The King of Crows

The Old King

We stayed in a corridor that was decorated by ancient armour statues and vintage paintings. I leaned against a window patterned with diamonds, while Philza leaned next to me against an elegantly designed wall beside the window. Honestly, I didn't know what to say, how was I supposed to? Just... I wasn't expecting that as an answer. I don't think anyone would be.

"So..." My voice trailed off, barely swaying side to side. Phil's eyes watched over me, waiting to hear the rest of my words. "How about you show me around the rest of the castle? Maybe tell me more of your life as well?"

"That would be great Y/N," Phil smiled brightly, leaning off the wall before taking one of my hands. We walked down the corridor with our hands entwined, the smile on his lips not fading away. It was pretty to see. I couldn't disagree with that. "Where should I begin..? Oh, I know! The Valictor."

"The huh?" I answered, never hearing of such a word before. Which kind of made sense, I'd never heard of a Hallow Heart 'til now too. So... "What is that?"

"The Valictor is something me and Kristin thought up," He happily answered, using his free hand to move strays of his blonde hair away from his face. We continued walking to wherever this 'Valictor' was, neither one of us letting go of the other's hand. It just made the journey quicker, so there. Nothing less or more. "It is the name of a room that held all things valuable, hidden where only we knew. Kristin was always worried that if we died someone would use our valuable stuff for their own benefit; for the fact that none of the stuff has been dotted around for mortals to see, I would assume that no-one has found it."

"Also the ballroom's entrance was never cleaned out," I reminded him, listening with full interest on what the Valictor was. Phil nodded as he listened to me, both of us coming to a halt as we found another corridor lined with rustic, ancient armour stands. "I swear, if the secret entrance is through the stands-"

"It is not, I can assure you Y/N. Kristin and I hated the idea to begin with," He chuckled for a second, looking at my annoyed face morph to relief at his answer. Taking out the Hallow Heart, he almost fully inserted it into a crack in the wall, allowing the Valictor's doorway to open up. "There is the entrance to the Valictor. We did not want it to be easy for the mortals, but in the end we just agreed that they should never find it to begin with. That is why the Hallow Heart is so important for this castle of ours."

"Oh... I see," I gasped out, slowly following the man as we both entered the Valictor. I turned around for a second to see the walls shift back to normal, looking back to Phil who was using his thumb to tap the Hallow Heart that laid flat on his palm.

"These mortals are so pathetic," Philza began to rant, unknowingly kicking stray stones that rested on the polished andesite stairs. I kept close to the man, not wanting to get lost or trip and fall. "They find ancient places and buildings; deciding to take it all for themselves and when they're done sucking all the resources they can possibly find and harvest for their greedy selves, they decide to use it as an incredibly ridiculous attraction! Thinking it would be best, not caring a cent for what we ancient's believe or think. These modern mortals are truly the scum of the Earth, but I do not see anything wrong with you Y/N."

My eyes widened with shock, my interest peaking at why I wasn't bad. Philza didn't bother to turn his head to glance at me, instead keeping his eyes on the stairs, making sure neither of us tripped. "How so?" I asked him quietly, not wanting to disturb him that much.

"You have not gone around telling everyone of my existence," He answered me, both of us finally getting to the bottom of the stairs and now at the start of a short corridor. "You have let me open up, you have opened up to me; I see that as a great start to our friendship so far. Don't you?" I nodded as he glanced at me, a smile on both our faces. "You love this castle just as much as I do, just like Kristin and Theseus did. Oh - here we are!"

Philza opened the door to the Valictor, and... I wasn't expecting the inside. He said it had valuable items, but this was taking the piss. Chests full to the brim, glass cases surrounding beautiful jewellery and shining weapons, a stand of ancient armour built from pure gold on the left hand side of the door, royal banners and flags hanging from the high walls; three crowns sitting atop mannequin heads carved from rich mahogany wood, all at the end of the Valictor's room. Such a beauty I couldn't comprehend existed, my mouth open in shock as my eyes stared at everything with sparkles.

Phil chuckled at my expression, shuffling over to wave his hand in my face. After I snapped back to reality, he moved a strand of his blonde hair out of his face, walking over to the ancient armour. Carefully placing his hand on the cold, gold-plated suit, Phil let his steel blue eyes wander to me with a warm smile. "This here, is the armour that once belonged to my most loyal guard: Technoblade."