Turns out, Axel was a pretty good cook, even though he had no idea what he did.
"This is delicious!" Cyil said happily. "You should cook for us all the time!"
"Absolutely not," Riselus snapped. "It was supposed to be you today."
Axel had made a salad for Riselus, who was vegetarian. He wished there was salad dressing, but Riselus seemed to like the plain leaves and herbs. Salad? Vegetarian? Dressing? There I go again with those strange words.
"We all know I can't make food as good as this," Cyil mumbled through a mouthful of meat.
"You just want to get out of your chores," Qassot muttered. "You keep doing this."
Cyil continued eating.
"Are you even listening?" Riselus growled.
"He's tuning you out," Aavern said. "But he's right, I don't think any of us can make this kind of food. How'd you make it?"
Axel shrugged. "I cooked?"
"It's not fair," Cyil grumbled. "A wizard who's a great cook and a powerful fighter."
Axel had no idea how to respond.
"Oh, yeah," Qassot said. "Dracoa, do you know how to recover forgotten memories?"
"Why?" Dracoa asked.
"Axel needs to remember his past."
"Why?" Cyil asked.
"He's a wizard who forgot his past. He might have come from the Beyond."
Cyil and Aavern's eyes brightened at the same time. "So if we help him remember, he might be able to get us to Azor!" they exclaimed simultaneously. Qassot nodded.
"Well," Dracoa said, "I know a few tricks, but you probably already tried them."
"I haven't tried anything yet," Axel replied.
"Memories can come back if you visit places or see things that were important to you in the past, and also if you go through a similar experience as your past."
"I thought you could use your mind powers or something," Cyil said.
Dracoa pretended Cyil hadn't said anything. "If you were a wizard, maybe you would recognize a wizard's castle."
"But he's been here the whole time," Cyil said.
"Maybe he's never been in Ezarik's castle," Aavern suggested.
"We renovated a lot," Qassot reasoned. "He might recognize the floors that we didn't get to yet."
"That's an idea," Aavern said thoughtfully. "Yeah, let's go with that."
"Let me finish eating," Cyil said.
The other four Gem Keepers ignored him and left.
Axel had to stuff the rest of his food into his mouth and follow them quickly, bewildered at how fast the creatures could come to a decision and start doing something.
-
Axel followed the Gem Keepers up and down many flights of stairs, introducing him to the various rooms and magical equipment scattered around. Axel didn't recognize any of it. In fact, it just made him more confused.
"You haven't been to the lower floors of Ezarik's castle yet, right?" Aavern asked. "Let's go there next."
"Isn't that where the dungeon is?" Qassot asked. "What could he possibly recognize there?"
"Who knows?" Aavern said. "No harm in trying."
The group started walking down the large staircase that led to a door to the left of the main entrance hall.
"So is my memory really your only way to get to the Beyond right now?" Axel asked.
"We don't really have anything else we can try," Dracoa said. "We completely ran out of things to try a few days ago."
Aavern pushed a door to the side of the staircase open with his head and walked inside.
"We've been trying to make a portal from the Dimensional Link, but all the scrolls about portals say you have to have at least seen a place before in order to make a portal there," Qassot explained. "We didn't really get a glimpse when Azor jumped through the portal, so we can't do anything."
"Cyil mentioned that Ezarik had a magic tetrahedron that he could see the world through," Axel suggested. "Can't you use that?"
"Somebody dropped it into the ocean," Dracoa said, glaring at Cyil with enough hostility to make him scamper behind Riselus in fear.
How does that even happen? Axel thought to himself, shaking his head.
"And here we are," Aavern said as they arrived at a small trapdoor in an inconspicuous-looking room with only a single bed pushed awkwardly to the corner. "Welcome to the dungeons!"
Qassot opened the trapdoor, revealing a way deeper into the castle. Aavern hopped right in. Axel followed the small winged hamster down a narrow spiral staircase. Riselus stayed behind - he couldn't fit down the stairs. They walked in silence for a long time, past old black bricks shimmering with red, much different from the old, medieval material which the upper floors were made of. The glow cast a red light through the air, illuminating everything eerily.
"What's that red glow?" Axel asked.
"It's a spell that Ezarik used on the castle to make it very hard to destroy and rebuild itself if damaged," Dracoa explained.
"Why don't the upper floors have it?"
"They do, we just added another layer of bricks because we got tired of seeing red everywhere," Aavern said. "Well, actually, Riselus did that, and he also added plants. Can't blame him, really. It feels much less sinister that way."
The staircase ended abruptly and opened out to a wide, long hallway with various prison cells lining the sides. Axel looked around. It was all foreign to him.
"See? Axel didn't remember anything," Qassot said, pointing at Axel's blank face. "What did I tell you?"
"What's that?" Axel asked. He pointed at a cell that was slightly ajar near the end of the corridor.
"That's the cell Shadowfang was kept in. There's some sort of powerful restraining magic in it," Dracoa said.
The metal door creaked as Axel opened the nearest cell and peered inside.
"I'm not sure how he broke out," Dracoa continued. "The magic's very strong."
Axel continued walking down the row of cells, looking carefully into each side. He stopped at an especially clean cell with no chains or bones. His eyes saw phantom images of people in ragged clothing, starved of food, whose eyes revealed that they had given up any hope of escaping. He blinked. The ghostly people disappeared. Axel yanked the door open. It wasn't locked. He carefully looked through the cell again. Nothing. It was just his imagination.
A small glimmer of light caught Axel's eye. Axel walked deeper into the cell and looked at the back wall. There was a small symbol inscribed on the wall that glimmered slightly in the red light. It resembled a dragon with spread wings holding a small ball. This ball was made of metal and reflected the red light slightly.
"What's this?" Axel asked. His mind seemed to smile at him. There's always something hidden behind walls like this in video games. He shook his head. He didn't even know what a video game was.
"What's what?" Cyil asked. He had finally finished eating and came down to join them. "And why are you in the dungeon?"
"Not sure," Dracoa said to Axel. "I haven't seen that before."
Axel gathered white flames in his fist and punched the symbol with all his might. The ground shook with the force of the impact. The wall cracked slightly. Axel wound up and punched again.
"What are you doing?" Cyil asked.
"Just a hunch," Axel replied. He punched again, this time releasing an explosion of white flames on impact. He drew his fist back again.
"Let me take a shot at it," Cyil said. He was taking a tiny ball of bright flame out of his fur. Axel walked out of the cell. Cyil fed the ball with more flames and threw it. The fireball grew as it flew through the air, becoming a massive orange globe in a brief instant before hitting the wall. The force of the impact was enough to knock Axel back a few steps. This time, there was a sizable hole in the wall. They could see another room behind it.
"Aww, I thought that would do more," Cyil pouted.
"You barely charged that fireball up at all," Aavern responded. "Of course it didn't do much."
"Your hunch was right," Qassot said. "There was something there."
"Doesn't that symbol look kind of like Shadowfang?" Cyil asked.
"How did you not see the symbol before?" Axel asked.
"Other than Qassot, we haven't been down here that much," Aavern explained. "And this was also the cell Shadowfang was kept in, so of course we wouldn't want to look into it."
"You said Shadowfang was being held in that cell over there," Axel said, pointing at the one in the corner.
"No, I'm pretty sure it was in that one," Cyil said, pointing at a completely different cell.
"That's wrong. It was that one," Qassot said, pointing at another one.
Axel closed his eyes. They didn't remember which one it was. He quickly changed the subject, looking at the symbol.
"You said this symbol looks kind of like Shadowfang?" he asked.
"Yep," Cyil nodded. "See the fangs?"
Axel didn't see any fangs on the symbol.
"Wasn't Shadowfang a wyvern?" he asked.
"He used to be a dragon," Dracoa said.
"And the orb thing?"
"He was imprisoned in an orb," Qassot explained. "Which was then put in one of these cells.
"How do you even fit a dragon in an orb?" Axel asked, the mental image of a huge, house-sized monstrous winged lizard appearing in his head, only to be immediately corrected by the sight of a human-sized Qassot before him. "And what do you mean by 'used to be a dragon'?"
While they talked, the hole repaired itself.
"You've got to be kidding me," Axel said. He wound up to punch the wall again. Qassot quickly stopped him.
"What if we just…" Qassot began. She walked up to the symbol and pressed the small metal ball into the stone. The entire wall swung inwards.
"What the-" Aavern started.
"The stone seemed to have a bit of magic in it," Qassot replied.
Cyil looked at Axel. "Nice going, there."
"You tried to brute-force it too," Axel replied.
"No, I made an explosion," Cyil said. "I like explosions."
Axel suddenly understood why Dracoa whacked Cyil around so much.
"Are you coming?" Qassot called from through the doorway before Axel could kick Cyil out of the cell.
"Let's go," Axel said. They walked through the doorway and entered a wide circular room with a simple pedestal in the middle. A dark smoke filled the room. The very air crackled with suffocating heat. The walls and floor were lined with inscriptions. Floating a short distance above that pedestal was a massive orb as large as Riselus pulsing with pure heat, with its black surface occasionally cracking to reveal near-white-hot flames beneath its surface. Axel glanced around. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind.
"What is that thing?" Qassot asked.
"It seems kind of familiar," Cyil said, walking forwards. He suddenly shuddered and backed up. "That thing is very hot."
"Duh," Axel muttered.
Axel stared closely at the shape of the room. His mind began replacing parts of what he saw. Shelves of scrolls, bottles, and other magical implements peeked through the smoke that swirled around him. A hole in the room a little ways to the right, where the wall and ceiling had been blown out, letting in a view of the bright moon and the night sky. More fog flowed through the hole. Axel turned his gaze to the center of the room, where a figure stood tall, surrounded by creeping dark tendrils eerily similar to the ones attached to his side. The scene shifted, and the magical apparatus faded into the darkness. The shelves and signs of life disappeared, replaced by a perfectly smooth solid black rock wall that curved around the orb in the center. He saw the molten surface of the orb swirl and fill with black and purple smoke, flashing and swirling, sending a distinct buzz down Axel's spine as an eerie soundless hum filled his ears. Axel tried to focus on the orb, but the image faded as soon as he concentrated on it.
"That's odd," Axel muttered, refocusing on the magmatic orb and the barren, smoke-filled room beneath Ezarik's castle.
"Yeah, I wonder why this thing is here," Qassot said.
"It looks like an oversized version of the fire gem," Cyil said, walking up to it. He immediately backed off. "It's really hot."
"Maybe it's some kind of power storage," Aavern suggested, "and it keeps the castle's protection spell up."
"But it feels kind of like that liquid fire that was inside that creepy mountain," Cyil muttered to himself. "The one that was talking to me."
"That's definitely not what this is," Dracoa mumbled.
"What is it?" Axel asked.
"It reminds me of the power of one of the Elder Dragons," Dracoa explained. "Each one of them had a gem much like ours, except larger."
"So this is a gem of the Elder Dragon?" Aavern asked.
"That's the only explanation," Dracoa said.
"Which one owned this one?"
"I think we called him the Infernal Dragon," Dracoa continued. "He had magic like Cyil's, except much more powerful."
"Wow," Cyil said. "That's kinda crazy."
"I don't remember that being in the scrolls," Aavern said thoughtfully.
"Hang on," Qassot said, "are you saying you knew the Elder Dragons?"
Dracoa blanched. "Well…"
"She found out about them through Ezarik's scrolls," Cyil said. "That's how she knows."
"I don't remember that part," Aavern repeated.
"Well you didn't even read them," Cyil said, rolling around in the smoke.
"You didn't read them," Aavern corrected. "I did."
"I definitely did," Cyil argued. "And how could you not remember something from something you didn't even read?"
"That doesn't even make sense!" Aavern said indignantly.
Axel watched as Aavern created a tiny ball of light and threw it at Cyil's face. Cyil responded by setting Aavern on fire. He gestured for Qassot to come over as Aavern and Cyil began bickering. Qassot motioned for Dracoa to follow as well, and made her way over the rough, uneven brick floor to Axel.
"Classic siblings," Axel muttered under his breath, watching the two small winged hamsters fight.
"What is it?" Dracoa asked.
"I remembered something when I came into this room," Axel said. "I think it was a similar room in another castle. It had the same layout, but it had a big purple and black orb instead of this one."
"Sounds like another castle of a wizard," Qassot said.
"Probably," Axel said. "My guess is that there's one of these things in some other castle around here." He turned to Dracoa. "How much about the Elder Dragons' magic do you know?"
"Well," Dracoa said hesitantly, "there were seven of them and they were very powerful."
Axel looked at the molten orb in the middle of the room. "Was there an Elder Dragon that had magic that was black and purple-ish?"
"Yes, there was," Dracoa said, grimacing. "I think he was called the Dark Dragon."
"What did the Dark Dragon do?" Qassot asked.
Dracoa paused. "Just being near him can kill you."
Qassot muttered something very rude under her breath.
A piece clicked in Axel's mind. "You said that there's one of these things for each of them."
"They each had a gem," Dracoa confirmed, "one that amplified their powers."
"If I saw where the Dark Dragon's gem is, I might remember more."
"That's a good idea," Qassot said. "Where do you think it is?"
"It was definitely in a room like this one," Axel said, "so it's probably in a castle."
"That's probably Azor's castle," Qassot said. "That's the only other castle around here."
"Worth a shot," Dracoa said. "Let's head over."
"If Cyil and Aavern are done arguing," Qassot muttered.