Gatekeepers Book 3: Redemption
Chapter 3: What Vertex Lost

Early the next morning, as the rising sun was beginning to peak over the distant mountains, Galán was sitting on the edge of the mountain the Gatekeepers headquarters sat on. Looking down at Draiotic City below, he let out a big sigh as he gazed at the wreckage. When Vinkex had forced his way out of the underground cavern, he dealt heavy damage to the city. Large, deep pits dotted the city, and most of the buildings that hadn’t fallen in the holes were still badly damaged. When the damage to the city first began, the Gatekeepers left on standby at headquarters during Galán’s absence took action and evacuated the citizens. Galán, who had his hands full trying to escape the cavern while carrying Vertex, Guerrino, and Madniga, had almost been crushed by falling debris if Forbap hadn’t shown up and assisted him.

“Everything alright?” a voice asked from behind him. Galán looked over his shoulder and saw Forbap was standing behind him, holding two steaming cups of roasted coffee.

“What do you think?” Galán sighed, turning to look back at the city below. “Not only did I fall for such an obvious trap, but I let Vinkex get away after he consumed Draycos. Some Gatemaster I am.”

“Stop it,” Forbap scolded him. He forced a cup of coffee into Galán’s empty hands and sat down beside him, sending up a cloud of dust from his dirty clothes. Galán stared at the coffee for a few seconds before taking a sip of it. It was good; it had just the right amount of milk and sugar he liked in it. Forbap knew him pretty well.

“How are the residents of the city doing?” Galán questioned, taking another sip.

Forbap lowered the cup from his lips. “They’re fine, for the moment,” he replied. “We got everyone accounted for, and Uaina is leading them through different Leygates as we spread them out at the outposts we have set up on the other end of each one. Should be about another hour or two until they’re all a safe distance away.”

Galán nodded, and the two commanders of the Gatekeepers sat in silence for a few minutes as they watched the sun rise higher in the sky. Galán could tell something else was on the half-dragon’s mind, but he waited until Forbap brought it up on his own.

“...Guerrino’s still in critical condition, and Madniga and Vertex are as unresponsive as last night,” Forbap finally said.

Surprised, Galán gave him a funny look. “Is that all that was bugging you? I thought there would’ve been more to it.”

“No, it’s not,” Forbap answered quickly, shaking his head. “I just didn’t know what else to say.”

“I know there’s something else bugging you. Spit it out already.”

Forbap paused for a moment before sighing. “I overheard you exchanging information with the Dragon King and the Council last night. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” he quickly added when Galán glared at him, “but I was walking past your door last night after we got back and you left it open. I peeked inside to check on you and you were in the middle of talking with them through a projection.”

“And? What about it?”

“Well...is it true that Draycos bounced back after getting stabbed in the heart?”

Once again surprised by Forbap’s words, Galán stared at him with a suspicious look. “What’s this about?” he queried. “You wouldn’t bring up something like that unless you knew something.”

Forbap reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an old, tattered black leather book. “When I heard about that, I thought it reminded me of something I once saw in our records room some time ago. I spent the entire night searching the room for this old journal. I think it might shed some light on what Draycos really is.”

“Really?” Galán set his cup down and took the ancient book from Forbap. Folding it open, he saw that the yellow parchment pages were covered in faded black ink, writing out entries in Dragonscript. From the date on the first entry, the journal was at least twelve hundred years old.

“This is incredible...,” Galán murmured half to himself as he carefully flipped through the journal, scanning over the contents. “It’s remarkably well persevered, if the dates are correct. Do you know where we obtained this from?”

“It was inside a sealed metal container discovered by the archaeologists in that underground city a couple of years ago,” Forbap told him. “Don’t you remember? They came to us to help dispel the sealing magic on it after they determined it was safe to open. You broke the seals yourself.”

“Now that you mention it, I do recall that. But I never saw what was inside; I gave the container back to the archaeologists without ever opening it myself. So this is what was inside, huh?” Galán stopped flipping through the pages when something drawn on the parchment caught his eye. It was a drawing of a symbol that was extremely similar to the mark that appeared on Draycos’s chest after he’d been stabbed, but it had six protrusions radiating from the center instead of three or four. Most of the ink was too worn for Galán to make out the writing, but a few words like “Dark” and “Power” were still discernible.

“What is all of this...?” Galán muttered as he tried to decipher more of the text. Forbap leaned over his shoulder and stared at the journal. Both of them were unaware of the figure that was rapidly approaching them from behind. Something flat and hard dug into the back of their heads almost simultaneously, knocking them forward. Galán’s coffee cup got knocked over and spilled the hot liquid all over the back of his gold and silver suit. He immediately leapt to his feet and screeched in pain.

“That’s hot!” he cried. He spun around to glare at the culprit, only to replace a young woman standing there with a dead-pan look in her pale grey eyes with one of her legs held up in the air. It was the curvaceous third-in-command of the Gatekeepers, Uaina. Today she wore a revealing blood-red dress with a white rose stitched over her heart and black high-heels, completed with a necklace of dark blue pearls stringed around her neck. Her long, raven-black hair was tied up in a knot. A gold earring shaped like an eye hung from her left earlobe.

“What was that for, Uaina?!” Galán snapped as Forbap groggily got to his feet.

“What are the two of you doing out here wasting time?” Uaina snapped back, fires burning in her eyes. “I thought our top priority right now was to locate and rescue Draycos, yet here you two are, drinking coffee and reading an old book! This isn’t the time to be relaxing!”

“What about you?” Forbap growled. “I thought you were still evacuating the citizens.”

“I’m already done with that!” Uaina retorted. “I was looking around for you two to discuss our plans when Leinzo told me you were out here watching the sunrise!”

While the bickering between the three went on, something began moving the earth below their feet around, pushing it upwards like something was burrowing through the ground. It disappeared underneath the rock Galán and Forbap had been sitting on. A moment later, massive cracks ripped through the rock with an ear splitting sound. Galán, Forbap, and Uaina all flinched at the sound and looked at the rock just as something popped out of the top. It was a miniature red and gold dragon head the size of a fist, and it puffed smoke at the three standing next to the rock.

“Good morning, Galán and Forbap,” it yawned, showing off its tiny mouth full of sharp teeth. “Enjoying the sunrise?”

Forbap rolled his eyes. “We were, until this nonsense started. Anyways, what are you doing over here, Leinzo? It’s rare to see you leave your door.”

“The Dragon King’s here. He wants to speak with the three of you,” Leinzo answered simply with another yawn.

Forbap grabbed Leinzo by the neck and yanked hard. The Knocker Dragon’s neck stretched out far, but the body refused to leave the rock.

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place?!” Forbap roared, holding Leinzo right before his face with a furious expression on his face. Leinzo was choking, but Forbap didn’t really care due to the Knocker Dragon’s slip-up. “Those should’ve been the first words out of that stupid mouth of yours!” Forbap released Leinzo and rushed off towards the headquarters, closely followed by Uaina and Galán. Leinzo’s neck snapped back like a rubber band as his head smashed into the rock. He stayed there motionlessly for a few moments, stunned from the impact.

“What’d I do to deserve that...?” he groaned.

“Sir, you really don’t need to keep watch like this.”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind it. I just want to ensure that nothing else happens to you.”

In the infirmary hall located in the basement of the Gatekeepers headquarters, a makeshift bed composed of many other beds pushed next to one another dominated most of the floor space. Vertex laid on the makeshift bed, which creaked whenever he moved a muscle. Theravor sat on the floor nearby reading one of Vertex’s books, squeezed into the room by some unknown means as his head pressed up against the ceiling.

“So, do you really not remember anything that happened over the last two years?” Theravor questioned, flipping over to the next page of the book.

Vertex turned his head to look at the king. His movement threatened to break the beds below as he nodded. “Yes, sir. The last thing I remember was escorting Balara back to the prison after the Prisoners’ Games when his tail suddenly hit me in the face. Next thing I knew, I was lying in here.”

Theravor sighed as he snapped the book shut. He’d been trying to get information out of Vertex ever since he made his advisor wake up, but Vertex had been clueless as to what he was talking about. It quickly became apparent that Vertex had no recollection of any recent events.

“I’m guessing Balara implanted a fragment of Vinkex’s crystals in you when his tail hit you,” Theravor growled. “He must’ve been provided it beforehand, meaning he got himself thrown into prison on purpose so he could plant a spy in the upper ranks of the government when he had an opportunity. He wouldn’t have had a chance to get close to any of us otherwise. He’s been manipulating you and setting things up behind the scenes.” Theravor glanced over at some nearby beds, which were occupied by the unconscious Guerrino and Madniga. “He had you set up a contract with the Shadow Strikers and Mercenary Union to lure Draycos out near Vinkex’s location so he could break free from his seals. All in all, it was quite the elaborate plan; he had us all fooled, and now Draycos is in quite the bind.”

Vertex turned his head to look up at the ceiling above. “I’m starting to feel bad for this Draycos person you’ve been mentioning,” he commented. “The name rings a bell, but I’m afraid that I don’t remember anything.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Without waiting for a response, Galán opened the door and entered the room, followed by Forbap and Uaina. Galán gave the Dragon King a puzzled look due to the king’s awkward position before shaking his head and giving Theravor a slight bow.

“I believe this is only the second or third time you’ve come down here in person, King Theravor,” Galán commented. “To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?” His eyes moved over to where Vertex struggled to lift his head from the beds. “I see that your advisor finally woke up.”

Theravor snorted. “There’s nothing a good slap across the face won’t solve,” he growled. A flicker of surprise flashed in Galán’s eyes briefly, but he managed to keep his face from showing his surprise. Vertex rubbed the side of his face momentarily with a sheepish expression.

“How is he?” Forbap questioned. Sighing, Theravor brought the three up to speed with a brief summary of what he and Vertex just discussed. Uania walked up to Vertex’s side and placed her hand over the arm hanging off the bed, closing her eyes. A flash of magic aura briefly surrounded her body, which disappeared as she opened her eyes.

“Looks like it’s the truth,” she commented, lowering her hand. “He really does have no recollection of what’s happened in the last two years.”