Once he was done with the golden cage, Lucen did not return to his room as usual. Koril left him to return on his own, so he decided to explore the castle.
From the walkways and high terraces, he traced the path down to the bottom floor, and with each floor he descended, a growing buzz reached his ears.
Voices travelled up the stone, and the bustling sounds of life filled his ears. Finally, he reached the ground floor.
The stone chamber had high banners and colossal armour sets looming over the crowd of people at the bottom of the stairs.
Lucen peeped down the stairs, not a single soul out of the hundreds was taking it. If he ca down the stairs, he’d be identified as a Lightcloak, and word would reach Duran in seconds.
He returned upstairs, finding one of the smaller, tallic service doors. They were built for humans, and would explain how such a large servant caste could move soundlessly through the castle.
He couldn’t figure out how to open the door, however, it had no handles and was just a smooth, tall tal door.
After trying a few thods, he stumbled onto the right way. By pushing the door till you heard a clicking sound, then moving aside as it popped open.
"Smart, I think?" he muttered.
The tunnels beyond were lit by glowing stones. It was a tight tallic tube that ran for miles.
The thrum of the crowd vibrated through the walls into his bones. The tallic steps spiralled downward, and Lucen suddenly felt like the dark tal walls were closing in.
It grew more overwhelming with each step, but he found the exit soon. He pulled the handle backwards till it clicked and stumbled out of the tunnel into a crowded hallway.
And before anyone could take more than one look at him, he was sucked into the crowd’s flow. For a second, the noise crushed down on him. After eight years of space and silence, he was washed away by the swarm of people.
The hot slls of bread, stews and flowers pushed and pressed on him. He managed to get to the wall and followed the crowd to the colossal wooden doors of the Keep.
Lucen had been asleep when he entered the castle as a baby. The very sight of the door had weight, like he was stepping into a legend, sothing that couldn’t be moved by man.
He was outside.
The air was cold and sharp, the wind and its dust rolling over him. The ground, the walls of the keep, the cloth of the people passing through the gates, were all a dense, black grey.
Lucen walked carefully to the little shop closing down, where a young boy was pulling down rafters.
"Hello," said Lucen timidly
The boy, a bit younger than him, turned, brows furrowed. "Lightcloak? Down here... are you Halfblood?"
Lucen nodded, no point in denying it.
"Been cooped up in a room all year... where’s everyone going?"
Lucen cringed internally. Why was his voice so weak and squeaky?
"The town in the valley—Most of us live down there," he said, fastening a lock to the bolt. "I’m Liam. What’re you looking for?"
"I wanted to know if there were any Lurker Hounds in the area," Lucen answered, glancing back at the high windows of the Grey keep.
Liam took off his hat and went behind the shop stall to change. "Well—they roam the plains. The Lightcloaks think they’re too weak to hunt, but they probably don’t like how smart they are."
Liam’s voice paused as he pulled his dirty shirt over his head.
"Simple magic’s easy for them to dodge, and bigger ones are a waste of mana—at least that’s what the Commander says. So we deal with them ourselves."
"Are you looking to kill so?" Liam asked excitedly
Lucen didn’t answer, waiting as the boy ca back around the stall, his dirty brown hair and easy blue eyes were charming. He spoke very well for a child and was quick to answer.
"Thank you. I’ll see you around."
He left, thoroughly disappointed in his inability to sound human.
"Wait! You never told your na," Liam reminded him.
"Don’t worry about it, call anything you like."
"Goldie?"
Lucen paused, about to turn back and snarl at the boy, but let it go.
Back inside the castle, he followed many doors and passed between the lower sections of the towering building.
He found the kitchens easily, enjoying so of their more strange foods and their wary company.
"Oh, it’s not that dàngerous in the valley," one of the chefs explained, "The Hounds ain’t hard to scare away."
"There are the Crunchers, though," a boy said, while kneading dough.
The chef gave him a harsh look that intrigued Lucen. "What are those?"
"Old legend, don’t worry about it," the chef said, but sighed, seeing Lucen’s insistent stare.
"Crunchers are monsters under your bed, stories yer mum tells you to keep you from roaming at night. They eat the bones of the n they kill and wear their skins. It’s why they call ’em crunchers—the sound."
"Don’t worry about it, though," the baker boy exclaid, "Lord Chester, when he returns, will kill them all."
Lucen narrowed his eyes. Chester? It wasn’t the first ti he had heard that na, but now it warranted so investigation.
At the end of the day, when the sky darkened over the grey castle, Lucen walked up to the gates of the Grey Keep.
He swallowed hard, glancing behind repeatedly and tried to step through the gate.
His body froze, limbs no longer his and a frustrated cry escaped his throat.
He stepped back slowly, face dark and murderous. It seed like he was not allowed to even leave the keep.
One of them would have to break first, though—the world or his will.
■——■
Six years later, Lucen had beco a regular custor at Liam’s shop and brought his mother too.
The Lightcloaks didn’t feed or acknowledge their existence, so usually Selene had to go down to the kitchens and cook for them herself.
Lucen rubbed his sandals against the coarse earth. He was covered in sweat and dirt from Warren’s combat classes.
He was at a table with Liam, playing a casual ga of Highcraft—a chess-like strategy ga that was popular among nobles.
"Hehe, why are you playing so slow?" Liam snickered, "Take your loss gracefully, Goldie."
"My na is fucking Lucen," he replied, "and are you so proud to finally beat , after i’ve been training all day."
"Ahhh, sorry, I forgot. We’re L brothers!" Liam exclaid, "Don’t worry, brother. Unlike you, I won’t rub losses in your face."
He considered picking up the wooden staff at his side and smacking Liam across the head. But simply grumbled and played his next move.
"This is why I hate kids. And do not call us L brothers"
"You’re a kid too." Liam grumbled. "Are so Knights stronger than others? Like Chester. I heard he’s the one the Lightcloak Patriarch trusted to protect the Keep."
Koril was still here while Chester was in the void. But now he was back, sent back to the Keep by Alger. Even though the Patriarch himself hadn’t returned to the Keep in fifteen years.
"Obviously there are ranks for Knights based on their strength," Lucen said lazily. "The weakest are us, Squires. We can only learn weaker spells and our souls haven’t coalesced. That simply ans it needs to harden and beco one unified form."
Liam bead. "Then there are the formal Knights? My dad was a Knight, but a weaker one."
"Yes. They have hardened their souls and use High-rank spells. They are also far stronger and faster than us."
"Then Chester is a Knight?"
"Grand Knight, the strongest knights out there. I don’t know what differentiates them from normal Knights, though," Lucen murmured. "But they are strong, stronger than any Knight by far. All of the Patriarch’s sons, Sandor, Koril, Chester, are Grand Knights."
"You’ll be one too soday," Liam sighed, "I hear they live forever."
Lucen glanced at the castle. Tomorrow, they will decide what channelling technique he got. That would decide whether he beca a Grand Knight or not.
And whether he’d ascend beyond that.
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