In a dimly lit where, where light never seemed to reach. Three men stood, there expression grim as they examined what was in front of them. Azrael entered, his very presence demanding attention. A suffocating aura followed him, making everyone aware that the king had arrived.
"Your Majesty," the three men, Sevastian, Dargan and another man, Rohan said in unison, bowing their heads.
"What have you discovered?" Azrael asked, his voice echoing in the enclosed space. His gaze swept over the room, settling on the figure chained to a slab at the center.
"Your Majesty, The blood of these hybrids has been contaminated," Rowan said, his gaze turning cold. His silver eyes lazy scanned through the paper he held in his hand. "It contains traces of dragon essence, but it's unstable. Whoever did this had no idea what they were tampering with."
"Or they knew exactly what they were doing," Sevastian interjected. "Rowan made mention of these rogues being actual humans, who were injected with dragon essence, turning them into poorly transformed dragons," he added.
Azrael let out a frustrated sigh, his gaze fixing on the lifeless rogue's body that lay cold on the table.
"This one couldn't make it," Rowan said, his voice low as if scared the king would punish him for killing the rogue.
"Explain," Azrael commanded, his voice a dangerous calm that sent a shiver through the room.
"It wasn't when we captured it but before we got back to the dungeon, it died. It seems there is some kind of self destruct button in it. I don't know how that is possible but it seems so. Whatever is contaminating the dragon knows exactly what they are doing," Rowan explained, his eyes fixed on the corpse.
Silence followed for a few seconds, "So, it seems we have nothing useful to work with. It would be better if the rogues were alive, so we could question it, find out who is responsible for the contamination" Sebastian added.
Azrael let out a sigh, there were already a lot he was dealing with and corrupted dragons was something he definitely didn't want on his list of problems. His eyes roamed around the room and landed on a book on the wooden table. "What is that?" He asked.
Sevastian and Rowan turned to look at the direction of Azrael's gaze which was fixed on the book. "I found it in the library, I was looking for something in the ancient clan on rogue dragons and I actually forgot to mention but I found something interesting" Rowan grabbed the book, opened it and began to flip through the pages.
"Look here, five hundred years ago during the time of King Leonard, it was reported that a village of dragons in the South became rogue. After months of intensive research, it was found out that the cause of the corruption was an ancient flower, the name was unknown but it was very deadly, very rare and that flower grew once in a century in an abandoned cave. Someone had put a petal in the village's drinking water and that was how the corruption became. Unfortunately, those dragons passed away because there was no cure" Rowan explained.
"Remind me how you forgot such an important history," Azrael asked, his eyes narrowing at Rowan.
"Forgive me Your Majesty, I was occupied with other thoughts," Roman bent his head as he apologized.
Azrael looked like he was about to push forward on the topic but decided against it. "Do you think this flower is the cause of the dragons going rogue?" He asked.
"Well, I believe so because I looked at the symptoms and it is the same with that of the corpse, there is a drawing in the book if you want to see," Rowan pushed the book towards the King, who leaned forward to look at the book. "Extremely pale skin with blue veins, pitch black eyes and black fingers" He added.
"Fuck!, this is serious," Dargan cursed, running his fingers through his hair.
"It is indeed," Rowan responded.
"Does this flower still exist?" The king questioned.
"From what I have read here, King Leonard destroyed the cave, turned it into debris of stones" Rowan responded.
"What is your take from all this?" Azrael asked.
"I wish I had an explanation for this Your Majesty but I have nothing substantial. It's all just assumptions without proofs, firstly, I assume the flower grew somewhere else, and that's how whoever is turning the dragon rogue found it and secondly, it is totally not related to the poisonous flower but something else, for sanity reasons, I would like to go with the first assumption." Rowan explained.
"Same here, I would hate to believe it's actually something else." Sevastian added.
"We will have to look into both, continue to look into the corpse and see if there's anything you might have missed," Azrael's said.
"I will be on that King Azrael," Rowan said.
"Good, we will leave you to continue your work" Azrael said before walking out of the room with Sebastian following behind him." I need to travel to the human Kingdom tomorrow, I must offer my condolences and gifts to the family of the deceased and the king. The last thing I want is a trouble from the human King" Azrael said.
"I will ready the horses by dawn, we will leave as soon as possible," Sevastian added.
Azrael stopped, turning around to face Sevastian, "You are not coming with me."
"Why not Your Majesty? Certainly you do not want me to stay here while you go into another kingdom," Sebastian asked.
"You will stay and take care of things here, besides I need someone to look after Elysia," Azreal said.
"We have strong and fearless guards, I am sure one of them would be happy to look after her,"
Azrael's eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint back in his eyes. "Are you defying my orders Sevastian? You seem to be forgetting who you are speaking to,"
Sevastian cleared his throat and bowed. "Forgive me King Azrael, I will not repeat such mistake again," His voice soft as he apologized.
"For your good I hope you don't, You will see to the affairs of Elysia and take care of things here, am I understood?" His voice low but commanding, filled with the aura of the ruler he was.
"Yes Your Majesty, I fully understand" Sevastian answered without lifting his head up.
Azreal stared at him for a few seconds before walking away, his power and aura intensifying with every step he took.