The Dream Weaver

The Royal Archive

Walk to the royal archive was presumably faster since 'the maid' Esther was the one to lead the way. The maid was beautiful… it's obvious she is from a noble family. Like all the other royal maids. That also explains her skills. He wondered if all of the maids and workers in the palace are like this. Mages and warriors.

The interior of the palace was extremely well crafted and carved. The palace was white. Many carved runes ran along the walls in a series. Some walls had pictures on them, the pictures were hung on the walls in sequential order. A half-naked man gave an apple to another man who knelt on the ground. Daemon knew they were depicting the stories of Braharis and the King of Naendis. In the next picture the same half-naked man along with some of his kind was feasting with Naendis people. They were smiling in the picture. In the next picture the king was sitting on his throne, and half of his soldiers were replaced by the Braharis. the next one depicted the king clutching one of his hands on his chest and the other outstretched to the same man who gave an apple in the first picture. He had an apple in his hand, stretching out to the king. and in the last picture, the king was on the ground hungrily eating the apple while the man sat on the throne surrounded by his men.

"It reminds us who we are facing." Said Esther without looking back. "Reminds us they are cunning and treacherous." She continued.

Daemon chose to remind silent. He already knows all the stories about the Braharis exploits and cunning plan.

After walking for a few more minutes Esther stopped at a large wooden double door. The door was dark in colour. The door was guarded by two security guards. They curtly nodded their heads to Esther which she returned. There wasn't any talking or indication, like a pre-planned play they opened the double door wide. Esther entered through it followed by Daemon.

The Archive was huge. The room itself felt quite large. the archive didn't have any windows. There were artificial lights hung on the ceiling illuminating the archives. There were countless book shelves brimming with books. They were not just in the ground but also on the walls above. Countless book shelves were flushed on the walls around the entirety of the rooms. Several ladders were placed along the walls.

Daemon felt lost in the wonderous world of the archives. There was an old man sitting behind a wooden table organizing some very old books. He was the keeper of this archive. He looked over where the duo was standing and cast a irritating and questioning look.

"Why are you here, Esther?" He asked with obvious irritation.

"The Queen has given him permission to enter the archives." Esther told solemnly.

The old man looked at Daemon. scrutinizing him. Daemon returned the look.

*Sigh*

Finally, the old man let a defeated sigh and spoke. "Fine. Go in, but don't destroy or disarrange anything. Also leave your storage ring here with me." Daemon know why he have to leave his storage ring with the old man. Since archive contains many lost and precious books it is only natural for people to try and steal. Not that he was going to steal anything. Without further speaking he left his storage ring with the old man.

"Oh, and write your name on the directory too." The old man added in.

"Okay." Daemon replied impassively.

"Where is the history and magic session?" He asked the old man.

"On the last isle of the left side." He spoke.

"Okay, thank you." Daemon started to walk towards the said isle.

When he was gone the old man looked over to Esther and spoke.

"Who is that kid?"

"That's Duke Reinheart's third son." She replied.

"The kid felt odd. History and magic. Hmm." The old man lost himself in his thoughts.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Daemon was flustered beyond words. Though he did have an impassive expression on the outside, his heart was beating wildly. He never has seen this much books in anywhere. Even back in his castle, the archive was like one fourth of this magnificent beauty.

Holy shit. He thought.

The royal archive dates back to more than few centuries. That means this archive has all the old magical books and historical events which dates back to even the Braharis.

He knew he doesn't have much time. So, he quickly went into the historical section first and began to skim through all of the books on the shelf. If someone saw him skimming through books without actually reading it, they will only think he is just a fool who doesn't understand the books and is skimming because of the hope of finding any manuscript simple enough to read.

But what they don't know about him is that, he has 'Eidetic memory.' An ability which helps to recall any image from memory with high precision. He was born with that ability. No one know about this ability other than him. Even his family doesn't know about this ability. They do know he have occasional dreams which can manifest in reality.

Time went by, as he skimmed over more than 100 books in the shelves. He was amused by the content of the books. There was documentation about history which he never even have heard about. Family background and their lineages.

There were books about each of the duke family. Explaining their lineages and the deeds they have done during their time, be it good or bad. It must be records kept by earlier kings, keeping records about their vassals' deeds and services. There were many documents about the various academies around the Astrode kingdom that include the famous 'Laeden academy,' which Daemon remembers bitterly.

Laeden academy was and is the number one academy in the human realm. It wasn't like the other academies. Laeden has centuries long legacy. It was built during the golden age of Astrode kingdom by the 'then' king. The university then began to produce greatest of the greatest warriors and mages. All of the royal families are educated at this university. Not just the royal family but the five great families and the other noble families also began to send their children to the academy much earlier.

The academy education starts from a very young age. There are two levels of education, they are:

Primary education and Advanced education.

The Primary education starts from age 13 and ends at age 18 where they are promoted to the Advanced education class. Most of the large universities supports the two-education system, where as universities at relatively poor areas can only admit one of the education levels.

Laeden supports both of them as the university is situated in the capital city of Astrode, and it is also funded by the public through donations, it is the grandest of all the universities. Through the public funding, the university stops any one of the nobles to assert dominance over it.

Daemon knows about it since he was also studying in Laeden. He was admitted there when he was only 10 years old. He was said to be the youngest person to enter the academy. Daemon was that good. But was dropped two years after entering the academy, due to Daemon losing appetite for training. People started to assume that he was a early boomer and has stopped training because he must have reached his limits. He still bitterly remembers the old school days. Enjoying the company of his siblings, he had such a wonderful memory of them.

Well, what done is done, nothing's going to change anyway. He resolutely thought.

After skimming through all the historical books, which he thought was important Daemon moved towards the Magic section.

The whole shelf looked old. Too old to be even in this state. It was because all of the books in the archives were magically stored so that they won't age.

Seems like the ancient books were just in time to be saved, when magic spell for preservation was created. He thought.

He then started to skim over the books. He didn't skip any of the books as he did with the historical shelf, he thought all of the magic books can be of any way useful. Useful enough to even understand the basics of the 'arcane arts.'

When Daemon was skimming through the books, someone entered the archives. Someone with snow-white hair and crystal blue eyes, beauty oozing out of her. She was the youngest princess of Adtrode kingdom, princess Estella Eskeal.

When the old man at the front desk saw who came again to disturb his studies, he didn't express any annoyance like when he saw the scrawny kid from earlier. It was because the princess was a regular visitor on the archive. She was one of the most well-mannered children he has ever seen.

"Princess, you are here." He greeted her with proper curtesy.

"Who is he?" Estella asked while pointing at the boy in the far end of the archive.

"Oh, that is third child of duke Reinheart." He replied.

"Who? Daemon Reinheart?" she asked with amused expression.

"Yeah, that one. That is what he wrote on the directory. Do you know about the boy?" The old man asked politely.

"Not personally. But I have heard about him. He was hailed as the prodigy among prodigy. Once. Everyone thought he would become a powerful warrior who would be a pillar of hope. But that all turned down when he quit his training entirely." The princess spoke solemnly.

"He must be an early bloomer. His growth must have completed when he was young." the old man said almost disappointedly.

"Maybe. Maybe not." She answered.

"Do you want me to call him?" the old man asked.

"No. let him be." She continued. "Do you have the book I asked for?"

"Ah yes, I have found them from the basement." He pulled a book from the drawer inside the table. "Here you go." He handed the book to the princess.

"Thank you master." She curtly said and left the archive.

The old man looked over where Daemon was skimming through the books and sighed.

"What a disappointment."