Terrifying Secrets

Inside Head Priest Gomo's office, Borrian barged into the room without knocking and a blaring voice. "Eladreas needs you right away Father Gomo! There is an emergency with the runt, I mean Runaan!"

Father Gomo was sitting behind his desk going over various documents and scriptures from the Holy Order of Kothrishard. When Borrian opened the door without knocking, Gomo instantly was about to start reprimanding him until he heard Runaan's name mentioned.

"What happened Borrian? You can't just barge in here either! What do you mean Eladreas needs me right away? What happened to Runaan?" In a burst of confusion from the situation, Gomo began to ask Borrian what was going on.

"I'm sorry for barging in sire, but there's an emergency with runt I mean Runaan, Eladreas sent Carri to have me get you, she knows more, but I've never seen her that panicked either." Borrian attempted to give as much information he had to Father Gomo, but he was clueless himself.

Borrian quickly left the Head Priest's office in a rush back to the orphanage. The thought of who knows what problems those children could cause when he's not there was running through his head.

*Sigh* Gomo just shook his head and got up from his chair. "I really do give those two too much free reign. I am the head priest, why do they treat a sage like myself this way." Gomo was just reflecting in his head on how much free reign he's given his subordinates.

Moving towards the orphanage, just through the doors that were just opened, Gomo saw the worried face of Carri waiting for Father Gomo to arrive at the Orphanage. This was the only door into the orphanage from the cathedral and it restricted Carri from entering the cathedral.

Gomo waved his hand and eased the restrictions to allow Carri through the doors. "I'm told you know what happened more than Borrian does, what happened to Runaan?" Gomo asked right as he lifted the restrictions for Carri.

Running towards the Head Priest, Carri was extremely concerned, "Runaan's eyes changed color and shape! He also started bleeding from his eyes too and it burned the floor! WHats ha-happening to Runaan!?!" Carri started to cry when she started to explain what was going on.

"His eyes changed color and shape, and his blood burned the floor? Are you sure that's what happened?" Gomo asked for clarification.

"Uh-hmm" Carri nodded her head and mumbled through her tears to clarify that that's what had happened as she saw it.

"Hurry up, show me where Runaan is right away!" Gomo instructed Carri right away for her to take him to Runaan.

"He's in the medical room, we need to hurry up," Carri said quickly.

Thinking to himself, Gomo ran through multiple different things that could have happened. Until he thought about Runaan's heritage of being a dragons-kin

'Does this boy have the dragon's bloodline? If he does, he'll be the strongest person to ever live in this country, maybe even the world!'

After his thoughts permeated through his head, Gomo gradually picked up his pace towards the orphanage letting Carri trail behind him.

When Gomo arrived at the orphanage's medical room, he stared at Runaan with a visibly excitable and confused look on his face. He then stepped over towards Runaan and looked into his eyes.

"There's no change, you said they changed, what happened?" Gomo asked, still staring into Runaan's eyes, noticing the bloody tear streaks left on his cheeks.

"They turned back to normal right away, but they did change, I swear it!" Carri stated as she looked towards Father Gomo.

"Runaan can you tell me what happened to you? What did you feel?" Gomo then directed his question towards Runaan to try and understand what was happening.

Runaan began to explain his experience of what had just happened to him, with visible confusion on his face. "I don't know, I fell off of the bed because Carri pushed my shoulder and I hit my head somehow... then everything started to hurt and my eyes started to burn. Carri said my eyes changed but I don't know if they did, I couldn't see anything because for a little bit because my eyes started bleeding. I'm sorry."

Runaan apologized to Father Gomo because he thought he was going to be in trouble because he ended up having the Head Priest leave the cathedral for him. Whenever the Head Priest needed to leave the cathedral it was for something important, or it was to scold someone.

"Don't be sorry Runaan, you're not in trouble. Eladreas do you know anything else about what was going on?" Gomo then directed a question towards Eladreas, he knew that his knowledge base would be a good input towards this situation.

"I don't know much sire. But I have a feeling his bloodline began to awaken but ended up being held short because of something, I feel you know what I'm talking about. I think you mentioned something when I brought Runaan here long ago."

Gomo widened his eyes after Eladreas slightly reaffirmed his hypothesis that Runaan's bloodline was awakened, even though he's but a 5-year-old child. He's always kept a secret eye on Runaan and reported his development back to Alexandros about it.

Runaan's existence was something that could bring about chaos if he were to be discovered by the Empire's enemies. Runaan being kept at the orphanage was a way to keep him safe and to not allow outsiders to take notice of him.

No one was going to pay attention to the orphanage, let alone the orphans they cared for. Let alone enemies of the state, there was no reason to look into the orphanage.

Waving his arm, Gomo released a powerful spell sealing the room. Mages of certain ranks could seal spaces, however, light mages were exceptional at creating barriers that prevents many things.

"Quiet Eladreas, I don't think he's old enough to know yet; and what do you mean something held him back from awakening? Not just anything can prevent awakenings."

"He has already begun to awaken his bloodline if that is what was happening, and it seemed as though his body couldn't handle the awakening process. When it started to happen, there was a strange pressure that came from his body, it felt like one of your barriers, but it didn't seem to be created from light magic. It seemed like it was an older kind of magic, it used pure mana, it also felt like the residual mana I felt from his mother long ago."

"You felt the same form of magic coming from him that his mother had? But what I can remember, she was of a higher realm than I was there's no way I could figure out what she's done to him if there's a seal on him. The way you described finding her adds up with her running from something, Then she must have been trying to hide Runaan's existence as well."

As the two speculated with each other, Runaan heard his mother being mentioned between the two. His heart raced at the mention of her, he knew nothing about her, only now did he just hear that she was found.

"What about my mom, what happened to her? What do you mean you found her? What's happening to me? Why are you only talking to yourselves!!!" Runaan shouted out with anger staring at the two, he was so confused at this moment that he didn't know what was happening, and then his mother was brought up all of a sudden.

"Runaan, calm down, we're trying to figure out what's happening to your right now. We can't make good speculations without getting the full story right? Do you understand what I'm saying?" Gomo asked Runaan, semi-explaining what he was trying to do.

Gomo began to think about varying situations as to what was happening to Runaan at the moment. Debating whether he should reveal Runaan's past to him or not, after a moment he felt, it would be worse for him to not know and wonder in silence than to know and grieve.

"Runaan, 5 years ago when you were born, your mother died giving birth to you. In this world, everyone has access to mana and is able to cultivate with it to strengthen themselves to certain degrees, you already know this as you've wanted to begin learning magic as every child does.

However, along with our ways of mana cultivation and use of magic, people have bloodline abilities from kindred beasts and spirits. This information isn't unknown to common folk, but it is kept secret by individuals for as long as possible because it can relate directly with their statuses in our current hierarchy of those with power rule.

Bloodlines are inherited from our parents and it usually is passed from father to son and mother to daughter. The bloodlines directly link us to the powers of beasts that live in our world and in other realms connected to our world through spatial restrictions and barriers the gods put into place.

When you were brought here 5 years ago by Eladreas on one of his many trips to the Forgotten Woodlands, you were severely injured because of mana corrosion, you hadn't been fully corrupted by the time you made it here before I was able to heal you. That alone is meant to be kept secret.

But your heritage is special. Your mother was carrying this with her when she died. It shows your heritage and it tells us that you are a member of one of the ancient clans of our world. Of which, the clan you hail from is said to be the oldest, and most mysterious clan to exist. Many believe you to be extinct."

Gomo pulled out the locket that was found with Saris when she had been found by Eladreas.

"Your existence alone disproves this, but it also beckons the question of what happened to make your mother flee your homeland. This locket is also made of extremely rare and precious materials that should be hard for even ancient clans to get a hold of.

From what we were able to tell, you carry the blood of dragons in you. We believe that you're from the dragon's kin clan of ancient times." As Gomo was finishing his speech towards Runaan, he reached out and placed the locket into his hand.

The locket was made of rare Pheonix silver and an even more uncommon item Dragonite or dragon's stone placed into the center of it.

When Gomo pulled the locket out of his spatial ring, it began to give off incredible amounts of fluctuating mana, that began to gather towards Runaan. The dragon's stone in the center seemed to look like an eye.

Gomo then took a small amount of blood from Runaan's finger and dripped it onto the Dragonite. The Dragonite then began to convulse and shine wildly levitating out of Runaan's palm.

Looking at what the Head Priest was doing, Carri blurted out to Father Gomo, "that's what Runaan's eyes looked like sir, they looked just like that rock in the locket!"

Bewildered by Carri's outburst, Gomo locked back at the Dragonite that was giving off a terrifying amount of pressure now, so much so that he felt he could suffocate under its effects any moment noticed the 'eye' move towards Runaan.

Runaan who was extremely shocked from everything that was just told to him and a little background on who he really was, started to tremble from the sight of the eye that was staring at him from the Dragonite.

Runaan's eyes changed again into what they were showing earlier when his awakening started but then was abruptly halted by something.

An unknown voice began to sound out within the sealed room, "Ahh, who has awoken to the blood we share? Who is the one to inherit the prestige and power of the Dragon King Tyros, Lord of Fire!?!?" The locket moving ever so closer towards Runaan's face, it resounded again. "Oh child of mine, you are still lacking now and are unable to contain my power, but you indeed qualify to be my successor!! You will be king of this realm just as I was thousands of years ago!"

The locket then closed and landed back into Runaan's hand. After it had landed back into his hand, Runaan's eyes reverted back to his normal azure color. "Father Gomo, who's the Dragon King?"