'Til Kingdom Comes - The Banished Prince Vol 3: The Prophecy

Crystal Eye

"It means to say that you had some knowledge of these mythical creatures, dear? Wow... at least you are able to shed some light on these issues since it would save us a lot of troubles."

I was thankful for Heather since she had the ability to speed read these booklets that we're given to me by Eagle and maybe she had nothing much to interfere with the daily undertaking such as what I had been doing most of the time.

"Thank you, dear, I had been using these booklets to read to the little ones and they seemed to enjoy the storytelling I had read to them before they went to bed, despite the old archaic languages as-is from the booklets."

I laughed when I heard what she had done with the booklets since I had no time to spend much time except receiving it from Eagle that fine and was just flipping through it. Not only does the booklet had no pictures, but it also had so many spelling mistakes as well...hahaha.

"Your Majesty, does it really been that what I had conjured in the past before had accidentally crossed my path with them?"

"I had never imagined of it bit since you had brought it up, I think there are links and possibility that I might have angered them one way or another."

Now all eyes were on Priest Michael since we had found the missing link to this puzzle and the most important thing now is to find ways to communicate with them.

No one was able to communicate with these mythical creatures and the only thing closest would be Priest Earl and Priestess Penelope who would communicate with the earth and plants respectively.

However, Priest Michael subconsciously was the only person that not only deals with them but 'steals' the resources and minerals from those two races...!

Due to this incident that had been declared by Priest Michael, I guess there are at least 8 more tasks that could be handed out to the adventurers.

Besides, they would also be charting out the outdated maps and also learn about mythical creatures along the way.

In total there would be 24 tasks that could be brought out for the Adventures to choose from since it would still be considered as three stars rating and of high difficulty.

The following tasks:

1. charting of the outdated maps

2. finding the places where the mythical creatures might dwell

3. seek out other Priest and Priestess from all the cities, towns, villages and settlement all around our town within a radius of 36 miles or more. (based on a 3 miles an hour trekking speed that the adventurers would be walking for 12 hours straight)

4. Hunting for the game - 1 copper per pound of meat except for wild boar and venison that would be 2 copper per pound of dead weight.

All the above take were considered as three stars rating with a high difficulty ranking as well. it would take 2 weeks or more for them and they would be paid 40 silvers per team once they had accomplished their task.

However, for Task #3, they were paid 10 silvers per team of 5 people and this would be paid up according to the number of Priest and Priestess that they could uncover and lead back to our town where Priestess Penelope would be able to distinguish them by their aura.

If the adventures could uncover these Priest and Priestess keeping a low profile in the cities, towns, villages or even settlements, they would earn 2 silver per headcount. If a single adventurer could uncover 20 or more then he or she could earn 40 silvers.

Of course, this would be considered as a joint effort and other perks would be added as well.

At the meantime, the rest of the Adventurers that would be on the waiting list to be balloted and to pick their tasks could join in the hunting games to bring in some kill to earn some coins as well as fill up our cold storages for the winter.

"Perfect...! Penelope, do you have anything that the adventurers could use to detect the existence of such Priests and Priestess out there," I asked as I was pinning for some hope that maybe Priestess Penelope had some kind of jewel that could be held in the hand and to detect a good witch when one is close.

"Sigh... I never knew you would pop the question to is so soon, Your Majesty. Michael could you conjure up clear crystal the size of a copper coin and hand it over to His Majesty so he would be able to see the truth that would be brought by the magic stones?"

Priestess Penelope sighed as she instructed Priest Michael to conjure up a piece of clear crystal from the pan that he was holding on. Within seconds, a clear round piece of clear crystal was conjured up the size of a 1½ inch in diameter.

She took it from Priest Michael and handed it to me where I held the cool and smooth clear, shimmering crystal in my hand. It felt some weight in my hand and I thought that I was holding to a diamond.

"Is this a diamond, Michael? It felt like one and I felt that it is a diamond if Penelope didn't mention it as a piece of crystal."

"No, Your Majesty, this is only a piece of clear glass crystal. If you can see through it right now, human beings would have a single colour aura around them depending on their mood. If you look at us you could see a rainbow of colours surrounding us. That's what Penelope sees through us since her eyes were actually those clear glass crystals."

When I heard the last part, I was totally surprised since I thought that the eyes belonging to Priestess Penelope were normal but little did I realise that her eyes were made of glass crystals and that only meant one thing... SHE WAS TOTALLY BLIND...!

Actually, it was not the case at all. She had the glass crystal eyeballs when she had acquired her special ability when she began to hear the plants that she tended in a nursery began talking to one another.

Somehow, over time, her abilities had made her eyes turned hard into crystal for no reasons at all and Priestess Penelope could not even give a specific answer for it at all.

That's when she was able to view auras of other people, including good and bad Witches as well. Using the clear crystal piece on my hand, I peered through it and saw a spectrum of a rainbow from all the Priestess and Priest and knew that they were good Witches.

When I looked at the twins, I saw Jay-R was shrouded in blue while Amy was shrouded in pink aura. As for Heather, she was shrouded with two colours, pink and also white. There's no way I could see mine but from my hands, I could see orange, gold and grey.

Priestess Penelope then explained to me the meaning of the colours after I had asked her regarding it meaning since the aura of a single person seems like the person was shimmering and was 'on fire' from it.

The colours of the aura do not stay in one place but were swirling around like live smokes.

"Penelope, so it means to say that with this clear crystal, someone would be able to view if the person is a good or bad witch, am I right? Don't mind me using the phrase witch because that's what it was originally termed before being christened to become Priest and Priestess."

"It's alright, Your Majesty, we all understand what you are trying to say and yes, only with this clear magic crystal could one be able to distinguish between good and evil. However, please be forewarned that the evil one would be able to detect the presence of this clear magic crystal at most 15 paces away, Your Majesty."

I pondered for a while before I set the clear crystal stone on the table before me." 15 paces would mean a distance of 37½ feet away or 12½ yards away. That's pretty close and the adventurers would have to use this stone discreetly."

"That's right, Your Majesty. They have to use discreetly or these evil ones would do unmentionable things to the poor Adventurers such as hexes and curses from a distance. We won't know what they would do but prevention is better than cure."

"Rather than sticking this piece of crystal close to the face at all times, they should visit places like a herbalist and alchemy and see if they would be able to uncover things."

"Also, they could visit taverns and listen to rumours it even asks the barkeep a few things with coins. I am sure they would be able to gain some insight."

Eagle suddenly appeared and voiced out his opinion since he discovered that I was heading there after chatting with Marcel as he made himself a boodle fight for a single person earlier.

"Ah... You're here as well, Eagle? Great... We had been discussing about the task and also another method where the adventurers would help to discover some good and evil Witches."

I explained as I gave the clear crystal to the latter to test out what we were discussing earlier.

"Hmm, let me know the whereabouts of those evil Witches as well, I would be sending my Assassins to deal with them."

"It would be best to deal with them at the root of the problem rather than wait before it spreads like Wildfire."

"It would do more good than harm and these Assassins would be able to deal with them silently and without a trace."

I pondered for a while as I looked at the other Priest and Priestess before Priestess Penelope agreed to have Priest Michael to conjure up more than enough pieces to distribute to the Adventurers as well as the Shadow unit members.

"Let me suggest, Your Majesty. Once the party had been formed to look for these Priests, let me know and I will assign an Assassin along with the party. How many parties would you be assigned by then?"

Eagle asked me with a stern tone since he never forgets the day when one of his Assassin fell by one of the evil Witches hands. And it is a small, innocent-looking girl that had eviscerate his men.

"Consider it done, Eagle. I would be sending out at least 24 parties of 5 Adventurers each and they would include 24 of your finest men then."

I replied and Eagle harumphed and excused himself after the bowed slightly to us. It seemed he was aspired to wipe out the whole Wicca breed from the face of the earth.