Greed Among Mages

With the three Immortals departing, a strange silence descended onto the camp.

The people who had been knocked back started to get back up, while the Knights and Mages watched the sky for a minute longer, trying to assure themselves that this was not a dream and was in fact, reality.

"To think we'd meet Immortals…" Mage Clor muttered with a trace of longing before turning to his two companions. 

They looked at him with inquisitive looks mixed with some irritation.

"I know, I know. We'll decided how to split the elixir later when we're back at the Mage Tower. It would not be appropriate to do it here." Mage Clor stated.

"Fine… but don't you dare consume it." Mage Rizal stated.

"Do you think I'm stupid? I would never waste an important and rare specimen like this so easily." Mage Clor denied. "We'll be studying this throughly first." He added.

"We can also invite all the mages of the entire kingdom and organize a scholarly meet." Mage Pitas suggested. "To see an Immortal Elixir, I doubt any of them would clench their purses." He added with a sly look on his face.

"Of course, if we do that we'll be able to make enough money to sponsor one of you two's advance to the next rank too." Mage Clor stated. "And don't worry, if we wait a bit more and publish the study under our names, we'll easily make a lot more, which will be enough for the third person to advance in rank too." He said, having thought of it already.

The mages were not naïve fools and knew better than to fight amongst themselves. Even if Mage Clor had succumbed to his more basic human instincts earlier, he was now calm and could think much better. The Immortal elixir held a greater value than just its ability to upgrade a Mage to the next rank.

With how valuable and rare it was, there would be no lack of Mages that would want to study it and learn from it.

It was safe to say, the Immortal Elixir would now serve as their cash cow for a few years if they managed it well.

While the Mages were discussing these matters amongst themselves, the Knights were tending to other matters.

"Get the things in order and set up the things again." One of the leading knights orders, getting the junior knights to clear out the mess that had been made by the departure of the Immortals.

"Once that's done, we have to finish the sorting process too!" Mage Pitas ordered, seeing that the knights were back at work.

He didn't care what happened to the commoners either and merely glanced at them for a moment to check if they were all still there and no one had tried to run. 

The commoners were also coming to terms with the fact that they had truly witnessed Immortals and gossiped amongst themselves. It was still a surreal thing to them and it was something they would speak for their entire lives and pass the stories onto their grandchildren.

~Ptui~

But in all this, there was still a single person that didn't care about the Immortals.

"Worthless humans that bow down to the Immortals… If they can't even stand up for themselves they will never amount to themselves." The frenzied heretic said to himself.

The other heretics chained near him didn't hear him though, as they were either busy being in shock at their fate or were busy talking about the Immortals too. There was only Asher who was chained right next to the frenzied Heretic that heard his words.

He was chained alongside the other heretics and had a listless face. His head was looking down most of the time and no one could tell what was going through his mind. His efforts had resisting had utterly failed and had instead gotten him beaten further.

There were now more bruises on his body than before, with blood covering the left side of his dirtied shirt.

Everyone that had watched his fate though were terrified that they might end up in the same state. But perhaps it was the Tidemother's mercy, none of them were found to be Heretics after Asher's turn. Some glanced him too, especially those that had known him and shivered at his condition.

From his state it looked like he had entered an almost catatonic state. His eyes were dull and stared into nothingness while things proceeded automatically.

The knights had sorted all the things out, while the people had been lined up again. The mages returned to their positions and used the Heretic Detector to sort the people into normal commoners and Heretics. But from the latest batch of people that had arrived, other than a single person, no other heretics were found.

And even this last Heretic was of the second generation and was quite old. The man didn't even protest much, and perhaps even knew that he had been an Heretic this entire time. But since the Mages didn't find any markings on him, they let it be and simply chained him alongside the other heretics.

"We're done with the work, Mage Clor." The Knight leader reported. "We can now move onto the next step." 

"Good. Get the commoners assembled into temporary shelter and provide them the things they need. Though make sure to not go over budget… it's not worth spending on some exiles." Mage Clor replied. "AS for the Heretics, separate them out." He added.

"Do we put them in the carriage?" The knight asked. "We won't be able to fit them, especially with that crazy Heretic there. Do you wish to cull a few of them?" He questioned.

"No, we need to keep them all alive for the time being. With the number we have, we'll have filled out a quota for the rest of the year. If we kill them, we'll only have more work added to our plate later." Mage Pitas chimed in.

"As you command Mage Pitas." The Knight replied. "I'll set out a temporary prison for them too then."