Truth

I walked down the dimly lit halls, my patience slowly waning. These corridors were long and dark, torches being much further spread out than they had been in the much larger halls. I wandered about looking through each room I came across to see if anything led to a way out, or at least to somewhere of interest. There was nothing in these halls, just small piles of rubble, cracked walls, and old or toppled furniture around a corner. The air was dry from dust and there was not a single sound.

I was at my wits end, the same old dusty walls of this royal labyrinth seeping into my mind. I knew I could not lose myself though, I had saved Caelum, redeeming myself, so I knew I deserved to leave in peace. As I continued down tight corners and long halls, the silence was beginning to break. I could feel a slight breeze just ahead, its chilliness whistling in my ears. There was also a faint tapping in the distance, echoing in the dark. I was getting close to something. In the midst of my hope, splotches of blurs would sometimes appear in my sight making it harder for me to see. Perhaps I imagined it since it was so dark, or maybe I was just a little tired. One thing was certain, I had this unnerving feeling like I was being watched from a distance. I felt no sense of danger, yet I felt like there were eyes peering at me in the dark. My blind stumbling led me to imagine all kinds of things, making agonize over every little detail of what I have learned.

It did not matter now, because something more urgent interrupted my thoughts. I stepped on a section of uneven ground, nearly slipping. I looked to see what I had stepped on, and a leathery brown book cover with stained white string keeping its spine together stared back at me. I picked it up, instantly recognizing it. It was "L's" notes. I walked onward, confident that this was the path to take. I opened the notes up again from where Magdeline and I had left off, but some of the pages were torn. The halves of some pages in all different angles were gone, as if whatever had ripped it had no regard for the notes in it. I watched the ground around me, finding some of the pieces scattered about. They were not ripped to shreds, just in large pieces so it did not take long to find. Eventually, I found every piece I had not read yet and held them up to the notebook to where they looked like they got ripped from. I read the text only to find something I choose not to accept.

"L" wrote. "I think I have discovered what the seal at the depths of Caelum truly is. Throughout history, there have been tales of unnamed gods long forgotten, the reason for their wiped aliases: their sins far too great that they are better off forgotten. Gods so sinister that even the named gods who eternally war with each other have allied in past eras, all for the purpose of felling the nameless. I have reason to believe that whatever seal the guards disturb within the depths is the prison of one of these nameless gods."

I flipped to the next entry and held up the second torn page to where it use to be.

"I have been hearing more of this 'twin soul' experiment, supposedly the king as overseer. From what I have gathered, it requires immense power, power only the names of gods' spoken can achieve, but no one is willing to forfeit miracles for that. No one wants to live at the depths with the other miracle-less heathens. Dragons are also of concern; without those who cast miracles, who will defend Caelum? The experiments continue from what I hear, and from seeing the throne room continually heavily guarded, it must be true.

I have deduced it, the reason they send many guards to the depths. They are disturbing the seal, using whatever power drawn from it to ignite their 'twin soul.'"

I held the last torn page to the last entry.

"Dragons feast off the intangible, a discovery made not too long ago in this age of dragon slaying. It begs the question, what do these bowel-less creatures feast on that they endlessly lead sieges on Caelum? Their food source had to be within Caelum.

I figured it out. They feed off any remnants that escapeth from the seal. The dragons are feeding on the form of the nameless god sealed here, perhaps to guard it. I cannot come to any other conclusion. To think something so vile is at the heart of this kingdom. If the deployed guards end up breaking the seal, the blood is on the king and his follower's hands.

Whatever experiments they conduct needeth an end. We have blocked out the guardians who keep this god weak, but who knows if they are gluttonous enough to gorge themselves off an entire god. If the seal continues to be loosened, and the dragons felled from the sky, then we will certainly see our doom."

I read the text again, its words feeling similar to a dream a had. A dream where I was riding atop a pale dragon, along with other dragons, downward into Caelum... Into a dark fissure... Into a broken seal that once kept an evil god imprisoned.

If all of this was true, and the dragons have been saving everyone all along, then what does that say about dragon slayers, the god they worship, and what does that make of Magdeline killing the pale dragon? Were we part of the problem? No, it could not be, all the other dragons have died, we saw their bodies. What could that lone pale dragon possibly be doing to help? There was no way it could consume a god on its own, she had already failed.

Thoughts like these continued spiraling in my head, trying to reason with how our killing of the last dragon we had seen alive could not have made a big impact. I was a savior after all. I had redeemed myself. My past sins can finally be forgotten.