Chapter Forty Four - Turmoil (Part 2)

There was silence in the lobby before a young woman came forward and asked, "Noah?" She had a mask on her face and goggles on so it was difficult to see who it was.

"Yes, have you seen my mother Nereem?" Noah asked a little louder and moving closer to her, the people in between started going back to their normal work.

The lady walked forward and took off her goggle and mask revealing Sara the healer who helped him when he first came to the Dragon Keep. She had dark circles under her eyes and a pained smile on her face.

"Your mother is currently on the emergency ward main desk and won't be off duty for a few hours more, what are you doing in the Dragon Keep? Is Sir Isan here?" She squeezed her mask in her hand as she said it.

"My Master is missing so I came to see if he was in the Keep. I have been given permission from Commander Joseph to come up and see my mother while I am visiting." Noah gave her a small smile and took a look around the lobby at the busy people going around.

Some of the doors in the lobby were open and inside of them were some beds, a few desks and a lot of vials on each of them. One of the doors at the end just beside the lobby exit at the other sides of the corridor was a room labelled ingredients and instruments.

"Oh, so you've spoken to Commander Joseph? Is he not escorting you? There is something wrong in the keep, I don't think it would be safe for a child to be wandering around it. You can come to wait in mine and your mother's room if you want?" Her smile made Noah turn a light shade of red before agreeing as he wasn't sure when he would get back up to such a high level in the tower without Commander Joseph's permission.

They walked along the hall and Sara pointed at the door of her and his mother's room, following him as he entered and closed the door behind them.

The room was exactly like the others Noah had seen as they walked down the corridor, he could tell the desk that his mother worked at as the artwork with Oran in the painting was sitting on one of the desks. Along with it was a thick book and a few vials of some liquid.

Sara sat on her bed and crossed her legs. "Noah do you know what is going on in the Keep?"

He shook his head and took a look at the book his mother was reading. 'Poisonous herbs and remedies - Jerico Continent Edition'

Sara started explaining everything that had happened while he was away training.

"The Dragon Troopers started acting very different about a month after you left with Sir Isan, he came back and was ordered to leave for the Bernard Wall. The Dragon Troopers seemed to be splitting up and fighting each other. No matter where they were." Sara grabbed a pillow and put it onto her lap with a pen and pad.

"They normally do a competition each month where they spar each other but the injuries got worse and worse until finally someone was killed. The Generals couldn't stand by anymore and all went into a meeting at the top of the tower. They've been there for 2 months now. The tower has been split into different allegiances to different Generals, us healers are independent and under Mistress Renn but it hasn't stopped some of the Troopers treating us differently." Her hand went to the top left of her shoulder softly rubbing it up and down.

"We only treat people from the merchant market or injuries that are possibly death threatening now. A lot of our other time is working on other potions as I am sure you can tell from your mother's book."

Noah took a look over to Sara's desk out of curiosity on it was a series of books called, 'Ancient medicines - Cures, Plants and Spells' All of the instruments on her desk were empty and there was just a pad with some notes on it.

"There's been a lot going back on here, I have been focusing on my training so much that I didn't know it was going on." Hiding the fact that he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Sara nodded and squeezed her pillow, her mask and goggles at the side.

Noah started asking her about what his mother had been up too, knowing that she had been training to become a healer but he didn't realise how well she would do. Both Sara and Noah chatted about Nereem's accomplishments. She had learned to read a reasonable amount just by the first 2 weeks and had completely impressed Mistress Renn by her fourth week, which is why she continued to stay in the tower even after most healers had been told to leave.

***

In some unknown location.

Commander Joseph and Fiona had been taken and strapped into two separate seats facing each other with a few metres in between. The room was dark, only a small candle let off light sitting on a table at the middle back of the room.

They had been taken to the room and stripped, having new cloth clothes thrown at them and being told to put them on. Fiona's bandage bled through a little through the night but seemed to have stopped.

Once they had their clothes they were strapped into the seats and told to wait for the time being.

The time ticked by and they didn't know how long they had been there, Sara had started to freak out and was only able to be calmed down by the Commander, just.

The door opened and let in white light from some runes in the lobby, a man stepped forward his face covered by shadows. A deep voice came from the shadows, "Joseph, you chose the wrong General to follow..."