Lohikäärme: The Dragon's Descent (Revised)

Chapter XI - An Unexpected Visit

Chapter XI - An Unexpected Visit

"Aethelgard had been built hundreds of years ago. It was established by Magister Elfreda and Magister Radella's great-grandfather, Alasdair the Great, to house the talented people and help them learn how to harness their talents. Alasdair was said to be the first firestarter in the world, treated ill by common people and banished by the king. He learned how to control his talents by himself. Years after that, he wandered around the Mainland, looking for people with talents just like him. He taught those people in groups, travelling together as they searched for more people like him, like us.

"He married one of our kindred, a waterbearer, and they had Mordred, their only son. Mordred inherited the leadership when Alasdair the Great passed away. Soon, when they were strong enough and had enough resources, they started planning where they'd all settle for good. That was when Aethelgard was built at the edge of the Mainland by the Snake Sea and the Dreaded Ocean, housing more than two hundred people from around the world and—"

"Where is the Dreaded Ocean again?"

I knew she had told me a thousand times about the geography of the world, but it was so difficult to remember without those illustrations she called maps. Kosh smiled at me, then closed the book in her hands.

"You were from the Southern isles, remember?" she asked, to which I nodded. "From there, you headed east to reach the dragonswood. If you continue east instead of heading north to reach Alasdair Plains, you'll come to an unending ocean of mystery and death. No one knows how vast the Dreaded Ocean is. Legend says, no one who sailed into the Dreaded Ocean and lost sight of the Mainland ever came back. That is why it is called the Dreaded Ocean."

I nodded, remembering. "Sorry. You can, um, continue."

She opened the book next to the one she had been reading before I had interrupted her. "Mordred was a distant magister, unlike his father who united us and took us all in. He hadn't been in good terms with his wife and the whole kindred so he only had one son just for the sake of having an heir, whom he named after his father Alasdair the Great."

"Their hissstory isss ssso boring."

Kosh looked at me. "What?"

"N-Nothing." Oh, Remekiah was getting us in trouble. Kosh had such good hearing! "I didn't say anything."

She slowly nodded, her eyes trained on me, doubtful. "Now Alasdair the Second was different from his father. He took after his grandfather and grew dear to everyone in Aethelgard. He had two daughters, Magister Elfreda and Magister Radella,"—they were sisters?—"and he took an apprentice who would take care of Aethelgard and—"

"We should ssstart planning an essscape, Sssafia."

Kosh put down her book, squinting her eyes. "Are you certain you're not saying anything?"

I pinched Remekiah's skin as I shook my head. "Yes. Y-Yes, of course, I'm sure."

She nodded again, more doubtful. "He took an apprentice who would take care of Aethelgard and guide his daughters if he died before the girls were old enough to be taught the ways of magisters. Everything was good in Alasdair the Second's ruling. However..." She shook her head and sighed. "However, he was the only magister who had a baseborn son."

"What's a baseborn son?" I had never heard of it.

"It's a son born out of wedlock. Which means to say Alasdair had an affair with another woman."