Eye Of The Eclipse - 74 A Natural Disaster

As the group of over 200 people, which were all clad in an assortment of masks and black cloaks, left the gates of the city, the eyes of everyone within sight were trained on them. ‘Looks like its that time of year’ many people who had been around to witness this spectacle previously thought to themselves while the voiceless black cloud trickled out of the city.

Despite the oddness of the scene, not even five minutes later, there wasn’t even a cloud of dust to remember them by, as life within the city resumed its flow as though nothing had even occurred. However contrary to the calmness on the streets, discussions broke out all over the city as leaders of various powers responded to the changes taking place with practiced procedures.

“That demon is leaving again. Which gate did he exit the city?” A grey haired elder asked his attendant while sitting behind a solid oak desk which had its surface riddled with documents. Rather than waiting for a reply, he massaged his creased brows before waving dismissively. “It doesn’t particularly matter. Clear all active forces in that direction unless they are working within an established settlement.”

With that, he resumed reading the document which was previously in his hand but soon stopped again as he noticed that there hadn’t been any movement. The attendant’s eyes shifted around the room in confusion before she questioned cautiously. “With all due respect sir, removing all operations in the eastern wilderness will cut revenue by over a third.”

“You’re young, but your father wouldn’t have sent you over here if you weren’t bright. Let me ask you, if you knew that a natural disaster was about to sweep through your establishment, would you stop operations and cut losses or continue working as normal while sustaining any damage passively?”

Despite being confused by the comparison, the attendant answered the question at hand. “I would freeze operation and cut losses, sir. But he only went with tw2 hund-”

“You will answer your own question if you substitute the leader of The Guild with the natural disaster in question.” The elder sighed before once again dropping the document. “Did you know that The Guild only has barely twenty years of history? That being said, it took the guild only twenty years to rise to the largest ‘information gathering agency’ within the capital city.

“That may be slightly surprising, but do you know what the The Guild is actually renowned for within our circle? The fact that people disappear constantly, yet this has never been linked to them by the officials or law enforcement, or the royals even once.

“Every trial which they go on, they will encounter many people who simply happen to be in the path of The Guild as they travel through the wilderness. If any of these people are people that you have relations to, you may as well order their tomb stone starting now.”

“Since when is ‘evidence’ needed? If anything, just make some up.” The attendant was stupefied by the logic behind what was being explained to her.

“You’re right, we don’t need evidence, however, whoever we send will disappear. Whoever the royals send will disappear. I’m not talking about hundreds, or thousands. There are hundreds of thousands of unexplained disappearances, yet not a single drop of blood to remember any of them by.

“And dealing with this is simple.” By now, the elders words seemed to lose their heaviness, as though he was reseing with himself just as much as he was to his attendant. “You just have to leave them alone. Don’t bother them, or him, and nothing will be touched. Aside from that park, they care little for anything else.

“This is also the reason that those from the higher branches of Grace haven’t come down to deal with this issue. Because it would cost them more effort than its worth, in order to deal with an existence that they know nothing about, yet only wants to be left alone.”

It would be a lie to say that the attendant wasn’t skeptical by everything that was being said, but without a say in the matter, she walked backwards, leaving the room before closing the door respectfully.

By the time the door had closed in front of her, tens of these conversations were repeating themselves all over the city while a grand migration began to take place in the east of the city. Anyone with even the slightest bit of backing was immediately contacted the told to either vacate the eastern wilderness or enter an official settlement as soon as possible.

The scale of such and event was almost comparable to a national event.

Despite the growing waves which were spreading throughout the country, the majority of the people participating in the trial were actually clueless as to the scale of what they were taking part in. All they had on their minds currently was to keep up with the four figures in front of them.

The first few hours were filled with tension, but as evening fell everyone had already calmed most of their initial nerves and the realization hit them that this test was exactly as it had been described.

The first day had consisted of a simple run across the grasslands which spread out to the east of the city. Rather than following the road directly, the guild leader and the rest of the invigilators ran perpendicularly to it instead, with it being around half a kilometer to their side.

Running on the grass as opposed to the hard ground was much more taxing on the stamina of the group, but this was nothing compared to the extent of their capabilities.

With a weird rhythm, the leader would vary between walking, jogging and running at seemingly random intervals for different amounts of time. This was all done without a single word being said and without him even looking backwards once.

Following along like a flock of black sheep, the group ran blindly for up to half an hour at a time before being allowed to walk, or only slowing to a jog if they were unlucky.

Having left in the morning, it had now been nearly twelve hours and the sun was beginning to glow orange on the horizon when the guild leader finally stopped in place. With the moment of respite, many people fell to their knees while those that were too afraid to relieve themselves during the march hurriedly ran to the side while fumbling with their pants.

“Rest.” Only one word but it let the tense mental states of those that were still keeping their eyes trained on the guild leader relax.

Splitting up, the ‘invigilators’ moved into different positions as though they had no intention to converse with each other. Noticeable to the Rykar and Loki, Marcel walked closer to their group before sitting cross legged on the dense grass and pulling off his boots without paying any mind to those watching his movements.

Rummaging in his backpack, he then pulled out a few stalks of something before throwing them into his mouth alongside a sip of water from a travel flask and crushing it into a paste before smothering the paste on some of the more tender parts of his feet.

The eyes of many around him began to shine as they recognized the herb as one of those which were included in the guide and strongly recommended to be brought along in their travel packs! Almost at the same time, tens of people crashed to the ground before struggling to pull off their shoes and repeat Marcel’s practiced movements.

The one thing they had taken for granted was the state of Marcel’s feet after he had taken off his shoes. Rather than pulling slightly red or sore feet from their boots, many people experienced blood running down their calves before their feet even left their shoes. Rykar and Loki were unfortunately included in this group.

Only now that they had a moment of rest to take much of the pressure off their feet had they realized the depressing state that they were in. Many areas had the skin rubbed clean off, revealing red and sensitive flesh underneath, which was increasingly obvious when it came in contact with the air.

Clenching their mouths to hold back their anguish, tears involuntarily threatened to spill from their eyes as they tentatively removed both feet from their boots before laying them on the ground and rummaging through their bags for herbs and bandages.

After repeating the procedure which Marcel had generously revealed to them, they smothered their feet in a light layer of the paste before binding them. Taking a moment to clean the bloody interior of their boots, they quickly pushed their feet back into them along with the rest of the participants. As fatigued as they were, they were aware of how likely it would be for the leader to begin what felt like a grand migration once again without waiting for them to prepare themselves.

Without any words needed between them, the twins sat with their backs to each other before shutting their eyes and getting as much rest as possible. Many people within the participants now understood exactly what the leader had said when he explained the trial as being a test of their ability to learn, among other things. With such a useful tip being given out by the invigilators at the end of the first day, there was no doubt that there would eb many other habits and tricks they would have to pick up on which were much more subtle.

Without their freedom of speech, there was truly nothing much else to do within the middle of a field besides to sleep. Unknowing when, exhaustion washed over everyone as they sank into the embrace of sleep.

Rykar flinched as he heard the sound of a boot scraping heavily against the grass next to him. With his hands lifted in defense, he looked through a small gap to find that there was no one currently in front of him. The culprit was already bolting into the distance, becoming nothing but a faint shadow in the dark while a handful of people remained on the ground, evidently still sleeping deeply.

Twisting while still in his seated position, he looked around cautiously while barely being able to make out anything in the faint light which the scares stars provided him.

While only able to see a staggered trail of people in front of him which were all hurrying in the same direction, his chest sank as he realized that they had been all but left behind. Barging against Loki’s back with his elbow before darting to his feet, he pulled his brother up despite his disorientated state.

After grabbing his brothers head and directing him in the direction of the fleeing shadow, Loki’s body stiffened as though injected with chicken blood. Staggering backwards, Loki’s eyes sharpened as he took in the few people left on the ground which couldn’t have amounted to much over ten.

A second of eye contact later, they both broke out into a sprint regardless of the pain their feet had been in a few hours ago, desperately trying to catch up with the tail of the group.

Looking behind, the figure that had staggered, resulting in the heavy step that alerting the twins to their desperate situation snickered before rapidly accelerating. It wasn’t long before the figure casually rejoined the other invigilators at the front of the group which continued walking at a relaxed pace through the dead of night.