Sweet Innocence and Gentle Sin || 𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑

Chapter 20: Hoard of Poison

Said you'd always be my white blood. Circulate the right love. Giving me your white blood.

~)(~

When we finally reached the mines, I learned it was called the Lone Mountain—which was oddly fitting. It was a large white-capped and jagged mountain that sat near enough to the Great Mountains to look tiny in comparison. I knew at some point we would have to cross those horrible peaks, but that wasn't today—thankfully.

The front doors showed evidence of decades of abandonment from the look of the skeleton corpses. They were huge, flat stone doors that required a lever system that activated a water wheel to turn on some machinery to open it. The mountain was completely hollow on the inside and looked like it had once been an underground city. Once. Now, I wasn't sure if those stairs and floors would hold any weight.

The High Lord quickly got to work, sending his men to scout and gather what was necessary for the upcoming battle. Jurian was very adamant about personally setting up his traps and set off to work like a child with a lit matchstick. Those that weren't working on preparing the field were searching the mines for any signs of life. The Lord wanted it proven without a doubt that there weren't any dragons in deep slumber.

Nalia clung to my side the whole time we waited for the confirmation. I'm sure she actually believed there could be dragons down there. I knew actual dragons died out a long time ago. You would be lucky if you found a bone still intact. They mingled too much with the Fae and paid for it. Most of the stories claim dragons were cursed into human-like forms. An obvious hint that Illyrians were descendants of dragons, which I didn't find too far a stretch.

Once the coast was clear, I dragged Nalia into the mountain with me. I mostly wanted to explore, but also wanted to make sure Nalia didn't die of fright. The High Lord had someone prepare a room for the two of us since he couldn't bother to give Nalia her own space. I would work to remedy that on my own.

Most of the mountain was pitch black. The soldiers only lit the lanterns along important paths, nothing more. The deeper we went, the darker it became. And the tighter Nalia held onto me.

I opened the creaking wooden door and walked her into the little bedroom. It looked like a servant's room, from how small it was. I sat her on the bed and brushed her arms clean of any dust.

"How about you busy yourself with cleaning this room and the adjacent one? That way, you can keep your mind busy and we can sleep in our own rooms tonight," I suggested, offering a soft smile.

She nodded. "I get... a little claustrophobic."

"I can have Miryam make a tonic?"

She shook her head. "That'll make me too tired. I'll just..." she looked around the room, "clean the decades of dust and cobwebs. Just like I used to in Hybern."

I tried to laugh with her but found it difficult. There was always something reminding me of that place. This underground abandoned city was quite a reminder.

I left Nalia alone and finally decided to explore on my own. I wasn't going to have many chances like this—that was the reason to traverse deeper and deeper underground, with nothing but a torchlight to guide my way.

Was it probably stupid? Yes. But I had a knack for doing idiotic things. Perhaps that's why Azriel considered me such a pain.

I finally reached what looked like the bottom, and when peering up, I couldn't see anything but black above me. It was slightly terrifying... only slightly. The silence was something unexpected. I thought that all the noise from above would echo down here and sound like ghosts. But there wasn't even the sound of falling pebbles—utter silence. And I was in the middle of it.