After making their preparations Gale and Ashes made their way to the castle even though Ashes still showed some hesitation she still went with Gale and brought him to the entrance of the castle. The castle gate was thankfully still raised, and they were able to walk right in to the courtyard and to the main door. They both prepared the handguns they picked up, and Gale leading the way raised his gun with one hand and pulled the door open with the other.
They entered the castle and Gale looked at the large halls of the castle that were incredibly beautiful with large chandeliers, red carpets that lined the floors of the hall and walls that were adorned with tapestries of a different colors but at the center was an image of a regal looking dragon in the center in the color of pure silver. The duo could also see weapons such as swords, halberds, spears and guns scattered in various places of the halls more than likely from guards.
"Ashes do you know anywhere special in the castle? Maybe somewhere in the castle that someone would want to break in that holds anything valuable? "
Gale asked the young girl about the castle but could see Ashes uncomfortable about something leading to Gale to place his hand on her shoulder.
"Ashes are you ok?"
Startled by the hand and Gales question Ashes flinched and stammered.
"H-huh? O-oh... uhm yeah I think we could check the royal families quarters."
"The quarters not the armory or treasury?"
"Those places are heavily warded and can only be accessed by the royal family. We could check to see if the same thing also happened to the royals."
"Hmmmmm... yeah, we can check that out. Afterwards we'll check to see if those wards you said are still in place. Even if those wards are powerful, there's a chance that whatever did this also broke in."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
After agreeing on their course of action, they made their way up to the top of the castle where Ashes said the family stays. As they passed through the halls, Codec spoke up and stared at the tapestry.
"This dragon..."
"What is it Codec?" Gale asked.
"I'm not entirely sure but this dragon feels familiar..."
Gale turned to Ashes and asked" I've been seeing the same dragon all these tapestries that we passed, is there something special about it?"
"That dragon is the first of all dragons. The dragon mother Serafina. This was her castle a really long time ago."
"What? This was HER castle?!"
Codec suddenly yelled in shock at hearing the name of the dragon and began to look at the tapestry in respect and reverence.
"Codec you know that dragon?" Gale asked.
"How could I not?! Lady Serafina is one of the gods of Eidocosm."
"She's a god?!"
It was Gales turn to be in shock as he looked at the regal dragon on the tapestry.
"You're telling me a real god lived here?! How long ago was this? What happened to her?
As Gale began to rapid fire questions, Ashes spoke.
"She died."
Gale froze as he heard this and turned to face Ashes.
"Serafina... died? How is that possible?
"It was her mortal body she used."
Ashes confirmed this fact and Gale began to listen to the two speak.
"I'm a little rusty on the details but when I believe I remember hearing that Lady Serafina was one of the various gods that took a mortal form and descended to Eidocosm to help mold and shape the world into what it is. She is an incredibly powerful deity that was considered pure and kind as light and was able to spread life wherever she went."
"She stayed on this world for much longer than any deity that came to this world and watched the world grow around her. Eventually there was time when she fell in love with someone, a human, I think. From there she had children that took on traits from the body she created and from there the dragon demi humans were born."
Gale was enthralled by the story and when Ashes finished talking, he asked " So what happens when a god dies?
"When a god dies in their mortal body they simply return to the realm of the gods." Responded Codec.
"Exactly. My people said the dragon mother passed away as she reached the end of life and she went peacefully as she entrusted the future of the dragon demi humans to her descendants."
"It sounded like she loved this world and it's people if she stayed until she died, but ..."
"But what?"
" Why make a town so deep under the ground? Not only that but do nearly all the dragon demi humans live down here? Are they all staying here just because this was the place she lived? "
"Well... that and another reason. I'm really sorry, but that's a big secret for my people."
"It's alright."
The two continued to walk towards the stairs and there Gale asked one final question to Ashes.
"Say Ashes?"
"Yes?"
"I noticed you haven't said anything about where you live. Where is your family? "
Ashes flinched as Gale asked this and began to fidget with her hands as she struggled to answer Gale's question.
"Umm w-well you see..."
Gale took notice of this and realized he had brought up a sensitive topic and changed the subject.
"Sorry you don't have to say anything you don't want to. Let's focus on looking for clues."
Ashes looked at Gale with a smile of gratitude and led him towards the royal families' quarters.
After going up the stairs Ashes started to lead Gale down another massive hallway and began to explain a little of the royal family's history.
"The royals have always been one line of people who were descendants of the dragon mother's first child. The dragon mother apparently had other children with another person after her first love passed and even though they were dragon demi humans, they didn't have the same strength as her first child and their descendants. So, the royal family are all descendants of the first child, and the rest were considered lesser."
"That seems rather harsh. Just because they didn't descend from the first child, they're not as important?"
"I mean they don't necessarily mean that since there are plenty of strong ones that aren't royal. They do have another way of determining someone's worth."
Ashes put her head down as she said this and began to have a sullen look. Gale began to speak but was interrupted by Ashes.
"We're here."
They arrived at a large set of adorned doors that Ashes began to pull open, and Gale quickly helped her.
"Wow"
Gale was greeted with what he could only describe as a beautiful bed chambers with gorgeous furniture an incredibly large bed on the center and a large painting of group with a red scaled dragon demi human wearing a king's robes whose body resembled more of a lizard man with two large horns than a human. The others was a beautiful blond woman with two large twisted horns and yellow scales and tail and a stern face standing next to the dragon man, and at her side was a smaller green dragon demi human with a similar looking body to the king with two slightly pointed horns and a young blue haired boy with blue scales and tail with horns the same size as Ashes.
Ashes stared at the painting with a complicated look, then looked towards Gale and spoke.
"This is the King and Queens chambers We should look around and see if there's anything that could be a clue."
"Yeah, let's do that."
The two then began to search the bed chambers for any evidence. The room itself was clean for the most part with the exception of some dust beginning to collect on some of the furniture. Gale looked around for any signs of something being out of place and looked to see if any valuables were stolen as he looked through what he concluded was a jewelry case. He could see a large line of jewelry from rings, earrings and necklaces in the large case and aside from a few missing (more than likely from the king and queen taking some out Gale figured) the majority of the valuables were still in there. He then opened a few clothing drawers and didn't spot anything out place.
"Well, no one took the opportunity to break in to steal any valuables from the royal chambers as far as I can tell. There's also no real signs of a struggle or someone searching for something."
As Gale thought of other places they could look, he spotted Ashes going to a spot in the wall in the back of the room and pressing a brick. The brick moved into the wall and in an instant a small chunk of the moved apart and showed a small ornate box in the hole in the wall that Ashes carefully slid out and placed on the ground. Gale walked towards her and peered over her shoulder as Ashes opened the box that held a smooth, glowing reddish orange rock that seemed to radiate heat.
"It's still here..." Muttered Ashes.
"What is that?" Asked Gale.
"It's one of the greatest treasures of our people and a source of power. This is the mana core of a dragon."
"You mean this is..."
"Not one of our people! It's a mana core from a monster."
"It is?"
"Other than our people there was a tale that an evil god who disliked the dragon mother helped to create the monsters that live in our world and as a way of almost insulting her they created powerful true dragons that were monsters and not sentient."
"So, this core is from one of those true dragons?
"Yes. It was around 10 years ago when one of those dragons came to Wyrm Valley and attacked us and the dragon demi humans fought it and killed and took the mana core out of its body. There weren't that many of those monster dragons and over the years only six including this one have ever been seen and not many have been able to kill one. The giant monster that attacked us on the island was also one of those dragons."
Gale shuddered in horror as he remembered the gargantuan creature and wondered how these people were able to fight something like that off.
"That monster that attacked was one of the strongest monsters and not all of the dragons were the same as it, but they are still powerful. The cores can still be used to make really powerful weapons and armor and even more so for a dragon core. Most people would do anything for even one, so I'm a little surprised it's still here."
Gale kneeled, looked at the shining core, turned his head to face Ashes, and she looked at him and saw a serious expression.
"Is everything ok?" Asked Ashes.
"How did you know this was here?" Asked Gale.
"H-huh? W-well...:
".... Forget it, let's keep moving."
Gale lifted himself off the floor and began to make his way out of the room. Ashes quickly closed the box and scrambled to her feet and started to follow Gale.
Gale made his way to the stairs, and Ashes was doing her best to follow Gale, who was speedily making his way down the stairs with a slightly annoyed look on his face.
"I-is something wrong?" Ashes asked.
"It's nothing." Replied Gale.
As Gale neared the main hall, a memory began to rise from his past life.
It was of a young teenage girl in a school uniform that Gale knew all too well as they spoke in a school corridor while the girl had a mocking smile on her face.
"Hey~. Fancy seeing you here. I thought you had dropped out completely. Don't tell me you wanted to confront me? You and I both know what happened the last time you tried something that was this stupid. Do me a favor and get lost. I'm late for meeting up with my friends."
"Hmm? You wanna know why I did this?"
The girl snickered as Gale asked her this, and the girl regained her composure.
"Because I wanted to. That and for the attention, which I gotta thank you for! I never thought I'd get this popular, and it's all thanks to you."
As she said this, Gale spoke to her once more.
"You trusted me? You thought I loved you?"
She spoke in a mocking tone as she repeated the question and said, "Who would ever love you?"
The memory was slowly replaced with another from when Gale was younger and looked up at a man who had raised his hand.
"You little failure!"
SLAP
With the raised hand he slapped Gale across the face and continued to yell.
"Look at these grades! Do you realize how bad this makes our family look with someone this pathetic!
SLAP
"The one thing you could do to repay me for taking you in is to make sure you don't make my family look bad. You aren't going to eat anything until I say so and you finish studying so you don't repeat this again."
As the memories finished, Gale reached the main hall where Ashes had caught up to him as she continued to ask him what was wrong and grabbed his hand. Without thinking Gale yanked his hand away and glared at Ashes. Ashes flinched at this and started to tear up.
"I'm sorry... I'll tell you anything you want... please don't be angry with me."
As soon as she said this, Gale realized what he had done and started to wipe away the girls' tears and comfort her.
"I'm so sorry Ashes. You didn't do anything wrong."
"But you got angry because I wouldn't tell you about the core, the castle or me!"
Ashes started to cry harder and put her head down and seeing this Gale felt guilty over what he had done and he took a deep breath placed his hands on Ashes' shoulders and spoke in a soft voice.
"Ashes you did nothing wrong. This... is an issue with me."
Ashes lifted her head with red eyes as she heard this, and Gale continued to speak.
"It's... hard for me to trust people. I got hurt a lot by people that I placed my faith in, and they betrayed that trust, and I never really recovered from it. So, when someone hides a lot of information from me, I get a little anxious and my mind starts racing and I go through a lot of different scenarios, and my anxiety gets worse."
Gale could see the concern on Ashes' face as he said this, and he continued.
"It was because of that I decided to try to remove myself from as many people as possible as I found it hard to believe around so many people."
"What about the people on the island? I thought you trusted them?"
"Honestly no. I didn't have faith that they would just let me go after we escaped and I was thinking of ways I could remove myself from the group. When I saw the escape pod, I was planning on taking it and leaving and going to wherever, so long as it wasn't with them."
Ashes looked at Gale as he confessed this and felt her heart hurt as she saw the nauseous look on his face as he said this. She could tell it took a lot of bravery to admit all this.
"You shouldn't feel obligated to tell me anything you don't want to."
"But!"
"This is something that I have to deal with. I know there are times when someone needs to keep things hidden or there are times where they aren't ready and maybe never will be and that's ok. You shouldn't feel forced to tell me anything you don't want to, and you shouldn't feel bad about my problems. We're ok."
Gale gave a small half smile to Ashes who gave a quick, sad look to Gale before she said "Ok... thank you."
"Alright... we didn't find anything in the chambers so let look in other places."
"Ok..."
Ashes started to lead the way to the throne room next but was lost in thought over everything.
'I wanna tell you but... I don't want you to know how pathetic I really am.' Ashes thought.