Eiden chose Cissa to accompany him and two days later they arrived at Jayrose. After passing the shop a few times, they didn't see Mashu around. He must be inside, possibly working in the kitchen as it was the beginning of the breakfast rush. They seated at the back of the shop which was less crowded, and tall glass windows allowed them to see outside better.

Eiden wasn't surprised when Mashu came to the table with dishes, because he noticed that Mashu's wife had recognized him when she came to the table for their orders. He had his father's coat of arms embroidered on a wristband which masked the iconic family heirloom, on display for Mashu to see.

"Here's your order, sir," Mashu set the dishes on the table.

"Do you have a special dessert today?" Eiden looked him directly in the eyes.

"We are happy to serve within our limits if customers have a dessert request, sir," he replied with no hesitation.

"Mini apple pockets with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce." It seems Mashu has no idea to run to his uncle, and Eiden hoped he'd be able to ask for help.

"Enjoy your meal, sir, the dessert will be served soon."

"What's your danger whiskers telling Cissa?" He playfully nudged Cissa.

"Didn't feel like he's a bad guy." Cissa slurped the milk.

"Hey, table manners, I think so too, Azur, I really hope so.” Eiden chopped his pancakes.

"I'm sick of running away."

A while later, Mashu returned, with dessert plates. There was a note, carefully tucked under Eiden's dish.

Go out and come to the backdoor

They finished the meal, paid, and went around the shop to be sure about no warning sounds or signs. Eiden clutched Cissa's hand to teleport them at the slightest danger. Mashu opened the door, and they followed him upstairs. Eiden at once felt the concealer wards and knew they weren't led to a trap. The room was bare except for a small table and cushions were piled in the corner, this must be a room for training.

"My lord, please take a seat." Mashu arranged a few cushions.

"Thank you. You're Mashu, right? Trained under my grandfather and served in the third platoon. We attended your wedding." Eiden had raked his memory to remember everything he knew about Mashu.

"Yes, my lord. Lord Hadrian is nowhere to be found, and there's a life-size poster of you in the city square. You've grown a little, but I recognized you at once. What happened my lord?" Mashu must have searched for his father.

"Can I trust you not to give me back to my uncle, Mashu?" Eiden has to ensure his and his friends' safety first.

"Unless the young lord is held by someone and what Lord Elvin says is true, I will not hand you over to the palace." Masu's gaze shifted to Cissa, as he answered.

"Fair enough." Eiden felt much better.

"Mashu, this is Cissa, one of my friends. I left on my own accord, Uncle knows it. I can not say much, even my closest friends don't know everything.

Mashu, my parents are in great danger, as is our magical world. I need a favor from you." Eiden took a bag of gold.

"I can pay you a little, I don't have much, if I succeed in finding my parents, I'll repay your services well." Eiden had no other means to pay for any services than gold, which he hoped would be accepted.

"My lord, I wasn't only trained by your grandfather but fed and clothed too. I need no payments. I will help as much as possible within my limits, I ask no information you can not tell. Please ask freely, if I'm not in a position to do whatever you ask, I'll try to find someone if you allow me." Mashu's words were sincere. Eiden placed the gold on the table.

"What I need is information, Mashu. I have no intention to overthrow the government, or power to do that. Specific inside information.

About a year ago, someone attacked my family and captured me. Then kept somewhere and tortured me. I need to know that place, and if possible who was there. The reason I need that is, I think I saw a black dragon, a live one, I need to know where it is kept." Eiden requested. He watched the horror come to Mashu's face.

"A real one?" he exclaimed.

"Yes. No. Mashu, not a hallucination. I can't tell you why I'm so sure. But I know. I just want as much as possible as you can find. Even a name would help me to think about what to do next." He explained.

Mashu bowed.

"I have a few friends, who owe me for this and that. I will try. How can I send my lord the word back?"

"How long do you think it will take?" Eiden didn't want any post. Nor is he willing to give any object linked to his place.

"Minimum two weeks," Mashu guessed.

"I'll be back." Eiden stood up.

"Keep the gold, Thank you Mashu."

Eiden's next stop was the Moonstone Mountains, close to Fayfox town. After much internal debate, he decided to take the risk of going back to his grandfather's home. His grandfather had a foolproof safe to hide most important books and some valuables. If his house succumbed to fire, he had to find them, now.

There was a secret way to access the safe from the sluice of the small lake which was located near the house. Thanks to Azur, for his grandfather's paranoia, he thought no one would guess a fire elemental would build a secret way in a water body.

Eiden and Cissa approached the lake from the back of the estate, and Eiden found the alarm wards were set bypassing the lake. He was taking a huge risk, so he made Cissa promise to leave if anything happened to him. It was simply a suicide to fight with imperial guards.

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Through a small outlet of the lake, Eiden entered the lake and swam through it. Luckily, the lake wasn't poisoned or tampered with which indicated that people probably didn't know about the secret safe. He found the tunnel opening without much trouble, and there were no wards other than Grandfather's protections, which allowed him to enter. Eiden swam through it upwards and found a small staircase, then slowly yet surefooted walked through the tunnel.

There were two safes; the first one was the dummy safe which was directly located underneath the house and the other one was a little away from the house, which had a lot of protection. The chamber door didn't look disturbed. He confidently went through the access requirements and finally heard the last click of the lock. He half expected to find a trap, as he stepped inside, yet no one seemed to have found it, and he let out the breath he was holding.

It was the same as he remembered. Several older scrolls and manuscripts were carefully placed in the glass cases, and the two iron boxes held the emergency stash of gold, runic stones, and crystals.

And to his whooping great delight, his extra set of armor was packed neatly beside his father's and grandfather's armor. He took copies of some documents that might hold a clue to his quest, valuables, and the armor.

"You took some sweet time, I thought I was going to burst," Cissa complained as Eiden put on his clothes.

"I found some good things. Let's get out of here fast."

When they arrived at the safe house the next day and were immediately hugged by friends who were so glad to see them, safe and sound. After telling them the story of meeting Mashu over dinner, everyone crowded around him to see what he brought from the safe.

"Wow, this is a beauty." Ivar ran fingers over Eiden's armor.

"Grandfather custom made them for the sons of the family. It's better than the one I had at the Palace."

"Only sons?" Eiden chuckled at Nub's scowl.

"Well, he has no daughter actually, pretty sure he'd have made one if he got." He gave some crystals and runic stones to Ierma. And gold to everyone, to keep for emergencies.

"My lord, there's an old hermit who lives alone in the woods in the Silver Mountains whom we occasionally meet. We call him ‘Guru’. He was a traveler in his younger days, then settled here. Why don't you go and talk to him? He might know ancient lore.

Ivar can take you there. I used to send him food, especially in winter with Ivar." Ierma told him while looking through the old manuscripts he had.

"I need to wait two weeks to see Mashu. It's a good idea to meet this person, shall we go tomorrow then?" Eiden asked Ivar.

"Okay, let's go early in the morning, sometimes he's not at the cabin, we might have to stay there until he comes."

Ivar was like Eiden, not skilled enough to take long-distance teleportation, especially with someone else, so they had one break before approaching the cabin.

The wooden cabin surrounded by a groove of evergreens, was smaller than their safe house. Higher altitudes in Silver Mountains always had heavy snowfall, and the cabin was covered with thick layer of snow. However, the little garden must have been kept warm with magic, was full of herbs, a few vegetables, and flowers. Sitting on the porch, they waited for the hermit.

Eiden didn't sense the hermit coming from the other side and was truly surprised at how much control this person had over their magic.

"Hello, Good morning Ivar, I see you brought a friend,” he greeted Ivar.

"Good morning, Guru," Ivar and Eiden bowed.

Eiden was somewhat unnerved by the hermit, by not sensing his magic except for a faint aura. They followed the hermit to a minimalistic, sparsely furnished living room. Yet, it was cozy and smelled like fresh herbs. Guru brought a fresh herbal teapot and thanked Ivar for the food. There were biscuits from Ierma, which he unpacked and set on the table.

"Young stranger, you don't need to be afraid or doubtful. Though, I know not what danger you are in, they won't follow you here. This tea will help you to relax."

Eiden stared open-mouthed.

"Err..thank you, Guru,"

"Noble birth, young and wary, tainted and in pain. You must be the child, the guards looking for."

He choked on spit and Ivar patted him on the back, hard.

"I'm sorry, I was surprised," Eiden said, between coughs.

"I apologize for startling you, child. I have no interest in power or wealth. Nor am I interested in politics and war. What have you brought here, son?" Guru poured Eiden a cup of tea.

"Neither am I, Guru. My only intention is to find a way to bring back my parents. I wish to know if you know anything regarding the ancient lore of the black dragons." Eiden put the copies of documents he had on the table.

"My father's side is from fire elementals. My grandfather never believed the black dragons were dark, to begin with. He said something is missing from history. He collected ancient lore but disappeared with my parents." Eiden took a deep breath.

"I have seen one, Guru, I need to confront them. Yet, if they were inherently evil, I'm no match for such power. I will be nothing but a bug-like creature to be squashed."

Guru didn't speak for a while, leisurely drinking his tea with biscuits and scrolling through the documents.

"Your grandfather must be a passionate scholar," he complimented.

"He's a great warrior too," Eiden said with an ache in his heart and a sad smile.

"Stories, they don't come out of nothing. There are too many stories about them being fair."

"That's what grandfather thinks."

Guru stood up, went inside, and came back with an old manuscript.

"The story of black dragons captured the attention of generations of historians. This is one of the documents from an old tribal leader I met in the South, very long ago. This was from his family, and it's a story they had heard before."

Ivar and Eiden didn't understand the document. There was a timeworn diagram of a strange, five-petalled, and funnel-shaped flower.

[https://i.imgur.com/tcm9ptD.jpg]

An old diagram of bleeding heart flowers (not scaled)

"It was written in an old dialect of the tribal language. It indicates an assumption, a theory, for why black dragons went mad." Guru pointed to the flower.

"This flower, the translation from this language, is roughly called "bleeding heart", because of its fiery red color."

"Oh, so this picture is red, I thought it was some discoloration," Eiden exclaimed.

"No, the original picture was painted in red," Guru continued.

"It says, the bleeding heart flowers are what black dragons primarily ate with meat. Its nectar had a life-sustaining property and was highly magical. The story was that something or someone, dark, and corrupted, poisoned the flowers. Over time, the black dragons accumulated this poison, and went mad."

"Poison?" Both Eiden and Ivar said in unison. They looked at each other.

"I was poisoned. I saw the black dragon there," Eiden said. He was terrified.

"I'm going to go mad?" He was clenching his fists so hard, his knuckles were white. Guru took his hand, looking into his eyes which were blown wide with fear.

"You burned it," he simply stated.

"I..err. It burned. My magic burned. I don't know which burned which," Eiden whispered.

"Everyone else knows," Guru smiled.

"I don't understand," Eiden said with a questioning look.

"Son, if it made you mad, then everyone would know it. If it doesn't make you mad, again everyone would know it. Which burnt which, everyone would know by your behavior."

"Oh," Eiden felt the tension leaving his body as he took a few deep breaths.

"The healer said, the only cure is my magic to cleanse the poison," he recalled. Frankly, he was angry and nearly threw a tantrum asking them to find a cure.

"Then you know what power you have against a black dragon." Guru leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Ivar tapped Eiden on the shoulder and gestured at the door.

Apparently, the hermit had finished talking, and they quietly left. Eiden had gained one very important piece of information, and he felt very satisfied with the meeting.