Retrace
Sage Naphis has kept his promise, he hasn’t said a single thing regarding what Nahida had told him.
The sound of the clock ticking wasn’t helping how anxious he was getting. Every remaining second felt like a knife to his throat.
Sage Naphis was at a meeting — more specifically, a Sages meeting. The dates were coming fast and the Akademiya was getting ready for their plan.
”Either way, even if he refuses..he would still look bad in front of everyone that knows the truth” The Sage of Vahumana jokes.
Though we all know that those jokes aren’t really jokes.
Sage Naphis hated it, sitting at a table as he listens to the some of Sages say their crap about Tighnari.
It was hard to refrain himself, but he knew the consequences if he didn’t act out right. “Azar, have you heard? Tighnari has apparently gone missing”
Azar nodded, “I don’t know whether to take it as a good thing or a bad thing” The plan was simple they needed to find Tighnari in order to execute him in private.
The horrible part was they were going to take Tighnari to the same place that his father had abandoned his mother at.
It!felt sickening to Sage Naphis.
”I doubt that he would be at some type of meeting during a month like this —unless he knew about our plan” Khajeh chimes in.
Silence has filled the air, all of the Sages, except for Sage Naphis began to think of where Tighnari’s whereabouts were.
“ what do you think Sage Naphis?” A wave of pressure and panic enters his mind. He realizes that the Sages were looking at him.
”I have no ideas on where he went…why do you ask?” Azar gets up from his seat and looks down at Naphis with a stern expression.
“you are responsible for him, are you not? Since you’re so close with him, I figured that you would know where he went at all times” The pressure was high.
”I don’t know everything about the boy, I’m doing it becau-“ “Tell us where he is.”
Sage Naphis and Sage Azar stared at one another, patience was not kind for neither of them. The silence was deafening.
“Sage Naphis. Don’t test me.” He scoffs, “Me? Testing you? So you believe in false lies within the Valuka Shuna because it’s you who says so, but when I as a Sage say something remotely close to your words it makes me untrustworthy?”
He couldn’t handle it indeed. If it meant he was gonna die on the spot for the sake of Tighnari then so be it.
“Naphis, where the fuck is Tighnari” Azar was not having it — but Sage Naphis didn’t care. “Even if I knew, why would I tell you?”
THUNK
Everything was dark, he could hear muffled noises but he couldn’t tell what they were saying.
It felt like he got hit with a large brick or something very huge. Either way, it knocked him out pretty good.
The other sages were in the room with them, but it felt like everyone was in on the plan to do something like this to him.
While Sage Naphis was struck at the back of the head, the Sages had tied him on a chair, a sort of leverage or hostage in case Tighnari came.
”Make sure that Lord Kusunali doesn’t know about this” Azar speaks after tying Sage Naphis. They all nod in agreement.
Azar decided to stay with Sage Naphis in case he woke up.
On the other hand, Tighnari, Kaveh, Candace, Faruzan, Mehrak, and Anis were finally returning from the desert after several days.
People still stayed back at the Dune Of Carouses in case the situation gets was worse or back fired.
Today was the day they executed their plan, and it may as well be both a great yet stupid way of doing it, since there was at least a 14% chance of it working.
“Do we have everything with us? Please tell me we didn’t forget anything” Kaveh groans and complains. They’ve been going back and forth mid way their travel back to the Akademiya since they all kept forgetting their belongings.
“By the way, Anis — how did you manage to make an underground hiding place like that?” Kaveh was still astonished on how good looking dirt could be caved in as.
”Well it’s quite simple really, I took a class from Kshahrewar as a optional additional degree, so I just did it for fun” Thought it sure did prove useful.
”You captured all the shapes and sizes well! I would think that you weren’t a Amurta Scholar” Faruzan praises Anis.
Tighnari just scoffs at Faruzan in annoyance, she never praised him for the littlest things anyway. “It was great for you to join us like this Anis, but are you sure? Going out like this when your threat level is high is pretty concerning” Candace worries.
”It’s a risk, but I’m sure it would be worth it in the end! Put some more faith in me Candace, everything will be okay” She smiles reassuringly.
Candace sighs and nods, “Well, I can’t stop you now can I?” She couldn’t, cause they were already at the Akademiya.
In front of the Akademiya they stood, all the scholars starting to gossip after slowly realizing the truth about Valuka Shuna’s.
It was like the Sages knew they were coming, considering that they were right in front of the gates, staring at them.
Tighnari doesn’t look at his friends and cousin as he summons his Hunter’s Path out. Looking forward with a glare as he hasn’t lost eye contact.
“….go.”
Immediately, Tighnari lets the others go first as they run with their charged attacks.
Kaveh lets Mehrak swing his claymore around while he fights with his bare hands as a distraction.
Faruzan throws her bow in the air before bringing out her triangular helper, almost impaling one of the sages.
Candace takes out her shield, hiding behind it before charging and pushing over a couple of the Akademiya’s ‘helpers’.
Anis takes out her daggers, a type of boomerang as she flings them towards all direction, releasing more dendro particles along the way.
Tighnari and Azar stared at one another with a giant tension, no matter if they were very far away or what was happening around them.
Tighnari steps in as he speaks up. “Don’t you get how ridiculous this is? Honestly, all of you!” He shouts.
Everyone pauses, their fighting stances remaining the same as Anis knew that it was her cue soon. “You can believe whatever you want, but just because you say something doesn’t mean that it’s right.”
He looks at all the scholars gathered in annoyance. “You only believe Sage Azar based on his high status, but why don’t you think for yourselves first and ask yourself ‘is it really right though?!’?!”
Azar abruptly joins into Tighnari’s small protest. “I never told them to believe me, they did it themselves” Tighnari grits his teeth at his words.
”What a lie…you know what your status and platform is but you abuse it to spread lies about my family history!”
Talking and Reasoning wasn’t gonna work for a Sage like Azar. He decides to take the Plan C way.
He positions his bow as he moves around to avoid being taken advantage of at close range. “You’re really foolish, you do know that Tighnari?”
Azar smirks as he stands aside, revealing Sage Naphis tied to a chair. “Why don’t you shoot? Tighnari.”
A sudden force had gained upon Tighnari as he was no longer in control of his own body, he couldn’t move the direction he was aiming, it was like someone was making him shoot Sage Naphis.
He was shocked to even see Sage Naphis in this situation.
”Pull the string back Tighnari, kill Sage Naphis — he was part of us Sages isn’t he?” Tighnari knew that it was true, but Sage Naphis could never be those other Sages.
Suddenly, Mehrak appears, going behind Tighnari as it scans the area, getting rid of any disturbances as Tighnari was free from grasp.
He quickly puts his bow down, “you’re insane..what exactly are you gaining from all of this?” He couldn’t understand anything at the moment.
”Isn’t it obvious? Or has your brain reached its limit? Do you not even know your own history?” Azar mocks Tighnari for a bit as he knew it would piss him off.
Tighnari grips onto his bow before charging up and shooting at Sage Azar. Azar was protected by the soldiers of Sumeru.
Mehrak shields Tighnari as he runs over to some jumping mushrooms, getting a better angle to shoot at.
”The Scarlet King could have had other reasons to be experimenting on us! You’re assumptions let yourself become delusional into something that probably could never be confirmed!”
Tighnari jumps as he aims, his arrows move towards Azar but was blocked once again.
”Don’t you think it’s stupid to believe in such a thing?”
Kaveh was getting tired, he’s taken a few hits since Mehrak was with Tighnari the whole entire time.
Tighnari throws his now broken bow to the side as he grabs a spear. “Did it generally knock some sense into you when you found out the truth about your parents?” Azar hissed.
Faruzan was thrown to the ground, her arm was bleeding but it wasn’t too damaged.
Tighnari stops walking as he angrily held the spear. “Do you find it fun to bring up something that shouldn’t concern you?”
Anis was now on cue, right behind Azar as Tighnari continued to speak in anger as a distraction.
”Or do you just hate Valuka Shuna’s in general? No matter if it involved the Scarlet King?” Azar hums, “so you want the truth?”
“Tighnari, I hope you end up like your mother.”
Tighnari snaps as he throws the spear at Azar, vines from the floor latch onto Azar in order for him to not move — but then the force was back. It felt so controlling.
Mehrak couldn’t help because of how damaged it was, it returned back to Kaveh to help it’s owner.
“Azar!” Tighnari yells loudly. His vines retract away from Azar as the invisible force had left him as well.
”What in your right mind do you thi-“
Silence
It was silent for a while.
Perhaps it was too fast? Too slow? Too quick to even process?
Everybody’s eyes widening more and more from the realization of what had just occurred.
Tighnari slowly looks to his left, blood dripping as his expression quickly turned into horror.
Anis was impaled by a staff.
One of the sages has flee’d the scene to do his part of the job, and that was to make sure the General Mahamatra wasn’t suspicious of anything.
Khajeh arrives at Gandharva Ville to see both Alhaitham and Cyno fighting with some enemies nearby, finishing off the last of them.
”General Mahamatra!” He says to catch Cyno’s attention. He looks at Gandharva Ville in suprise. “What happened here?”
Cyno shakes his head, “I don’t know, but I’m pretty pissed at whoever did this” Now Khajeh knows that he shouldn’t be on Cyno’s bad side at the moment.
”I know where Tighnari is, he’s safe with that girl, Collei” He tries to convince Cyno. “He didn’t have time but he said something personal was happening and he didn’t want to bother you!”
Cyno thinks for a bit as Khajeh anxiously waits for any signs of approval. “…he should’ve told me…well..thank you…”
Cyno wasn’t focusing too much on Khajeh based on how worried he was with Tighnari, so he didn’t take the time to see how Khajeh was lying.
Alhaitham was about to catch onto the trap, until a guy comes out to join their conversation.
”Did you mention a boy named Tighnari just now?” A guy asks Sage Khajeh which he nods in response. “Yes I did, why?”
He sticks his hand out for Sage Khajeh to shake, and hopefully to shake Alhaitham and Cyno’s hand as well.
“I’m Tighnari’s father, it’s a pleasure to meet you”