Zeph Malston: The Aether Mage

"It's amazing, how fast the city recovered. Back on earth, it would have taken forever to fix all the buildings and repair the terrain." Zeph was looking out the window of the limousine.

"Don't you just love magic?" Bianca asked rhetorically from the driver's seat.

Semara coughed from the rear of the limousine. "Isn't the driver supposed to be silent, so as not to disturb the VIPs in the back seat?"

"Don't get c.o.c.ky, just because you won a game of paper rock scissors." Bianca glared at her friend in the rearview mirror. She had to drive Zeph to the park so that he could meet his friends. Originally, she wanted to sit in the back seat with Zeph and relax while Semara drove them. However, Semara said it was unfair and that they should have a quick competition to see who would be stuck in the front of the limo alone. For some odd reason, it didn't occur to either of the two shifters to let Zeph sit in the back alone while they sat in the front.

"Calm down girls, you're both pretty." He joked. The statement was confusing enough to stop them from bickering.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Bianca asked.

"Nothing, I just didn't want you two to start bickering like usual." Zeph shrugged. "How far away are we from the park anyway?" His friends were supposed to meet before heading to Jim's house.

"Shouldn't be more than a couple of minutes." Bianca turned down a familiar street.

Zeph's saw something truly joyful. "The Manaburger is back up!"

"Thank god!" Semara said immediately.

"We should get something on our way home for everyone. I could use a break from cooking." Bianca was happy to see the two in the back seat so excited. If she knew the reason for their exuberance, she would definitely feel differently.

"It's pretty amazing isn't it?" Zeph asked.

"What is?" Semara looked at the young lord.

"Well, it's only been a couple of weeks since the attack, and everyone is acting so… normal. I mean more normal that I would expect."

"That's because convergence incidents are a normal occurrence. The only reason it's so important now is because this city is supposed to warded against them," Semara started to explain. "The amount of fatalities during the incident was also comparatively low considering how many tears occurred. Most of them happened in the area we were at."

"The police and clean up teams also helped prevent any of the remaining creatures from harming anyone after the attack. Your patrolling also helped the public feel safer. It instilled confidence that the government and the lord were taking things seriously." Bianca added.

"Speaking of the police, they caught a lot of those cultists thanks to that invention Relina and your grandpa made. It helped them locate the demonic energy that they were using for their rituals. If it wasn't for that, they would probably be making another attack. Instead, they're on the defensive because we have a way to hunt them down." Semara stretched her arms out and tried to get more comfortable in her seat. "The surprise attack was bad, but they really screwed up by revealing themselves to your grandfather."

"Yeah, grandpa told me I shouldn't worry about it. He said that he and Eli had something in the works that would stop whatever the demon worshipers plans were. The information we gathered was also sent to the capital, so I bet that whatever grand design they were working on is falling apart." Zeph smiled, knowing he had a hand in preventing something terrible from occurring.

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Ronan was sitting with his son, Evan, in the Phillips estate at Andros, the capital of Andronath. The two were trying to relax after a long day of work. The convergence in Asperitus worried both men. Tara called Ronan during the incident and assured him that Genevieve, Sharon, and Lili were safe. Afterward, Bernard called his friend and told Ronan what caused the convergence. He also shared information about the terrorist group during the following investigation.

"I'm glad Bernard shared his invention with us. I can't believe they were planning to cause a convergence here as well." Evan sighed. The terrorists, now called demonic cultists, were planning on causing a convergence in several other cities as well. If it wasn't for Bernard's spiritual energy detector, they wouldn't have found them before they could follow through with their plans.

"The country owes that old codger a lot for that. Can you imagine the chaos that would have happened?" Ronan rubbed his temple. "And even without an attack like that, the ley lines are full of malice and negativity. Hopefully, my old friend will come up with a way to purify them before they can salvage the ritual they had planned."

"I just can't believe we didn't realize this sooner."

Ronan sighed. "It's because the nobles are too prideful to share any information about their problems. They don't want to show any signs of weakness. Making the public turn on them was a brilliant move. It made them want to hide their faults even more. They were too self-involved to think that there was anything else going on, other than the threat to their own safety." He looked at his son with a hint of guilt. "We didn't act any better either. We focused on the other nobles' corruption, and used the situation to gain political leverage."

"Yeah, they did hide their true plan very well. If it wasn't for the attack on Asperitus, we would never have realized the true reason for the recent upsurge in strife."

"To be fair, the civil unrest and strife already existed. The enemy just used what was there and escalated it for their own purposes."

"Do you think we should bring the girls back home? After all, whoever's behind this mess must be enraged. They would surely target Bernard and his grandson."

"No. Things are still dangerous here. With what we've done to help hinder them, the cultists are probably just as eager to do something to us as well. Their leader is most likely here in the capital, while only a branch of them is in Asperitus. Remember, whatever they had planned was centered around here. I don't want them anywhere near Andros in case they somehow manage to perform their ritual. In fact, the only reason we're staying is so that we can help make sure their plans fail."

Evan rubbed his hair in frustration. "You're right, Bernard can probably guarantee their safety better than we could. At least they don't have to worry that a random stranger is some anti-noble activist that will attack them out of nowhere." In the last three weeks, common citizens were becoming more violent. The negative energy in the ley-lines that gathered in the capital was starting to affect those with a low resistance to magic. It made it easier for the cultists to sway a regular person to their side and manipulate them. These poor people were goaded into attacking nobles and causing more chaos among the populace.

Thanks to Bernard's findings and the information he shared with the capital, squads of mages made regular patrols throughout the capital to perform purifying rituals to help stave off the negative energy. It was a temporary measure, and the council was eager for the Lord of Asperitus to come up with a more permanent solution. Since purifying the ley-lines was such a daunting task, they contacted as many magical engineers of importance and put them under Bernard's supervision. He would correspond with them, and they would all work to find an answer.

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In a dark room, a shadowy figure was giving off a malevolent aura. His contractor shook as he gazed up at his demonic form. "I tasked you with terrorizing Asperitus. Instead, you cause our plans to be exposed and torn apart." The calm and cold voice echoed in the room, causing the man kneeling on the floor to shiver in fear. Of all the demons working on his master's plan, he was stuck with the most pathetic. The others were contracted with people that possessed some intelligence, while he was contracted with a fool who only hungered for power and influence.

"Because of your ineptitude, the ritual will be too weak to achieve what we initially planned." The demon looked down on the sniveling worm before him. It was an insult to valir that his man was counted among them. "For your failure, I sever our contract."

"Please, my lord, there must be another way."

The demon made raised his hand and made a grasping motion.

"Aaargh!" the man screamed as his veins became visible through his skin, glowing a dark red before fading away. His breathing became rough after the power provided by his contract left him. "Please, there must be something I can do. Something that will spare my life." His pain stopped.

"One thousand souls by the end of the month." The dark figure said.

"That's not possible, there's no way I can do that without being discovered. Please, anything else. There must be something."

The demon smiled. "Then you will sacrifice your child." It started to let out a slow malevolent laugh. "The souls of a thousand, your first born daughter's, or your own. These are the only things I will take in payment for your failure along with the power I gave you." The unsettling laughter faded as the demon disappeared.