Chapter 226 - Hostage

"What exactly do you mean?" Asked Eric surprisingly, feeling bewildered. The Continent was shaken to its source due to the Snow Ignites, of course the Leader should have a great contribution but yet Bittore tends to disagree. "Didn't he discover the Demonite and use it for your revolution?" Bittore seems ready to talk, so why not cut to the case right away.

"What on earth is Demonite? That sounds as ridiculous as Blue Eagles." Of course a Fire Controller wouldn't like anything that links to the word "Demon", so we can't expect for her reaction to be calm.

Seeing how confused Bittore is, Mogranius figured that King Tamzar didn't really tell her anything about the Demonite due to the rather noticeable racial differences, he used most of these ladies after all. Sharing any information about the source of his victory is for sure a no go. He wanted to build the conversation enough to not offend her, the last thing they need is to break a fight here. "Didn't King Tamzar tell you that he used Demonite to fight off all these waves of ill.u.s.tratian Armies until now?"

Well Mogranius' intend didn't exactly work out how he planned it too, for reasons of strong Contribution both of these ladies are offended by such wordplay. "I still have no idea what Demonite is, but King Tamzar did nothing but sharing a bed with one woman after the other once he claimed the Kingdom." The face she was wearing right now, included both anger and irritation. The pain in her shoulder is making her lose patience but Mogranius' claims are just making her angry.

"How is that even possible?" Shouted Mogranius with his echo roaring down the cave. "If he didn't do any useful shit until now, how is the Kingdom not invaded yet?" He felt like Bittore is still lying at them, so his tone arose in anger and his dialect was crossing boundaries too.

"All he did was gather up Snow Ignites and invade a Capital which was low on Soldiers, the rest of the work was done by my group." This at least explains a bit of what happened a while ago in the Carved Path, but it still doesn't make any sense.

"How could 15 Fire Ignites fight off thousands of Soldiers? Don't lie to me please, me and Eric witnessed the battle that just happened. Ask your daughter if you think that I'm lying." This is indeed a confusing topic, Mogranius doesn't know what to believe anymore and Bittore's words aren't quite adding up to making sense. "At least over 700 Soldiers just died in front of our eyes, you can't tell me that Demonite isn't associated!"

"That's information I can not reveal just to anyone." She continued to yell back instead of just letting him yell out. "How do I know that you aren't sent by the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance." Giving a slight smile since she is winning this little argument, she firmly added. "Considering how much trouble you caused me, I shouldn't trust you with anything."

"Trouble? I saved your life!" Shouted Mogranius quite in anger, how ungrateful can one person be!

"Mother!" Loudly whispered Osira once she noticed that her mother has gone too far! Apparently apart from being grumpy, she can be grateful too.

"You shut your mouth! A.d.u.l.ts are talking!" She yelled at her own daughter. It is actually interesting because usually mothers are soft towards their daughters. Yet, Bittore slapped her down a bit earlier.

"I won't!" Osira answered, sick of her mother's attitude. "Because of you, and your decisions as an "A.d.u.l.t", I almost got touched by that retard of a King!"

"Don't raise your voice against me young lady! You don't know the sacrifices I have made for your safety." Well this has become awkward, what started as a little plot to get information out of these two, continued as an argument between a mother and daughter.

"Everyone gave her sacrifice to Tamzar, where did it lead? We are fugitives now!" Last thing she wants is to be ungrateful, but here and there she is carrying valid points. "Now, the rest of the ladies are likely being threatened to have their loved ones beheaded unless they find and kill us. Is that what you call a Sacrifice? We are slaves! Slaves!"

"Osira!" Yelled out Bittore, feeling at a loss for words. She knows her daughter is right but it was a sacrifice they had to make because surprisingly they are safer here than wherever they lived before.

Losing her temper to the point of a bad decision, she shouted one last time. "But I will take revenge on  these retards for each sister even though all of them can't even take revenge for themselves." Walking towards the exit, she gave one last glance back and calmly spoke. "Goodbye, Mother."

Afterwards she bursted Fire out of her feet and flew out of the Cave, no one was sure which direction she went once she left the cave, but Bittore still had the heart to shout a request. "Go after her, don't let her do anything stupid!"

Mogranius still wanted to question Bittore even after this argument, and became quite tired carrying her up here so he turned towards Eric and asked. "Can you chase after her and try to bring her back?"

Without thinking twice, he blew Fire out of his feet and blasted out of the Cave. Taking a look around, he didn't spot Osira anywhere as if she disappeared in mid air. Invisibility is impossible up here, so she likely flew away towards anywhere but the Kingdom. Smart enough, she knew that anyone following her would look there first!

Meanwhile back at the cave where Osira led the 3 behind them to begin with, Mogranius after trying to calm her down with firm assuring that Eric will get her daughter back here, he started asking questions again. Hoping to make her break, they could use this information. The Snow Ignites are well established enemies now and these four will likely never be able to set foot as free citizens once more, but he needs to know if Demonite is used here. If it is, Tamzar or whoever got the Demonite for him, must be one of the evolved. Like Mogranius' father stated before, the evolved are one of the few who can approach any Source.

But to start off the Conversation once more, he started with a question that has been roaming his head in the middle of this mother daughter argument. "I'm aware that you are not ready to talk about another topic, but may I ask what your daughter meant with, "We are slaves.", I'm not sure what she meant but I think we can help with that."

Still not ready to answer his questions, with hopelessness on her tone she asked. "How can you help?"

Mogranius at least was ready to talk and wasn't holding in any secrets, what could Bittore or even the snow elves do with such information? A Snow Ignite can't handle the warmer seasons, all they can do against a Kingdom in the lowlands is invade in the winter and demand a percentage of the monthly income. At least that's what the Snow Ignites wanted from Meridionali Ignis in the tense relations over 200 years ago before the massacres. "As I said before, I represent 3 Domains in the lowlands. They would gladly accept your entire team and even the families of the team. Each Domain has an urge for population and would gladly grant citizenship, King Zar would pay you a heavy salary if you work to defend his Kingdom."

"I assume King Zar doesn't rule any domain in Meridionali Ignis, I've never heard of him." Well at least now she made it clear where her origin is from, even though she didn't actually aim too!

"Oh King Zar is amazing, he is the first to go against the Grand King's word, even taking down the illas Chapel after." Last thing he needs right now, is to tell Bittore that Zar is actually the Grand King's son. She would never agree and even possibly attack, thinking that he is a spy from the ill.u.s.tratian Alliance.

"I'm not exactly sure how much I can believe you." Bittore still remained to her point, Mogranius sounds like he is talking fiction even. "But as for your question, yes we are pretty much slaves here." At least that question she is willing to answer!

"We came here after the Capital was invaded, seeking shelter from ill.u.s.tratios. King Tamzar took us in promising a lot of comfort, but only took our families hostage instead." Her tone started shaking as she started explaining, for sure there is a bad past related. More than she has revealed likely. "We came here with 50 people, 15 of which were Fire Controllers. To keep us here, King Tamzar kept our families hostage. He already killed 8 of them because the ladies kept disagreeing to share a bed with him."