The castle was out of place, standing in stark contrast to the cave's rough, natural stone. The structure was made of redwood and cedar, its towering spires and walls adorned in red, white, and black. The wood seemed almost alive as if it pulsed with some kind of magic, and the air around it cracked with raw magic.

As they approached the castle, a heavy presence pressed down on them like an invisible wall of force. Vlad and Krunk came to an abrupt halt, their bodies freezing in place as though some unseen power had bound them to the ground. They exchanged bewildered looks, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t move.

Zavet, however, felt no such restraint. He took a cautious step forward, then another. Whatever magic held Vlad and Krunk in place did not affect him. He turned to his companions, a concerned look crossing his face, but Vlad gestured for him to continue.

"Go on," Vlad said through gritted teeth. "Find out what’s inside."

Zavet hesitated for only a moment before he moved forward, walking up to the massive front gates of the castle. The wood was smooth and cold under his touch as he pushed the gates open with surprising ease. Beyond the gates was a grand courtyard, lit by flickering blue torches that cast ghostly shadows along the stone pathways.

Several elves stood in the center of the courtyards, but they differed from those Zavet was used to seeing. Their skin was a deep, dusky gray with purplish undertones, and their long, silver hair shimmered in the torchlight. Their eyes, pale and emotionless, regarded him with curiosity as he stepped forward.

One of the elves, a tall figure dressed in black and red robes, stepped forward. "May we help you?" he asked, his voice smooth and emotionless.

Zavet shifted uncomfortably under the elf’s gaze. "Umm… We were exploring down here, trying to figure out where all these undead are coming from."

The elves tilted their heads in unison, their expressions inscrutable. "It seems you had undead with you," one of the elves observed. "And a necro-tainted orc."

Zavet turned back to glance at Vlad and Krunk, who were still frozen at the entrance. "Uh… yeah. We’re… looking for something. We don’t really know what yet," he admitted, feeling more out of his depth than ever. "Just… exploring."

The elf’s pale eyes glittered with faint amusement. "Exploring, indeed," he said, his voice carrying an ominous undertone. "But what you find may not be what you seek."

Zavet stood at the edge of the courtyard, his voice barely audible as he surveyed the strange surroundings. The cherry blossoms swayed gently, a bizarre sight in the dark, lifeless cavern. “What is this place?” he asked, still reeling from the unnatural beauty around him.

A figure emerged from the shadows of the castle. She was an elf, her bronze skin covered in deep scars, as though she had been through years of torture. Though her face was ageless, her eyes bore the weight of centuries of suffering. Zavet felt a tug deep within him, a flicker of recognition he couldn’t explain. “Ta’Fair?” he whispered, almost unsure of himself.

The elf froze at the name, her gaze sharpening momentarily. She seemed to wrestle with some distant memory before it slipped away again. “My name is Cherry,” she said softly, her voice distant and worn. “Like these beautiful cherry blossom trees.”

Zavet blinked. He hadn't seen the trees when they first arrived, and he was sure they hadn’t been there. There was no light, no warmth in this cold, forgotten place. How had they grown here? The air felt thick with enchantment, and everything about the scene felt wrong.

“I’m Zavet,” he began cautiously, but before he could say more, Cherry was on him, moving faster than any of them could react. Her hands wrapped around his throat with a strength that belied her frail appearance, her eyes burning with rage.

“I don’t like that name,” she hissed, tightening her grip. “Promises were never kept for me. No one ever came for me. Liars! All of them... liars! She was a liar.” Zavet gasped for breath, his fingers clawing at her hands, but she was too strong. The guards shifted uneasily, unsure of what to do, until one of them finally spoke, voice calm and gentle.

“Miss Cherry, please,” one of the guards said, stepping forward cautiously. “He’s just a guest. He means no harm, and he’ll be leaving soon.”

Cherry’s grip loosened. She hesitated, then slowly released him, stepping back with a haunted expression. “No more promises,” she muttered, backing away from Zavet. “No more lies.”

She turned and leaped gracefully into the branches of a cherry blossom tree, perching there like a watchful sentinel. Zavet rubbed his throat, still catching his breath, but something inside him clicked. The name Ta’Fair and the whispers in his past all pointed back to her.

“Neth once told me my name meant ‘promise’ in the dragon’s tongue,” Zavet said, his voice rough but steady. He looked up at her, his eyes searching. “The name I heard whispered when I was created, Wispein. It was her, wasn’t it? She gave me that name. She betrayed you.”

Cherry’s expression darkened. Her eyes grew distant, her voice trembling. “She promised me she’d let me go,” she said quietly. “Wispein trapped me here. She lied to me and kept me here while my family died. Neth is gone... all of them are gone. I should have joined them. We were supposed to meet again in a place we built for ourselves in the afterlife. But Wispein... she betrayed me. She promised I’d be free, promised I’d see my loved ones again. But I’m still here.”

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Zavet stepped closer, his voice softening. “She is evil. She has one of my tribe mates under her control.”

Cherry’s voice cracked as she spoke. “She’s the reason I’m trapped here. She took everything from me, and now I’m left with nothing but this lie... this prison. I want to see Neth again. I want to die.”

Zavet hesitated, but he could see the pain etched into every scar on her body. He took a deep breath and said, “Can I bring my friends in? We need to know the full story. We need to understand what happened.”

Cherry studied him for a long moment before giving a slow nod. She gestured to the guards, who moved to lower the barrier that had kept Vlad and Krunk at bay. The magical shield fell, and they hurried inside, their faces tight with worry.

Wide-eyed at the sight of Cherry, Vlad whispered, “What’s happening here?”

Zavet shook his head, his voice low. “We’re about to find out.”

Once ominous and cold, the courtyard had taken on an eerie calm. Comfortable chairs now circled the cherry blossom tree, and Zavet, Krunk, and Vlad found themselves seated with Cherry. Her scarred face glistened in the dim light, and her eyes, hollow and ancient, surveyed each of them with quiet intensity.

Zavet cleared his throat, introducing her to the group. Cherry’s gaze lingered on Krunk, her head tilting ever so slightly. "Dragons created your kind," she said, her voice as soft as a whisper yet filled with gravity. "All monsters were their doing."

Krunk stiffened, his eyes darting between Cherry and Zavet, processing the revelation. His orcish lineage had always been shrouded in myths and half-truths, but this was new. "I didn’t know that..." he muttered under his breath.

Cherry chuckled softly, the sound hollow. “Most of your kind don’t know. None of them do.” Her eyes clouded over as she leaned back in her chair. “My family and I left our world when we were just a few hundred years old. We were children, running from what we believed were mistakes we could fix. We were naïve.”

She paused, her voice trembling as she delved into her memories. “We weren’t related, but we were more than family. After thousands of years together, that happens. Neth… I loved him. We believed we shared a soul.”

Cherry’s words hung in the air, each sentence dripping with sorrow. "We thought we could do better than our elders. Create worlds. Test our powers. We were fools. We created hundreds of worlds, but none like this one. We crafted a world small enough to fit in a gemstone, about three times the size of this castle. But it wasn't just any world. It was sentient. It followed us between realms as we shaped more worlds, always learning, always watching."

Her eyes flicked to Zavet, the gravity of her tale sinking deeper. “That world, the gemstone. It gave birth to dragons. Not through creation magic, but through something more primal.”

The courtyard, once still, seemed to hum with Cherry’s words. She continued, her voice growing quieter, more distant. “We were thrilled. Life, true life. They were born from our power. But the dragons… they became too strong. The first generation consisted of simple, oversized lizards who were vicious and dumb. We didn’t fear them. They couldn’t use magic, not at first. But they evolved, and their children. Oh, their children were something else.”

Zavet, Vlad, and Krunk sat frozen, entranced by the tale. Cherry’s eyes glossed over with a faraway look, her voice shaking slightly. “The second generation of dragons... they were intelligent. They used magic. We knew we couldn’t control them, so we did what we thought was best. We destroyed as many eggs as we could in secret. But nine dragons survived.”

Her gaze fell on Zavet’s dagger, the ancient bone blade strapped to his waist. “Your dagger,” she said softly. “That’s one of the weapons forged from the bones of the first generation. Old Fang, we called him. You must’ve proven yourself worthy to wield it.”

Zavet instinctively touched the dagger’s hilt, feeling its ancient magic hum beneath his fingertips. He nodded but said nothing.

“The third generation of dragons... they were Wispein, Taigha, and Nuri,” Cherry continued, her voice now whispering. “The most powerful creatures we had ever seen. At first, we feared them, but eventually, we became friends. Neth and I… we became close to Nuri, especially me. We shared something… deeper.”

Cherry’s eyes filled with pain. “Neth never knew. Nuri and I… we had plans. The last night I was free, we made plans to be together. To see what would happen if we had offspring. It was meant to be a night of creation, of joy.” Her voice trembled as the memory surfaced. “But Wispein… she deceived me. She made herself look like Nuri and paralyzed me with her magic. She dragged me down here, deep into the dark. She tortured me for years.”

Zavet clenched his fists, his heart pounding. Cherry’s words were heavy, with a deep and ancient pain reverberating in the walls around them. Vlad and Krunk exchanged uneasy glances, realizing they were hearing truths buried for millennia.

Cherry took a shaky breath, her hands trembling in her lap. “Wispein cast spells on this place, trapping me here. She told me the others were dead. Neth… my family… all gone. She promised she’d let me go, but it was all lies. Lies to keep me imprisoned, alone.”

Vlad was the first to break the silence. “If what you’re saying is true… we need you now more than ever. We need to tell Mah’Nethotep.”

Cherry tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “How will you tell him?”

Krunk, caught in the intensity of the moment, blurted out, “He’s alive.”

The change in Cherry was slow as she processed what Krunk said. She began to tremble, her body shaking violently as tears streamed down her scarred face. Raw magic pulsed off her in waves, thick and suffocating. The guards outside felt it, too, rushing into the courtyard, their faces panicked.

Zavet leaped to his feet, his senses screaming. “Something’s wrong,” he said urgently. “I can’t cast any spells; she’s absorbing the magic!”

The air around them began to hum, the ground trembling as Cherry’s grief-fueled magic consumed the courtyard. Zavet looked at Vlad and Krunk, knowing they wouldn’t make it out in time.

Without hesitation, Zavet twisted the ring on his finger, focusing his thoughts on the classroom. There was a blinding flash of light, and then, suddenly, they were inside the black pyramid.

The ring turned to dust in Zavet’s hand.

Tear, who had been in the middle of a lecture, stared at them in shock. “Uh… yeah, that ring wasn’t designed to teleport three people,” he said, looking at the broken remnants in Zavet’s palm. “You just broke it.”

Vlad grinned, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. “Doesn’t matter. We just found someone, someone who’s going to change everything. The Master is about to reward the hell out of us. We’re about to be kings, Krunk.”