Down a singular narrow trail, Veyric pursued his next destination. The silent and haunting woods he wandered through had been left behind. The wildlife of the night sang with vigor, crickets chirping, and flickers of light coming from fireflies—a faint breeze wafted through, tugging at Veyric’s hood, the chill of it flowed over his stab wound—reminding him of the initial pain with a stinging sensation in his shoulder. His grip tightened on the bag he was carrying, eyes looking ahead into the far distance—visually, he was able to perceive what was in front of him, but the landmarks didn’t match what he saw in Ryul’s other entries. It was an endless sight of trees, but they were not wild and uncultivated. Each tree had a full crown of vibrant, dark green leaves, completely free of discoloration or brown leaves—the trunks tapered smoothly from their bases—and, moving upwards, they became more narrow. Individually, the trees were upright and didn’t hunch in peculiar directions. While walking, he saw a blue light flare from the corner of his eyes—it came from within the bushes and was entirely off trail. Veyric inched towards it, ducking under a tree branch and pushing apart the bushes until locating the blue light. When emerging from the bushes, in the far distance, he could see a towering manor on the hills. Knights patrolled around in the dark, clad in armor and wielding a variety of weapons. The light that lured him off-trail came from a statue of a knight with a blue, glowing jewel in the pommel of its stone-architectured sword. He crouched down on one knee, eyes flickering over the guarded manor—staring at one of the knights before averting his gaze to the many others. He moved along the border of bushes, changing his perspective to the back of the manor. Knights were sitting on crates, their helmets off and weapons laid on the ground—Veyric’s gaze glinted, fists clenching while he forced his gaze towards the front entrance—then back towards the rear. He stood to move—but a sharp, gnawing pain in his shoulder stole his breath and forced him to a knee again. He let out a guttural grumble, clamping his hand over his shoulder while his breath became ragged. The bag he was carrying dropped beside him, the books marginally peaking out. The burning pain continued—and the overpowering sensation of a cold sweat ran through him. He scratched at the grass, clenching his fists tighter. For several minutes, his breath came out sharp and arduous. The burning lingered, and his knees trembled—but he pushed himself up and snatched the bag from beside him. He trailed up the hill, using the bushes and trees as cover to advance up the hill. Veyric reached up the hill, hiding behind a tree and observing the knights—their movements were lax and unguarded—too engrossed in a game of cards to notice their immediate surroundings. Glancing further, Veyric spotted a passage and approached it—his footsteps softened on the ground, his boots just barely making a sound against the grass. Once nearing the area of knights, he kept low to the ground and snuck behind large crates to advance towards the passage. Making it past the guards, he let out a sharp exhale—then walked down the steps of a narrow corridor lit by torches. The narrow corridor soon opened up into a massive room with pillars and torches that created a dim lighting—engraved into every inch of the walls were soft, blue glowing symbols of runes. There were no other footsteps beside his own. Traversing through the room finally led him to the iron vault guarding the room of forbidden knowledge that he sought—he was mere inches away from it, yet his body couldn’t take another step forward. An out-of-place tingling brewed beneath his skin while he gazed at the barrier of mana protecting the vault. The barrier had a web of runes dancing along its exterior, glowing, flashing, and streaming across it—the runes all meandered around a red, gigantic, flaring rune. It pulsed softly, and Veyric could see the swarming amounts of energy coming from it. His hand lingered out before reaching towards it, drawing out the strength from his own mana. The blue-colored energy faintly danced along his fingertips before bursting around his entire hand. He swallowed hard, pushing his palm out and making direct contact against the exterior of the barrier. His energy and the barrier’s energy collided—pressure tightened its coil around the room, howling winds picking up and flailing his hood off his head. Veyric’s eyes glinted, the runes in his horns flashing from gold to red for a brief moment. A hissing sound was picking up at the contact point, steam bursting off his hand in copious amounts and being carried by the heavy winds.
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BANG!
A deafening explosion of mana releasing occurred—blasting Veyric away and forming a widespread haze of smoke throughout the entire room. Veyric landed on his side—horns briefly scraping against the ground and groaning while his head spun. The side of his cheek felt a constant vibration that continued to hone in towards him. In a scattered frenzy, he planted his hand on the ground, steam sizzling while he pushed himself up. Looking at his hand, it was covered in severe burns—Veyric swallowed hard from seeing the rawness of his flesh beneath the layers of his skin. The rustling of armor clanged in the distance, and Veyric looked around while backing up—throwing his hood back on. A woman emerged from the haziness with a plethora of knights—too many for him to count. Her hair was dark and hung just above her shoulders. She was way above average height for a woman—in fact, she was equal in height to the knights, and possibly a few inches taller. Her upper armor was dark, visibly lightweight, and the breastplate cropped just under her abdomen. From her waist fell a skirt of interlocking black plates, which moved fluidly with her steps, softly jingling while red runes engraved into the armored skirt pulsed. Her hands were loosely at her side, a long sheathed blade at her hip that drowned in the accents of red runes. Veyric was cornered, but he continued to look around before bolting to a pillar. The woman burst off her feet, blitzing to intercept him, and drove her metallic knuckled glove into the side of his ribs. Veyric yelped in pain, staggering down to his knees and clutching his stomach.
“No… No!” Veyric uttered.
His vision was giving out, and he collapsed on his side. Veyric tried to stand again, continuously putting strain on his body, all for it to amount to nothing but him collapsing in an unconscious state. The knights rushed over to the woman.
“Captain Xena, are you hurt?” A knight said.
“No, I’m not hurt.” She replied, squatting down over Veyric’s unconscious body. Xena pulled back his hood, revealing his horns.
“Wait…” She flipped him over on his back to see his face.
“Oh, Great Star, this… This man is a dragon?” Xena’s expression was packed with confusion despite her flat tone. Plenty of the knights were horrified, others bewildered, and many intrigued.
“I must make a direct report to the king about this. Get back to your posts, I’ve had it with your slacking as of late. If you all patrolled as intended, we may have prevented this sooner.” Xena’s eyes sharpened while addressing the knights.
“Mana restraints, now.” She ordered. One of them handed her a silver rope embedded with blue runes.
“Not a WORD of what happened here gets out, understand? It won’t be me who’ll cut your tongue, but it’ll be the king. Remember your oath.” Xena said to the knights while restraining Veyric.
“Yes, ma’am!” The knights saluted in synchronization.
“Good, now back to your posts, or I’m cutting out aegium for this lackluster defending. If the king were to be in trouble, it would be too late.” She grunted out.