Shade's POV:

We had been flying in the direction of Sebastian's stronghold for at least half an hour before Aurora finally awoke. As soon as her eyes snapped open she immediately panicked and span around too quickly, causing herself to almost slip of Incendro's neck. I quickly grabbed onto her and helped her balance until she took in her surroundings with fearful eyes.

"Where is Obsidian?" she asked, causing a pang of guilt to hit me in the chest.

She studied my face carefully before she came to the realisation.

"No," she said, her voice cracking slightly "we travelled on foot to protect them, it wasn't safe to fly... how could this happen?" she asked in a shaky voice as tears began to roll down her face.

"He saved you," I said empathetically, pulling her into a comforting hug.

"I'm a dragon rider... I was meant to protect him" she sobbed quietly, taking comfort from my embrace.

"It wasn't your fault" I confirmed, rubbing small circled into her back.

She cried quietly into my shoulder as I tried my best to comfort her, Incendro picked up on my pained emotions and flew steadily so we didn't have to worry about falling.

"Fly us to the castle" instructed Aurora in a voice that was barely audible.

I pulled out of the hug in confusion to see that her tear stained face was moulded into a determined expression and her puffy eyes were filled with a new fire. I wondered how she could suppress her emotions the way that she did, I figured that she just converted them into other emotions like anger or determination so she could use them to focus on something other than the thing that was causing her pain.

"We will lose the element of surprise" I pointed out, wiping a few tears from her cheek.

"I think that we have already lost it" she sighed "let's just get in, find Chase and get out," she finished simply.

"I guess that Sebastian won't be expecting us to make such a bold move," I said thoughtfully.

She nodded her head and grabbed the side of Incendro before swinging herself through the air to hoist herself up to sit behind me.

"Oh, and Shade?" she asked, wrapping her arms around my waist.

"Yeah?" I questioned, directing Incendro to fly higher.

"If we manage to overpower Sebastian, we can't show him mercy," she said emotionlessly.

"I know," I sighed "let's just hope that if things get messy the Elysium guard will finally show up" I finished hopefully.

"Who are they anyway?" she questioned, taking me by surprise.

"Have you really never heard of them?" I asked.

When she didn't respond a small smile grew on my lips as I could practically see her eye-rolling at my stupid question without having to turn to face her.

"You know how there are hardly any female teachers at school?" I questioned.

"I guess so" she replied in a slightly confused tone.

"Well most of them choose to join the Elysium guard since they usually reach a very high combat level," I said, remembering the time that I had spent training with one of their warriors.

"Wait... the guard is made up of only females?" she questioned in awe.

"No, there are men there as well but the Elysium guard is best known for its fierce female warriors" I explained.

"Let's hope that they're not too far behind us then" she finished, burying her face into my back.

We flew for another thirty minutes or so before the haunting castle came into view. It stood tall in the growing night and was surrounded by a dark, icy aura that caused shivers to run down my spine. Its grey forlorn walls were broken down and crumbled in places allowing beams of faint golden light to shine through, causing ghastly shadows to creep mysteriously around its gloomy halls, confirming that the castle was not completely abandoned.

Incendro flew silently through the cold air, using his pitch black scales and high stealth to blend into the night.

"Over there" whispered Aurora while pointing to the far right side of the castle.

I followed her direction to see an extremely faint green light barely pushing through the castle walls, remembering back to our Mythos encounter, I pushed Incendro in the direction of the light to take a closer look.

"He has got to be in there, or at least near there," she said quietly, unintentionally tightening her hold on me.

I nodded my head, the room was low enough to be part of the castle's dungeons, but it could also be a trap.

"We should enter through that gap above it, that way we will be able to check more rooms to find Chase quicker" I suggested, pointing to the slightly larger gap.

"Ok let's go" agreed Aurora, not bothering to argue with my plan.

We flew towards the gap at a dangerously fast speed, I knew that Incendro wouldn't be able to fly inside the castle but we had to get in there as quickly as we could without being noticed. I sent him my comfort as his confusion entered my mind which made him happier to obey my command, he really did put a lot of trust in me.

"Get ready to jump" I shouted as loudly as I dared to.

Aurora released me from her grip and perched herself ready for me to lead, I waited patiently until we were just about to crash through the ragged broken wall before I sharply turned incendro to the side, making him skim sideways along the castle walls, giving us a chance to jump into the shadowy building.

My right side came into contact with the harsh floor heavily, causing me to roll rather painfully across the room as bits of loose stone and rubble scratched at, and dented whatever exposed skin it could find.

The echo of both of our un-elegant falls echoed around the room noisily, alerting anyone that lurked near of our presence. I mentally prayed that nobody had noticed as the room grew silent once again before I pushed my body into a sitting position and rubbed the back of my throbbing head.

"Aurora, are you ok?" I asked worriedly, as my eyes searched the gloomy room for her.

"I'm fine" she replied, getting to her feet so I could see her.

I got to my own feet and walked briskly over to her, discretely scanning my eyes over her to check for any sign of injury.

"Right, let's go then" I instructed, satisfied that she was uninjured during the fall.

I watched as she nodded her head before I took off in what I assumed was the direction of the room's exit. We approached the already opened, old rotten door and moved through it stealthily before we jogged silently over to a half fallen overhanging tapestry for better cover.

"This is it" I whispered firmly "we're finally going to rescue Chase and take down Sebastian once and for all" I finished in determination.

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