The training room was massive.
Larger than any of them had ever seen in their lives. The entire space was forged from dark, gleaming metal that shimmered under the soft lights embedded high along the walls.
"That ceiling’s taller than the castle wall! How’s that possible?" Taria exclaimed. "And look at the walls!"
Kaedros couldn’t hide his surprise either.
This place... it’s something else.
"I can’t even see the ceiling," Rauk said, shading his eyes. "And what’s with these massive pillars?"
Dozens of thick metal columns jutted from the ground like oversized staves and vanished upward into the darkness above, giving the room a cathedral-like height.
Thalso stood nearby, watching them closely, satisfied with their awe. He gave them time to take it all in, waiting to see who would spot the things he deemed important.
Two things, to be precise.
And Taria was the first to notice.
Her eyes widened, her breath caught, and her entire body tingled with excitement as if a jolt of energy had passed through her. She pointed, eyes gleaming. "Kael! Look! Look at those!"
Kaedros turned, unsure what to expect.
What he saw was a massive weapon rack.
At first, it seemed unremarkable but only for a second.
"Oh," was all he managed to say.
Taria was already walking toward it, her gaze locked on the arsenal like it held answers to questions she hadn’t yet asked. The entire wall was lined with weapons, swords, spears, bows, axes, daggers, clubs, maces, war hammers, and dozens more she couldn’t even name.
Row upon row, column upon column, stretching up into the shadows beyond sight.
She was particularly drawn to the spears, ranging in size and design. Some were short and brutal; others were long and elegant. All deadly.
"I see you’re interested in the weapons," Thalso said suddenly behind her.
Taria jumped, not having heard him approach. She gave a sheepish smile. "Honestly? I wasn’t. Not before I came here."
Her gaze lingered on the wall. "But now... yeah. I am."
"It means you’ve come to understand the weight of what you hold. The value. The necessity," Thalso grunted, staring up at the wall with her.
Was that true? Taria wasn’t sure. She had never depended on a weapon before, not . Now, she couldn’t imagine being without one. The idea of facing even a shadow barehanded was... absurd.
"I guess you’re right," she admitted. "When it’s all that stands between you and death, you start to care."
She looked at him sideways. "How did you get all these?"
"Ah. Those?" Thalso puffed out his chest slightly. "They’re my personal collection."
Taria blinked. "You made all of this?"
"Made?" Thalso laughed, loud and deep.
The noise echoed through the chamber. Chef shot him a look from across the room, irritated. Even Nyra, lounging on a high ledge, cracked one golden eye open and twitched her tail.
Kaedros and Rauk wandered over, curious about the commotion.
"This, " Thalso pointed at the weapon wall, trailing a finger up toward the invisible ceiling "..is my trophy collection. Some I won in duels. Most I took from those I... defeated."
Taria’s mouth parted as she stared at the thousands of weapons, then looked back at Thalso.
He defeated all those people...?
Who are you? she wondered.
Thalso chuckled again, clearly enjoying the disbelief. "And this is just a small collection. My master, he has rooms full of weapons. All earned through strength."
He had a creeping suspicion about Thalso’s master. A Dragon, perhaps? But that didn’t make sense. The Dragon’s history began with the invasion of the world. No one knew what came before. Not even the Dragons themselves remembered.
Still...Dragons had a strange tendency to hoard things. Treasures. Relics. Weapons.
Once, he would have lusted after a vault . But now?
He didn’t feel the pull.
’..I don’t need them.’ Came the quiet thought.
And that surprised him.
In the Dragon City, hoarding had been status. Power. Purpose. Now, his desires were shifting, he wanted true power, not possessions. If he had strength, everything else would fall into place.
Taria murmured. "Why collect them all? What’s the point?"
"Because I won," Thalso replied simply, shrugging.
Taria almost asked for more. But then she thought about it. Maybe that was enough. The winner always decided what came next.
Isn’t that how the world worked?
Somewhere, a prince was probably writing his own version of history after killing his father. The Celestial Order and the bounty hunter’s Association had tried to kill them, had they succeeded, they would have rewritten fate without hesitation.
Taria nodded, falling into quiet thought again as her eyes scanned the weapons.
One caught her attention, a slender spear with a broad blade instead of a pointed tip. Elegant, precise. Dangerous.
"What?" she asked, distracted.
Kaedros answered for him, amused. "He said, ’How many warriors could be outfitted with this much weaponry?’"
"Thousands," she said, then frowned. "Oh. That..."
Her voice flattened. The civil war Kaedros and Rauk occasionally hinted at... she still wasn’t sure how to feel about it. She’d never been in one before.
Kaedros shrugged. "Too bad we can’t take the weapons. Or find warriors. But we’re going to need both."
Rauk noticed the subtle glint in Kaedros’ eyes. He wasn’t worried. He sounded like someone facing a challenge he welcomed. Something he was itching to pursue. Something he had already made up his mind about.
Rauk tried to match his calm with one of his own. "We’ll cross that bridge when we get there."
"True," Kaedros said. "Speaking of that... Thalso, why are we here?"
Thalso had been watching them all quietly, arms folded.
"To train you, of course."
"Haven’t we been training?" Rauk asked, gesturing at the sweat-drenched state of their clothes.
"You call that training?" He scoffed and stepped forward, his voice echoing with contempt as he pointed at the three of them one by one.