Vandel

I'm not a truthful person, in fact I often pride myself on my lies and deception. However, recently I found myself lying to someone I probably shouldn't have lied to.

That person...was my mother.

I told her I planned to keep up my association with Ridley as a way to find out more information about Alteria. She even helped me create a means of communication between the two of us (I planned to give that to Ridley later). What I hadn't told my mother was that I didn't want to continue to spend time with Ridley as a means to trick him into getting more information. Surprisingly...Ridley had been the one I had actually told the truth to. I genuinely wanted him by my side to investigate the Corisathium and the Bone King. Both of these situations could become dangerous for our kingdoms and as much as I hated to admit it, we did seem to work better as a pair. I never would have found the Corisathium in the first place if it hadn't been for Ridley and I doubted he would have survived the Bone Monster attack if I hadn't been there. No matter what my personal feelings for the knight were, it was impossible to deny the fact that Ridley was hard working, dedicated, and passionate, all traits I often found myself lacking.

I doubted Ridley would even have told me information about Alteria to begin with, his country was the most important thing in the world to him. Hence after we had learned as much about Corisathium and the Bone King as we could I would report to mother that Ridley simply didn't trust me and I wasn't able to get any information from him. I would apologize for my failure and she would probably just scold me.

Honestly, what was the worst that could happen?

"Vandel!" Ridley called, pointing straight ahead. "That must be it!" The tunnel we had been following led to a large underground cavern. Buildings that appeared to be carved out of the rock itself rose up from the ground. The cavern was filled with women around the same age as the Ancient we had met earlier. Despite the fact that Ridley and I were CLEARLY outsiders none of them paid us any mind.

"Maybe...we should ask one of them for directions?" Ridley said softly.

"Directions to where?" I asked, arching a brow. "Another rock?"

Ridley shot me a stoic, unamused glance. "Obviously not. But we are looking for information, so I'm sure someone here could help point us in the right direction."

I gave him a small nod. "Sounds like a plan. You ask them."

"Wha...why do I have to ask?" Ridley stammered.

"Cause I don't feel like it."

Ridley sighed heavily. "Okay, I'll do it...but only because you'll probably be rude to them if you talk to them yourself."

I shrugged. "Fair enough." Ridley went off to flag down a passing Ancient and I just sorta stood in place, rocking back and forth on the heels of my feet. I accidentally made eye contact with a passing Ancient which was extremely awkward. I just kinda looked at my feet after that, continuing to rock back and forth.

I suddenly heard a dry chuckle behind me and I spun around. An Ancient was standing there, a knowing look on her face.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What do you want old lady?" I asked slowly.

The Ancient simply smiled thinly at me. "You look like a child waiting for his mother to finish up buying something from the market." She gestured to Ridley when she said mother. I glanced to Ridley quickly, hoping he was close to wrapping his conversation up. I furrowed my brow. The idiot wasn't even asking for directions at this point, we was telling a story about a kitten and the Ancients were eating it up. Gods, why did he have to try and be so nice all the time? We only had an hour!

"Your friend seems to be a real hit with the ladies."

I nearly rolled my eyes. "Is he now? And he's not my friend, just my traveling companion."

She chuckled again. "You care about him, I can tell."

I narrowed my eyes. "I cared about a human once, it was a mistake I won't make again."

The Ancient's gaze remained on me.

"The wounds still fresh isn't it?" She said slowly.

I stiffened. "What?"

"You've been around for awhile but this...I'd say it happened four...maybe five years ago."

"How did you...how would you..." I was so confused and nervous I could hardly get a sentence out...something that was extremely rare for me.

"You never thought this would happen again yet here you are, finding yourself starting to care. And you...you're doing everything you can to smother it because of what happened last time-"

"Hey, Vandel I think I know where we should go next," Ridley said, suddenly coming up behind us. He glanced to the Ancient now, noticing her. "Oh, I'm sorry!" He said, bowing his head. "I didn't see you there. I apologize if I was interrupting anything."

"Nope!" I said, almost too quickly. "You weren't interrupting a thing! What did you find out?"

"Apparently we should talk to someone named Odna. She's the most powerful of the Ancients."

"Well you're in luck," the Ancient that had been talking to me said suddenly. "Because I'm Odna."

Ridley immediately bowed even lower than he had before.

"My name is Ridley."

"And I'm Prince Vandel of the Demon Kingdom."

She extended her hand and after a beat I reluctantly shook it.

"A pleasure," she said with a toothy grin...well as toothy as it could be when she only had several teeth. "Of course, I already knew who both of you were when you walked in, but it's always better to formally introduce yourselves."

"We're looking for-"

"Information on the Bone King," she gave us a little nod. "Come with me, I'll try to tell you as much as I can."

We followed her down a path towards one the buildings made from stone. She led us inside and we followed her into a little room. Inside was only a small wooden desk, a few chairs and a shelf filled with vials and knick knacks all made of some mysterious black glass.

Odna gestured to the seats and cautiously, Ridley and I sat down. Odna sat across from us and leaned back, crossing her arms behind her head.

"I'll tell you right now, I don't know much about the Bone King," she said slowly. Ridley's shoulders sagged, I in return felt a slight prick of anger in my gut.

I glared at her. "Bull-fucking-shit. How could you not know much about him? You're clearly extremely powerful! How could you know all that stuff about me but not the Bone King-"

"Quiet yourself little one."

"Did you just call me little?!"

Ridley let out a little snort of laughter at that.

"I have to be physically close to someone to be able to psychically channel into their wavelength. The closer I am, the more I can see into their mind. For example, if you hadn't left the tunnel I wouldn't be able to know what you were thinking but since you're so close I can tell that only half your attention is on me and the other half is judging the room's decoration." She chuckled under her breath. "Honestly I expected that from you but I'm a little surprised young Ridley is only half paying attention as well."

Ridley stiffened. "Wha-what? No! I'm paying attention! I always pay attention!"

"It's not your fault dear. How could you not be at least slightly distracted? After all you've just found out that deep down you're attracted to..." she stopped, simply grinning. Ridley's entire face had gone red, and he looked absolutely mortified. "Now," Odna said, "enough about me. Let's talk about the Bone King. As I said before, I don't know much, only bits of information I've gathered from those who pass through here, like yourselves. Now, when I explain what I do know my little tangent about my powers might make more sense. As I told you...my power is limited to how close my proximity is to the person. The Bone Monster is the same way with his monsters. I would reckon the bigger the monster, the closer the Bone Monster has to be."

Ridley's eyes widened. "Wait...really? How close?"

Odna shrugged. "Judging off my own power I would say a mile or two for a small one and half a mile for a larger one."

Ridley nearly choked. "That means the Bone Monster needed to be present in the village that day to be controlling the Bone Monster!" He looked to me, his face ecstatic. "The Bone King must be able to take a human form!"

"Or he's extremely well hidden," Odna added. "And another thing I know...the Bone King can only create one Bone Monster at a time." She gave us a little shrug. "That's all I've got, sorry I couldn't offer more. We had already moved underground by the time the Bone King came into power in the east."

Ridley shook his head. "No! You've been an amazing help! This information is a game changer!"

"Oh, one more thing," I added quickly. "I don't know if you can already tell using your all seeing magic humbo jumbo or whatever, but Ridley was able to kill a Bone Monster. I'm sure you must know that's almost never been done before. We want to know how he did it."

Odna nodded slowly and then suddenly shut her eyes.

"Put your sword on the table."

Ridley blinked. "What?"

"Put the sword on the table."

Ridley cautiously laid his sword out as she asked and Odna immediately reached out, running her hands over it.

Ridley leaned forward in his seat, his eyes wide, "Is something weird about the sword?"

Odna nodded slowly. "I can sense the Bone King's presence on it."

Ridley furrowed his brow.

"That doesn't make sense...maybe whatever you're sensing is just leftover from when I killed the Bone Monster?"

Odna simply shrugged. "Or it could be why you were able to kill it." Ridley had stiffened. The Ancient continued. "Obviously I don't know for sure. That's up for the two of you to find out. I've told you as much as I can. Good luck on your future endeavors."

Ridley stood up slowly, giving yet ANOTHER bow to the Ancient.

"Thank you for your time."

Odna simply smirked.

"No problem."

"We'll be on our way now, we need to get back before the time limit runs out." Ridley turned towards the door and as I moved to stand up and follow him I suddenly felt Odna's boney hand grab my wrist.

"Not you."

I furrowed my brow. I gave my arm a little shake but her grip never faltered. "Let go of me."

Odna shook her head. "Not yet, there's something you need to hear."

I sighed, sitting back down with a little huff.

"Fine, what is it?"

"I sensed something on that sword...something about its history. I think it's important for you to know."

And that's when the Ancient told me something that changed everything.