Water spilled out, splashing down into ramps that drove it back into another level. It seemed to Kaden to be unnecessary to have the various waterfalls flowing as they were, but he had to admit, it sure did look pretty. Water and life covered and crawled across the entire building. It stood tall, with several floors completely open outside of pillars holding up the next floor.

It scaled higher into the sky than Kaden would have been comfortable with, but above he saw several azure dragons circling. Zuma was getting restless underneath him. He knew they wanted to join its own kind. Slipping off, he unclipped the makeshift saddle and patted their side.

Zuma didn’t wait for any other acknowledgment and took off. They all heard them let out an excited roar as they climbed the skies to join its fellow dragons. He lost them quickly as they climbed above the top of the temple. Kaden wasn’t worried in the slightest that they had disappeared. He knew the fellow Azure dragons would do nothing to harm Zuma.

A servant helped him load the saddle into a compartment of the only carriage that still followed them. There was only so much that he could carry on his own and they still had quite the distance to walk.

Anders scowled at him as they loaded it in, having stayed with their group. Kaden wasn’t sure if he did this out of his own desire or if the lord had commanded it. He couldn’t imagine feeling the way the lord did about his own son. He had been welcoming and open to them the entire time, while his son had been crude, rude, and downright cruel.

It was likely that his son could feel his father’s disdain for him. He wondered if that was part of why the son was the way he was. You can only take so much negativity before turning into something you didn’t even recognize.

He wasn’t about to assume how their home lives were, but it felt as if this trip was an attempt by the lord to bond with his wayward son. So far, it seemed as if that wasn’t proving to be very effective. Kaden didn’t know if they could fully blame their entrance into the situation or if it had already soured before they arrived.

There was another stone arch way they passed under. The bottom floor of the temple was open, the next two levels were open, held up with pillars directly in front of them. A pathway was cut into the building to a large, open area. It was a plaza of sorts.

Above that, the building actually began. Openings spilled water out and into the plaza from above, filling fountains with water and a variety of colored fish. Even though the higher floors were covered, there were several massive glowing crystals, like the ones Zuma had eaten, giving light to the plaza, coloring it with a cool blue hue. He wondered how they kept the dragons from trying to chew on them.

Stairs were in the center, leading up to a massive yet ornate set of doors. They cracked open and several mages came running out. His entire group dismounted, handing the horses off to the few servants that were still with them. Even Anders came out of the carriage.

Kaden skipped slightly as he joined his fellow mages. He was incredibly excited to meet with the rest of the mages. This temple was to be his new home, and he was already incredibly impressed by what he had seen. Everything was clean and full of life.

The mages formed a line, bowing to Lord Loratyk. A tall woman slowly made their way down their steps. Her robes were a solid blue, unlike the white and blue ones the rest of the mages had on. It was decorated with gold motifs of various serpents and dragons. Pulling her hood down, she showed brilliant green eyes and bright red hair. She looked middle-aged, but the world had not run her down like it had his parents. Kaden assumed she was important.

“Lord Loratyk, to what do we do the honors of hosting your noble house?” Her voice was like velvet.

He gave a deep bow in response as she walked up to them. “I have some troubling news. On my way to a private event, I ran into a group of your mages and they gave disturbing words. I would request if this conversation could be given in private.”

Her eyebrow raised, and she nodded, instructing them to follow her. Following steps that echoed off of empty halls, they were led up the steps and down several halls. All Kaden could do was keep looking around at all the various sculptures and carvings that littered the temple. Every hallway was covered in valuable art. She led them through twists and turns, even going up several flights of stairs. If Kaden tried to go back the way they came, he would be utterly lost.

They were ushered into a well lit room with a large curved table with chairs on only one side. She beckoned them all to take a seat before she took one as well. Just as she motioned for them to start, the door burst open and another mage in solid blue walked in. He looked older. His hair was white and his face visibly crinkled in irritation.

“Why did no one tell me there was a meeting with one of the Lords,” he said in a harsh tone.

“They only just arrived, Lidvus. You have mages looking for you at this moment to inform you of their arrival,” she said in a soft, yet annoyed, voice.

He let out a huff and pulled out a chair of his own, letting it screech against the stone floor. Looking at them expectantly, he waved his hand toward the Lord to continue. Lord Loratyk didn’t even try to hide his eye roll.

“The Loratyk house were on our way here, to Vederia, for a social occasion when we ran into these fine mages.” He said as he motioned to the group of them. The man called Lidvus eyed the four of them with suspicion. “They alerted me to something of a grievous matter.”

The man waved at the lord and said, “yes, yes. What was it?”

Lord Loratyk nodded to Iratoi. She stood up, bowed and said, “thank you Grand Maesters for seeing us.”

The woman nodded back, honoring the respect she gave before speaking.

“We were on our way to pick up a newly blessed individual,” she motioned toward Kaden. Making eye contact with a confused Loratyk, he shrunk down in his seat slightly. “The local magistrate had found us while we were on patrol in the upper areas of Lord Enderton’s region. We made haste to greet and confirm this blessing. As you know, a blessing to happen in the wilds is incredibly rare.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“When we arrived, the blessed, Kaden Berthoff,” she said as she motioned again to him, “was with a dragon. A dragon he had already bonded with. You know as well as I, that dragon riders are becoming increasingly rare here and for one to be produced from the blessing of a wild matriarch, we obviously were intrigued.”

Lidvus had a frown on his face. “You’re telling me this boy not only found a wild matriarch, which no longer exists, but bonded with a dragon, too?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t believe it,” he said sharply.

Lord Loratyk chimed in with, “I saw the boy on a dragon myself. It is not a lie.”

The woman gave Lidvus an irritated look and said, “son, how did you come across this matriarch?”

Iratoi bowed and sat down. She gave Kaden an expectant look, and he scrambled to stand up. Bowing as she had, he said, “I, uh… I came across the dragon, Zuma.”

“He’s named the dragon,” Lidvus laughed in disbelief. “Arrogant of you, boy.”

“Lidvus,” the woman hissed.

“Zuma was trapped. Trapped in a complicated rune trap.”

Loratyk’s eyes squinted more at the tale. They had only told him of the second trap, not the initial one. He wasn’t interrupting it though, and Kaden gave him a look of apology. He had learned to respect the man from the little time he spent with him.

“A rune trap? Those are outlawed. How do you even know what one looks like? Why were you out somewhere where there would be such a thing?”

“Lidvus,” she hissed again. “Let the boy speak.”

“I was out hunting for my family. The seasons are changing, and we needed the food and leathers to survive. I came across them. The trap had been large enough to trap an average sized dragon. It had been fighting to escape when I came upon them. The trap was a vicious one. It was shocking and harming the dragon. Their cries of pain could be heard across the forest. I did what any person would do. I got them out.”

“You broke a rune?” the woman asked.

“No… not exactly. I don’t really know anything about runes, so I had no idea on how to break it. So I…”

They all looked at him with interest. He hadn’t really spent the time to rehearse what he was going to say, and he was faltering in his tale. Everyone’s eyes on him made him nervous. Kaden worried he’d reveal more than he wanted.

“I dug underneath.”

“You…” the woman was surprised. “You dug?”

“Yes, ma’am. I braced the ground so the rune’s barrier wasn’t broken, and I dug a hole out underneath. The barrier managed to do some damage to myself too through this whole process.” Twisting his hands over, he showed them the healed lightning scars on his hands that climbed up his wrists. “When I finally got them out, we were both exhausted and injured. We stayed there for some time, just trying to get our energy back. Before I knew it, a matriarch happened upon us. She was extremely large. I don’t know if she had heard Zuma’s cries or what, but she healed our wounds and gave me a blessing.”

“So the wild matriarch came to save the wild dragon that happened to be trapped in a rune trap that is outlawed,” Lidvus summarized.

“Yes, sir.”

“So you could have just left the dragon, but you chose to stay and help. No wonder the matriarch blessed you,” the woman said.

Eloise chimed in and said, “so after his family alerted the magistrate of his new blessing, we came in. We greeted both him and his dragon companion. Soon after we were on our way here to get him accepted fully into the order, as is in our protocols when Zuma—”

“The wild dragon that was following him,” interrupted Lidvus. Kaden couldn’t help but squint at the man’s behavior.

“The dragon he had bonded with led us to a new rune trap. They had spotted it from above. When we arrived, there were…” her eyes cut away, as if she wasn’t supposed to mention the next part, “corrupted wolves.”

The woman gasped and said, “you’re kidding!”

“No, ma’am. We think the rune trap was attracting them,” answered Jaxtor. “We made quick work of them and then were able to examine the runes.”

“And,” Lidvus was leaning in with anticipation. “What did you find?”

Iratoi turned toward Lord Loratyk and said, “I apologize for not speaking of this to you before, my lord. You have to understand we weren’t entirely sure of the situation and didn’t want to cause extra issues before we even arrived here.”

“I am confused,” he said to her with an eyebrow raised.

She motioned for Eloise to present her books. Eloise placed her older runebook out next to the sketched replicas of what was on the trap. She pointed to the runes on both. “As you can see here, these are higher-level runes. They are only known in families of nobility and, of course, here at the temples. Even here, many of these aren’t known. I only have records of them as it is my expertise of study.”

She flipped to a list of several noble houses. Pointing at a few she said, “as you can see, each noble house, because of how they teach their runes, they have certain identifiers. Some have an extra flourish, other’s have extra lines. You can almost always pin point which noble house a rune comes from because of this.”

Lord Loratyk stood up, pushing his chair back with a clatter. “No. I will not sit here quietly while you accuse my house.”

“As you can see, Grand Maesters,” she continued despite his outburst. “The flourishes here indicate that whomever set these traps learned their runes from the Loratyk noble house.”

He slammed his fists on the table in anger. They had hidden this from him. Kaden could understand his outburst after the event they all went through, the trust he had shown in them. The fact that he trusted them enough to even complain about his own son, only for them to have hidden this crucial part of the mystery, would have angered anyone. Kaden felt he was justified in his anger.

The flames of the candles flickered as a small amount of gust echoed out of him. The wind power he had shown Kaden in those late hours. He threw his chair back and tightened his fist. Stepping back from the table, he went to the edge of the room, no longer speaking. He started pacing back and forth.

“Dalphina,” Lidvus finally let Kaden know the name of the woman. “What do you make of this?”

She sat in thought for several moments. “I have known Rychus for the majority of his life. We trained together for many years here. I do not think he is capable of ordering such a horrible thing.”

“Thank you, Dalphina,” Lord Loratyk nodded.

“That being said,” she added to his dismay, “that doesn’t mean that someone of his household hasn’t. Rychus, can you think of anyone that would do such a thing?”

He threw his hands up and said, “No! This is ridiculous. Why would my house do anything of the sort and in Enderton’s lands?”

Kaden let out a huff, not intending for it to be so audible. All their eyes turned to him and Lidvus said with a dry tone, “you have commentary, farm boy?”

“I…” he wasn’t actually wanting to interject. “I don’t think Lord Loratyk would do such a thing, but whoever did was getting more desperate.”

Iratoi picked up on what he was trying to say and added, “where the boy had found the first trap was well off and away from any populated area. By his account, he had been deep into the mountains. The one we found was not far off one of the main roads. The first had been more hidden in the brush, but the one we spotted, it was out in the open, almost hastily done.”

Lord Loratyk rejoined them at the table. He pulled his chair back in and motioned for Iratoi to continue.

Nodding, she said, “Whoever set the trap was getting desperate, as Kaden stated. The one in the mountains could have been set up and left for ages. But the one we were able to examine, it almost seemed to be a last ditch effort.”

“Now here’s a theory,” Lord Loratyk offered. “What if these runes were intentionally drawn this way to incriminate my household?”

“You think it was a setup?” asked Dalphina. “Who have you angered this time?”

He scoffed and said, “the king.”