We enter the room behind the statue and it’s filled with many things. An elegant staff and robes that looked very old, a mural, many books, and a set of armor matching that of the statue’s.I move to the armor naturally and sigh. It’s too bulky for me, I prefer lighter, leather armor not this heavy steel suit. Claire was drawn to the robe and staff naturally.” That robe looks like it’ll fit you.” I say

“Yeah, but it doesn’t look like you like that armor very much.” She say.

I shake my head,” Too heavy for me.”

She moves from the robe to the mural and I follow her. It looks like it tells a story throughout the painting. The Mad King takes over, the hero rises like the sun, rallies the Banrir and the Dragonic armies, and finally finds his shield and sword. All while being accompanied by two offensive mages, two paladins, two defensive mages, and a winged warrior. The mural ends the story at that and I turn to Claire.

“This was not how I expected this night to go at all.” I say,” I was expecting to be attacked many more times before finding this.”

“Yeah, but what I wasn’t expecting was the hero’s eyes.” She says and then points to a close up of him. His eyes were blue and violet.” This confirms you two are connected.”

We stand in silence as that fact sinks in.” I had a feeling we might have been, but I also didn’t expect the hero to look so similar to my dad.” I say after a solid minute.

“What do you mean?” She ask.

“Well in the statute outside he was covered by his helm, but at the war meeting right there, he looks almost exactly like my dad. The only difference is his eyes. My father was blond and had green eyes, but he has the two colors.” I say.

“That’s unexpected.” She says, which was a complete understatement.” It can’t be your father because it is a known fact that the hero died while defeating the Mad King.”

“Yeah, my dad was the farthest thing from a knight so I know that’s not him.” I say.” In my world it’s customary to put the name of the painter either on the canvas or behind it. Is that true here?” I ask.

She nods so we take the mural down and lay it on its back. There was no signature or printed name, so we flipped it. On the back was another painting. It was much smaller, but was of a castle and the coordinates on a map.” Not what I was expecting, but maybe that castle has the answers.” Claire says.

“Goddammit, why can’t I just get a straight answer? I always end up with more questions.” I say in disgust.

“If Rivers was here she would say,’ It wouldn’t be as interesting if you found out everything right away’” She says with a smile.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“That was scarily close to how she would say it.” I say.” She probably was the one to make that statue’s button click to interrupt us earlier.”

“I thought that was because of me swearing.” She says.

“That makes more sense, but why did we stop in front of the statue?” I ask.

“You stopped me. I would've followed you anywhere after that.” She says.

“Well I just kind of stopped, I didn’t really think about where.” I say

“Maybe this was fate?” She says.

“That’s the best answer I’ll ever get.” I say.” I wonder what the headmaster is doing right now anyways. I didn’t see her at all today.”

“Yeah neither have I.” She say. We let the silence stay, and I expected Rivers to just pop up, but she didn’t.” I’m going to look at these books.” Caire says breaking the silence.

“I guess I’ll look over the suit of armor. I’ll see if I can scavenge anything that won’t drag me down.” I say and inspect the armor. If I take the gauntlet and gloves I could use them to block some attacks. They look sturdy and strong enough to do so. I touch the gauntlets and the whole suit changes. Standing before me was a different set of armor, one that was more my style. Mostly leather with steel padding on the forearms, shoulders and chest. The only thing missing was a cloak, but that didn’t matter to me.” Woah! Look what just happened.”

I turn and see her engrossed in a journal. She looks up and says,” Well then put it on.” I take my suit of and keep the under shirt then put on the suit, which unsurprisingly fits perfectly.” Looks good on you.” Claire says without even looking up.

I walk over and ask,” What’s that saying?”

“It’s the diary of one of the offensive mages on the mural. Her name isn’t anywhere on the book, but neither are the other’s names.” She says.” She was in love with the Hero, but she couldn’t accept those feelings. It’s actually kind of sad. I skimmed over most of it, but read the last entry. She went on and on about regretting never admitting her feelings to the Hero and how she’ll never get over his death.”

“Wow, that is very sad.” I say and then something falls out of the book. I pick it up and almost drop it again once I recognize it. It was a photo from an instant print camera. It had all eight heros in the shot and they were all smiling.” This shouldn’t be here.”

“What do you mean? It looks like a well drawn painting of them.” Claire says.

“No, this is from my world. It’s a photo from a camera. It isn’t a painting.” I say.

“Then how did it end up here?” She asks.

“I don’t know, but I can only assume I wasn’t the first person dragged from Earth to this world.” I say.

“It has to be the Hero, there are no other known cases of people with two different colored eyes.” She says.” I know because I researched your eyes.”

“This confirms that we are connected, but why?” I ask.” The Mad King was only a tyrannical ruler. Why would his rise bring another hero from Earth?”

Just before she could speak I hear a huge explosion go off and I say.” Something just exploded. You stay here and research more. I’ll go check it out.”

She nods and I sprint to where the explosion came from. The armor was light enough for me to almost hit max speed. Before long I wa confronted by a hulking, albino Minotaur. One I had encountered before. One with a missing horn from when I cut it off.

“So you got through the Headmaster’s defenses? Maybe she was too incompetent to trust.” I say.” Miss me?”

My blue eye switches on and I hear many curse come from his mouth. His anger matches mine and I pull a spear from behind a statue. I remember watching a bullfight when I was younger so naturally I say,” Toro, Toro.”