Chapter 622 Still alive
The castle was vast, and inside it, at all times there would usefully be fifty people as servants to cater for any need. Everyone who lived on the island knew how to use the same ability as Vorden, but didn't carry the family name Blade. However, there were some exceptions to this rule.
Only the ones considered family were allowed to eat at the dining table and also could leave the island as long as they had permission from Grandpa Blade. The top floor of the castle contained all of their rooms. It had sleeping areas as well as the dining room and throne room.
While heading down the corridor, Vorden took in everything. The ornaments out on display, the heads of beasts mounted on the walls, and intricate paintings of people from the past, people he had no idea of who they were.
Eventually, he had reached his room and inside everything was left untouched, but kept clean by the servants. It didn't have anything special or unique like other castle rooms would have, it was simply decorated.
Peeking out from the toolbox, little Borden was trying to get his fresh air, and he could finally see the room his big brother lived in. "It's kind of plain, isn't it, brother?" Borden said.
Pulling him out of the toolbox, Vorden believed his room was a safe place for him. Safer than if it was on his body.
"Why don't you stay in here, Borden? I haven't told them about you yet, and just need to wait for the right time." Vorden explained. "If you get bored, you can climb out that window, and down the castle wall. Feel free to explore but just don't get seen. You can do that, right?"
"Of course," Borden said, smiling.
Vorden didn't know when he would bring up Borden, or if it was really a good idea, but he couldn't hide him forever. It was best to deal with whatever surprise the family had for him first, before he started to bring up his own surprises to them.
For now, Borden was happy just relaxing in the room. With his speed, skill, and small size, it would be hard for one to spot him. Especially outside in the jungle like area.
There were two noticeable things in the room, one was a bookshelf. As Vorden approached it, he pulled out one of the books. The spine was heavily worn, and the pages ruffled slightly. The front of the book read level six water ability book.
He placed it back, and ran his finger down all of them. Every single one was a different type of ability book. Each one of them was heavily worn.
"How many times did I read these over and over?"
He pictured himself at his desk, studying away. Looking out the window in his room at the blue sky.
"Stop being so soppy," Raten said. "You had us, didn't you?"
He started to remember each day he spent passing by sitting at the desk, and he would think of one thing constantly.
"When will that old man die?" Vorden suddenly blurted out, and the two in his mind, suddenly stopped moving.
"Hey Vorden, you can say that to us, but don't say that out loud here," Raten whispered. For the first time, even Raten wanted Vorden to calm down. Even he wouldn't have said something like that out in the open. At least the words were spoken quietly, and no one was around.
Since as long as the three of them could remember, Hilston was the leader of the Blades. When asking his brother and sister who were years older, they too always knew him as the leader. When asking his parents, they said the same thing.
Based on these facts alone, the old man would have to be at least seventy to eighty years old, but there were rumours that he was even older than that.
If one thing was sure, it was that he didn't look his age and didn't move like it either. There were a few possibilities for this. The first being the ability, there were many abilities in the world, and perhaps he had found one that slowed down the ageing process or even gave the user the ability to reverse the ageing.
Then there was the special way the Blades trained compared to everyone else. What they believed in. If Vorden stayed here long enough, he would soon have to participate in them again.
Turning his head, there was one more thing in the room that used to get used a lot, and that was a VR capsule. He would study, learning how to control the ability and skill. Then he would try to use them in the game, since it allowed one to select whatever ability they wished.
The books in his room were only a small fraction of what the Blades had. When he had finished reading a set of books, he would casually swap them out with more from the library.
Thinking about this, he decided to go pay the library a visit. There was still some time before he was due to have dinner, and as long as he didn't try to leave the island, someone would find him somehow and call him when it was time.
Heading to the library, it was grand, with large spiralling bookcases and a total of three different floors. It would take a lifetime for one to read every book that was in the library. Thankfully there was a shortcut, allowing the blades to obtain all the information from a book without the need to read it, but Vorden didn't want to visit that place.
He never wanted to visit the place where the Chained lived. When he was younger, they would just bring out the Chained to him. Vorden couldn't deal with it, he couldn't look at them and always asked Raten to do it for him.
While in the library, Vorden picked out some transformation ability books, some skills, and some telekinesis skills.
'She will like this as a gift.' Vorden said with a smile.
Finally, he had headed to the S section of the library, but could find nothing about the shadow. However, on the third floor, the books were sorted a little differently. Here were journals of the Blades who lived in the past.
He seemed to remember reading that an ancestor of theirs had run into a person with the shadow ability before. It stuck out because it was an ability that the Blade's were unable to copy. Now that Vorden knew about Arthur and the others, he wanted to find that journal again to see if he could find any more details about the past. Or if there was anything he could do to help Quinn.
He looked and then suddenly stopped before opening the first journal. He had five books already in his hand, but none of them were for him.
'Why am I even bothering?' Vorden thought.
"Sir." A gentleman suddenly said, appearing from behind. It would have scared Vorden, but he was expecting it at some point and was used to it whenever he was in the castle. "Dinner is now ready."
"Would you like me to take those books to your room, sir?"
"Sure," Vorden said as he headed off to the dining room.
It was a long rectangle-shaped dining table. Sitting at one end, was Hilston. While his mother and father sat on one side, and the kids on the other. The seat closest to Hilston was prepared for him.
The table was prepared, and food was already placed. Vorden had some time to relax a bit more, and he was starting to get used to the intimidating pressure of his family, if he was told to sit next to his grandfather at the start, then maybe he wouldn't have been as calm as he was now.
"It's nice to sit down as a family," Hilston said. "Speaking of family, I heard you used the family name at some type of event? Your sister here thought you were being quite reckless, but I wanted to hear your side of the story before deciding anything."
Using the family name wasn't a big deal, because to the outside no one knew who the Blades were, which was why even when Vorden was sent to military service, he did so using his real name.
So everyone in the room knew that if Vorden was using the Blade name, it was only to influence those of the Big four, and that could cause a big change to the outside world.
If Vorden was using it to try to start something, his grandfather would have liked to have known about it beforehand.
"At the time, I was trying to protect a friend," Vorden replied.
"A friend, why would you need to protect a friend?" Vicky said as she thought Vorden was lying. One time when she left the place, she had visited the big four borrowing their powers. In doing so, she had caused a rampage on a faction that had upset her. The faction no longer exists, but because of this, she was immediately called back and banned from going out for another three years.
This was why she was a bit upset that her grandfather did nothing when Vorden had used the family name. Other than to use their powers or strength, what other reason could he have?
"One of the big four was after his power, and I just wanted to protect him. Is that okay with you, Vicky?" Vorden said, scowling in her direction.
"And which of the Big four was this?" His father asked.
"Truedream."
"Now where have I heard that name before?" Hilston thought long and hard. He didn't usually remember names unless it was someone strong. This was why he was trying so hard to picture a person's image when hearing the name, but nothing came to mind.
"It was the man who came not too long ago to attack us." The mother said.
It was like Vorden thought. For some reason, Truedream had attempted to attack the Blades. In retaliation, they decided to get rid of them completely, destroying everything related to them and all of Dreamland.
"Ah, yes him." The look on Hilston's face suddenly changed into one of anger. Which was strange and Vorden hadn't seen this face many times before. "Has there been any reports yet?"
"Not yet, no one knows of his whereabouts at all." The mother replied.
'Wait, what!' Vorden shouted in his head. 'Jack Truedream is still alive?'
*****
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