After reaching the south tower, running with sword in hand, the first thing the Count saw was his friend Leander lying on the ground while being attended to by one of the blue-robed Acolytes. The boy kept his hands pressed to the level of the Master's lungs while the latter kept coughing and spitting yellow paste on the ground.

  Next to them, in the same condition as the wizard, were the two soldiers who were in charge of guarding the door of the tower. The other Acolyte who was attending them explained to the Count that the three men had inhaled some of the yellow powder that was floating in the experiment room and that if more time had passed, it would have been poisonous and even deadly.

  As Leander was unable to speak at the moment, Alaric approached the entrance to the room by putting a hand over his mouth. The place was unrecognizable. Shelves of materials had collapsed and not a single piece of furniture had been left undestroyed. Two young wizards covered with handkerchiefs were in charge of manipulating the air to expel the particles of yellow dust that covered every shattered object like a blanket and obstructed the Count's vision.

  The wizards of his castle were famous for their failed experiments, but this was too much for him.

  Worst of all, there was no sign of the chimera, could it have evaded the shields of its cage? How was that possible when both Eldrin and Leander had assured him that it was nothing more than a cub?

  His plan to negotiate with the king was falling apart just a few hours after he thought he had found the solution to his most urgent problem.

  Meanwhile, the castle had been sealed off. No one could leave or enter. All the guards had been alerted and were covering every corner of the vast fortification in search of the suspect. The Count would have preferred to go with Olivia, but when he was told of the danger Leander faced, he sent another of his trusted men to escort her. It would be the safest thing and besides he first wanted to hear from the wizard's own mouth everything that had happened.

  “Alaric...” Leander began to say, forgetting the way he used to treat him in public, but before continuing he coughed several times, until he finally took a deep breath. His red face was drenched with sweat.

  “Was it the arcantio?”, asked the Count.

  Still lying down the wizard shook his head.

  “No, the arcantio is safe. Nothing but old potion leftovers..." A sudden coughing fit prevented him from speaking. "Although quite strong... Too bad we don't know what the combination was. It would have been such a discovery,” he joked.

  “And the intruder?”

  “I didn't get a good look at him,” the wizard continue. “He seemed like a young boy. Dark hair, he was wearing a cloak... I think... Although there was a second when I thought I knew him from somewhere.”

  “One of the disciples. An Initiate? An Acolyte?” he stared at the blue-robed young wizard who seemed to tense with discomfort.

  Leander cleared his throat and turned his head to spit out bright yellow phlegm.

  “No, no one I recognized. But there was something...”

  “What did the guards say?”

  “It was all very quick. He must have escaped through the door after the explosion. They... couldn't do anything,” Leander explained. "It wasn't their fault... I..."

  The count did not want to waste time on excuses.

  “No matter how fast he was, there was no way he could get out before the shields were activated. He must be hiding in the castle or... he is one of us. A spy...” the Count concluded.

  Leander's gaze darkened.

  "The shields... according to the wizards who were awakened by the explosion..."

  Before the stunned gaze of the Count, Leander went on to explain that, when his colleagues attempted to activate the shields, it took several minutes for them to start working.

  In the entire history of the castle, since the first wizards had been dispatched from the capital, nothing like this had ever happened. When they checked the seals, they found no errors in their design. The only explanation was that someone had manipulated them from somewhere else and throughout the castle there was only one person capable of doing so. The only one who knew the pattern of the primary key and shared with the Count the enormous responsibility of protecting the fortress and all its inhabitants.

  Leander fixed his eyes on the Count.

  “No one but us three knew that the chimera was here.”

  The Count's breathing became heavier and heavier.

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  “Unless of course you think...” Leander continued.

  “I would never think that of you” his childhood friend immediately assured him.

  “So...”

  “Has anyone seen Eldrin?” asked the Count.

  “He has been in his room all this time, my lord,” answered the Acolyte. “I know because, just before hearing the explosion, he sent for me to prepare some ointment for his legs. He apologizes deeply for not coming to our aid but the pain makes it impossible for him to climb the stairs.”

  “Send two Masters accompanied by guards and take him to the dungeon!” ordered the Count.

  The Acolyte looked at him in horror but did not dare to protest.

  “Leander, can you get up?”

  His friend sat up slowly, holding on to the Count's shoulder.

  “I'm sorry, I don't trust anyone else” said the noble. “See to it that the dungeon is tightly sealed until I get there.”

  “Just in case, I'll need more than two other Masters. What will you do?”

  “I'll get Olivia. She should be here by now...”

  “My lord!” Cormac, the captain of the guard, was running down the corridor towards them. His pale face, which contrasted with his red hair, told him that something terrible had happened.

  Olivia was not in her room. As soon as he heard this, Alaric's world came crashing down.

  “The intruder has kidnapped her!”

  His blood rushed to his head and he unsheathed his sword again.

  “When I find him...”

  Cormac held the Count by the shoulders, preventing him from running away.

  “All the guards are alerted... but... sir...” Cormac brought a hand close to his lord's face to show him something.

  A dark braid, the color of ravens. It had been found among the lady's clothes. Cormac himself had searched the room, noticing that her training clothes were missing, as well as the dagger he had given her.

  Hearing this, Leander let out a painful scream and grabbed his head as if he wanted to tear his hair out.

  “The boy! How did I not notice?”

  For the rest of the night, no one spared any effort to search for Lady Olivia. Guards, wizards, servants, butlers, cooks, laundresses, blacksmiths, stewards, stables. All who were still asleep were dragged out of bed and no place was left unexplored.

  The search took a new turn when, while inspecting the south tower, one of the wizards had noticed that the bookcase was out of place. At first they had thought it was a product of the explosion, but just in case they conducted a magic power trace and found the seal that opened the secret door. From there it became easier to know the course Olivia had taken, although, to the wizards' surprise, the magic trail ended in a passageway that led to their own latrines. From there, the tracks ended abruptly.

  The Count himself went to inspect the place. He weighed each of the possible escape routes and, as much as he didn't want to accept it, he walked over to the narrow window and looked out. It had snowed all night, any trace should have been wiped away, but Alaric was no longer in any doubt.

  Olivia was not in the castle.

  He would have jumped right there through that window but his body was too big to get through and the force of the seals surrounding the castle blocked every exit like a massive invisible wall.

  He ordered the shields to be raised, becoming aware of all the time they had wasted. By then there were only two options. In the best case, either her daughter was already far away, going through the forest to avoid the paths where she knew she would be easily found. Or else...maybe... she had died from the cold.

  He squeezed the dark, soft braid between his hands as if it were a magical artifact capable of making the girl appear out of nowhere.

  Why had she left so suddenly, why didn't she try to talk to him first? Was her own daughter afraid of him? After all Alaric had been through with his own father, had he ended up committing the same mistakes?

  “My Lord,” said a wizard upon receiving the order. “Only the Leader of the Order can raise the shields.”

  Alaric ran towards the dungeon. As soon as he saw Eldrin's figure behind the bars, he was ready to kill him at the least provocation.

  “Raise the shields” he ordered.

  “Of course, my Lord.”answered Eldrin calmly, as if he only had been interrupted reading in the library, although his hands were cuffed to the wall. “If you would be so kind as to ask my brothers to remove the chains that prevent me from doing so.”

  “I know very well that there is nothing to stop you.”

  “My Lord flatters me. But I am not all-powerful. I can only deactivate the seals whose patterns I know, and my brothers have gone to all the trouble of inventing new ones that are beyond my knowledge.”

  Alaric instructed the other wizards to remove the magic nullification chains that held Eldrin in place.

  Immediately, Eldrin placed a hand on the wall and several golden lines crawled like swift snakes slithering through the stones. It was done.

  “Leander, come” said the Count, while Eldrin let himself be put back in chains without showing any resistance. “From now on I appoint you, Master Leander Kalas, Leader of the Order of Shadowrock. You are in charge of all the keys of the castle. I entrust you with the mission of revoking each of the seals created to date. I know it will be an arduous task.”

  “It is an honor, my lord” Leander lowered his head.

  After the announcement, the Count asked the rest of the wizards to leave them alone.

  “The Council will not like that you have made the appointment without consulting them,” Eldrin said, unsurprised.

  Fuck the Council. Alaric was not going to be swayed by his words. This was not the time to think about politics but to find Olivia.

  “I will deal with them when the time comes, now tell me where you have sent my daughter.”

  “It was all my lady's idea. I had nothing to do with it. When you find her, she will tell you herself that I am innocent.”

  “You helped her to scape. But before you convinced her to steal the chimera to...”

  “So that she would escape and her engagement would be annulled? But my Lord...” his voice took on a tone of distress that Alaric did not believe even for an instant. “How am I going to risk everything by endangering her life, in winter no less, and angering the royal family? All my efforts would be wasted. But besides that... I've known her since she was born. I held her in my arms shortly after she was born. I've instructed her myself, like...”

  “And for that great mistake I will never forgive myself ” the Count unsheathed the sword and pressed its tip against Eldrin's neck until it caused a small cut.

  “Alaric!” Leander grabbed his friend by the arm, trying to get him to withdraw the sword. “If you kill him without a trial, the Council will take away your title and lands. You will never see your daughter again, who will be at the mercy of all these vultures.”

  Slowly, the Count lowered his sword. Leander was right.

  “Make sure that it becomes impossible for him to leave this cell,” having said that, he turned away.

  “I have no reason to escape, my Lord. I will take this as a well-deserved rest, an early retirement” Eldrin said, raising his voice more and more as he watched his lord walk away. “And do not torment yourself! My Lady will appear, the marriage will happen, and no chimera will help you to prevent that!