Throne of Magical Arcana - The Castle

1Close to the lake, there was an old castle covered with thick vines standing beside a precipitous cliff, and the high towers of the grand castle were so tall that they almost looked like aged, big cedars in the darkness.
    

Staring at the castle from afar, Lucien took a deep breath and put both Ice Revenger and Mo, the ring that had once belonged to Natasha’s mother, on his left hand. He carefully turned the word, Mo, carved on the ring toward the inside of his hand.
    

Facing unknown dangers, the powerful and mysterious sorcerers and necromancers, Lucien needed to utilize everything he had to protect himself.
    

Trying to stay focused, Lucien was ready to cast spells at any time. So, he slowly walked out from behind a big rock where he was hiding and headed for the gloomy castle.
    

The cool night wind in June drove away the heat in the day, and the surroundings were quiet, except for the crickets’ chirping.
    

Lucien safely came in front of the thick wooden gate of the castle. Raising his arm calmly, Lucien knocked at the gate.
    

After a while, the great gate slowly opened. Lucien heard the coarse sound from the friction between the wood and the ground. Although the gate appeared to be too heavy for even two to three male adults to open, a senior man wearing a white shirt and black suit easily pulled out the door and said to Lucien in standard continental common tongue, “Who’re you, sir? Why are you here?”
    

Seeing that the person opening the gate did not directly try to kill him, Lucien’s nervousness was half relieved. So, he lowered his head and said to the senior man politely, “You must be the steward of the castle, sir. Nice to meet you. I’m a sorcerer traveling through Djibouti right now.”
    

Lucien paused a bit and quickly took a glance at the facial expression of the old steward, and then continued seriously, “A bunch of robbers tried to rob me outside Dragon Tooth town, and I killed all of them. What surprised me was that I found a letter from one of the robbers, inviting all the sorcerers, necromancers and apprentices to gather to join the Feast of Death and to meet a sorcerer from the headquarter of the Congress of Magic.”
    

“…” The old steward’s eyebrow rose slightly but did not say anything to respond, as if he was still waiting for Lucien’s further explanation.
    

“I know it’s not proper of me to come to visit the castle directly, but I was very lucky because the apprentice who was unfortunately attacked by the robbers actually left the location of Carendia Castle on the invitation, or I would never be able to find my way here. Please forgive my impertinence,” Lucien continued politely.
    

“May I know what’s the symbol on the invitation?” The old steward remained polite, as if he was just talking to some random traveler instead of an evil sorcerer.
    

Although Lucien knew that the old steward might not be able to see his face under the hood, he maintained his smile, “A black hexagram.”
    

The old steward nodded slightly, “I shall report to my lord, guest.”
    

Holding a white candlestick, the old man turned around and disappeared gradually in the darkness.
    

Lucien kept politely waiting at where he was, without moving a single step. After a while, when the old steward came back, he nodded to Lucien, “Very well. You’re very polite, guest. You know what is respect.”
    

Lucien laid his left hand on his chest and bowed slightly, “Thank you for forgiving my precipitance, sir.”
    

“Viscount Carendia wants to meet you in the study. Follow me, please.” The steward reminded Lucien, “Follow me close, guest. Do not get lost in the darkness. It’s dangerous.”
    

Then, he turned around again to show Lucien the way.
    

Following the old steward, Lucien was sweating from nervousness. His Host Star of Destiny, his own intuition and also Alert were warning him silently that there were lots of dangerous and mysterious ‘things’ hiding in the darkness, especially when Lucien just stepped in the castle and when the gate closed behind him.
    

Lucien felt that the darkness in the castle was somehow ‘alive’, which gave him goose bump. However, Lucien decided to remain silent and ask no question but just follow the old steward.
    

When Lucien started to get a bit irritated from walking in the darkness for a relatively long time, the old steward stopped and reached his head into the darkness. He pushed his hand forward and opened a door.
    

As soon as the door opened, bright yellow light came out and drove the darkness in this area away.
    

“Please, guest.” The old steward bowed slight and politely let Lucien get into the room first.
    

“Thank you very much, sir.” Lucien nodded, and then entered the room without any hesitation.
    

The dark yellow carpet in the study was thick and luxury. Even the hatstand was gilt. The table, the bookshelf and the armchairs were made from precious rosewood. Based on many details of the decoration of the room, Lucien could tell the pursuit of extravagance of the owner of this place.
    

In a red couch in front of a coffee table sat a young man wearing a black shirt and red coat. He had blond hair and deep eyes, matched with an attractive smile. The line of his chin was defined, looking handsome and also manly.
    

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sorcerer.” The blond young man greeted without standing up from the couch.
    

“My lord, please adhere to your noble manner.” The manner-oriented old steward walked to the young noble in a fast pace and whispered in his ear to remind him.
    

“Nice to meet you, Viscount Carendia. Thank you for seeing me.” Lucien bowed slightly.
    

“You see… the guest doesn’t mind me sitting.” The viscount turned his head to the steward and smiled, “Take it easy, Nied.”
    

“If the count was here, he would be your model of being elegant and noble,” The old steward murmured in a low voice and then stood behind the viscount.
    

“Come on… I don’t even really remember my grandpa. How am I supposed to learn from his manner?” The viscount rubbed his forehead a bit. Then he pointed at the couch beside him and said to Lucien, “Please have a seat. Nied told me your intention of coming here, but I have to make sure that you’re not a spy from the Church. The Church has a bunch of sorcerers who surrendered to them.”
    

Even while he was talking about Lucien’s possible identity as a spy from the Church, the viscount still looked rather relaxed.
    

“The Church would never have me as their spy.” Lucien gave the viscount his answer which was already prepared earlier, “I have a pseudonym, Professor.”
    

“Professor? You’re the Professor ranking No. 359 on the Cleansing List?” Carendia stood straight and asked him seriously. The viscount knew clearly that all the names on the list represented powerful beings. Grand arcanists, legendary archmages, the grand cardinals in the north, ancient dragons, the ancestors of vampire, the Prince of Werewolf, Royal family of Kuo-toa, and the leaders of heresies were all included. The reason that he noticed Professor on the list was that this mysterious sorcerer was the only one whose power was below that of a radiant knight.
    

Lucien gave a sigh of relief in his mind, feeling lucky that the viscount actually knew his alias, which also made sense because, as a noble, he should have access to this list.
    

“Yes, I’m the Professor.” Lucien nodded, “I’m back now, from Aalto.”
    

“How do you prove it?” Carendia had a cunning smile on his face, “Even I am not on the list. Your power must be very impressive.”
    

“How do you want me to prove my power? Breaking one or two of your vases in this room?” Sitting in the couch, Lucien asked in a joking way.
    

“Ha… I’d rather not.” The viscount laughed, “I heard that you created an unique magic that can directly destroy a house. And I know that, even in the headquarter of the Congress of Magic, there was no similar spell registered.”
    

“I can show it to you.” Lucien shrugged and pointed at the castle’s floor, “But here?”
    

“Up to you.” The viscount sat back in the couch with his eyes slightly squinting.
    

Lucien walked to the wall and laid both of his hands on it. After spending a bit time on calculating the possible range of vibration frequency of the castle, Lucien sent some magic waves to the wall and felt the feedback of the waves to get the more accurate information about the frequency of vibration of this whole place to adjust the speed of the waves he sent.
    

Soon, the old castle started to shake. Although the shaking was obviously easy to notice, it was far from destroying the whole place.
    

Lucien was guessing that this old castle was protected by many powerful magic circles, so The Professor’s Oscillation Hand could not really do damage to it.
    

Before Lucien felt really embarrassed, the viscount clapped his hands behind him, “Enough, enough, Professor. Right now I cannot really afford a new castle like this.”
    

Seizing the chance, Lucien removed his hands from the wall and turned around, “So I’ll take it as a pass?”
    

“Of course.” Carendia let Lucien go back to sit, “You already know the time and the location of our gathering, Professor. I can ask Nied to make another invitation for you.”
    

“That’ll be great.” Lucien nodded, “What if there’s any change with regard to the time or location, how can I be informed?”
    

While Nied, who was standing behind the viscount, walked toward the desk to make a new invitation, Viscount Carendia said to Lucien, “We have two secret sites in Korsor for sorcerers to leave coded marks and messages to exchange information. Any information regarding the changes of this gathering will be available there.”
    

After introducing the location of the two sites and the meaning of the codes to Lucien, Viscount Carendia smiled to him, “I’m looking forward to your presence, Professor. And if you could come one day earlier, although I know you must be very busy, you can have more time to exchange ideas and thoughts with Mr. Felipe, from the headquarter of the Congress of Magic. After all, both of you are young folks. Young people should be given more time to gather and to make joint progress.”
    

“We young folks?” Looking at the viscount, Lucien was confused.
    

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