Magnifico

The-Finder

The next day, Jonas’ prime minister went to his office early in the morning but he had summoned his guard to come to meet him in the office. When he got to the office, he waited inside the office but wasn’t relaxed. He was peeping through his door to know when his guard would arrive. At a point, he started questioning himself why he was anxious and restless.

“What could be making me this anxious, why am I even keeping through the door like I am expecting someone else?” He asked himself.

It appears that he was having a feeling that what he had discussed with other officials may have been leaked or may be leaked. He was standing at the door not only because he was expecting his guard but he was also expecting soldiers to come for him. He wasn’t so sure if what he had planned earlier will bear any positive fruit or even if it worth the risks at all. He was pandering with his thoughts when his guard suddenly opened his door without knocking. He jerked off, immediately stood up, and suddenly turned around in the direction of the door to know who had come in without knocking but he saw the guard, and there was some kind of relief.

“You didn’t knock? Why did you come in like that?” The secretary asked.

“I’m so sorry sir, I was trying as much as I could not to get followed as you advised me,” the guard said.

“You mean you weren’t followed?”

“Yes, I wasn’t”

“Good. I want you to go look for the Finder, tell him he needs to do something for me. Tell him to find King Jonas and let him know that Magnifico was looking for him. Tell him that Magnifico would be going to war with Azmak in three days and he should run to safety” the prime minister said.

The minister also provided gold coins to the guard and told him that the Finder may need some payments. He told him to settle him and take the rest for his upkeeps. While they were still inside the office discussing it, they suddenly heard a noise at the door, though the knocking wasn’t loud but it was loud enough for someone inside the office to hear. They waited to hear the sound again before they could take the next action. And there was a knock at the door again and this time, the minister is aware that someone was at his door but has no idea who that may be. His office doesn’t have many places he could hide the guard so the guard had to stay hidden behind the door in a way that someone outside won’t be able to spot the person in that angle. The secretary headed for the door and opened it and he saw the two administrators he had discussed with concerning the ‘Finder'.

“Open up quickly, we don’t want to be detected by anyone around,” one official, Alen Azuche said as they quickly rushed into the office.

“I didn’t know you guys were going to come this early morning" the prime minister said.

“Oh- we just decided to come now because the possibility of being spotted early in the morning is low. What are you up to?” the second official asked.

“Meet my personal guard here. He is going to deliver the message to the Finder himself. I have told him what to do and I believe he will see the finder in no distant time” the prime minister said.

The two officials nodded in agreement and the guard quietly left the room and went to do what he was told. The prime minister and the other two officials also prayed their plans bears a positive fruit because they believed that whatever Jonas knows might also save them from the hands of Magnifico so they wanted to protect Jonas as much as they could not just because he was so important to them but because they want whatever information Jonas has to be used against Magnifico as soon as possible. Jonas wasn’t so nice to them when he was around so they would have cared less if Magnifico wants his head hanged but in this case, it is different. At that moment, they believed they had done something great for themselves and possibly for their country’s future.

The guard had found the Finder in a place called Akhans, a coastal area close to the sea. Akhans is considered to be a mystery because most bandits and sea pirates are seen here. It’s not a place to raise children because there is no child raised in this area that doesn’t know how to steal or at least doesn’t know who does.

The guard found the Finder in a small hut where fishes are displayed and also sold by fishermen that are peasants. The Finder was sitting at a corner of the room like someone who was grieving of losing a loved one. He usually sits in this particular spot every evening.

He was covered in a brown cloak and he also covered his head as though he was cold and he was eating from a plate that contains a tilapia fish. The guard went close to him and sat down at the chair in front of the Finder. He also ordered the same thing the Finder ordered and also ordered for fresh wine. The Finder is not someone who talks much so the guard went straight to business.

“I need you to find someone for me; the king of Alaphas, king Jonas. I believe you know him. He has escaped from Alaphas to somewhere else, we have reasons to believe that he escaped to the kingdom of Azmak but we are not sure. Find him for us and give him this letter. He needs to know that Azmak will be attacked in two days and he needs to be very careful” the guard told Finder. He made it clear to the Finder that it is very important he finds Jonas before Azmak is attacked and also told him to be very fast about it.

“I know I have not talked about your payments. Don’t worry, I am going to give you 50 gold coins. It’s more than enough for your entire year savings so please, get this job done as soon as possible” the guard added.

Some people believed the Finder has some kind of Magical crystal he uses to find people anywhere they are in the globe. The guard also believed the Finder will find Jonas but doubted if he can find Jonas within two days before Alaphas goes to war with Azmak. The guard was served with the tilapia fish he ordered and the fresh wine while the Finder left the room immediately with the coins that were paid to him.

The Finder left the place where he was eating his tilapia fish and hired a horse immediately in and left Akhan. He rode towards Zuix to join a junction where could lead him to Quinax faster and this road isn’t familiar with most people. People that know this road are people that travel constantly by road and also with security because this road is a dungeon for hoodlums and marksmen who terrorize the area. This wasn’t a problem for the Finder because he has his ways. He traveled this part and arrived at Quinax by nightfall but there was a problem; how he is going to get inside the Fort. The Finder thought of sending the message through someone but didn’t know who to give the letter. He was sure that Jonas was inside somewhere inside Alaphas but there was no way he could get him to come outside for the message he had for him.

He thought of a plan and he decided to wait behind till midnight but before then, he went closer to the main entrance and studied it. When it was midnight, he went close to the main gate, stood from a distance that made it hard for the soldiers to detect a movement.

He brought out an arrow and a bow-tied the letter to the arrow and shot it at a wooden handle in the gate. The soldiers noticed what happened at their gate and they all became alerted. They saw a red arrow hooked at their gate that a letter was attached to and they quickly opened the gate, took the letter out, and also quickly closed the gate. At the heading of the letter, they saw that the letter was addressed to King Jonas of Alaphas and they quickly remembered they arrested him a few days ago and he should probably still be in prison.

“I think this letter was addressed to our prisoner,” a soldier said.

“Yes, our king prisoner. I think they call him Jonas” a second soldier said and they all laughed.

“I think we should burn it. He is going to die anyway so, the letter is useless to us” the first soldier said.

“No-no-no. That’s a bad idea, I think it is left for our king to decide and not us. We are just soldiers; not lawmakers” a third soldier said.

“That’s true. We should send it in immediately” the second soldier said. He appears to be the commander in charge of the soldiers posted in the gate. He immediately sent in the letter to King Zulu so they can decide what they’d do with it. The Finder had seen from a distance that the letter was taken by the soldiers so, he decided to mount back to his horse and start heading back to where he had come from. He executed his job a day before the two days deadline; right before Alaphas would fight Azmak.