The Asshai's Bloodmage

Still in the corpse city in another tower, the same skeleton in a black robe who had seen the light of a certain special physique turn on on the stone stele, was going down the steps, going deep, to the top floor of the same tower. When he got there, he saw a handsome man in profile, he had black hair and was young, he was sitting in a meditation position holding two strange stones in his hands. When the skeleton arrived in front of the man only then could one see that only one side of his face was handsome. The other half of his face had no flesh in some places showing his gums and teeth, the other eye was completely white and the other half of his hair was also white.

The skeleton bowed in front of the man and said:

"My King, sorry to interrupt, I bring valuable information."

When the man heard his voice, his healthy eye opened and he moved a little, starting to breathe, his robe that moved with his breathing caused the accumulated dust to fall. The man said nothing and just looked at the skeleton, awaiting his words. Knowing his master, he then said:

"A new Immortal physique has appeared in the city of Asshai."

"I am still in the process of creating this item, it will take another five years... Send a message to the Immortal's tower and tell him to take care of the child until I become available, he will not refuse since this is important to him too. Oh, and also send a message to all necromancers saying that the boy is under my protection."

"As you wish, my king." The skeleton said, bowing once more before returning to climb the tower stairs, dragging the same old and dusty cloak across the floor of the tower.

Meanwhile, the Eternal King, who was considered the strongest necromancer in the entire world and the supreme king of necromancy, closed his only normal eye and returned to concentrating on the item he was creating. If Rafael were here, he would recognize that one of the stones in the Eternal King's hand was something that looked a lot like one of his purified soul stones…

***

 Today was the big day of the opening of Rafael, Omar and Zhang's shop. Many days had passed since the test and the name of the Order of Sages had spread throughout Asshai, showing it to be a very powerful and mysterious organization. There were 4 events that made the Order known in those few days. The first was an open conflict in the city where several small groups of bandits were killed and their corpses displayed in front of their tower. This was also the day that a plaque was hung in that place called the Tower of Sages. On the same day, the entire group called the Order of Sages joined the test of the Garden of Beasts, revealing that they had 2 apprentices with special physiques in their group. Less than two days after this event, the pirates who had been massacring several islands around Asshai were captured and executed in a public square, again by the Order of Sages. During this event, several of the so-called Sages presented themselves and the leader of the organization, the Red Sage, personally executed four men using his strange magical weapons. The last man, the pirate captain, was killed by an apprentice of the Order of Sages who was also a survivor of one of the islands attacked by the pirates.

All of this had already put the group in the spotlight of the entire city, and when everyone thought it was over. Something happened in the middle of the night... A terrible explosion heard by almost the entire city happened inside the territory of the Faceless Men, more precisely in the Stranger's temple. After that, the same similar noise of the Red Sage's weapons was heard by several witnesses and when all the sound was silenced all that people saw in the place where the small tower/temple of the Faceless Men was located was the door of their tower blown up in a way never seen before by anyone.

Even parts of the black rocks of the small tower were cracked and half melted due to the door being blown up with some kind of powerful fire spell. Some tried to enter to loot something, but everything, including the furniture of the Stranger's temple had already been looted, the entire tower had been exterminated and cleaned in a matter of less than 1 hour! At this time when rumors were spreading and the culprit of such a crime was already being speculated due to the family "BANGS", the suspected group itself, the Order of Sages placed the heads of 5 men in the port of Asshai and shouted their crimes for all to hear for at least an hour. Among the crimes listed by the Order were the indiscriminate murders of magic apprentices living in Valyria, the death of 1 innocent Master with no ties to the 39 Valyrian families and the burning and destruction of 80 more magic totems. Including totems belonging to the leader of the Order of Sages himself. After the listing of crimes, it was written in red blood on a wall that the faceless men were forbidden to set foot in Asshai and that if anyone was seen helping them enter the city or hiding any of them, they would be branded as public enemies of Asshai by all the wizards and apprentices in the city.

When all this was over, the focus of the inhabitants of Asshai, which had been on the new group and its extreme violence, changed completely. And everyone began to curse the Faceless Men, the most talked about thing was the burning of 80 totems! How absurd was that? Most of the city barely had enough for 1 totem and the Faceless Men burned 80? Everyone immediately felt empathy for the Red Sage... Having his totem burned in a war that had nothing to do with him... With that, the image of a victim was passed on and the cruel acts of the Order were considered just someone seeking revenge and bringing justice. This also marked the official arrival of the mysterious Order of the Sages created by Valyrian survivors. And of course, everyone was interested in seeing what the store that this group of Valyrians would open would look like and what products would be sold in it.

Rafael was on the top floor of his store waiting for the opening that would begin in less than 1 hour. He was dressed in his familiar red cloak and red mask that covered only his eyes and nose. On his back was a black cape that reached his waist. And on his right index finger was a ring with a dark gem. These two items were his new artifacts, collected from the loot of the tower of the faceless men.

[Shadow Cloak] +

A cloak made by an unknown craftsman using the skin of an animal native to the Shadow Land, the skin was marked with an energy retention spell and allows the user to use the Shadow Cloak spell once every 7 days.

[Replacement Ring] +

A ring created using a magical mineral of unknown origin, it was attached with the Shadow Substitute spell, the spell is activated when the user suffers a lethal attack. It can be activated once every 7 days.

The cloak could cover me for a few minutes and hide my presence, it worked best in dark places. As for the ring, it is the same one that the spy on the ship used to escape from Zhang and jump into the Ash River. In addition to these two artifacts with me, there were two more items that stayed with Omar and Zhang. Omar got another ring like mine that could save his life, and Zhang got a bracelet that could attack using a fireball. The money gained from looting the Tower of the Stranger was over 5000 gold coins and many valuable magical materials and items, there were even some spell books and scrolls. We used the 5000 coins to buy 2 more new artifacts, 1 was given to Liza who was the only one without an artifact among the members and the second artifact was left as an extra in the tower's storage and could be lent to the members during dangerous missions.

As I looked at the system and my two new artifacts, the inauguration finally began. Several people who had been waiting outside began to enter and I could hear several screams of people fighting over some items. There were several guards everywhere in the store and enough employees to serve both customers and curious onlookers. In addition to the household items that were sold in common steel containers, we also sold normal foods such as bread, meat and grains. A few luxury foods were placed at the inauguration and they were saved for the store's VIP customers. Speaking of the VIPs, it didn't take long before I began to see several of them arriving in luxurious carriages. Among them, a couple of wizards with a familiar symbol on their robes caught my attention, making me immediately prepare to receive them personally...

***

 It took Genesis no less than 1 day to investigate the mysterious group that conducted the test in his tower, but when the name of the leader of this group was revealed, he was shocked! It was the Red Sage! and not only that, the Sage himself had come personally and also took the test. This name had become famous ever since news of the destruction of Valyria spread throughout the city; whenever a letter arrived and the survivors narrated the destruction of the place, the name Red Sage always came up among them. What did this powerful seer want in his tower? He should warn the master immediately… He even blamed himself for his tower not knowing yet that such a person had arrived in the city; the current low number of apprentices in the tower made the tasks difficult, that was precisely the reason for the new recruitment.

Arriving at his master's room, Genesis narrated everything he knew, including about the assassination attempts against the Sage while he was on his way to the test of his tower and the death of the spies at the port. His master instructed him to warn the other older students to be careful not to offend this group, and that he should not worry so much since Master White Shadow had already warned him that they only wanted a place to learn and had no ulterior motives. Genesis was thoughtful and followed his master's orders... Only to receive more news about the Sage again 2 days later. Repeating the process, he went to his master's quarters to tell him the new information involving the opening of his shop and the execution of the pirates who plundered the surrounding islands. This time, his master took the invitation sent and observed it for a while before asking him to leave.

But who would have imagined that less than 1 week later the massacre of the faceless men happened, as well as the crimes committed by them and the supposed banning of this group throughout Asshai. The Red Sage was quite vengeful and bold, could he really do that by forbidding anyone from setting foot in Asshai? Such a statement had never been made before... This showed the man's confidence in his own power and influence. This time, his master was also shocked to receive the news and asked Genesis to call his wife in the basement.

Madame Zirya did not understand why her husband had summoned her, young Genesis said it was important. So she immediately went up to his room. When she saw him sitting with a certain envelope in his hand, she asked in a flirtatious and sensual voice:

"You haven't called me personally since my body changed... This time, do you want to spend time with me?" As she said this, she wrapped her arms around his waist as she sat next to him.

"You know that my body couldn't resist your toxins... But even when you knew that fact, you still went ahead and made this race change."

She hugged him a few more times as she tried to show affection, but she was careful not to let any part of her skin directly touch her husband's skin for fear of hurting him.

"So why did you call me? Does it have something to do with the new students? I saw that there are some very interesting ones…"

"We were invited to the opening of the shop of one of our new students, I thought about not attending, but this person is someone we should pay a little more attention to, especially after what he did today…"

After hearing about the extermination of the Faceless Men, Madame Zirya realized that they were a truly impressive and bold force to announce such grandiose statements that prohibited a large group from setting foot in Asshai.

"I see, you want to meet with him to get to know him better before he joins our tower."

"Precisely, he also sent these two cards as a form of respect for our position, so it doesn't hurt to take a look at his shop, it's very likely that all 5 others will show up there. Esmer also reappeared, he sent me a letter telling me to take care of his daughter and his apprentice."

She waved her hand, taking out a thick paper decorated with gold ink and lines. The card read: "Sage Store" and under the name of the store was: VIP Plague Master. She had never seen this kind of paper. Then she asked her husband about the card while also mentioning the consequences of Esmer's daughter belonging to the Red Sage group, this meant that this group already had the support of two Masters if we include White Shadow who had also warned everyone not to harm them.

"Yes, and now it will belong to our tower as well, so there are 4 masters who are supporting this group, yet another reason for our presence, we have to give it some face, in addition there is a list of benefits that came along with the card that includes: 10% lifetime discount for all purchases in the store, a special auction only for VIPs who have this card, and even the benefit of studying a certain magical item that we can only access in the store. In addition, while we are in the store we can consume anything without having to spend anything. This means that he constantly expects our presence there to study such an item, this must mean that the item is not common and even the other Masters will be interested…"

***

That was why on the opening day the Master of Beasts and his wife were now in front of the store, being the first to arrive. The first surprise for the two when they got off the carriage was how crowded the store was, in Asshai it was unusual for a store to have so many people at the opening. As they were about to enter the front door a woman with black hair and a mask approached them:

"Master of Beasts, Master of Plague, please follow me. There is no need for such honored guests to walk through the crowd. By the way, my name is Aisha and if all goes well, I will be one of the students in your tower."

The two looked at the masked woman who bowed, introduced herself and then led them to an elevator. Madame Zirya then said with a smile: "It is our pleasure to welcome such talented students."

As soon as they reached the second floor, a man dressed in red was waiting for them. The young woman introduced him as the Red Sage and then walked back into the elevator, leaving them alone.

"Nice to meet you, Master of Beasts and Master of Plague, you may call me Rafael. I welcome you to our humble shop. Please follow me. I will first take you to a quiet place to try our best food."

Madame Zirya gave her husband a knowing look and the two followed Rafael to a room. At the entrance to the room, Rafael introduced Zhang and Omar as his partners and store owners, emphasizing Omar's surname and revealing that the two would also be students of the tower. Madame Zirya greeted the two and praised Zhang for his talent, and then asked if she wanted to meet Jhon. Rafael was surprised by the request and said he would ask to call him. He then took them further into the room where there was a large round table. Master of Beasts and his wife were surprised to see Master Priest Grym and Master Blood Armor inside having a few drinks together.

They greeted the two men and sat down at the round table and began to talk, exchanging compliments and greetings since it had been a long time since they had seen each other. Less than 5 minutes later Master White Shadow also arrived. He was alone and greeted everyone before sitting at the table. When the 5 figures sat at the table, the conversations were all guided by Master Priest Grym, Master Blood Armor spoke little and people did not feel very comfortable due to the rumors about him forcing his students to undergo bloody experiments. Master of Beasts was the quietest, just listening. Therefore, the conversations only flowed between the 3 most social ones. Madame Zirya asked Master White Shadow:

"Where is that little one who always follows you?"

"She was taken to see the Red Sage's library of books. It seems that the two of them already met when he visited my shop."

"Huhu, it seems that Rafael knows how to please her," Madame Zirya said after a jovial laugh, then added: "She would be bored at a table full of old people."

Master White Shadow gave a slight smile and agreed. Then Rafael approached along with a waiter, the waiter placed 6 new glasses on the table, and then in an unconventional manner poured wine into the 6 glasses. Rafael then stood out, taking the sixth glass while he was still standing and explained about the famous wine of the summer lands. At that moment, even the silent Master of Beasts said that he knew about this wine. While Rafael smelled and tasted the wine as if he were a sommelier, he said:

"This may be one of the last harvests of this wine in the coming years. The place where it is produced will go to war with the end of Valyria and its production will be greatly affected. Forget about 100-120 bottles per year. We will be lucky if a few dozen are sold. In Valyria, this wine cost 100 gold coins and was something that only the 40 lords could enjoy. My partners and I had prepared a bottle as a gift for each of the Masters who came today, but the leaders of the two merchant groups in the city will not be attending, so you can consume your bottles. Enjoy it. The sale price of this last batch is 300 coins and the VIP card only entitles you to buy 2 bottles per year and only until the stock runs out."

Everyone was surprised by the high price and few bottles and tried the famous wine.

"Hahaha those two idiots, I must send my thanks to them for serving me such a valuable wine."

After Grym's laughter and comment, all the Masters at the table laughed and began to enjoy the exquisite drink, taking advantage of one of the rare moments that such figures socialized...

***

Special thanks to the Patreons:

Sage's Supporter: Jan and Scott Robertson!

Magic Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, frimorigo, Takatchi and Leery Falcon!