17 Regallyon's Elixir

After landing in the yard beside the massive Regallyon tower, Kael requested his servants to remove the saddles of Neltharion. When the servants asked why his answer was simple.

"I want a third handle in the middle, between the two on the sides." He answered with a smile.

He didn't go into any details, but the servants never doubted him. They removed the massive saddle and took it to the blacksmiths who would be crafting the said third handle.

"Also, replace those golden details with metallic silver, use Valyrian steel if needed, we have more than enough…"

Kael proceeded to walk inside his tower, and brought both Vaela and Valanar to his solar, he didn't use this place much, but here was his father's solar, and many secrets lay inside this very room.

The sun was setting on the horizon, the reddened rays of light came through the clean glass windows, and the trio was silent. Kael had a solemn expression on his face. Once they entered the solar.

The place was clean and extremely detailed, with white pillars that resembled roman structures, and padded comfortable sofa chairs with a mixture of black and green, black and red, and black and silver. The walls seemed to be made of shelves, filled with exquisite bottles which contained weird colorful substances inside, Valanar could've sworn that he saw a pair of eyes in one of those.

His desk was made of carved stone, with a small globe of Planetos that didn't have much detail other than the names of specific locations, nothing compared to the huge one on the first floor of the library. There were also a couple of leather-covered books that Kael brought previously and was studying and some parchments that he seemed to be writing weird rune-like symbols on.

Behind the desk, there was the only bookshelf in the entire room, which seemed incredibly out of place considering that this was the solar of the second strongest Lord in the freehold, but once Kael pulled one specific book the shelf slid to the sides, displaying a small secret room behind his chair.

[Reference Image here]

The room was small and dark, there was no source of light inside other than the glow that seemed to come from a cupboard, the place was comparable to the size of a small deposit room. On one side there was shelves embedded on the fused stone wall, with sculpted busts of different people, the previous lords of Regallyon. In the center there was a weird runic table with many different bowls spread on top of it, No one could perfectly see it because it was dark inside and Kael was occupying their field of view.

The glowing cupboard however stood out like a sore thumb, once Kael opened the fine glass door he took two bottles that glowed blood red. Both that were watching from outside could see that there were at least eight to ten more of such bottles, Valanar was clueless but Vaela was not.

She was shocked by what he brought out of that secret room.

After closing the secret shelf, Kael sat down on his comfortable chair and gestured for Valanar and Vaela to sit. Vaela sat a bit further back, she already had a clue of what Kael was about to do and it was nothing related to her, so she just enjoyed the comfort of those fancy leather sofa chairs that had the perfect view of the window and the lava river outside.

Kael placed both bottles on the desk and slid one towards Valanar, who sat right across him.

"What is this, my Lord?" Valanar was extremely confused, even Vaela was looking seriously at Kael like he was committing a crime, and she was never to do such a thing.

"That is one of the secrets of my family, Valanar… this one is known as Elixir, its actual name I do not know, it probably has none. But what is important is what it does." Kael answered while leaning back. "And that is… to extend one's lifespan."

Valanar almost fell from his chair when he heard of it, such an effect is legendary! Increase one's lifespan? By how much? How?!

"M-my Lord…." He tried to speak.

"Before you say anything, I want to lay down the facts Valanar." Kael said with a serious face "You are in your forties… right now you are considered still in your prime, your Northern blood makes you seem to age slower than others but you age regardless, in five to ten years… you won't be able to fight the way you do right now."

Valanar could only nod in acceptance.

"Therefore… you taking one of these elixirs is essential, how can you protect our family during the toughest years if your bones can't move like they used to? How will you train me to use the sword? Time is a resource Valanar, it's a resource that slowly fades away and we have no way to get it back… normally… This elixir will give you extra time, you won't age for the next five and ten years, twenty if you are lucky."

Valanar stared deep into Kael's amethyst eyes "And what's the price?"

Kael smirked "Well… you won't get to have kids…" he said causing Valanar to almost have a heart attack, then he continued "… for the duration of the effect, of course."

"Pff…" Vaela who was dead serious a few seconds ago, couldn't hold back her own laugh, she tried… oh she truly did… but when she saw Valanar putting his hand over his chest with a pale face and wide eyes she couldn't take it.

"My Lord…. You know what you are, don't you?" Valanar said those words slowly while recovering himself.

"Of course I do, a very handsome and generous Lord that is giving his best friend two extra decades of life… unless you disagree with it…" Kael replied with an innocent face.

The corners of Valanar's mouth twitched, he took a deep breath and then stared at the glowing red flask in front of him. "Why the second one?" he asked.

"To exchange with the old man. It was part of our deal." Kael answered "Don't think of drinking twice, it isn't effective and it will kill your little worm for good…"

Valanar choked, to think that there would be such a dreadful side-effect of taking it twice! "Why don't you and Lady Vaela take them?"

"Because we can't" it was Vaela who answered "Our lifespan is already enhanced, the elixir is an extremely weak version of our enhancement, it was made to be given to our most trusted aids in times of need… Kael you do know we only have around ten of these right? And you know it would take years, almost a decade to brew one more considering the process needed…"

"So?" Kael replied "Valanar is my best friend, he is my sworn sword and protector of our bloodline, not only that we both trust him with our lives… I don't see the problem."

"I'm not talking about Valanar's bottle, I'm talking about the second one… why would you give such priceless treasure?" She asked, she trusted her brother, but she wanted to know his line of thought, his reasons. How can she help him if she doesn't know why he does the things he does?

Kael smiled at her "Because we are exchanging one family treasure for another..."

Vaela's eyes went wide "Are you talking about that rock?"

Kael nodded "Although he gave a counteroffer, the rock is collateral, if whatever he gives me has no value whatsoever, that mineral is ours… and I know exactly what I want to craft with it" He concluded with a cunning smirk on his lips.

Valanar's ears perked up "Oh? A weapon I assume, but you already have Dragonheart, my Revenant, and at least ten other unnamed Valyrian Steel weapons in your family's vault under the tower."

Kael just gave them a cryptic smile "It won't be fun if I reveal it right away, right? It's just a weapon, nothing related to our plans…" he shrugged and looked at Vaela "What about your armor? Did you finish the schematics, Vae?"

She was frowning, really curious about the weapon. She knew it, if it was a regular common weapon, he wouldn't have the need to be this mysterious about it. 'Damn this man!' her eyes narrowed at Kael "Yes, I finished… I would show you but… it wouldn't be fun if I do it right away, right?"

Valanar smirked once he saw Kael hold back his frown.

'Damn you woman…' he thought and then forced his best bright smile. "Fair enough-"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"My Lord!" said a deep male voice from the other side "A man claiming to be an old friend came to talk about a deal with you… he is alone… should I kick him out?"

Kael stood up, grabbed the flask and walked out of his solar, followed by Valanar. Vaela decided to go to the library, she has been studying the secrets of alchemy lately and was fascinated by it. As soon as Kaelarys displayed his Dragonfire instead of magical flames, she knew that he was above her in destruction, so she decided to have her own specialty to not hold her future husband back.

"Fire and blood, Lord of Regallyon…" said a familiar voice under a hood, it was not an old voice, but Kael knew exactly who it was, it was Old Belaerys' steward.

"Fire and blood, I hope our old friend is well." Said Kael in return, offering him a polite welcome.

"Ah yes, he is doing just fine, I'm here on his behalf to hand you this" said the man while removing a big leather scroll from his cloak and presenting it to Kael, the scroll. It felt heavy.

"Leather?"

"Dragonhide, it would preserve its contents for a lifetime, even magical fire wouldn't destroy it, it's possibly resistant against Dragonfire as well." Answered the man.

Kael nodded and opened the scroll, what he saw on the scroll made his eyes go wide. "Did the old man craft this?"

The cloaked figure shook his head "No, it was found like this, it was one of the treasures of ages past, that our ancestors uncovered".

A drop of sweat slid down Kael's forehead, he quickly closed the scroll and placed it inside his own robes. "I appreciate this, if what I believe about this scroll is true… you can tell the old man to keep his walking stick… it seems I won't be needing it after all."

The man chuckled "He thought you would say that and said that he would still wait for your return, many Lords of our family tried to find that treasure… none succeeded… for five millennia…"

Kael just nodded while deep in thought, but thanks to a slight bump from Valanar who stood behind him he quickly collected himself and took a glowing blood red potion from his robes and gave it to the cloaked man.

"There you go." He said.

The man nodded, but his eyes were glued to the bottle, staring at it like it was a precious treasure "I can't thank you enough Lord of Regallyon… I know my Lord requested too much… to part of one of the only two bottles of such elixir that were reserved for you and your sister, but be assured that even if your quest bears no fruit… my Lord will compensate you appropriately!" Said the man with a serious face, staring at Kael's eyes.

Kael in return just smiled "It's fine, we are young… it might take a long time but if our ancestors managed to create that…" he pointed to the bottle ".. so can we… the old man on the other hand has no time to lose."

The man nodded, bowed deeply and said his final words before leaving "We will never forget such a favor, Lord of Regallyon!"

"Before you leave, tell the old man that I will be leaving by tonight on my dragon, and I would like him to help cover the situation… you know very well about our deal."

The man nodded and left.

Once the man left Valanar spoke "The Lady said you had at least ten more of those bottles, and it wouldn't affect you or her…" he said with a smirk on his face, holding back his laugh.

Kael shrugged "Well… they don't need to know that…"