The Dragon's Key 2: Hidden Secrets

“You will be sorry for doing this!” The captured Spiritist priest shouted from behind Max on his horse.

“Can you be quiet already?! We do not care, and we will not let you go, so stop screaming!” Marigold the fairy snapped at their loud prisoner.

“Please tell me we are close to the city. I do not know how much more of this guy’s yelling I can take,” Marigold complained from atop Maximus’s shoulder.

“The capital is just ahead. In a few minutes we will reach the gate,” Gabriel responded.

As the adventurers crossed the bridge over the river and approached the Southern gate of the city of New Roanoke, Marigold turned invisible, so as to not draw attention while in the city. At the large gate, the guards stopped the group to question them about their prisoner. Tristan explained that he was a wanted man with a bounty from the Draconic Temple. Accepting the explanation, the guards let the group pass into the city.

As the friends entered the city of New Roanoke, they dismounted their horses. Their prisoner was left on the back of Maximus’s horse, but the rest of them walked the horses as it would be easier to navigate the streets.

Going through the city with a screaming man tied up on the back of a horse surprisingly did not draw as much attention as Gwen had imagined it would. Some people did stare when their prisoner was loud, but they did not seem to care more than they would for any unusual occurrence. Most did not even spare them a glance, continuing to do what they were doing unbothered.

The friends made their way through the streets of the capital. Soon they arrived at the Cathedral of the Draconic Temple.

The party entered the Cathedral, pulling the bound bishop behind them. A younger priest of the Draconic Temple approached the group. The priest appeared to be around twenty years old with a clean shaven face.

“We have Bishop Millard of the Church of the Holy Spirit. We heard that there was a reward for his capture,” Gabriel told the priest.

“Yes, we will take this criminal into custody,” the priest responded, waving over two other priests for assistance. “If you will wait for a few minutes while we confirm the identity of the detainee. Is there anything else that I can help you with?”

"Yes, we previously took a quest to retrieve a Draconic artifact from the Great Library. That is also where we apprehended the prisoner, he was trying to destroy the Draconic knowledge of the Great Library,” Gabriel told the priest. “We have retrieved this tome of Draconic language from the Great Library. Does this artifact satisfy the conditions of the quest?”

“Yes, this is wonderful,” the priest said excitedly. Wait here while we calculate your reward.”

While they waited for the reward money to be totaled, Tristan brought up an issue that had been in the back of all their minds. “Since we don’t know how long you are going to be staying here, I think that you should learn how to wield a weapon to defend yourself.”

“We’re not asking you to be able to fight a dangerous beast like a Lesser but knowing at least how to parry attacks and keep an enemy at range is important for your survival,” Tristan finished.

Gwen furrowed her brow. She was worried about the prospect of learning how to fight and possibilities that it could lead to down the line, but she had already resolved that she would do anything to get home. She would stay true to the vow she had made to herself that day in the Great Library. “I will try my best.”

With that issue resolved the group waited in silence for a few seconds before the priest that had greeted them came back.

“Thank you so much for your patience. On behalf of the Draconic Temple, I thank you all for both apprehending this dangerous criminal. He will pay for his crimes. We also are grateful for the tome of knowledge that you have provided. Your quest is completed. Your reward for both the capture and the artifact have been combined,” the priest stated, handing Gabriel a small cloth bag. “Your combined reward is twenty gold coins.”

Unsure how much twenty gold coins was worth, Gwen turned to look at the brothers’ expressions. Both of their faces showed utter shock. Even Maximus’s eyebrows were raised slightly in surprise.

“Do you have any other business with the Draconic Temple today? If not, you are welcome to stay as long as you’d like. The doors of the Draconic Temple are always open,” the priests remarks shook the brothers out of their shocked stupor.

“No, thank you for your help,” Gabriel told the young priest.

“May the dragons watch over you,” the priest told them before turning to walk away.

The party silently walked out of the cathedral, the brothers still processing the fortune to which they had just come into possession. After they had exited the cathedral and returned to where they had tethered their horses, Tristan broke the silence.

“What exactly was the book you gave us?” Tristan asked the magician in surprise. “The Spiritist zealot’s capture would have only been worth at most four gold coins. That would mean that the book would be worth enough to rent a shop and start a small business.”

“It was just a textbook on learning Draconic. It had a dictionary, conjugation charts, and sentence structure guide,” the magician responded.

“Max!” the annoyed fairy’s voice came from a spot of shimmering air positioned above Maximus’s right shoulder. “You know that Draconic is a fragmentary lost language to the rest of the world. Why then, do tell, did you give them something that would be considered so priceless to the outside world?!”

“Tristan and Gabriel deserved a reward for helping us with the Great Library. It is not like we had any need for that book, and they needed to return with an artifact. At any rate, the Draconic Temple will likely just use the knowledge to improve their ability to heal,” Maximus reasoned.

“Well, regardless, we now have this money, so we will be able to relax and focus on finding any leads about ways to get Gwen home as well as focus on training Gwen in combat.

As they were talking a dirty young girl bumped into Gabriel.

“Sorry,” the girl said before running off into the crowd.

“That girl stole the coin bag!” Gabriel shouted.

“I'll follow her. Max and I have ways to find each other,” the invisible Marigold said, her voice trailing off as she flew away.

“We can’t take the horses to chase that girl. She ran off in the direction of the slum district. We will have to take them to a stable quickly before setting off,” Tristan stated.

“There is one on the way, we can lodge the horses there for the time being,” Gabriel said.

With their mission settled the four ran to drop off the horses before running after the young thief.