It was a haunting night for the three young Magi. They kept learning one secret after another, each more shocking than the last.
Never in their wildest imagination had they thought that soone from the Howlett Family would find an inheritance left behind by the most vile villain in the history of this town, Morven the Malevolent.
It took a long ti for the kids to calm their astonishnt. Art's lips opened and closed several tis, struggling to find the words to speak.
Ultimately, he asked, "So the Howlett Family patriarch found the secret inheritance just like that? What happened afterward?"
Mayor Hobbs heaved a deep sigh and began, "The Patriarch of the Howlett Family was the strongest amongst us... He was soone on the verge of advancing to the Mana Liquefaction Rank-"
"Wait a minute!" Aiden interrupted the mayor. "So the mbers of the Howlett Family were local residents? Then why were they alienated and made to stay in the Weeping Woods?"
"They were not alienated!" Mayor Hobbs spoke in a passionate tone, "He had chosen to live within the dark woods of his own accord and guard the seal placed by our ancestor, Magus Stratford!"
"Did he... do that out of his sense of duty?" Eleiney asked softly.
Mayor Hobbs nodded with a bitter smile. "The will of our ancestor lives on through us, deeply ingrained in our blood."
The next mont, his expression turned resolute as he added, "However, this is not a burden. This is our glorious purpose!"
The three young Magi didn't know how to react to that. To outsiders like them, such a way of thinking would definitely seem very foolish, but to the local townsfolk, it was a matter of great honor.
Mayor Hobbs continued, "The Howlett Family fulfilled their duties by guarding the seal for decades. But sowhere down the line, a few years ago, the Patriarch's behavior started to change. It wasn't noticeable at first, but when we did find out... it was already too late."
"Too late for what?" Art asked nervously.
"When the Patriarch uncovered the secret inheritance left behind by Morven, he was consud by evil and darkness. One night, about half a year ago, he called and the four town council mbers to his house, saying that he had an important matter to talk about," Mayor Hobbs began.
"Us five thought nothing of it and went to his estate deep in the Weeping Woods. It was then that we realized that we had walked into a trap. The mont we entered his manor, he attacked us, planning to kill us!"
"Why did he wish to kill you? What about his family?" Eleiney asked with nervous breaths.
"Perhaps he was extrely confident in taking us five down all on his own, or perhaps he had already turned maniacal after coming in contact with Morven's inheritance, he told us everything about his plan," said the mayor with a disheartened look on his face.
"He ntioned that he would finish what Morven started all those centuries ago. He would enslave all the residents of the town and experint on them in order to reach greater heights in his path as a Magus.
"However, the only thing stopping him from achieving his goals were and the four council mbers. That is why he lured us into his manor. It was all so that he could get rid of his greatest obstacles."
The old mayor's eyes reddened as he recalled the mories of that night. anwhile, the children held their breaths in trepidation, eager to know what transpired after.
"As soone who was a Neural Stage Magus like us, he was very powerful, no doubt. But he had overestimated his abilities. In the end, and the council mbers had managed to take him down."
He paused a few seconds, his lips quivering. "We didn't want to kill him... but we were left with no other choice. But he was so consud by madness and evil that in his dying monts, he was able to summon half a dozen werewolves from inside the grand seal."
"So that's where the werewolves ca from!" Aiden was thunderstruck.
But then he thought of sothing else and couldn't help but ask, "What about his family? What happened to them?"
Mayor Hobbs's shoulders slouched and he spoke with great sadness, "They were the first ones that the Patriarch experinted on..."
The three young Magi simultaneously sucked in a breath of cold air. They couldn't believe that the Patriarch of the Howlett Family had fallen so low that he would kill his own family for his goals.
"This secret inheritance... could it perhaps be an arrangent made by Morven the Malevolent to get soone to unseal him?" Art made a guess.
"That is what we believe as well, but we can't be sure." Mayor Hobbs nodded. "We didn't have enough ti to investigate the Howlett Manor before the werewolves erged and chased after us."
He paused for a mont, his eyes flashing with lingering fear. "I still rember that night vividly. The council mbers and I thought that we would really die.
"But for so strange reason, the werewolves never left the area of the Weeping Woods. It's like they couldn't leave the forest..."
"Couldn't leave the forest?" Eleiney mumbled. "That's right! Even in the last wolf tide, I had never seen any werewolf step out of the Weeping Woods.
"Could this perhaps be an arrangent made by Magus Stratford, preventing those foul creatures from leaving the forest and attacking the town?"
"I would like to believe so," said the old mayor with hopeful eyes. "But ever since the night that the Howlett Family's patriarch died, the werewolves that he summoned, have been manipulating the wolf tide into attacking our town every night of the full moons."
There was a mystical correlation between the twin moons and eveything that was happening to the town of Stratford, but neither the mayor, nor the three young Magi could tell what it was.
After speaking to the old mayor, a lot of things had been made clear for Art, Aiden, and Eleiney. However, one thing that they didn't quite understand was why the mayor had
diclosed this to them in first place.
"Why?" Eleiney asked, "Why tell us all this?"
"Because out of all the rcenaries and Magi that we hired," said the old mayor with a grateful smile, "you are the only one who cared enough to know the truth."
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