The heavy stone doors clicked shut and the silence that followed was different than before. It was no longer the silence of a predator cornering prey but the silence of two equals standing in a room built for secrets. Koma remained by his pillar his eyes fixed on the spot where Juno had just been standing. He did not seem impressed by the display of the Void or the sudden departure of their sisters. He simply stood there as if waiting for the real reason for this meeting to begin. The air in the chamber felt thick as if the very walls were leaning in to listen to the conversation that was about to take place.

  Kova walked toward the center of the roundtable his footsteps echoing clearly in the empty space. He did not look back at the doors. He kept his focus on the task at hand. "Juno will train Koa." Kova said his voice steady and pragmatic. "Since they are both essentially fire bearers Koa will learn how to be better under her guidance. Koa will be there for some time. It is the only way to ensure she is prepared for what is coming."

  Koma did not even turn his head at first. He let out a dry hollow sound that might have been a laugh if there was any humor left in his soul. He finally pushed himself away from the pillar and walked slowly toward the table his movements slow and deliberate. "I do not care what you do with the girl." Koma replied. He stopped a few feet away from the table and looked at his brother with a look of pure indifference. "If they are all useless what point does it make in training them? You are wasting resources on a fire that will never be hot enough to matter. You spend too much time worrying about the weak when you should be sharpening the strong."

  Kova stopped at the edge of the table and met his brother stare. "Every flame has a purpose if directed correctly. Koa has potential that you refuse to see because you are looking for a mirror of yourself. Strength is not always a blunt object Koma. Sometimes it is the spark that starts the conflagration."

  "I am looking for results." Koma snapped. "I see a group of children pretending to be strong. You should stop coddling them and focus on what actually matters. Training the weak only gives them a false sense of security before they are crushed. I have no patience for potential that takes years to manifest."

  "Get used to it." Kova said his tone leaving no room for further argument. "My decisions regarding their training are final. We have more pressing matters than your boredom or your low opinion of our siblings. We are here for a reason and it is not to debate the merits of our sisters."

  Kova reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a heavy bundle wrapped in thick aged leather. He set it on the stone table with a dull thud that seemed to vibrate through the floor. The air in the room seemed to shift as the object was revealed as if the room itself recognized the weight of what was being placed on the table. The leather was scarred and stained and it smelled of old earth and ancient magic.

  "I have the secret scrolls." Kova stated his voice low. "I obtained them from the kings secret vault. I was in and out before the shadows could even shift. We need to read them immediately. It may tell us things that are very important regarding our bloodline. It contains things they didn't want us to find."

  Koma leaned over the table his interest finally piqued. He reached out a dark hand but stopped just short of touching the leather casing. The indifference was gone replaced by a sharp predatory curiosity. "The vault? I'm surprised you didn't just take the whole wing of the palace down. That would have been easier than sneaking past the guards."

  "Noise is for the unskilled." Kova replied his voice cold. "I do not deal in loudness. I move faster than their eyes can track and I leave nothing behind but the absence of what I came for. If the king knew these were gone he would have every guard in the realm at our door by morning but he is currently blissfully unaware that his past has been stolen."

  Kova began to untie the bindings his fingers moving with a surprising grace. He ignored Koma's comment as he pulled the first parchment free. "Let us see what the old man thought was worth hiding from us. If he went to such lengths to keep these in a secret vault they must contain more than just boring history."

  The first scroll unrolled with a dry crackling sound. The parchment was yellowed with age and smelled of dust and old ink. Kova leaned in reading the list of the founders. "Kalamity Speedhardt. Leona Speedhardt. Luxon Hallow. Elara Thorne. Jaeren Whiteflame. Seraphine Vale."

  Koma scanned the first few lines of the text as Kova read them his brow furrowing as he recognized the formation of the script. "This looks similar to a scroll we read at home." Koma said dismissively. "It is the same redundant lineage and the same flowery descriptions that we had to memorize as children. Let us skip this one and read a different one. I did not come here for a history lesson we already mastered in the library."

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Kova reached out and picked up a second scroll from the pile. He unfurled it and his eyes narrowed as he scanned the frantic handwriting. "This one is different. It is a journal entry in the kings own hand. It records an event from when he and our father were very young. It says they came across a Three Eyed Horseman and his steed frozen in stone and bone in the deep wastes. They found it decaying in a cavern. They noted that the entity had three massive hollowed eye sockets. When they came across the site they instantly thought that the horseman was before their time. They were looking at something from a world that ended before theirs began."

  Koma leaned in his eyes darkening as he listened to Kova read. "Hollow sockets. This just further proves everything we know. We stole an eye from fathers vault a few years back and gave it to Hykee. We knew these things existed because we have seen them in fathers collection."

  Kova looked up from the parchment his expression troubled. "Speaking of that we should not have done it. It has drastically changed him. The eye we took is a burden he was not ready for and I can see the toll it is taking on his mind and his body."

  "Don't speak to me regarding him." Koma snapped his voice cutting through the air like a blade. "The past does not matter and neither does his future if he can not learn how to use the eye. If he is too weak to contain the power we gave him then he is of no use to us. I have no time for regrets or for siblings who can not carry their weight."

  Kova sighed but did not press the issue of further. He turned back to the scrolls. "I feel like the kings scrolls are a little out dated. These are observations from their youth but they have seen many things during their time being alive. I think father's scrolls might contain more detail pertaining to this Three Eyed Horseman."

  Kova continued to read moving his finger along the cramped text. "Listen to this. The king says they found one eye in the area not far from the three eyed horseman during that first discovery. They actually tried to put it in the hollowed socket but it did not fit. It was too small. The king also wrote that every eye has a distinct color on the pupil. At the time Kalamity assumed that if this eye looked this way then all eyes looked similar to the one they found near the horseman. The king told him to keep that eye in his possession."

  "There has to be a way to revive it." Koma said his voice dropping to a low reverent tone as he absorbed the information. "If they found it in stone then the power is still there. They just did not have the right keys at the time. We are wasting time reading about their failures when we should be figuring out what those three sockets require."

  Kova shifted to the next section of the scroll. "The king writes here that there are three other eyes out there that are much larger than the one they found. He says if those eyes were ever found and used it could result in reviving the horseman. They do not even know what the eyes do yet. They haven't found more than that one small one but they were already terrified of the potential."

  Kova reached the end of the third scroll. "They documented the site because they realized that if this horseman existed and died then there might be other things out there on par or even stronger. It made them realize how small they were. It is signed by both of them. The King and Kalamity Speedhardt. They signed it as a pact to understand a power that was never meant for men."

  Koma stared at the signature for a long moment then pulled back from the table. "They spent their lives looking at a grave and calling it a kingdom. It does not matter what they found if they did not have the strength to use it. I have heard enough for now."

  Kova looked at the remaining scrolls and then at his brother. "I will read the rest of the scrolls another time and tell you what I find out. There is more here than just old memories."

  "That is fine." Koma replied turning away from the table. "I am going to rest. Do not wake me unless you find something that actually matters. I am tired of looking at the past."

  Kova watched him leave the heavy silence of the chamber closing in behind Koma's retreating form. Kova looked down at the ancient parchment feeling the weight of the discoveries they had yet to make. He spoke to the empty room his voice a whisper of ambition. "If there are gods out there i want to find them."

  He began to roll the scrolls back up his movements slow and methodical. The first step had been taken and the path ahead was beginning to clear.