"You spent some time now explaining how we can help you! But what exactly will I get for the trouble!?" Asked Storm.
Tempus frowned.
"Haven't we already helped you enough already?! You will deny your enemy a powerful weapon! And without our help, you wouldn't have even gotten past the front door!" Exclaimed Tempus.
"We didn't ask for your help and we would have figured out a way past the problem. But if we aid you with apprehending your fugitive, then we will most likely be unable to complete our own task. Shouldn't we be recompensated for that?" Asked Storm.
The truth was that his mission was just to disrupt the Order's attempt to secure funding anyway. The chaos that will ensue from these actions will be enough for that.
He already had plenty of information about potential Order backers thanks to Celestial spying on the people attending the event through his broach.
But Storm was hoping Tempus didn't know that. The Djinni were extremely wealthy and well connected and could provide a lot of aid if he played his cards right.
"I want the aid of you people in our fight against The Order. " stated Storm without hesitation.
Tempus immediately shook his head.
"My people don't enter large scale wars due to the amount of devastation it causes to the land when we fight!
I assume you don't want the continent reduced to a wasteland, do you?" Retorted Tempus.
"If I can help it, 'no'. " Stated Storm.
"Instead I'll give you a crate full of elemental crystals filled with my own energy. You'll find them especially 'potent' for your Djinn partner. Will help you increase his size and strength considerably ." Offered Tempus.
"... deal..." stated Storm after a moment's consideration.
They quickly agreed that it would be best if Tempus stayed around the party venue and continue to mingle. Once the rogue Djinn is identified, he would take him down.
With the bargain now struck, Storm and Aurora left the balcony and looked at the hundreds of people currently gathering at the celebration.
"We're definitely not going to sniff him out through all these people!!" Stated Storm.
"Agreed, we should make our way to the water elemental control area and release them, it's the best way to flush him out." Stated Aurora.
Storm watched the several different doorways that led out of the room and into the rest of the palace . A Order knight was stationed at each one of the doorways and were watching each guest closely.
The doorway Storm was currently watching was the one Tempus said was the closest to the water elemental control room.
It was located on the second floor of the venue room on the right-hand side.
"Need to get past them somehow. I could use a distraction. " stated Storm.
Aurora scanned through the numerous people in the room until her eyes fell on a particular partygoer. He was already highly inebriated and were already making a nuisance of himself.
Aurora grinned when she saw him.
"I might have an idea! Get ready to move when everything is all clear."
She slowly walked through the masses of people until he was close to the drunken man.
She brushed up against him before letting out an offended cry and twisting around to slap the man in the face.
"You drunken brute!!! You dare to touch the wife of the Crimson Prince!!!?" Yelled Aurora.
After her slap, the man had collapsed and was currently on the ground groaning in response. Everyone's attention was focused on the pair.
The drunken man got up red in the face with anger, it looked for a moment like the man intended to slap her back and Storm was getting ready to tear the man limb from limb if he laid a hand on her.
Fortunately for the drunken man, he decided not to respond with blows, but with words instead.
"You damn cow!! What the hell did you do that for!! I was only..." Yelled the Drunken man.
The commotion was enough to draw their host, Carlos Ruthhall to them as he quickly tried to defuse the growing diplomatic incident.
"That's enough of you, Orden!!! You've been causing a nuisance of yourself this entire time!!" Yelled Carlos.
Tempus Stormcaller soon approached the confrontation and added further fuel to the fire. Since it looked like the confrontation could become violent, several gaurds left their posts and stepped closer in the event that they were called up to intervene.
"Yes!!" Thought Storm and he quickly weaved through the crowd towards the now unguarded doorway.
As much as he would have liked to see how the confrontation would end, he had a job to do and so he slipped past the now unguarded doorway.
He found himself in a large hallway lit up with several torches, several doors leading to unknown rooms were on his left, while on his right were windows that gave a breathtaking view of the countryside.
He carefully followed the directions Tempus had provided, keeping an eye out of any guards that might be patrolling the halls.
He saw the room that Tempus had described in front of him, but instead of attempting to enter it immediately, he entered a room on his left that was used as a study of some kind.
Storm had been warned beforehand by Tempus that the room where the elementals were kept was permanently kept locked with one key currently held by Carlos , but that a spare key was kept in the steward's desk drawer.
It didn't take him long to find his prize, making sure to keep everything else exactly the way it was in case someone came to the room before he was done.
He was just about to leave, when Storm heard two voices talking in the corridor, and clearly getting closer.
He looked around frantically and ducked behind the desk just before the door flung open and an unknown man stepped in with a clearly irate Carlos Ruthhall.
"What the hell is that inbred lowborn commoner thinking refusing to attend!!? How am I supposed to convince the misers to open their coin purse when the hero they've come to see can't even bother to attend his own celebration!!?"
"I believe his exact words were: 'I was hired to fight a war, not to play dress up with stuffy blue bloods, sir." Stated the unknown man .
Storm suspected he was some kind of Steward or Man servant of the family.
"What was the council of kings thinking when they appointed the man to the position!? He understands nothing of politics!! If he did, then he would know that if he wants their support, then he has to give them what they consider to be an appropriate portion of his time." Stated Carlos.
"He did send his second in command though? That Theodore fellow, I believe?" Stated the Stewart.
"They want to see the legendary Slayer himself!! Not his second rate lackey!!" Exclaimed Carlos.
He leaned up against the desk as he desperately tried to calm down. Storm tucked himself deeper under the desk and prayed that the man doesn't walk around to the back of the desk.
After a moment Carlos sighed.
"I suppose I have to go face the 'ravening horde of sycophants ' and break the news to them, don't I?" Stated Carlos exhausted.
"Tell the servants to break open our finest wine casks!! Perhaps that will calm them!? And if it doesn't, then I'll need something to drown my sorrows in!!" Ordered Carlos.
The Stewart bowed in response and both men soon left.
Storm crawled out from under the desk and rushed out before anyone could return.
Entering the elemental control room, He saw two gigantic elementals chained to a blue crystal hovering over a pedestal by magical tethers.
Both elementals almost touched the roof of the room and was entirely made out of water.
They had a vaguely humanoid shape with two arms. Though no legs at all, just two large pools of water .
The one elemental had a face and neck that kind of resembled a large serpent, while the other had a fish head and mouth.
Storm broke the mystic chains holding them effortlessly.
"You're free now!!" Stated Storm.
The elementals gave no reaction, nor did they leave their positions. It took Storm a moment to grasp the problem. These creatures weren't sentient and so had no understanding of the concept of 'freedom' or 'captivity'.
They simply understood 'orders' and as none was provided, they were waiting for him to issue some.
"Uhhh.... go to the main reception and drench everything before fleeing to the countryside!?" Stated Storm hesitantly.
The elementals suddenly lost shape and became two large waves of water.
Before he could do anything to stop them, he was swept off his feet and sent tumbling with the flow of the water down the corridors back towards the celebration.