, we suppose he doesn't quite understand the gravity of the situation should he reveal himself publically."

  "The point is that the three of you are in danger." Lydia filled in for Viera and looked Ziggy up and down. "You are capable mages, that much is true. Meriel probably more than any of us, but strength of one individual cannot be enough to hold back the church."

  I believe you’re underestimating my master quite a bit, Ziggy chuckled in his mind, but let them keep their conviction. "What does the church have to do with all this? Mev doesn't quite seem so concerned about it."

  Viera scoffed, holding her head at Ziggy's remark. "Of course he doesn't! It had nowhere near its power back in the last century!" She moved once again, from one table to another. "All the changes happened in my grandparents' time. But the point is that they enforced the spellblade techniques, and although they aren't quite as strict on control nowadays as they were in the centuries past, they monitor every academy, have people here in the city. Several of your classmates probably have some connection to them."

  "But why? From all I've seen, the spell-sword style of fighting seems worse than the magic that Meriel taught us."

  "That's because it is." Lydia nodded and then tilted her head to the side. "In most situations, I suppose, it does truly have some merit to it but doesn't allow for such a high peak. It's really visible when someone as powerful as Meriel comes into play. And he wasn't the only strong mage of his era."

  "The problem is that the Church wants control. And a weaker Lavarza serves that purpose, even if it puts the whole kingdom into greater danger." Viera finished and looked at the two of them. "You are already in their eye, I promise you."

  "So the purpose of us coming here is what?" Ziggy asked and finally looked her in the eye. "To warn us? To pass some message on to my master that you know of his origin? Is this a threat?"

  Ziggy wondered whether they would try to hold this information above them to try to force them to do something. Meriel did warn Ziggy of humans' nature after all, but this was supposed to be his family, albeit distant.

  "No, we are not going to try to… make you do anything you don't want. This is a friendly warning." Viera shook her head as she refused Ziggy's assessment, and she pointed to the wall which Ziggy inspected as he walked in. "We would also like to learn this magic, how it works. All of the knowledge is held by the church in the Lavarza city, and we cannot access it. The books that the church didn’t burn during the revolution, they stockpiled. Most magic instructors know that there's something wrong with the spell-sword arts, but we just can't prove it. But if we could learn this magic and become powerful enough to stand against the church—"

  "Why didn't the mages of the ages past do so?" Mary asked, finally saying something.

  "We don't know," Lydia said, nonplussed.

  "So, you want to ask Meriel to teach you?" Ziggy said, finally letting go of calling him "Mev". The name was bitter on his tongue anyway.

  "Or you two teach us before he comes back from wherever he went?" Viera nodded. "But this cannot leave this room."

  Ziggy took in a deep breath through his nose and silently cast an incantation. If they didn’t want this to leave this room, then he supposed he should let them know of the rat nearby. A simple spell he created to stop people from running away when he was transferred into his dragon form. But it would serve him well here too.

  [Force Pull - Level 3 - Activated]

  The door shot open, and a man who was leaning on it fell to the ground.