Chapter one: prologue: mysterious guest.
Baghdad! The Royal city, home of magic it was called, but Baghdad was, is and will ever be much, much simpler than that.
Baghdad is known besides being the capital city as the noisy, crowded, cruel city. Living in Baghdad is total straggle since the day one till your last breaths, but despite that it will stay the beautiful, charming city…on its own odd way.
Since the early hours of the day, people circled the city and filled its tight alleys, minding their own business, whom trading and whom stealing and whom hovering for trouble. It's some kind of a routine for those people.
Away from the center of the traffic, and I mean by that the busy streets, on a rocky hill built an astonishing piece of art instead of building, the Phoenix guild's center.
The Phoenix guild is known across the kingdom as the strongest, the most famous and the most feared for the strong members the guild's has, The S-class mages such as Sinbad, Seren, Ali-Baba, and not to mention other strong members.
In a normal day, the entire guild's mages should be out doing missions to gain some money, and this day was no different, the guild's center was empty, or should say nearly empty, a couple of young mages were left to take care of the guild, after all someone has to watch over the guild's center.
"I'm bored!" said one of the couple who were chosen to take care after the guild, his name was Senan "why we have to stay when everybody else is out gaining money and having fun? I'm going out!"
"I agree with you but think before you make any action." Said the second mage who was as bored as the first one but wiser, his name was Aladdin "I'm also bored but if we are out who will protect the guild, it's our mission to protect the center, so sit and shut your mouth."
"Argh..." Senan was convinced of what Aladdin said and sat back on his seat.
"Anyway, who said we can't have fun when we are trapped in the guild?" said Aladdin talking to Senan who nodded excited "since no one is here and the master is out and who knows what for, we can also gain some money and have fun."
"I'm listening, I'm listening!" Senan said excited, if there's something he hates the most is sitting doing nothing.
"Tell me, how many phoenixes are left these days?" Aladdin asked.
"Ah…None I think. Aren't they extent?" Aladdin slapped his forehead in frustration.
"It's my fault I asked the first place… just follow me." Aladdin got up and left and Senan followed him closely to their master's room.
"OH I REMEBE…" Senan shouted and Aladdin covered his mouth to shut him up.
"Are you trying to get us caught? keep quiet." Aladdin said and Senan calmed.
"But there's no one left in guild." Senan replied matter of factly.
"Good point, but yet keep quiet." Aladdin said as they approached the master's room.
"I remembered we have a phoenix in our guild, the last of his kind…but what you're trying to do, you're not planning to sell him right?" Senan asked with suspicious eyes.
"Of course not, do you think I'm stupid…we only need one feather of his, or a two, or maybe a few." Said Senan trying to sneak to the master's room so they won't wake the sleeping phoenix.
"Guys! What you're doing?" came a voice from behind the two young mages and soon they were clinching on the roof pillars out of fear.
"Rima, don't ever sneak on people like this, you could give them heart attacks!" Aladdin said harshly to the eleven years girl in front of him.
"Or brain attacks, because heart and brain are connected and if…" Senan said foolishly and stopped as Aladdin gave him a look to shut up.
"I will tell the master that you tried to sneak into his room." The little girl named Rima said then turned and left.
The two boys quickly caught up with her, if she tells the master, they will be punished just like the last time, and the master will ban them from taking missions for a whole month.
"Heyyyy sister! Wait?!" Senan said first and Aladdin completed "you look gorgeous today; your hair looks beautiful, did you had a new hair cut?" In those moments her hair's color changed to red, Rima has a gift that her hair's color changes depending on her mood, and red meant she isn't in a good mood.
"You hair is red!" Senan said "come on! Relax. Anger never solved any problems." When Rima's hair turns red it means she's angry.
"We were just cleaning his room, weren't we Senan?" Aladdin said trying to convince her to back away from her decision.
"I'm not stupid Aladdin… you are!" she said as she turned and faced them "you could use your shadow magic. But you're stupid so what do we expect." Rima said not knowing she was accidently giving them their entrance card to the master's room, Aladdin uses a magic called the shadow-runner, he can open ports to the dark world, a world opposite to the real one called the light world and travel between them.
"I couldn't agree more." Aladdin said and Senan completed "you're the smartest person in the guild" they said as they high-fived leaving Rima in confusion.
"Anyway, stay away from the master's room, and I won't tell, deal?"
"Deal!" Senan and Aladdin said and reunion.
Rima gave them both a warm smile and left, Aladdin turned to Senan with a huge smile across his face.
"Now I know why the master always keeps her with us while we are in guild alone!" Aladdin said.
"Because she's young and not yet a mage?!" Senan answered, Aladdin slapped his back head making Senan moaning in annoyance.
"Sometimes I wonder if your stupidity has any limits! Of course not you stupid, he's keeping her to watch over us."
"Oh, he doesn't trust us that much?" Senan said surprised.
"He doesn't trust YOU that much!" Aladdin said.
"Hey wait?! That's not fair! It's all your ideas so why I had to be the only one to blame?"
"Focus! We will discuss this when we end our mission." Aladdin said and walked back to the room "I will travel through the darkness to the room and go back after taking the feathers."
"And how I'm supposed to get inside… OH! YOU CAN TAKE PEAPLE WITH YOU THROUGH THE DARK?!" Senan said excited.
"No I can't, you stay here and watch if someone comes."
"Alright, sounds good…" after second thinking Senan took back what he said "it's not alright, if someone came, you will disappear in the dark and I will have to suffer from the outcome!"
"Relax, if they caught you, I will suffer from the outcome too, we are like two faces for one coin, whenever they catch you they put me also to the punishment."
"Wait? You were punished just as I was?" Aladdin nodded "why didn't you tell me?"
"I just wanted to tease you every time the master put you into punishment, it's amusing to see your regretting face when he announce that you will not have any mission for a month" When Aladdin finished a punch came directly to his stomach "Argh!"
"I deserve that!" Aladdin said holding his stomach and then a second punch come "Heyyyy! Well I think I deserve that too." When he finished a third punch hit his belly and Aladdin was done "that's enough, do you think I'm a training bag you stupid diseased camel!" a fight was started in front of the master's room, punches flying everywhere, swears, and magic power.
Senan uses a magic called the devils seed, a very distractive kind of magic similar to the arc of time but more advanced, he can manipulate the elements of the matter which allows him to reform it but that takes years of practice and a superior mind and that's what Senan lacks or it could destroy it from the inside by manipulating it elements and make it disappear or more likely break and that's what Senan is superior in, and it worth to mention that the devil's seed magic doesn't have limits, it means it doesn't depend on its users sight, if the user really controlled the magic he could destroy cities like Baghdad for example, but luckily Senan knows only 10% of his magic, but if he acknowledge is full true power, gods help us all!
A reddish purple flame surrounded Senan and a dark grey halo of magic surrounded Aladdin, a lot of magic power considering they aren't even S-class mages.
"shhhhh…" the shushed each other.
"You will wake the phoenix you stupid devil." Aladdin said first "no, you will wake the phoenix you clumsy shadow-runner." The immense tension seconds ago disappeared as the two mages returned to normal.
"Let's focus on the mission please, and let this argument after we get paid." Aladdin suggested.
"The looser has to pay a dinner for the winner." If someone is gonna make suggestions Senan wanna make his too.
"Okay, just get done with it." Aladdin said as he opened a port to the dark world.
"a kings dinner!" Senan added.
"Okay, Okay!" Aladdin said annoyed of his friend's insistence.
Meanwhile as Aladdin stepped out the darkness into the master's room, his eyes searched the room and as expected he was drifted away from their mission even if he was the wiser of the two, imagine if his was Senan?!
"Oh, that's my blue shirt, my girlfriend gave it to me on our first date, I wonder why he took it from me?" as he took the shirt and noticed the symbol on it's back he recognized why the master took it from him "Ahh, we are not supposed to date girls from the dark guilds, but yet we had such a great time together."
Instead of returning to their mission and take the feathers he was more drifted away to non-important stuff.
"oww, this is… this is…a crystal ball?!" he throw the crystal ball away and to the next object.
"And this is… a helmet?! Master you're getting weirder and weirder!" after taking a closer look to the helmet he found the details, the cracks, he recognized it.
"Oh no freaking way, this is, this is…Seren helmet from the Parthenon battle, this is actually her helmet!" He was excited, and why wouldn't he, you don't find legendary equipments every day.
The moment he was holding the helmet he was ignorant of why the helmet was thrown there, he was ignorant of the massive dark powers it contained; it blocked a forbidden magic spell casted on Seren in the called war.
Seconds and Aladdin felt a stinging shivers "maybe I held it for too long, I should put it down." He put the helmet down, and finally he remembered his mission.
Mean while in the master's room front door Senan was ready with hawk eyes watching for any moving abject in his sight range! (No need to make things bigger then what they really are), Senan was sitting by a corner hiding and not paying any attention to who's coming and who's going, and actually there was no body in the guild if we didn't count Rima so no worries.
"What's that chump doing in there? It's just one man mission, take a few feathers and get out! It's so simple" he complained and after moments he had a marvelous idea.
Since there's no one in the guild he entered the master's room and found nothing, after seconds a port was open and Aladdin walked out of it.
"You little son of a devil, you scared the hell out of me."
"Do I have to do all the work, what you're doing in here for the past thirty minutes?" Senan replied.
"Are you saying I can't get the mission done?!" it seems a fight is going to rage in the master's room of all the places, their magic halo's appeared again and yet the phoenix didn't wake, what a miracle! They were pushing their heads against one another in some kind of a strength show.
"Anyway, look what I found!" Aladdin broke the moment and soon both wore their bewilderment faces and stared at Seren's helmet.
"Wow, this is Seren's helmet from the Parthenon battle!" Senan said excited.
"Exactly!" Aladdin said with his eyes glowing with amazement, Seren is a legend in the guild, the third strongest mage in the guild after the master and Sinbad, she started a war against the gods –they weren't gods but humans with extremely powerful magic compares the gods of the magic- and she won.
"I wish to meet her before I die! I want to fight her." Senan said his eyes sparkling in a weird reddish purple color, 'does he really want to fight Seren, is he that stupid?' Aladdin thought, but that's impossible since Seren left in a mission before they join the guild, actually before half the guild joined, she's immortal just like the king and her missions are usually long, less or equals a normal human life.
"I sense dark powers in the helmet, I wonder what are they?" Senan said to Aladdin.
"Yes, I sensed it too but how we can get it out?"
"Get it out?" Senan asked confused.
"I'm a shadow-runner, I can control shadows too, and darkness is shadows, right?"
"No acually, don't get me wrong but shadows are darkness, it's not the same."
"Are you insulting my magic powers you half burned hell slave?" Aladdin was fishing for another fight and Senan took the bait easily.
"I can't wait anymore, let's finish this here!" Senan challenged.
"Here and now!" Aladdin said with a grin revealing his white teeth.
The fight was on, punches and kicks, dirty punches now and then and all from Senan, Senan is known for being the biggest cheater in the entire eastern kingdom, he called it genius but people call it cheating. In middle of all the fight the two lads increased the fight's level, not too much to use their magic power because that will be a disaster for the guild and for all the kingdom, but they added weapons, Senan attacked with the first thing he was holding, Seren's helmet, when the helmet connected with Aladdin's head a black spark glowed and Aladdin was thrown a few feet back, now the fight changed to a whole other level, a level we didn't want the two young mages to reach.
Aladdin charged his power, a dark grey halo formed around his left hand and to that Senan had to use his magic, Senan did the same as he formed a reddish purple halo of magic around his right fist, this is the moment of truth!
The two mages jumped on each other not caring that they were fighting inside the master's room which they aren't allowed to enter, they were supposed to keep the guilds safe, but it's the master's fault that he left the guild's trouble makers to take care of the guild.
They were about to clash but stopped in the last second, they just stood like a statues, they turned their heads slowly toward the phoenix who was staring at the two mages with his burning eyes –literally burning-
"Oh, we are in a deep trouble." Aladdin said.
"And it's completely your fault."
"Seriously, My fault? It's your fault!"
"No it's your fault." They started again; they are like timed dynamite waiting to explode.
"Enough, we have a bigger problem here, what should we do?" Aladdin said.
"Are admitting your failure?" Senan said and made Aladdin boil.
"Would you grow up? Go that way and I go the other and we will surround him."
"I'm not taking orders from you."
"Sometimes you act like a baby, just go that way and catch the phoenix." Aladdin said last and they approached the phoenix slowly.
"Hey pretty bird! We just need some feather so we can sell them and have some money." Senan said mockingly forgetting that the phoenixes are intelligent creatures and they understand what a man says.
"STOP insulting the phoenix you stupid lazy mage, the last thing we want to do is to get him mad." Aladdin shouted lowly at Senan.
The phoenix and after switching his eyes between the two young mages flew and attacked them, it was wonderful, to see the dynamic due got beaten by an old bird!
"We are in your guild you stupid bird!" Senan said insulting the phoenix even more.
"You're making it worst, stop insulting the bird you idiot!" Aladdin said addressing Senan.
The phoenix kept attacking the two mages, especially Senan who kept insulting the phoenix, and Aladdin kept insulting Senan for insulting the phoenix, it's some kind confusing! But Aladdin mistakenly opened a port and the phoenix was sucked in.
"We're screwed!" Senan said not believing what happened, it happened so fast "it's your fault!"
"Typical! Just typical!" Aladdin had enough "that's what we need right now, adding the oil to the fire_ would you stupid excuse for a mage help me with your silence!"
"Ok, OK! Let's see mister genius work, go ahead!" Senan said mockingly, if the situation wasn't so serious, Aladdin would have entered a fight with the mage in front of him.
"I will get him back" Aladdin summed his plan.
"Good luck with that! I guess we will have a barbecued shadow-runner for the dinner." Senan said and Aladdin narrowed his eyes toward the other mage before stepping inside the dark.
The first thing Aladdin did when he stepped inside the dark was to search for a light source, which meant the phoenix, the dark world and like it's name was dark and creepy, only the dark related can see inside like the shadow-runners or who uses a darkness magic, Aladdin spotted a glowing red point in his sight horizon and it was growing smaller and smaller, the phoenix was flying deeper and deeper into the dark world, to places Aladdin never walked to, the humans who can travel through the dark can only stay at the edges of that world, if they got a little deeper they will lose their way and die a horrible death and that scared Aladdin, but he have no choice but to follow the phoenix hoping that he will guide him back to the light using his fire flames.
He walked for a long time, for endless hours until he ended at a place so horrible, so dark, he could sense the suffering, torture and smelled death; he entered the darkness Empire's prison!
Meanwhile at earthland it was nearly noon and most of the guild'smages returned to the guild's center, the life was brought back to guild as the mages started talking and sharing their day and laughing, at the corner stood Senan worried unlike his fellow friends, he searched the room for the master but he was nowhere to be found and that relaxed Senan a bite.
"That's a first!" said a girl approaching Senan "seeing you without Aladdin."
"Lily!" Senan turned to look at the seventeen years old girl in front of him.
"Where is he? I hope everything is alright! Usually he's always around." She said worried.
"Ah, I'm sure everything is alright, this Aladdin we are talking about…I think he's taking a walk around the city, we were trapped in guild for the whole day."
"True that." she approached him more and grabbed his arm "what about you? Wouldn't you mind taking me in a walk around the town?!"
"Ah_ s-sure!" Senan said blushing; he was closest friends with lily since they were little children even before he met Aladdin, but lily has strong feelings for him.
The two youth walked side to side holding hands together, lily enjoyed it, the touch of his skin, the heat of his body, she fell for him but Senan still can't decide his feelings toward her.
Back to the dark world Aladdin froze, his eyes filled with fear searching around the bad-known prison,the prison was empty, there were no prisoners, and that was weird, Aladdin thought! The fear in Aladdin's heart grew bigger as he walked inside the prison searching for the phoenix till he reached the back doors of the prison.
Away from the prison Aladdin saw something, the most bizarre, scary sight he ever saw, two dark chain, tied between the sky and the earth, you could barely see its beginning and hardly see its end, the phoenix stopped atop of a hill where the two chains connected.
Aladdin walked to the location with shaking steps and what he saw made his heart jump off his chest, the two chains were tied to a boy, not too old then Aladdin was, with skinny body and messy hear, there was some weird writing, symbol written all over his body, he was taken by the darkness.
When that boy sensed the phoenix and Aladdin presence, he opened his eyes, he looked like a ghost with those lost eyes, and he turned his glare toward the phoenix and recited something while Aladdin froze not knowing what to do.
"Descendants of the noble breed, owners of the sacred oath, your light vanquished the darkness, your fire ruled the world, give me the keys of the power to escape the cursed sells, and return the world to it primal state!" the phoenix opened his wings as wide as it could allow him, his fire lighted even more and the chained boy continued "DAIKONGO IN!"
The fire transferred from the phoenix to the chained boy, or to be more precisely the magic power, the chains started to melt, and the chained boy who was a mage started pulling the chains to him, the light was so bright that it could light the whole dark world, finally the chains turned to two small daggers in the mage's hand, he was free now, and yet Aladdin couldn't move.
The mage clasped his hands and formed a shape and recited something "CHIKEN IN!" a halo of magic surrounded the mage's body and included Aladdin and the phoenix, Aladdin recognized it as a port.
In those moments Senan was walking with lily, they stopped to buy some ice-cream.
"I want vanilla ice-cream!" lily said excited, she likes ice-cream a lot.
"Well, two vanilla ice-creams then!" Senan said to the shop owner and paid him for the two Ice-creams.
"One for the lady!" the shop owner handed lily her ice-cream "and one for the mister" he handed the second to Senan who dropped it foolishly.
"Oh! You dropped yours! Sometimes you can be very clumsy_ here! We can share mine." Lily offered her ice-cream to share with Senan, but the young mage was gone, not physically but mentally, his eyes were lost, he stood there his eyes narrowed to one place.
"What's wrong Senan? Did something happen?" lily asked worried but Senan didn't answer and turned his head left and right.
"Do you feel this massive magic power?" he said in a low voice.
"No, I don't! I think it's just the effect of staying alone doing nothing at the guild for the whole day!"
"No, no, no_ there's something up, it's coming from the guild!" he turned to look at the guild location and then grabbed lily's hand and hurried toward the guild.
In the guild things went silence after the semi-party they were having as a dark orb appeared inside the guild hall and it contained a massive magic powers, the guild's mages stood watching shocked, unfortunately the master wasn't there so they have to find a solution to this by themselves.
"Sinbad, you're the strongest, what should we do?!" a few mages turned to the strongest mage for help, but even the strongest was as shocked as they were.
"I_ I don't know!" Sinbad answered simply "I never seen magic like this before, this is…this is unearthly magic."
The mages in the guild started to freak out, they were scared as the orb grew bigger and bigger to the size of a small room.
'Is it gonna explode?', 'we should run away', 'who did this?' cries and shouts rose at the hall.
"SILENCE!" Sinbad said and all the mages stopped and looked at him "keep yourselves together, aren't you phoenix's wizards?"
"Yeah!" the mages shouted.
"Aren't you the strongest of the kingdom?"
"Yeah!" they shouted again in reunion.
"Sienna, search in your archive about anything related to the orb…and you better start with the dark magic, because I sense a lot of darkness in the orb!" sienna nodded and turned to do the work he was assigned to do, he uses the archive magic which allowed him to store a lot of information of all kinds.
"Al!" he called Ali-Baba who turned and nodded "use your powers and trace the magic source, expand your search to the other worlds!" Al approached the orb and started doing what he usually do, he can see magic power flow, see spells whatever they were hidden or shown, can retrace passed actions involved with magic and trace magic too and that qualified him to be one of the S-class.
As everybody worked to solve the problem, the orb power continued to increase threatening to alarm the other mages in the city of the actions happening in the phoenix guild.
"Sinbad! The magic power is still growing…a few minutes and it will alarm the council." A mage said to Sinbad, that was another problem.
"I wish Seren was here, we really could use her help!" Sinbad whispered to himself and then went back to the problem.
Sinbad was the master of the seas, he can control the waters, seas, sea creatures and everything contains water, a scary powers gave him the title of 'the strongest' they say no one ever gone against him and lived, a true monster.
Because he can control the waters he formed a dome on the orb "everyone, concentrate your powers on the dome!"
The other mages stood confused for a second before doing what they were ordered, it was a direct order, and they concentrated their powers on the dome and then released it making the dome shine.
"What was that for?" some mages wondered.
"These waters are taken from the bottom of Titans Sea, these waters will contain the magic power, so will be undetected for a half an hour or so!"
Rima approached Sinbad "Sinbad! Sinbad!"
"What kid?!"
'Have you seen Senan and Aladdin lately?" he switched his eyes between the crowed in front of him.
"They are not here…I have a strong feeling that they did this!" he said.
"No I don't think so!" she covered for them "they aren't strong enough."
"Yet, the must know something about this."
In those moments the orb power was so strong for the dome to contain and it canceled the trick that Sinbad tried to do.
For a second the orb turned to white and then exploded releasing great magic powers that knocked out everybody in the hall.
After they woke, Senan opened the door wide and saw his friends thrown on the ground.
'What happened?', ' I think it exploded.', 'I feel dizzy' some mages complained after they woke.
The mages stood and marched to look at what was seconds ago an orb, and they were shocked to the bones of what they saw.
They found the phoenix, Oddly its fire was blue colored, Aladdin thrown at the corner with no sign that he was alive, no magic, no breaths and in the opposite corner, a pale young boy hardly breaths and with odd writing on his body.
What happened? Who's the strange boy? And what Aladdin has to do with all of this? And more important, what the phoenix has to do with all of this? Questions danced around d the confused mages minds, questions that needed to be answered.
The next morning, the guild's mages were out as usual to do their missions and only few stayed to investigate what happened the day before.
The master still didn't come back, the mages waited until his return maybe he knows what to do, the phoenix fire still blue colored and the two boys still unconscious lying in the guild infirmary room.
"Lily, Senan! Why you don't go and find something to do, do a mission, you won't help Aladdin if you stayed here!" Sinbad said addressing the two young mages who were by Aladdin's side since yesterday.
"I can't! After all we have been through, I can't let him like this, we are a team, we are friends, we are family, and family doesn't leave each other in need!" Senan replied and his reply got a smile from Sinbad and Lily, the two friends seems to fight a lot and always don't get along but aren't brothers like this?
"I will stay with him, all the phoenix mages are family and family doesn't leave each other in need." Lily said looking to Senan who was sick worried about his friend.
After he made sure that Aladdin is in good hands, Sinbad left and before he leaves he took a look at the second mysterious boy examining his weird written body symbol, he never saw something like it and he eagerly wanted to know more but until the master comes back, he have to wait.
Sinbad sat in the last table in the main hall, and soon Sienna and Al joined him.
"Anything new?" Al asked Sinbad who nodded negatively.
"And Aladdin?" sienna followed.
"He's getting better. Lily and Senan are watching over him." He said looking to the bleu phoenix at the guild main doors.
"What do you think happened?" Al asked.
"I was hoping you would tell me what happened, did you trace the magic source?"
"Yes and no." Al answered" I traced it but didn't found the source, it's not from this world, and oddly after the boys and the phoenix appeared, the magic disappeared but I managed to trace its flow before it disappear. The mysterious boy sucked the magic, and to be more exact, the magic transferred to five points of his body before disappearing."
"So the mysterious boy is the key to know what happened, why the phoenix turned blue? And what happened to Aladdin?" Al nodded.
"The master should be here by now, what's taking him so long?" Sienna interfered.
"I don't know, but we will wait for him." Sinbad said back.
"But I think…" Sinbad interrupted sienna before he finished what he wanted to say.
"Don't start! I said we will wait for the master, and we will."
"Sure…in that case I will go and have a mission or take a walk since I'm no longer needed." Sienna said and left.
Back in the infirmary room Senan stayed by Aladdin's side and lily did too.
"Come on buddy! Wake up; are you trying to break my sleeping record in the guild? But that's not fair; you're cheating… that's my thing." Senan kept talking in ordered to cheer himself, he is always happy and filled with energy but he never dealt well with the sadness and worry.
"Don't worry, he will wake, he needs some rest that's all." Lily said to relax him a bit of the stress he was under, sure Aladdin got better but he still so messed up, his magic energy didn't increase a bite since yesterday and his breaths didn't show if he was dead or alive.
"Senan?!" Lily said in a surprised tone pointing to the mysterious boy who appeared in the middle of their main hall yesterday, the boy was staring up at the roof not showing any movement or attempts to move.
"Hey you mysterious guy!" Senan shouted and run to the boy and grabbed his color "what did you do to Aladdin? Answer me?"
The mysterious boy was shocked and just glared to Senan's furious face "I- I- I didn't do anything bad to him, I brought him back with the phoenix along with me, they were lost and I couldn't leave them there, I just couldn't." he answered.
"Is that your explanation?! Look at my friend, he's so sick and hurt." The boy seemed afraid of Senan and took a peak toward Aladdin.
"I would never hurt him, I saved him!" he said in a low voice.
"Senan I think we should call Sinbad or the master." Lily advised Senan and unusually he took her advice.
"We will let the master deal with you, and when they are finished, we will have a talk." Senan threatened before leaving and calling Sinbad.
Sinbad decided to wait a few minutes for the master and left Aladdin with the mysterious boy alone in the infirmary room, the boy kept staring at the roof and time to time he would take a look on Aladdin who was still unconscious.
When the master returned, Sinbad gave him a sneak-peak on what happened the previous day.
"I know everything!" the 132 years old master named Maleek answered leaving the other mages in surprise, he isn't the master for nothings, he must know every detail happening in his guild even if he wasn't there.
"I think our mysterious guest is awake!" the master said walking slowly toward the infirmary room "Lily, I will be grateful if you take the phoenix in a walk out in the sun, he needs to regain his powers."
"Right away master!" Lily answered; lily is considered the second strongest female in the guild after Seren because of her magic's type, she can control the winds plus the other natural elements but not as good as the original element magic user, like; she can't match Sinbad in his water magic power, and she have a gift that she can talk and understand what the animals says which made her the right choice when it comes to taking care of an animal.
"Sinbad, would you come along with me." The master asked Sinbad who followed him right away.
In the infirmary room, the boy kept staring at the roof while the master sat beside him and said nothing.
"It feels great_ the touch of the light, the warm wind, the sweet life." The boy went first after minutes of silence.
"Yes! That's what so special about the world of the living, and the way you said it I assume this is your first time here."
"Indeed master." The boy said.
"But I don't recall anything about me telling you about being a master, and I don't think my children did also?" the master said while Sinbad stood I silence watching the conversation happening in front of him."
"I guessed!" the boy answered waving his hand and enjoying the sunrays touching his pale skin.
"Would you mind telling me your name?" the master asked again.
"Kuji, Kuji Mikaragua!" the boy answered.
"Kuji then!" the master paused for a second examining the boy who just enjoyed the winds, it seems like he never been out before "well Kuji, where did you come from? And what are your purposes here?"
"I will tell you what I want first, I want to live, I want to move, and love, laugh, and cry…I want to feel like a human." The boy named Kuji said and stopped the master and Sinbad kept silence waiting for the boy to continue.
Minutes passed and Kuji face fell again, like he saw a nightmare, maybe they brought him bad memories "my father_he_he hated me." It was hard for Kuji to say what he was saying "he chained me, tortured me, and did all the bad things you can imagine, after all I'm son of darko, emperor of the darkness empire." When Kuji said the last words Sinbad and the master were in a total shock, he was a god's son, emperor of the darkness and god of torture and emptiness.
"You're_ you're darko's son, t-t-the god darko." Sinbad could hardy say those words, he was shocked and the master too.
"I know you don't want to get involved with a god's business, but I beg you! I beg you; don't give me back to him!"
"You're asking too much…but I will see what I can do!" the master said finally before leaving with Sinbad.
"What about your body symbols?" the master asked at the doorway.
"An ancient magic to seal my magic powers." Kuji answered.
"You mean you can't use magic?" the master asked again.
"Yes, but I have two magic daggers, I could take care of myself with those."
"I don't doubt it; you're a god's son…"
"Don't mention him in front of me." The silence calm Kuji turned to furious angry Kuji after the master mentioned his father "I'm no longer his son, and he's no longer my father." After seconds Kuji clammed a bit.
"What are your magic powers? What type of magic do you use?" the master asked.
"I really don't know, my powers were sealed even before I know anything about them." The master nodded and turned to leave.
"I will leave you to rest, we will continue this later." The master left and Kuji returned to enjoy the light,
Back in the master's room, the s-class mages plus Senan were summoned by the master.
"Did you call for us master?" Sinbad said as he stepped inside the master's room.
"Yes, please come in!" the three mages entered and sat.
"Senan!" the master addressed Senan.
"Ah…yes master?!" Senan replied confused.
"Tell me what happened? What really happened?" Senan started to freak out; the truth may be a little not pleasing.
"What really happened master?! We were playing with the phoenix and Aladdin mistakenly dragged him into a port, then he went to get the phoenix back and then happened what happened yesterday."
"Are you sure? Because I can make Lily ask the phoenix and know what really happened?"
"No that's what happened." And that was the truth, of most of it anyway.
"You can leave now." The master asked Senan to leave and the teen obeyed.
"Master, won't you punish him?" Al asked Maleek.
"Maybe later, but now we have something more important to take care of."
The master took a lacrima and called the king personally.
"Aron!" the master called.
"Maleek! A long time since you called me my friend, I hope everything is alright?!" the king of the eastern kingdom said, his name was Aron, a former mage and protector of the sacred oath, and an old friend to the phoenix guild, a really old friend, Aron is immortal and he lived before even the guild existed.
"I need a favor Aron! I have something I need to hide from the council!" the master started.
"Well, just ask. What kind of favors."
"We have a boy we want to join him, but if the council knows his origins, I don't think they will just stay and watch, if they know his origins it could cause chaos across the kingdom."
"That's a serious deal, but who is this boy and why is it so important to hide his identity?" the king asked Maleek for more details, after a long pause he continued.
"We have darko's son!" silence filled the air, the king was absolutely shocked.
"d-darko's son? Emperor of the darkness." The king said and Maleek nodded.
"He said he ran from his father, and he's seeking a refuge in the land of the living."
"And you're giving him a refuge?!" the king said surprised "if he's a runaway his father must be looking for him, are you ready to start a war with the gods of the magic?"
"I'm well aware of the danger we will be put in and we will accept it." The master answered after thinking.
"Well, do what you have to do, but if something happens it's on your hands and the phoenixes hands." The king said before ending the call.
"Master." Sinbad said "are you really joining him?"
"He asked a refuge and the phoenix never refuses helping those in need, this is what our guild is for."
"Well, if you say so, so be it!" Al agreed with the master and then left.
Days passed and the two teens recovered from their energies, Aladdin is now capable of standing, his friend from the guild kept visiting him and Senan never left his side and so didn't Lily.
But on the other corner of the infirmary room laid Kuji, alone, he knew no one, he was always alone but to see the cheery people across the room made him smile a bit from the inside but in the same time he was jealous, he wished someone would come and say hi but no one knew him and more, they think he hurt Aladdin.
One afternoon Lily approached Kuji and Senan watched from a distance.
"Are you feeling good?" she asked Kuji which made him look up surprised that someone is actually asking him how he feels.
"Good I suppose!" he answered and Lily smiled when she heard that and so did Kuji.
"Our friend thinks you hurt Aladdin, wouldn't you mind telling me what happened in the dark world please?"
"I would never hurt your friend, he saved me and freed me from my chains and I saved him back in return by taking him back to the light world with the phoenix."
"I see…thank you so much!" she hugged him as a thanking and he was surprised, it was a long time since he felt something like this, since he hugged someone, he felt her warm body against his pale ice-cold skin, and it felt amazing.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"My name? Ah_ Kuji, Kuji Mikaragua." He answered.
"What a nice name! my name is Lily and that's Senan." She introduced him to Senan as she pointed o him "and our injured friend is Aladdin."
"I'm glad to meet you Lily, Senan, Aladdin…I hope you don't hate me for what you may think I did."
"We don't hate you! You saved our friend and we are grateful you did." He smiled, 'this girl named Lily is so nice, I hope I could be their friend', Kuji thought.
"Aladdin told us what happened; guess I was wrong, sorry for accusing you." Senan apologized and Kuji accepted his apology.
"No need to be sorry, you were worried about your friend so it's natural what you have done." Kuji said and Senan smile.
"So I heard the master is joining you!" Lily said excited.
"Ah…he said he will think of it."
"No, its official now, when you recover he will officially announce it, and we will throw a party in your honor."
"A party?! Really no need to, I don't deserve a party after all I have done in my life." He said as he lowered his head looking away.
"Nonsense! You're part of the family now; we will welcome you in a huge party…I will take care of the food." He stated.
"No you won't." lily said.
"Why not?" Senan demanded an explanation.
"Because the last time you took care of the food, there was no food left because you ate most of It." she said and Kuji just kept watching the argument thinking 'what a family!'
"Why you're acting like this?!" Senan asked.
"Like what?"
"Disagreeing with everything I say, or is it because you like me?!" just like Lily predicted, he played dirty; Lily blushed hard and sat back on her seat.
"I'm taking care of the food!"
"Fine!" she said embarrassed and Kuji wore a small smile 'what a weird and unique family'
"Yes!" Senan said in middle of his triumph.
Later that night.
"This supposed to be a party, right?" sienna asked confused.
"Yes!" Aladdin answered.
"So where the hell is the food? There's no dessert, no drinks, how you can call this a party." Sienna complained.
"Sienna, you're the smartest mage in the guild, so think twice." After second thinking sienna slapped his forehead.
"Why you let Senan take care of the food?"
"He insisted, if he's determine on doing something no one on the face of this earth could stop him."
The party was going great, everybody were having fun, laughing, joking in Senan's case, but this was their family, strong with their relationships, with their emotions, this is what the phoenix guild is about, and today they were joining a new member to the family.
"May I have your attention please?" The master called and they all went silence, listening to what the master have to say.
"When the guild was first founded, it was a time of war, time of chaos, time of fear and darkness. But the guild was the light that guided the mages who lost their way, who were tempted by the dark powers and as well guide those who were weak and hurt by the war, to built a new world of harmony and understanding, for over a thousand years our guild raised this noble quest, and I'm happy that I lived to see it happen." All the mages in the garden where the party was going on clapped "now, let's welcome our newest member in the guild, and I hope he will find in here what he missed in his home, a Family." Everybody seemed touched by the masters words and some even cried.
"TO KUJI!" the master raised his drink.
"TO KUJI!" all the guild raised their drinks and welcomed their new brother in the family.
"Welcome to the guild KUJI!" the master welcomed Kuji and raised his hand and gave him the guild symbol, a glowing white phoenix symbol on the left top of his chest. And it was a good opportunity to see his body's seal tattoos, an eighth star on the right top of his chest. And two figures on both of his arms, those were three and the two remaining of the five seal were on his legs.
The party was still going and Kuji was doing great in meeting his new family, he laughed maybe for the first time in a while, Senan and Aladdin never left his side, they talked the whole night with Lily too about their adventures, missions and everything else, it was unforgettable night for Kuji and the guild's mages as well.