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    <b>[Location: Leoncrest Castle - Tower 1]</b>


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    [Date: October 20, y. 485 of the Fourth Age]</b>


    The castle halls remained quiet for the next several days, as the break between terms continued. A great many of the students seemed to have flooded south to the Capital, likely to spend time both in the Senate and in whatever flavors of debauchery the Capital city had to offer.


    Zeke had no particular desire to go, particularly since none of his family was going to be there anyway.


    Instead, he spent his mornings training with Victoria and whoever else showed up at the practice grounds, his afternoons exploring the castle grounds, and his evenings researching in the library. The medallion he''d found in the woods never left his pocket - a constant reminder of the mystery he hoped to solve.


    On the morning of the 20th, he was just making his way off the sparring courts and toward the dining hall when a little paper bird fluttered up to him. It landed in his hand and unfolded, and he frowned down at an elegantly-scrawled note.


    "Dear Zeke de''Godfrey, I would like to request the pleasure of your presence in the library at some point today. Signed, Adrian de''Levayne."


    Zeke brightened, and he nodded, even though there was no way that anyone could see the response. This might be his chance to ask about the Scribes of Steel.


    With that, he stuffed the note into his pocket and started on down the stairs.


    It didn''t take long for him to gather up his breakfast, and he made his way to the library. He ate on the way, finishing up a few rolls (which Victoria almost certainly would have told him not to eat).


    A moment later, he arrived in the library, where Adrian looked up from a book that he was reading.


    "Ah! Zeke! Good to see you."


    "Thanks for inviting me," Zeke shrugged. "Sorry I''m a bit sweaty. Early morning workout, and all that."


    "Yes, so I''ve heard," Adrian was seated at a table, and gestured for Zeke to sit down across from him. "I''ve been following your progress, and from everything that I can tell, you''re doing an excellent job at pretty much everything."


    "I''m improving rapidly," Zeke countered. "That''s pretty far from just doing a good job."


    "Well, we all must start somewhere, and you''re off to a better one than most people, I daresay," Adrian sighed and folded his hands. "That''s why I''ve been hesitant to contact you. I know how busy you''ve been, and it seems that not even going on break can properly knock you down."


    "Hey, the classes aren''t going to get any easier when they come back into session," Zeke paused, then sighed. "I should probably be studying my history a bit more, too, but if I pay attention in his lectures I can at least get a halfway decent grade on his tests, so I''m a lot less concerned about that class than Aura Infusion and Swordsmanship."


    "Fair enough," Adrian nodded. "And what of your politics class?"


    "Honestly? It feels like a joke to me," Zeke shrugged. "I''m passing it with a high enough margin that I''m not concerned."


    "Good enough, I suppose," Adrian frowned for a moment, then sighed. "Well, I don''t mean to sound mysterious, but would you care to come with me?"


    Zeke frowned and slowly nodded. "What for?"


    "I have something to show you that might be of interest," Adrian replied, rising from his seat. "Something related to a certain medallion you might have recently acquired."


    Zeke''s hand instinctively went to his pocket where the Scribes of Steel medallion rested. "How did you know about that?"


    Adrian smiled cryptically. "I make it my business to know many things, young de''Godfrey. Now, shall we?"


    Without another word of explanation, Adrian stood up and slipped back through the rows of books. Zeke followed, and found himself traveling deeper into the library than he had yet gone.


    Back through the shelves, deeper and deeper into the sea of knowledge, until they came to a small doorway that led to an office. Adrian pushed open the door to reveal a simple desk, as well as a small bookshelf.


    He lifted a hand, and a handful of crystals around the area began to glow, lighting it well. They stepped inside, and he closed the door once more, motioning for Zeke to sit down across the desk from him.


    "So this is your office?" Zeke asked, taking his seat.


    "Yes," Adrian sighed as he sat down. "In my role as curator of the Library, I rarely use it, though. The majority of my work, at least by volume, comes from helping students locate the volumes that they need, as it can be quite tricky to find some of them.


    I also coordinate the acquisition of other volumes from an assortment of places across the nations, put books back when they get returned, track down books that have gone missing, and that sort of thing."


    "But sometimes you do need this office," Zeke frowned, wondering exactly where the conversation was going.


    "Yes," Adrian paused. "There is some knowledge in the world that should be kept secret, or that should be revealed only to certain, select people. This room is where I write letters that touch upon such subjects to one degree or another, or where I meet with people about such matters."


    "Shouldn''t knowledge just be free? Accessible to all?" Zeke asked, confused.


    "Some knowledge, yes," Adrian confirmed. "Other knowledge, no. For example, only a few years ago, one of our students accidentally discovered a recipe for creating a potion of death.


    Even a whiff could make a person sick, and to drink it would have been instant death. Pouring said potion into a river would have poisoned the land for hundreds of miles downstream.


    That sort of knowledge is not the sort of thing that needed to be given out. We recorded the recipe as she related it, swore her to secrecy, and then buried it. Well, I should say, I spent several weeks studying the recipe, trying to figure out exactly what made it tick."


    "Why would you do that?" Zeke asked.


    "Because death potions have long been known to the world," Adrian shrugged. "Witches, doctors, and even well-meaning peasants have long since stumbled upon them. What was startling to us is that there are a few plants and herbs that are known to be key ingredients in such compounds, and for generations, none of them have been allowed to grow upon Academy grounds.


    The new recipe that she provided contained none of them, but I was able to repeat the experiment to confirm that it did exactly what she claimed. After some study, and comparing to old recipes, I was able to discern that one of the other common ingredients in the old potions, long since assumed to be a mostly inert ingredient, was actually far more powerful than we realized.


    We were then able to take steps to limit access to said ingredient on Academy grounds, hopefully preventing anyone from being hurt in the future."


    "I have to say, I''m not sure exactly what you''re driving at," Zeke frowned.


    "I know I''m getting to it in a roundabout way, but," Adrian sighed. "In my job, I know a great many things. Some of them are good, and some are bad. All are useful, in the right hands.


    What I am going to tell you is like that. For you, it could become the key to unraveling an ancient mystery, or it could destroy you. The choice will largely lie in your hands."


    Zeke felt his heart beginning to hammer faster. "Okay. I''m ready."


    "I''m not certain that you are, but I''m not going to turn back now," Adrian bit his lip, then plowed forward. "I think someone has been trying to kill your brother, Artax, for far longer than he''s willing to admit."


    "What?" Zeke blinked in surprise. Of all the things that Adrian could have said, that certainly wasn''t it. "What do you mean?"


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "I''ve spoken to your brother, briefly, since the incident with the dragon. He does believe that he was tricked, and he said that he had told you as much, but he believes it to have been a crime of opportunity, nothing more," Adrian answered, folding his hands.


    "I, however, believe that someone has been trying to kill your brother since his time here at the Academy. The first assassination attempt happened when he hadn''t been here much longer than you, actually."


    Zeke''s mouth went dry. "You mean like using an enchanted sword in a fight?"


    "No," Adrian shook his head. "What happened with Diocletian was unfortunate, but was nothing more than a jealous peer with a few party tricks up his sleeve. What happened to your brother was far different.


    He was on his three-day march, the first Trial. He didn''t do that one until later into the year, and coming off of the desert, he was weary. He remembers striking his foot on something hard, and the next thing he knew, he was being pulled out of the river next to the castle.


    Everyone just assumed that he had gone down to the stepping stones and fallen in, or stumbled, and in his exhausted state, collapsed into the river."


    "You think differently?" Zeke queried.


    "I do," Adrian confirmed. "I was one of the first people to examine him, and when I did, I found something odd. There was a hole through his boot, punched clean through the leather sole.


    He hadn''t taken his combat boots, you see, since he didn''t want them to slow him down. Being less reinforced, it would have been possible to puncture it with some sort of poison.


    When I removed his boot, I found a matching puncture mark on the side of his foot, near his toe. I am convinced that someone struck him with a poisoned weapon, it could have been an arrow, or a dagger, or a sword, or any number of other things, and then threw his body into the river.


    When I attempted to bring it up to the Headmaster at the time, I was rebuffed, and when I returned to Artax, his boots had been swapped for new ones. The puncture mark was gone, and the wound on his foot was chalked up to bashing his foot against a stone or piece of wood or something similar in the river.


    Even he refused to believe me, but I am not one to be deceived."


    Zeke leaned forward, his mind racing with the implications. If someone had been targeting Artax years ago, they might now have shifted their focus to him.


    "You said something about an ancient mystery," Zeke crossed his arms. "What''s that?"


    "I''ll get to that in just a second. Let''s not be hasty," Adrian answered. "The point that I am trying to make is that I believe that someone was after his blood, and it wasn''t the last time that they tried.


    In several other trials, strange things happened that I believe weren''t just chance. I warned Artax, but he wouldn''t listen to me. He was certain that I was crazy, or at the least, that I was simply being over zealous. I believe that what he said was I needed to pull my nose out of my books, because I was seeing conspiracy where there wasn''t any."


    "Interesting," Zeke crossed his arms.


    "All of this leads to the circumstances that led him to that mountainside," Adrian paused for a moment. "I''ve been digging into that fateful trip, and something strange appeared to me.


    In your brother''s mission logs, it seems that the only reason that they were in that village, where they could receive the message to walk into the trap, was because of a coincidence in and of itself."


    "And what was that?" Zeke leaned forward.


    "Three weeks prior, he had been traveling through the city of Magnolia Root. There, he was planning to take a more southern road, heading toward a disturbance on the western front involving the possibility of some cave trolls.


    Nothing major, just routine work for the greatest knight of the realm. It was at that time that his second in command, Constantine, came to him and informed him that there was a report of bandits to the north.


    They traveled that way, and apparently chased the bandits for some distance before losing the trail. By that point, it was easier to continue in a different direction westward, instead of traveling back down to the place where they had begun."


    "So if the bandits were a ruse," Zeke said, his pulse quickening.


    "It ensured that he would be in the right place when the time came," Adrian confirmed. "And that is what scares me. If what Artax thinks happened is true, then it merely means that one of the assorted noble families keeps tabs on the Dragons of Calamity.


    Worrisome, but not the end of the world. For someone to have orchestrated such an elaborate ruse, though, speaks to something far darker. It becomes much more premeditated instead of simply a crime of opportunity."


    "Why would they want Artax dead?" Zeke demanded.


    "That is, indeed, the question," Adrian sighed. "I truly wish that I could say, and that brings me back to the ancient mystery. The eight Dragons of Calamity. You''ve heard of them?"


    "Only in legends," Zeke shrugged.


    "Legends are often enough based on truth," Adrian flashed a small, worried smile. "They say that when the dragons move, the world quakes. When the dragons snort, the world burns. When the dragons strike, the world crumbles. I fear for this, and I fear for it greatly."


    Adrian stood up and moved to a small bookshelf behind his desk. He pulled out an old volume bound in faded leather and set it before Zeke.


    Opening it carefully, he revealed pages of ancient text and illustrations of fearsome dragons.


    "The Dragons of Calamity are not merely beasts," Adrian explained, pointing to an illustration. "They are forces of nature, ancient beings with powers beyond our comprehension. According to these texts, they appear when the world is out of balance, when there is too much corruption in the seats of power."


    He turned the page to show an illustration of knights battling a massive dragon. "Throughout history, the only force that has successfully opposed them has been the Knightly Orders, particularly those dedicated to maintaining balance in the world."


    "Like House Godfrey," Zeke murmured.


    "Precisely," Adrian nodded. "Your family has a long tradition of standing against such threats. Which brings me to this." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a medallion identical to the one Zeke had found in the woods.


    "The Scribes of Steel," Zeke breathed.


    Adrian looked surprised. "You know of them?"


    Zeke pulled out his own medallion and placed it next to Adrian''s. "I found this in the Old Woods during a camping trip. Victoria said they were some kind of society at the Academy."


    "They were much more than that," Adrian said quietly. "The Scribes of Steel were an order founded within Leoncrest over a century ago, dedicated to two purposes: preserving knowledge about the Dragons of Calamity, and training knights capable of standing against them when they returned."


    "What happened to them?" Zeke asked.


    "They were disbanded about forty years ago," Adrian replied. "Officially, because they were engaging in forbidden magical research. Unofficially..." He paused, glancing at the door.


    "Unofficially?" Zeke prompted.


    "Unofficially, I believe they discovered something that certain powerful parties didn''t want known. Something about the Dragons of Calamity and who might be controlling their appearances."


    Zeke''s mind reeled with the implications. "You think someone is controlling the Dragons? Making them attack specific targets?"


    "I don''t know for certain," Adrian admitted. "But I''ve been researching this for years, and the patterns are too convenient to be coincidence.


    The Dragons always seem to appear at moments that benefit certain factions. And your brother''s encounter with Socrax is a prime example."


    "But who would have that kind of power?" Zeke asked. "And why target my family specifically?"


    "That''s what I''ve been trying to discover," Adrian said. "And it''s why I wanted to speak with you today. The fact that you found this medallion is... significant. I believe it was meant for you to find."


    "By who?"


    "That''s the question, isn''t it?" Adrian smiled. "The Scribes of Steel may have been officially disbanded, but some believe they continue their work in secret. I think they''ve been watching you, Zeke. And I think they''re trying to help you."


    Zeke turned the medallion over in his hand, feeling its weight. "So what should I do with this?" he asked, feeling a mixture of excitement and unease.


    "For now? Keep it close," Adrian said. "And watch for signs. The Scribes were known for leaving clues in plain sight, messages that only the right people would understand."


    Adrian stood up, signaling that their private conversation was nearing its end. "Remember what I was saying at the beginning. Some knowledge is best if it is simply stored away. Such as, for example, old recipes for death potions.


    Then, when new opportunities arise, when new things happen, you have a point of reference to compare it to. What has happened to Artax could easily happen to you, too. Don''t give anyone that chance."


    With that, Adrian rose, and gestured idly with his hand. The door of the room sprang open, and Zeke bowed his head as he rose.


    A moment later, he slipped out, and Adrian followed him.


    "One more thing," Adrian said as they walked back through the library. "Your second Trial is approaching. Be exceptionally careful. If someone has been targeting members of House Godfrey, the Trials would be the perfect opportunity to strike."


    "I''ll keep my eyes open," Zeke promised.


    "Good. Oh, and regarding the Scribes of Steel," Adrian added in a lower voice, "there''s an old storage room in the east wing of Tower 3, fifth floor. It used to be their meeting place. Might be worth a look."


    Zeke nodded, his mind already racing with plans to visit the storage room at the first opportunity.


    As they approached the main area of the library, they found Ralph sitting at a table, surrounded by books on metalworking. He looked up as they approached.


    "There you are!" Ralph exclaimed. "I''ve been looking all over for you. Victoria''s been asking if you''re coming to afternoon training."


    "I''ll be there," Zeke assured him, then turned to Adrian. "Thank you for the... historical discussion. It was enlightening."


    "Any time," Adrian smiled. "And do let me know if you find any other interesting artifacts during your explorations."


    As Zeke and Ralph left the library, Ralph nudged him. "What was that all about? Secret librarian business?"


    "Something like that," Zeke replied, his hand closing around the medallion in his pocket. "Just learning about some old Academy history."


    "Boring," Ralph declared. "Anyway, you missed breakfast, and I heard Elise is looking for you too. Something about that weird blue light you saw in the woods."


    Zeke''s pulse quickened. "She found something?"


    "Don''t know, but she seemed excited," Ralph shrugged. "Said she''d be in the east courtyard after lunch."


    Zeke nodded, his mind whirling with all he''d learned. Adrian''s revelations about Artax, the Scribes of Steel, the Dragons of Calamity - it was all connected somehow.


    And now Elise might have discovered something about the strange light in the woods.


    The second Trial was coming, and Zeke now understood it wasn''t just a test of his abilities - it might be a test of his survival skills as well. Someone had tried to kill Artax during his Trials, and they might try the same with him.


    But unlike his brother, Zeke was forewarned. And he was determined not to fall into the same trap.


    As he walked through the castle halls, the medallion warm in his pocket, Zeke felt a strange mixture of fear and excitement. There were mysteries to be solved, dangers to face, and adventures to be had.


    Just like the heroes in the stories Artax used to tell him.


    With luck, he''d be able to see the signs of trouble before he wound up dead.


    <b>[Scene Close]</b>


    <b>[Earned Emblems:]


    Heart of the Warrior, Endurance</b>


    <b>[Active Quests:]


    </b>


    <b>[Be Prepared: Get ready for the 2nd Trial]


    </b>


    <b>[Investigate: Find the Scribes of Steel meeting room]


    [Meet Elise: Discuss the strange blue light]</b>