The Light in the Dark ✓

Chapter 6.2 The Company

'You... what?' Iris' eyes went wide. 'You can undo the Ritual? Revert the Lord Sun to his former glory?'

'Yes, that's our goal. If we manage to return all the stolen power to the Lord Sun, we'll improve our situation immensely. The Church will lose its grip on the people. We may not have enough force to overthrow them, but we can undermine them enough for people to stand up for themselves.'

'But is it even possible?'

'Light Magic has its rules. We do not create the power out of thin air. We draw it from different sources. What's more, once used, it does not just disappear. It's dispersing and is slowly assimilated back by the world around you. So, if during the ritual an enormous amount of power ware drawn out of the Sun....'

'It may be still lingering somewhere?' Iris finished for him, feeling her excitement rising.

'That would be my assumption. If we gather enough Mages and make some necessary preparations, we may be able to reverse the whole process,' the old man said with a fond smile.

'Then, why hasn't it been done for all those years?' Iris asked, puzzled.

'Because it's convenient for the Church to keep things the way they are now. Remember that they took over after the Ritual failed. They needed a scapegoat to blame for that disaster, so they blamed the Mages and painted themselves as heroes keeping the Shadows away.'

'But it was the Mage's fault, wasn't it?' she asked quietly. This question was bothering her for all those years. After all, without Mages, there would be no Ritual.

Marcus sighed heavily. 'Yes, it was, but it's not so simple. It was a disaster, yes. And we should have been wiser while assessing the risks. That is also true. But we should be allowed to rectify our mistake, not be eradicated as a result.'

'We?' Iris perked up. 'Did you take part in the Ritual?'

Marcus was silent for a moment. His face turned solemn; his bushy brows tightly knitted. 'I wasn't there on that day. I was part of the Order, and I was involved in preparations. Not everyone was on board with the whole Ritual idea. I advised against it. Unfortunately, there was not enough of us to stop it from happening.'

'I see. So, you knew my father from the Order?'

The old man smiled gently, and his face got a little brighter. 'Yes, he was my friend. And a good man. You remind me a lot of him.'

'How so?'

'Your curiosity and kindness, the way you care about other people.'

'You don't know me,' she protested, a little embarrassed. However, it felt good hearing such kind words after all the hate she received recently.

'No, but I've seen enough already. You threw all the caution to the wind when you saw your brother in danger. Not everyone would do that.'

Iris felt her smile falter at the thought. 'Do you think my family will be prosecuted? For hiding me?'

'I hope not,' Marcus said, putting his hand on her shoulder. 'I believe this merchant your family works for will use his influence to shield them. He did that once already, didn't he?'

'Yes, he did. I hope that's the case.'

'Don't worry, Iris. I'm sure your family is well. At least for now. And we will make sure that all Mages will be safe in the future. How does that sound?'

'It sounds great,' Iris said with a small smile.

'Good. Now, come with me. I want to introduce you to some people officially, and then we'll talk about what you can do to help our cause.'