The same woman guided my back to the room. The entire time I was extremely on edge ready for an attack at any moment. I had my suspicions. I was pretty sure that the Blood Hunt had found me. Had found a way to me. Some part of me said I should flee. I should leave the castle in the dead of the night and give up on finding Profitable. Being stuck in a mostly human form inside the castle made me extremely vulnerable.

The woman made no move to strike me as she returned me to the lower court room. The tension was ratcheting up as I waited for some movement. Some attempt to guide me into a trap so they could strike at me. My only thought about them stalling was that they were not sure that I was the actual dragon they were looking for.

Once I was safe in the courtroom I saw the seamstress with a dress spread out through the table and was slowly working on it with thread and needle. I paid her no attention and instead headed to my chambers. An unfamiliar scent filled my nose as I approached the room. I felt the tension rise in my shoulders as I sniffed the air. I slowed down, moving towards the door with caution.

I heightened my hearing to the highest degree I could and listened. I could sense no heartbeats, no breathing, and I let out a sigh as I let my body return to a more normal state. I pushed inside the room and looked around. There were little signs of what had occurred in my absence. Little things were slightly off. A smidge off of where I left them. The chest I was given to store my personal belongings had new scratches on the outside of it.

I approached it and looked closely to see if it was fully opened while I was gone. I pulled at it and tested to see if it was still locked properly. It clicked open with a firm pull. It hadn’t been relocked properly. I opened the chest and started to sort through what I had. Thankfully I had yet to receive all my belongings and most importantly. The scroll that would have damned me as the person they were looking for.

I took a deep breath. When it did arrive I would have to destroy it. The memory of Redgrass Stargazer would only be left in those that knew him and myself. It was a shame that I would have to destroy the one record that would exist that detailed his whole life. I took a deep breath and sighed inwardly to myself.

I weighed what I had to do in my mind. I could flee and continue on my way with a new identity. Leave Dolan behind and become someone new. Or, I could take the risk and stay here. Look through things slowly in ever increasing danger while being watched by the very beings that were hunting me. All for the hope that one of my kin were still alive. I looked down at my hands and clenched them until they turned white.

I would stay, without someone else to help me save the world it would soon be doomed. The slimmest chance that I would find my lost brother was worth risking my life for. Resolving myself I stood up and looked around the room. I changed my clothes and sat on the bed to try and relax from the nerves that were climbing through me.

I stood and headed back out to the communal room and waved gently as I left the room and headed towards my goal. The library. I would have to push my luck and escalate my plans. Thanking my perfect memory and innate ability to maneuver through places I’ve been I waved at all the guards I passed making sure to memorize everyone's faces.

I got to the large doors to the grand library and knocked gently on the door almost as if I was being careful not to disturb the knowledge held inside. I waited for several moments before the door slowly opened. All the natural light flooded into the room as no flame was allowed to enter the grand collection of knowledge.

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Paetor looked at me with owlish eyes that adjust slowly to the light of lamps and candles in the hallway. His smile was soft and warm as he spoke quietly. “Hello Dolan. How may I help you?”

“I’m a fan of stories. I was hoping that there might be some of the king’s favorite stories that have been passed down through the generations? Could you help me?” I too kept my tone low and quiet to match Paetor.

The man thought for a while. He tapped his chin with one finger as he looked throughout the hall and then motioned for me to come into the sacred room. I kept my pace as quiet as possible as I slid inside.

Paetor brought me to a table and motioned for me to sit down. I didn’t see any nobles wandering through the room looking at books and I hoped that at least someone made a point to visit this reliquary of knowledge. The smell of ancient leather, dust, and aged ink filled the air of the dry room. Too many times I had entered a room filled with books only to be met with the smell of mildew and moisture.

I watched Paetor move through the room, an innate knowledge of what he was looking for seemed to be hammered into his head. I scanned the room for any way I could slide into this place when no one was watching late at night. The only thing I could notice that I could abuse was if I turned into a very small animal and slipped through the cracks under the door. I would have to keep it as an option though it would be too hard to explain to anyone why I wasn’t in my room if they came to check on me.

Soon enough Paetor approached me carrying a huge tome with ornate trappings on the front of the book. The spine had a great silken page slip for tracking where you were in the book. He smiled as he stroked the book like a prized animal he was presenting to a judge at some fair. As he sat down with me I saw his grandfather eyeing us both closely.

Paetor opened the book and set it in front of me, with a whisper he spoke, “I can’t let you read much of it right now. We will have to get permission from a noble for you to spend any true amount of time in the library. You’ll have to work on that solo. I don’t do well interacting with some of the nobles. It is mostly my grandfather that works with them. You can plead your case with him.

I nodded to Paetor and started looking at the book. I read tall tales about heroes talking with immortal visages of the gods. The many stories of the Knight of a Thousand Blades. I suspected that this particular Knight was Bonetaker in disguise. She had once come to me for lessons on shapeshifting. Though at the time she described wanting to use it to mimic the many grand beasts of the ancient times.

There was something that tickled the back of my brain while I was reading though and I felt myself squinting at the page as I let my brain start to speed up. I could feel something niggling at the back of my mind as I noticed some turns of phrase and prose that reminded me of something. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. As I read I felt a withered hand place itself on my shoulder.

I looked up into Eritrude’s eyes as he looked down at me. “I don’t think we can have you stay any longer without the permission of a nobleman of the Acreage family. I appreciate your desire to learn the tales that the family has but the safety of this place is my first concern. Now please let me guide you to the door.”

I stood up with the man and let him bring me outside of the library. I looked at him and did my best not to frown at the interruption. “I will make sure to get permission before I return. I thank you for your care. It is important to be careful around such places of knowledge.”

The man squinted at me with heavy suspicion. He shrugged off my attempt to charm him with my natural charisma and with a frown closed the door without saying anything more. I looked at the door and felt irritated that my attempt to jump ahead in my plan had failed. I turned and walked back to the room I was given and picked up the journal I had snatched from Paetor.

Reading through the pages I felt my mind start to make connections as I noticed this new code. Memories of Duke Ursal’s journals from before. The code they were written in and the key to it I was given to by Lord Ermine. My mind raced as pieces fell in place and I started to recognize some similarities with the Royal Family’s code. They weren’t the same but there was some similarities.

“Are they using stories as a key to their secrets? Ancient tales as ways to decipher their own messages and journals. I looked again and tried to bring up every ancient tale that wasn’t about my own life that I had ever read or listened to. However no matter what I lined this up with I couldn’t parse it out completely.

I steepled my fingers as I let my brain slow down in the room I was in. I needed that storybook. If I could decipher this journal by finding the key amongst the stories I would be able to start going through the many journals i needed to search through.

I had a plan.