My Path to Magic 2: A Combat Alchemist (36 page)

"
Do not go there," someone grabbed her arm and pulled her deeper into the bushes. "Come with me!"

Lavender
noted that Derik looked strained, but not scared. The scout understood that the stormtroopers didn't catch the leaders of the sect. The NZAMIPS group was too small to control the entire factory's perimeter, and they focused their blow at the venue of the ritual, leaving the artisans plenty of opportunities for escape.

Lavender pondered
how many sectarians had fled. Later she figured out that just three artisans managed to escape police attention. Though, given the circumstances, three was also too many. Derik was skilled enough to rebuild the organization from nothing.

"No
, it's not the end, but we must immediately leave town!" the artisan sternly declared to his confused followers.

Lavender clasped her hands
, "My cat! How can I leave my kitty alone?"

"
Our friends will take care of your cat," Derik smiled falsely, and Lavender concluded that no other artisans remained in Septonville. "The Teacher should learn what happened as soon as possible!"

So
the leader of the sect wasn't in Septonville! Lavender stopped complaining - her plans changed: now she would grab Derik with both hands and not let him loose - he would bring her to the core of their organization. The scout sent an encouraging smile to Derik and prepared to work in earnest.

Mid
summer in Ingernika was marked with the arrest of a group of artisans in a small town not far from Redstone.  I browsed newspapers, trying to figure out who kicked my enemies' asses. To my surprise, newsboys, who should have discussed such a sensation at every corner, just copied the official press release with minimal comments and stupid reservations, such as, "the communiqué stated…"

When I shar
ed my astonishment with Johan, he said, "You do not understand, Thomas, how dangerous it is to talk about artisans! They won't forgive their foes for the disruption of their plans. We will see some horrible events soon."

"So the
sassy scribblers were AFRAID to say more?! I guess only NZAMIPS has the courage to confront the artisans!"

"
Violence leads to counter-violence!" Johan stuck to his guns.

"I
t is easy for you to call for peace," I chuckled. "You, the white, are not affected."

Johan
became embarrassed and shut up. The white mage urged me to reconcile, but the victims of the artisans were the dark; naturally, our positions did not coincide. From my point of view, our world was too small to host both the dark and the artisans.

S
ix white magicians, who were caught red-handed in Septonville, were sent to the scaffold. Political opposition loudly and boldly shouted about a "barbaric sentence". By the way, they never argued when the dark were condemned to death by fire.

Minister
Michelson in his interview declared the artisan sect an ideological gang of extortionists. I recalled that Michelson was my top boss and became proud of him: I worked for the organization that feared no one!

A
quiet whisper in my head spoiled my mood; I suspected it came from Messina Fowler's personality. The artisans' sect was organized, perhaps better than NZAMIPS. I pondered how long I would last, if I decided to challenge NZAMIPS. Not for long, really. And the white are generally more persistent than the dark. Would they get back at me sooner than I at them?

However, such thoughts
didn't linger in my mind.