Draco shuddered slightly when they entered the underground tunnel. He wasn't entirely sure what he had felt, but when they emerged on the other side of the passage, the feeling passed. They stood on a wooden structure ending in a runic circle suspended over a precipice. The dragon whistled softly as they approached the end of the platform. Only here did he see the enormity of the place. Slightly uneasy, he leaned over the platform and looked down. He couldn't see the bottom of the chasm, only more platforms protruding from its walls.

  -I would ask you to stand closer to the centre of the platform, young master. - Draco tore himself away from the bottomless abyss and looked at the Hunter. Erth stood in the centre of the circle, his staff hovering a few centimetres above the ground, emitting a warm light from its head. Darius was standing right next to the Hunter, so the dragon quickly approached his master. As soon as he stopped, he was blinded by an extremely bright light that suddenly lit up the rune circle at their feet. At first, Draco was frightened, but after a moment, the glow faded and the dragon saw the silhouette of his master standing calmly in his place. Somewhat reassured, the young wizard began to blink intensely, trying to get rid of the unpleasant afterimage from his eyes. When he finally succeeded, he looked around and realised that they were standing on a platform in front of a massive gate, which probably led to a treasury. Looking behind him, the dragon looked down into the abyss, then up, and could see neither the bottom nor the place from which they had come. - We are in front of your treasury, young master Ignis.- Erth bowed slightly and limped towards the gates.

  The hunter stood in front of the entrance and tossed his carved staff, caught it mid-air and gently tapped the smooth metal surface at about chest height. The staff glowed softly again, and Draco watched with fascination as ripples began to spread across the surface of the gate, as if someone had thrown a stone into calm water. After a moment, an ornate relief depicting raging flames emerged from the spot where Erth had struck, with a small round indentation in the centre.

  -Please place the key, your ring, in the lock.- Erth pointed to the indentation while stepping back a little.

  Draco reached for his neck with a slightly trembling hand and carefully removed the chain with the signet ring from under his shirt. He looked once more at the ring, which brought him conflicting and somewhat incomprehensible feelings. The dragon took a deep breath, approached the gate and, with one movement, placed the eye with the coat of arms against the lock. He was about to say that nothing had happened when suddenly there was a quiet click, followed by a series of metallic sounds. Finally, after a long moment filled with the clattering and ringing of invisible machinery, something clicked louder and the massive vault door sprang open with a long sucking sound. Draco, driven by curiosity, immediately looked at the entrance and noticed that on the right side of the gate, which had previously been hidden in the wall, there was a recess with a convenient lever. Guessing what he should do, he confidently grabbed the metal handle and prepared to move, roughly estimating several tonnes of enchanted metal. The dragon braced himself and took a deep breath, then pulled with all his might and... Draco staggered a few steps back, feeling almost no resistance from the massive entrance, which opened as easily as if it were a glass ball on a sloping surface. The gates swung wide open and stopped as gently as they had opened. The dragon stared at the massive piece of steel for a moment, then looked into the vault. The interior was shrouded in complete darkness, with only a small piece of solid stone floor visible in the outside light.

  -Aether Ignum.- Draco didn't even notice Erth approaching him. The man pointed his staff somewhere into the darkness. Suddenly, the darkness parted, driven away by the light of five large torchlights placed in the centre of the room. The circular chamber was quite large, and yet there was little free space in it. A narrow passageway led from the entrance to the circle of torches. On the right-hand side were rows of tall chests, which the dragon assumed were used to store armours. Closer to the wall, Draco noticed several much larger chests richly decorated with leaf and flame motifs. It was difficult to tell what was packed inside them, but it was definitely something large. To the left of the entrance were tall shelves filled from top to bottom with books, and just in front of the torches was an armchair and a reading table. The library section of the accumulated wealth occupied a quarter of the entire vault. The rest of the space was filled with chests marked with Atlantic runes: gold, silver, valuables, sterite, artefacts, antiques and art.

  The dragon looked around the treasury in disbelief, unable to fully comprehend that everything he saw belonged to him. He had never asked questions about his parents, because he had been raised by his aunt and that was enough for him. However, standing at the entrance to the family treasury, knowing that all his relatives were gone, questions began to arise somewhere deep inside him about who they were and why everything had turned out the way it had. The flame of uncertainty hidden somewhere deep in his heart suddenly went out, and a spark of revenge emerged from the ashes left behind.

  -I must admit, it's really impressive. - Darius stood behind the dragon and put his hand on his shoulder. Draco awoke from his reverie and looked at the two men. It seemed that neither of them had noticed the sudden change in the boy's emotions. - Normally, everyone would probably say that precious metals and art are the most valuable, but I think books are more precious.

  -Very likely.- The Hunter nodded, looking somewhat wistfully at the cluttered shelves. -If only we knew more about them...- He sighed and shrugged.

  -What about the armour?- Draco pointed more at the large chests in the back than at the trunks with the armour.

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  -Yes, they are also very interesting.- Erth looked back at the dragon.- It seems that your uncle was a collector. He had several unique items in his possession. For example, a 15th-century magic-blocking full plate armour made of sterite with a hammer engraved with the words Malleus Maleficarum. Well, it's a suit of armour with a rather grim history, but it's precisely because of that history that it's so valuable. Another interesting piece of armour is a black samurai suit covered with golden inscriptions in an unknown language. It dates back to the 8th or 9th century. The entire armour consists of one magical artefact. Due to the mysterious inscription, it is difficult to determine who it belonged to. I think it is also worth mentioning a real gem, an orc armour made entirely of obsidian, which was a gift from the Maya to the war chief Uthel'qaff. According to sources, the armour was created at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. - For some reason, the Hunter spoke about these armours with incredible pride in his voice. At the same time, Darius, whom the dragon glanced at every now and then, seemed completely absorbed in listing the unusual artefacts now in Draco's possession. -However, I think you are more interested in the chests in the back. These are also armours, but they are intended for mounts. There are only a few of them. Three armours for horses, one set for a griffin, two dwarven armours for direwolves. We are not sure what one of the armours is for. It is made of black metal and covered with small inscriptions, but its size is surprising. It is designed for a very large creature with wings and two pairs of legs. We suspect that it was made for a wyvern or a similar creature. And the last one is armour for a bess. - Erth must have read the dragon's thoughts and smiled with disappointment. - Unfortunately, we had to take them apart, so it would be a bit tricky to look at them.

  -I think you'll have many more opportunities to see them in the future.- Darius looked around the interior with wide eyes.- Unfortunately, we don't have much time today,- he added apologetically.- Take a quick look around and then we'll have to go.

  Draco nodded and went inside. Crossing the threshold, he felt a thrill of excitement at the thought of what might be hidden in the library and among the unusual collections. After a few steps, he looked longingly at the large chests on the right, but quickly realised that he really didn't have time for that. So he turned left and glanced at the titles of the thick volumes. He was surprised to find that the books were arranged according to the language in which they were written. He also did not expect such diversity. On the next shelves, he saw titles written in Elvish, Atlantean, Azgardic, Orcish, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, French, English, Latin, dragon runes, Mortis, and many others he had never even seen before. Draco swallowed hard and, for the first time, thanked his aunt with genuine gratitude for her persistence in teaching him new languages. The dragon spoke and wrote fluently in dragon, of course, but also in Atlantean, Dwarvish, Elvish, French, English, and Azgardian. He also knew the basics of Mortis, Chinese, Latin and Russian. All this was to make his life as a mercenary soldier easier one day. As it turned out, his good knowledge of Atlantean came in handy much earlier than anyone could have expected.

  Suddenly, Draco froze. Between the bookcases, he looked at the shelves set up against the wall, almost at the very end of the library, and gasped loudly as he recognised the incomprehensible runes. He didn't even know how he had found himself at the bookcase, which he had spotted by pure chance. He stared in disbelief at dozens of black leather-bound volumes with gold and silver titles embossed on their spines. The dragon had no doubt. He recognised the symbols that were on Gler'thys' blade. He slowly reached out his hand and froze. At the very bottom, the last, thin and slightly damaged book made his heart beat faster. In addition to the mysterious symbols, there were also others that he had seen before and could read. The dragon cipher. The secret of every dragon family, a runic record of the dragon language written in a way unique to each clan. He had never thought about it deeply, but two or three years earlier, Nasua had begun teaching Draco the rules governing the Ignis family code. At first, the dragon did not notice anything new in their family code that he had not learned at the Academy, but later it turned out that each of the special runes contained an additional element. His aunt taught him to look for subtle differences, and when she decided that Draco could spot them at a glance, she revealed the greatest secret of their code to him – before being encrypted, the message had to be translated into several different languages, and the additional elements of the runes indicated the language in which a given word was encrypted. Then it also became clear to him why his aunt had insisted so much on learning languages.

  He took out a thin book and ran his finger over the title, Dark Speech. He opened it to the first page and scanned the text. The right-hand side was written in unknown characters, and the left-hand side in the Ignis family code. He leafed through the book and found that it was all written in this way. However, he did not notice any signature or even the author's initials.

  -Draco?- The dragon turned and saw Darius standing with Erth by the torches in the centre. The boy looked at the book again and, without thinking, took it with him. -Something interesting?- The mage's gaze lingered on the book as soon as the dragon approached them.

  -I think so,- Draco admitted, clutching the worn cover more tightly.- I need to... I need to try to read it. - Darius noticed the title and a glimmer of understanding lit up in his eyes.

  -Those symbols...- The mage looked in the direction from which his student had come.- Do you have books in that language?

  -A few.- The dragon only now realised that the thin book had absorbed him so much that he hadn't noticed any other books. -At least one bookshelf. But this is the only one I can read.

  -Maybe it will give you some clues, but now we're running out of time.- The wizard added, looking around once more.

  Draco just nodded and followed Darius to the exit. Erth quickly offered to escort them out. Leaving the vault and the underground part of the Central Bank complex took them surprisingly little time, and before they knew it, they were standing on the threshold of the Emerald Pagoda, bid farewell by the overweight elder Hunter.

  -If the young master needs anything from our humble bank in the future, please come directly to me. I will always be at your service. - Erth bowed as far as his bulk would allow and smiled warmly as the dragon and his master descended the stairs.

  Thank you for reading the latest chapter of my story. I'm truly grateful that you've chosen to walk alongside Draco and the others, and to spend time in their world.

  @dracoriss.official. You'll find illustrations created especially for this chapter—they might help bring the atmosphere and imagery to life even more vividly.

  Thank you for being here. Until next time—see you next week.