Chương 1669: Interlude: Orderly Conduct

As the purple haze swept across the air, a small army swept through the streets, accompanied by a pair of Black Lions, while a third made his way towards an honourbayt, or as the commonfolk called it, a house of goatsons.

Kal Shawkat's cloak billowed, his figure imposing upon Arisa, for though Arisa was home to a number of monsters, he was still a Master, and for the common man, he was someone who was a mountain, and even for an Expert, he was considered in such high regard, and that was without the name of the Black Lions. His steps were lightened by the name of Black Mountain, but his heart remained heavy by the name of the Iyr.

He had met five figures who had reached his realm at roughly half his age, and as he listened to their tales, one of them was considered barely average within the Iyr, who had then gone on to take the role of an Elder. As he trekked through the streets, the bannisters billowing brazenly, the Black Lion spotted familiar forms, figures adorned in the steel, their cloaks a deep red, as though formed of noble blood, and the blades at their sides, the silver handles typical of their Order.

However, the blades, hidden away by a finely crafted scabbards, were surely rubicule, a beautiful gemsteel which was no less wondrous than his own jeticule, not that the Black Lion would ever admit it. The leader of the group was not such a simple figure. The turban atop his head hid away long hair, his large beard barely contained by a monthly shaping, his moustache twirled upwards into a playful smirk, the gentle smile on his face which hid away his eagerness to draw his blade.

However, his skin, though paler, more like the atrocious Aldishmen, his name was similar to his behaviour.

"Kal Rushad," Kal Shawkat called, the Black Lion approaching.

"Kal Shawkat, what brings you so far west?" Kal Rushad returned.

"It is a matter of the Black Lions."

"A matter of the Black Lions?" Kal Rushad replied, to be certain. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"So it is."

"Does this matter have something to do with the Iyr?" Shawkat let out a soft sigh, greeting the Scarlet Sun's companions, each also of his Order, but none as strikingly powerful as he.

"It is that bad?" Rushad asked.

"How could I suggest such a thing?" Shawkat replied, reaching up to his forehead, closing his eyes, letting out a low sigh, the kind that said he wished to suggest such a thing.

"Yes, you are right," Rushad replied, a Fariq Thanwi of the Scarlet Sun, chuckling lightly.

'Since it is Rushad...' Shawkat thought, considering for but a moment.

"Akh, are you busy within Arisa?"

"I am not too busy for you," Rushad replied, since Shawkat was calling him akh.

"How may I assist?"

"I have a few who will wish to meet with you," Shawkat stated cautiously, pausing a moment.

"Are you here with your apprentice?" Rushad sighed.

"It is that bad?"

"The matter of the Reavers..." The middle aged man reached up to his forehead, rubbing it lightly, holding Shawkat's gaze.

"It is the fire of youth which forces his lips to move at every moment about them."

"How good it is to be young," Shawkat joked, though he reminisced of his youth.

"Bring those you know, the strong ones, and your apprentice. It would be good for you to meet with these Iyrmen, and Mo Adam."

"Ah? The one they call the Crazy Father?"

"Yes."

"Is he as impressive as they say?"

"Akh, it is hard to speak, and harder to think, of he."

'That bad?' Rushad thought, and seeing how the Black Lion was at his wit's end, it appeared to be the case this young half elf was quite difficult to deal with.

"Then I will await your word."

"It shall be in the next few days. If I cannot do it, I will ask Uli. No, it may be best for you to visit yourself if I cannot arrange it."

"Do not worry yourself so much, akh, or your hair will grow white." Rushad chuckled, and greeted Shawkat as the Black Lion made his way, upon other Black Lion business. However, he thought of Shawkat and what he knew of the Crazy Father.

'Did they not say he defeated even Ahm Idris? What kind of young man has such courage?'

"Do you believe the rumours?" one of the youngest warriors said, the one that was brought out with the Fariq Thanwi and his cohort to step out into the world.

"Rumours come and go, but those which stay, and those confirmed by the Black Lions are difficult to ignore," Rushad replied simply.

"Once we meet him, it will be up to us to see him with our two eyes, with our two ears, with our two minds." Even though he spoke the words to dismiss their thoughts, his own raced. The rumours had grown wild, but surely, such rumours would be false. It was not as though he was able to defeat their Fariq. Surely.