Chapter 86 - Smoke (1/2)

In the morning, there was a luxury carriage outside Evan's house, where Marcel was already waiting for him.

They exchanged a few brief phrases, and then were silent the whole way. Soon the carriage arrived in a part of the city Evan had never been in before. It was a small, but extremely important sector of Mossy Vulture.

It housed all the ore and minerals that were mined in the mines, as well as all the equipment needed for the work. It could be said that from this place Mossy Vulture got the necessary resources for its development.

Of course, Mossy Vulture had an active foreign trade, but it would be a big mistake not to take advantage of so many mines with valuable ores.

Perhaps, in other cities a war would have broken out between the main forces in the city over these mines and especially the ”Pond of Mountain Crystals”, but Koen and Fane were not about to let that happen. They knew it wouldn't do any good.

If their Families fought over those mines, at the very least they would destroy half the city and lose most of their power, not to mention the people`s lives.

...

After a while, the carriage stopped and Marcel led Evan into the depths of the central cave. Just as Marcel had said, they were at the cliff behind Mossy Vulture.

”These caves have been exploited for many years, yet they are not yet fully explored. Every time a certain amount of ore is mined, new, unexplored passages are discovered.”

Marcel said calmly, pointing at the dozens of tunnels around them. They walked through the widest tunnel for a while until they turned left and went down. It was the cave that led to the entrance to the ”Pond of Mountain Crystals”.

It wasn't long before they reached a large iron door with two guards beside it. From the outside it might have looked like the protection was weak, but it was not. There was a strong barrier in front of the iron door, and if anything happened to it, a magician would rush to the aid of the guards.

”Stop!” The guard said loudly when Marcel and Evan got close enough.

Marcel smiled and turned to Evan: ”This is where I say goodbye to you, they'll take you from here. Good luck!”

He left and the young man was left alone with the guards.

”I am Evan Lynch.” Evan said confidently.

The guards nodded and one of them took out a special amulet. He placed it against the barrier, and then the iron door opened.

”Follow me.” The guard said gravely as he passed through the iron barrier.

Evan nodded and followed him.

The guard took Evan to the man who was in charge of access to the sections of the ”Pond of Mountain Crystals”.

Click.

The man opened the door and a thick puff of smoke flew out to meet him. To Evan's surprise, this smoke was familiar to him, or rather the smell of it. He had already felt and seen the same thing in some place.

”Mr. Demien! This is that man!” The guard said respectfully, after which he hurried away.

”А?”

”А?”

Evan and Demien met their gazes and looked at each other in surprise. Evan didn't understand what a simple clothing store owner was doing here.

Demien took his cigarette out of his mouth and said with a puzzled face: ”Boy, so, were you the one who won the tournament? Hmm... if I'd known that, it might have made a pretty good advertisement for my store, but all right.”

”What are you doing here?” Evan didn't understand what Demien had to do with this place.

”Well... the thing is, Fane came to me yesterday and asked me to get a man into section four. I told him to do it by himself, but then... ahem, well, I`ve changed my mind.” Said Demien taking another puff of his cigarette.

<Is he related somehow to Fane? I wonder>. Evan thought to himself. He hadn't expected that Demien was actually more than just a clothing store owner.