The Treaty

Sada walked up towards the two men and looked down at them disdainfully.

"If you had taken a second to allow some dialogue between us, then perhaps some solution could have been reached." she said, and then she made a gesture towards the Hamin.

"However, since you have shown blatant disregard towards the Khalid Dynasty, I would be a bad servant if I didn't punish you." she continued.

Hearing this, and seeing the Ḥāmin walk towards them, the butler looked like he had swallowed a bug.

However, the young master on the floor seemed unperturbed by the Ḥāmin's advances.

"Bastards! You think you can still be so arrogant when James is here? You might have been able to gang up on me before, but things are different now." he said, standing up from the wreckage of the car.

"Young Master! Please, be silent!" James whispered behind him.

James continued, "You must understand, we might have had a good chance if we were both at our full strength, but you are severely weakened."

He then looked towards the Ḥāmin, "That's not to mention that we don't know if this Ḥāmin has a light sword or not."

The young master looked at James, "A light sword?"

A dark look passed across James' face, "It's a terrifying weapon, some say it has a blade so hot that it can melt steel with just a touch."

The young master had to admit that such a blade sounded fearsome, but he still didn't understand James' concern.

"Even if he has a strong weapon, I doubt this one can take us both out." he said.

"Besides, the first white robed man is injured too. I don't think the brown robed girl is a threat, so we just have to kill the Ḥāmin in order to avoid being excommunicated." he continued, fully explaining his thought process.

However, James wasn't convinced, "Young Master, you still don't get it!" he said urgently, seeing that the Ḥāmin was fast approaching.

"Ḥāmin who carry light swords are on a different level from the normal ones. It is said that they can take on ten lesser powered by themselves." he said, eyeing the Ḥāmin cautiously.

The young master was only just now realizing how dangerous the white robed man was.

He didn't want him or his butler to perish in some random parking lot, but he also knew that even if they did escape unscathed the Khalid Dynasty would surely seek reparations later.

With this in mind, the young master steeled his heart. He reached into his tuxedo jacket and pulled out a golden pocket watch.

"James, don't fret. I know the treaty doesn't give us power over members of the Khalid Dynasty, but that doesn't mean we have to just roll over and die."

After saying that he turned a dial on the pocket watch, and the device began to glow with a white light. The intensity of the watch's aura easily identified it as a high-grade artifact.

Seeing this, the Ḥāmin wasted no more time and sped towards the young master and his butler.

When he was only a few meters away from them his hand emerged from his robes, and in it was a black hilt.

The Ḥāmin ignited his light sword with a loud hiss and arrived in front of the duo.

While holding the blade to his side he slashed horizontally at the young master, intending to cut him directly in half.

The Ḥāmin was moving so fast that his blade became a blur, and after he slashed out a wet hiss could be heard.

However, just as his blade sunk into flesh, the white light of the pocket watch blindingly flashed throughout the parking lot.

With the sound of a thunderclap, a powerful concussive blast swept through the parking lot, pushing all of the cars around it back.

As car alarms blared in the parking lot, all that was left in the middle of the parking lot was a patch of burnt concrete.

In the middle of that patch was a large, muscular arm.

Looking at the severed arm, it was evident that it came from the butler, and the burnt end of it sizzled with heat as it laid on the ground.

The concussive blast did little but blow around the Ḥāmin's robes, but to his annoyance, he saw that just as the pocket watch activated the butler had thrown himself in front of his young master.

The Ḥāmin saw his blade slice the butler's arm clean off from the shoulder, but was able to do nothing as the two of them instantly disappeared from the spot.

His eyes weren't able to register any movements, for one moment they were standing there, and the next moment they weren't.

The Ḥāmin shook his head in annoyance once he realized the two had escaped, and then turned to look at Sada for orders.

Sada just waved her hand nonchalantly, "They've run off, forget about them."

She then looked at Draco, a questioning look in her eyes.

"So, care to explain why you went and broke the treaty? I know we are under the protection of the Khalid Dynasty, but that doesn't mean we can freely break the treaty in other countries."

However, to her surprise, Draco looked confused, "What treaty? Also, what's this 'order' that the annoying guy was talking about?"

Sada narrowed her eyes and looked at Draco for a long moment, before she sighed. "You really don't know, do you?" she asked.

Draco shook his head, "No idea, I'm not exactly well informed on anything actually." he said with a chuckle.

Sada looked at the severed arm on the floor for a moment before she said, "Those two were members of The Order. I don't know how you could possibly be a servant of the princess and not know of such things, but I suppose I can explain it."

Draco also wondered why Amira hadn't explained such important things to him, but he said nothing as he listened to the rest of Sada's explanation.

She continued, "The Order was established by several ancient Progenitors. These Progenitors date back to before humanity had even walked the lands of Earth. In the past, they walked amongst humans and directly ruled their societies. However, after unknown events, they deemed it necessary to establish an order in order to suppress humanity and their knowledge of powered beings."

When Draco heard this, he wondered what these 'unknown events' were, but he was also still confused on what this had to do with the man who attacked them.

"So, is this order ruling the world or something? How are they connected to this treaty the man was talking about'?" he asked.

"I was getting to that." Sada said, "Several hundred years ago the founding Progenitors of The Order decided to enact The Treaty. They all took an oath to not allow the unauthorized use of powered abilities within their territories, and to systematically oppress all unaffiliated powered beings."

"The treaty requires them to enforce the laws within their own borders, so each major power is responsible for enforcing these rules in their own manner and discretion."

She sighed, "But to answer your other question, the answer is no. The Order doesn't rule the world. However, it is a council made up of some of the most powerful Progenitors on the planet, so they do have great influence over a majority of it."

Draco took this all in with an amazed expression, "I didn't know there was such a force responsible for keeping all of humanity ignorant."

"How many countries are under the banner of this Order?" he asked after a moment.

Sada shrugged, "I don't even know, most of them I suppose. The Order encompasses most nations within North America, Europe, and Asia. The only exceptions are the African countries, Russia, and a few independent territories scattered across the world."

"Independent territories?" Draco asked, curious.

Sada nodded, "They are places directly under the control of a powerful Progenitor. I suppose you could call them city states, but some of them are lawless places. I know of some that are not a part of The Treaty at all, and as such are a refuge for unaffiliated powered beings across the world."

"I imagine Saudi Arabia is under this treaty, though." Draco said.

"Sort of." Sada replied, "King Zain's father was actually one of the founding Progenitor's of The Order. However, our nation does not actually enforce the laws of The Order within its borders, so many people freely use their powers there."

Pride could be seen in her eyes, "The Grand-Patriarch was invited into the order just because of his exalted status. He deemed himself above The Order's antics, so he simply decided to ignore their decrees while also reaping the benefits of being a council member."

Draco laughed, "The Grand-Patriarch sounds like quite the guy.", he said, finally understanding a little more about how this new world worked.

He then looked at the severed arm on the burnt floor, and the unsheathed cane sword that was now scattered a few feet away.

When he looked across the parking lot, he saw that in front of the elevator lay the corpse of the man he had riddled with holes just a short while ago.

Although he would have preferred not accidentally killing the man, he was surprised to feel that he wasn't too upset about it. He didn't know what that said about him, but also didn't know if this apathy was a good or a bad thing.

"Well, I guess we have to do something about all of this." he said.

Sada nodded her head, "Other members of The Order's London branch will likely be arriving here soon, we've simply made too much of a commotion." she said as she walked towards the dropped Luwey Vitton bag.

Picking up the bag, she continued, "We don't have to worry about cleaning up or hiding our tracks, once The Order realizes what happened they should do it for us." she said.

However, Draco didn't hear her at this point as he was now completely focused on the cane sword that was lying on the ground.

The cane itself was around 3 feet long, and it had a completely silver hilt. The hilt had many engravings along its exterior that resembled clouds.

The blade itself was longer than most of the cane, and it reached all the way up towards the hilt.

The blade had many markings and engravings running down its length, and upon closer inspection Draco realized that they were actually small raindrops.

Draco reached down to pick up the sword, and when he closed his hands around it, he was surprised to feel an invigorating sensation spreading from his hands and throughout the rest of his body.

As this feeling spread he could feel his fatigue lessen, his body become lighter, and his head become clearer.

'Woah.' was all Draco could think as he raised the blade in front of him, looking down its length.

Wielding the blade, Draco executed a few quick slashes. His movements weren't anything fancy, but they were fast and crisp.

Draco felt that the blade was whistling through the air, and his white robes fluttered around him as he moved. The blade felt light, so light in fact that he could hardly tell that he was holding anything.

Looking around the room, Draco spotted the cane's sheath on the ground another few feet away. It was made of the same silver as the rest of the cane, and Draco walked up to it and picked it up.

He inspected the sheath for a moment, and although he couldn't quite put a finger on why, he could tell that it was likely some kind of artifact due to his newfound senses. However, he figured that now wasn't the time to investigate further.

Sheathing the cane sword, Draco tapped it a few times against the concrete of the parking lot.

"There's no way I'm not keeping this." he thought to himself, a smirk on his lips.