When night fell, four people were eating their meals at a sumptuous table set in the dining hall of the Partheni house. While Niko was hosting with his daughter, Fernandez had accepted the invitation with his son.
"My friend, I know it was sudden, but thank you very much for trusting me!"
The gray-haired man wore a look of shame while looking at his deceased wife's brother.
"Uncle Niko, did you tell my father that my mother and little brother should be sent to my grandfather's side in a hurry?"
When Fernandez cast a stern glance at his son, the addressee of the question intervened.
"Yes, my smart nephew, I told your father that he needed to get them away from the city!"
Marcos dropped the spoon he raised to take a sip of his soup in the face of the answer, and food splashed all over him.
"I know, right now you are drowning in a chaos of questions, but you will receive all the answers in a short while!"
While the conversation at the dinner table continued in an air of mystery, outside the mansion, Nafız was receiving a detailed report about the events in the tribe.
"Ma'am, as you warned, the Main Orc Tribe attacked our region with about a thousand warriors and two attack-type war machines. Meanwhile, they also sent an envoy delegation to the city of Nikonya!"
"The result?"
Nafız and Alyon had guessed what would happen; the distribution of duties and orders they made while leaving were for precautionary purposes.
"Our Chief Alyon's daughter responded to the harassment against our lands with a hundred warriors and four attack-type war machines she took with her. She ambushed the army she met before reaching the tribe in a narrow pass and put them to the sword without losing a single warrior!"
"What is the status of the envoys who went to Nikonya?"
"In the news reported by our human warriors, it was written that City Lord Godfrey impaled the entire convoy and displayed them on the city walls."
Nafız, tickled pink with the last news she heard, became serious after a while and gave a strict order to Vahşiduvar.
"Tonight, I don't want anyone around the stone house in the south gardens. Coordinate your warriors to form a circle two hundred steps away!"
While the captain went to his duty urgently after his chief's order, Nafız set off for the stone house to start the preparations for the ritual that would save poor Eftelya from her pains.
While a tense atmosphere prevailed in the Partheni house before the big event, in another mansion in a remote part of the city, an angry man was slamming the goblet in his hand to the ground.
"What does this Astute think he is doing? First, he doesn't allow us to hire our own bodyguards, and when two murders occur, he leaves us defenseless like chickens waiting to be slaughtered!"
Due to Nafız's foresight, the two noble families had hired their own bodyguards beforehand, but the other noble family, the Agustus house, was caught unprepared after the sudden event. In their mansion, there were a few bodyguards brought from the gladiator school besides themselves and the servants.
"Father, I will go up to my room. I don't feel well at all!"
Epiphanes hadn't taken two bites of the food in front of him when he suddenly got up from the table and set off towards his room on the upper floor.
"Quintus my dear, something has happened to this boy for a while. Could he have a problem?"
Athena, waiting for the red wine the servant poured into her goblet to settle, called out to her husband while looking after her son.
"He has everything he wants, sleeps with whoever he wants, wakes up with whoever he wants. What more trouble could the gentleman have!"
The short fat man got up from his seat and spoke while looking out from the large double-winged window of the dining room. The last thing he would want to deal with right now was his spoiled son's caprices.
Many wealthy families in the city were dealing with the same troubles. When Niko finished his meal, he took his daughter and started walking towards the stone house where he lived with his wife. While the gray-haired man walking in front of the group showed the way, they were surrounded by about twenty orcs under Vahşiduvar's command.
Eftelya clung tightly to her father's arm out of fear; even Marcos, who always liked to show his courage, couldn't stop his hands from trembling. Two hundred steps before the abandoned building, the orc bodyguards stopped following and left the group alone.
"Hurry up, one of the ingredients is about to spoil!"
When a high-pitched voice reached their ears, the eyes of those in the group turned to the female orc at the door of the stone house. Marcos also lent a hand to Eftelya's palanquin, which Niko and Fernandez had to carry, and the group increased their speed and came to the side of the owner of the voice.
"Nafız, what is happening? How could you enter the forbidden house!"
While her father rejected her every time she insisted on seeing the house she was born in, why was Nafız given permission? To the question Eftelya asked in the face of the situation she couldn't make sense of, Nafız only smiled and opened the door all the way for them to enter the house.
After the three men carried Eftelya's palanquin into the living room, they threw themselves aside to recover their breathless state. Nafız, seizing the opportunity, was facing the beautiful girl.
"Little lady, after what you saw in the morning and what you will learn tonight, you will enter a path of no return. I can cure your illness, but the person who will make the final decision is only you!"
Nafız spoke continuing to look at the young girl's face, not allowing her to avert her eyes for even a second. Meanwhile, young Marcos, succumbing to his excitement, would shout joyfully.
"I didn't hear wrong, did I? Did you say you could cure my cousin?"
Seeing the young girl's indecisive state, Nafız turned to the father and son to give her a little more time to think and continued her words.
"What is in Eftelya's body is not an illness, but a curse. A malicious magic called the Soul Binding Technique!"
Marcos and his father were shaken by this news, but when their gazes turned to the young girl, they saw that she continued to think calmly.
"Fernandez, this magic is what caused your sister's death, and the perpetrator is City Lord Astute!"
Marcos jumped up in panic as his father suddenly slumped to the floor. Astonishment was written all over his face.
Fernandez, losing consciousness as his old pains surfaced, was looking at the ceiling without saying a single word when he came to his senses. After a while, words full of agony would come out of the mouth of the man who covered his face with his long hair.
"My sister, I missed you so much. What wouldn't I give to see that beautiful face of yours one more time!"
While the sadness settling in the environment hit the faces of those in the room like a hot desert wind, the young girl's weak voice rang in the ears.
"Uncle, my mother missed you very much too. Tonight, you will be able to see each other for the last time!"
The words coming out of the young girl's mouth were putting the final point to the day where interesting events happened one after another. While everyone except Nafız looked at her in amazement, Eftelya continued speaking with her naive voice.
"Daddy, I have a secret I kept inside for years; I apologize to you very much for this. My bringing Nafız to our house is not a coincidence; it was my mother's request. I have been hiding her inside my soul for years as both my curse and my hope!"
Fernandez and his son froze where they stood. Niko couldn't make sense of what he heard, looking with questioning eyes at the female orc who gathered them here.
After the young girl expressed herself, Nafız filled her lungs with a deep breath.
"The time has come for us to talk about the Soul Binding Technique."