Legacy of the Dark Sage

After telling the council members his intention to fix the tower's array, Kyran spent at least fifteen minutes telling them his thoughts about the monthly inspection. The expressions of the council members, especially Malek had turned unsightly as soon as Kyran finished sharing his thoughts.

Their reaction was expected. As the Conclave's council members, if they heard someone telling them that the Royal Family might have some designs on usurping the Conclave, would not take it positively. Regardless if the news was true or not. Even more so, if it was said by someone they knew would not say anything just to sow discord.

Kyran had no proof to back his conjectures, that was why he told them to keep what he said in mind right from the start. After that, he let the council members discuss the matter among themselves. He might have shared his thoughts with them but he had no intentions of meddling with their next course of action.

They had their own ideas and take on the matter and Kyran would not tell them what they should do.

From the start, the only reason why Kyran agreed to come in the tower was to check the restoration of the defensive array. He wanted to make sure it would be restored before the monthly inspection to cover the fact that he had been there and made a ruckus.

Stella understood this well and so she asked Malek and Hugh to continue discussing what they could do before the inspection. As the Lord of the Tower, she knew who to entrust such tasks among the Conclave council members. Besides, Malek had been operating the Conclave's business for a long time and knew it better than Stella.

Of course, Malek was not entirely clueless that the real reason Stella wanted them to handle the matter by themselves, was that she had a different matter to discuss with Kyran and Nolan.

As for the others, they also had some ideas and discreetly refrain from saying anything when Stella excused herself with Kyran and Nolan.

A few minutes later, the three, Kyran, Nolan and Stella were now inside her office in the South Tower.

Stella's office was similarly decorated to the mezzanine area in her study room, except there were no floating candles.

Kyran did not sit on one of the seat cushions and instead leaned on the windowsill. Nolan, on the other hand, chose to lean by the door, standing guard in case others decided to eavesdrop.

Stella did not insist on them taking a seat and sat at the head of the table. Honestly, she was unsure where to start with the things she wanted to tell Kyran. Especially so with what the Queen of Faes had told her.

But, even while she was pondering this, Kyran had already spoken.

"The reason the Crown Princess is here, has something to do with what happened right after all the faction leaders had left the palace."

Stella's brow furrowed at once as she looked at Kyran.

"You mean the meeting I told you about?"

Kyran nodded. He raised his hand and as purple mist formed above the table. It shifted about and soon formed into a map projecting the whole Starhorn City including a few hundred meters of the forest area around it.

While the whole map was depicted in purple, currently there were several reddish-purple dots scattered around the forest. There were also a couple of dozens at a certain area inside the city.

"This is...?" Stella asked her eyes widening in disbelief.

"I have control over the army's magic detector. This is a real-time projection of what I can see from their end," Kyran explained.

Stella stopped short and did a double take as she looked at Kyran.

"Wait. What did you say?" She asked looking at him incredulously.

Even Nolan raised his brows after hearing Kyran admitted having control over the army's magic detector. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he commit this scene in his memory in order to send to his original self.

"You heard me right," Kyran replied. "But let's not talk about that. Can you tell me whose mansion is located in that part?"

Though Kyran had visibility of what the magic detector could see and some of the establishments had records of who owned it, unfortunately, there were some areas where it was concealed. This was the case with the location where there were several reddish-purple dots on the map.

Stella did not answer at once. Her mind was still trying to grasp the fact that Kyran had control over the army's magic detector.

The very magic detector almost every faction in the empire were trying their best to decipher in order to create a device to counter its probing ability.

Seeing Stella's expression, Kyran could not help but sigh inwardly. He should not have casually told her about having control over the army's magic detector.

"Stella, focus." Kyran called her attention.

Snapping out of her reverie, Stella took a deep breath and pushed the matter of the magic detector at the back of her mind for now.

Kyran was right. She had to focus. What he was showing them had something to do with why he believed the Royal Family planned to usurp the Conclave.

Focusing her attention back at the map before her, Stella studied it for a while. Soon her face turned grim as he realized where those reddish-purple dots were currently gathered.

"That's the Courtenay residence," she answered.

Kyran's eyes flickered only for a second. If Stella was looking at him, she would have seen how his eyes had turned cold and even murderous.

"So the Crown Princess is staying there?" Stella asked, but was not really asking a question. At the moment, she was beginning to put together some recent information they had gathered in her head.

If she also include what the Queen of Faes told her, then Kyran's suspicion was warranted.

'But Kyran did not know about the Crown Princess yet,' Stella wondered as she turned to look at Kyran. Now was the right time to tell him.

"Kyran, about the Crown Princess. The truth, a few days ago she—."

Even as Stella had started speaking, a loud commotion could already be heard from the outside.

Kyran who was the first one to notice this looked out the window.

'That's—!'

He did not only look using his eyes, but also through magic sense and immediately sensed few familiar auras approaching the Tower of Conclave.

Nolan and Stella also used their magic sense to see what was happening outside, but unlike Kyran, Stella's magic sense could only cover a few hundred meters around the Tower. As for Nolan, since he was only an essence, his magic sense was halved and could more or less cover the same range as Stella's.

The two immediately frowned as they heard what the commotion was about.

It appeared, the Tower of Conclave's Security Unit patrolling outside had seen three unknown carriages approaching the tower. They were still miles away but since there were no indication outside the carriage of who it belonged to, it had caused quite a stir among them.

They rarely had outsiders come to the Tower of Conclave. And after suffering an unexpected attack just this month, they were all vigilant.

A member of the Security Unit was already on his way to inform Malek, as soon as he received the message. While the rest were busy making their own preparations.

Kyran sensed the movements of almost every member of the Security Unit, but knew that although the carriage was still miles away, they would not be able to prepare anything in time.

In that instant, Kyran made a split second change in his plans. He took out his face-altering mask and put it on. Then he took out two pentagon-shaped tokens that were made of jade. His eyes glowed as he input some details on one of the tokens before walking over to Stella.

Stella was already on her feet and was about to go to the door when Kyran stopped her.

"Kyran—."

"Go to the conference hall and tell Malek we have some change of plans," Kyran stopped her mid-sentence.

[What did you see, kid?]

Nolan who had been silent from the start, asked. But he did not want Stella to know their conversation and opted to ask the question telepathically.

Without looking at him, Kyran replied.

[Familiar auras.]

To anyone who heard Kyran's reply, they would be confused. However, Nolan had been with him for some time and was now quite familiar to some of his habits.

​ Kyran would not answer this way if Nolan would not understand. Meaning, if Kyran was familiar with the auras approaching, then Nolan too.

At the moment, since Nolan's magic sense had weakened he could not determine whose auras were they. Still, he could more or less guess who they were after seeing those reddish-purple dots.

Kyran handed the pentagon-shaped tokens to Stella and began to bark one command after another, "Give this to Master Noir and tell him to meet me at the center of the array formation. Then have Senior Sigma gather every specialists inside the tower and stay in the receiving area. As for Chairman Hugh, and Chairman Malia..."

Kyran paused with a slight frown. He actually wanted to speak with Hugh separately about his condition and help fixed it before the inspection. That way, the Conclave had another 'card' up their sleeves if something happened. Unfortunately, they had encountered an unforeseen situation.

"... hide them in your quarters."

Stella frowned at this, "Hide them?"

"Just trust me," Kyran insisted.