Seth was awoken from his nap by the sounds of crying. Shaking the sleep from his eyes, he gently sat up and turned his body until his feet hit the floor.
It sounded like his mother. Instantly he was worried. Things had been rough, but besides some soft tears here and there, nobody had been inclined enough to show their emotions towards the situation at hand. Everyone had seemed at peace with keeping their emotions on the inside for the most part.
His door creaked open as he filed out of his quarters at Wyrmroost. Things had been intense the last few days. Celebrant was gearing up for something, they knew. By now, it was obvious that his sister was not coming back. What the dragon king intended to do about it, they did not know.
He followed the sound of the sobs. He rerouted based on the sound as it got louder or quieter. Despite the ache that came with the sound of his mother crying, he couldn't help but feel a little curious. Had something happened?
He pinpointed one of the sitting areas, and as he opened the door he was greeted with the image of his mother hunched over, Grandpa Sorenson rubbing her back, Dad pacing around the room, and of all people, Warren standing awkwardly in a corner.
Warren noticed Seth first. He motioned the boy over.
"You're sister called."
Seth stopped breathlessly, "What?"
Warren let out a huff, "she asked for you and I didn't think it was a very good idea for you two to talk."
To Seth, that felt like a punch in the gut.
"So you let her talk to Mom instead."
"She asked, I didn't think it would end up like this. For either of them."
If anyone else in the room noticed his presence they didn't comment. Seth turned away from Warren and zoned in on the conversation Grandpa Sorenson and his mother were having.
"I shouldn't have yelled," Mom sobbed.
"She needed to hear it," Grandpa gruffly said in a low voice, " Maybe something will click for her and she will change the way she's acting.
His sister wasn't acting like anything. She was hurting and felt stuck and defeated. He didn't know why the adults in their life couldn't understand that.
Maybe that was the real reason she fled.
Warren tapped him on the shoulder. Seth turned back around to look at him, not quite sure what emotions to be feeling toward the man at the moment.
Warren lowered his voice to barely a whisper, "If we can get in contact with her again we can find a way to help her."
Seth was confused. Why would Warren bring this up now? He had had so many opportunities to help Kendra before. Had this experience changed him that much?
"I think the point of her running off is that she doesn't want our help." Seth looked at Warren skeptically, "What happened on the phone? What changed your mind? Why do you want to help her on this mission instead of stopping her?"
Warren glanced over at the other inhabitants of the room, clearly locked up in their own conversation and worries. He bobbed his head towards the door. Seth understood the meeting and stood, exiting the room just as unnoticed as he came in. Warren silently followed.
Seth wandered down a hallway until he entered a sitting room he found appropriate enough. The keep at Wyrmroost was rather large and he still wasn't well acquainted with a decent portion of what it had to offer. The room was nice. If a little brown, but the leather couch he sat himself in was nice enough. Warren lowered himself in a matching chair right across from Seth, facing him.
"Talking to your sister, it was clear that she knows what she's done. Maybe she hadn't thought things through all the way when she decided to leave, but it's clear now she knows exactly what kind of situation she's caused. As her family, we need to be here to support her. Not tear her down. If we help her we take some of the burden off of her. "
"This was never her burden to begin with," Seth countered.
"I'm perfectly aware of that, but not everyone sees it that way. The weight of the world doesn't always need to rest on her shoulders. Or yours for that matter. If the rest of your family is too caught up in bringing her back, then we can do this by ourselves. That is, if you will help me."
Seth shifted in his seat, desperately trying to hide the excitement sparking throughout his body. He knew he shouldn't come off too eager. He didn't want to risk his position as Warren's confidant. Warren had told this to him first. Not Vanessa, but him. Seth. He was gonna take advantage of that.
"What, exactly, am i helping you with?"
Warren shifted upward, his face coming closer to Seth's. Seth braced himself for the conspirator's whisper. Warren clearly wanted no one to know what he was planning.
"The way I see it we have two options. It depends how much we can convince your sister to trust us in the beginning. She didn't believe me when I told her that we stopped chasing after her, so it probably won't be as easy as I'm hoping."
Seth learned more forward in his chair, curious to hear what they could help with. How they could do it .
"The dragons are not going to stop. The deal has been broken. Celebrant is officially the caretaker of Wyrmroost whether he realizes it now or later, he will realize it."
"How can we stop that," Seth asked, "How can we do anything but flee when the sanctuary is destroyed?"
"He can't just upright and destroy the place," Warren explained, "There are protections put in place for that. In case anything like this ever came to pass."
"What does any of this have to do with Kendra and helping her?"
"Celebrant has been at Wyrmroost for a very very long time making it the most powerful dragon sanctuary in the world. The wizards who went about creating these sanctuaries knew that that kind of power needed to be checked. At each of the three closed off dragon sanctuaries, Wyrmroost, Soaring Cliffs, and Titan Valley a gem is hidden. Despite all the chaos that may happen within Wyrmroost, the borders cannot come down, the sanctuary will not truly fall until all three gems are welded together."
"Welded? Like melted into one?"
Warren nodded his head.
Seth rolled his eyes, "That seems like something a dragon could very easily do."
"Only if they obtain all three first. And the Wizards made sure that was next to impossible. Dragon's cannot leave their sanctuaries without express permission."
"Like when Celebrant helped us at Zzyzx."
"Exactly."
"So what does this mean for us? What does this mean for Kendra?"
"Well Celebrant almost certainly has the Wyrmroost gem. Probably has for a long time. We need to retrieve the other two as soon as possible. As caretaker, he may not be able to leave, but he has much more access to the outside world than previously possible. Once he discovers those loopholes, it won't be long until he obtains the other two gems. We need to come into contact with your sister. If she visits one of the remaining two sanctuaries, she can retrieve a gem, keeping it out of the hands of Celebrant until we decide what to do with them."
Something in Seth's stomach fell to the floor. Was this even going to be an adventure for them? Or was the most action he would partake in be searching for his sister?
"I thought you said we were going to help her? Isn't that just putting her in more danger?"
Warren shook his head, "She gets one, we get the other. If possible. She has Navarog protecting her, under her control. He has to help. It is the best way to secure the gems fast enough. Hopefully to find a way to destroy them."
"How do you know all of this?" Seth inquired. Warren just spewed off an encyclopedia of information he had never had a clue about before.
"I've been meeting with Agad since this all began in secret. He's been passing much of his information on to me. He feels it best if I sought the gems?"
"And you want to take an underaged boy with you?" Seth blurted before he could help himself. That was not the way to stay in the adventure!
Warren made cold, hard, direct eye contact with him, "Look kid, I know you want to go. You want to help. You're helpful. A shadow charmer could be great help on this mission. If we can get you out of Wyrmroost we will be in a pretty good place. Your sister will listen to you."
Kendra, that's right, Seth thought. Warren still hadn't explained how he planned to get Kendra on board with all of this. How to even contact her.
"What about Kendra? How are we going to contact her."
Warren sighed, "This is where things become relatively easy or a bit more time consuming. Plan A, we can find a way to talk to her over the phone or whatever. As I don't see that as happening anytime soon especially after that lovely call, we are probably going to have to find her before we can go our separate ways."
Seth looked at him blankly, eyes wide. "How in the world do you intend to do that? She could be anywhere! Has been everywhere already!"
Warren sighed, "I don't know. I can try to track the call, but they are probably too smart for that. I can reach out to some Knights. See if they know anything. At the moment, step one is finding her before anything else."
"Would it be faster to just find both gems ourselves," Seth asked, "What if finding her takes too long?"
"I have faith that it won't." Warren said, "She'll want to help. She'll feel terrible in the long run if she finds out she didn't. We can always adjust the plan. I'm going to give it two days. If in two days we haven't tracked her down, then we can proceed by ourselves."
"What if those two days could have been spent retrieving a gem? I have to say Warren, this isn't making a whole lot of sense."
"I need some time to prep. We can't just run off. We have to find a way to get you out of Wyrmroost without Celebrant immediately noticing. On top of that we need to come up with a viable excuse as to where I am taking you to your family. I doubt the truth would go over very smoothly right now."
Seth was impressed with his cousin, "You have become quite the conspirator. I'm trying to hide how proud I am of you."
Warren shook his head. Seth could see the smirk he was trying and failing to cover, "Desperate times. We need to take action if no one else is going to."
"Do you think Bracken can help, if Kendra finds him?"
Warren pursed his lips together. "When Kendra finds him, it will be a game changer. I don't know how yet, but I know finding him is very important. I can feel it in my gut."
Seth sighed and glanced out a window. The sun was going down. They had been talking for quite some time it seemed. Seth had hardly realized. "People are probably wondering where we are. And I'm hungry."
Warren stood up with a stretch from his chair. Seth could hear the satisfying crackles coming from his back.
"I'll look into finding Kendra and getting everything ready to go. What you can do is try to come up with a lie for your grandparents. Don't say anything before running it by me though. We'll need to get our story straight."
"Will do." "Make sure to get plenty of rest these next two nights. I'm not quite sure what we will be facing in the coming days."
Seth nodded his head and filed out the room, heading towards whatever magnificent smell was coming out of the kitchen. Walking through the halls he couldn't help the smile that slipped out.
Seth Sorenson was back.
And ready for a new adventure.
A shorter Seth chapter. As we all know I'm not very good at writing with Seth lol. He should become a bit more relevant to the plot. This story becomes a bit more of a beast every chapter as I keep coming up with new ideas that just make sense :,P
