Sylpha, surprised, didn't know how to react, she thought to herself: I didn't know she was like that. I need to bring Morvadeus to Elyndra, let's see what is the gift that he received. It's also time to do a proper introduction of him to everyone.
Taking his little hands she led him through the palace, introducing the pavilions on the way.
'I'm Sylpha, The Empress of the Life Empire, I was the one who found you. Young one, Morvadeus'
'I'm Morvadeus, nice to meet you' he answered confidently with a gentle voice, his eyes showing respect.
Meanwhile, his eyes wandered everywhere around, absorbing the beautiful sights of the pavilions and the royal palace as Sylpha led him through it.
Breaking the silence as they walked, Sylpha remarked 'This is the pavilion of Castiel Elian, the brave and powerful commander of our Empire's Army.'
They stopped before a massive pavilion door made from Aethel-Stal, in the middle a grand lion head was carved protruding out of it, its imposing eyes gazing towards the intruders, captivating Morvadeus with it's grand presence.
Sylpha pointed her hand towards the door, shooting a light, making its eyes glow, its jaws opened making reverberating sounds that echoed through the hall, and the grand movements of the door began, heavy mechanical sounds could be heard following its movements.
Looking at the cute Morvadeus who was amazed by all of it, Sylpha chuckled to herself and led him inside.
Shortly after getting through the hall they met him, Castiel was meditating inside his own garden. Sitting in a lotus pose, even the birds on his shoulders couldn't disrupt him.
A holy aura radiated from him, forming a massive Holy Lion behind his back, its giant size covering the whole garden.
Sylpha, signalled Morvadeus to stay quiet, to not disturb Castiel meditation, meanwhile she covered him with her own aura, as the Castiel's was too heavy for a little child.
The huge vortex formed above his avatar, absorbing the energy from around, a point of light lit up inside the transparent Holy Lion's head. Castiel was heavily concentrating, the critical stage of his cultivation. But suddenly the light dimmed and the avatar cracked, waking him up from his meditation.
He sighed heavily 'I'm still not ready to open it.'
Finally sensing the Empress aura, he looked towards them, gazing into the silver eyes of Morvadeus, he suddenly found himself staring into an eyes of a massive black dragon its scales pitch black, its wingspan covering the whole world, two eyes with symbols of black and white looked at him threateningly making him sweat.
'Castiel?!' asked Sylpha, snapping him out of the illusion. Looking at him sweating she thought it was because of the meditation.
'You're rushing it too much, to open one's Mind Sea is not an easy task itself. Forcing it too much can bring backlash to your own soul, I advise you to be more patient.' advised Sylpha, thinking I always tell him but he wants to rush anyway… sigh.
'I just want to be strong enough for our empire, I cant bring shame to the name of our Empress. As a commander my role is to show example to the younger generations.' he bowed to the Empress.
'Who is this child, my Empress?' asked Castiel thinking himself a terrifying one indeed, nothing short of a normal child.
'Let me introduce him to you, Morvadeus who was placed in my care recently. '
'Hello, Holy Commander' said Morvadeus, while still remaining amazed at the show Castiel just showed him before.
'The new hope of our Empire. Greetings young one.' Castiel acknowledged him, laughing.
He reached out his hand for a handshake, rare of him to do so to a child.
Tentatively reaching towards his strong scarred hand and looking at the imposing figure, Morvadeus was instantly captivated. *I also want to be strong like him one day he thought to himself as they shooked hands.
'I'm not only here to present Morvadeus to you, I came to entrust a vital mission to you. ' Got Sylpha straight to the point.
'The Life Tree warned me that the runes at our borders are reaching their limits, I need you to take your men's and examine the runes.' Surprising Castiel with the statement she continued.
'Report me immediately after you finished. Elyndra isn't capable of repairing them anymore, if even one breaks the barrier disappears, we need to prepare for the worst, the beasts are patient they would do anything to consume the Life Tree.'
'I will take immediate action, my Empress, I won't waste time.' He bowed and urgently left, it was about the fate of the Empire, he couldn't neglect something like this.
We all neglected the runes, we thought they would hold till Elyndra somehow gets her powers back, how naive we were. I need to move as fast as I can.
Sylpha, satisfied with the seriousness of Castiel went towards Elyndra with Morvadeus.
…
'My sister, the Life Tree sent this boy to you, with a gift which uses only you would know. Care to enlighten me? She is always mysterious, never explaining anything to me.' She noted pouting, humph.
'It is an honor, Morvadeus give me your hands; let me take a look.'
He reached out his tiny hand, and she held it, carefully examining it. Her soul energy flowed through his body. After a while she let go.
'Unbelievable!!?' she shouted suddenly, startling Morvadeus, who cutely ran behind the Empress's robes, poking his head out from the side..
'What is it?! Tell me' she asked, surprised as her curiosity already reached the heavens.
'The Art of Runes, is the most difficult and rarest in our world. A runemaster is widely respected everywhere, they have powers that could make a nation rise above the others.' she remarked proudly, yet with a touch of melancholy.
Sylpha, listened and also felt a pang of pity, aware of how important it was to her.
'To start as a runemaster, one would need to learn from the ancient books for years; to accumulate knowledge and finally to form the Rune Seed. Forming the Rune Seed is the most crucial part of it, only those, who were capable of touching the threshold of Mind Sea could succeed.' she continued, explaining slowly and clearly mostly for Morvadeus to understand.
Morvadeus focused listened to her explanation, absorbing every word as it was the raindrops falling in the ocean.
'Morvadeus miraculously, already touched the threshold, he was born with an extremely powerful soul, Life Tree should've also been aware of that, because she rewarded him with an empty seed. Only someone like her could do that. This is a massive blessing to us, his potential is limitless, in the future he might even surpass me. ' she stated proudly, her eyes shining looking at Morvadeus, as he was an unpolished gem.
'Good news, amazing. I knew he was a prodigy, but this goes beyond that. The divinations were true.' exclaimed Sylpha.
Morvadeus just listened quietly, understanding he was somehow special, it made him feel proud but also cautious, fearing the expectations of others.
'There's an another grave matter, I need to discuss with you Elyndra… Apparently the runes protecting the border won't hold out much longer. I already sent Castiel to examine it, perhaps do you know anything that could disturb the barrier?' asked Sylpha with seriousness in her voice apparent.
'That's not possible, these runes I carved around the borders are connected to a core bellow the palace that sustain the barrier. This is a serious matter Sylpha, if the barrier breaks endless swarm of Beasts would flow from the Holo-Devorans Nous Empire.' she said.
The atmosphere turned heavy in the room, the two realized the seriousness of the situation.
Their greedy Empress Arché Progenies always hungered for the Life Tree essence.
That cruel thing easily sacrifices millions of her army just to reach her goal, her greed knows no limits, they thought simultaneously, looking at each other.
'I will examine the core underground, to make sure it's working perfectly.' said Elyndra and made her way towards the core. 'Can I take Morvadeus with me? she asked.
'It should be a good experience for him.' she said to Sylpha
'As you please my sister, go with her Morvadeus.' she gently nudged him towards her.
'We will meet again after Castiel reports back' said Sylpha, as light covered her and she disappeared, heading to an unknown direction.
Walking together they went towards a place guarded by two guard.
They bowed unison towards Elyndra, looking at the child curiously, Morvadeus.
After saluting, they opened the door for her without question, who with a nod acknowledged them and hurried, leading Morvadeus, who also greeted them respectfully, down the stair.
'Who is that child? I haven't seen him before? ' asked one guard.
'Not a clue, I heard he was holding the Empress hand, maybe they are related' answered the other, not so sure himself.
An enormous core floated in the middle of the room, as its circulating energy inside illuminated the whole room with its halo lights. Huge winged like feathers formed a plinth. Runes were carved on it going to 4 different directions up the wall; leading to each side of the border.
'Woaaah!? Morvadeus exclaimed looking at the magnificent glowing ball.
'What is this, auntie?' he asked nudging the hem of her robes.
'This is a core of a Law Master Beast, a gift from a person to our Empress. Thanks to that person, our Empire could enjoy thousands years of peace.' she explained to Morvadeus gently, while a little hatred flashed in her eyes towards the core.
Getting close to the core, she started examining it, going around it ,examined the runes which were all in perfect state. Suddenly she found a failure in the core. It had a tiny little crack barely observable, but with her strong soul she could sense the leaking energy through it.
That's it, that is the error, the leaking energy makes the flow through the runes unstable, if this continues the crack would get bigger and the barrier would disappear. I should ask Thalgor and Nitya, together we could find a solution to this.
'Let's go Morvadeus, I will introduce you to the others as well,' she said to the child.
'I can't wait to meet them, auntie,' said Morvadeus cutely.
He is a really well behaved child.. she thought of something with melancholy in her eyes.