Antonio Griffin, dressed in a black robe, slowly entered a somewhat dimly lit hall.
Heavy curtains completely covered every window, blocking out all outside light. Only a few candles flickered weakly inside, casting dappled shadows on the walls with their dim yellow light. A faint scent of candles filled the air, creating a tranquil and mysterious atmosphere. The hall's soaring dome was hidden in darkness, with only the flickering candlelight illuminating the exquisitely carved beams and pillars.
Antonio arrived at a large round table in the center of the hall, where ten men dressed in black robes were already waiting. Upon his arrival, they all stood up and bowed to him, or more precisely, to Antonio Griffin, the leader of the Arcane Society, not to Antonio Griffin, the Emperor of Gabella.
Antonio gestured slightly to them, indicating that everyone should take their seats.
He sat down first, the back of his chair being higher than the other ten people's, signifying his status as the leader.
"Ahem!" Council of Ten member Doughty Matte cleared his throat. He was second only to Antonio, the leader, in the Arcane Society, and he handled most of the organization's administrative affairs.
He also chaired this Council of Ten meeting.
Doughty Matte announced the first topic of the day: "Your Majesty, gentlemen, the first thing we will discuss today concerns Barnett and Audennell."
"What's there to discuss!" another Council of Ten member, Enoch Christopher, exclaimed. "These two guys haven't shown up for a long time. They're either dead or they've betrayed us. Just expel them from the organization and that's it!"
Barnett, a master of enhancement magic, has been missing for nearly ten years, and Audennell, a master of mental magic, has also been absent for a long time.
Both of them have been stripped of their Council of Ten membership due to their absence, and their positions have been filled by top performers in their respective magical domains.
Although curious about what had happened to them, the Arcane Society sent people to look for them, but so far they have not found any clues.
Having been reinstated with new members, the Council of Ten was no longer overly fixated on continuing the search for the two.
While a Spellcaster who becomes a member of the Council of Ten is certainly more powerful than a mortal, he is not a god after all.
Arcane Society has never imposed strict constraints on its senior members, only holding regular meetings to discuss important matters.
When a member is isolated, anything can happen.
It's possible to die from illness, jump into a river out of despair, encounter a villain but be killed because the magic prepared for the day didn't work, or even be bitten to death by a stray dog that suddenly appears while walking.
Especially someone like Barnett, who is used to being unconventional, often secretly does his own thing behind everyone's back, and afterwards he would call it a surprise for everyone.
However, many of the things he did in the past were indeed of great benefit to the Arcane Society; it's just unclear exactly where he went wrong during his last act of mischief.
All that everyone knew was that Barnett's last mention within the organization was that he was going to Northwest Bay in the Kingdom of Aldor to cause some trouble for the Aldo Royal Family, and then he disappeared without a trace.
Several wars have indeed broken out between lords in Northwest Bay, which should be related to Barnett, but who knows if he has already left Northwest Bay for somewhere else?
It cannot be said that the Arcane Society was indifferent to the fate of its members, after all, it later sent two heavyweight members— Mariana and Audennell —to Northwest Bay to investigate Barnett's disappearance.
However, according to Mariana, who returned, the investigation yielded no results.
Not only that, but Audennell, his student Derson Plante, and another psychiatric apprentice Andy, who were sent to investigate, also did not return.
This is outrageous; Mariana has no idea where Audennell and his group went.
At the time, Audennell led Deson and Andy as one team, while Mariana led Nathan and Edward as another. They went in two separate groups and returned in two separate groups as well. Mariana and the others were going south to Horn Bay to assist the New Protestant Alliance in their war against the Horn Bay Church, while Audennell and the others returned directly to Gabella by land.
As a result, Mariana returned to the capital after the Horn Bay War ended, but Audennell and the others, who should have returned even earlier, were nowhere to be found.
Since Antonio effectively seized military and political power in the Gabella Empire, the Arcane Society was no longer his sole source of strength. He became increasingly dissatisfied with the lax behavior of its senior members and thus established various rules, making the constraints on the organization's top leadership increasingly stringent.
The most important thing is that the organization must keep track of the whereabouts of all high-level members. Where they are going, what they are doing, and when they will return must all be reported to the organization before they set off.
The members of the Council of Ten whispered among themselves around Barnett and Audennell.
Mariana, dressed in a black robe, sat silently in her seat, without uttering a word.
As the hall grew noisy with the chatter of the crowd, she leaned alone against the carved wooden chair, like a solidified flame. Her long, wine-red hair cascaded over her shoulders, gleaming with a dark bronze luster in the candlelight. Her eyes were closed, and her long eyelashes cast shadows on her fair cheeks. She sat there quietly, resting with her eyes closed.
Of all those present, only Mariana knew what had happened between Barnett and Audennell.
Audennell had gone mad. In an attempt to uncover the truth about Barnett, he tried to steal memories from the brain of Mariana's eldest son, Paul Greiman. However, his magic went awry at some point—a rare occurrence for a master of mental magic like Audennell —resulting in severe mental damage that turned him into a madman who spent his days rambling incoherently.
Even Deson, the student who assisted him in casting spells, began to act strangely—he suddenly became a fanatical admirer of Paul.
"Fanatical worshipper" is already a very polite way of putting it.
As for Barnett, after Mariana and Paul confided in each other, she also learned about what had happened to her son.
After the Usurper War ended, Barnett, unwilling to accept his investment failure, waited halfway to teach Paul a lesson, only to be riddled with bullets by firearms.
Mariana was determined to keep these two secrets for her son and not reveal a single word to her associates, even though she herself was a member of the Arcane Society.
At the same time, she strictly forbade her other son, Nathan, from saying anything about Barnett and Audennell.