In the high tower of the main keep, the royal castle of Riga.
On a high throne, made of melted stones, a man in light tinted royal garb was listening to reports one by one from several squadron generals.
A squadron leader in a grey and velvet armour spoke of the travelers entering and leaving the city, as reported by the subordinates in their submitted scrolls.
He detailed, "a boy around sixteen or closer years entered the outskirts borough with two bags filled with containers, a rope made of several different kinds of materials woven together. Claims to have come from Cleaving after wagon hopping from one wagon to another on the way to Rigac, offering security services in exchange for travelling along."
His report had only ended when another squadron general raised her arm. The man on the throne nodded to the general's request to interject.
"The boy as detailed by the Wall Guards had been marked for suspicion because he sold a few containers claiming to be 'enhancing mixes'. While the boy had not been arrested, he had been trailed several times in the two days and nights he had been here."
The general's interjection was over.
Another general raised their arm, but the man on the throne was contemplating decisions. He whispered into the silent hall, "That boy. Has he been seen wearing four colored rings or any respective action-will controlling placebos?"
The general who had raised their arm lowered it. Every single one of the squadron leaders began furling through their report to match and see if they have any details of that boy.
The hall was filled to its brim with the crackling and flipping of pages. But no words were spoken.
The man tapped a finger on his throne. Everyone held their breaths as they stopped their search.
"If it takes all of you this long to find it, then the boy either is completely innocent or one of your subordinates had lied on their submitted scrolls." His voice was a whisper that could shatter the skies.
The Wall Guard squadron general raised their arm. The man glanced at him.
The Wall Guard squadron general reported further, "while under the Knights on duty, the boy in question did pass the will revelation. The senior Knight did submit a request to check for two oddities they found to be worth checking."
The man tilted his head a little, in the room the generals felt that that alone could have split the clouds above. And it did, the tower was lit up ever so brightly from the starlight.
The Wall Guard squadron general continued, "The senior Knight stated that the wandering boy's rope was well equipped to be used for all four elements, and that his brown overcoat gave off the impression of being more than what it looks. He requested that the related squadron departments perform the investigations in those regards."
The starlight didn't dim.
Rigac's sky began to part ever more from the cloud cover that had come to embrace it. The mountains beyond Rigac always sent many clouds to Rigac, but not today.
The starlight flooded the city streets. It flooded the castle halls, the Rigac Assembly's hall, and the Rigac Cathedral's main hall.
Priest Noria welcomed the starlight as she called out to staff members to open more of the windows. She welcomed the gaze.
Farms, outskirt borough's shops, currently constructing buildings, warehouses, and the nightwatch's keep, all of them felt a little whelmed.
Yet, none that the starlight touched acted oddly.
The man on the throne considered the implications of his general's words.
A general in white and silver armour spoke out of order. "My Monarch, if you so request it, I'll send in the unit under Skyact Guard Leous to apprehend the boy."
The monarch of Riga ever so slightly gazed at the general. The general felt the starlight increasing on him.
He tolerated it for he knew he had spoken out of order.
The starlight extenuated every tidbit of his armour, his hair, and even his shadow was attempting to erase itself but just couldn't. The starlight let the shadow be as dark as it could and the shadow if it could bow, it would. But it endured it all. For the shadow knew it can't do anything.
"There's no need. The boy is inside the Rigac Assembly talking to his leafy plant he keeps calling his partner. As for the so-called 'enhancing mixes', they are from Cleaving."
The general in white and silver armour was relieved of the intensity lowering on him. "Thank you, my liege." He muttered through a staggered breath.
As the general attempted to stay upright, attempting to showcase his tenacity. The monarch continued, "the boy in the report is an ordinary traveler."
Hall itself held its breath as it wanted to soak in those starlight-laden words.
He continued further, "the attack on the Rigac Cathedral was not an attempt to destroy it but to perform a trial on how, that ragtag hooligans group all of you dismissed as dissent from the outskirts, to attempt to launch an attack on the castle. There will be one either in two hours or the coming morning. Prepare."
The monarch dismissed all of the generals as he sat in his throne. Ruminating over the knowledge he had received.
He considered the coming days to be of importance, one that may dictate the very nature of the centuries that this world faces onwards.
He was ever so close to the outcome he wished to have.
And Cheal was walking among the few he had chosen as his scapegoats. He and his party were travelling to the underground hollowed out new chambers of the castle.
He had killed a few guards—or to be more precisely, the guards would be dead after two hours. For now his victims were only knocked out as they were, awaiting the death that had been delivered.
His new choice of killing is based on the few new tricks he learned in the Rigac's outskirt's underbelly.
His thoughts wandered to the message he had sent his first partner. 'Will he reply? Or will he trust his new green partner?'
One of the scapegoat human Cheal had chosen asked again, "Cheal, why are we in the castle?"
Cheal flicked him on the ear. "I told you before and telling you again, don't call me Cheal until you have survived one mission with me. And why you ask?"
He laughed, "Come on, you forgot this fast." A tear of laughter slipped onto his cheeks.
"Man, you sure have quite the amnesia. We are here to find the missing people of other cities. Now lightly start banging on the doors or openings you spot. Not too loud ok?"
Cheal loved his party's forgetful nature. 'Another trick, another play.' Mused within him.
In the Rigac Assembly, after the tiring choice of actions the wandering brown-overcoat wearing boy, asked the only plant he had chosen to take care of.
"What do you think, leafy? Is Cheal worth trusting?"
His leafy partner only danced its leaves a little. The boy didn't know what to make of the dance, since there were no ways of plants and trees to talk to humans.
He just assumed that leafy meant 'whatever fits your goal boss.'
The boy responded well to his own interpretation while the leafy plant danced a little to the night's winds.
"Hmm, you are right. Whatever fits mine." Nodded to his words, as he continued along making another enhancing mix purely out of water.
A little shake, some stirring on different layers of the water with specially crafted rock stirrers using the action of earth.
He talked further to the leafy partner, "so I went to the outskirts borough and made several of its water storage reservoirs into large enhancing mixes."
Another little greenery dance by the leafy plant, a bit too dramatic this time.
"Yes, it was too mysterious. I avoided getting caught by several of the Skyact guards and Tribulations Squadron guards. They are different from each other based on the armour color and Tribulations Squadron guards always carry two main weapons. They sound fun."
Leafy shook in the wind, maybe it wanted to say 'it was not.'
"I know, but now the outskirt towards the morning's horizon will have a different problem of overly zealous and enhanced crowd. Heh, heh. Let's see how does it feel to be throttled slowly by the monarch now, maybe he'll react like Cleaving did. More construction."
The wanderer boy shook his head. He had been talking so low that leafy probably would not have heard it if it weren't a plant. For who knows what sounds a plant can hear and cannot.
He certainly did not. Yet, he believed.
Believed in his chosen partner.
He was done with the enhancing mix's procedure only last thing was left to do. He placed a lid as he simultaneously said, "Risening".
The lid slid onto the container much better than what he normally felt he could place it as. The boy rotated all four of his colored rings, each of different colors.
One was red, another was blue. The third was brown, and the last was a mix of silver and white.
The boy happy with his enhancing mix practice. Opened the container and poured it into the container that housed his leafy partner.
He wanted his ordinary partner to be more than a bit ordinary.