Astral Flow

Chapter 5

The castle certainly was a large one, with plenty of space to move and look around. Many rooms could be seen just by walking up the stairs, this place would definitely take some time to search, thankfully it seemed empty aside from the wind whistling through open windows.

Ryder stands at the top of the stairs, gazing at the hanging banner across the way.

Amidst the deep blue of the banner a single red flower decorated it, standing alone amongst the sea of fading color. It was odd, if the banner was anything like a coat of arms then why? Why a singular flower and nothing else

Ryder couldn't understand an inkling of whatever story was happening here. He felt like a stranger lost in an even stranger world, forced to live his days out here because of one little mistake.

Yet for as confusing as it was, this world was beautiful in its own right. Hauntingly so in areas like this and the temple.

"To think this could only be the beginning..." Ryder mumbles to himself absentmindedly.

"I know right? We haven't even really beat a story boss yet, or made it to the mainland!" Lily cheerily comments as she walks up to him, her usual kind smile plastered on her face. "Still looking at that banner? What's got you so hooked on it?"

"Nothing too important, just find it odd that there's only a flower on it." Ryder crosses his arms. "Usually a coat of arms has more details... like some kind of animal, a shield, something like that y'know?"

"Oh! I know!" Lily exclaims. "Maybe the person who lived here really liked that flower so that's why they used it! Like one big cloth painting!"

"I guess it could just be a giant tapestry or something like it... well do you know what that flower is?" Ryder asks, looking at her now.

"Nope, not a single clue! It is very pretty though." Lily replies honestly before turning away. "Oh yeah, we mapped out most of the areas while you were standing here." She reaches into her pocket and hands him a rather large piece of parchment.

As he looks over the map he's rather surprised to see just how many rooms in this place are actually bedrooms. "Seriously? How many people were staying here before?"

She stops and thinks for a moment, trying to figure out the answer. "Well if we assign each person to one room? About twelve-ish, give or take... this entire second floor in the west wing is mainly just bedrooms save one room which seems to be a study."

"Alright well what about the other areas then? I mean there has to be more to this place..." Ryder flips over the parchment to see it's blank, all the rooms mapped out were on the front it seems.

"Well we know the first floor is a library, dining hall, kitchen, throne room and what looks to be a painting room." Lily recalls the rooms before continuing. "The third floor appears to be mainly a gallery with old paintings and some strange journals, then there's the floor below which we haven't explored yet... and lastly the east wing and all higher floors seem locked right now."

"I see, well what are Laurence and Eleanor doing at the moment?" Ryder looks down, eyeing the staircase leading below as he says this.

"Oh they're reading through the journals and plan on looking through the library before heading to the bottom floor. Apparently this place used to belong to some veeeeeery important people.'' She makes sure to emphasize the importance of the history here, almost comically so.

Ryder turns and starts walking towards the stairs. "Well we can check out the bottom floor while they do that, speed things up a little." he pauses and looks at Lily "That's if you want to tag along."