Forbidden

-Chapter Ten: The War Room-

Once separating from the group, Leo Percy couldn't help but giggle to himself as the group of young bachelorettes gather around Jack. If they only knew. Leo Percy thought to himself sneaking behind one of the large columns that held the dark castle up. Once leaving the ball room and into the hallway, Leo Percy sighed as he looked around. "Great now what?" He said to himself before noticing the only bright light came from the reflection of the candles from his suit. Making a conscious decision, Leo Percy walked into a room filled with coats and gloves belonging to the royals and visitors of the other kingdoms then removed his armour to reveal a formal attire with Asterian colours. He rhetorically thanked Beatrice as he examined himself in a mirror real quick seeing a baby blue bishop sleeved shirt and a high waisted, beige, slim fitted pants.

Before deciding to walk aimlessly to find the war room, Leo Percy knew he needed a full thought-out plan of how to get from point A to point B without getting caught. Lilith's words clouded his thoughts: "be careful, a majority of the castle staff is not on the defiance. Especially those on Oliver's close force." How could Leo Percy possibly know who's on whose side? He also wondered why Vulpecula couldn't have done this mission instead of him, she would have gotten way more information instead out of them too. The brunette carefully opened the closet room's door and peeked his head out of the opening to make sure that the coast was clear.

Leo Percy compared the castle in the clouds to the burning castle, hoping that they would have any type of similarities. To his satisfaction of being right; there was none at all. The corridors were just irregularly long and drawn out. There weren't a lot of doors that lead to places, but when there was a door it usually had some sort of significance. Leo Percy was actually surprised when he peeked into a room cautiously and saw that it was a storage for plates. All different kinds of plates: gold plates, silver plates, iron plates, sparkling plates, seasonal plates, and so on! "What a dumb room." Leo Percy scoffed before closing the door.

At this point Leo Percy found it helpless to continue searching every room on the first floor, so the first staircase he found he would take to the second floor to continue his search. There was a hidden staircase, one that was down a narrow hallway wedged between two doors. It was mostly used by castle staff, however, as Leo Percy cautiously made his way up the spiral staircase, all he could think about was how the staircase could have been used for trickery and evil. A chill crawled down his spine as he thought about how vulnerable Jack is right now to Asterin's most powerful rival. Many thoughts started to race across Leo Percy's mind as he made his way to the top of the stairs and made his way down to dark, grim hallways.

Man, how could anyone live here? It's depressing, dark, and sad. The castle itself looks like it thrives off death. Dang it. This door leads to nothing too. Oh man, anything could happen right now. What if Lilith cannot be trusted? After all, Lilith did say that she was used to make an example of throughout Findara. What if she's collecting information and Findara is planning something horrible? There was absolutely no way Lilith could continue to side with Findara after what King Oliver and her family had put her through. Leo Percy's thoughts were cut short when he finally opened one door revealing a decently big room with a table in the middle and tons of shelves and cases filled with rolled-up scrolls full of passed plans that lined up the walls. All the chairs were facing outward from the table rather than facing inward towards the table, but that was pretty common in many war rooms throughout the nation (depending on how formal the king is).

As the brunette entered the war room and closed the door behind him, he was quite intrigued while he strolled over to the head of the table. The scent of the ageing paper, dimmed room, and wasted dark fabric covering the ceiling made Leo Percy feel like he was in a forbidden library, which technically for being an Asterian he was. At the head of the table there was a map, a scroll, and a notebook. Leo Percy sat down at the head of the table and analyzed the map of the nation. He looked at Findara and then to Asterin, noticing it was shaded in their respectable colours. The rest of the nation was coloured the same way; pointing out Findara's and Asterin's allies. The young guard carefully unraveled the rolled-up scroll and examine the writing: