The two blondes faced each other for a minute. One looking a bit guilty, while the other one annoyed.

"I was sure that the King was busy with his duties and so, I brought Klyran here, to show him the renown view from the gardens", Aldryn explained and nodded toward his new friend, not even noticing that said friend was not even paying attention to their conversation.

"I should have been... but Lunahera was truly a blessing sent to me from above. She offered to be the one to listen to the people today. Though I did had a meeting that I had to cut short", he said and then winced seeing the frown appear on the apostle's face.

"Surely you did not cancel it just because of my arrival?", the priest asked instead.

"Of course not" was the rapid reply, "It was boring and they were telling me news that I have already figured out by myself last week. I decided to not appear rude by simply telling them all the answers. I said that I would read their research and then we will hold another meeting. I would never wish to make them think that their efforts are not appreciated."

"Will you read the papers though?" Aldryn asked, not wishing to be the reason why Ildurin ignored his duties.

"Of course. I will skim through them and see if there is anything that I missed", the King nodded and then looked at Klyran.

Noticing the stare, the oracle called his friend to draw his attention back to the company and then looked back at Ildurin.

"Maybe we should go speak somewhere more private?" he asked and the other blonde quickly understood what was implied and nodded.

The King then turned around and led his two companions out of the garden and toward his private chambers. On his way, he stopped a servant boy and asked him if he could spare a few minutes to go to the kitchen and ask for some tea to be made and brought up to his rooms. The servant quickly bowed and then ran toward the kitchen, before Ildurin could even thank him. He knew, of course, who the boy was and when he encountered his sister along the way, he quickly stopped and asked her to relay his gratitude to the young boy. It caused the girl to blush, but she quickly nodded and went back to her duties.

Klyran saw the exchange and could understand why Aldryn had this man in such high regards. He could see that he was a kind person and someone who truly cared for his subordinates, if remembering all of their names was anything to go by. Considering the fact that Aldryn was not able to see his high status and skills. He then thought back to his own home, to the castle that his brother ruled and tried to remember if he knew there anyone by name. But nothing came up, except for the names of his brother's friend and their relatives who would always keep an eye on him. He then looked around and noticed how people treated Ildurin, they all smiled his way and bowed their heads in respect. Then, Klyran remembered Aldryn telling him about how Ildurin was loved by his people. He then thought of all the glares and sneers that he received back home and did not even felt bad for never bothering to even find out the names of the people from his homeland. If the other people that lived in the castle would have treated him how Ildurin was treated by his people, he knew he would have at least made an effort to know them by their names. But as things were, there was no remorse or guilt plaguing his mind.

As they were led through the castle walls, Klyran's eyes danced all over the place. He took in the many decorations that were randomly present in the hall, such as vases filled with flowers, or wooden trinkets. What made him stop though, were the paintings. The young Ryan never saw one before and couldn't help but approach the first one that he noticed. It was a grand painting of a small village on a lake and a giant Serpent coiling around it. Klyran could not understand what it was and even went as far as to touch it. He vaguely noted that the Serpent was similar to the statue present at castle's the front entrance.

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"That's a painting", Aldryn suddenly said, noticing that his companion stopped, "The plants in this world have many different colours and if one knows how to handle them, they can create paint and dye. While it is rather common to use it on clothes, paintings such as that one are rather expensive", the oracle explained.

"You have never seen a painting before?" Ildurin then asked, taken by surprise, to which Klyran simply shook his head.

"You look like a noble, judging by your clothes. I was sure that you were either a young prince travelling in search for adventure or a knight-to-be", the King then continued, looking at the apostle in confusion.

"My brother is a King" Klyran then said with pride, his chest puffing up a bit, "but there is no such thing as paint where I came from."

"But your jacket is clearly dyed, there is no natural skin that black in this world, spare for the Nalrits", Ildurin continued, feeling nauseous at the mere thought of clothes being made out of the invader's skin.

"This?" the brunette said and looked at his jacket, "This is Sakeir skin, it is naturally this black", he said and then continued to look at the painting.

"I never heard of such a beast before" the King said and then looked at Aldryn, who he quickly noticed was also looking rather curiously at his friend's clothes, which caused the younger blonde to grow concerned.

"That's the Silver City" the oracle then suddenly said and approached Klyran.

"It looks small" the other responded.

"It was small", Ildurin then said and approached the two, "Long time ago, the Silver City was only a small village filled with fishers."

"What is this?" Klyran then said and pointed to the Serpent.

In that moment both Aldryn and Ildurin noticed that their companion was not touching the painting. His finger was hovering slightly above paint and was tracing the various colours that it was composed of, as if afraid that a single touch would make it crumble.

"That is the Great Serpent, the Seringal. It is said that when the world was still new, there were many Thraes that protected humans and therefore, all of the big cities in those lands have such paintings and statues. Supposedly, the people of the village used to live under its protection", the King explained.

"I never asked before", the Ryan then begun, "But what exactly is a Thrae? I know that the Fox is one, but I can't seem to fully understand it."

"Thraes are like Gods. Only they were not there in the beginning. They were created after everything already existed. So they are considered in a different class", Aldryn explained, happy that the Fox also liked the explanation, if the content feeling was anything to go by.

Then, Klyran looked again at Seringal. He did not give it much thought when he first saw it, thinking that it was just a beast sculpted out of stone. One among the many statues that were scattered around the front yard of the castle.

"Where is it now?" he suddenly asked and looked at Ildurin in the eyes, causing the other to shiver.

Those eyes looked like they could read your soul, the King thought and forced himself to keep the eye contact.

"As the city grew and expanded, there was less and less space left for the Thrae who lived underwater. And one day, it left, causing the lake to split and waterfalls to form all around it. The city was destroyed by the water. It was rebuilt of course, but we never forgot what happened. Nor the lives that were lost that day", the King explained and looked at the painting, feeling the urge to caress the figure of the painted serpent.

"Where is it now?" the Ryan then asked again, looking at them both.

"Nobody knows" Ildurin begun to say when a deep voice interrupted him.

"In the biggest lake there is" the now snow-haired oracle laughed, having its host's memories of Ildurin comparing the sea to a big lake.

This, in turn, caused the King to blush, obviously remembering that chat from almost ten years ago.

"He meant to say the sea. Though I did not know that", the blonde said and looked at the Thrae.

"The two of us used to fight all the time" the fox simply shrugged, "Then he came one day and said that he wanted to go and sleep deep beneath the water. Seringal became tired of all the fighting and wished for some peace. Made me promise to look after his pet humans, which I did, whenever I could. Had to keep looking out for my own humans at the same time."

"Fascinating" Ildurin said, but before he got the chance to ask any more questions, the priest returned back to himself, his hair darkening and the markings around his body fading.

"I think we should go and have our conversation now", the oracle spoke with a smile the moment he realized that he was back in control.