8 Gathering Intelligence

Helen finally reached the deepest level of the underground base. It was connected to a medium grade raw magic stone lode she secretly mined and shipped to her homeland. In this day and age, "god punishment stone" was a term that nobody knows anymore.

All raw magic stone will be directly sent to Border 3 Sanctuary for processing and was heavily consumed by their top researcher, Elder Witch Celine, to mass produce magic-based high-tech gadgets. These gadgets will be allocated to all agents across the globe in the form of upgrades.

Helen entered a small underground room equipped with the latest upgraded VIRCOF mounted on the wall. She let her magic energy flowed into the device and stood straight.

A blue light scanned her from bottom to top and she immediately wore a thick circular crown-like metallic gadget. The eyepieces attached to the metallic gadget were translucent blue in color; they covered both of her eyes.

Through the special blue lenses made from refined magic stones, she saw the virtual conference room. To her left and her right, all her comrades had gathered together, filling up the table to full.

Helen saluted to the three senior witches appearing on the front-most part of the table. "Glory to Neverwinter! Agent 1677 reporting!"

...

Celine smiled to the last holographic-like witch appearing at the edge of the conference table.

"Helen, how was the training of the potential recruit's progress? It is nearly ten years. Is she ready?"

Helen bowed respectfully, "Her progress are very good Madam Celine . As a hybrid between a human and an Oni, Leila is a model example of both species. Her intelligence was a bit subpar, but I can work on it. She did well in all her assignments.Her loyalty level towards Neverwinter Empire is very high. She just aced her monthly assessment using the Orb of Truth."

Celine nodded with satisfaction, "Good job Helena. Gift her the second generation VIRCOF. Let your disciple sit in starting from our next meeting. She will be our newest recruit."

"However, Madam Celine, I think she still needed a bit of time for her mind conditioning." Helen tried to explain worriedly while she was reminded by the latest changed password. Her charge was a tad bit childish on that side. Besides that, she was very exemplary.

"We don't have time anymore. We need all the agents at hand." Celine smiled reassuringly towards the senior witch. Helen nodded in acknowledgement and make a mental note to reprimand Leila before promoting her.

"Sisters, as all of you know, the fire disasters that befalls Neverwinter were not location-exclusive. Some of you have reported the severity of the disasters in other regions. From the information that we gather so far, the disasters are at a global scale." Pasha explained to all the witch agents seriously.

"We would like to know the current status of countries within your jurisdiction and how these disasters affected the political conditions as a whole." Alethea spoke next. Being used to seeing Roland tapping the desk to get the attention of the masses, she did it subconsciously too.

One by one, the agents started to talk about the region under their charge. Some had no known disaster, while others were utterly destroyed. The severely affected regions were in sliding towards anarchy. Many small tribes from lesser known local species had been decimated due to varying circumstances.

The three Elder Witches expression getting grimmer by the second.

Three noteworthy events which got their attention were the war between the Elves, the movement of the warring Orcs and the internal strife between the Onis due to their massive scales and how the event affected the surroundings.

Agent Walsh who infiltrated the Dark Elves community showed a few visuals of gory confrontations between the Dark Elves and the High Elves as the war getting more intense. She reported that the war was beginning to tilt towards the Dark Elves side as more forest were burnt down from the rampant naturally-occurring forest fire. This had limited the nature-based magic reserve of the High Elves. More than half of the forests resided by the Elves were in ruins as to date.

On the second event, Agent Bellya who posed as a travelling bard heard rumors that the orcs were moving towards the north where the fire disasters were significantly lesser from the low temperature. Massive migration by the millions made these orcs behaved like locusts; they ravaged all the livestock and lands from anything edible regardless whether the owners were friends or foe. In the situation where arable lands were getting fewer, the plundering of food resources were akin to killing the whole tribe. They won't be able to survive.

Lastly, Agent Helen who infiltrated the Oni's region as a neutral trader cum arms dealer reported that the flaring of civil war in that region due to the death of the previous leader. Three opposing faction of oni's were fighting each other to a standstill while incurring massive destruction and lives. There were indications of instigation from neighboring forces supporting the different groups of Onis.

After the last senior witch, Helen reported her investigation, the three elder witches dismissed them.

All witch agents saluted and bowed respectfully. They dissipated from the elder witches' view and turned into blue light particles.

...

"What do you think?" asked Pasha to the other two elder witches.

"We need to do something." Alethea said.

Celine sighed, "If the world keeps on progressing in this way, I believe its inhabitants will prematurely die before the end of the world. Maybe that will be better? At least they won't feel the pain of being cooked alive?" she started to giggle.

Both Pasha and Alethea were speechless with Celine's grim comments. They pretended not to hear anything and continued with the discussion.

"Let me handle the Orcs. Although Graycastle Empire was not on their route, after they depleted the resources at the north, they might cross the Impassable Mountain ranges to enter our lands." Alethea spoke confidently.

"Be gentle. Don't immediately attack as what you did like the last 10 years when we met the previous Goblin Chief. Try to find ways to communicate to explain the current conditions to the Orc Elder Chieftain." Pasha requested gently. She knew what kind of person Alethea was. She was loyal and passionate in preserving the heritage of the witches, while being harsh to others and herself.

Alethea showed a not-so-happy expression, but it soon disappeared without being detected by Pasha.

"Let me investigate the Elves' situation. I've been very interested in the underground kingdom of the Dark Elves for a while now. Sister Walsh had reported on more than one occasion that she observed the transport of raw magic stones from the area. It seemed the magic stones were sent to the Demons' colony." Celine grinned.

"How about the movements of the Demons? Why didn't I hear any notable news about them?"

"It's because they have been very quiet all this while." Celine replied. "However, the movements of raw magic stone from the Dark Elves underground kingdom towards the Demon's lair was active just recently."

"Then, go ahead Celine and take extra precaution." Pasha acquiesced.

"Then I will take on the remaining investigation at the Oni's empire. They were neutral towards Graycastle empire, but I have read reports on them using human slaves. Sister Helen work managed to salvage some of them back towards Graycastle. It's time to get acquainted with them." Pasha added.

"No matter what happens, we must protect the empire and our brethren. Others were secondary." Alethea added.

"Let's converged here after the investigations were done. Everyone has at a maximum 48 hours. Then we will meet up with His Highness to report the current conditions." Pasha calmly stated her order. She was worried the other Elder Witches will do more than they should if they took too long a time.

All three looked at each other deeply as they know what is in each other mind.

"Glory to Neverwinter." All three of the Elder Witches saluted each other by placing their palm on their chests. They were now known as Neverwinter Witches, the final legacy left by the forgotten Taquila.

They dissipated into mists.

In their mind, they were to achieve their own goals regardless of the methods.

Failure is not an option.