An abrupt silence reigned after the Queen's departure, leaving Finn with a profound awe of her terrifying power.

He glanced at Preceptor Elias, who still stood on his floating sword, but now had a deep frown carving lines into his old face as he pondered the Queen's final words. Finn's own mind raced, digesting the surprising inside knowledge he'd just heard: The Royal family maintained its own specially-raised, loyal Ossuarists.

The fact itself wasn't too surprising. Any shrewd leader would have measures like this, if only as a political insurance against any contingencies. What truly stunned Finn was the Queen's declaration that she could utterly cleanse the Ossuary's influence from Aethelos and replace their entire function with her internal loyalists.

Finn recalled what Isis had taught him back at the school: The emergence of a soul mage in the general populace was a rarity — one in ten thousand, 'at the very least.' Given these meager numbers, how could the Queen confidently claim she could replace the continent's primary defense against chaotic soul mass outbreaks? Were the Queen's secret Ossuarists truly that numerous? And if so, how had they been raised and cultivated despite the improbable odds?

Finn knew that if he could think along this line, then the Preceptor, with his decades of experience, and far more broader knowledge, had already considered this.

The old man in the sky let out a sigh that sounded weary, and seemed to finally emerge from his intense reverie, returning to the present.

"The Undying Flame…" he whispered with meaning, before turning his attention to Micah, Yvonne, and the two Initiate-ranked Ossuarists — Althea and Finn, who were still hovering in the distance below.

"Caretaker Micah, is it?" The old man called. "And Caretaker Yvonne? You will both stay back to stabilize the region," he said, as he muttered a spell: [Torrent of rain] under his breath. And immediately, the sky darkened rapidly, bringing with it the roiling sounds of thunder and a windy gale.

In accordance with his words, light drops of rain began to fall, which very quickly became a torrential downpour that doused the flames ravaging the terrain.

Finn marveled at the speed with which the command of the Preceptor 's spell had been actualized, squinting his eyes up at the deluge. He tried to gauge the rank of the elemental's soul mass the Preceptor had embodied to cast this spell.

This is a Master-rank spell, Finn concluded.

The hot air rising from the ravaging fires had certainly increased the probability of rain, making it difficult to use the mana cost equation — specifically the improbability of the spell — to gauge its rank. However, the sheer scale of the torrential downpour covering the whole terrain as far as Finn could see, confirmed it was a spell from a Master rank, water elemental Arcanist's soul — and high-ranked too.

At least Grade 2… Finn gave a conservative estimate.

After ensuring the spell was dousing the fires, the Preceptor fully turned his attention to them, floating down on his sword to meet their altitude.

​He continued his order from earlier:

​"As of now, I grant you both temporary Grade 2 Caretaker privileges," he said, handing Micah and Yvonne a specially crafted medallion. "You both now have the authority to coordinate all Ossuarists in the region. Ensure they retreat into seclusion for the time being. All active tests and missions must cease. All Ossuarist schools must call their students back. They must also provide sanctuary for the field Ossuarists who are no longer affiliated with schools," the Preceptor fired off rapidly.

"Even to the far reaches of the other cardinal regions, they must also comply with the authority I have vested in you. All Ossuarists should lay as low as possible for the time being. The major vassal Arcanists families will begin to move like vultures now. Word of the Queen's move from the capital for the first time in decades is surely spreading as we speak. No Ossuarist must suffer unjustly because of the storm that will create," he ordered fiercely, and both Micah and Yvonne bowed quickly in response.

As they bowed, out of nowhere, a large creature morphed out of the Preceptor's shadow. The first thing Finn saw of it was its familiar leathery wings, followed quickly by its scaly black serpentine body.

A dragon? Finn thought in shock, but quickly discarded the assumption after noticing its body features more clearly. Compared to the Queen's red dragon, this paled pitifully in size. It was only as large as a school bus. And more notably, it had no forearms, only two wings, two legs, and a slim, scaly body.

This is a wyvern. Finn concluded without a doubt.

Wordlessly, the shadowy-scaled wyvern flew close to Micah's giant hawk, which shivered slightly from the oppression of being in the presence of a greater species. Despite the fact it was 'only' a wyvern, the truth remained that it was still a dragon subspecies.

Very quickly, Finn and Althea were transferred over to the wyvern's back, and immediately, with only a nod of farewell from Micah to both of them, he and Yvonne sped away to carry out the Preceptor's urgent order, heading for what remained of the city first, most likely to start with the Grade 1 initiates who had been taking the same test as Finn and Althea.

Finn steeled his gaze and looked at Althea. It was only both of them now.

The progression of events to this current point had been shocking, unbelievable, and frankly inexplicable, to say the least. And yet again, they were about to start what seemed to be another daunting chapter.

With a wordless message of reassurance and encouragement passed between their eyes, they both turned their gazes forward resolutely, as though looking at what lay ahead of them.

The Preceptor still stood on his floating sword, silent, as he stared at a weird-looking parchment artifact that somehow contained details of Finn and Althea, before finally looking up at both of them.

"Good, at least one of you knows in-depth Ossuarist protocols," he stared pointedly at Althea. "As of now, you are both bound by the Law of Non-disclosure."

Althea nodded immediately, and so did Finn. The statement was straightforward enough that he understood very clearly what the Preceptor meant.

"From now until when you are ordered otherwise, you must never reveal the details of anything you saw, heard or felt inside that space. You must keep your lips sealed." As the Preceptor spoke, he pulled out two small soul masses, squirming with shadowy black pus out of a specially-crafted container and poured them onto his open palm.

With a soft display of wind magic, he pushed the two worms to Althea and Finn each.

Finn couldn't help but scrunch his face as he caught the shadow creature in his hand and stared at it.

Don't tell me we're meant to swallow this or something, he thought in trepidation.

But his fears turned out to be very real. As, without hesitation, Althea tilted her head and swallowed the worm down her throat.

With a slight shudder, she closed her eyes in concentration for a few seconds, before verbally repeating the promise to never speak about the anomaly, just as the Preceptor had ordered.

She finished with a short, raspy breath and opened her eyes, nodding at the Preceptor, who stared deeply at her with eyes that seemed to see something beyond the physical for nearly a minute, before he finally acknowledged her with a short look of approval.

Now, it was only Finn that remained.

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