Astral Flow

Chapter 49

Lily could feel her heart race as she looked up, before her were the castle gates leading to the grand castle of Resovult.

As it turns out the first order of business was getting her recognized by the King and Queen of this place, supposedly they'd allow her to move freely if she could pass some kind of test.

What that test was... well no one would explain.

Apparently telling someone what to expect was against the rule.

"Come on, I promise you'll be fine." Vonder says with a smile as he walks through the gates into a wide open courtyard. "The King and Queen are the last people you have to worry about pulling anything."

"That's not what I'm worried about-" Lily pauses upon passing through the gates, feeling a rush of energy wash over her, quickly she looks back, her eyes narrowing a bit. "Are those... glyphs?"

Her eyes had focused onto carvings in the stone and iron that most people would've missed at first glance, something so minute that without feeling this strange sensation she would've missed it as well.

Vonder lets out an impressed whistle. "Yeah, how did you know? Aida and I couldn't tell they were even there until a mage pointed them out."

"You mean, you didn't feel that right now? It felt like a wall of cold air blew past me." Lily asks, now more concerned than ever.

"Nope, I didn't... but that means you're more special than I thought!" Vonder eases up a bit more. "After all you have to have some great senses to feel a warding glyph created by The Forgotten!"

"Those glyphs are said to be such fine spellwork that even the majority or mages can't detect them magically, they have to look for physical traces of them." Aida continues as she rests atop of Vonder's head. "So to feel the magic wash over you is a feat in and of itself."

"Alright... well at least they didn't activate some kind of alarm." Lily says now easing up as well.

"Oh yeah, they would've only activated if you were walking in with some kind of dangerous magic brewing or a killing intent stewing in your mind." Vonder continues, now walking towards the castle entrance. "It's not a perfect system mind you, but it deters most unwelcome guests from sneaking in."

"Alright then.." Lily looks at the glyph one last time before following Vonder inside the castle.

It was a surprisingly simple place compared to what she was expecting, Mainly using a mixture of Iron and Wood to build the structures and interior, with a few carpets and art pieces hung on the walls.

It was still very much a castle belonging to royalty... but it felt humble, as if all the money wasn't just going back to the king and queen.

Even the decorations here seemed to be less... eccentric than she was expecting.

It was primarily paintings, a chandelier and one stained glass window.

There were no statues, relics, or collector's items... it was honestly a little surprising to see.

"Ah, there you are, I was wondering when you and your friend would arrive." A firm but kind voice spoke, the way they spoke was smooth like velvet and kept Lily hooked on every word.

Standing at the end of the hall, in front of a set of double doors, was a woman wearing what looked like a mixture of butler-like attire and armor.

It was certainly a formal suit of some kind, primarily being black in color with little silver accents thrown in.

The armor was primarily a full cover over their right arm, it was silver and seemed to be engraved with the same glyphs that were at the entrance, aside from that the armor was some light protection around the elbows, heart, knees and neck.