DUPLICATE Chapter. Chapter will be uploaded in a few hours
The scrolls and books ruffled from his search, minutes went by before he brought out a dark blue parchnt. He cleared his table before spreading the map on the table.
Kaelith leaned over the map, his fingers brushing lightly across the faded parchnt. The corners were worn, and so of the ink had smudged, but the lines were still clear enough to read.
Eldenria sat at the center, drawn with thick curves and long winding roads. It was the heart of the realm, fertile lands, filled with old cities, wide rivers, and tall arcane towers. Everything important either began there or ended there. It was the core of politics and magic.
His eyes moved north. Northhelm sat just above Eldenria, shaded in darker tones. The place was colder, rougher, and dense with pine forests, cliffs, and highlands that froze half the year. Behind it rose the Northern Mountains, tall and sharp. Snow covered their peaks. It was a place where old stories claid dragons once lived.
But what caught his attention wasn’t the mountains; it was what lay beyond them.
Faintly drawn in charcoal, nearly faded from the parchnt, were the words: The Land of Skulls.
Kaelith narrowed his eyes.
’Interesting, the Northern Mountains are close to the Land of Skulls.’ His fingers brushed over the words The Land of Skulls.
He shifted his gaze east. Gravemarch looked like a scar on the map. The land there was barren, the earth was cracked, dry winds blew, and nothing green was in sight. It was where warlords gathered and where necromancy was practiced. They called part of it Deadwind Ridge. Kaelith had never been there, but he had heard of the cursed winds that carried whispers with them.
His fingers moved to the south. Sumre looked like a splash of green and blue. It was warm there, maybe too warm. Rivers intertwined with the jungles, and the swamps stretched for miles. The place was full of strange plants and strange beasts, most of them either poisonous or deadly... or both. He traced a spot marked Verdant Marshes—a place that looked like a paradise but was anything but.
Finally, he looked back to the center, to Eldenria again.
A river was drawn across it; it was long, and it curved like a serpent, Serpent’s Spine River. It split near the capital and flowed both east and west, feeding the realm like a lifeline.
His finger returned to the Northern Mountains. "This is the place." He grabbed an ink pen, setting a cross mark on it.
Just then, a knock ca. "Co in."
He already knew that it was Scarlet. The door creaked open before it shut closed again. Footsteps approached him.
"Kaelith... I’m ready." Scarlet stood beside him, his eyes widened as his gaze fell on the map.
Kaelith looked up at him. As agreed, Scarlet was dressed in a black cloak. "I don’t think we will be able to proceed with the mission today."
Scarlet’s brows furrowed slightly. Of course, he knew they had to make a plan to increase their success rate. "Why?"
Kaelith tapped his finger on the section where Northern Mountains was written on the map. "From my informant, the dragon nest lies in this mountain."
Scarlet leaned closer, his eyes widened slightly. "Isn’t that too far away?... and why is it closer to the Land of Skulls? Isn’t that the place where rumours say ruthless creatures co from?"
"One question at a ti." Kaelith clicked his tongue in irritation. Now he couldn’t help but think if they should abort the mission.
Even though the Vorrak had been resealed five years ago, he wouldn’t risk the chance of awakening them again. And though the sealing of his magic had made it difficult to detect that he was the demon, the Vorrak, however, were built differently... and they could easily detect him... and the fact that there was a shard of the Artifact of Chaos in his domain was just like spice in a soup, heightening its flavour.
"It is far away, but our problem right now is the location. It is too close to the Land of Skulls. And we wouldn’t want to awaken what lies there."
"So... does this an that we have to abort the plan?" Scarlet’s voice lowered.
’That is the best choice for now... or else we would ruin everything for . If the Vorrak awakens again after they get a scent of ... we might not make it back. But if the Northern Mountains should have any dragon eggs, it is a hundred percent chance that it would be one with a strong bloodline... it is a prize worth the risk... but what if there is nothing?’
Kaelith remained silent for a long ti, his grey eyes fixated on the map. ’It is better to take the risk.’
"Now, we are not going to abort it... we will only delay it for now." Kaelith tilted his head at Scarlet. "There is a good chance that we might find a strong bloodline of dragons there... so we will not give up the chance. And we have an advantage. Since the location of the dragon egg is close to the Land of Skulls, which ans..."
"No one would dare to go there." Scarlet finished his words, with a glint flickering through his eyes. "So what must we do now?"
"We must prepare... The journey would take more than two weeks to a month. We need enough food supplies and potions. We also need to train harder to refine our powers, so we can get a better chance to succeed."
"But we have two problems... First, we don’t know if there is any dragon egg left, and second... there is no way we can go undetected for nearly a month... without being found out." Scarlet rubbed his jaw.
"You are right. For the first problem, we will leave that to fate. And for the second one... we just need to spite the Emperor hard enough for him to lock us away for a month or more... as for how to..."
"Leave that to . I’ll co up with a plan." Scarlet cut his trail of words.
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