The Pure Ones

Chapter Nineteen

THE SMITH

All of Eva's henchmen were gathered once again in the familiar abandoned castle. Although none of them liked to admit it, they all deeply despised the castle for it brought them unpleasant memories. It was understandable, a spell had trapped them in the castle for two centuries, in those two centuries they were driven to insanity on several occasions, unable to escape their predicament. At last, they were finally free, but Eva insisted on making them gather there frequently for meetings.

At the moment, the next steps in their already commenced plan of world domination were being discussed. As dramatic as that sounded, it barely scratched the surface for what Eva had planned.

"I don't know why we keep meeting here" Ezra complained to Zina who was seated next to him.

"Not crazy about it either, but at least this time we can leave" she replied.

Ezra scratched his full beard. "I have been meaning to ask, what did you do with your twelve years of freedom?" he asked her as he lazily relaxed into his chair.

"Put in the work, improve my craft, learn new techniques". She paused briefly but then continued, "I can't shapeshift like you, and I can't create things out of thin air like Taina" she nudged knees with the woman sitting next to her who was attentively listening to their conversation. "Have to make up for that somehow" the blacksmith said with determination.

Ezra scoffed, "Now that's too boring."

Zina rolled her eyes, "And what were you up to?"

He grinned like a child, "Where do I begin? I travelled halfway across the world to where the food was sweet and the women even sweeter".

Zina stared back at him, unimpressed.

He continued, "Acquired an astronomical amount of money, lived like a king for years, but Eva's call brought me back to all of you."

Zina was disappointed but not surprised, it was Ezra after all. They both had very different views on duty and responsibility as members of the Onyx Order, Ezra had long proven himself to be a very crucial member of the Order, but Zina's lack of any special abilities other than her fine smithing skills left her feeling inadequate and with a strong urge to prove herself worthy.

"How about you?" the shapeshifter asked the woman next to Zina, she looked at him without saying a word, he suddenly remembered,

"Right, you can't talk."

"She won't talk" Zina corrected him sharply. Taina went on to describe her experiences using very minimal hand gestures and Zina understood every word.

Nigel suddenly screamed at everyone to stay silent, Ezra jumped from the shock and shifted to a cat. They all straightened up and awaited instructions, Nigel cleared his throat before he began straight away.

"The plan is to divide and conquer. Ezra, you are to continue the chaos scheme, awaken and summon as many of your beasts and order them to destroy everything in their paths. Taina, your job is to travel far and wide, discover how ready different parts of the world are for a threat like the one we are bringing them. Find out about their defenses and if there is anything we need to watch out for."

Taina absorbed the information and nodded in acknowledgement.

"Hazel, Saffron, you are tasked with slowly making our presence known as well as our intentions. Draw the attention of the humans, acts of violence are encouraged."

The two girls smiled in sync as Nigel uttered those last words.

"The queen and I have other important matters to handle, so you can all go on with your own instructions."