The corridors were dark, long and scary. He ran head on, tired but still going,
still chasing the golden flame. He finally came to a courtyard where he saw
another dragon. It was a black handsome one, but it had an evil look about it.

Soon some priests brought forth a cage, containing a beautiful blood-red female
dragon with two gold streaks underneath the eyebrows. The courtyard ground
opened to reveal a fiery combat arena. Vents of steam went off occasionally. ‘It
looks like…Mt. Doom.’ he thought.

Suddenly, black light flared everywhere and he saw the dragons’s true forms.
Kyra. And Julien. He shuddered as they released two platinum chain links from
their necks. Julien ran and Kyra dodged his attacks.

She took wing, and struck back once or twice. For a moment, it looked like she
was the victor, but Julien reached out with an extended talon and shredded her
wing completely, pulling her as he did so.

At the same time, he lamed her with the other claw, smiling in what was a, if
you stared hard enough (a dragon’s features are hard to decipher, making it
unclear as to what their emotions are) an evil smile.

They were back in the courtyard, but this time, Kyra was on a pedestal, bound.
Julien raised his claw high and swung it down swiftly and silently. An
unmistakable rip echoed everywhere. “NOOOOOOOOO!!! Kyra don’t give up, please.
Come back, I beg you. C-”

“Rowan, wake up. Its me, Cye.” Cye gently reprimanded as he shook Rowan. Rowan
fell against his chest, hard. “They killed her, Cye. Ripped her heart right out
of her body. She couldn’t do anything. She was helpless, she couldn’t do
anything, and I couldn’t either.”

Rowan racked between sobs, wetting Cye’s shoulder, and unfortunately for Cye,
hitting him as well. Cye stole a look at the others that said ‘Help me.’

Ryo pushed the archer away from Cye. Unfortunately, Rowan lost his balance and
hit the cold tiled floor back first. Where he was injured.
“Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!” He cried out in pain as he felt pain come through
like burning steel. He felt something break open.

Great, his wound reopened. “Damn, it reopened. Get him downstairs.” Said Andrea.
They helped him up and supported him as they went down. Cale cut the bandages to
reveal a long, thick, red scar.

Rowan got that a while before he passed out, but his armor detained it from
losing too much blood. He felt the blood trickle down his back. They ran out of
paper towels and didn’t know what to do until Dais saved the day. With leeches.

He stuck one on the offended spot and waited for a few minutes before stripping
it off full force. “Aaaagghh!!! That hurts! Dais, be more careful with those
things!”

Dais put the leech in the jar, shaking his head. It had to hurt. It was the law
of physics that when doctoring a patient with leeches, pain was unavoidable.

Anubis took out a pot and started to hum Simon & Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair.
Or at least a part of it.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme.
Remember me as to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme.

He filled it with water and set it to boil. Rummaging in the spice cabinet, he
brought four spice jars. Still humming, he took a red-colored jar with green
streaks and shook it, adding some parsley.

He then poured sage from a green jar with mellow blue stripes. He added
rosemary from a peach-colored jar. ‘And last but not least.’ He thought to
himself as he sprinkled thyme from a lavender jar with light orange stripes.

He stirred it until it was done. He poured out a mug and handed it to Rowan.
Rowan looked at him doubtfully, but took the mug. He sniffed it. It gave off a
nice aroma, ‘like rain or something’, he thought crazily.

He sipped it. It tasted…nice. Not magnifique or delicious, but nice. “Well?” “It
tastes…nice.” “What?” “You heard me. Nice” The others were curious so they
poured themselves a mug and took a sip.

They all privately agreed on the fact that it was nice. “Anubis, where did you
get that recipe?” asked Mia. “Oh, I got some help from some duo called Simon &
Garfunkel.” “No wonder. I was a bit curious because of the sage.”

“Well, now you know.” Rowan smiled silently to himself. This was the first
peace and comfort that he obtained the first night of the kidnapping. A cup
containing Scarborough Fair.

Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Map and The Falcon

Kyra’s searched frantically around the dynasty. She had to get out! But she was
powerless and in no position to escape. She looked at her chest, wrapped in
bandages. There were other injuries, but this one had been the most severe.

She walked on until reaching a hall with beautiful ornamented doors at the end.
The handles were shaped in the likeness of the yin, Creature of Fire, Healing,
and Rebirth. The doors had carvings of the yang, creatures of Power, Might,
Wisdom, and Virtue. She ran her forefinger on the handle and tried to recall her
mother.

People described her as “The Half-Phoenix” because her appearance seemed to have
fire mixed with healing and eternity. Her father was much more easier. They
called him “Half-Siren”.

How the name came to that Kyra never knew, the only thing she knew was that her
father did not resemble a siren in any way. He resembled the dragon, his
astrological sign, and a rarity in the House of Strata.

As her thoughts dwelled on this, she pulled on the gold handles. The doors
opened to reveal a large room of magnificent structure, full of what appeared to
be, life. Kyra fought back tears. The memories…all those times…lost to the sea
of time…of Chronos…

Her mind went back to her mission. She looked for something, anything that would
help her get out. She vaguely remembered that Luke had ordered the White Council
and other individuals of power to create a map that had the secret passages in
the dynasty. Celeborn had cleverly used Quenya for the dialect.

Julien…he didn’t know how to read or speak Elvish…Kyra’s hopes lit up. It had
to be here! She knew that the map’s location was something known only to the
clan members and their comrades. She twisted a glass monkey’s tail and the head
slid to reveal a hollow interior.

She saw a small case the size of a flute, and grabbed it. She twisted the tail
again to turn it to its normal state. She heard the faint cry of a falcon
soaring overhead. She called it and it landed on the sill. It was dark-colored,
with flecks of gold. It wore a small platinum chain with a tag that read
‘Artania.’

She told him the situation, and he answered saying that he would deliver it for
her. Artania took off towards Toyama, and just in time as well, Julien was
headed in Kyra’s direction.