The other side

The empire of Argos was home to one of the powerful mages but its existence was kept secret from the general public. No one but only the royal family knew of them.

Everything was fine until one unexpected thing happened.

"The Archmage went missing?" The emperor asked the messenger from the mage tower. The news was shocking indeed. The Archmage was the most powerful mage out there in the empire therefore it was the cause of worry because the Archmage maintained the stability of the empire, and protected it from any chaos. 

The empire cannot be left unprotected. The safety of the people was causing the emperor worry.

 "How long has it been since he went missing?" filled with worry, the emperor asked the messenger with the hope that he might have gone somewhere for his research. 

"It's been two and a half weeks, Your majesty. If he would have gone somewhere, he would always leave a letter behind saying so but when we went to check his office, there were none, it felt like he was simply gone, we, mages, don't feel his existence anywhere, there's something you can do that's why we came to ask for your help." 

"What is it that you need help with," the emperor asked

"There was a mirror in his office which went missing too, and as I recall, he called it a portal or something which changes its location once used." 

The emperor was deep in thought. He thought about it for a while. It was clear that someone had to find that mirror first. From the looks of it, they need someone from the royal family to help them with this. The emperor can't send the first prince, Francis, as he is away for some business. So, that means it has to be the second prince, Theo.

"Call the second prince, immediately!" He asked his assistant. It was an urgent matter. The Archmage can't be away from the empire for a long time or it will bring chaos.

After a few minutes, the second prince arrived. The assistant explained the situation to him. 

"Help the mages to the best of your abilities, Theo." The emperor left after leaving the matters to him.

"We would like you to come to the tower for further explanation." The messenger said. 

Theo went with the messenger to the tower. There, the mage adviser started explaining what might have happened.

"We believe that the Archmage is in some other dimension. The mirror is a portal but it takes two for it to be used. It can only be used in three circumstances- 1) Both souls should be willing to exchange. 2) If the person trying to exchange souls is stronger than the other person. 3) if the other person is in a weakened or near-death state." 

"What do you think could have happened, as for what I think, the Archmage didn't willingly exchange souls, and he is the strongest mage, so someone overpowering him would be nonsense and that takes us to the third option. Did he have any near-death experience before he went missing?" Theo asked the mages. He was quite sure that something must have happened to the Archmage because they weren't in contact for over a week. He wanted to find the Archmage as soon as possible not just because it was an order from the emperor but because he and the Archmage were close to each other. 

"He did have an incident after coming from the mission, his power was weakened and when we came to the treatment, he was not able to breathe properly, perhaps it was because of that, it happened?" 

"That means the one who exchanged soul is currently somewhere in this continent?"

Yes indeed and even if we find him, he won't go back willingly and that's why we need to have the Archmage, and for that, we have someone's soul"