Drayce smirked and thought to himself. This little dove is sharp… and full of surprises. She really is unbelievable. Time and again, she had shown him that she wasn't afraid to act utterly defiant.
He reflected on how while changing clothes with the soldier earlier, he'd noticed the tattooed moon on the man's chest. To be safe, he had drawn a similar mark on his own skin with his dagger and smeared a bit of mud over it before entering the hold.
Suddenly, he then realized this little dove hadn't looked up from his chest for quite some time.
"Like what you see?" he drawled. Eli blinked, realizing just how long her gaze had lingered. "I am delighted my credentials are good enough for your.....admiration." She abruptly pulled both her hands away from around his neck and looked up at him with a startled jolt, catching a seemingly dangerous gleam flickering in his eyes while he observed her, as heat rushed to her cheek.
"How do I look, hmm?"
Thee f*ck is this dude talking about? She pursed her lips before blurting out. "I was just looking for the sigil, you arrogant a**!"
A seemingly enchanted chuckle erupted from him. "Ah, I see… your mouth is just as daring as your wandering eyes, little lady." Eli didn't knew whether it was his brazenness or the golden glint of his eyes that beamed into hers, that had made her speechless.
As the silence dragged on, the man's lips curved up into a triumphant, mocking smile.
*Thump! Thump!*
Am I sick? she thought, pressing her lips together as her pulse raced unevenly. Why is my heart acting up like this?
Before she could retort to his annoying face, in the background, she could hear the noise of guards screaming her name and looking for her. Her eyes widened and she gave a quick look from where the sound came and then back at him, and then her liquid like eyes stared for a second more before she turned around and ran away, leaving him alone.
Immediately after she disappeared and not long before, his expression abruptly shifted again. The corner of his lips turned down in seriousness and his golden eyes sharpened once more.
He looked down at his hand, where a faint smear of her blood still glistened against his skin. Without delay, he brushed it against the carved wolf mark on the wall causing a low hum filling the air and the wall parted before him, revealing a hidden passage.
The ancient enchantment could only be unlocked by Elarion royal blood, which was highly unlikely to acquire. But as luck would have it, she had appeared before him quite literally delivering what he needed.
As soon as Drayce stepped through the threshold the massive door sealed itself shut into the wall it was moments ago.
***
Eli now pressed a handkerchief that a guard had handed her against the wound on her neck. She walked toward where Callisto was waiting for her.
What…? Her steps slowed down. What is this? How is that even possible?
A translucent screen flickered into existence before her eyes.
Tutorial Scenario: Arlo is missing! Find it in Blackridge Hold!
It wasn't anything new, but something got added. Her brow furrowed. Along with the mission details a completion rate was now on display.
Mission completed: 90%.
Ninety percent? But I don't think I've done anything to make it that high. She had thought she'd failed the mission.
Ten percent remaining.
What else do they want me to do?
Now that I have to go back, if I can't finish this... what happens then?
Do I fail? Does it end here? She sighed.
Her thoughts were tangled together crowded in her mind, refusing to settle well. None of them did her any good as she walked on. For now she drove away all the thoughts that were in her head and decided to tackle one problem at a time, the current one being what kind of excuses she was going to give Callisto.
Couldn't this simulation come up with its own excuses? Why does she have to rake her brain every time for them?
She saw Callisto in the same hall where they had met before with the white-furred man beside him. Both stood with their backs to her as they continued talking.
**BOOM!**
Out of nowhere, an indescribable sound rang through the air from within the hold to reach them where they were standing. Eli flinched and instinctively turned toward the sound.
Within seconds, both the white-furred man and Callisto had sprinted past her, heading straight toward the noise.
"Escort the princess back. Now!" Callisto barked, not even glancing her way as other guards also passed past her.
But Eli instead of staying put on her place and returning back, ran after them ignoring the protests that rose behind her.
It didn't take long before they reached the same corridor where she'd clashed with the golden-eyed man. Everything looked the same except a door now stood open at the middle, and Callisto and the others were already disappearing into it.
Her heart, which had once skipped a beat here, once again now hammered wildly in her chest but for completely different cause. As she approached the door, she instantly gagged and reached out her hand bracing against the cold wall to steady herself. She had to cover her nose as a strong stench of blood seeped out from within.
"W–what… happened here?"
Eli knew the situation was more than serious and the danger might be real. And yet this wasn't enough to make her give in and she forced her feet forward. Pushing past the threshold, she followed Callisto inside. The moment she stepped in, the sight before her froze her blood, even the soldiers trailing behind her stopped short, "Bloody hell…!" rasped one of them.
The area stretched into a wide tunnel, lined on both sides with rows upon rows of cells. A few cells hadn't even been cleared of their former occupants. Eli caught the shape of a skeletal hand still caught in its shackle, her stomach lurched as she made her way past these cells. The floor beneath her boots was darkly stained with old patches of red and brown, visible in the lantern's glow. She wasn't even sure what she was stepping on as the light flickered too weakly to tell, and she didn't want to know.
"Your Highness, please—this is no place for you. We must return at once!" she heard a guard pleading to her, but she ignored him and pushed forward. She didn't know, but, at this point, whatever it was, she had to see it with her own eyes, she just felt like it was connected to her somehow.
She had never seen anything like this; not even in her real life, nor in any part of this simulation or expected to see such a place. But even that wasn't what truly unsettled her.
As they moved deeper and deeper into the dungeon, they found bodies of uniformed men laying across the stone floor. They looked as though they had simply collapsed where they stood, like lifeless cards toppled from a deck. It was simply unbelievable.
"What…?" Eli heard one of the guards murmur to his companion as he stepped cautiously over a body. "They didn't even raise the alarm."
"They were taken out before they had the chance to." the other replied grimly, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword. "Whatever did this… it doesn't seem human."
Eli's eyes swept over the fallen men and she confirmed to herself that the fallen men still had their blades sheathed as if they hadn't expected any attack.
"W–what are those?" Eli asked, her voice barely came out as a whisper as they stepped around another cluster of bodies. She saw several larger furry creatures lay among the fallen guards, which she couldn't quite identify due to the dim lanternlights.
"Wolves..., Your Highness," a guard answered, lowering his weapon slightly, and clearing the path with his feet for her. "They were tamed and were kept here for additional security."
Even the beasts lay dead, whatever had come through here hadn't spared anything that breathed.
The closer she went inside, the clearer it became just how horrific of a spectacle she was witnessing. However, she pushed herself forward before her eyes flickered to the completion rate window, now displaying a number of 95%.
Out of the blue, once again the scene ahead her made Eli froze in her place, her heart raced erratically.
In the dim-light she saw someone slumped unnaturally against the cold stone wall and he looked straight towards Eli making her breath hitch instinctively, and the guards too were alarmed, raising their swords against it.
But on closer inspection, all signs indicated her that the man was unmistakably dead, it was another dead body, but unlike others he had messed up limbs. His eyes were still open and fixed in a glassy, forward frozen stare, and his face displayed an expression as if he'd seen a ghost.