A Snowed Abode

Castle

Also noticed was another hat...
"A blue hat? Is that the Merlin magic kind or maybe the blue type?" Or maybe one and the same? Why would an inn have so many fashion items, anyway?

The two decided to leave this inn finally, at any rate, but not before they noticed lights flickering in the day's hum... or wasted electricity when there is such brightness outside...

There was also a weapons shop in town, but they might not have had so much money to spend on anything right now, maybe after spending some time exploring the castle...

Thus, they went upwards, now free of the red pillars of doom...

Beyond the moat, beyond the only vestige of what separated the castle now threatening this nearby region of the world, lay this structure. Grand in scope, it was indeed as red as the very fiery inspiration of its etymology, with varying shades of the hue.

Pax and Clemens were greeted by the usual statues with swords, but then noticed that their progress was apparently impeded by an entrance that was not quite straightforward; a small cliff sort of structure, the rope they had they discovered could be useful in this situation, even if it was not exactly a mountain. But before that...

"...There seems to be an odd aura here, a sense of hostility. Crow-bats also appear to have ensconced themselves here. Why would a monarch have them?"

Why, indeed? Perhaps we were about to deal with Count Dracula in person? One supposes a count is sort of like a monarch, but not exactly, and blood was never previously mentioned by anyone in relation to anything... was it? (There was that one statue that made no sense...)

Or perhaps, more to the point, the aforementioned archetypes were vampires, after all? But how could they be if 'types' generally is a plurality? As in, not a single category of creature... kind of like referencing 'viruses' or 'bacteria', and not any single species...

"Never you mind", is probably what Pax thought, being headstrong and all... and promptly climbed the rope to go beyond the ledge that seemed like some poor attempt at keeping anyone but the most lazy out... even a quite tall person could go over it, likely.

The first thing that seemed to greet them as they climbed over was a flickering candelabra, one that almost had this beastly vibe to it, considering the castle they were in, but the two did not let that occupy their thoughts too much before it seemed to mutter in their ears...

"While the candles burn at both ends
...and psychology handles the incomprehensible
...an impossible duality becomes indispensable."

Now, while they did not exactly know what that referred to they could reasonably speculate, but what specifically might the duality define? Perhaps the state one is in before they have anything to do with archetypes, and then after? By 'psychology' one can conjecture it mostly relates to perception, as mentioned previously in the books. It does seem like when something is incomprehensible the mind wrestles with it as best as it can... what, though, could the metaphorical candle be? Explicitly the monarch, or any person that interacts with archetypes? Were there even others that did this? The answer to that the two did not know, but might soon...

The carpets leading up the stairway were as red as blood, but the impression that there was something off could not exactly be shaken off due to differently hued squares that separated each section of the castle it seems. They were not quite bright, garish shades, but they still seemed to transmit a certain kind of comedy that made as much sense as any average inscription seems to have done, if one were to try to comprehend them rationally one supposes.

In the corridors that isolated one room from another, some minor sort of lights hung about, that seemed to also utter these strangely reassuring terms...