The moment during which each of the Heroes in the room looked to the newcomers and saw the figures of the all-too-familiar Saint was one where their minds went completely blank, as all thoughts flew away and were replaced by extreme, incredulous, surprise.
It was the same for the high seat, who was actually the one who saw it first. Because he was the one who had teleported them in, they had been standing beside him, so when he felt a change in the air beside him, he had turned, and seen the messaging orbs even as their own lit up in the center of the room.
And hence, after the moment passed, he was also the first to recover his senses.
As soon as he did so, something felt as if it had… changed, in the atmosphere.
He had always been sensitive to minute magical changes, but right now, there was no time at all to study this hunch of his.
Instantly, he activated all of the formations that he was the master of.
The mansion that they were in was situated on the top of a tall mountain which had apparently been the home of the founder of the house many, many generations ago.
The man had risen in status and then taken ownership of the mountain after the village he had been born in was destroyed for reasons unknown.
It was supposed to be a supremely impregnable fortress which was defended from both the land and the sky by hundreds of levels of barriers that were ready to be activated at any time, and right now, as soon as all of them sprang to life, the high seat let out a sigh of relief.
His job was not done, though. Activating the more complex formations needed concentration, so with serious eyes, he called upon them to create an invisible cage around the newcomers, who had still not recovered.
As soon as he did so, he applauded his own reflexes, which had allowed him to act and settle the situation even before everyone had come back to their senses.
On putting the shock behind them, the elders nodded appreciatively as they saw that the six newly-arrived individuals were now trapped, perfectly. Unless they were Peak Heroes, it was impossible for them to break out, so without further ado, the high seat began the questioning.
"Why did you come here? And how did you avoid following the orders when the Church sent them?"
Useless questions would just waste time, so the high seat got straight to the point.
His son was still looking around blindly, and it was to be expected that he had not known that he had brought along a few traitors to a family that was filled with them.
He had not taken the oath about the secret, yet, but he would soon do so, as soon as they were done here.
Deciding this, the high seat waited for an answer, and when he saw that the five got guarded expressions on their faces and did not speak, he raised one hand.
Burning lashes appeared from everywhere in the cage, which struck everyone inside. He could have made them miss his son, but he did no such thing.
Barriers sprang up around all of them, but he spoke in a gloating voice.
"We have all the time in the world to whittle down your barriers. Meanwhile, I'll keep releasing toxic fumes inside so that you use up all your air, too… There are countless ways for me to make you talk, so as it appears that we are, or at least, were on the same side, I suggest that you answer."
Hearing him say this, the five discussed something between themselves, and after they were done, it was a woman who stepped forward and spoke.
He had not had the time to study their features so far, so he did so now - they were three men and two women, with four of them looking like they were of the same age, while the last seemed a bit older. Their features were unremarkable, with nothing special standing out, and they were all wearing black cloaks to cover whatever clothes they wore inside.
"You first. From the looks of it… This entire family went over! I can't believe it! I knew that the Church was successful… But I did not expect them to have this much success! Why weren't you at the Battle? With this many Heroes, they might even have turned the tide! We're trapped here, but a considerable number of people in the Order know that we came here. If we do not return, or if we are found dead, questions will be raised which you will not be able to answer. It is the time of war, so something as important as the disappearance of 5 talented Heroes will be investigated deeply - and I doubt that you will be able to hide when that damnable kid steps in. You are right - we were on the same side, so maybe we can work something out. But I insist on only giving up our secrets after I see that I am among those I can trust."
As everyone began to think on the words that she said, the high seat could not help but admit that she was smart.
She was right - they could not afford an investigation, not in such a crucial time, and especially not when the orb was shining so brilliantly in the middle of the table.
Ignoring her for a moment, he turned to one of the elders, whose eyes were closed while his hands were raised in its direction.
He was the one who had worked out a solution using an ancient object left behind by the very first members of the family. Very few people knew that their family had stood from the time of the Empire, itself, and when most had chosen to run, the Eskilons had seen it as an opportunity and had stolen as many trinkets as possible.
The difference between the trinkets that were present now, and those from that age was probably as vast as that between them and Artefacts, so they had barely managed to escape the jaws of death that had almost closed around them.
Everyone waited for his verdict, and when he finally spoke, they hung on his every word.
"The presence of those other messaging orbs overrode the formation we placed on ours. No further changes need to be made - we can repeat the process to deactivate the orb again."
Many sighs of relief could be heard due to this news, and as the six in the cage watched the room, they understood that they had been blocked from hearing something.
With the matter settled, the high seat once again turned to his prisoners.
He thought for a few seconds, and then conversed with the elders.
Finally, they reached the same consensus: if they were scouted by the Church, then it meant that these Heroes must definitely possess great talent or power, which made them valuable individuals to bring over to their side.
So, after telling himself that he would make it happen, he started speaking.
"We used a trinket from the age of the Empire which blocks an object from receiving a signal. It barely worked on an object as complex as something sent by the Church with all of us working together. Its complexity was so high that some of us almost failed and put the entire plan in jeopardy, but we managed to scrape through."