Jason turned with a serious expression to everyone in the room.
"If I want to reach Riyad, then I’ll need to make about two hundred and forty jumps. It’ll be a long journey, and since I have to also cross the territory of a Titan, it won’t be easy either. But I have to go."
"You mean ’we’ have to go."
Gina spoke up as she held Jason’s hand with a serious look on her face, and Jason looked down at her for a moment before nodding. Jason knew that it would be more efficient if he went on this mission alone, but Jason didn’t know what the Machina were going to try to do to Gina since she was the one who had heard their conversation. It was just more reasonable of him to take her along to protect her.
"Wait, this is crazy! You’re going to travel across two hundred dimensional tears just because of some tip from some being that you don’t even know? What if the First Seat is lying to us!?"
Agiel suddenly stepped forward with a frown! She wasn’t happy at all about the entire situation, and the fact that Jason was going to be traveling such a far distance away from her rubbed her the wrong way! They only came here for a trial, but all of a sudden, it seemed like they were fighting for their lives! Jason turned to Agiel and levelled her with a heavy look that forced her to calm down before he spoke to everyone.
"I’ve been branded as a Black Enigma by the Machina, and they’ll be coming to arrest me within the next hour. If I am not out of here before then, I’ll be captured and taken to prison."
The entire room went silent at that news, and even Gina looked up at Jason with absolute shock on her face! Jason knew that a lot of the mistrust he had for the Machina was only due to the strange feeling he always had when interacting with the Overlord, and there was nothing concrete that he could actually pin on them, so it was completely normal for the others to think that the Machina weren’t actually after anything! But the mere fact that the Machina branded Jason so soon after C’thlyanu warned Gina about them meant that there was something that they were hiding!
Riyala immediately got up, and she turned to the Radagan guards and spoke authoritatively.
"Guard the doors and make sure no one gets past you. If you see any Machina soldiers, then alert us immediately!"
The guards all headed for the doors, and Riyala turned to Jason and asked him if he needed anything for his journey! He had to leave this world as quickly as possible! Riyala knew what it meant for someone to be branded as a Black Enigma by the Overlord, and it wasn’t something that she ever hoped Jason would have to go through. The Overlord couldn’t just kill Jason because he was branded, but he could capture Jason and put him in prison until a meeting of the council members is called, and they decide on whether or not Jason should be allowed to return to Earth. This single act by the Machina showed that they were trying to silence Jason, and Riyala was not going to allow that to happen.
"Wait, when did they brand you as a Black Enigma? And why?"
Katarina spoke up from beside Agiel, and Agiel answered coolly.
"It’s because of how strong he is. They don’t think someone with his level of strength should exist on Earth since it disrupts the natural order of things. If Jason didn’t have his undead army, then they wouldn’t be able to brand him. But the fact that he is this strong and he has thousands of powerful creatures under his command means he could take control of our entire world, and no one would be able to put up a fight. According to Primordial Law, that is enough reason to brand someone as an Enigma."
Agiel spat out her last words through grit teeth. Agiel understood the politics behind what was happening right now, and she also knew that this wasn’t something new, but that doesn’t mean she liked it. Agiel couldn’t believe these bastards were willing to stoop so low! Agiel had been a bit skeptical about the First Seat when she heard what Gina said earlier, but now that she had seen how far the Machina were willing to go to further their goal, it was obvious that there was really something wrong with this deal.
"Is this something that they can just do? It’s obvious that they’re only doing this to capture Jason, so it should be breaking some sort of law."
Katarina spoke up in worry, and Jason nodded.
"They’ve been threatening me with this for a while now, so there’s no need to be surprised. I’ll go to Riyad and find what’s hidden there. We don’t know if we can trust C’thlyanu, but it’s worth a shot. In the meantime, I’ll need all of you to get ready for the worst-case scenario. We don’t know what lengths Rubik will go to to make sure he gets me, so forget everything that I told you here. As far as you’re concerned, you had no idea that I was branded, and you don’t know where we’re going. Riyala, I need to speak to you."
Jason motioned for Riyala to come with him to the corner of the room, and he walked over there with Gina. Agiel felt another surge of annoyance rise through her when she heard what Jason had to say, and she cursed before walking away! This was exactly why Agiel hated politics so much! It was this same politics that killed her mother and father, and it would have killed her too if Jason’s father hadn’t been there to help her! If Agiel had been in Jason’s shoes, then she would’ve already stormed the world of the Machina by now!
At the side, Jason, Gina, and Riyala were standing close together, and Riyala listened as Jason gave her a basic breakdown of what he had found in the Yellow Ash Mountains. During the conversation, Jason debated on whether or not he should tell Riyala about Rumunaga’s core, but Jason eventually decided not to mention it, and he instead told Riyala that he had just been summoned by Rumunaga so they could talk. Riyala felt her eyes widen when Jason said that he spoke to Rumunaga, and she was even more shocked when she heard what Rumunaga had told him!
"There is enough dragonstone in those mountains to last your people for generations. If you give it to the Machina, then they will likely bleed those mountains dry for profit. You can’t give it to them."
Riyala was shocked! Jason had spoken to Rumunaga? How in the world did that happen? Riyala asked Jason to describe the person that he met and when Jason gave Riyala a basic description, Riyala felt even more shocked. The dragon from Jason’s description perfectly matched the dragon that she sometimes saw in her dreams and visions! That was definitely Rumunaga! But why did Rumunaga feel the need to talk to Jason rather than her? And if what Jason was saying is true, that would mean that Rumunaga also knew about the deposits, but he just hadn’t told her yet.
"But... are you sure? None of the surveys we’ve done has shown any major dragonstone deposits. From what we’ve seen, the deposits aren’t even more than what we have at the Gravine Valley."
Jason told Riyala that she had to trust him. Jason didn’t like hiding things from Riyala the way he was, but he wanted to respect the trust that Rumunaga had placed in him. Riyala could speak directly to Rumunaga and receive answers from him in the form of Prophecies, so Jason told her to speak to Rumunaga as well. Jason was sure that Rumunaga would tell Riyala what she needed to know.