Morning Dragon

**Date Started:** January 2nd, 500XR
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Previous Role-Play:** N/A
**Users Involved:** User:EmperorSigma, User:DamonDraco
**Setting**: Clover Kingdom
**Characters Involved:**
* **Golden Dawn**: Kingston Draconus, August Draconus, Selah Silva, Dale, Lamaria Draconus, Simon Lovelace, Zakai Draconus
* **Mentioned**: James Draconus, Khastansia Draconus, Eroleo Vermillion

## Morning Dragon

Two mages stepped from a portal landing at a gigantic building that bore the insignia of the Golden Dawn. It was clear that this was the squad's base of operations. It was a luxurious place, clearly the funds Golden Dawn had been receiving after completely missions paid them well.

One of the mages was Kingston Draconus, the newest member of Golden Dawn. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since the end of the Magic Knights Exam and boy was it a crazy day. Kingston couldn't begin to wrap his head around the events that unfolded, but he was disappointed in one thing and one thing only: Zakai didn't battle. It hurt his heart, but it was what it was.

Unlike the rest of the new mages who'd likely spent their first nights at their squad's base, Kingston returned home for the night. He could not leave his home without being able to see his mother, that'd truly break his heart. Khastansia's smiling face printed itself into Kingston's memory. His father gave but a slight grin and said: "Good job, I knew you'd do it." All Kingston could do was curse under his breath. He completely understood why his Dark Magic had a mind of its own.

"Kingston!" August shouted, snapping his younger brother out of his daze. "Come on, I have people for you to meet. Don't drag this along, we have a couple of things for you before we let you free." As he spoke, he walked at a fast pace.

Looking out the corner of his eyes, Kingston reluctantly followed behind him. "I will be free when I want to be free, I'm not your lapdog, August." It took no time for the duo to reach the entrance of the base. August flung the doors open and at the very center of the first room stood two mages dressed in the robes of Golden Dawn.

The one on the right was a man. He seemed to be in his late teens, but that was subjective because looks were deceiving at this point in time. He had hard colored blue-hair and stood a couple of inches shorter than Kingston. Admittedly he was much more muscular than Kingston, but that didn't bother the rookie one bit. Kingston looked at him up and down, studying his figure for later trivials. Then to the left stood a girl with long purple hair and much like the man to her left, she didn't look to open to conversation but in a different way.

August held his hand out at the two before them and strolling from around the corner was Selah Silva in all of her glorious silver. She took over for August who'd walked past her as though they were switching places. "Golden Dawn only received one mage from this year's exam, you won't be placed on a team with other newbies. You will instead be placed on a team composed of two establish magic knights and this young lady here. The other of the team will be here in a minute, but you three should go ahead and get acquainted while I make a quick run."

And with that, the Silva took off behind August, reluctant to even introducing herself to the clueless Kingston. He looked to the two standing before him and waited for one of them to speak.

The one that stood shorter than Kingston took the first action, crossing his arms, his eyes scanned Kingston faster than he himself scanned the others. His mouth was thinned out, it seemed that he was more than up to retributing the favour.

His hair was spiky and wild, face well-shaped, and eyes sharp. He wore a collared dark jacket, with a white crucifix on the back and shoulders, covering a simple stripped shirt. For pants he wore white ones, surrounded by blacks stripes, and black boots. He bowed lightly at Kingston, while closing his eyes.

"Dale," Was the sole word to make its way out of his lips, his eyes fluttered open and he stood tall again. Dale stood with his arms still crossed, blinking every few moments.

"Um," the girl began, picking up right after Dale. She was much shorter than both Dale and Kingston by nearly an entire foot. Her silky brown skin matched Kingston's in complexion but was different in many ways. Much like Dale, she also surveyed and scanned Kingston. It was something she did to everyone she met. It was how she picked up on their mana signature.

She ruffled her nose to sniff the air and then brought her hands to her chest and pressed against her rather big breast. "I'm L-Lamaria," she hesitated, trying to build her confidence to speak in front of her two new comrades.

"I am Lamaria Draconus!" she proudly claimed and accepted her name. Removing her hands from her chest, she dropped them to her side and twirled her foot on her toe, blushing at both of her new teammates. It took a lot for her the muster the strength to speak out loud like that and for those who knew her, knew.

She was loud, he gave her that, but that wasn't what made Kingston's face change to such a surprised expression. Both of his eyebrows lifted and his mouth opened wide. *"Draconus?!"* he forcefully thought to himself as he had no record of such person. Snapping back, Kingston closed his eyes and mouth and placed what he was instructed to do first...for the time being.

Dragging his hand through his, he combed his mohawk with his fingers and glanced upon the duo. "Kingston Draconus," for a moment his locked onto their Golden Dawn robes and couldn't help but wonder where his robe was. But while wondering that, he got lost in their personalities that were written all over them.

Dale seemed like he was an introvert, but not in the same case as himself. Kingston was the type to just not care or be bothered. His only goal was to figure out the mystery of his missing brother. But Dale seemed to have much more going on with him. Just someone who preferred to work alone.

Lady Lamaria, on the other hand, seemed to have issues with communicating with others. Was it confidence? No. Kingston could sense the great magic power the duo possessed, so she couldn't lack confidence in her skills. *"That settles it. She's just shy."*

As their little exchanged ended, there was an awkward silence. One that caused Kingston to drift his eyes to both corners of his eye back and forth as though he'd been pacing them. Luckily for him, he could hear the footsteps of Selah in the distance.

The silver-haired maiden approached the group holding a piece of clothing in her hand. "Had to get you a different size," Selah began, placing her free hand onto her chin while she evaluated Kingston's body. "You're big for your age, Kingston." Stepping forward towards him, Selah held the item out revealing it to be a Golden Dawn robe. Lifting it over his head, she dropped it onto his upper body where he'd now be wearing it.

"There, you're an official member now. Oh!" She remembered, patting her pockets front and back. Reaching into her left thigh pocket, she drew a black medal out and pinned it on the right side of his robe.

"What are these?" Kingston asked.

"These are badges, see?" She questioned, but she'd moreso been showing him an example by pointing to the many badges she wore on her robe and the single ones that Dale and Lamaria wore. "Usually, you begin your Magic Knight career with no badges. However, Golden Dawn is special in that we are an invading force--or Infantry Unit if you will. Among the specializations of the Magic Knights squads, ours is the most dangerous. This is the **Infantry Badge** awarded to those who've been attached to a Golden Dawns infantry unit and preformed their duties according. But because Golden Dawn *is* the infantry division, each member is given one."

Selah pressed on the badge, ensuring it was pinned down. "You'd better get good with these, they play a big part in promotions. If you can gather them quickly, then you can rise up the ranks quicker. You can thank Zakari for that. So you two," she asked, looking to Dale and Lamaria. "How does he look?"

Throughout the whole exchange between his squad companion and his... newest squad companion, Dale's eyes shifted from one to the other, in accordance to when they spoke or did something. he waited should Lamaria say anything else, yet no words left her mouth, glancing at her again he noticed the many *signs*. Waving a palm at her, Dale commented, "Calm."

It seemed his comment did nothing to stop the two of them from being silent, but Dale didn't change his expression, his mind wandered. The fact that Selah came in right after didn't help, she put up a conversation, and Dale just let himself be there. Suddenly, he had begun to nod at each piece of information that Selah laid out.

When Selah spoke to Lamaria and him, Dale shifted his gaze towards her, then to Kingston. His arm blurred from its usual spot and his hand pointed to Kingston. A thumbs-up, "Very good!" Dale tried to smile, though it didn't show his teeth.

The sound of footsteps resounded through the halls as a tall blonde man with a stern demeanour stepped into view, Simon Lovelace had an opinion on more or less every member of the Golden Dawn at this point although he mostly kept to himself and only really seemed to talk eagerly with the Captain. Typically, he spent most of his time in his chambers to meditate, read and study various applications of magic.

As he approached he fixed his gaze on Kingston and spoke softly: "Congratulations are in order, I suppose, for your victory and being accepted into the Golden Dawn." It was unusual for Simon to take notice of new arrivals but for some reason Kingston had him intrigued, perhaps it was the fact that they shared an affinity or perhaps his raw talent as a budding warlock, maybe it even was because he felt like he owed his brother this kindness?

Reaching into his extravagant robes, that seemed strangely out of place on a man as coarse and unrefined as him, Simon produced a single tome bound in aged leather and marked with unusual symbols, its title read: Raffiq's Restraints. It was a tome of some fame among scholars for it detailed the subject of Restraining Magic exceptionally well, and in a manner that made it desirable for students of that discipline.

Simon halfway handed halfway thrust the book upon Kingston as he spoke: "For you. Read this and come to my chambers once you have finished, if you are able to divine exactly why I gave you this by that point then I will instruct you personally in dark magic."

Lamaria was completely lost within the turn of events and Dale's sudden yelling at her made everything worse. While to them she looked engaged in the conversation, she'd honestly been lost in her own thoughts. So much clogged her thoughts that when she wanted to address one thing, something else pushed it aside. So much happened to her in that last couple of weeks, but she wouldn't let that clog her memory.

"Oh, it's Simon-sama." She began in attempts of greeting her superior, but he came with other plans in motion and approached Kingston first. "Hello..." She mumbled under her breath, trying not to get in his way.

Meanwhile, Kingston had no idea what had been going on. One minute he'd been talking to Selah and the next some oddly-dressed blonde came stuffing a book into his face offering to teach him in the art of Dark Magic. "The hell is your problem, you ill-mannered ma-"

Kingston stopped his sentence to a soft touch to his shoulder. "Calm down, Kingston. No need to be hostile." The unidentified person, spoke causing him to look back to who this person was. "I personally asked for Simon to come down and give you assistance in the dark arts."

"Zakai?" Kingston asked, knowing that face all too well. However, what he did not know or notice was the presence of Zakai as he snuck up behind the group. "Excuse my manners." The young Draconus apologized to Simon by unorthodox orders of Zakai.

Blankly, Zakai blinked at the group before him. Simon, Dale, Kingston, and Lamaria, a rather odd group to say the least.. but he'd been missing someone. Selah had been easing herself away from the group, tiptoeing into one of the nearby rooms and then scurrying away in a full-on sprint.

Shaking his head at his mage, Zakai smiled at the group. "That there," he began, tilting his head in the direction of Simon. "Is Simon Lovelace, an expert in the art of Dark Magic. He's a First Class Senior Magic Knight much like Selah and Eroleo. That means he is your senior and he was willingly ready to accept the task of training you. I'm sorry to have thrown this on you so soon, but you missed last night."

Kingston waved his hand, "It's fine. I just had to see mother before I would be permanently stationed here." he looked back Simon and thought, *"He's also a user of Dark Magic, huh? But it's not all about controlling it... it's much more. Zakai, James, and mother, you all have no idea."*

"These two are Dale and Lamaria Draconus," reintroducing them, unaware that they'd already done so themselves. "Dale is a rather interesting member, he's like you almost. You don't care and Dale just isn't bothered." Eyes drifting to Lamaria, "And she's recently been adopted into House Draconus for reasons in place by James and mother. I wouldn't think too much on it, but if she's interested in telling you then by all means, venture those parts. There's another, but she isn't around right now. She may be out on a mission."

"The infantry is much different from the rest of the squads, Kingston. You are instructed to at least one training session a day unless permitted to take an off-day by August or myself. So please, do try not to give your Vice-Captain a hard time. In fact, you and Dale both have sessions you didn't complete today. Lamaria completed hers with another member of the squad, how about you and Dale attend to yours and I give you lot the rest of the day to catch up."

Extending his arm out, Zakai took the book from Simon's hands. "I'll place this in your room. Simon, come along with me, I have the details of your next mission." He turned back to Dale, Lamaria, and Kingston. "You two go ahead and you can take the rest of the day off. Dale, show him his room when you all are done."

Yell? When was it that he yelled? Dale tilted his head and crossed his arms yet again, letting a frown fill his expression. However, with Simon's arrival, those thoughts escaped Dale. "Simon," Was all he said, again just a simple word, nothing more, he nodded at Simon much like a lesser bow.

It seemed today was the presentation day, but of course. Dale blinked several times and bowed at Zakai, placing his hand by his belly this time, "Captain." He uttered, going back to his usual stance. Zakai spoke of him, prompting him to wave his hands just a bit, it was almost a wonder how Zakai had that ease to speak and describe him. "S..." Dale began, fumbling with his own words, "So... Sorreh- Sorry." He managed, referring to his unfinished task. "I will."

Taking a note from Lamaria's book, Kingston spoke a hard "Ummm." He listened to Dale speak, well try to, and had no idea what the hell he'd been doing. Instead of questioning it, Kingston went along with it and waved off his elder brother. "Well," he began, eyes looking to Dale who'd stumbled over his words like a blind man conquering undiscovered land. "If you're gonna stand there incapable of producing a sentence, I'll go ahead and do my training on my own. The quicker I can get it over with, the quicker I can return to my, correct?"

With this chance, Lamaria raised her hand to speak. "I can show you where the training grounds are, Prince Kingston." She suggested, only hoping that her offer would not be turned down or it would destroy her mentally.

"'Prince Kingston, eh?" He asked, referring to the name she'd referred to him as. "Do not call me that, Lamaria. Kingston is just fine and don't listen to August too much. He'll have you saying ridiculous stuff like that. I can not become a Prince in a land with an already set and existing King."

He waved her off too, "Never mind. Yes, please do show me where I can go to train. Feel free to join us or not, **Mushmouth**. Won't make much of a difference, but if you choose to lag behind, I will not be able to work with you."

Smiling to the point her cheeks turned red, she nodded and began to head to the exit of the base towards the training ground with Kingston following right behind her. Passing Dale, she lifted her thumb up to him.

At the response he was given, Dale simply stared ahead with almost no expression, though, then he lowered his gaze and frowned for a few seconds. "Prince..." He uttered once Kingston and Lamaria discussed, Dale shook his head sideways, "No Prince." Kingston deemed it that, right? He ought to respect it.

Dale walked towards the two of them, almost marching, while bearing a focused expression. Once he stood in front of them, he talked, or tried to. "Mushmouth," Dale pointed at himself, then after nodding, he pointed at Kingston, "Respect."

Eyebrow lifting, Kingston was stuck for a moment. Golden eyes locked on Dale, he had the utmost confused look on his face. "Mush.. MU-SH. MOU-TH. It. EYE." Kingston pointed to his eye, "TEE", he pulled on his shirt underneath his robe. "It means, YOU!" Kingston then pointed to Dale, "Um, it means you can't talk, Dale." He stated in a full sentence, getting overly frustrated with trying to break it down.

He threw his hand to his face and sighed, "I'll just have to get used to it."

Lamaria gave a slight giggle at the unfolding situation. "No, no, Kingston. Dale is saying he respects you, as a non-Prince that is." She looked to Dale and then shook her head slightly.

"You can understand him?" Kingston asked.

"Um, no, not entirely. But, I've been here for a few weeks and we've been put together a lot, so I kind of learned to understand him a little? He's like a turtle in a shell, he doesn't like to come out too often."

Smacking himself in the face once more, he followed it by a sigh. "Great, I'm surrounded by two weirdoes." Kingston nodded, placing his hand onto his chin only to get a stationed look of Dale entirely meanwhile, Lamaria stood twirling her foot into the dirt of the training field.

*"B-but I'm not weird..."* She mumbled.

"Regardless, since both of us have missed our mandatory training, it would be fitting for us to train with one another, Mushmouth. Since we are being placed onto a team together, it would only be right for us to learn of one another's abilities to see where we lack in a specific field and learn one's magic by participating in a sparring match."

Hand dropping from his chin to his side, he waited for whatever weird response Dale would give him.

Dale did a thumbs-up at Lamaria, of course, they had worked for some little time by then and it was just like she had said. He smiled at it though, this was truly something. Turtle though? Oh no, as much as she understood him, she got the wrong one. "Language," Dale tried mouthing, his eyes frowned, "Foreign."

Hopefully they had gotten what he meant, Dale whipped his forehead with his forearm. "A... Agree!" He said, almost a shout this time, actually one. Kingston passed the exam to be in Golden Dawn, maybe he had had other suggestions for Squads, Dale could definitely see it within him.

Due to his own affinity, Dale kind of possessed a knack for reading the signatures of others' auras. Sometimes it allowed him to understand words that he simply couldn't. "Go, we."

## Foreign Skills

Kingston nodded his head and reached to his side. In a single movement, he unbuckled the latch holding down his grimoire and drew it. Mentally commanding it to levitate to his side, Kingston had a rather surprised look on his face. "Good Dale," he led, allowing his unique grimoire to shine bright. "That just makes you super weird, Dale."

Pages flipping, Kingston's spellbook landed on one of the white pages with writing on it. "Let's see how you deal with this," lifting his hand a swiping it at the air he spoke; "**Yasaka Magatama**", allowing his mana to form into twelve jewels of light which darted towards Dale.

Dale himself had already been prepared, his Grimoire out when Kingston's own glowed a lot. His eyes widened once light shone upon the very world, his own book flipping wildly, he pushed up both of his hands into palms. These palms glowed as well, just like Kingston's, but they were red, this same aura sipped into the very atmosphere in front of him. Moving this very hands at blurring speed in circling manners, Dale gave shape to the paint over the atmosphere.

"**Rifrazione Rotante!**" He yelled out loud, a small cyclone of air appeared in front of him in order to intercept the light jewels. Normally, Light spells could pretty much pierce through any defenses, yet, Kingston would very soon find out how this wasn't just a simple defense. They were fast too, but required preparation, which allowed him to somewhat respond.

Through the use of his signature affinity, Heat, Dale filled the air around him with high temperatures, giving it a much firmer form. Plus, getting control over it. With this power and the rotation of his hands, Dale sought to use the refracting properties that the air could take when densed up in order to carry off the light jewels. Yes, density and rotating movement would redirect all of them off Dale swiftly.

Unexpectedly, Kingston was surprised to see his spell deflected so easily. It only meant that Dale was much stronger than he'd seemed to be. Blood pumping, Kingston grew a smile extending his foot out before vanishing and reappearing behind Dale without a warning. Silent and swift, much like a hawk.

Forging another jewel of light, he changed its shape to that of a pointed tip lance and threw it at Dale's opened rear. These chain of events unfolded fast and that was all thanks to the natural property of light being the fastest known entity of this universe. But he didn't leave it up to that. Commanding it wisely, his grimoire rolled over a page and rested.

*"I don't know what his affinity is. It will turn to be a hassle if I have to continue to fight without knowing the basics of what he can do."* Eyes watching the lance tear through the barrier of sound, he thought to himself, *"Fire?"*

Kingston surely had been something, entering Golden Dawn was but the tip of the Iceberg, Dale could read further into his aura, into his mana. Disappearing out of sight, it seemed that Kingston possessed more than simple tactics, of course. He was already more than a Prince and a simple squad member. Rather than disappearing, Kingston's mana had realocated itself behind Dale.

With a simple thought, Dale tried to shift his heat blockage from in front of him to his backside, it spun around his right side and narrowly reached its destination. Due to that, Dale gritted his teeth and took some steps, for the lance that Kingston threw barely shifted off from its initial course, grazing his shoulder and following into the distance. Some blood spilled from between the wound, painting his clothing, still, there wasn't really a lot coming out.

Rather than leave his barrier there, at that same time, Dale forced it to shoot off as well and towards Kingston, evident by the steam coming off it. It rotated more than ever, scorching the ground that stood below it, and took a more linear shape, akin to a spear like Kingston's. "**Fiocina Rotante!**"

Attack missing, Dale turned his own defense into an attack mimicking Kingston's own. From his current range, Kingston could not predict Dale's sudden shifting in mana. "Well damn," Kingston stated softly, running towards the spear as though he'd intended to throw himself at the attack.

Head bobbing, Kingston weaved the spear's head just barely, taking a slight slash across his neck which spat out blood in a quick burst much like Kingston's own attack had done to Dale. However, unlike Kingston's attack, Dale's had an after-effect which left a scorching burn on his neck. Grunting and eyes squinting, he thought to himself, *"So it is something heat-based... smelled like it."* Still running at Dale, Kingston held his hand up to which his grimoire flipped a single page.

"**Light Blade**," He uttered, kneading mana into his hand before forming it into a thin sword. Extending his foot, he took an extra step closing the distance between himself and Dale, swinging his blade at Dale's open back.

Dale hadn't all that time to shift around after his attack didn't seem to hit Kingston like he intended, its aura was still there. Not just sensor, Dale had trained even the control over his own mana and magic attacks. Red burst out of his back side once again, it emanated quite some mana, heating the very air behind him to create a temporary barrier of heated air to intercept Kingston's blade.

Despite this, given its sudden insurgence, the barrier was likely not to last much against the light blade. And it was for that very reason that Dale further used his magic control in the same timespan that he summoned a barrier. The spear that had grazed by Kingston instantly turned around, trying not to lose its momentum by doing a spin shift, once again, it was aimed for Kingston, but for his open back.

Continuing with the momentum of his swing, for a moment, Kingston had taken his senses from Dale's attack. Because it had missed, Kingston underestimated that his opponent would still utilized and already formed spell to his advantage. "Expect the unexpected," Kingston remarked, complementing Dale in an unorthodox manner.

Channeling mana composed of his light attribute, Kingston lifted his foot and took a step emitting a white light from his feet before disappearing from behind Dale only to reappear in front of him. "**Flash Step**." he called out, allowing his light blade to dissolve into thin air.

"Alright, Mushmouth. It looks like you fight better than you can talk." Kingston took steps towards Dale in a civil way, holding his forearm up. "As I mentioned before, I'm Kingston. From here on out, we'll be working together." Once close enough he stood still, but left his forearm up and waited for Dale to return his forearm bump. A sign of respect.

## Enemy Scourge

In the lone hallway of the Golden Dawn base of operations, Zakai stood facing Simon. He refrained from saying anything for the moment, as he stood in silence evaluating his squad member. He couldn't help but look at Simon with an eye of envy. He'd been known to have failed the Magic Knights Exam in the past, but when he finally did, he was offered an opportunity on the greatest squad within the Magic Knights and for that fact alone he could not praise him enough.

The First Class Senior Magic Knight took pride in wearing that robe. And Zakai saw it through each mission he completed. "Simon Lovelace," Zakai began, folding his arms across his chest while piercing into the very being of Simon. "I have a mission that only you can complete." Turning, he looked out the window of the building but still gave Simon his words.

"We have a new enemy: the Vampire Troupe. On Gregory's last invasion, he was ambushed by this organization. They overpowered him and defeated him, taking the village of Hilaria for their own land. Before I enter the details, do you believe you are able to stop this group?"

Simon kept his hands neatly tucked into the sleeves of his robes as he listened to his superior relaying the issue, he hadn’t heard any mention of the Vampire Troupe up until this point and so it would be difficult to determine their strength as a unit although whether or not he could defeat him seemed a likely case, his spells were uniquely well-suited to battling several opponents at once – after all that was one of the requirements of joining the Golden Dawn in the first place.

Once Zakai had fully briefed him on the situation he replied calmly: «In short, yes, I believe I can, provided that I receive every piece of intelligence we currently have on them. Ultimately, since they’ve banded together I assume that they individually aren’t altogether that powerful and if they gather to take me out I should be able to comfortably face the lot of them given my modest abilities in Dark Magic.»

Lovelace paused briefly, some might question his confidence given the possibility of facing such a large force on his own but his Captain was a man of great experience and a keen mind if Zakai had requested him to that probably meant that it was perfectly doable, for a member of the Golden Dawn at least.

Smirking, Zakai knew what Simon's response would be. But still, he had to ask if he'd be willing to do it, especially considering the sudden request. "That's good to know, Simon. But, as you may have deduced, I have chosen you for this because of your unique magic." Opening and closing his hand, Zakai gazed into Simon's eyes and in them, he saw the determination behind his answer.

"From what we managed to acquire from Gregory, we learned that, as their name suggests, they are Vampires. So, your theory on if they are good or not alone will be debunked with this next bit of information. They all have superhuman speed, strength and senses heightened on the level comparable to that of a Draconus' nose. They hunt in packs but choose to fight alone. Along with their affinity towards a magic attribute, they can suck both mana and blood from their targets." Zakai had a sudden flash of the state Gregory returned to the Golden Dawn's base in.

"Simon, you're an extraordinary mage. For this mission, I do not want you to invade Hilaria. I want you to go there and capture one of these Vampire Troupe members and bring them to the Clover Kingdom. Normally, we would destroy them, but this is not the case. We need to know, what is their motive and if they are working with another land in attempts to sabotage the Clover Kingdom. Can you do that?"

Lovelace was relieved to hear that they chose to fight alone, battling numerous high-speed enemies at once would be troublesome for him but fighting a single such enemy should prove substantially more manageable. He supposed that since George hadn't mentioned any of their affinities that he had been defeated by their speed and strength more than their magical abilities, that was troublesome news as it prevented him from gathering that crucial piece of intelligence.

He supposed he would need to gather what information he could when he confronted them in Hilaria - the sensible thing would be for him to approach them at nightfall if possible, where his magic would be at its zenith - so as to maximize his own advantage in their pursuit and ensure success for the Golden Dawn. Capturing one of them would have been an issue if he was the same man that he was five years ago, but as he was now there were a multitude of curses to easily entwine with his larger spells to ensure success in that regard.

After this internal monologue Simon smiled and nodded at his superior: "Certainly, Captain Zakai, I will begin the necessary preparations immediately and head out before morning.»