Honestly might be another double upload cause the loreeeee babyyyyy, it's hitting fr
I tend to write by the seat of my pants so whenever things fall into place, the motivation goes crazy
Anywhoooo, enjoy lovelies!
And let me know what y'all are brainstorming, the comments on the last chapter were everything <3
love y'all so so so much
xoxo

Caspian

Alistair had left me to wander on my own for the rest of the day.

The irony of this otherwise being yet another grand opportunity to escape, didn't go unnoticed, but Alistair was clearly starting to pick up on my hesitancy with the people here, and somewhere in his path of reasoning he decided he had nothing to worry about.

It sickened me to know he was right.

Under his direct orders, I started to walk the corridors of the Inn. The sun from high noon was bright, pushing light through the open windows on both ends of the hall I stood in, illuminating these brick walls.

I hadn't noticed the prior night, or at the first touch of sunlight this morning when I went looking for Alistair, but the walls in every hall were lined with large gold-framed paintings. Beautiful works, some looking much older than maybe even the Inn itself. I could tell by the fading of the paint, it resembled the art that once hung throughout my palace walls.

I allowed myself to walk slowly as I admired the still-life art. The paintings of beautiful flowers in vases. Some of the land itself, much like the wall-length painted mural that stood a floor below. There wasn't anyone occupying the rooms up here this afternoon, which helped put some of my uncomfortableness aside while admiring each piece.

Alistair mentioned there was a study on the first floor, and after a few more moments up here on my own, I decided I had quite honestly nothing better to do with my time. I didn't have the courage to walk through town on my own yet, so all that left was this Inn.

The door leading to the stairwell was easily located at the end of the last hall. The Inn's corridors essentially created a square within the building, allowing rooms on either side of the walls, with one stairwell running through the back right side of the building. There were only two levels in total. As I pulled open the door, and started my way down the tight winding steps, I didn't think much of the first few steps I took. My hand reached out to hold the surprisingly warm wooden rail that curved with the steps themselves, making this decent easier.

It was when I realized those steps had become three... then six.. then nine... then twelve-

I stopped a moment, looking out in front of me at the dark stone walls. They were only lit in this otherwise enclosed space, by a sparing amount of torches fastened against the wall itself. This has been too many steps, I told myself. I should've reached the first floor by now. The steps I took next were more hesitant, moving slowly lower until I finally saw a door emerging from the slight darkness below me. Once my foot rested on the final, flat platform, I reached for the handle of the wooden door and gently pushed it open.

The first thing I felt was a sudden gust of wind being released from inside. The smell that immediately bombarded my senses was old... musky.

The only light in this room was a single burning lantern propped up on a large wooden desk in this otherwise rubbish filled room. I couldn't make out what was inside, but there were many crates and baskets almost completely covering the desk and floors. I looked around slowly, keeping my heartbeat level as my eyes adjusted to the otherwise darkness.

There were rows and rows of bookshelves that lined every wall in the room. With the thickest layer of dust over most of the books, this couldn't possibly be the study Alistair spoke of. I took a few more careful steps inside.

Someone had to have visited here recently, the oil from the lamp hadn't finished burning yet, but the room itself didn't mirror that. It looked and smelt like someone had forgotten this room existed ages ago. I approached the lantern, picking it up by its handle to use as light for the rest of the room. It had been placed over a pile of very old papers, I could tell by the patchy coloring the paper had faded into, but I didn't pay it much mind.

Instead, I approached the first set of books nearest to the door, using the light to read the dust covered bindings as best I could. I noticed most of these were knowledge books. I believe the scholars called them encyclopedias, and I could've sworn I had seem some in my family's study when I was young, but they weren't apart of my studies.

Or maybe I hadn't lived in that home long enough for them to be.

My fingers gently swiped at some of the dust, revealing more of the book's titles. Everything in this collection was about this world. The plants. The animals. A section on the bottom shelf of this case was solely dedicated to medicinal plants, many of which seemed to grow lavishly here in Gatvia according to some of the text inside.

I made sure to carefully set each book I pulled, back in their rightful place, before moving on to the next. There were a few things I found peculiar about some of the books I passed. For one, the handwriting in the books centered around Gatvia all looked very similar, if not identical... but there was no author listed on either the spine, the cover, or the front page inside.

I flipped through more pages, seemingly noticing more of the same handwriting. There were drawings too, to illustrate the type of leaf or plant the text was explaining, and those illustrations looked to be done by the same person as well.

It took me longer than I thought to work my way through the second set of books. The writing was enticing, now stemming from the wildlife, towards topics of philosophy. My hands froze as they passed over something that caught my eye's attention. This book was different... it was older than the ones I had flipped through, but the emblem etched onto the spine was really what made my body still.

I crouched down to get a better view of the spine, before my fingers slowly freed the faded deep blue cover from the other more neutrally colored spines.

The book read "The Dawn of The Pureblood"

I almost dropped the text entirely as I flipped the first page open. My fingers then tightened their grip when I saw the handwriting in this book. So tight, the pages were shaking now within my grasp. Or... no... My hands had started to shake as soon as I saw that emblem. They were now trembling by the handwritten words scrawled on each page.

"Looks like someone has finally woken up." A voice spoke from behind me, causing the book to leap from my already unsteady hands, but I caught it before it could tumble down towards the dust ridden floors. I knew who it was just from her presence, but the voice was as distinct as those eyes of hers.

"Gaia." I found myself whispering, unsure of what to say or do. I needed to set this book down before this woman paid it any attention, but as her eyes slowly drifted from mine down to what was in my hands, the look on her face told me she now knew even more than before.

"I should've known you'd find this place easily." She didn't keep her gaze on the book long, instead opting to have a good look around this run down room.

I felt my eyebrows furrowing at that. I knew fear should've been my natural response to this, to her, but that feeling of being the least intelligent one in this room was bringing out more irritation than fear. "This," I asked, raising the small blue book slightly. "Where did you get this?"

Gaia's lips twisted up into an amused smile. "From the author himself." she responded, which only made my eyelids narrow. I stopped myself before I could say the words I wanted to. I didn't know how much Gaia knew exactly, and I didn't want to reveal more about myself than she honestly needed to know.

"That's impossible." I finally settled on. "This book is... the text is from the old age. All this was burned-"

"In the fire?" Gaia offered. "The one that engulfed the Palace of Azultia?"

I felt my eyes slowly grow wider. My blood was still. Cold. What exactly did she know?

"I heard all this old text was either destroyed then, or burned after what was left in the palace was scrounged together." I tried to keep my voice calm and collected when I spoke. I didn't want to give way to anything else.

"You recognize that exact text from the palace?"

I slowly nodded my head. "I had briefly seen the royal family's library when I was younger. My family created weapons for the Lockeheart's constituents."

Gaia's eyes narrowed a moment, pondering my words before she spoke. "Is it that... or is it because it would be difficult for a son not to recognize his own father's handwriting?"

Every single part of my being froze at those words. Even the parts that were once responsible for forming sentences. I had no words for Gaia's revelation, and frankly, my next line of action was now figuring out whether I would have to kill her. Whether I even had the abilities to. I still didn't know what she was, just that she wasn't human.

"H-How-" I started, before stopping again. I couldn't have been more careful in the words I chose next, and yet still, they didn't sound right. "How do you have this?"

That made Gaia's eyes soften some. She looked relieved that I hadn't tried to deny my fathers work.

"Like I said, your father gave this to me."

I shook my head at that. "No he couldn't, he's never- he doesn't- didn't know... he'd never even been-"

"Here?... Don't you remember, Caspilius?" She asked as she took a step into this room. I slowly shook my head no, taking a small step back of my own towards the wooden desk.

She had called me by a name only family knew. This... it wasn't right. Something wasn't right here. I needed to leave. Now.

"Not only has your father been to this island before. You have as well, Your Highness-"

"Don't call me that." I heard a bitter voice I could barely recognize as my own, spit back. An almost immediate reaction to that title being used after all these years. It felt like my head was starting to spin. Like the waves had rocked it a little too harshly for just a little too long. I felt my insides threatening to come up, as vague memories slipped back into my mind. Memories I hadn't ever called upon before today, and the night my mother died in my arms.

"This you might remember..." I heard this woman say, but her voice was lower now. So low, it forced me to listen closely to what she would say next, but words weren't what she had been referring to.

I saw it happen right before my very own eyes. The color starting at her small black pupils, stretching until bright green hues spread across the entirety of her irises, changing that warm golden color to a bright, unnatural green. Next it was the bones in her face, I could see them shifting underneath her taught richly colored skin, forcing complete jolts of shivers up my arms and down my legs.

Realization settled in like a thief forcing their way into a home. Those green eyes alone were enough, but the change in her facial structure had sealed it.

She was right.

Not just now, but back on the shore... when she had told me she recognized me...

I had been here before. I had seen her before.

"Y-You." I found myself whispering shakily under a sharply drawn breath.

"There once was a prince born into a family of wonders. A family with the deepest understanding for all the mysteries most men of worldly value could never comprehend." As Gaia spoke, she took another step towards me. This time, I didn't take one back, nor one forward. I remained here, allowing her to meet me where I was. "And well, it is a tale as old as time for a man to fear what they do not know."

I found myself slowly setting the book onto the desk behind me, not wanting to damage the fine material with my tightly pressed fingers.

"Luckily for the prince, his father, the king, knew that too. He knew there'd be a day where the new age overran the old and all it's mysteries, massacring the only family that knew of things the people didn't." My hands were sweating with her words, but I forced myself to remain quiet. To not let my surfacing emotions overtake my still somewhat rational mind. "And so he brought his sons to the only other person that knew more than his family did. The only other person who could see what they couldn't."

Everything had settled into place with this revelation. I knew who-... what she was now.

There was a block placed on the memory, but I was starting to unravel it. To push past to the memories that must've been wiped. I didn't remember our journey at sea from Azultia to Gatvia, but I remembered that feeling last evening. When my feet first touched this soil again. When her hand first touched my soul.

The uneasiness... when I looked into Gaia's bright green eyes now, I remembered. There was no soul behind those eyes, for an Oracle couldn't have one. I had felt that when I looked into those very eyes over two decades ago, joined then by my mother and father. I was no older than seven years then, but I could still feel it.

"You've grown." I heard Gaia note, pulling me from my thoughts. "I no longer recognize your face, but I can never forget a smell. The smell of your blood in particular, that of Pureblood-" Gaia gestured towards the book on the desk. "Your father used some of his very own blood to bind some of what's in there. That is what led you here, and your blood is what passed you through this hidden passage."

I glanced down at the old book again. It didn't feel like I was being led anywhere, let along by my dead father... but something had allowed me through. This door hadn't been here when Alistair and I went up these steps the night before, or when I had gone down them this morning to find him. 

I felt shiver after shiver course through me as Gaia's face became more and more recognizable. She was the first person I had met since that night that claimed my family, who knew of my family beyond the realms of their reign. My mother wouldn't have brought me outside our regions borders, to see someone she didn't trust.

And my father... he wouldn't have given any of his personal works over to just anyone, let alone one of the few books that goes into great detail the powers of our blood. Of our bloodline.

"Did you tell Alistair?" I asked a bit unevenly, to which Gaia immediately shook her head.

"I would never do anything to put you in harms way. I had a feeling that both you and your brother managed to escape when your bodies weren't recovered from the fire, but the again... so many years have passed..."

"Does Alistair know about... well-... does he know what you are?" I heard my voice quiet down more with that question, as if others could be listening in to this room that technically shouldn't exist.

Gaia shook her head no again. "Both yours and my own secret... the balance of things require they stay that way for now. You have nothing to fear with Alistair finding out during your stay here... but I cannot promise the same once that blood thirsty ship sets sail again."

I slowly nodded, grateful at those words.

"For now, I think it's best you don't spend time here unless I tell you it's safe to do so," she continued. "Come," her hand slowly stretched out to mine, distracting me momentarily as her face began to change back into that of the woman I first met near the ship. "I could use some help with supper."

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