16 A Past Forgotten

After his moment of realization Curtis looked towards his two sole companions, Esbern and Millie, both of whom are still tired, the former trying his best to sleep and get his energy back while the latter curled up to the side sniffling.

"I need to get stronger" He thought, understanding that to get started on his plans he needs their help, and for them to help him. They need to get stronger themselves.

"Esbern has been trained to be a soldier of the family, I doubt he needs more in terms of discipline, Millie on the other hand might need some work."

Going back to the notebook he was holding, Curtis wanted to get more information out of it, at least before they got out of here.

"I've only been here for 2 days but I have already noticed how the capital has changed, some friends are missing, old friends turned enemies, heck I don't even know most of the ministers now. Curtis, remember what I taught you. Know how to lie and how to discern a lie."

"One thing I do know now, Never trust a coward. Learned it the hard way too. I hope my love is ok, good thing Christopher came, albeit a bit late than scheduled."

"They have at least half of the capital in their bag. I'm not sure about the royals, they never really revealed anything, just sat back, smiled and waved as their country was falling apart."

"Christopher pulled through. Damn old man still got some spice to him. I just hope I get out as clean as him."

Entries upon entries were written in the notebook, most are just logs of what his dad was dealing with and a few lessons here and there. Long story short, don't trust anyone but family. His dad got jailed for that mistake.

Reading on, the contents became senseless, like it wasn't his father writing, the handwriting was his that was sure. But, the content made no sense, it became the same as gibberish for all he can tell.

Feeling his eyes hurt Curtis decided to stop. He has the notebook, he doesn't need to push himself to understand it.

"Maybe he just wrote it like that to confuse people." he thought, starting to feel the fatigue of what he just went through tonight he decided to stop and get some rest.

...

"I see some light!" Millie exclaimed before running forward.

"Let's go." Curtis said to Esbern, getting a nod from the guard. Moving forward they found Millie in a small dirt room, a bit cramped it was, there was a table with some burnt out candles, a chair, a few dirt shelves by the side with a few books in them and a makeshift bed, dug out from a wall. Overall it looked like someone lived here in the past.

Taking a look around they saw Millie scratching at a small crack in the wall, there was a bit of light seeping in and that illuminated the room quite a bit. They all felt relieved seeing as they were at the end of the tunnels, and somehow they were near the surface. That is good news as far as Curtis was concerned. No longer plagued by the problem of how they are getting out he turned to the books that were on the dirt shelves. Old books, written in animal skin, covered with their leather hide.

Opening one of the books he was surprised, the writings aren't in their language. He couldn't make out the words, it looked like gibberish to him. "What is this?" Curtis thought, moving the torch near the book to get a better look. All it helped to do was illuminate more of the unreadable writings on it. One mark that did help him get a better look at is a seal that looked like the seal on the notebook he opened earlier, their families' seal, the De Leon insignia right in the middle of the book cover.

"Why is the De Leon seal here? What language is this?" Curtis asked himself, remembering something, the seal looked old, just like the book his father told him to read multiple times. Trying to get a mental picture of it in his head. It was a mythical bird, a phoenix flying up, spewing out flames left and right with broken chains hanging out from its legs. It was their seal, and the question in his mind right now is. "Why is this here?"

...

"Child I'm sorry I was late, I hope this gift will help you." A female voice sounded out, so distant yet warm at the same time. She has been watching Curtis ever since she pulled him out of the dark, saw how their home was attacked and how he was forced to flee to the tunnels. She gave him a bit of her power, accelerating his awakening when she felt his desire to live. She wanted to do more, to help his champion, to help him become more, and so she decided it must be worth it.

The being, called Vera, sacrificed a bit of her power to tamper with the mortal world, she showed the little maid a trick, forcing the group to take a turn and miss their route, guiding them towards this room, this forgotten room that held secrets to help her champion.