The Guild Hall was filled with even more chatter than usual before a Meet. None of Magicians seemed to know, or even be able to guess, what had happened. That however did in no way stop them from speculating.

More than once Rothen heard someone say that Akkarin and Sonea had come back, but others also considered that the rumours about king's divorce would be confirmed at last. Rothen felt a prick of guilt, as he listened to two young healers, who thought that Yalzin and Yikmo might be rebuked for the argument they had had the night before. Apparently it had almost ended in a duel.

But of course Rothen and Dannyl already knew what the Higher Magician's would announce.

Lord Osen tried to end the chatter by ringing the gong but achieved just the opposite as most Magicians noticed only then that Lorlen was missing.

It took another chime of the gong and a magically amplified harrumph from Balkan for the Guild magicians to go to their seats and fall silent.

"We, the Higher Magicians, have to make an important announcement. Yesterday night we discovered that…" Osen's voice failed him at this point. Rothen felt a gust of sympathy for the young magician; he knew that he and Lorlen had worked closely together. Yet he wished that the Administrator's Assistant would continue so that they would finally learn why Lorlen had been arrested.

"We discovered that Administrator Lorlen possessed – and made use of- a Black Magical item," Osen finished hurriedly.

The silence that then fell over the Guild Hall was unrivalled by anything Rothen had ever experienced. He himself was not as shocked as most of his colleagues though. He could very well imagine that Akkarin had forced Lorlen to use the item, whatever it was.

He felt a jolt of hatred towards Akkarin rising in his chest. How many more lives would he destroy?

Because of him Sonea, Rothen's Sonea, had been exiled and Lorlen would be stripped of his office.

He curled his hands into fists, wishing that he and Lorlen had informed the rest of the Guild as soon as they had learnt of Akkarin's use of Black Magic. Everything would have been different then. Sonea would still be save and sound in Imardin…

"Are you even listening?" Dannyl whispered with a frown.

Rothen nodded even though it was not true. Dannyl shot him one last sceptic glance then turned back to Lord Balkan.

"… Lord Sarrin then reached for my hand, to show me what he had discovered without Lorlen noticing," the Head of Warriors reported. "As Sarrin was also touching the blood ring, both of us then heard the voice of the former High Lord Akkarin. He obviously didn't notice right away that he was not talking to Lord Lorlen, because what he said was addressed at the Administrator. In his words showed without any doubt that Lorlen and Akkarin were still in touch."

This shocked Rothen as much as everyone else. Was Lorlen a traitor as well? Had he approved of what happened to Sonea the whole time? But why had he told Rothen about what Sonea had seen then? Wouldn't it have been easier to ignore Sonea's memory as she could not have recognised it for what it was?

But maybe they had feared that Rothen would discover the memory himself and unlike an uneducated slum girl would have known what it meant…

Rothen felt his stomach clench as he start to understand that this indeed was a valid possibility. When he realised that Akkarin and Lorlen had plotted together all along, the room started to tilt. The thoughts in his head spun around, whirling together.

Had Akkarin even initiated Sonea to get a powerful source of power? Had he planned to go to Sachaka to attack the Guild when they would expect it least? Did he have allies among the Ichani? What was Sonea's role in all of this?

Nausea rose in his stomach, as the scenarios in his head grew more and more terrifying. He did not hear Dannyl asking if he was all right, he didn't even notice slipping off his chair.

Dannyl walked up and down the hospital floor. He was still deeply shaken by Rothen's collapse. For the split of a second he had even feared that Rothen might have died, but then his former Guardian had started to pant and twist violently.

"Lord Dannyl, would you mind sitting down? You're driving me crazy running around like this."

Dannyl shot Lord Balkan an apologetic glance and sat down next to him.

The Head of the Warriors looked pale and as if he was lacking several nights of sleep. On Balkan's other side Osen sat, starring down on the the floor with an empty gaze. Dannyl guessed that he was also still haunted by what Rothen had shouted as he lay on the floor, accusations against Akkarin and Lorlen both.

Dannyl cursed himself for not noticing what state Rothen had been in. Of course he had known that Rothen was shocked about Sonea's exile, but that had been true for most of the Guild.

"But of course it was worse for him," Dannyl mused. "He and Sonea knew that Akkarin was using Black Magic. When Akkarin took Sonea as his novice, he knew it was not to honour her but to take her hostage."

Dannyl got to his feet again and started to stride up and down the length of the room again like a caged animal.

What a shock it must have been to Rothen that Sonea had voluntarily followed Akkarin into exile…

The door to the examination room opened and Dannyl turned quickly towards Lady Vinara.

"How is he? Will he be fine soon?" he asked.

"Don't worry," she assured him, "it's nothing serious… The previous events just … stressed him out a little."

Dannyl released his breath in relief.

"Can I see him?"

Vinara exchanged a look with Balkan, but the Head of Warriors just shrugged and pointed to her green healer robes.

Vinara nodded. "He's asleep, though. We've given him a sedative."

She leaned toward Dannyl and continued in a lower voice. "Does he take a lot of sleep medicine? We had to give him a lot of Nemmin as though his body used to it."

"I don't know," Dannyl replied helplessly.

Vinara nodded and stepped aside so he could walk past her.

Rothen was still pale, and even though his breathing was even the twitching of his fingers told from the demons he was still fighting.

"I can't believe Lorlen is a traitor," someone whispered behind Dannyl. He turned to see Lord Osen standing behind him.

"I can't either, but maybe Rothen knows more about this matter. After all he also knew about Akkarin's use of Black Magic."

"Do you think," Osen took a deep breath, "that Lorlen … that Lorlen also learned to use Black Magic?"

Dannyl felt the urge to call that impossible, but then he realized that he would have thought most of the events of the past few days impossible.

"I don't know," he finally said.

Osen nodded slowly. "Thank you for telling me what you think," the Administrator's Assistant said and left the room without another word.