Magnifico

Before the Journey

A soldier came to the king's quarters and noticed that the king has retired to the bed, he decided to take the letter back to their post and return the following morning when King Zulu might have woken up from sleep to avoid disturbing him with some kind of news that may not be of help to Zulu.

The soldier decided to go back to his post which was at the gate with the letter in his hand, while he holds it with a firm grip. When he came back to his post, a commander saw him with this letter and asked “ haven’t you delivered the letter to the king?” The commander asked the soldier.

“No, I haven’t. The king had already slept. I don’t think it will be a good idea to wake him up” the soldier said.

“You would have given it to his Eunuchs' then, huh?” the commander asked.

“I didn’t remember to do that commander. I’m sorry, tomorrow, early in the morning I will deliver the letter” the soldier pleads.

“Alright.”

His apologies were accepted and the commander went back to his post where he was posted and gave the commander the letter to hold till the next day. The soldiers were to deliver the letter the next day but the commander didn’t give it to him.

“Morning commander! I have come to deliver the letter this morning to the king” the soldier said to the commander early in the morning the next day.

“No soldier, I think I will do that myself. Go back to your post, alright?” the commander said.

“ Okay, sir!”

The soldier went back to his post while the commander takes the letter into the palace. When he was announced by the eunuchs, he came in and saw the king taking his favourite, a hot tea. “My king, I offer my greetings, sir, I am commander Ziks. The commander in charge of the main gate” the commander introduced himself to King Zulu.

“Oh! Why did you come this early?”

“Sire, last night while we were patrolling and guarding the fences, we saw a red arrow shot from a distance to our gate. It was only shot once and it wasn’t missed so we guessed the shooter might be a well-trained archer and also a sharp shooter. Though he didn’t aim at anyone when we looked closer, we saw a letter attached to the arrow that was hanging on our gate, so we had to open the gate and bring it in” the commander said as he bows to hand over the letter to the King. He continued after he had given the letter to the king “when we looked closer, we saw the letter was addressed to Jonas and must have been sent from Alaphas. I decided to bring it to you to read it and decide what to do with it.” Ziks said. He also avoided telling the king that he tried to destroy the letter when he first saw it. He avoided this part because he didn’t know how King Zulu would react to the news or what he may say to him.

“Thank you, soldier, you may go,” Zulu said as he opens up the letter to read. But before he opened it to read, he told his Eunuch to go and summon General Sun and the former Regent, Lucas.

When both of them arrived that morning, they exchanged greetings with the King and the King offered them tea to drink.

“This morning, the commander in the gate, Ziks, came with this letter. He said they received this letter last night while they were at the gate guarding it. It was dropped hanging on an arrow in our gate by someone who appears to be a sharpshooter. I have read the letter and I believe it was addressed to our prisoner Jonas” King Zulu narrated.

King Zulu gave the letter to Lucas who opened it and read it for a while and then handed it over to General Sun. The General also read it for a while and put it down on a table beside him.

“What do you think?” Zulu asked.

“From the look of things, I think it was addressed to Jonas as a warning. I think the writer of the letter thinks that Jonas is in Azmak” Lucas said.

“Yes. That’s true. He seems to have wanted to warn Jonas of a possible war that may take place tomorrow in Azmak. Maybe Magnifico wants to kill Jonas or probably shut him up” General Sun added.

“But if the sender of this letter thinks that Jonas was in Azmak, how come the letter was sent to Quinax instead? How did they know that he is in Quinax? Or is it a deceptive tactic? I told you I don’t trust Jonas” King Zulu hurriedly said.

“That’s also correct but we can’t say for sure. I don’t just know what to believe any longer” Sun said.

“I guess we should give this letter to Jonas to hear what he has to say first when he sees it” Lucas opined.

“Give what to Jonas? What if we are playing to their gallery? What if that is what they want? We can’t be used as a tool” King Zulu said while showing disapproval to Lucas’ request.

“I don’t think there is any need to worry, besides the only thing they can do is to go war with us. Maybe they want us to take away our soldiers and leave Quinax undefended but that’s not going to happen” Lucas said. They agreed to take the letter to Jonas to know what he really thinks about it and to enable them to give a better judgement instead of guessing what may or may not happen. The three of them went to the prison where they had kept Jonas, they wanted to read Jonas's mind to know if they can discern if he was hiding something or if it was a prepared plan he had with his people before coming to Quinax.

“Oh, Zuzu. I wonder what might bring you and your armies here this early morning. Have I done something wrong already which I didn’t even know? Muhaha” Jonas laughed evilly like he used to.

“You know your life is still hanging on a balance because I haven’t yet finalized the kind of ingredients that would be best to prepare a delicious meal with your head,” King Zulu said as he smiles evilly back at Jonas. Now Jonas knew he was in a position for bargaining anything with King Zulu and he knew his life is dependent on what he says to them and how cooperative he is.

“Alright, King Zulu. My apologies, why do you seek me for?” Jonas asked.

“Here, this is a letter we got last night from someone, though the letter wasn’t dropped officially but seem it was for you,” Lucas said as he gives him the letter to read. After reading the letter for a while, Lucas asked him a question; “ do you know anything concerning this letter?

“No, I don’t. I guess the sender of this letter didn’t know I am in Quinax”

“You mean you have no idea why this letter was sent to us?” Sun asked.

“I said no, I don’t know anything about this letter.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Zulu asked.

“You never did. But about this letter, I don’t know anything concerning the letter” Jonas said with this tenacity in his voice.

“How come the sender doesn’t know you are in Quinax yet sent the letter to us? It doesn’t make sense” Sun asked as his facial expression changed, trying to figure out if there was any mistake he overlooked.

“I don’t either. When I was coming to Quinax, I tried as much as I could not leave a trail. I didn’t want to be followed so I took the water route. Wait a minute, when you picked up the letter from the gate, what colour was the arrow the letter was attached to?” Jonas asked. Sun and Lucas looked at the king because he was the person that collected the letter from commander Ziks.

“I believe commander Ziks said it was a red arrow,” King Zulu said as he scratches his head like he is trying to remember something he had forgotten.

“Oh. I think I now know how they found me. It is the Finder” Jonas said as he smiles hastily. Lucas has remained silent for a while trying to discern if Jonas was telling the truth.

“The Finder? What is that?” Lucas asked.

“It is not what, it is who. The Finder is a low profile person. Once hired, he can go the extra mile to find whatever or whoever he was instructed to look for if the pay is good. People hire him and in most cases, he delivers before the time.” Jonas explained.

“But you have not said how he found you, how come he knew you were here since you said you didn’t leave a trail while coming,” Sun asked.

“Wonderful question General. The Finder has a magical crystal with him that shows him whatever he is looking for and wherever it is hiding. It is believed this Crystal has some powers only the Finder is quite familiar with. He is also regarded to be very dangerous and a dangerous assassin that seldom talks. So I believe the person that sent this letter didn’t want it to fall in the wrong hands and also didn’t want their names to be attached to the letter in case if something goes wrong” Jonas said.

“You mean you don’t know who sent the letter?” Zulu asked.

“I honestly don’t know but I guess we can harness this rare opportunity to achieve something that could hurt or contribute to Magnifico’s destruction,” Jonas said.

Now, General Sun, Lucas, and Zulu's impressions were pitched. When they heard about ‘Magnifico’s destruction', they felt like they have to listen to Jonas to hear that which can help them defeat Magnifico or how they can truly use this opportunity to their advantage. They also wondered how this letter could help them so we’re willing to listen to Jonas to hear that which he has to say.

“What do you mean?” Zulu asked.

“I think we should sneak into Alaphas as Magnifico won’t around so that we will be able to steal the scroll back from him. I’m sure he is going to leave the scroll behind in Alaphas so, we should seize this opportunity and go get it” Jonas said.

“And how do we know we are not walking into a trap?” Zulu asked.

“Zuzu, for the fact that you don’t trust me, is understandable and I don’t know what to do to change that. However, if we don’t start going to Alaphas as soon as possible, we may not be lucky again next time.” Jonas said like he was advising them on what to do.

He continued “ once Magnifico is out of Alaphas, our chances will increase tremendously. But if we wait for his return, we may never find this scroll quickly and this could delay our fight against Magnifico”

“Our fight against Magnifico? When did it suddenly become your fight? I thought you brought him yourself for your selfish agenda, now look you have caused” Zulu said angrily. Jonas didn’t reply to him because he didn’t know what to say. He knew Zulu was correct and true, he made a regrettable mistake by playing a part in bringing Magnifico to their world.

“Alright. I think accustoming blames won’t solve anything, for now, let's just focus more on what we hope to achieve with this opportunity.” Lucas advised.

“Now tell us how you plan to achieve this?” the General asked Jonas.

“I have said it before that I am familiar with Alaphas more than anyone here and probably more than most people there in the kingdom. There is a secret passage that leads to Alaphas, it was the route I took when I escaped from Alaphas. I have the map with me when I came in case you think I am lying, you can check it out. Now, we need to follow this part and secretly sneak into Magnifico’s chambers to know if we can be able to find that scroll. We don’t have to make anyone know that we came in so, we sneak in quietly and also sneak out quietly. As easy as that.” Jonas said.

Now, what Jonas said started to make sense to them especially Lucas and Sun. Sun knows that it may be almost impossible to take away the scroll from Magnifico if he is around so the best thing they can do is to go to Alaphas when Magnifico isn’t around. But there was a problem; what if the scroll isn’t there? What if Magnifico had gone to Azmak with it before they will arrive? Sun was puzzled by the question that came to his mind and also wondered how they were going to achieve this and make it work.

“So who do you plan to go with?” Lucas asked.

“Any capable person can come with me, we need to be few so our chances of being detected will be low.” Said Jonas.

“Few? That means the chances of being arrested without any backup will be higher. How do we know it’s not a trap?” Zulu asked.

“It can’t be a trap. I know what Magnifico can do, and the reason he wants me dead is that it is only me that knows well about the scroll.” Jonas replied Zulu.

“ I will go with you. When do we leave?” General Sun said.

“No. No. You are not going anywhere, General. What if something bad happens to you?” Zulu said as his facial expression changed.

“I hope nothing is going to happen to me. Please you need to approve it, my King.”

Zulu didn’t like the idea at all, he certainly doesn’t want to lose anyone especially his General. “I wish I could change your mind though but I hope this better be true. If not, I’m going to hunt Jonas wherever he may hide and I will kill him myself. I suggest you go with Viruz, he is also an elite guard and his skills are good and may be of service.” King Zulu said.

The King later accepted the offer and he ordered Jonas' release from prison. He also authorized Viruz; the senior brother to the slain soldier Seth killed, to accompany the General and Jonas to Alaphas. Lucas was also afraid because he was the person that pestered the king into listening to Jonas the first time. He was only hoping for the best from that journey and tried as much as he could to negate all feelings of doubt he has about the journey. Jonas, General Sun, and Viruz prepared for the journey and would leave Quinax by the next morning.