Agent of the Realm?

Chapter 44: ~Return.~

Thou has a thousand eyes and yet not one eye; Thou host a thousand forms and yet not one form. -Guru Nanak.

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Kingdom Newerth, Capital City***

***Marcus***

I feel myself being jerked upwards as the world suddenly blurs around us. Then the loss of gravity forces me to hold onto Seria, who was doing so from the start. Something tells me that she knew what was coming. Before I can ask a question, the world rights itself and we are falling through the air. At least that takes away the feeling of weightlessness.

Seria stretches out a hand and casts levitation to give us the time to get a hold on the situation. A short survey of our surroundings tells me that Shade brought us back. Under us is the capital city of Newerth, but something is wrong.

The palace in the centre of the city is damaged and several smoke columns are rising all over the city. It's clear that they are from burning buildings, though the fires seem to be out. That's a small relief.

It looks like there was a large scale battle and it was recent. The fighting seems to be over though, Seria reports her interpretation of the situation, confirming mine. I hope they didn't damage my shop...

This woman. The whole city lies in pieces and she is thinking about her shop. We should check out the palace. My parents are the most likely ones who have a picture of the full situation.

I manipulate Seria's levitation spell, pulling her with me. What I didn't say aloud is that we have no confirmation that my parents are still alive. Or my siblings. I don't even want to think about other possibilities.

The chaos in the city becomes more apparent as we lose altitude. The damage looks a lot like what I already saw when the Tandeen district was attacked. That makes another spirit invasion very likely. There are people on the streets, but almost no corpses. I suppose that they were already taken away.

Seria clenches my hand and smiles weakly. I am sorry. It must be horrible to see this and know that you weren't here to help. If we had been back faster...

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. No. What could we have done? Look at the streets. The battle must have taken place right after we fell through the portal. Even if we had arrived at your capital right away, it still would have taken Shade a day to send us back. This looks like a large scale attack with the goal to cause as much destruction as possible. They didn't have the intention take the city.

Seria takes another, long look at the scene in front of us. You are right. The damage is very localized. It looks like the spirits brought in a few commando troops and dispersed them all over the city. Once they got the signal, they struck and worked their way through the city. Some streets are completely untouched.

I nod and try not to look at the damage. The blood-smears in some streets tell the whole story. This didn't go down without victims.

At last, we arrive at the palace and I lower us into the courtyard where we are greeted by a few guards. They look relieved upon recognizing me. Luckily we remembered to change back to our human forms beforehand. With the city in this state I have a strong feeling that our soldiers would shoot first and ask questions later.

A gesture of my hand stops them from asking useless questions. Guide us to my parents. We have important information to share. I dont even dare to ask them if everyone is alright.

Both of the guards salute us and lead the way into the palace. Seria and I follow on their heels.

While we walk, I look around and try to assess the situation and the morale in the palace. A lot can be told just by observing the reactions of the soldiers and personnel. I cant help but notice that there are a lot less people who belong to the governing body of the country. Something decisive must have happened.

After a seemingly endless march through the palaces innards, we arrive at my familys private quarters. The guards stay behind while I make my way to my fathers study, guessing that its the most likely place for him to be. Even if he retreated to his private quarters, he must have his hands full with work.

To my great surprise we encounter the whole family in the traditional red garb which is worn in times of great mourning. What are you all doing in here? And what happened to the city.

My two siblings, my father and my mother turn their pale faces towards us, looking at us as if we are ghosts.

Then my mother jumps up from her seat at the couch and runs towards me to hug me tightly. We thought that we lost you! You have no idea how scared we were when you disappeared into that portal! Where have you been?

Seria lifts her hand, a guilty expression on her face. I am afraid that we were a little inconvenienced and had to wait for the next flight to this realm. But my parents were great hosts. Dont worry, your son had a nice time.

.