As Eleanor awoke, almost twenty hours had passed. He felt much better. Shortly after waking up, he thought it had all just been a dream, that he was back in his small hut on the plateau in his own world. That the monster of chaos, Ester, and the other demons were all just fragments of his imagination and past events. But when he looked up and saw a shining prismar-colored star above him, slowly rotating around itself, he knew it had really happened.
He had magic!
Shortly after he had woken up, two demons came to fetch him from his small sleeping chamber, where he had apparently been brought. The demons led him through the entire fortress, deep into the heart of the stronghold, up a large tower. There, a small room awaited, with a long table on which dozens of papers, maps, and books were scattered. As Eleanor entered, the old demon and Ester were arguing. The latter snorted as he waited for the other to finish his tirade. One of the demons, a being that resembled a normal human more than most of the other creatures, with long black hair, pale but clear skin, and two glowing yellow eyes that one could almost call beautiful, was listening to the description of a demon Eleanor had not yet seen before.
He was significantly smaller than the others and moved on all fours. One of his limbs, his foreleg, did not seem to belong to the rest of his body, as if someone had simply stitched the limb of another demon onto him. His skin was not pale like that of the others, but black. Eleanor could tell that he carried the typical aura of the black demons within him, rather than around him. Yet he noticed that the aura of this creature was not weaker than that of the gigantic demon. Speaking of, that one was the only one standing, positioned behind the large chair at the end of the table, on which sat none other than the monster of chaos, the Duce himself.
He once again wore his long black cloak, but this time he also wore a thin black crown upon his head, one that could barely be distinguished from his hair if the beautiful metal had not shimmered in the candlelight.
As Eleanor entered, all fell silent at once. Far too many yellow eyes turned toward him, and of course, two deep black ones as well.
The two demons who had escorted Eleanor bowed deeply before leaving the room, closing the door behind them. Eleanor focused. Suddenly, the entire room lit up with hundreds of symbols, spreading across every wall, door, and piece of furniture.
"Sit down!" Nero commanded, gesturing for Eleanor to take the chair directly opposite him. It was the last chair at the table, showing Eleanor's position, yet the fact that he was even allowed to sit was a clear sign to the other Polykenas. He was not an outsider, not a stranger, but in Nero's eyes, he was already part of their army. A human!
Fril walked around the table and sat down in his place next to Ester. At the head sat Nero; to his right was Xersies' seat, and opposite him was Ramor's. Xersies was Nero's first general, the most intelligent, having controlled the Polykenas for centuries, trained directly by the Queen herself. Ramor was his second general, irreplaceable, as his talent for symbolic magic was unmatched. He was also the oldest and most experienced among the Polykenas. The third chair, directly beside Xersies, where Fril had just been sitting, was empty. This was Shire's seat. Although he rarely sat, he had a fixed place at the table as the third general. He was the leader of the black Polykenas, who made up over ninety-nine percent of the army. He was Nero's chief bodyguard. While he could not control the elements around him like a white Polykenas, he was, without question, one of the strongest among them. His place was more than deserved.
In the fourth position, opposite Shire's seat and beside Ramor, sat Ester. He was the fourth general, a mad Polykenas whose urge to understand magic was even greater than his innate urge to destroy. He had largely stayed out of the power struggles among the Polykenas, as long as he was allowed to conduct his experiments. Eleanor himself was living proof of how far Ester had come. Nero placed great trust in him, though his combat power was not to be underestimated.
In the last position sat Fril, the youngest of the Polykenas. He was an incredibly frightening warrior who had fought his way up to Xersies himself when the Polykenas were still trapped in their dimension. Though he was only the fifth of the generals, he was still an important part of the army. And now, in the sixth position, sat someone new. And not just anyone, but a human!
Yet none of the Polykenas could deny Eleanor's value, no matter how much they might want to.
"Now that we are finally complete," Nero said, "we can finally begin!"
Eleanor listened attentively as Nero spoke. He explained how they had discovered a new planet named Noira and that Eleanor would help him blend in among the humans without drawing attention. Eleanor's role was to warn him of any mages and to identify what kind of magic they possessed. He explained exactly how they were to behave, what their roles and tasks would be, what their backstory was, and where they supposedly came from.
Fril then added some important details about the inhabitants of the planet, their customs, their most important and well-known cities. Essentially, everything one needed to know as a normal resident of that world. He told them about a certain custom humans used to verify that they were truly human and not Lizzian or Reils, the other two dominant races of the planet, in disguise.
Nero then explained that their primary objective was to gather as much information as possible, especially about magic, its different forms, and most importantly, the dynamic between the three races, their boundaries, and their conflicts. Every weakness had to be found.
Of course, Nero did not need to explain why they needed this information. Eleanor might be new, and compared to Nero still very young, but he was not foolish. It was not difficult to put two and two together and realize that Nero's goal was to attack this planet just as he had attacked Eleanor's own.
Yet Eleanor felt no empathy or doubt about it. He knew that Nero brought destruction, but he believed with all his heart that it was for the greater good. It was like a cleansing, something he had witnessed with his own eyes.
Eleanor was not a bad person. He was not a monster like Nero, who would do anything to achieve his goal. Rather, Eleanor was simply someone whose belief in goodness had been destroyed over the course of his life. He truly believed that it was the best thing that had ever happened to his world when Nero had nearly wiped it out. He wanted to share that with other worlds.
After several hours of discussion, preparation, and planning, during which Eleanor tried to learn as many details about Noira as he could, they gathered outside the fortress walls. Eleanor cast one last glance at the inner courtyard of the fortress and at the gigantic black keep rising above everything as the center of the complex. The many dozens of houses separated only by extremely narrow alleys, the large forges where metal was melted day and night into weapons distributed among the Polykenas, the long main road stretching from the gate of the keep to the main gate of the outer wall, filled with thousands upon thousands of Polykenas. Then the great gate closed, blocking Eleanor's view.
He looked up and saw two large banners hanging to the right and left of the gate. On black cloth with a beautiful golden frame, a three-clawed talon, like those of the Polykenas, had been woven in with masterful precision, from which ember-red blood flowed. These banners immediately gave Eleanor an oppressive feeling. A shiver ran down his spine as he turned his gaze away.
He looked toward Nero, who was now descending a few steps until he stood roughly halfway down. He raised a small blue stone into the air. Eleanor focused on it, sensing a strange aura emanating from the object. The stone was surrounded by a peculiar blue shimmer that flickered back and forth, as if searching for something. He had seen similar auras among the Polykenas, but theirs had been raw, while the aura of this stone felt complete.
Then Eleanor frowned, noticing something strange within the aura of the stone. At the very center of the crystal, deep within it, something seemed to be there. Something dark. It was almost imperceptible, yet clearly present. He focused even more, the prismar star above him beginning to spin wildly. This presence felt familiar, but only vaguely. Where had he felt it before? He concentrated further, trying to peer deeper, when the darkness suddenly shifted from inactive to active, as if it had sensed his gaze. It burst outward and struck.
Eleanor stumbled back as only a fraction, not more than a grain of sand, of that darkness touched his aura. Yet even that seemingly insignificant amount hit with the force of a comet. His aura shifted from prismar to pitch black within half a heartbeat. Eleanor fell to the ground and blinked, but it was already over. His aura had returned to its normal prismar state, with no trace of the darkness remaining. He looked at the blue stone again, but this time he could no longer see anything unusual. Frowning, he got back to his feet.
Had he imagined it?