Nicolae continued to study the room, the flickering candles illuminating his surroundings. There wasn’t much for him to see in the room, and he elected to open the nearby door and take a look around the castle as his creator had told him.
As he swung the large doors open, candles in the hallway ignited one by one, cascading to the end of the long hall. The walls were a brilliant blue and gold color, reaching high up to the ceiling. The white tiled floor was broken up by a brilliant red carpet that led to each set of doors, including the ones that Nicolae had just opened. Startled for a moment, Nicolae looked down the long hall, studying the various doors on his left and right. At the end, the hall split into two further paths.
<i>The castle seems quite large, it’ll certainly take me some time to explore.</i> <i>First, I’ll want to check the rooms I can see here</i>.
Taking his first steps out of the room, he felt a sense of empowerment as he began to learn more about the word he was suddenly thrust into. Each set of doors looked identical, and was equally alluring. Carefully opening the door closest to him, on the left, Nicolae peered into the dimly lit room.
Suddenly, candles on the wall ignited, illuminating the space in a sudden orange burst of light. <i>It seems that will be a trend of this castle, </i>he thought, studying the intricacies of the room. Black stone walls, devoid of much decoration, made the space feel even smaller than it actually was. The floor was made up of large gray tiles, further contributing to the dimness of the room. Three stained glass windows decorated the far wall, allowing some natural light in but obscuring vision outside.
The leftmost window contained the image of a bowl and stick, the rightmost with fire, and the middle with some kind of plant. Placed on the wall at the center was a table with a hole cut in the center, a furnace underneath. A large pot hung from the ceiling, and the bowl portrayed in the glass sat on the table on the right. A large book also lay open on a podium to the right, and various bags and bottles were scattered on various shelves next to this table.
Walking over to the table, Nicolae grasped the book. Closing it, he moved the cover of the book into the candlelight. <i>The “Novice Alchemist’s Codex”, written by Tenebris.</i>
Nicolae felt the interesting sensation of the book’s paper in his hand, flipping the pages and skimming the contents. The pages mainly contained information on different plants and their purposes, as well as potions and what they could be used to do. It did not take Nicolae much effort to understand the entries, as if it was second nature to him.
Placing the book down, Nicolae became acutely aware of something he had yet to think about: his lack of clothing. Having just been created it made sense that he was in the nude, but it struck him as odd to not be wearing anything.
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<i>I’ll have to search for my room, or at least a place with some clothing. The book is interesting, and I’m sure Tenebris left it here for some reason, but as it is right now I can’t take it with me.</i>
Having made up his mind, Nicolae turned away from the alchemy table and headed towards the door, taking a look at the room from the opposite end. Metal cages of various sizes and thickness were stacked loosely in the right corners, and on his left pallets of brown bags were laid on the ground.
Leaving the room, Nicolae chose his next target, a room further down the hall on the right side. With the candles within the room once again welcoming his entrance, a bed and oaken wardrobe presented themselves to him as soon as he entered. The large bed had beautiful white sheets covered by a thick black blanket. <i>At least Tenebris has given me a seemingly comfortable place to sleep</i>.
Not wanting to waste much time, Nicolae quickly made his way to the wardrobe and grasped the handles, carefully opening it. Inside, a plethora of intricate and varied outfits hung carefully arranged. On the left side were less intricate clothes, consisting primarily of black, gray, red and white. The further to the right he looked, the more intricate the clothing got, and the more colors that were present.
Looking back to the left, Nicolae picked out a suitable outfit for his purposes, consisting of a simple white buttoned shirt and black pants, and after finding some shoes, a pair of black boots.
Heading out of the room, Nicolae continued down the hall to the end, where it split into two sections. On his right, the hall continued straight with a few more rooms, and a staircase leading upwards. On his left was another shorter hallway with a staircase leading downwards into a large room. <i>I’ll head downstairs first, I’d like to understand the kind of landscape this castle exists in.</i>
With his thoughts sorted, Nicolae headed downstairs and into a great room. A large golden and black chandelier hung from the ceiling just in front of the staircase. Nicolae found himself on a landing where two more curved staircases branched off, leading to the ground below.
A large mural on the ground, directly under the chandelier, displayed a black haired man in beautifully intricate black clothing with a sword and the moon behind him. He was standing atop a tower, looking upwards. Further down in the room was a large wooden door, reinforced with metal.
Tall pillars lined the hall on either side, allowing for a massive, uninterrupted hall in the center. As Nicolae headed towards the ground he noticed smaller doors on the walls behind the pillars, with one on his side of the hall and one on the far side. This was mirrored on the other wall.
The great hall echoed Nicolae’s footsteps, each one louder than the last as he approached the large door. Pushing the huge doors open with surprising ease, he glanced upon the landscape that his castle laid on.
A courtyard made up of jagged black rocks, barren trees, and mud greeted him. Beyond the walls great black mountains rose up in the distance, and massive puffy black clouds covered the otherwise dark sky. The light of the moon painted the landscape in an eerie shade of red, and storms raged in the distance.
<i>It seems unfriendly, </i>he thought, peering into the distance.