The Age of Solace: The Silver Wolf

Chapter 51: The Altar

Faradeigh was not fond of the temple that they had found themselves within. Despite being dark and deep underground, the entire place was in shambles, as though it would fall to pieces at any moment. Evidently, parts already had. There were collapsed columns, chunks missing from the walls, ceiling, and floor, and there were cobwebs everywhere... the list went on! Ruins were a more apt description than a temple in his opinion.

Beyond the damage it had proven difficult to see very far into the darkness, even with the aid of Bravura's natural light. He wished he could see in the dark as Syrah promised she was able to, though she mentioned that Bravura's light was infringing on that ability. He suspected that light in general restricted her dark abilities, given that they were elemental opposites. Currently, they were in some sort of entry hall. For a temple, it had thus far proven to be built much more like a cathedral.

At that point, Faradeigh was just trying to distract himself. The temple turned out to be much larger than he imagined, seemingly built to rival the castle up above. But if Stella was right about the layout, they would be approaching the equivalent of a throne room soon, the most likely place they would find this Socrariel. Such rooms often served as chapels for favoring the gods, enacting through worship, and spreading the will of the religion. While Faradeigh had read enough to understand the religion of the lands he lived within, he was never much for practicing it, probably due to other priorities, such as survival.

'By the state of things, we're more likely to find Socrariel's corpse than him.' Faradeigh noted to himself.

But as they crawled through the dilapidated temple, he began to feel uneasy. There were human forms laying around, long since burnt to ash. And not a single one was reanimated as a ghoul. Faradeigh felt a chill running up his spine. He was not comfortable with the situation at all. There was so much that he did not know, and even less that he could control. The ghouls alone proved to be a major threat that could be filed under both of those concerns.

"So, nice weather we're having." Cornelius joked, a weak attempt at breaking the tension.

"I swear in the name of Corvin I will hit you with the flat of my blade!" Syrah argued irritably. "Anyway, didn't you say you learned from a dragon below the castle, you know, before killing it?"

"That was a stray dragon that was shot down by our ranks, and kept in the water canals Syrah." Cornelius informed her. "That had absolutely nothing to do with this."

"Still..." Syrah said. "Being able to control dragons on a whim-"

"I have not been able to replicate that since, so drop it!" Cornelius snapped. "However... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try..."

"Where's the gray in your hair?" Faradeigh asked, noticing a particular lack of detail.

"It is a Dragon Lord's right to slay any dragon he chooses, part of his duty of keeping the balance." Stella answered. "As such, they do not suffer the branding that anyone else would."

Everyone had grown quiet after Stella had spoken that. The four warriors decided to simply investigate the dark temple that they found themselves within. Faradeigh felt uneasy that Cornelius had killed a dragon in cold blood like that... but he forced himself to remember that much of society raised people to hate and fear them. He had forgiven Syrah for wanting to kill Syckle (though was still majorly sore about the topic), so it was only fair that he forgave Cornelius for a past action as well. However, he would not be able to tolerate such a thing happening in front of him.

As they searched, Faradeigh felt an unease the longer they had remained in the depths of the temple. He was sure that they should have found something by that point, but there was no trace of opposition or even the dragon. Eventually, Cornelius felt comfortable enough to bother his sister to the point of anger. Faradeigh shook his head at their antics and decided to remain on task as the Princess had been.