"We aren't following any other silhouette starting now. We aren't strong enough to pick fights with criminals."
"You're right, so you're not gonna like what I did."
"Oh please don't tell me you attacked the pumpkin or insulted them."
"Ow. No, I just said I'd attempt the riddle. Then it said we'll see you."
"What if we don't do the riddle?"
"I don't wanna find out. But since we are out of there, I'm assuming we can't solve it there."
"How'd it even go again?"
"I really don't remember. But we got cash for some reason. Maybe we need it for the riddle or something."
I pulled the rubber band off and the cash roll flattened out in my hands. A small note was left in the middle of all the cash.
"It's the riddle."
"Yeah it also says that the Queen of the night requires all secrecy, and the moon? What does that even mean."
"Do you know any riddles that could be similar to this?"
"Never seen anything like it."
I flipped the card over looking for a hint, and only found nothing. We counted the money, the Queen of the Night had given us fifty twenty dollar bills.
"I'm not really trusting the money."
"Me neither, but it might be needed for the riddle. The only thing I could guess is maybe the 'your eye might turn a show' part means one of the restaurants that give a really weird effect."
"So should we search there? Because it's really late."
"I'll just search up the locations with that type of effect and we can go there tomorrow morning."
…
The next morning we headed off to the first one. Both skipping breakfast partially from fear and also because we'd be eating there. It's one of the most popular restaurant in the city and also closest to the castle. The smell of dew and the sea mixed into a harmonizing scent. A light fog clouded the early morning streets.
"It says it's open this early, but it doesn't seem like it." I said.
"I can't believe people really sleep this early. I expected them to be up all night."
We stepped up creaky stairs to a restaurant that was snug in between build- ings similar to it. The only light on down the street as I could see in this fog was the restaurant we came for.
"Should we knock?" Stella asked.
"We'll probably be fine."
I opened the door to a quiet cafe. The building had more rooms than where most of the service happened, but the only open space in the cafe was a few seats by the counter. It looked like a home where the kitchen counter opened up to a few living rooms full of home looking tables and chairs full of soldiers. They were specifically festive knights. The dark grey armor and brighter red armor lit up the dark room with a light blue and orange glow respectfully for each type of armor.
Almost every soldier was served perfectly cracked eggs, bacon that literally glistened with a mixture of all the light in the room, along with perfectly rolled cinnamon rolls layered with icing and forths of strawberries along the side of the plate.
One of the soldiers sitting on the counter turned his head. His familiar dreads floated after his head as he turned.
"Oh, wait, oh!"
Jace the festive knight waved at us contemptibly. The whole quiet cafe turned to look over at us. We made our way to him and sat at the seats next to him.
"Good morning." Stella said in a quiet voice.
"Yo." I said grabbing a menu.
"What makes you guys come here so early in the morning?"
"Trying to turn our eyes a show." I said trying to spot the specific menu item that supposedly did that.
"Oh that specific. It's kinda dangerous for your vision." Jace drank some of his water and stared at us. "You might be fine since you're dragons. You could eventually just undo any scar left on you."
"I'm not really planning on going blind but we kinda need to check this out."
"Yeah we heard about it and couldn't sleep thinking about it last night." Stella said, adding a little truth to it.
"Well I'd recommend the simple breakfast. As you can tell from the festive knights, we sure do love it." Jace's hand went up and pointed out the window towards the castle. "And it's not too far away from where we work."
"Really early morning for you guys, no?"
"This is just natural for us. My offer a couple of days ago is still there. I can make time today if you'd like?"
"Umm…" The banshee of the castle, we could find that out too. "Yeah we will be there. What time?" Jace wrote on a napkin where to meet him. He signed his name on it along with pie pumpkin.
"I have to do a couple of things in the morning, but give it an hour or two and you guys can come by."
A few minutes later an old man walked out from behind a small curtain. His wrinkled face paired with his short wavy white hair. His eyes looked dark sunken in by his age but I could make out they were orange. The room started smelling sweeter when he entered.
"What could I make you?" He asked, his voice sounding cheerful while also tired.
"Is it just you here making the food?" I think he too old to work like that.
"Yes of course it would only be me here this early in the morning."
"Wouldn't you be tired making all these soldiers food?"
"I am but it's an honor to."
"So do you have a skill for cooking?" Stella turned and punched me. "Ow."
"We're here to try the carrot cake. Not, mess around and ask about magic."
"Alright, alright." I rubbed my arm where she punched me and continued to speak. "Would you have to make the carrot cake or are there slices we can get right now?"
"I would have to make it. But it-"
"Don't worry about it. What do you have made right now?" Stella cut the old man off.
"Eggs and bacon I have a little extra of."
"We'd take those and come back later for the cake. We don't need anything fresh."
"Alright."
The old man didn't fight the easier option Stella gave him. He turned and walked into the kitchen. They weren't really warm when he brought them out but he casted a small spell and it warmed up.
"Enjoy."
"Take it easy Keikei." Jace said.
"I will." He assured.
We ate the food, enjoying it and watching the rest of the town wake up slowly. No one came into the restaurant while we were here with the knights. The food relaxed us with its warmth and after we finished it we started to feel rejuvenated and energized a little. By the time we were done the festive knights were already out.
"I'll just leave the money for the food here along with payment for the cake."
"How much is the cake Heo?"
"You're not gonna like the answer but…" I turned to Stella and pulled out the cash we'd gotten from the Kidnapper. "All one thousand."
"What, you got to be kidding me?"
"I'm not."
I pointed to a photo that was posted on the door we walked in. It read 'Home of The Pumpkin Queen's Favorite Carrot Cake'.
"That's insane."
"Yeah it is. I think the Queen might just be greedy."
We left after leaving the money in a safe enough place for him and note saying we'd be back a few hours after Jace's lessons.
…
We just wandered around the area. Looked inside the alleys around the restaurant. They didn't fall into itself or shirk in any way. Maybe that money wasn't even needed for anything and was just a gift. That money could cover a week here or maybe a really good weapon.
We clearly remembered the lesson we were taught on our first mission so we bought small backpacks to hold things.
We finally made our way to the castle. Its giant surrounding towers falling behind us as we passed them. The grey brick became more detailed as our eyes were able to make out the patterns engraved on them. The blue aura we saw from a distance clearly coming off the engraved patterns.
Metal clashing sound resounded past outside towers as rows of knights practiced with each other. It was clear that they were all holding back magical attacks and only focusing on physical attacks. Whatever they are doing is making it look as though they are controlling their strength to cancel out each other's perfectly. That's insane if they can willingly increase that.
We walked past them and up to a duo of guards at a large stone door. The same stone as the towers but the detailing on the door clearly illustrates a few pumpkins. The blue glow clings tighter and closer to the door.
The first man's helmet resembled the same stone as the rest of the castle. Jace's armor finally clicked with me that it was also the same as the tower. His helmet had long thin lines carved into it to see. The back was smooth with a dark blue plum hanging off the top. His armor followed the same detailing, with an embroidered blue cape hanging off its back. The other man had the same armor style but the color resembled the top of the tower with its gold color and hot orange glow.
"Uhh. Pie Pumpkin?" Me and Stella looked at each other then back at the two men.
The grey one spoke, His voice surprising us. "Ohh, I see what the man is doing. In her castle no less." A female voice echoed through the almost still armor.
The other clicked his legs together, turned and put a hand on the door. The grey one followed a few seconds behind him. The door slowly opened as both of their hands rested on it.
Me and Stella walked past them and into the castle. The door shut behind us and the guards didn't follow us in. "What do you think she meant by Jace doing something?" I asked.
"I honestly don't know either. He can't be up to anything bad being the Queen's personal knight."
"What a weird knight then."
The door opened us up into a wide circular room. Two smaller rooms were situated on the sides of the entrance giving us a walkway into the large room. The room was a great hall probably meant for visitors to the castle when it was open to the public. The Queen doesn't have family members and it's unknown how the authority of power gets transferred. So the room feels so weird this large, along with the silent throne at the center of the room.
Tables that were crafted from the floor circled the room in a spiral. Chandeliers floated seamlessly above the tables with a blue glow on the grey ones and red glows off the golden ones which were placed scarcely. Detailed table mats hung off the table. Rooms on the side of the wall took up barely any of the massive space's room. They scaled some of the tall wall before smoothing out and flattening back into it. The rooms probably meant for restrooms, storage, kitchen, and spaces for guests. I doubt that those guest rooms are used a lot since they are on the bottom levels and the lock on the door to the castle.
The center of the room, past the throne, had a massive pillar meant to hold the entire tower together and stop it from falling. We walked further in and there was nothing. Not a way to get up and no people. No Jace and no Queen.
"Was this the whole castle?"
"I don't know, I didn't even know you could enter the castle until a few days ago." I looked around then made my way to the giant pillar.
"Heo, this is strange. If we were intruders that would have been way too easy to get in. What if the banshee gets us?"
"Well if you talk about the banshee, it might not find us." I took another step towards the pillar and an echoing sound of stone scraping against stone shot down to us.
"I'm so sorry!" Stella screamed looking up at whatever was falling on us.
I took Stella and ran away from the pillar and back towards the doors. We both shouted and banged on the door, but nobody responded to us through the thick stone doors. We pounded and continued to scream for a minute.
We both slowed down and stopped banging. We both turned around and saw back into the perfectly intact room.
"Uhh… haha."
"I guess nothing was falling?"
"No I guess not. Should we go back though?" Stella asked, pointing at the pillar which had spikes protruding out from it now.
"I think we have too."
Once we walked closer the spikes started to resemble stairs curling around the pillar. It fell down from the hundred and fifty feet ceiling.
"That's uhh, not safe looking."
"Its probably only meant for the Queen and I guess Jace."
"So we have to go up it? I guess."
Stella put her foot down on the first stair. A translucent blue railing appeared to the side of stella and ended only a foot past her.
"Just keep going up?"
She took another step and the railing followed on her left. Once she was up enough I stepped on the stairs. Again, a translucent blue railing appeared next to me. I grabbed on to it and while I walked up. We scaled up the pillar, the large spiral table becoming more obvious the farther we were from it.
Once we hit the ceiling a tall dark room opened up. When we continued to climb, the railing produced light for us to see the next stairs. The ceiling below us, the opening vanished and the stone filled the space behind us. Leaving no light from below us and only from the railing.