Defeating evil

Chapter 3

Around the same time as Vladimir's conversation with Plainreaver Anastasia and William had come to a decision. They had decided to go back to the place that they had called home one more time, they needed to understand more about this connection that they had with their magical creatures and the only ones with the answers were the elder mages. They were curious to find out the reason behind the elder's choice to not teach them about it, they were also curious about how many other mages were oblivious to this fact.

The journey took significantly shorter because of their mounts so they arrived within the hour. When the elder mages saw the children they were taken by surprise, they had not expected them to come back until the fight with Vladimir had begun. They had given them freedom and fully expected them to explore the vast lands that were under their protection.

Ignatius one of the founding members of the elders decided that he was going to lead the conversation, "Hello there children we were not expecting you. What brings you both back here so early?" he asked.

William responded, "We went exploring, but not too far from here we came upon something strange, and we were hoping that you could explain it to us."

This time a different elder, Aquilla, responded, "I can't imagine that you would be able to find something strange so close to our most defensible position, we spent these years making sure that it was the safest place around."

Anastasia was better at these sorts of conversations, so she decided to take over for Will, "Well you see we found a field full of great and wonderous creatures and that is where we met Serenity and Solstice." The unicorn and Pegasus moved from where they were hiding so that the elders could see them. "They spoke to us about a connection between mages and magical creatures."

Ignatius took a step back, "You mean that these two creatures are bonded to you."

"Well yes, and we are rather confused as to why you hid this from us." Anastasia concluded.

The elder mages were rather shocked by this news so they secluded themselves in a corner discussing how they should continue. After a lengthy discussion Quincy the eldest was chosen to explain the circumstances to the children.

"You see we had no choice but to keep this a secret, finding your destined companion among the countless magical creatures is purely down to luck. Back when I was a young boy only eighty-four mages out of the entire mountain were able to find theirs. Some people simply laughed off the matter saying they were not lucky enough to find their match while others went crazy spending all of their time in the fields searching, caring for naught but finding their partner." He began explaining.

At this time William chimed in, "You mean to say they forgot about everything else like their family and even how to look after themselves!"

"Yes, it was a grave fate, but the worst is yet to come. At this time there was a young girl, Iris, not yet aware of the meaning of her words, and she happened to ask one of her friends what happened to the creatures after their bonded partner died. She simply asked the question out of concern, but the question quickly spread. Soon a rumour began, probably spread by those desperate to gain a connection to a magical creature, stating that you could inherit a bond if you killed its owner. As you can imagine some poor lonely fools took it to heart and so a great tragedy ensued. The few lucky mages with a bonded creature were hunted down, the perpetrators quickly realised their mistake when the bond was not inherited, and tried to tell the truth to the rest of the mages but at this point they were all driven so crazy by the idea that they saw this story merely as a way to keep the creature they had stolen. Thus the people who had first been fooled by the rumour became the new victims. After three years we were finally able to end the madness and it was decided that only the elders and those with a bonded creature were allowed to know of the connection shared between us and the magical creatures. One of the elders of that time had access to a unique type of magi which allowed him to remove the memories of that time and of the connection with it, and that brings us to now. Whenever a new elder is commissioned we remove the magic from them, and they can remember all of our troubled past."