Magnifico

The visitor

Sun, Jonas, and Viruz had arrived at Quinax and their arrival was announced. They had arrived with the Manora and they are yet to open it and this may be because they are yet to show it to their king. While they were waiting for the king to come in, Jonas had brought out the box from Sun’s bag.

“Rise, the king is here,” a Eunuch announced as King Zulu was about to enter into the room. When the king entered, he came with Lucas who visited him before their arrival.

They all greeted the king and Lucas and the king was happy when he saw Sun.

“I am so happy to see you all. I haven’t been myself since you left General” Zulu said as he smiles..

“we were so worried, Sun. We are happy you guys are back. How was the journey?” Lucas asked.

“Yes. The journey was successful, thanks to Jonas who led the way” General Sun said. Jonas cuts in immediately because he didn’t want to take the glory for himself when he knows he wouldn’t have achieved it alone, “Oh please, don’t thank me” Jonas says as he smiles.

“Look, we brought a box with us and I think inside it, lies what we are looking for,” Jonas said as he brings out the box to show the King.

“What is this?” King Zulu asked.

“It’s a Manora's box,” Jonas said. King Zulu brought the box closer to his face and started searching for any opening where he could insert a key in and get it opened.

“It doesn’t seem like a box, it looks more like a chunk of a rectangular gold object with artistic decoration,” King Zulu said.

“No. No. This box here can only be opened in two ways; first, the use of magical spells or when it is exposed to pure direct sunlight in the afternoon. I have seen it close to Magnifico and it’s one of his belongings”

“What did you say it’s in here?” King Zulu asked. Everyone kept quiet because they weren’t sure if what they thought was in there was truly in there. The room remained silent for a while then, General Sun clears his throat and said “em, we aren’t sure if the scroll is in there however, we have reasons to believe that the scroll is in there”

“What makes you believe that?” Lucas asked.

“Hope. We are just hoping. We will wait till afternoon and try to get it opened” Sun answered.

“Okay, let’s believe that for now. But if it finally gets opened and the scroll isn’t there, then the journey was fruitless” King Zulu said.

Viruz was also watching and he wished he wasn’t there or didn’t even in the first place, went to Alaphas with Jonas and General Sun. He was thinking about the blemishes they may probably get from the King or from the people who had hope that their journey would probably be successful but in this case, he had no choice. Not like his opinion was sought for when the King decided he would go with the General or was he in a position to reject the King’s decision. He was still managing to appeal the King’s anger towards him regarding the attack he carried out on Seth so he wasn’t ready to reject any offer the king asks of him.

Jonas was also wondering what he will do if the box didn’t open or if the box finally opens and the scroll isn’t there. He knew he was the person that incited the whole idea from the start and he had given them hope that the scroll would certainly be found if they went to Alaphas while General Sun was also very worried because he knew they looked up to him and the King expects a lot from him too. The three men were tensed and had their hopes high while at the same time, trying to put on a comfortable and smiling face while deep down, they were worried more than the King or Lucas. Everyone was waiting patiently for the hot sun of that wonderful day to start shining and nobody talked to each other, Viruz requested to be excused and he went out of the room. When it was clear to everyone that the sun has started shinning, the King and the three men went to the backyard of the palace where they placed the box directly to the sunlight, immediately the imprint on the box started shinning and the box opened. Behold; the much-expected scroll was in there, carefully placed, and well arranged.

“Is this the scroll?” King Zulu asked after he had brought out the scroll from the box

“Yes, it is. This is the scroll, this is the scroll that was in Magnifico's possession” Jonas answered immediately.

When Sun saw that the scroll was in the box, he breathed out as though he was relieved of stress. Jonas was the happiest person in the room because he had been wondering what King Zulu would do to him at any slightest chance he gets but in this case, things didn’t turn out the way Zulu thought it would. Jonas was more serious now than before especially when he is with king Zulu. Lucas took the scroll from Zulu and was watching it carefully to know if he can get any information from it.

“What purpose can this serve us? I mean, what can we actually achieve with this scroll? I can’t even decipher the words written here?” Lucas said.

“There is information this scroll contains that is not good to be in wrong hands and certainly not in Magnifico's hands. So the question shouldn’t be what can we do with this scroll but should be what can it possibly do if it’s in the wrong hands?... The scroll can lead us to Sytrits where we can finally get the information on how to get Magnifico killed once and for all” Jonas replied. Zulu scratched his head even though it wasn’t itching him because of what heard and keeps hearing.

“Ok then, so we have the scroll now. Our next course of action would be on how to go to Sytrits isn’t it?” Lucas asked. Jonas wanted to evade this question because he doesn't know if going to Sytrits immediately would even be a nice idea or rather the best idea but he hopes it is. Sun cuts in “Em, we’d try out our chances. Who knows, we may be lucky at the end if we go to Sytrits and get the information we need”

Alright.... Gentlemen, you need to rest, we willcontinuee from where we stopped later. With the scroll in our possession, we are one step ahead” king Zulu said.

Sun and Jonas went outofm the room and Sun called out Jonas separately right after they had left the king and Lucas alone in the King’s room. Jonas wondered why he was called by Sun separatelyy after the meeting, it made him anxious and eager to hear what the General wanted to say..

“Jonas, I know you might be wondering why I called you out here. Well, I want to thank you for saving my life not just once, but twice. It was a surprising thing to me that Jonas could actually do something like that. I really appreciate it. I want to take you to have some tea with me someday”

ha-ha-haa. I don’t drink too, not like it's bad but I prefer fresh wine. Well, I didn’t even know when I did that. It just happened that I did. You are the last person on earth I would think of saving. I have always admired you General and at the same time, jealous of your achievements. When I was still king of Alaphas, I suppose the fame, the powe,r and the glory didn’t allow me to see through my nose but since all that is gone, I want to set a new leaf General”

“I hope you change for good. What next can we do with this scroll?” Sun asked.

“I think we should protect it and keep it safe. We will use it when the time is right” Jonas replied.

“This can be a weakness to Magnifico?”

“Ye.... If the scroll isn’t important to him, he wouldn’t have removed my index finger because of it” Jonas said.

Sun laughed as he looked at Jonas' missing finger and wondered how painful it must have been for Jonas when the finger was caught off.

“There’s this weakness I have noticed about Magnifico. The first time I fought him, he ran away when he saw an almond seed that fell on his head. Do you know why this happened?” Sun asked.

“An almond seed?”

“yes, an almond seed.”

“An almond tree is mostly alien to our territories. I have in most cases heard about it but never seen one myself. It’s not a tree that grows everywhere so it is revered in Sytrits, at least so I heard.” Jonas said.

“Well, I know about an almond tree because I traveled a lot. We use the leaves to treat small wounds when our soldiers gets hurt so it has some healing powers. But I know exactly what I saw, Magnifico couldn’t have left me alive if there wasn’t something that chased him away which I was entirely sure, it wasn’t me. What do you mean the tree is revered?”

“I guess it is prohibited in Sytrits for a reason best known to them. Maybe it prevented the unseen powers from doing what it ought to do or perhaps, it makes their powerless powerful. But there is a problem; Magnifico has been using this scroll for a long time now. He has become stronger and may not be scared of just a common seed any longer. So, what we should focus on is how to get this scroll to start working in our favour.”

They were still talking when they both saw the palace door about to be opened, so they quickly rounded up the whole conversation abruptly and left immediately. They probably thought it was the king and his Regent or preferably his former Regent but later, it was one of the King’s Eunuch that came out from the door..

Three days later, King Zulu was invited to com toe see a stranger that claimed to be a Nobel and also claims to know the King.

‘Soldier, are you saying this man claims to know me? Where did you see him?”

“We saw him at the gate. He was alone and he said he wanted to see you and he said it’s urgent. We reprimanded him to a cell after he refused to quietly leave the gate when he was asked to.” The soldier said.

“Ok, I am coming to see him right away" King Zulu said. He asked the soldier to correctly tell him which cell the prisoner was into and he did so King Zulu quickly went to prepare to see him. The king doesn’t take things for granted these days because he knew that they were in a period where everything now matters no matter how insignificant it may be. He went and brought his red cloak with two tigers imprint on it and put it on. When he was getting closer to the cell he heard someone with an angry voice saying “take me to your king you morons, I need to see him now”

To the King’s greatest surprise, it was a kingKyliann, the king of Azmak. King Zulu couldn’t believe it, what could the king of Azmak be doing here alone? This is the second time a king of a kingdom is coming to Quinax alone. What could be the case in this one? What could have happened again? King Zulu was thinking fast but couldn’t picture why the Azmakian King is in Quinax.

“King Zu, you can’t really imagine how delighted I am to see you. I don't think your soldiers are well mannered and they certainly lack courtesy on how to address a stranger. Where are my manners? Long time no see friend”

There was a sign of bitterness and anger in the statement Kylian just made but king Zulu couldn’t have noticed it.

“Kylian!! Please unshackle him” king Zulu begged. As he was about to be unshackled by a soldier, he spat on the soldier’s face.

“How rude Kylian” Zulu exclaimed.

“King Zu. Well, I am sorry but he called for it. How could they disgrace a king like that?” Kylian asked.

“Nobody knows who you were Kylian. We are being careful these days.” Zulu answered.

“I saw your towers King Zulu, they are way too smaller than mine. I admire the technical ingenuity of your fort though. The smaller a tower is, the easier the maneuverability. I wish I had thought of this earlier.. Ha-ha ha. My kingdom wouldn’t have been pounded.” Kylian grimly said.

“Pounded? Well, let’s get inside first so we can talk about this.’’ King Zulu said as he offers his hand as a support to Kylian to get up.

Kylian took his hand, got up on his feet and followed the King into his quarters. When they got to the King’s quarters, the king ordered his eunuch to go get the visitor a cup of tea and prepare him a wonderful dessert. The eunuch left immediately and went to the palace kitchen and announced the King’s request. The king also sent for Lucas and Sun to come immediately to his chambers to see their new visitor.