A Tale of Sorcery - Ryder's POV

Research

Hey guys! Hope you've had a good New Years and Christmas! How was it?

I'm so sorry for not posting in a while. I'd been busy with my Year 6 farewell and then I had to go on holidays. I have also been given the lovely job of waking up my darling sister before 12, which is extremely hard.

Please forgive me.

Anyways, as always, happy reading!

For the next two months, I studied all I could on prophetic dreams. I went to all the Elders in the Dragon Keys and got their insights on the grey field. I searched the Dragon Keys for any temples or engravings that would match any of the scenes or people that I'd seen. But I found nothing.

I contemplated talking to my mother, but I knew that she'd try to discourage me from learning about my dream. Although she never shows it, I know that she's always worried about me and fears that one day I would do something too reckless for my own good.

The most I could figure out in that dream was that it was related to one of the stories my mum used to tell me, The Daughter of Death. Apparently, to understand human grief, Death had sent his own daughter into the mortal world for 100 years. He was consumed by grief, and finally understood what the humans were feeling. When his daughter was due to come back home, she managed to escape her father. That was how he started searching for his daughter, sending diseases and plagues into the mortal world in an attempt to reunite himself with his child. Some of the old books in the library showed a picture of what Death was supposed to look like, and despite the differences, I could tell that this was the mysterious cloaked man in my dream.

Even though that discovery had helped me narrow down my search for answers, it still didn't help me with the other two people in my vision. If the people in my vision were telling the truth, then that meant that the lady was the Daughter of Death. But that Brystal girl? I had no clue who she was. There was nothing in my books about her, and none of the townsfolk knew anything about her.

During the first few days of the third month, my frustration finally took over. I slammed my books shut and let out a heavy sigh, not knowing what to do next. I'd looked everywhere in the Dragon Keys, but nothing I couldn't find anything on Brystal Evergreen. I didn't normally give up, but I'd been searching for answers for months, and although I discovered many interesting things, I couldn't complete this puzzle.

But I hadn't technically given up. Instead of giving up on the search altogether, I decided to do the thing that I'd been during the entire search - talk to my mother.

Time Skip!

It was a daily occurrence that my mother was called to business during meals. In fact, there was rarely a meal when she wasn't hollered out by a concerned guard or angry citizen. So when, in the first five minutes of dinner, and Mother still wasn't summoned to duties, I took it as a sign that I'd have time to talk to her about what was on my mind.

We eat in the dining hall, which is more like a throne room, to be honest. A circular table made out of wood is covered in embroidered red cloth. A roasted fire kept the room warm. A bookshelf lined all the walls, filled with hundreds - probably thousands of different books about the economy, dragon training tips and other important topics.

"Mother," I started, "may I ask you something?"

"Go ahead," she approved, looking up from her meal.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about a girl named Brystal Evergreen," I blurted out, before I could regret my decision.

My Mother's body language didn't change, but I saw a hint of aggression in her eyes, like I was prey she was waiting to kill.

"Brystal Evergreen," she said, speaking the name like an enchantment. "Why are you asking?"

"I had a dream," I confessed. "And I think it was a vision."

I confessed everything that had happened over the last few months. I told my mother how I'd turned every stone in the Dragon Keys just trying to find the answers I desired. I explained how I had pieced together who Death and his daughter were and how I'm pretty confident that they are finally reunited.

"No matter how hard I look, I can't seem to figure out who this, Brystal Evergreen is,"

Mother sighed. "There are some things that you are not ready to know."

"What? Mother, I had a vision about this girl. I've been searching for answers to figure out who she is. If anyone is ready to know about this, it's me."

I'd never felt so sure of anything in my life. Usually, I'd second guess all my opinions and decisions. But something within me told me that I wasn't wrong in the slightest. In fact, I could almost say that I was confident in my opinion; that never happens.

"You must stop this search right now," Mother advised.

"Why?" I asked. Reality clicked in my head. "You know who she is, don't you."

"When you're older, I'll explain everything."

"Mother, I have been searching and trying to figure out who this girl is. You can't just tell that you know something and expect me to let you keep it to yourself."

"Actually, I expect you to do just that."

"You can't ask me to do that."

Mother looked me in the eyes. They held some sort of regret, and that made me even more curious and much more concerned.

"I'm sorry," Mother said.

Before I could decipher what she meant, Mother headed towards the bookshelf right on top of the fireplace. She brought out a red covered book and flicked through the pages until she found the very centre.

"Mother?" I asked slowly, standing up from the table very carefully. "What are you doing?"

"You cannot know certain things without endangering yourself and others," Mother told me solemnly. "Now, hold still. This won't hurt a bit, my son."

Before I could move out of the way, Mother pointed her finger at me and said an incantation in—was that Latin?

The next thing I could remember was me lying on the floor with Mother looking up on me, checking to see if I was okay.

"Mother?" I groaned, sitting up slowly. My chest felt like fire.

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah. What—What happened?"

"What do you remember? About tonight, I mean."

"Um, nothing, actually," I confessed. No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't think of anything to do with tonight. In fact, the past few months were very blurry, like they never even happened. "Why? Did something happen?"

Mother sighed. "No. Nothing."

And that's it! Thank you all so much for reading. I know for a fact that I haven't posted in a while, and that's really stupid. I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything.

Bye for now!

- Chloe :)