Acting like nothing had happened, Lord Sinclair waltz inside the guest room. He is accompanied by Leah and a few guards. Aldrich and Kyrie look at him as he and Leah sit down on the couch across from them.
“Your arrival to our household is most unexpected, but welcomed nevertheless. It would be quite the embarrassment that my unruly behavior has been seen by those not privy to my inner house so I ask that you do not spread knowledge.”
Aldrich and Kyrie look at him with surprise but are quite aware that such rumors would only cause problems should it get out.
“Do not worry Lord Sinclair, your business is your own and take confidence that we will not expose anything of sorts.”
“You have my thanks Lord Aldrich Elden Agnis and Princess Kyrie Sun-Crest.”
Motioning his daughter to come sit, he says,
“As you can see Lord Aldrich and Princess Kyrie, Leah is quite fine. With the exception of Danjela, my other children are healthy as well.”
Kyrie responds in a concerned tone,
“Is Danjela okay Lord Sinclair?”
“She will be fine, but one of the injuries she sustained had cut too deep for healing magic to act upon. The first aid magic that was applied on her and the healing at the hospital has done much to help her, but her injury requires a few more days of healing and rest to fully recover.”
“I see. Could I do anything to help?”
Lord Sinclair sits back and thinks as he strokes his beard. He knows there’s not much that she could do to help his niece but still he pondered on what she could do. Leah chimes in the meanwhile.
“You could bring her some honey from your home. I know she loves having some of the Sun-Crest honey on our pancakes.”
Lord Sinclair, seeing his daughter’s genius at work, exclaims
“What a fantastic idea. Some honey for her would work wonders for her mood.”
Kyrie brightens up as she could see that she could help her friend and says,
“Really? I’ll bring some later today for her then. Is she perhaps able to have visitors?”
Lord Sinclair responds,
“Of course. She would be more than happy to see her friends.”
He gets up and motions the others to follow. Together they walk down several halls. Decorated along the walls in one of the halls are a variety of paintings and artwork. Some are scenes of places such as one that showed the dragon roost. Another showed a painting of what looks to be an early version of the Sinclair mansion. The main building was there but some of the newer buildings were not along with the garden. Towards the end of the hall is a castle. As the group walks closer to the painting, Aldrich could notice that the artwork itself wasn’t made out of paint like all the others, but is actually made of stained glass in a mural. The picture itself showed a great castle surrounded by many smaller houses. The last picture after it is a glass mural of a red dragon and a human in a ceremony. Along the sides are two different types of humans. On one side the humans were short, had fair pale skin, dark hair, and slanted eyes, much like the ones in the dragon and in their allies’ nations. On the other side were taller, visibly bigger, and much more intimidating humans, indicating the humans of the human empire.
Of the ethnics seen in the artwork were those of snow white skin and burly faces, the mountain folk of the human empires, the dark skinned and orange eyed humans who live near the volcanoes in the human empires and the tanned humans who live in the plains of the human empires. To Aldrich, he recognized them as the first humans, the humans created by the forgotten elven goddess in her quest to create a better life form than that of her elves. It is known that she existed, but for her crimes her name was stripped by the remaining elves who managed to escape their doomed nation.
While looking at it, he comes to a stop along with Kyrie. According to a story that Noriko told about the Age of Restoration, the humans who allied with the dragons, the smaller humans, fought their fellow humans in resistance against the war gods. Many were wiped out, but the dragons rallied from their surprise invasion and eventually won the first Human Dragon war. Since then the humans who allied with the dragons spread all throughout their allies’ lands and territories.
What’s surprising here is that there is a mural of it here. It wouldn’t be odd if it was in a museum or archive or anything history related, but this was the Sinclair household. Then it hit them, the Sinclair house is a part of that history. Seeing as the two stopped in front of the murals, Lord Sinclair spoke to them.
“These were handed down by each Sinclair generation since the first Human Dragon war. “
Aldrich responses,
“Since the beginning? It has been a thousand years since then.”
“Indeed. Sadly we do not have all of the murals. Many were lost since the kingdom fell.”
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Kyrie asks,
“Kingdom?”
“Yes, our kingdom.”
“But the dragon nation hasn’t fell.”
Lord Sinclair looks at them in confusion while they look back at him with even more. Asking a most important question, Lord Sinclair questions,
“Have you ever heard of the Trinity kingdom?”
Digging through their memories, the duo nod as they recognize it as one of the bordering human nations.
“Great, as you know the Sinclairs were one of the three royal families that existed there.”
Before he could continue, he could see the look of bewilderment on the duo’s and his daughter’s faces.
“Has no one told you of this?”
They shake their heads.
“Strange. While it is a well kept secret, both of you should have been told of such knowledge. No matter. At least you know of the first Human Dragon war. I’ll take this opportunity to also explain our heritage to you Leah.”
With a hand gesture beckoning the children down the hall to Danjela’s room he begins explaining.
“Our family name began during the first war. The first head was a simple farmer born on the edges of the growing human empires. He himself belonged to a nameless fringe village. The tensions between the humans and dragons were always high. While the dragons were wary of a specifically designed race that could adapt to any situation and are naturally zealous, they mainly ignored them in favor of the other problems in the world. The Age of Restoration was fully in action and many of the surviving dragons set out to reclaim the world. Four major groups of dragons were sent out in each direction to place wards to stop the ever growing horde of undead and to prevent any of the eldritch horrors from ever entering our realm again.”
“Eldritch horrors?”
Looking at them surprised, he says
“It seems that Ms. Noriko hasn’t taught about the Age of Chaos. I shall, however, leave that to Ms.Noriko to tell.”
“The main point is that the dragons left at home in the dragon lands were few and inexperienced. Scholars and researchers along with the younglings were all who were left to protect the dragon lands. This was when the human empires decided to invade the dragons’ land under the guidance and blessings of the remaining war gods.”
“The Sinclair house founder was one of those that resisted humanity’s invasion as they had grown closer to the dragons than that of their species. The Sinclair founder united human villages and towns that were independent and founded the Trinity kingdom alongside his two greatest friends. It became the only known allied human nation with the dragons. As a show of their alliance, the current head and one of the surviving dragon lords performed a dragon bonding ceremony that instills dragonkin powers into the three royal families.”
“The humans that didn’t join with the Trinity kingdom, joined with the dragons and lived there instead.”
Leah then speaks up.
“Does our red hair represent our dragonkin blood?”
“Indeed. Every descendant from the founder has always had red hair and similar aspects to the dragon.”
Aldrich then speaks,
“Then what happened to the Trinity kingdom. It’s still there.”
Lord Sinclair pauses outside Danjela’s room.
“It is a tragic story and Danjela is one of its survivors.”
He knocks on the door. A young amber haired maid peeks through the door and upon seeing the lord, she opens the door.
“Good day Lord Sinclair.”
Danjela is currently laying in her bed, reading a book. Walking past the maid, he asks
“How is my niece doing Sirona?”
The maid, returning to Danjela’s side, responds
“She is doing well. The bone marrow on her leg has recovered greatly since she returned from the hospital.”
“That is great to hear.”
Walking to her, the lord rubs her head as she waves to him.
He then says to the maid,
“Could I ask that you leave the room momentarily, Sirona?”
“Of course my lord.”
As she walks out, Lord Sinclair motions for the three children outside to come in. Danjela sees them and smiles as Kyrie comes up and hugs her carefully.
“I assume my friends had come to say hello to me, Uncle?”
“Indeed. Do you remember your parents?”
Looking at him with many questions she tries to recall any detail but replies,
“I could only remember their faces, but not much more than that. Why do you ask?”
Looking at Aldrich and Kyrie, he says
“I am telling them the history of the Sinclair royal family.”
“I see. It’s not a happy story, or at least mine wasn’t.”
Kyrie, Aldrich, and Leah’s faces look perplexed at her words before Danjela says,
“I can see your confusion. Even yours Leah. You already know that my parents died but no one has told you how right?”
Sheepishly, Leah responds
“I remember that my mother said that your parents are no longer around.”
Danjela smiles softly before saying,
“It’s probably better to say that to a young you.”
Looking at her friends, Danjela says
“My parents were the former heads and leaders of the Sinclair house. They were one of the kings and queens of the Trinity Kingdom. I am Princess Danjela Sinclair. I no longer hold a claim on the throne of the Trinity kingdom however.
“When I was about 4, my parents sent me here along with a few servants. From what I heard from my servants, my parents anticipated a civil war. Unknown to them, they were already surrounded on all sides. Their court was slowly filled with zealous believers of the human gods. Loyal followers were replaced insidiously by secret zealots. One by one, the pillars of the Trinity kingdom fell. Even the other two royal houses were infiltrated. By the time of the “civil war”, a fake house member backed by the human empires and their gods gathered enough claims to overthrow the kingdom. The following purge saw my parents and my older siblings dead. Because I left early on to live with Uncle, only I managed to survive.”