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As Astalos was walking to the market place, he saw a number of inquisition groups. Most of them comprised two or inquisition soldiers and a priest.
'These groups were nothing more than search parties ... Once they find a sign of a caster, they will send out someone more capable ... possibly even templars.'
Seeing lightly armed inquisition soldiers and priests made Astalos remember how he lost his mentor.
Twenty years ago, Astalos has just finished his apprenticeship and became a spellcaster. While he was returning from buying herbs, he saw inquisition soldiers cornering a child. The child was an apprentice caster and somehow revealed himself as a caster.
His mentor told Astalos not to help other casters countless times reminding him that it will only make things worse. But Astalos was too young back then and he thought he could save the child. After a fierce fight, he defeated all four soldiers but the child was gone. By the time he realized this more inquisition soldiers were coming after him. It was a set up. The child was an apprentice of another caster but instead of killing the child right away, the inquisitor in charge of the operation decided to use the child as bait to lure out more casters.
By the time Astalos realized it was a set up, he has already led them to his mentor’s hide out. In despair, he met his mentor who was only smiling gently like always. Without any words, his mentor walked outside to encounter their oppressors. The hide out was surrounded by templars with tower shields. There was nowhere to run.
Against the walls of shields, his mentor casted spells after spells. Each spell broke shattered tens of shields and send men behind them flying. Something was empowering spells. It must the ritual his mentor prepared for years.
As time passed by, spells became weaker and eventually spells could not even scratch the shields. The inquisitor, who was standing behind all his men, ordered templars to attack. As soon as the order was given, templars threw their heavy shields away and charged with their swords. Templars cut his mentor’s tongue and tendons to prevent any kind of spellcasting. It was over … Soon templars will enter the hide out and drag him out too, Astalos thought.
But that did not happen. The inquisitor ordered his men to withdraw from the area. Two templars put their arms under his mentor’s arms and dragged him. Astalos could only watch them take his mentor away from him. Just before everyone disappeared from his sight, the inquisitor stopped and his head around and saw Astalos in the eyes. He was not smiling but Astalos could tell that he was enjoying this … sparing Astalos so he can hunt him down later.
By the time he noticed that he was thinking about his past too long, he was in the harbour. There were many damaged ships, many of them missing masts. But there was one ship among many destroyed ships which has barely taken any damage. It looked like a trade ship but if it really was a trade ship, it would have lost some parts especially on the deck. However, the ship only had a few scratches. There were only three major types of ships – a fishing boat, a trade ship, and a warship – and out of three, only one had a reason to be built so tough, a warship. Astalos slowly turned away from the ship and returned to his inn.
