Dread Mage

The Irath didn't talk, not to Vell or Sonder at least. But it also seems that they didn't share many words among themselves either.

There were three mages and two guards for each of them in bronze armor, ornately designed. Their helmets, which didn't even show a fraction of skin, were designed after the face of their dictator, who was also their patron saint, Endrith.

The sharp cheeks and sunken eyes were unmistakable.

Vell hadn't met him before; why would he? But he remembers that he has been the ruler of the Irath for a long time.

Some called him the Wizard King because their society was built on the principles and virtues of magic.

Quite ridicolous, Vell thought, but who was he to judge how to run a country?

A few days away from the flying fortress of the lodge was a gateway, one of a few sprinkled throughout the world for easy access to other countries and for travel, that would bring the Irath directly back to their capital.

It was only accessible to them and the ones they wished to bring with them, meaning Vell and Sonder.

The guards wanted to put Sonder in a cage, a small one at that, but after insisting, Vell convinced them not to.

He simply told them the deal would be off if the girl, if the banshee, was treated badly or dealt with harshly as long as he was in their company.

They seemed eager to get their bony fingers on Sonder and experiment on her.

Things that wouldn't come to pass if Vell had to say anything about them.

After the encounter he had with the Ahsepain mage, he decided to see Sonder as a precious friend, not something like a precious jewel that would shatter if dropped or traded away for something more precious.

She was a person with her own thoughts, wants, and needs.

He would see her through her life and the journey they shared, but he wouldn't control her decisions.

He had also wondered if he should really make her his apprentice. She was gifted in Dico magic after all, and that was a rare feat.

Their only goal was to get admittance into Irathy territory, and they did; now they just had to play along a bit more and form a plan from here on out.

Vell wondered if Sonder had thought of anything, though it was unlikely.

She seemingly knew little of the world due to losing a significant portion of her mind from her semi-ressurection, and he imagined that things this complicated were out of her mind's reach, right now.