Winterfall

Upon entering the locked dusty room, I snapped my fingers in hopes the magical lights would still work. Ha, I'm not that lucky. Of course, father would literally keep his darkest secrets in the dark. I went back out of the musty room, found a candle and lit it. I carefully re-entered the room as I covered the candle to avoid air hitting it.

My eyes was quick to readjust to the candlelight. Allowing me to see a few stockpiles of old black leather books covered in a thin grimy layer of dust. I knew my father used to carry around these books write in them constantly. These books were scattered everywhere in the room: on the floor, on the table up against the wall, and stuffed to the brim on bookshelves that my father had built into the walls. I had no idea where to start. All I knew is that, these books were my dads journals. Ones I knew he wrote his visions in.

I carefully sat the candle down in the middle of the room and walked cautiously as the creeks of the floorboards filled the air. I scanned the leather-bound books on the shelves to see if I could pinpoint a start year, but failed. There were just too damn many of them and it became evident that some of the dates were non existent or hard to read.

So, I decided to randomly pull one and see what I got. The one I pulled was tilted. Dragon? Dragon. I only assumed this one was about Theo or Crimson, perhaps. With father's visions he used to get, it was hard to determine what he was trying to say half the time.

I flipped the open the book and coughed as a fume of dust puffed up into my face. As the dust settled I felt my eyes adjust to my father's hand writing. And of course, he had to write this one in the old Elven language. Thankfully, I was well-versed in the language and could decipher it with ease. I picked up my candle and walked back to my chair so I could read it in a better light.

Dragon resides in the kingdom. I have had visions of said Dragon. Glorious. Protector. Shield. Silver. Blue eyed. Look for the man with those blue eyes. Théoden. Captain Théoden. My daughter's lover. He's the Dragon. He's a beast. A monster. But he loves my daughter? Creatures of that nature love? Or is he using her for his gain? No. He loves her. I've seen it. Both in the present and future. It's written all over his face when he looks at her. When she looks at him, they think they are being clever and hiding it. But a father knows.

Dragon. He will protect her well. Protect the kingdom. Making him her protector was the right call. He will be a glorious King one day. And my daughter, an even better Queen.

I closed that book, went back in, and randomly pulled out another one. This one was labeled King of Truth. I knew that one had to be about Alaric. I wonder… I quickly opened the book. I was curious about what dirty secrets my father had about him.

His Dragon had fallen. Harmon. A brilliant gold dragon that no one knew about. Fell in the last battle with the devil. The king dared to breathe a word about his Dragon. He did that to protect her.

Harmon came into his life after a rejection. She lived in the castle with him. She shared a bed with him.

Regardless, does Eleanor also have a dragon at her hip? I'll have to check in on a few visions with her. I saw bits of black. But what would a ruler do with a black dragon? Though, Eleanor is a pain after all. Maybe that is all that could tolerate her.

Each ruler has a dragon. Two have metallic dragons. One is chromatic. Lairs.

What happens to a dragon's lair when a dragon dies? Does the lair stay, or does it fade over time?

I closed the book and began to process the information.

What the bloody Hell? What does this mean, Theo?

You are only getting bits and pieces of the picture.

Did you know about Harmon and the other dragon?

I have had brief encounters with both of them. Harmon was a wonderful lady. She admired King Alaric greatly. The black dragon is a bit feisty like Eleanor. It's no wonder those two get along so well.

So, there have been other dragons around?

Yes. I'm not the only one. But I am the only one for Winterfall. Well, once we get rid of Red.

Huh. Interesting. So King Alaric's Dragon had died then.

Yes. Harmon fell when Crimson and Marcel attacked the borders of Aspen.

He never talked about her. He never showed his grief.

He was still protecting her even after she had died. He loved her after he lost you.

That stung a bit. Alaric lost both the girls he loved. He lost me to Theo and Harmon to death. I should have questioned Theo more about why he knew about the other dragons and didn't tell me. Why didn't he seem phased by any of this? But instead of that, I wanted to learn more.

I got up and grabbed another book at random from the room. Black Raven. The title of this one piqued my curiosity.

Betrayal. The Council. Someone had infiltrated The Council. Who? Who is the black raven? And what did they do?

I knew and still loved my wife despite her betrayal of the kingdom and our daughter.

It's hard to hate the woman you bed down with every night.

It's hard to hate the woman who made you a father.

I knew my wife. Something has taken over her the last few years. She seemed distant. She seemed stressed. She doesn't seem like herself.

I hope whoever she is sleeping with, outside of me, is fulfilling her needs in ways I can't. I saw glimpses of him. He looked like a creature that crawled out of Hell. How did she end up with him? What bargain did she strike?

Shit. Mother had slept with Marcel? Is that what I was getting here? Two betrayals. Someone in the Council. I figured it was Crimson/Sybil. But mother going as far as sleeping with the devil? Huh. There may have been more to this than I thought. Maybe I wasn't meant to be his all along. Perhaps he wanted a mother, but figured why stop there? But that still begs the question, what was she doing with him in the first place?

That may be enough reading for now, Maria. Your mind is wandering in places that it shouldn't.

But..I am learning so much.

Yes, but knowledge is power. And power is gained in small doses.

Ugh…

Besides, have you checked the time recently?

No, why?

It's getting closer to training. Hours have passed since you went back.

What? For fuck's sake. I was too entranced to notice.

That is precisely my point. Get some food and then meet me in the training area.

At the mention of food, my stomach growled. I had no idea I had spent almost ten or so hours reading. To be fair, it was juicy stuff.