13: The Capital, Vallath Imperial State

He walked down the street and found the house. He knocked at the door twice.

"I'm coming!", he heard a manly voice shout at the other end of the door.

He waited for a while and no one came at the door. He knocked again.

"I heard you the first time!", the man shouted, "Hold your horses."

The man opened the door and it was the man he saw put up posters in the forest days ago. He even looked more tired than the time he saw him in the forest.

Azarian removed the poster from his satchel and showed it to him. The man's dead face lit up in rage and confusion.

"Is this some bloody joke to you?", his voice heightened, "I don't see my daughter anywhere. Get the fuck out of my face."

"Please I just want to talk."

"What is there to talk about huh?", he said, "I don't see my daughter with you."

He grabbed the poster out of Azarian's hand.

"READ THE FUCKING POSTER!", he shouted.

He tore the poster in front of his eyes. He walked away into the house and slammed the door shut.

Azarian was perplexed, he knocked thunderously at the door. He knocked and knocked nearly tearing it off its hinges.

"Are you deaf boy!", the man shouted, "I will snap off those fingers of yours if you keep banging at my door!"

The man came out and he was fuming.

"Get out!", he shouted, "Get out!"

The man slammed the door, Azarian stuck his foot in between it. The man put all his body weight against the door trying to slam it shut.

"I just want to talk.", Azarian said sincerely, "Okay? I'm not here to mock you or anything i just want to talk about your daughter."

The man moved against the door and slowly opened it. He let Azarian into the house. The man was dragging his feet as he walked, he barely had any will to live.

"My name is Jacobs by the way.", the man bluntly said.

"Azarian."

"Strange name. Saranian isn't?"

"After my mother's father."

Jacobs took him to the living room. It was a disastrous mess. Posters were laying all over the floor, the windows were shut close making the room uncomfortably stuffy and the curtains were down making it hard to see anything. Jacobs had gotten used to it, he was comfortable.

He walked towards a ridiculously large heap of posters and cleared them out tossing them all over the floor. There was a chair underneath and Jacobs offered him a seat. Azarian sat down and Jacobs stood.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"I'm looking for answers. A few days ago a boy I consider family went missing. It's like he was just-"

"Pulled out and left without a trace.", Jacobs said, "Hope was just being her the day she went missing. She had was such a beautiful child to have around, my very own magical wonder."

"Magical wonder?"

"She's a mage, I guess I was just one of those lucky parents that were just gifted with one.", he said, "She was playing with her doll outside, that was just her being her she loved being outside."

Jacobs eyes watered and his speech became muffled.

"I saw through the window and she seemed to be having a great time out. I turned away for a few moments to get the water off the fire and when I came back she wasn't there."

"I'm sorry to hear about that."

"I searched everywhere, asked everyone, went to every imperial office in the capital to file useless reports, I drew up every single poster I could and travel where I could, hoping I would find her. it's been forty days and I just can't find her."

"What do you think happened though?"

"Sometimes I want to believe she's lost somewhere out there but that's just not my baby girl. She doesn't wonder off, she was taken and I know deep down someone or something has her. I won't rest until I do."

Azarian stood up and dusted himself down.

"Thank you for taking time to tell me your story. I must go now."

Jacobs walked him to the door and let it open for him. They waved their goodbyes and Azarian walked away.

Azarian was walking then suddenly the hairs at the back of his neck stood up. He drowned out all the noises he could hear around him except for one. He heard footsteps from the alley way to his left. The steps were getting louder and louder.

He turned his head to the alley and saw a man in a black hood. The person stopped as soon as he was locking eyes with Azarian. The man fled from the alley and Azarian ran right after him.

He chased the mystery man down in the several tight alleys. The ran through and homes, they knocked down buckets of water and they caused chaos throughout the streets of the capital. Azarian was on his tail hot and wasn't stopping, he was unbelievably fast.

The man was backed in a dead end, nowhere to go nowhere to run. Azarian had him corner.

"Who are you and why are you following me!", Azarian said.

The man kept quiet and reached to his back pocket. He removed two tiny magical green crystal balls and threw them on the ground. The crystals broke into tiny pieces. He stood over the broken pieces, his lively body was getting sucked into the crystals. He was gone.