Ted was only 24 years old and had grown into a tall, strong adult man far surpassing his older brother. The thought of him being killed in such a cruel and cowardly way made me very angry. I didn't even know how to explain myself to his brother after this happened. Ellania was Zhang's Dornish assistant... Along with his dead squire, who was just a civilian, I didn't even know how to look Zhang in the eye when I saw him again. The greatest loss to the Order was undoubtedly Liu; his magical talent was incredible, and despite being quite immature and spoiled, he was a future Master in the making. His strength wasn't as exaggerated as Jhon's, but he had a very strong defense with several means of survival. How did he die? Was he protecting his parents?
"DAMN!"
As the leader of the Order, I knew all the other names: Old Yan was the leader of the soul-collecting mission in Essos, Madam Luna was the only harlot from Valyria's Breath who had magical talent, Jayme was recruited from the many talents of Asshai, and Marvirys was one of the passengers on the Valyria's Breath.
"Vitarys."
"Yes?"
"Begin preparations to move all operations from the Tower of Sages and Tower of Assassins to the Yin Yang Tower. As for the food items grown in the second tower, we may be without them for a few months or years until we conquer our new tower."
"I will make the arrangements right away!"
"Issue adequate compensation to the families of all the dead, also grant rewards and compensation to those who survived and killed the assassins, use the Master of Whispers' channels to try to find the bodies of Liu and his parents in the Shadowlands, purchase information about a Master Assassin named Ezio, and this third new organization. Order the Sage Store to be closed for 15 days for repairs. Create a direct mission and have Laura use divinations to find out more details about the third organization that attacked us, while also seeking information from Master Ezio.
Vitarys began to write down the various orders. For each letter sent, a copy was written and stored along with other scrolls in the room where they were. Sometimes he used a magic circle to speed it up and wrote in blood before placing the messages on ravens or human messengers that lived in the tower mansion. Before he could finish, Rafael's orders continued, this time he took out a bloody arm:
"This mission is for you, use every possible curse our Order has at hand to attack the owner of this arm. Issue a second emergency mission: The extermination of the Death's Lord organization. Omar, Jhon, and Jack are to lead this mission; let Ted's brother join in as well. They are allowed to use our siege weapons and 1 special ammunition to attack their tower.
"There are rumors that their leader, Death Lord, is a Master. Are you sure you're only going to send the three of them?"
After thinking for a while, Rafael asked Yuri to observe the mission from afar and help if the information was true.
"Also, make arrangements to shut down the operations of the small towers urgently. From now on, except for members on emergency missions, no one leaves the Yin Yang Tower. I will be alone protecting the Mage's Throat."
"Yes!"
After that, when Vitarys was about to leave, Rafael remembered something and called him once more:
"Vitarys, one more thing…"
"Yes?"
"When Zaya or Liza are free, ask them to bring Ted and Ellania's bodies to me. But do it discreetly and quietly, okay?"
"No problem!"
Leaving the room, Rafael went straight to the Mage's Throat to stand guard there, while he was on the top floor of the tower with another apprentice from the Adventurers' Alliance, he was reading the reports more calmly and in more detail. Your recent choices were correct; the Order's power was too spread out, and the defenses of the small towers were too weak, allowing multiple assassinations to infiltrate them.
Moving all operations and disciples to the Yin Yang tower would be the best strategy to defend themselves from another attack. The reason for closing the small towers was because of how Ted died. He and his brother were the only apprentices in the Assassin's Tower, which was once the home of the Faceless Men, and today was nothing more than a food farm.
A single apprentice invaded the tower and fought the brothers. He failed to kill them both, so as he fled, he drew a bow and shot one of the infamous arrows at Ted. Poison killed him in less than 5 minutes. If there were more people in that place, it would have been possible for him to survive, but as it was a place with only food, he was left with little surveillance.
Leaving aside the losses he had suffered, Rafael's mind wandered to the biggest question: Who had hired these three organizations? Was he the new tycoon of Asshai? Master Baron Bones? Were you the person targeting the Adventurer's Alliance? Some new Master wanting to devour us? Or someone with other hidden intentions?
***
While Rafael had no answer as to who was targeting the Order of the Sages, 1 day had already passed since the attack that resulted in the death of 9 members of the Order. The entire city of Asshai was talking about this attack and what measures the Red Sage would take after suffering such a blow. Among them, many had their claws and fangs sharpened, just waiting for a weakness in this new organization so they could devour it.
At that moment, everyone's attention was drawn to a group of nine apprentices who began assembling a strange siege weapon in the surroundings of the middle Tower of the group called the Lords of Death. In just 10 minutes, three siege weapons were set up at a distance of almost 900 meters from the Middle Tower. There were three huge scorpions, and each of them was accompanied and protected by 3 apprentices.
When the scorpions were ready, 1 apprentice from each group left them behind and stood out, approaching the Tower of the Lords of Death in a hostile manner, surrounding it from three different directions, maintaining a distance of 200 meters. They were Omar, Jhon, and Ted's brother. When Omar raised his hand and shot a bright light spell towards the sky, the scorpion behind him that was the most special, and had a giant arrow in a wider shape, shot out, causing one of the biggest explosions the inhabitants of Asshai had ever heard…
****
Special thanks to Patreons:
Sage's Supporter: Jan, Vinnie, frimorigo, Leery Falcon, Parsa, Scott Robertson, and Pato Senalima!
Magical Apprentice: Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Takatchi, mandeep singh, Austin, and Kobe Robertson!
Senior Magic Apprentice: Cole Bromley!