Age Of The Red Demons

The Magic Posion

"I am Ul Thera, son of the previous grand wizard, and guardian of the red orb."

"Why have you come into Meredith?" Daerys asked as he kept a fixed gaze on the wizard who seemed to wear a smile.

"I have been walking the other lands for the past few years, minding my own trouble and keeping out of this territory," Ul Thera continued, "But I could not ignore the pull of strong magic that I felt as I passed around this land. We all know Meredith for her laws, believe me, the presence of magic within her territory was worth the trouble."

The prince rose and made his way back and forth. Should he even listen to a wizard? What if the plague was his doing? He stopped and faced Ul Thera again. "And what have you found?"

The wizard rose as well, "It is poison!" He said, "One among the breeds of flowers in Maeve has been poisoned with sorcery."

"Poison.." The prince muttered after him, as well as the other men who were in the room with them. "How is it?"

"Sa Trodden had asked the same question of me," the wizard said, pointing his staff to the head of Maeve. "So, I made a spell on every type of flower in Maeve and put them to test." As he spoke, he slowly walked towards a part of the room and pulled down a curtain.

There he had every type of flower that he had used for the test.

"The river of Maeve streams from the great waterfall at the end of the world," he continued, "It has the power to detect bad energy. The spell itself enables bad magic to be exposed.

"One by one, I put the spelled flowers in the river. If it contained the posion, the flower burns up with a blue flame. If nothing happened, then the flower was free of bad magic."

"Only one flower burned up with a blue flame," Sa Trodden said, "The fire flower!"

The wizard picked up the beautiful yellow thing from among the flowers. "Adorable, but dangerous," he said as he displayed it to his observers.

"We have burnt away every fire flower plant we have," Sa Trodden added, "It only remains for the wizard to heal every ill one of us, and he shall be gone."

Prince Daerys thought long and hard but could not make sense of it all. If not a plague, how is it that the burning flame appeared in the other lands.

"One of your physicians must have taken it out of here." Sa Trodden suggested, "People who visit us love to have it for themselves."

"No." Daerys thought there was more. He demanded to speak to the people who had been bereaved the most by the sickness on the morrow. Since the sun had set a while after he entered Maeve with his men, he requested for a place to sleep.

On the next day, using the Sa Trodden as his guide, the prince paid his visits to every person who had lost a beloved to the vicious claws of the burning flame.

Some received his highness with honor, despite being in pains over the loss of their loved ones.

Among them was the Tyran couple whose children all died. They spoke to Daerys of how their three girls had loved and cherished flowers, hunting for new ones everyday by the river. Then they started falling ill, one after the other. "First it was Feda, then Rachel and before we could do anything, Denna fell sick too." Their mother said, amidst tears.

Another of them was the family of a man who was called old Taiwo. They narrated how their aged father was coming home from his daily view of the River Maeve when he collapsed on the way. He died two days later. "My father was always an adept lover of nature, I am not suprised", one of his sons said.

Others rejected the prince in despair, owing to the displeasure they felt towards his father who forbade the host of wizards, or the rumours that his sister was the reason for the bad things that occurred, apart from the heavy losses their hearts felt.

One of such people was a man called Jordan, whose daughter was one of the first victims of the sickness. He was a blacksmith who lived and worked on the far ends of Maeve. Infact, his was the last house at the back of the village.

When Sa Trodden knocked on his steel door for the ninth time, he finally opened.

"What have you come for?" He asked, as Sa Trodden and the prince attempted to take their seats.

"He is the crowned prince.."

"I know," he said, "I heard the rumours".

Jordan the blacksmith was not among the people who saw the prince the day before, for he now spent most of his time in his hot house, away from the world.

"He wants to know about your girl," the head continued, "How she died."

The blacksmith heard no more. He withdrew the two men from the shelter of his home. "I have nothing to say to you!" He yelled, as he locked his door behind them.

Daerys could not have stood against him, for Jordan was a huge man of strong build, with a terrifying height and an intimidating stance. His broad chests bulged out to the world through his underwear, and his large arms threatened to tear them apart. More dangerously, he was a bitter man.

Also, he seemed different. His home did not blossom with flowers like the other people. Daerys wanted to speak with him again.

"He only comes out to the tavern", Sa Trodden said.

For two days, Daerys waited. He had a strong feeling, something was not right. Ul Thera also remained in Maeve. Finally, Jordan the blacksmith came to have a drink.

Daerys sat before him and drank with him. Percival was also with them, he wanted to learn the art of drinking.

"The wizard is mistaken," Jordan said at last, after a long while of drinking. "My daughter never touched flowers. She hated them."

"All girls love flowers. It is their thing." Percival mocked. "You are drunk already."

"No!" Jordan grabbed Percival by the shoulder. "Some are different. Vicious, brave and powerful. They would make better warriors than most men." His eyes turned red as his voice loudened. "You are the drunk one if you think all women are the same!"

Letting go of the poor lad, he poured more wine down his throat. "She was like her mother. Strong and courageous." He said, calming down.

Daerys thought of his sister.

"The day she died," Jordan started again, "I saw a man."

"A man?!"

"He was going towards the end of the world. He jumped on the rocks. And he bled in the river."

The end of the world? That was where the waters of Maeve came from. Daerys recalled that a lot of the people had mentioned the river in their stories.

From the tavern, he hurried to Sa Trodden's house. He took the fireflowers Ul Thera kept there and rode on his horse to the river.

On getting there, he dropped one of the flowers in the river, and a blue flame shone as it burnt.

His eyes then caught a water hold at the end of the river. Opening it, he found that it still contained river water. It must have been there for a long time.

He dropped a flower in it and waited, but it only floated peacefully. He removed it and threw it in the river. It burnt.

Then Daerys realized. "It is the river. It has the poison."