“Try the berries, they are simply exquisite,” a golden haired girl with blue cat-like eyes smiled eagerly at Phidias.  The girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen and had a pale blue dress with bell sleeves and a small silver tiara on her head.  Her berry stained lips started to pouted when Phidias didn’t immediately latch onto her enthusiasm or respond to her flirtation.  There was no mistaking the identity of this girl.

“Lady Eslay,” Phidias bowed more deeply than protocol required and she visibly swooned.  Phidias had the colouring of his ancestor Rita and the charm of his other ancestor Logan.  He was deeply observant and strikingly handsome.  He was also here to kill her father.

 “I am so sorry at my hesitation.  I was struck by your beauty so.  I was at a loss for words.  Alas, berries do not agree with me, so please enjoy one for me.”  He delicately picked up a strawberry by its leaves and held it out for her.  He could not help but flirt with a beautiful woman, even if she was far above his station and a decade younger than himself.  Plus, she was looking all moon-eyed at him, so he couldn’t help but have a bit of fun.

She looked as if she was about to eat it out of his hand, so he deftly lowered it and proffered it with another bow.  He chuckled to himself.  The inappropriateness of the thought was something Amarra would have enjoyed, but she was beyond his reach.  However, he would feel Venar’s eyes boring into his back and Phidias knew Venar was torn between amusement at his new admirer and the seriousness of their mission.  It was not ideal that Phidias had been noticed.   

“You didn’t tell me your name,” Eslay said half a demand, half trying to be coy.  Most men would be intimidated by her rank and beauty, but Phidias was not most men.

“That I did not, my lady,” he winked at her and faded into the crowd.  His black cloak should have stood out in the room full of lord and ladies in colourful robes and dresses, but he was gone and Eslay crushed the strawberry in her hand.

The red haired man standing against the wall began to choke at that moment and she sent a withering glare in his direction. Venar had chosen the wrong moment to take a sip from his silver goblet – the moment when Phidias had crushed Eslay’s dreams, and she in turn had crushed that strawberry.  Ah to be young, he thought.

Venar turned his attention to Lord Gribbon, Eslay’s father, who had now taken a position on the dais.  The speech he was about to make was going to set in motion a revolution.  Aurum Logos was worried at the rate the Unchained were gaining followed and a high ranking political figure throwing in his lot with them would be catastrophic.  Venar, Phidias, and the rest of the rooks had been collecting information on the Unchained for almost a year now, and all of their intelligence had led them to this moment.  Lord Gribbon wanted to kills thousands of the chainlers.  Venar and Phidias just had to kill one man.

“Good evening ladies and gentlefolk,” Lord Gribbon’s booming voice was a perfect match to his over-indulgent figure and walrus-like facial hair.

“Today I declare to be the first day of a new era. For too long we have been prisoners of the chainlers.  Yes, the make our food and help the sick.  But they also stop progress and oppress freedom.  When was the last time you got to decide something for yourself?  Or did a chainler do it for you?  Us normal folk are not allowed to be doctors, academics, or merchants.  We must be herbalists, country teachers, and labourers.  How come what is known as the greatest education in the land reserved for a select group of people?  We can do everything that they can and we can do it without magic!”  He spoke elegant lies that were interspersed with half truths.  His pure disgust when he said magic was the only truth.  But the nobles in the room cheered.  People whose ancestors had all been chainlers and had made their wealth as chainlers.   The world was slowly running out of phi, and with it fewer people were being born with the ability to manipulate it. 

Of course, anyone who passed the qualifying exams were welcome to attend Aurum Logos, but most of the nobles just thought of it as the magic school because of its grand and ancient history with its founding almost a thousand years before.  And the non-chainler king had decreed certain positions only be granted to graduates of Aurum Logos three hundred years ago, when the population had a near equal mix of chainlers and non-chainers.  He wanted qualified people serving his population. In some situations, phi manipulated was advantageous, so more chainlers became doctors.  However, Lord Gribbon was right in saying that ordinary people could do just as good a job as the chainlers if they had the same training.  Even if a chainler could make a shoe last longer or make you run a bit faster, the overall quality of the craftsmanship would be the same.  And the product would be cheaper than one that was chainler made.  The problem was that most shoemakers didn’t think it was worth their time, didn’t know they could be trained at Aurum Logos, or that most chainlers would be happy to pass on their skills, so they made subpar products.  As a result, many people began to resent the chainlers.  The general population still felt they needed them, but it was mixed with a dislike of their dependence and a fear of the mystery of their power.  The average person in Linnaea didn’t know a chainler personally, so rumours of their power were often distorted and farfetched.   

Since Fort Gribbon was far up in the mountains, all of the guest had to spent the night.  Luckily it was a fort in name and a stone battlement only, and it was actually a great stone manor surrounded by a bustling town with several inns.  Venar had announced them as Obsidian monks, who had been against magic since the times of Fynn.  As men of the cloth, they had been assigned rooms in the manor, as Lord Gribbon was publically pious for whatever religion supported his cause. 

Phidias lay back on his ridiculously feathered bed with a loaf of bread on his stomach.  He absentmindedly tore off pieces to refuel his phi.  Bread was his best source.  He could still use phi when he ate other foods, but he was strongest when he just had bread in his stomach.   He sent for Amarra, a processed which involved him focusing his phi to the south and picturing her room in Aurum Logos.  Then he relaxed his mind.  She was able to do blind sendings for him when she didn’t know where he was, but he had never been able to figure out how she did it.  His sendings were decent enough, so even if she wasn’t in her room she would get it, but she would have to be in Aurum Logos.  But he could be anywhere in the world and her sendings would find him.  She was suddenly there, inside of his head.  Amarra and Phidias were unique among chainlers, and they made certain to keep this gift a secret.  Not only were they the two most powerful chainlers in the known world, they could enter other peoples minds, chainlers and non-chainlers alike.  Sharing this special ability allowed them to communicate without speaking.  It was Amarra that had learned in the depth of the Aurum Logos library that they could use it to communicate over vast distances.

Phidias filled Amarra in on his day, and she was the perfect audience.  She laughed and gasped at all the right places.  Of course, she could have just read his thoughts and then left, but he imagined a sitting room for them in his mind and they sat and talked on a claw footed couch in his imagination drinking tea like they would have if they’d really been in the same room.  It was good to spend time together after they had been apart for so long.

She thought it was particularly juicy that Lady Eslay was a chainler, “Wasn’t she supposed to be betrothed to the Prince on her sixteenth birthday?” she mused.  The King and royal family had yet to make their position clear on the Unchained.  They had retained most of the chainler staff although many chainler products and services had recently seen an added tax.

“The king, her father, the other nobles.  The poor girl is going to have an interesting next few weeks.” Amarra continued, “Maybe you’ll have to bring her back to Aurum Logos.”

Phidias froze mid-pour, allowing tea to pour everywhere.  He quickly banished the spill from his mind, “We need her to come back to Aurum Logos,” he said simply.

Amarra laughed nervously, “You’re thinking as a hostage?”

“I’m thinking as a student.  To learn.  We can’t win the coming war with fire.  In the end, they’ll have more soldiers.  Worse than that, they’ll have the people. We need to open our doors and show the world we’re not some secret society.  That we’re not a danger.”

“That we don’t murder our rivals?” Amarra interjected sweetly.

“I didn’t kill anyone today,” Phidias smiled sarcastically with a hint of bravado, “I am a merciful creature.”

“Praise Fynn,” Amarra kissed his nose and Phidias was able to embrace her for a proper kiss when he was alerted to movement in the manor.  He sat up on the bed comforted by the feeling of Amarra in the back of his mind, but slightly uneasy at the chainler walking toward his room.  Another moment with Amarra and he would have been completely unaware of his surroundings.  It wasn’t Venar.  He was only of four people that new of Phidias’s ability to sense phi manipulation and had concerns there could be others like him in the world.  He only held onto phi when he was using it, so he wouldn’t carelessly be holding it walking through an unchained stronghold.

He figured it was Eslay and heard Amarra chuckle.  In his mind’s eye he saw her lean back and imagine herself some cashews to snack on, getting ready to enjoy the show.  She thought it was hilarious when girls threw themselves at Phidias.  He was thankful she wasn’t the jealous type.  You’re welcome she thought, You owe me.

Phidias calmly removed a knife from his boot in preparation for whoever was standing outside his door.  Although he specialized in phi-based assassination, he was trained in all sorts of ways to be lethal.  He sat in the chair that was angled between the door and the fireplace and waited.  There was a timid knock.  He let out a breath.  He wasn’t afraid of anything, but he had not been looking forward to killing someone with Amarra in his head.    

He softly called out, “Enter,” and Eslay entered wearing a blue velvet robe over a long white nightgown.  Phidias felt Amarra arch an eyebrow in question. 

“Sir, I don’t know you.  The role says you are an Obsidian monk, but you’re not like any monk that has come here before,” she was speaking very quickly and her eyes were wild with fear, “You’re nicer than the other monks.  I don’t know if that means anything, or if you actually are an Obsidian and you’re going to report me to my father.  But if you’re like me, and aren’t what you’re supposed to be, will you help me escape.  I don’t know what is going to happen to me.  They’re meeting right now.”

Venar said you were Obsidian monks?  For a high ranking intelligence agent, he can be so obtuse.  You are the opposite of a typical monk.  Even this naïve little girl caught you out. Amarra was having a good laugh in his mind, so he chastised her, Do you mind being helpful?  How do I get her?

What do you want her to do?  Eat a strawberry? was her only response before laughter overtook her again.

Phidias sighed and Eslay began to cry, “Please don’t tell my father I was here,” and she turned to leave the room.

“I won’t.  Please sit.”  Phidias rose to pour Eslay a glass of water and to give himself a moment to collect his thoughts. 

“There is a safe place I know of for chainlers.  It can take you there.  It’s called...” BY FYNN IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM, DON’T YOU DARE. Amarra’s voice thundered so loudly in his head that he almost yelled the words aloud.  Drowolloward is not yours to give.  You have no idea the danger my home is in or the secrecy that I grew up in.  You have no right to risk the safety of my mother and our people for this spoiled brat.  You may be a chainler, but it’s not your world.    

The name means nothing to her, once she is on the road with us we can introduce her to the idea of Aurum Logos.  I can’t reveal myself while I’m trapped here.  He ignored the comments about not being a real chainler.  It was true, he didn’t grow up in a chainler society.  In fact, Venar was the first chainler he met, when he was sixteen. 

What if you’re caught and she tell someone else about Drowolloward? How does an Obsidian monk know about it?  Let alone where to find it.

But I don’t know how to find it, let alone how to get in.

I do.  Venar does.  I could prevent you from accessing that part of my mind.  But Venar wouldn’t stand a chance.  You could get find out the secrets from him in your sleep.  Wise up, Phid. This is bigger than all of use.  And with that, she was gone.

Phidias sighed again, he would have to beg for forgiveness later.  At the moment, Amarra, the light of his life, would have to stew back in Aurum Logos, as he focused on redirecting his mission.

Venar was rudely awakened by an intruder in his mind.  Phidias had turned to him in the dream and had come sharply into focus, breaking the narrative of the dream telling him it was time to go.

Venar grumbled as he pulled on the black robes of the Obsidian monks, he would be happy to rid himself of their filth, but he first had to figure out how to leave Fort Gribbon without having a legion of soldiers on their tail.  Venar was small, but solid man in his early forties, who both was prided and chagrined at being Phidias’s mentor.  He had discovered Phidias’s talent quite by accident a decade earlier in the capital city Darwyn and had never been able to shake him in the years since then.  Phidias had shown a talent for subterfuge and espionage, which was not surprising considering his childhood and this happened to complement Venar role in intelligence for Aurum Logos.  Most people though of Aurum Logos as a university, but it was also a government, hospital, and a weapon.  It trained soldier openly, and these war machines were hired out to armies all over the continent.  Secretly, Aurum Logos had an army of its own, who had acted in the shadows for centuries, guiding events and forcing action when necessary for their interests. 

Phidias had provoked Eslay into become a very important pawn for Aurum Logos current interest of defeated the Unchained.  Venar was concerned that he had also provoked Lord Gribbon into more furious action against the chainlers who had obviously been behind his attempted poisoning.  Gribbon would loudly claim that the antidote had worked and quietly lock his daughter in a tower.  Slowly the witnesses in the room would conform to his version of the events and throw in their support for the Unchained.  What Aurum Logos needed was a high ranking chainler to publically denounce the Unchained and possibly gain the support of the royal family.  It was an ambitious goal, but it was not more ambitious than the other branches of Aurum Logos like Aquila attempting to diplomatically resolve the situation or Strix trying to restore the balance of phi to the world. 

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