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Chapter XVII- The Funeral Days Part IV (Meeting the Old God)

"LUCAS!!!" Ian cried out, rushing towards the fallen fox. He didn't care that Greg tried to grab him or his dad told him to get down... He didn't even care if he was shot... all that mattered was getting to Lucas. Once he reached the fallen fox, he scooped him into his arms and swiftly checked for a pulse in his neck, his paws shaking so much he could barely find it, but he did... it was faint, but it was there... He then looked to the wound and saw it was bleeding, but he didn't think it hit anything major as the bleeding would have been a lot worse if it had hit an artery or something, but he knew Lucas needed treatment immediately. "Monet!" he cried out. "I need your help!" He begged as he looked around, searching for the bastard who hurt his beloved... he would make them pay... he would destroy them if he got his paws on them.

The female coyote was next to him in an instant, as was Greg who looked like he was about to chew him out, but Ian silenced him with one look. It was rare that he would invoke his authority over the tiger, but he did not have the patience to be lectured at the moment. Lucas's life was on the line. "Greg, help Allison with Lucas, you can lecture me later but that is an order. Help her!" He said while gently handing the fox to the burly tiger.

Greg looked a bit surprised that Ian gave him an actual order, but he nodded, his training mandated he never ignore or disobey a direct order. "Do everything she tells you alright? She's the expert here," he said simply, before looking around trying to find the gunman.

In the corner of his eye he saw a glint and cast a quick disarming spell, hearing a loud yelp from whoever was holding whatever the object was. Then before said person could run, he then casted a very swift binding spell, causing an even louder yelp. Growling, Ian walked up towards the bound figure all the lights around him flashing in brightness as he walked past them, some glowing so bright the lights exploded, shattering in shards of glass.

As he walked, he could hear whimpering as the figure tried to move away with his bound body, but before he could even attempt to slither away, Ian slammed his foot onto the stomach, snarling at the shooter. To his surprise, it was a leopard around his age wearing the hunter's trench coat. The cat was crying in fear, and Ian could even smell the piss coming from the cat. He was so scared that he'd pissed himself, something that made the enraged wolf roll up his nose in disgust.

"Please... don't hurt me!" The leopard cried in fear, which made Ian snarl. This was just a kid, he had no business here and the fact that he was brought in on this attack made him almost sad, but that sadness was smothered in his outright hatred for the feline. Snarling, he spat in the cat's face, his powers causing literally every light bulb in the building to explode from the amount of light energy coming from them.

"Don't hurt you? Don't hurt YOU!? How many people have you hurt!? That fox you just SHOT for example!" He shouted, his body shaking in rage. He could feel the magic boil around him as he felt the heat of the light focus all around them. "How many people have you helped kill? How many children have been hurt or killed while you stood there and did nothing? You could have said something, stopped what was going on? Or DIED trying to save the victims but you decided to be a coward..." he said stomping hard on the kid's stomach until the leopard began to cough up blood. Satisfied, he stepped away and focused all his power into a shining halo above the leopard.

The feline started to sweat as the heat got so intense he could feel his fur start to singe. "Wha-what are you doing...?" he asked as he cried out as his eyes started to broil from the heat.

Ian just gave a dark and sinister chuckle before speaking, his voice as cold as ice. "Payback for all the blood you spilt..." he said, before snapping his fingers, unleashing the light into one single intense beam onto the leopard, causing the cat to let out a blood-curdling scream as his body instantly burst into flame. His screams continued for several seconds before it stopped suddenly as his body turned to ash, and once the beam was gone there was nothing left of the man. Not even ash remained from where he'd laid. All that remained was a massive scorch mark and melted stone in a large circle. He let out a sigh and fell on his knees. That attack took a lot of energy from him... he had never actually used that spell before... he just never thought he would even be able to have the bloodthirst to want to completely incinerate someone in such a way.

He kept on panting until he felt a heavy paw on his shoulder and saw his dad standing behind him, looking worried. The look on his dad's face, the concern really made him realize just what he had done... he had killed someone in cold blood... he now understood just what Lucas felt after he had regained control after his freak-out, he seriously felt like he needed to throw up, but nothing would come but he could feel his body shaking from the shock.

"I..." was all he could let out before he buried his head in his dad's chest, the stress of everything going on overwhelming him all in that one moment. It was just too much... he just hoped Lucas would be okay... that's all he cared about at that moment. If he lost Luc... life just wasn't worth living anymore. All he could do is pray to Apollo that Monet's healing would be enough.

~~~

Allison was briefly shaken from her focus on the wounded fox by the bright light created by Mansfield's power... seeing such power enough to completely incinerate a person... she never thought that the foolish, yet surprisingly gentle, wolf had it in him to outright kill someone... but she figured harming Lucas was just the trigger needed to push him to such extremes. She however refocused on the fox and managed to check his pulse and his wound. The bullet had narrowly missed his heart and other major organs and arteries, but the bleeding was still bad enough to cause her some concern. She could easily heal the wound, but she didn't want to leave the bullet in his body, and she didn't have the equipment or experience necessary to perform a major surgery, but then her attention was drawn to the tiger in front of her.

"Moore... I need your help... I need you to remove the bullet. Surely you have been trained in Ferrokenisis correct?" The tiger gave her an uncomfortable look. "Is something wrong Moore? Mansfield gave you the order to do what I say, are you breaking your Master's orders?"

Greg shook his head quickly before looking down. "No, I'd never disobey a direct order from Ian... but I haven't learned ferrokenisis yet... so I wouldn't be able to remove the bullet no matter how much I want to," he said sadly. "It was never part of my Protector training, so I never bothered learning it."

"Now's a good time to learn Moore," Allison said quietly. "If you don't remove the bullet I won't be able to heal him properly." She stated in a calm manner. "He needs you to use your ferrokenetic abilities. Please... your master would be devastated if he loses his love... would you be able to live with yourself if you could have saved his life and you didn't?" she challenged. Moore just gave her a harsh glare and he grumbled to himself.

"Okay! I'll try... damn you know how to pile it on... I'll do my best but again... I never did this before." He said with sigh, before taking a deep breath to focus and moved his paw carefully and with great care. Allison saw movement in Mason's chest as he saw the bullet slowly move out of the fox's body, until the bullet fell out from the same hole it entered. Allison moved quickly to start healing any damage done by both the initial shot and any unintentional damage done by Moore in the removal attempt. Looking over at the aforementioned tiger, she saw that Moore was staring at his paws in amazement, as if he never thought he would actually be able to use metal magic in such a way on his first time.

The fact the tiger underestimated himself almost saddened the coyote girl... the feline had potential to be an extremely powerful earth mage if he applied himself more instead of just settling as Mansfield's Protector. Not that his dedication wasn't admirable, but she secretly agreed with Mansfield, he needed a life outside the wolf if he wanted to be as powerful as he could be and ironically be able protect Mansfield better.

"I hate saying this, but Mansfield is right... you need to get your life together and stop making your life all about Mansfield, it's not healthy for either of you. He needs to stand on his own and you need to stop limiting yourself. You were able to perform an impressive feat of Ferrokenisis on your first try to get a bullet out of Mason, something that takes a lot of skill, and you thought you couldn't do it because you never bothered learning it since it didn't go with your training as a Protector. You deliberately hindered and held yourself back because it didn't focus on Mansfield," she stated, giving harsh truths to the tiger, who winced at her words.

"But..." he tried, but Allison cut him off, not giving him the chance to say anything.

"No! You listen, live your life Moore! You are not only holding yourself back, you are actually limiting your ability to protect him. You realise that right? How many other things have you never tried because you didn't think it would help?" The tiger kept looking towards the floor, completely unable to refute anything the coyote girl said. "Also you are seventeen and still a virgin? No offense but you could have just about any girl you wanted, Erin herself is obviously head over heels for you... though I would check in with Mason before you try anything... Mason is very protective of his sister, something you probably know by now," she stated before sighing. "We should rap this up... If I am correct both the police and the EMT's are on their way here... we need to take note of all injuries... Go grab the others, I will take care of Mason until the paramedics get here. Understood?" she stated, before turning towards the shaken-looking Dobie whose eyes seemed glued to the black-furred wolf... This is probably not the best way of being introduced to the Hidden World and she kinda felt bad for Harvey.

Sure, she knew what he did to Mason was horrible, but she could tell he was sincere in his regret of the past actions. His relationship with the kangaroo boy was also touching in a way, and with that thought, her eyes drifted off to Richard who was busy helping his mom talk with the Knights and she felt herself blush lightly, and not for the first time wondering if dating the great-grandson of her most recent past life was a really appropriate thing. While the thing wasn't in any way incestuous (at least in a biological sense) she had memories of Arlen changing his diapers shortly before his own death, which made things almost awkward.

Shaking her head, she decided it was probably best to leave the connotations of pseudo-incest with her past-life's great-grandchild... In all honestly Arlen was the only one of her past-lives to have children (that she knew of... It was possible some of her more promiscuous lives might have had a bastard or two, but she never encountered one). In fact she had never intended to make contact with the Mansfield's for the reason it would make Arlen's memories more pronounced in her mind and psyche, but funny how things work. She set those ideas aside to focus more on the fallen fox though. While she was certain she had stabilized Mason, she wasn't sure how long it would take him to awake from this... as much as Mansfield's brash and reckless nature infuriated her sometimes, she knew he would fall apart if he lost the fox. Plus, she had grown attached to the baffling fox, whose powers she still was far from understanding. With one last look at Harvey, she refocused on Mason.

~~~

Thomas could only stare at the spot where the cat had been before he had been vaporized... 'Holy shit....' he mentally cried out. 'That wolf just outright vaporized that cat... Remind me to never get on his bad-side...' he thought before face-pawing. 'Oh right! I'm already on his bad-side... he already hates my guts for what I did to Lucas.' His focus then shifted towards the fox, and as badly as he wanted to check up on him, the coyote girl frankly scared the ever-loving shit out of him... and the wolf... Mansfield was his name right? Probably would react badly to him getting near the fox and he didn't want to share the cat's fate. Shaking his head, he left the ruins of the church and walked outside to search for Rick... He hoped he and Mishra made it out safely as well...the fact he took one of the canisters of tear gas to his face worried the Dobie.

He swiftly ventured into the lobby which thankfully was largely untouched by the chaos that had unfolded. He saw the room was filled with a bunch of terrified people gathered around each other. Some of the Knight guys were trying and keep control of the situation and calm the panicked masses. He was surprised when he felt a paw land on his shoulder and saw Damien standing behind him with a wild grin on his face.

"Well that was fun!" He stated, before becoming serious and solemn. "Lucas is stable and should be fine, but there is a matter of what we are going to do about the captured Hunters... We got most of them, but a few managed to escape... also there is the matter of memory erasure... We can't let word get out about what happened here. The Knights and the Hidden World can't afford to be exposed. All the police and medical crew responding are Knights so there won't be any leaks there."

"Memory... erasure? Are you... going to erase my memory of this?" The Dobie asked in a nervous manner... It made sense that they didn't want word to get out about magic and the knights and the like, but he REALLY didn't like the idea of people messing with his head. However, to his surprise, the husky shook his head and smiled, though it looked kinda chilling really since it looked far too much like the smile he was making while he was beating the crap out of those Hunters with his shock batons.

"No... I have an alternative offer for you... you surprised us all really... I expected you to run and hide like everyone else did, but you stayed and did a surprisingly good job at fighting back. No... it'd be a waste to just erase your memories...instead we want you to join us. You live in Victoria right? We have a Chapter of Knights working there. They will provide for your training and other materials for it. Do you still live with your parents?" Thomas just snarled at that and he gave an awkward smile. "Touchy subject?" he asked in an almost sympathetic voice.

"I haven't spoke to my parents in years... they caught me and Rick in bed together... and they disowned me without a second thought," he said with a shrug. "I'm better off without them honestly. Rick's family is great, and they took me in... so you want me to join your group? What do I get out of this?"

"Well, you get to keep your memories of course... and you get to be part of the greater whole. Listen, we could always use more members. We typically reach out for Gifted people, but there are only so many of them really... and we have to compete with the Brotherhood to get them, so we do search for unGifted people, ones we think have potential to be useful to us."

"What do the Knights do exactly?" Thomas asked, genuinely curious and seriously considering agreeing to the husky's offer. He really did want to keep his memories, even if they weren't the most pleasant of memories, he just didn't want his head played with... it just seemed wrong.

"We protect Mundanes... and ensure the Mundane and Hidden world remain separate. Our job is to make sure defenceless Mundanes aren't harmed by rogue Mage's outside the Council's control. You see, in the Magical community, each country has its own Council which is divided up into several Clans... basically magical families. Each Clan has a representative in the Council... a 'Clan Head' if you will. Each Council has a Head Clan that rules all of them. The Mansfield's are the head family of Scotland."

"But isn't Scotland part of the UK? So England, Scotland and Wales have their own separate Councils?"

"And Northern Ireland..." he added helpfully. "But yeah, each of them have their own Magical Government. They existed long before the Acts of Union, so they remained largely autonomous of each other, though there is a 'United Council' for the UK itself which govern the affairs of the entire kingdom as a whole. Kinda like the British Parliament if you will and through that is an even larger European Council, basically the magical European Union. But yeah, Ian Mansfield is the grandson of the head of the Mansfield Clan... Isaac Mansfield."

"You are saying that wolf is basically magical royalty?" Thomas said with a gulp.

"More or less, but I'm getting off-track... Yeah almost all Mages fall within the Council and follow their laws, but there are some mages who exist outside the Council and Clan structure. These Mages are called Outsider Clans. Most of these Clans are generally harmless and struggle to survive... poverty is a major problem in the Outsider Clans."

"If Mages are all part of the Clans, how do Outsider Clans exist? Shouldn't they be part of a Clan?" Damien just grimaced and sighed. Thomas looked at him curiously which prompted him to continue his explanation.

"It's complicated... you see the Outsider Clans are descended from Mages who were banished and exiled from the Clan... criminals you could say. Mages who broke or disgraced them or their Clan and thus were thrown out of the Clan and left to their own devices... The lucky ones are allowed to keep their magic... The unlucky ones are completely stripped of their magic. Those ones fair the worst out of the banished. Mages are basically helpless without their magic... it's so ingrained into their bodies that having it stripped makes it difficult for them to adapt to life without it. So they fall into poverty and struggle. Eventually they do find a partner and have children... usually those children are born Mundane, some are even Gifted... but some are born with magic of their own..." he continued before taking a long breath.

"What happens to the children born with magic?" Thomas asked, even more curious than he had been before.

Damien just gave him a snarky grin before he continued. "Those children are typically taken in by the Clans... they are treated as Tahleno... Mages born of Mundane parentage... though they would technically be considered half-blood given one parent is magical. Young Mages are considered very dangerous without training... especially Elemental Mages. Without control and training they could seriously harm themselves or others by accident, so in most countries besides Scotland, Tahleno are taken from their Mundane families and placed with a local Clan and raised and trained by them. Ahtan which are Mages born without Magic... like Mr. Mason. They are brought into our ranks and trained as one of us so they can defend themselves properly. Mages who are stripped of their magic are counted as Ahtan." he continued once again, taking another breath.

"So Ahtan, Outsider Mages' children, are allowed to re-join the Clans? What happens to Outsiders who aren't stripped of magic? Do they keep their kids? And why did you point to Scotland as an exception?" Thomas asked again.

"So many questions!" Damien joked, before shaking his head and laughing. "Well... Outsiders who keep their magic fair a lot better usually. They can provide for themselves better as a whole and defend themselves so they generally fair better. However a few of them never really get over their banishment, deserved or not, and thus can fall victim to the words and message of the Cabal, who can best be described as magic supremacists and terrorists. They seek the annihilation of all unmagical life and the complete destruction of the Council that had banished them. The Cabal are also known to consort with Demons, making them even more powerful and dangerous. These 'Demon Mages as they are called have their magic boosted dramatically, but at a cost... They basically sell their souls to the demons and the more they use their demonic power. The more and more they fall into their Demon's thrall, until they are not but empty husks that can barely be considered people..." he said with a sad voice.

"That's awful..." Thomas muttered in shock. "So basically, you protect normal Mundanes from these rogue Mages... where do these Hunters come in though? They are obviously Mundanes themselves from what I gather, but where do they come from?"

Damien growled at that and the anger he sensed in the husky made him back away slightly... it was obvious that the Hunters were a bit of a touchy subject for the other dog, but Damien calmed down enough with a deep breath and sighed. "The Hunters started as Knights... just like me and James... serving to protect Mundanes from rogue magical threats... but a certain offshoot of Knights became radicalized by a man who called himself Cain. He was an outsider, not a member of the Knights, but he convinced a portion of the Knights that our Grand Inquisitors were illegitimate and false leaders and that HE was the true head of the Knights and he had been overthrown millennia ago. It's believed that the man named Cain is a Channeler... an entity that is reborn after their death and retain the memories of all their past lives. That he is indeed the true founding Grand Inquisitor of the Knights, but he was overthrown during the Fifth Crusade when his life was killed by a Muslim Warrior named Asim bin Salam... He was..." Damien said, before he was interrupted by a calm female voice.

"One of my past lives... one I prefer not to remember..." Thomas turned around to see the tiny female coyote, which made him jump. Just how long had she been there!? "Asim fought against the Crusaders. He sought to protect his homeland from the invaders and during the fight he met and clashed with two particular Knights... The Grand Inquisitor, a man simply called 'Cain', and another man Ammonianus Kurkuas, a Byzantine man who was against the bloody crusades but was unable to go directly against his Lord and did his bidding. Throughout the many clashes he had with Asim, they began to understand that they weren't that different and Asim constantly tried to implore Ammonianus to go against his leader and help end the conflict..." she said with a soft tone. "The lion was an extremely stubborn and loyal man so it took a while to do this," she continued.

"Asim's efforts eventually succeeded when he finally slew the man known as Cain, though he died not long afterwards from his injuries... but when Ammonianus became interim Grand Inquisitor, he overthrew and banished the next incarnation of Cain, who was but a mere infant at the time and put the reigns of Leadership on the true Mortals and instead of became an Agent of the Church. He turned the Knights into what they are now... self-proclaimed protectors of Mundane-kind." The coyote stated calmly, before turning her head to look for something and seemed to find it after a few moments... "Ah, there he is... " she stated, and Thomas looked to where she was and saw Rick sitting beside a shaking cheetah whose eyes were covered in gauze.

'That's right...' Thomas thought to himself having, completely forgotten about Jaidev getting hurt. The coyote girl then started walking towards the two and seeing Rick made him think... If he got to keep his memories? Would Rick? He knew he couldn't keep all this from the roo... he loved him (how nice it felt to be able to say that...) too much to keep things from him. With a grim expression, he turned towards the smirking husky. "If I agree I have only two conditions," he stated firmly, which caught Damien off-guard.

"What are those conditions? You aren't really in place to set any honestly, but I'll shoot.... James is pretty lenient on these things." The husky said with a shrug.

Thomas took a deep breath and started speaking trying to get everything out. "First... Rick keeps his memories, also... nobody touches him, or I refuse. And secondly, he has nothing to do with the Knights... It's just me doing the training and he is not to be put in any direct danger... do you get that?!" He stated as firmly as he could, puffing out his chest in an attempt to look intimidating. He had a good few inches on the husky... not that it mattered since he had seen the husky fight. He wouldn't last five seconds against the husky in an actual fight.

The husky himself obviously knew this given the light chuckle coming from him. "That's asking quite a lot..." Damien stated his smirk disappearing. "Not only do you want a civilian to keep his memories, but that he remains unconnected to the Knights... that's kinda dangerous. What keeps him from blabbing?"

Thomas couldn't stop the growl that grew in his throat. Outmatched or not he wouldn't let this punk say stuff like that about the Roo. "Rick would never blab! Not if I asked him not to. He's an honest guy."

"Maybe so... but that means he'll have to keep things from his parents... things that could well be a matter of life and death... You understand that being a Knight isn't all fun and games right? It's dangerous. We've lost a lot of good men over the past few years. Do you really want to put that burden on him?"

Thomas just sighed... the husky had a point... but still he couldn't just leave him in the dark. "Keeping him in the dark would be worse... If something happened to me I would want him to know exactly what it was. Besides, I would say you guys let your families know you are Knights correct?"

Damien could only shake his head. He seemed mildly annoyed, but he sighed. "Fine, your conditions will be accepted... James is very accommodating and he himself isn't a fan of the memory wipe thing either. But outside you two and the Mishras, everyone else has their memory wiped. Is that good enough for you?"

Thomas wasn't okay with that, but he figured he probably pushed his luck enough already. "Fine... I'm going to check up on Jaidev and Rick. You coming?" He asked, not really comfortable with the coyote being so close to the kangaroo. With a nod, the husky followed him and Thomas thought about just what he had gotten himself into...

~~~

Lucas woke up with a start, the memories of what had transpired played in his head and on instinct he felt his chest, expecting to see a bullet hole, but was surprised when he felt nothing. Confused he tried to call Nocte, but was shocked when he couldn't hear the grumpy dark creature in his head... which was weird. He should be able to call on him, but he couldn't. 'Am I dead?' was the first thing Lucas thought, before looking around to see just where he was. He seemed to be laying on a luxuriously soft bed in an opulently decorated room. The room itself was about the size of his, but the walls were stone. The walls were covered in numerous tapestries and art that reminded him of the First Nations people, but he couldn't place it to a specific tribe. It certainly wasn't any of the First Nations groups in British Columbia that was for sure. He didn't know enough about the Natives of the other provinces, so it could be one of theirs, but he couldn't be sure.

His thoughts were broken when the door opened, revealing a scantily dressed male lion who was only in a very tiny loincloth and a collar around his neck. In his paws was a platter with a dome over it and whatever was under it smelt amazing. He could feel his stomach growling. Still the lion was weird. Why was he dressed like that that loincloth barely covered anything? He could see the outline of the felines penis barbs and all... especially considering he knew canines were the only furs who still had sheaths for whatever reason. His eyes were bright and green, and his mane was shiny and well kempt. He also looked quite fit, but Luc couldn't really discern his age, he figured mid-late 20's. Weirdest of all, he couldn't sense any magic from him... a Mundane? Where was he? This wasn't the hospital that was for sure.

"Good to see you are awake! I have food for you. The chef worked hard on this, so I hope it meets your tastes." The man said with a clear and soft voice. Luc opened his mouth to ask where the hells he was, but the lion politely cut him with a wave of his paw. "I understand you probably have many questions... The young master will be here in a few moments, so please be patient and enjoy your meal." With that, the lion left after setting the platter down, leaving Lucas alone and even more confused than he was before. What was he talking about? Who was this 'young master?'

With a sigh, Lucas took off the dome and his mouth watered. It was a well-roasted turkey dish and it smelt amazing. Considering he was hungry and he had nothing better to do, he took the supplied fork and dug in and moaned in joy as the taste touched his tongue. He kept on eating for several moments before his door opened again, and to his surprise, a familiar dark-furred fox entered the room.

"Beau?" He stated in surprise, remembering how the other fox had saved him and Jai from the false phantom of his mother. "What are you doing here? Are you the 'young master' the lion mentioned? Where are we?" He asked so many questions.

The other fox didn't say anything as he conjured up a seat and dropped it at the side of Luc's bed, sitting on it backwards and eyeing the younger fox (or at least Luc guessed he was older.) His one working eye was on him intently, while the other one just stared ahead blankly, sight having long since left it... if it had ever been there. "We're in my God's Realm... He calls it the Realm of Starlight... though some like calling it 'the lone tropical island under the everlasting starry sky' too," he confessed with a mildly snide smile.

"Who is your god? Zeus? Poseidon? Hades or Apollo?" Lucas asked curiously.

"I'm not hellenic... Mine is a native God, so I doubt you ever heard of him... his name is Alignak. He is a lunar deity and was the patron god of my tribe before the Hunters took out all the mages... I was the only survivor. The remaining tribe members just drifted apart and moved into some of the nearby rez's."

"Oh! You're First Nations?" Lucas asked in a curious manner. "I don't know many First Nations people honestly. Not many come to Bayfield."

Beau gave a small snicker but then took a more serious look. "Well I guess the more proper term would be Native American... My tribe lived around Montana and North Dakota on the border basically," he explained a saddened look. "We were a tiny tribe honestly... always were even before you pale-faces came, but we were always protected under any threat because of the power of our God. Sadly as time went on our tribe got smaller and smaller..." he then stated solemnly. "A combination of disease, violence and intermarriage between other tribes and occasionally pale-faces diluted our bloodlines and of course the growing influence of both Hellenism and Christianity weakened our connection with our God until the amount of Mages decreased more and more each year. By the time I was born there was only a dozen or so mages in my Clan... and the numbers kept on decreasing as more were giving birth to Ahtan children."

"You mean children who aren't born with Magic? My dad is an Ahtan..." Lucas murmured to himself.

"So was mine... or at least he was... My Father had managed to find a Codex before they were all destroyed in the purge. He had studied it constantly, deciphering the runes within it and after years of study, he made a breakthrough. He figured out he could use the codex and the runes to unlock his own latent magic." Beau said with a distant look in his eye. "He managed to succeed and then he met my mom and they had me. His experiments on himself actually had an effect on him besides regaining his magic. My guess is his constant exposure to the runes changed him somehow, like he absorbed some of the power in the runes, and that in turn awakened what magic he had in himself."

"That's incredible... I only just started learning rune magic... I heard that it is a very dangerous branch of magic though, and that's why all the Codex's were destroyed... well except the one my dad gave me. Do you have his Codex? How did he get access to one?"

"He never told me honestly... and I never got the chance to ask. I had only barely started my training when the Hunters attacked our tribe. The same attack that killed both my parents and cost me the sight in my eye," he said pointing towards his blank, unseeing eye. "But now's not the time to be telling you my life story, my God wants to see you. He's quite curious how an intruder managed to get into here without either him or myself letting you in. You are quite an interesting pup," he said before getting up. He held out a paw for Lucas to grab, which the younger fox took gratefully. With that they were walked out of the room and into a large hallway. "We're in the Full Moon Tower, my personal tower. I figured you should be placed here so I could keep an eye on you. Any idea on how you got here? I never let you in and neither has my God. You shouldn't have been able to enter here." Beau stated in a curious voice.

"I have no idea where I am honestly, or how I got here. The last thing I remember was getting shot, and then I found myself here. Am I dead?" Beau just shook his head, putting that to rest.

"You wouldn't be here if you were dead, trust me," Beau replied lazily. "So I'm guessing you are doing involuntary Astral Projection, so you aren't here in a physical sense since your body is probably in the mortal realm, but your spirit is here in our realm. You said you just started learning Rune Magic you say? Hmm... tell me pup, can you see them? The runes?" Lucas just gave a silent nod. They continued descending the tower until they reached the ground floor of what looked like a large castle. "Impressive huh? I designed the place... my God gave me control over the realm, because he is too weak to rule things right now."

"If he is a God, how can he be too weak to control his own realm?" Lucas asked in a confused matter, which made Beau sigh.

"Gods are only powerful when they have lots of people who believe in them. The less people who believe in a God, the less powerful that God is. When nobody believes in a God, they fade into non-existence. That almost happened to my God since I was the only person who believed in him for years, but I've gathered more followers." He explained as they reached another massive door, completely sealed. Raising his paw Beau touched the door and it glowed and opened on it's own. "That lion I saw... he's a mundane, so how did he get in here? Is he the only person here? He mentioned a chef, so I guess not..."

"They are here because they were brought here by me. There are many people here, and they are both Mage and Mundane. Former members of the Cabal and Hunters, those who fled here to escape the possible persecution their fellows would bestow on them if they got their paws of them." With that they finally reached a massive door and opening that a massive throne room where a tall and ancient looking ferret. To Lucas's surprise, Beau gave a deep bow and spoke in a polite tone. "My Lord, I brought our intruder friend as you requested."

The ancient ferret gave a nod and a smile. "I can see that Beau. Thank you for bringing him to me, but I wish to speak to him alone for a few minutes if you mind. There should be a servant in your room waiting to please you. I'll be fine."

Beau looked like he wanted to protest, but stopped himself before bowing again and walking out, leaving the two alone. Lucas looked closer at the ferret and saw despite his massive age, he was actually quite well-built, and he could also sense the massive magical power coming from him. Despite being apparently weak for a God, he was still far more powerful than any mortal.

"It's good to see you Lucas... I had a feeling that I would meet you eventually. We have much to talk about," he said before waving his paw and spawning a large comfy chair. "Have a seat as we might be here awhile. My name is Alignak and I've been keeping an eye on you for many years."