I wasn’t long before Jacob and Fiona joined them. They sat down and had lunch, as they told each other what had happened, but Fiona decided to omit a little detail from her story. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt it would lead nowhere right now, so it would be best to deal with it latter.
Night fell, but the van never came out. They speculated they might have exited through another gate, but avoided assuming anything more conclusive. When the time came, they passed through the gate, and everyone stood for a moment in awe, except for Tabitha, who had assumed this would happen. The decaying trees, and abandoned feel of the place vanished as soon as they crossed the gate, revealing a beautiful and vast garden, very illuminated. Over the first hill they saw some sort of gazebo, with some benches and a fountain nearby. A few people were engaged in a conversation over some drinks.
In front of them was a limo waiting to take them to the mansion. A young girl with fair skin and blond hair greeted them. They immediately recognized her voice from the phone, it was his secretary.
“Greetings, I’m Azelia, personal secretary of Mr. Bergin. We were not sure whether you’d be coming with your own car, but since no normal driver would not come here we decided to wait for you here.”
“Thank you, we appreciate it.” Tabitha stepped forward. “We were quite surprised when the taxi driver began to panic, without a reason, but we figured you would want to protect this place from unwanted and unprepared visitors.” Azelia just nodded confirming the statement. “Anyway, this is Jacob, Fiona and Estela, I’m Tabitha.”
“I were given to understand there would be six visitors, what happened to the other two?”
Fiona explained. “There was a problem in the United States of America with one of our clients, so the other two went there to take care of it. I hope this is not a problem.”
“Not at all, just a little extra food this evening. Come, let’s take the limo, we’ll see Mr. Bergin and you dinner should be ready in a few minutes.”
The limo was very spacious, a variety of drinks inside a bucket of ice in the center. They traveled through the garden for quite some time. It was a great sight, well trimmed bushes, beautiful flowers, fountains. Occasionally they saw people dancing, walking and talking, very casual and natural. Mansion was quite a misnomer, it was more like a castle. Azelia explained how the Bergin family was a long one, dating from 1400s, they were nobles, and despite all the wars, they remained neutral during most conflicts, preparing the territory for defense. Without active participation, they were forgotten from history, but their titles remained, and now they have this piece of land which they use their knowledge of magic to keep it isolated.
They were taken to the second floor of the castle past a huge hallway to the left wing. Oddly there was no one beside them. The end of the hall was distinctively hotter than the rest, and when the door opened the heat fled the room, trying to reach the open window. Inside a medieval looking forge contrasted with an arcane workbench and high tech computers on the other side. A strong shirtless man and a strong girl in black sleeveless shirt took care of the forge, taking metal and heating it up. One guy with long hair was working at the workbench, it glowed blue and there was some sort of mechanism on it. On the computers there was a girl with short pink hair, she seemed to be analyzing the specs of various objects.
A man, with light brown hair and a white arrow shaped beard, took a piece of metal and with a pair of pliers he twisted it around on a metal table, obviously trying to follow some blue prints on the table. Without a shirt,everyone saw his white but very strong body, but despite his strength he didn’t have a huge body, he could fit into a suit and pose as an executive without effort. Azelia walked towards him and announced his guests. He stopped playing with his toys, took off the dark glasses he wore for protections revealing his dark green eyes.
“Welcome friends, I’m Fabrice. Sorry for not being more presentable at this moment, Azelia will take you to the dinning hall while I take a shower, we’ll talk after you’ve eaten.”
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