11 The tale of the prophecy - 1

Holding his temple in his hands, a panic-stricken Balthazaar turned towards Nubeous and asked,

"Which village did the minister set fire to?"

Before Nubeous could even respond, he darted another question,

"What is the village of Ambracia? The one next to the forest of the forbidden?"

Nubeous was surprised by his second question because he had ordered for this activity without giving any information to Balthazaar. He had particularly ensured that Balthazaar didn't get a whiff about it.

With a puzzled look on his face, he got down from his bed and asked,

"How do you know about which village it was? What did the minister tell you about before I got up?"

But ignoring his questions seeing a justification, Balthazaar asked again,

"Dare I say, Please answer my question first master? Was it the village of Ambracia?"

Nubeous could see a weird fear in the eyes of Balthazaar. Unable to comprehend what was going on in the mind of his lunatic council head he replied, "Yes, it is the village of Ambracia. So what Balthazaar?"

He couldn't hear anything after Ambracia. For a moment he felt he was going to get chocked with his own breath. Everything that he had done to save this man had been rendered vain. He cursed himself for not being able to travel back to the correct point in time. But it was too late now. His master had already done the very act that had enraged Morpheous. He had no strength to turn back the sanctity of time again. It would take him minimum a week to be able to travel again, but by then Morpheous would have finished his master.

As his mind raced and he thought about what was going to happen next, he felt the earth underneath him shaking. He was going to fail to keep up with his promise. He would not be able to save his master from the hands of Morpheous. These thoughts hounded him so bad that his body started trembling. He slumped on the floor the next second.

Nubeous couldn't understand what was going wrong with that old man. Coming close to him he asked,

"What is wrong with you?"

'What is wrong with me? Ask what can you do to save yourself?' screamed Balthazaar inside his head. How could he tell him what was wrong?

So he tried to regain his breath back and then said,

"Nothing master. It's the age."

"Ahhh !!!", Nubeous chuckled and then continued.

"Well now that you know about Ambracia, do you what does that mean Balthazaar?"

Seeing the vicious smile etched on the face of master Nubeous, Balthazaar thought to himself, 'How can the man, known as the child of God be so hell-bent to obtain power that he would commit such a heinous act? How could he not even hesitate to take the lives of his own men?'

From the time that he could remember he had seen him amassing as much power as he could with the help of his would ring. He knew that his master lusted for power, but this time the scale of his greed was way too much Balthazaar.

For the spur of a moment, he even regretted keeping his promise and bringing him back alive. He closed his eyes and let a faint gasp of air escape his lips. Feigning a fake interest in his words, he replied,

"No master !!!"

"Well! Being the head of the general council, I think you should know what your master is up to. Shouldn't you?" Nubeous asked Balthazaar sarcastically while getting down from his bed.

Even though Balthazaar was the head of the general council, there were many things that happened in grey in Nubia. Many things that he didn't even have a clue about, the reason being his righteousness. He was known as a person who could call a stone as a stone, so Nubeous used to do most of his activities outside the radar of Balthazaar.

He had his own set of ministers who used to do everything at his beck and call. All illegal pursuits were carried out under the nose of Balthazaar because Nubeous knew that he would object to them. Given that he was the owner of the soul ring, he had no reason to fear Balthazaar. He could have easily replaced him with anyone else who would have acted as his puppet. But Nubeous always kept Balthazaar close because of his righteousness itself.

Even though he worked with the other ministers, he knew that Balthazaar was the one man who would even give his life in order to save him. With the soul ring no one could touch him, but without it, he was still a mortal. He knew about the promise that Balthazaar's lineage had kept, a promise to protect him, and that was the sole reason why he had kept him close.

But soon he wouldn't be needing that because under the croplands of Ambracia, lied the unique metal, which when bounded with the soul stone, would become a part of his body. That would make him invincible. For ages, he had been searching for it based on the prophecy, and finally, the search had come to an end.

He was ready to destroy Nubia for that precious metal, so the price of Ambracia was nothing for him. So he gave a look to Balthazaar, a look that was mixed with contempt and sarcasm as he awaited a response from him,

"I will ask my men to check upon that Village. And I will check with the council regarding this activity master and I..."

"No need... " interrupted Nubeous and then started narrating the lines from the prophecy,

'In the land of the forbidden, it shall be found'

'The soul stone it shall surround'

"Get it now?"

"No, master," replied Balthazaar humbly.

"The village of Ambracia lies next to the forest of the forbidden. For ages, I thought the metal from the prophecy was underneath the land of the forbidden and we were unable to get it because of the rule of the souls that prevails there.

"But in reality, the metal is underneath the croplands of Ambracia village. My soul stone could detect it's power. Once I have the soul stone embedded in that metal, I will become the indestructible owner of the realm of souls. I will be indestructible forever !!!"

Saying that he gave a victorious smile to Balthazaar, who struggled to get himself up.

"I think you should be happy now. You don't have to be my protector anymore. You can let go of that promise that makes you cringe every time you see my face. You will be a free man Balthazaar without the burden of the general council."

"But I have made an unbreakable promise my master. I need to protect you even though you think you do not need my protection," said Balthazaar with a shaky voice. He couldn't believe that his master was ready to kick him out after all these years of loyalty. Serving the people of Nubia as the head of the grand council was all that he had known and done for the entirety of his life.

"We need young blood for Nubia. You have served us enough. And as for the promise that you have made, you can try to keep it becasue anyways nothing is going to happen to me. I have anyways survived ages and now I will survive till eternity."

Said Nubeous and directed his hands towards the main door asking Balthazaar to leave.

Clinging onto the arm that was still hurting him, he looked at the ungrateful man in front of him and said,

"I will resign as the head of the general council, but let me stay with you so that I can keep your promise."

Nubeous chuckled, seeing the determination of the old man and said,

"Fine stay here. Do as you wish. You have my full freedom."

"As I wish?" asked Balthazaar.

"Yes," replied master Nubeous.

Balthazaar paused for a while and then spoke before retiring from the Royal chamber of Iridium Palace.

"Then I wish the metal to be extracted from the Ambracia before mid-day. Ask your goldsmith to keep his hearth ready because now God only will be able to save you if you don't have the ring in your finger before mid-day tomorrow."