Basics

After Drindle put the crystallized lifeform into the folds of his robe, he looked seriously at Lionel. "Now you've seen how a summoning takes place, as well you got to see the physical subjugation process." He turned away and sat back on the bed. "There is still one more process you will have to learn, and it is the subjugation of Will." He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

Lionel was brimming with questions and he knew Drindle was prompting him to unload. "What language are the runic characters you used? How do you even know what species there are in the other planes? What happens to the velthum when you subjugate it's will.."

"Boy" The old man cut off anymore questions. "I will answer a couple of your questions but I want to make one thing utterly clear." The old man stared deeply into Lionel's eyes. He took a moment of silence to let the boy know the seriousness of the situation. Finally Drindle held up one finger as he spoke. "The path of Knowledge is a lonely one, people will seek to use you. You will never know if someone is a wolf in sheep's clothes." The old man raised his eyebrow again. "Are you sure this is a path you wish to travel? From this point on there is no return."

Lionel didn't quite understand what Drindle was saying. From his perspective seeing how the geezer reacted to everyone with suspicion made more sense now. Drindle was only trying to protect himself. Lionel thought for a few moments. Even if he had to live a life weary of others he would do it. He had been alone since his parents were murdered. The only thing that really mattered to him was becoming strong enough to protect others from the same fate he had suffered. So even though the boy had barely lived his life, He nodded and spoke his response. "Yes"

Drindle nodded back at the boy and spoke again. "In my time, I have been used as a weapon by leaders. I even fell in love once, to a woman who only wanted the secrets of Enthralling." The ancient man's gaze lost focus as he finished speaking.

Lionel thought for a moment and mentioned the one woman Drindle had talked about before. "Was the woman you fell in love with, The master librarian?"

The old man snorted sarcastically "Hrmp.. That foul, loathsome harpy could never make me fall in love" Irritation could clearly be heard in the man's voice. The old man focused on Lionel again and spoke "I suppose you need to learn spells first, before you try any summonings."

"Why is that?" the boy asked confounded. Drindle had said, Lionel only needed to be able to use an element before he would learn more about being an enthraller.

a cold reply met Lionel's question. "Because I said so. Plus if you learn some spells you can use them to discern the intent of most people."

The two sat talking for the rest of the evening until Drindle finally called an end to their conversation.

The next morning Lionel woke up to an empty Room. Drindle was gone with a simple note scrawled out. "Went to castle be back later. Translate more from the Lexical Codex and read more from the Mages Guide. Don't leave room."

Lionel sat and began to study over the texts for another brain numbing day.

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Drindle looked at the upcoming castle with disdain. He was in a foul mood. Who knew how long the bureaucracy would take. All he wanted, was to put a pause on his Contract. It would only be for a few months to a few years. It had already been more than a few millennia since he and the others in the Society had been contracted to protect humanity.

The old man sighed internally as he thought of the events that led to the current situation. More than five thousand years ago, those from the Society were each Contracted to a nation. The society was made up of five members, All of whom were Enthrallers. One Enthraller was assigned to the leaders of a nation in Slydall, with one enthraller left to watch over the Grand Library.

The Society was known back in that time as the Nephrem. It was due to their work that the World of Man was finally freed from the Daemons and Angels that plagued it's existence. Drindle still remembered the darkness and fear that surrounded him as a young child. The world had been a very different place, one devoid of happiness for fear of death. It had been more than seven thousand years ago that Drindle and his companions faced the hordes of otherworldly beings. If it hadn't been for the Nephrem, the humans would have been wiped from history entirely. The victory of the Nephrem Society came to be known as the Fall of Daemons.

'I can't believe we have fallen so low as to take orders from incompetent fools' Drindle thought sourly, as the carriage pulled up to the castle. It hadn't been Drindle's idea to take a contract to the nation's leaders. It had been his companions choice, and he had been drug along. Their reasoning had been that remnants of the other planes armies could fully annihilate a nation and take a foothold and regrow their armies overtime. So, the Nephrem chose to disperse and assign themselves to protect and care for their individual nations as they grew over the years.

That was the design of the original contract, but less than a thousand years ago the wars between humanity began. Humans seemed to fight over anything, a woman's love, or even who owned what land. In Drindle's eyes the petty squabbles for land didn't matter, but to the human's who had forgotten the stories of Daemons and Angels, the land was all that mattered. 'How fickle humans really are' Drindle shook his head while walking up the stairs towards the entrance to the castle.

'Still' Drindle thought, 'at least the society hasn't had to be involved all that much.' almost no stories remained of the Fall of Daemons. Only nobles and scholars would know about it, and much of it seemed too fantastical for those humans to believe.

'It can't been helped, we decided to lock up most of the other worlds knowledge in the Grand Library, so I'm not surprised people don't believe the stories' The old man made it into the castle and was following the fat herald towards the throne room. The Nephrem had decided to take all knowledge of summoning velthums and hide it in the Grand Library to ensure that the rise of evil beings would never happen again. That was one of the reasons Drindle hadn't been able to show Lionel a summoning until the kid became his apprentice through a contract. Each of the Society members could take on one apprentice at a time and teach them, but only if the apprentice would enter into a contract with their master.

'I hate being bound to all these rules' the old man continued to grumble in his mind, while the herald led on. It wasn't as if Drindle didn't understand why he had agreed to all of it in the first place, it was just so stifling to his own passions and desires. 'I must get out of this protective duty and head to the Library. I need to know what the amulet Lionel absorbed is' It had been a long time since Drindle's curiosity had been peaked but now that he had seen the Crest of Tsun, he had to find out what the Amulet did.

Tsun had been alive more than fifty thousand years ago and disappeared mysteriously. Almost nothing remained of him, except knowledge, and a crest with the same emblem Lionel had drawn.

The herald finally opened the door to the throne room and led Drindle in. The queen sat in a throne on a raised dais with seven chairs on her right and six on her left. All seven chairs on the queens right were filled with people, while those on the opposite remained empty. 'seems Galorian still won't negotiate' Drindle thought while raising a brow to look at the queen questioningly.

The old man had received a messenger at dawn requesting his audience immediately at the castle. There had to be a reason the queen requested him so early. As he stared at Sophia, he could see the dark circles under her eyes. It appeared she hadn't slept, her next words proved his deduction correct.

"We have been up most of the night trying to get Galorian to negotiate the terms of pausing your Contract."

Drindle could tell from the woman's wrinkled forehead that the it hadn't gone well, but the woman waited for Drindle's response, so he spoke. "And I take it, that it didn't go well?"

"As you suspected, No" the Queen rubbed the bridge of her nose while closing her eyes, "Can you not just apologize to him?"

Drindle stood there dumbfounded. He couldn't believe that the queen was asking him to apologize to Galorian. "Apologize for what?!"

The Queen still pinched the bridge of her nose while she replied. "You know what."

Drindle had been through this the day before. The queen said Galorian wouldn't negotiate on the terms of Drindle's contract. That wouldn't be a problem if the terms of the contract only required a simple majority vote. The Queen's word would sway the seven loyalists that sat to her right; giving her a clear majority in the council of 14 including herself. The difficulty spawned from the fact that Drindle's Contract was of national interest. In cases such as this the Government of Wastrial required a two thirds majority favor before acting. That amounted to needing nine people on the advisory council to agree, in addition either the Archmage or the Queen would have to back the resolution. As it stood now the group was at an impasse. the Archmage lacked enough support to further his rejection and the Queen lacked enough support to get approval.

"I am not apologizing to that crybaby for something that I can't change." Drindle spoke and watched the faces of the present council members. All of them seemed surprised at Drindle's outright disregard for the Queen, but even more so they were startled when they heard the geezer call the Archmage a crybaby.

"Be reasonable. You are the one seeking release from your contract for a time." The Queen looked down from her dais with a frustrated expression, when it suddenly changed into one of contemplation. "You know there might just be a way.