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Once there was a loud bang, a bang which made the universe and gave it a shape of what it is, what followed it was the silence, the silence of the consequences and creation. The silence of the breasking and coming together. Just like that, what Ruox revealed was no different, a bang... which left behind a silence, a silence of uncertainty, a silence of doubt, a silence... of... pain. Nepheli broke the silence first, she said in a voice thick with disbelief, "I get it, Godrick was no saint, but why even do this? Didn't he even have a Demi-god of Golden Order?". Tarnished replied in a heavy voice, not with emotions, but a burden he could not shed, "Such is the curse of existence, so is the curse of authority, power.. corrupts the souls, which further breeds the superiority over one another. Why do humans hunt the dragons and beasts? To save each other from potential death? No... what human soul is afraid of sharing this land with beings who claim to be their equal or superior? In reality, humanity is a cowardly race, always blindly following the one leader they choose, like a herd of sheep following the herdsman. Once they find that they can rest easy and let other beings guide and do the thinking for them, they become an unrecognizable... worthless... puppet. Such things apply to Demigods as well. For the nation that stops the thoughts is doomed to become a nation of tyranny."
Ruox and Nepheli were stunned by how brutally Tarnished dissected the fallacy of the illusions. Ruox said, "I-I never thought of it like that..." and Nepheli just nodded to agree with Ruox's statement. Tarnished looked at them and turned back and said, "This is not the time to be perplexed. Where to find those nobles? They will lead us to those people," and waited for them to follow him. They start to follow him, and Ruox said, "I-I do not know.. all I know is that we get some messages from our family every few weeks through a messenger." and sighed, Nepheli said, "That's perfect, we just need to grab that messenger and pull information out of their mouth," and she got fired up. Ruox said, "That will not do, Lady Nepheli... even a slight harm to the messenger may potentially lead to the purge of our soldiers' loved ones, and besides, the messenger won't be here for the next 3 weeks." he looked at the mud below his metal-covered boots. The Castle was indeed peaceful if not for the butchery and cruelty that was perpetrated in here. The wind was cold, and the sunlight was warm; the insects chirping acted like the garnish over a freshly cooked food.
Tarnished looked at the sun and said, "Nepheli, you had some motive to be in StormVeil, did you not?" and looked back at her as they stood in the same courtyard where Alicia stayed that night. Nepheli was taken by surprise at the sudden question about her motive. She said, "Uh.. yes, I was looking for some documents". Ruox asked in a humble tone, "Lady Nepheli... is that why you were in the Library vault?". Nepheli said with a nod, "Indeed, that is why, that until someone blocked my way for just searching for documents." and looked at him as if to tease him, in just half a day, she had grown a liking to Ruox, regardless of their previous disagreement. Ruox said in an apologetic state, "I am sorry, Lady. It was just that it happened to be an order, and I can't disobey at the cost of my circumstances," and bowed his head. Nepheli slipped a laugh and said while hitting on his back, "pFFt.. I was joking.. don't get serious.. it's not like you would have stopped me anyway," and Ruox got relaxed a bit and said, "That is indeed true."
Tarnished said, "Nepheli, that doesn't answer the question, what were you searching exactly?" and leaned on the tree nearby. She sighed and said, "I was searching for clues... for my origin.. You know.. You know my full name is Nepheli Luox, and while I am adopted by Gideon Ofnir, I am no his blood, its not like i dont respect him, but its just i wanted to know where i came from and when i asked him... he just said that the clue lies in depths of StormVeil, as the castle is connected to me" and look at ground in daze. Ruox said, "Lady Nepheli, if you didn't find any clues in the vault, it just means the documents are in the lower sanctum of the castle. It's like a maze wth many traps to get there, but I heard that Godrick kept many Secrets down there." Nepheli lit up on hearing this and said in a serious tone, "Ruox.. how to get there? Tell me the way," Ruox tried to remember and said, "as far as I remembered, it's somewhere we can only access with a map, and that map must be in the Throne Room, as I told earlier, but the issue is that I do not know where exactly."
Tarnished said as he stood up straight and stopped leaning on the tree, "Fine then.. throne room it is." Nepheli looked shocked and said, "You do not need to come, it's not worth it for you." Tarnished said, "It's not about worth, you are a hard-earned friend, it's the least I can do for a rare ally, besides who knows what Godrick has hidden down there." Nepheli said, "Th-Thanks, but you know that all of the roundtable is your ally, right?". Tarnished said in a calm tone as he looked her in the eyes directly. "Not all." Nepheli was taken aback and just nodded. Ruox said, "Uh.. we should get going, this will take a while." Tarnished and Nepheli nodded, and all three of them entered the main building of the castle and immediately encountered stairs with 2 knights guarding them. As soon as guards saw Nepheli and Tarnished, they got tense, and Ruox said, "They are friends... don't be spooked". And the knight lowered their weapons and gave a head bow of respect as they started ascending the stairs up the building.
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