Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

“Have you discovered something?” Boreta asked Damrabe as the blood dragon strolled farther into the council room.

“I’ve discovered many things about Draycos this afternoon,” he responded. He turned to face the king and bowed. “Do I have your permission to discuss what I have discovered to the rest of the council, my king?”

“Granted,” Theravor told him, flicking the tip of his tail. Damrabe straightened up and placed a small rounded silver object in the middle of the table. It appeared to be an ornate heart-shape decoration, and it shined silver in the moonlight. In the center of the heart was a small hole that seemed to require something to be placed inside it.

Damrabe took two test tubes of blood out of his sash and poured them both into the hole in the heart. There was a slight mechanical buzz, and a light shot out of the hole and reached all the way to the ceiling. After a few seconds the light focused and formed two spheres in the air, and in each of those spheres was a double helix structure. It looked like it was a holographic display of two different DNA models.

“The DNA structure you see on the left is a sample from the average human found on the ground below the castle,” Damrabe started, pointing at the DNA in question. It was unremarkable in appearance. “The one on the right is the sample I obtained from Draycos earlier today.”

Everyone shifted their gaze to the other DNA model floating in the air. Compared to the average human’s DNA structure, this one was similar, but far more complex. There were extra bits attached to the DNA all over the place and trailing off the rest of the structure at odd intervals.

Theravor sighed as he leaned back in his throne. “I suspected as much, but confirming it is another thing entirely. So Draycos isn’t human, is he?”

“You’re half right, my King.”

“Oh?” Theravor raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s true that Draycos isn’t human. He’s only half human.”

There was some muttering around the table. Their suspect was a half-breed, much like Damrabe. Inter-race relationships and offspring were highly looked down upon, and half-breeds almost never lived longer than three years. Both Draycos and Damrabe were among those that lived past that limit.

“And?” Vinzgar spoke. “What’s the other half of Draycos’s heritage?”

“That...I don’t know,” Damrabe admitted. “I’ve compared his blood sample to that of the blood samples I have on all the other races known to exist in this world. Dragon, human, elf, orc, fairy, giant, troll, goblin, etc.... His structure doesn’t match up to any of them at all. But....”

“What is it?” Boreta asked as Damrabe hesitated. “Don’t keep us in suspense; spit it out already.”

Damrabe sighed before a dark expression crossed his face. “Based on the relationships between DNA structures and one’s magicka attribute, if Draycos managed to awaken his magicka, his attribute would be... Dark.”

A flicker of shock ran through the entire council, and they all turned to their king. There was a surprised expression on Theravor’s face upon hearing this, and he grew very serious as he stared hard at Damrabe.

“Damrabe, I hope you aren’t spouting off nonsense right now to keep everyone here on edge. Are you certain about that? We can’t afford to have any baseless opinions being thrown about here.”

Damrabe’s tail twitched. “I wouldn’t say it unless I had a solid conviction about it,” he quietly told his king.

“What the hell, Theravor?!” Vinzgar hissed, losing all formality as his voice shook. “That magicka attribute is exceedingly unpredictable and dangerous; what are you going to do if the brat manages to awaken his magic and goes on a rampage?! Almost all of us would be screwed!”

“I’m with Vinzgar on this one,” Boreta chimed in, an uneasy expression visible on her normally serene face. “How will you take responsibility if such a situation came about?”

“I won’t have to,” Theravor said simply. This statement shocked all of those in the room, including those who knew the king best.

“What do you mean by that?” one of the branch family heads of the Killwings growled. “Are you saying you refuse to take responsibility if anything happens?”

Theravor shook his head. “That’s not it at all. I’m saying that such a situation will never occur.”

“And how do you know that?” Boreta probed, a flash of irritation in her eyes. This was highly unusual behavior for the head of the Managuards; it just showed how touchy the topic was.

“Let’s just call it... instinct,” the king responded after finding an appropriate word. “It’s my understanding that Draycos won’t act that way. That’s just not who he is, from what I can tell.”

“Once again, you’re letting your emotions and instincts guide your action,” Vertex spoke up, shaking his head. “I can understand where you’re coming from, but without any hard evidence to say otherwise, we all have to suspect that Draycos is capable of such actions.”

A few others at the table nodded at Vertex’s words.

“See? Even your own advisor is telling you otherwise,” Vinzgar growled.

“Actually, I’m with the king on this matter,” Damrabe interjected. Everyone in the room looked at him.

Vinzgar snorted. “Oh, really? What, are you feeling sympathy for another half-breed, Damrabe?”

“Vinzgar,” Theravor said in an icy voice. Vinzgar shuddered and slowly glanced over at Theravor, who was giving him an incredibly intense stare. “I will not stand idly by if you decide to insult Damrabe. There will be repercussions to a foolish act like that.”

Vinzgar slowly nodded his head and kept his mouth shut, sweating slightly.

“Damrabe, I presume you have a reason to believe in Draycos?” Boreta spoke.

Damrabe nodded. “As you know, I have the ability to see the memories of those whose blood I ingest. I took two blood samples from him earlier for that purpose. I believe I have a better idea on what kind of man Draycos is than anyone else in this room.”

“Your Blood Historia ability, correct?” Theravor questioned. “Can you show us?”

“I can.” Damrabe placed a test tube upside down over the hole in the hologram projector. The images faded, and some blood poured into the tube, filling it up. With a quick movement, Damrabe removed the tube from his tool and corked it before any of the blood was split.

“We’ll be seeing his most recent memories first, and then progressively work backwards,” Damrabe explained as he placed the tube of human blood back in his sash. “I apologize for any confusion this causes, but it’s just how my abilities work. Also, the farther back we go, the less memories we’ll be able to view. After about a year, we’ll only be able to see his most powerful memories.”

“Enough of the explanations,” Vinzgar interjected, sighing. “Just get started.”

Damrabe nodded and pressed a hidden button within the heart-shaped tool’s decoration. A single sphere of light hovered in the air above, and images began to flash by as if it was a movie. The entire council watched in silence as they viewed the fight in the prison, meeting Poseidon, flying to the prison, and the trial. The images went black for a moment before showing the wreckage of a burning city.

Theravor narrowed his eyes as he watched the events during and leading up to the city being demolished. The image of a young human girl with glossy black hair showed up many times during the next couple of minutes.

He truly did lose everything. Theravor thought as the speed of the images began to increase dramatically. Including someone who was important to him.

“Now we’re only going to see his more powerful memories,” Damrabe stated as the images went black once more. It lit up again to show a much younger Draycos curled up in a ball on the ground. He appeared to be no older than ten years during this memory. Human children were pelting stones at him, and blood seeping through his open sores. The images darkened once more, and then the council saw the young Draycos standing in the middle of a church. A man in priestly robes was running at him, waving a large knife in the air above him. The priest unsuccessfully attempted to stab Draycos in the eye, only managing to cut the boy’s right eyelid as Draycos ducked to the ground. After another moment of darkness, the images lit up once more to see a young Draycos, this one only appearing to be five or six years old, standing alone in front of an extremely run-down building. The images went black one final time and remained dark.

“....”

The whole room sat in silence as they digested what they just witnessed for the next few moments. Then Vinzgar grunted and leaned back in his chair.

“Damn. I’m not one known for my sympathy, but that brat’s apparently had quite a rough life.”

“Rough is a bit of an understatement,” Boreta agreed.

One of the other dragons raised a hand. “Theravor, we can all somewhat understand where you’re coming from now concerning Draycos,” it said. It was Zero Vizard, the head of the Vizard family, speaking for the first time since they reached this topic. He and his two subordinates were by far the smallest in size present at the table; they only stood twice as tall as the average human, compared to the others who all stood three to five times as tall. His entire body was a pale blue, with an even paler blue underbelly and white wing skin. Unlike the rest of the dragons present, he and the branch family heads were decked out in brown leather work trousers, and various tools and knickknacks hung from the tool belts at their waists. A pair of goggles with blue lenses rested atop Zero’s head, and various leather straps were wrapped and buckled around the biceps of both his arms. His tail was tipped with a viscous-looking sharp black membrane, like a double-sided scythe, and the dragon’s white talons were dirty and covered in soot. A fluffy white fur cloth covered in dark stains was hanging around his bulging neck.

“Even so, whether or not we can say he is incapable of striking out against us is still not a viable debate,” Zero continued. “From what we just saw in his memories, the boy is from an entirely different world. We’ve only known him for less than a day; how can we possibly say we know someone well enough to judge their character after only twelve hours?”

Theravor sighed as he put both elbows on the table and rested his large head in his hands, deep in thought. He came to a conclusion after a few moments of silence.

“In the end, I would have to admit that I agree with the lot of you about the extent of Draycos’ trustworthiness,” he said at length.

“Father?” Drax looked surprised by his father’s statement.

“However,” the king continued, “I still believe that Draycos is incapable of taking aggressive actions against us. Before anything else, let me make this clear: if he does so happen to do so, I promise to take full responsibility for anything that happens. I’ll stake my title on that.”

There was a murmur from those seated at the table and even the guards posted in the room as the king proclaimed to risk the throne to vouch for Draycos’ worth of trust. After a moment of debate with his subordinates, Vinzgar was the first to nod his head.

“Alright them, we’ll hold you to that. But that still doesn’t involve finding out who actually stole the Orb and where it is now.”

“I think that Draycos would be more than willing to help us in the matter,” Theravor responded blatantly. More than one eyebrow shot up in surprise around the table at this.

“Oh? And how do you suppose we arrange that?” Zero questioned. “Not only is Draycos being kept under surveillance in prison right now, he hardly has any combat strength or experience, and he’s going to need both of those if he even wants to consider helping us. The more time that passes, the harder it will become to find clues on the thief’s whereabouts. How are we going to give Draycos what he needs in a very short amount of time to prove his innocence here?”

Theravor cracked a big smile. “I already have a solution to that. I suggest we host ‘that event’ a little earlier than normal this year.”