Villain Awakening: Rising to the Strongest Dragon God-Chapter 59: You Scared me...

The castle was settling into the welcoming arms of the night. Auryn heard it in the sounds drifting up through the rookery’s open windows.

Servants finishing their last tasks, boots on stone corridors growing less frequent. Torchlights flickered in the courtyard below where guards changed shifts.

The rookery itself was cold. Stone walls absorbed winter chill and held it like a grudge. The walls barely held together allowing night air slip inside to mix with the organic smell of birds, their nauseating feathers and droppings, sharp on the nose.

The ravens lined the walls of the room. Their tiny bodies leaving strained shadows on darker stones with eyes that caught moonlight and reflected it back, an omnious omen even in a night that wore danger like a badge.

Auryn stood in the shadow near the far wall, where the curve of the tower created a natural blind spot from both entrances. He’d positioned himself here for the last hour.

He waited patiently, each breath a sign of his committment to this plan. A part of strategy that others shyed away from. The discipline and willingness to just stay, wait and see.

With Author’s eyes active, he lived in a world of colors even while reality dwelled in the encroaching darkness.

He’d filtered out and focused on conflicted aura signatures. On auras that wavered between two masters. Crimson and dark. Those were his targets. The individuals that moved through the halls of the castle with intent that didn’t match their stations.

Footsteps suddenly emerged on the lower end of the tower. Someone was climbing the stairs and it didn’t feel casual in the slightest.

Show-time.. Auryn thought.

The footsteps grew louder. Not rushed but balanced as if they were scouting the area as they approached.

The unknown presence stirred the ravens. Some shifted on perches, feathers rustling. They sensed the approach even before the door opened.

Auryn settled deeper into shadow. Controlled his breathing until it was nearly silent. The trap was waiting to be sprung, all he needed was his victims to step in.

The door opened as a soldier entered. His face was tight with concentration, eyes scanning the rookery quickly, checking if he was alone.

His young eyes and position of his sword spoke of his inexperience as loudly as his heartbeat even in this situation. But all Auryn saw was a flaring crimson aura confirming his allegiance.

The soldier moved to the nearest perch. Pulled a sealed scroll from inside his leather armor.

He reached for a raven. The bird fluttered but allowed itself to be caught as the scroll was attached to it. Ready to be delivered to a familiar destination.

Auryn smirked in the shadows. This was perfect, irrefutable proof that he could finally use to pull out one of Vaedon’s eyes for good.

Auryn waited two more heartbeats. Let the man finish tying the knot. Let him commit fully to betrayal before revealing what waited in the horrors of the dark.

He stepped forward like the shadow of death and punishment to betrayal.

"That message." His voice was calm and casual, as if he was asking for the time or the weather instead of watching a man’s world about to collapse.

"Who’s it for?"

The young soldier froze as his black eyes reflected gold and crimson peeling out of the darkness of the tower.

The guard’s hand reached for his sword and he was about to draw, out of fear, when something clicked in his head.

Those dual colored eyes were the third prince’s. Raising his sword even in shock was as good as treason. Castor was already paying the price of such impulses.

The guard tried breathing. His eyes dulled in fear as he looked at the prince. His lips opened even while the raven was swiftly placed on his rear.

"Your Highness... you scared me," he tried his best to fake a playful smile.

He held up the raven.

"This is an order from the Duke. Rout—"

Before he could finish, Auryn cut him off with the same casual tone as before but his eyes now flickered in succession.

"Castor doesn’t know, you’re here," he paused with a wicked smile as he emerged further from the shadows into the glow of the moonlight.

"Shall we do this again. Who is that for?"

The young guard’s muscle tensed in that moment. Everything sensible in him was telling him to flee but how far could he go against a dragon.

He sneaked a glance as the door. This was the only option unless... he managed to buy time for him to arrive. This hadn’t turned violent yet. He hoped to keep it this way.

He took a step backward towards the door. "This isn’t what it seems. Your Highness. I’m working under the orders of the Duke"

"Whose orders, do you speak of?" A cold voice pierced through the back of the guard like a sword.

He turned to see the Duke of Valyron standing at the entrance. His hand on the door frame. Eyes as sharp as steel.

"What’s going on here?" Castor asked with a loud stern voice. He spoke to no one in particular or maybe he was referring to Claudia who was behind him.

She had convinced him to come here with supposed intelligence of how to get the best out of their information system and that their ravens were been killed by a disease and his soldiers were neglecting it.

Claudia stood behind her father. Her face to the ground. She wouldn’t dare face him now after such a lie. She could only dare do this because of what Auryn had whispered to her earlier.

This was all part of the third prince’s plan to bring her father here to face the potential holes in his forces.

Before Castor could ask again. Auryn pointed straight to the guard who still held onto the raven and letter. Right now the guard must feel like he was juggling red-hot coal in his hands.

"You have traitors in your forces,"

Castor’s eyes narrowed as his jaw tightened. He took an immediate step forward. Hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Ready to draw in the next heartbeat.

"Is this true?" he asked the guard as he approached like the harbinger of death but little did he know even the shadows had a voice of their own.

"Fa-th-er," the muffled voice of Claudia came from behind Castor as a hand, black as the night held tight against her mouth with the gleaming steel of an obsidian dagger biting slowly into the pale skin of her throat.

"Do not move or she dies"