A dark figure stands in the doorway, and before I know what I'm thinking, my lips are moving.

"Lager?"

"Sorry to dash your hopes, but it's not Lager." They respond, and my eyes widen as I recognize them.

Wearing a dark green cloak with blonde hair similar to a certain minor antagonist I know, Adviser Cecil stands in the doorway, looking almost foreboding as he stares down at me.

"You're not fully recovered yet, what are you doing up?" He asks, and I shuffle a few steps back, swallowing.

"Erm....you see, I had to use the bathroom."

His eyes shift from me to the open bathroom door I was in just a few seconds ago, and he raises an eyebrow.

I sigh. "Okay, you caught me, I'm going to see Lager, and it's really important, so I'd be very grateful if you would just let me through...". I trail off, staring hopefully at the tiny amount of space between him and the doorway.

"You can't see the Darkling High Commander," He starts, and I open my mouth to refute, but he continues "And you shouldn't want to. He's not in the right state of mind at the moment."

My brows furrow. "Why? What happened?"

He steps aside, gesturing to the open doorway. "If you come with me, I can explain everything."

"Yeah and that totally doesn't sound like a trap or anything." I say sarcastically, thinking back to the time Peter had tricked me by bringing me straight into Mrs. Clarke's hands.

"Well you're just going to have to trust me then, or trust Lager's opinion in me." He says, before glancing at an imaginary watch on his hands. "Tik-tok. If the shape-shifting monkey-boy gets here before you make your decision you won't be able to leave this room."

I sigh, raising my good hand and rubbing my forehead.

"Not that I don't trust Lager or anything, but I can't just follow you to some unknown place with the promise that you'll tell me "everything"."

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to this." Adviser Cecil suddenly sighs, and I did not like the sound of those words. I start to take a few steps back, but he reaches out, his hand latching onto my injured shoulder.

I let out a yelp of pain, my knees almost buckling as a glowing light emits from his hand through the black spots in my vision. A millisecond later and the crippling pain I felt slowly eases into a warm, soothing feeling.

I blink a few times, and look from my shoulder where his hand still glows, to the Adviser.

"You're a Lightling?" I gape, completely and utterly shocked.

"Yes." Is all he says.

"And you're the adviser of the Darkling High Commander...?" Then a thought occurs and I gasp. "Wait! Does that mean Sylvia is also a Lightling, since you're siblings?"

"No, she's Darkling, thorough and thorough. We had different mothers, mine was a Lightling, her was a Darkling. I'm actually a Halfling, like your friend Becky, and so far only you, Lager, and Sylvia know about this, so I would appreciate it if you kept this to yourself."

I nod, still to surprised to say much of anything.

"So....if my arm healed now?' I manage to spit out.

"No, but I stopped the bleeding and took away the pain for a while, so you should be good to move around for some time."

Suddenly he glances an imaginary watch on his hands. " While I hate to interrupt this enlightening conversation, Tik-tok. If the shape-shifting monkey-boy gets here before you make your decision you won't be able to leave this room."

I lift my good arm and poke my injured shoulder carefully with one finger, flinching as I expect to feel immense pain, but instead, there's nothing. As if it's numb.

Well he did do me a nice favor, and Lager thinks of him as a friend. Plus, this is my only way to have a chance at getting back to Mount Lux. I meet Adviser Cecil's eyes and nod firmly.

He smiles and turns, starting to walk down the hallway. I follow, glancing both ways and feeling on edge, as if Max is going to pop out from somewhere at any second.

Sorry, Max, I hope you understand.

Adviser Cecil leads me throughout Highclere, walking through hallways I've never set foot in before.I do notice that the farther we walk, the hotter it gets, which means we must be approaching the core of the Volcano. We also haven't walked any elevated hallways, and instead walk ones that have a tiny slant downhill to them. Oddly enough, we don't pass a single Darkling on the way, and it's quiet. Too quiet.

"Where is everyone?" I finally ask, and Adviser Cecil glances over his shoulder at me.

"Highclere is going through a lockdown currently. You'll understand why, shortly."

I hum in response, peeking my head around him to see where we're headed. The Hallway up ahead is a dead end.

"Oh! I know what this is!" I exclaim, making Adviser Cecil stop and turn to face me in curiosity. "Erm, when Lager was sick I had to go up to his room, for the purpose of taking him there and nothing else, and the entrance to his room looked like a wall but really it was an illusion." I say this confidently, while striding froward.

"Watch. I just have to walk throug-".

"Ashley don't-" He tries to warn.

Smack!

That's the sound of my idiotic self running right into a solid wall. I stumble back in surprise, raising my good arm to my aching forehead and feeling super lucky that my injured arm is numb.

The Adviser sighs, waling forward to the wall I had originally thought was an illusion.

"You were half-right. This is an illusion, but the illusion hides an actual door." He waves his hand, and the illusion of a white wall fades away, revealing a metal, very sturdy-looking door.

"I wish being half-right was enough to save me from a headache." I mumble, feeling entirely embarrassed.

He approaches the door, and rests a hand on it, and I wait for something cool happen, like his hand to glow again,or maybe for the door to glow, but all he does, is push it open.

"What?" He asks when he looks back at me and sees my blank stare.

"Oh nothing. Lead the way."

He nods, passing through the doorway and I follow, only to stop once I'm through. I stand before a dark, winding staircase.

"Oh no. Oh no no no no no. Not this again." I say, flashbacks of the Villa and the secret underground chamber flashing through my mind.

"Nothing dangerous is down here." Adviser Cecil says, looking up at me from where he's a few steps down. "I can assure you it's safe. Just don't trip over a step."

I grimace, thinking back to when I had actually tripped on said step in the Villa not too long ago.

"Could I maybe have some light?" I ask, and he nods, a second later his hands starting to glow.

"Perfect. I'm good now."

He turns and starts walking briskly down the steps. I follow, paying more attention than ever to where I place my feet.

If I thought it was hot before, I should have waited. The deeper we go, the hotter it gets, until I have a steady flow of sweat exuding from my body.

Lovely, right?

We finally reach the base of the staircase, and a hallway stretches before us, before leading to two huge, stone doors, just like in Lucem Villa.

"The Deja vu just keeps growing more and more intense." I mumble under my breath, and Adviser Cecil raises an eyebrow at me, but doesn't say anything, approaching the two doors.

"I know this is completely off topic, but how are you able to wear that cloak in this heat?" I ask, fanning myself while following.

"I'm accustomed to it." He gives a little shrug. "It's not terribly bad once you get used to it."

"Good to know." I respond, the conversation dying as we reach the doors.

Adviser Cecil raises his right hand, and the places it against the door, the glow fading from that hand and replaced with darkness that creeps out, seeping into the door. There's a click, and the door slides open just wide enough for Adviser Cecil to slip his fingers in and heave it open enough for the two of us to enter.

We step into the chamber, which is super dark and I can't make out anything past the faint glow of Adviser Cecil's fingers.

"Please wait one moment." He says, and moves his hands together, before slowly moving them apart. As they move apart, a tiny glowing orb of light appears in between them, and it keeps growing the wider he moves his hands out, until it's about the size of a basketball.

He transfers the orb to one hand, and I watch in wonder as he lifts that hand and the Orb floats away from his hand, rising to the ceiling which is way up high and staying there, illuminating the room. When I finally look away from the orb and examine the room I'm dumbstruck.

While it's just as large as the Chamber inside Mount Lux, the interior is not the same at all. Where Mount Lux's chamber was just stone with a large circle in the middle, this one has murals covering nearly every inch of wall, the huge art displaying scenes that look like they should belong in an art museum.

Without me noticing, Adviser Cecil has moved the mural closer to us, the one I'm assuming is the first one, and I hurry to approach.

"What is this room?" I whisper in awe when I reach him.

"The History of Dalton." Adviser Cecil responds, nodding up towards the mural, and my eyes shift to examine it.

In the center of the mural stands the glowing figure of a person, and surrounding the figure in a circle are other figures, some of them emanating light, others covered in vines or what looks like mud.

"That is the Core." Adviser Cecil speaks, gesturing to the glowing figure of a person in the middle. "This mural represents the beginning of Dalton. It is told that there was a being who created the Lightling and Kinlings and gave them life. They were known as the Core. No one had heard of the being since many centuries ago when Dalton was first created, which is why we were led to believe that the being had disappeared, only leaving their sacred place where no one could trespass behind. You could imagine my surprise when you returned from that place, claiming that indeed, the Core was still existing on this island."

He says, giving me a side-glance and I give a sheepish smile.

"So I see the Lightlings and Kinlings, but what about the Darklings? Did Core create them afterwards.....or?" I trail off.

Adviser Cecil starts to walk along side the mural, and I follow along, watching as the colors of the mural turn from light to dark blues, greens, browns, and blacks, until we reach another image.

This image looks jsut like the last one, except instead of light emanating from the figure in the center, darkness swirls, and instead of light and earth figures surrounding them, shadow people seem to dance.

"There can be no Core without the island itself. Core's brother.......Dalton." Adviser Cecil says lowly, gesturing once more to the figure in the middle.

My jaw drops.

"Core has a brother?" Is what I manage to finally speak when I regain my sense of words.

"Yes. It is taught that while Core is the center of life on this island, Dalton is the island itself. You could more or less say that Core and Dalton were opposites in every way. Core was light and life, where Dalton was darkness, and death. In his name he made the Darklings, beings that coexist with the Lightlings and Kinlings. "

"Is Dalton a.....being? Like the Core? If so, where is he? Are there records of anyone coming into contact with him?"

Adviser Cecil gives me a cool look and I quiet down. I guess story-time isn't over yet. He starts walking to the next mural. This mural depicts a field of flowers, growing next to a river of blood and darkness. On the river a wrecked boat lies, and I stare at the boat, wondering what it's purpose in the mural is.

"Core was very content with this island and the beings that inhabited it that he and his brother created. To him it was a paradise, but to Dalton, it was a prison. Dalton grew greedy. He wanted to leave the island and was very interested in the people who lived outside the island, known as humans. He was curious as to what had created them, and the curiosity grew until one day a lost human at sea stumbled onto the island. Without Core knowing, Dalton captured the human, and experimented on it, but no matter what he did, he couldn't understand what made the human so special. They didn't have speed, strength, hyper-senses, or even powers. More people would get washed up on the island every now and then, and each time Dalton would swipe them up and perform tests to see their worth, only to come up with the same results."

"Way to make us humans feel good about ourselves." I mutter, and Adviser Cecil chooses to ignore me.

"With this new knowledge, Dalton grew restless. He couldn't believe that the vast world outside was being conquered by life far less superior to his and his brother's own creations."

Adviser Cecil moves to the next mural, this one displaying the two figures, one of them, the glowing one, sitting on a throne on top of a mountain, while the other, darker one was below, almost as if it was receiving judgement.

"Dalton went to his brother and pleaded for his cooperation in extending their power outside of the island, and when Core asked for evidence of how he obtained the knowledge of the outside world, Dalton showed him the result of the multiple tests he has performed."

Adviser Cecil moves on to the next mural, which is a dark red the color of blood, corpses and body parts strewn around in the image.

"Core was not happy with the unnecessary bloodshed, and he couldn't understand his brother's greed to leave the island, which was a paradise for them. He tried to reason with Dalton, but he wouldn't listen."

He continues to the next and final mural, which showed the Core back in his throne on the mountain, except this time it looked as if the dark figure of Dalton was inside the mountain itself, almost as if he was trapped.

"Left with no choice, Core sought to put a stop to his brother. He gathered the power of the Kinlings and Lightlings, but that wasn't enough. However, at the time, the leader of the Darklings, the first Darkling High Commander, was quite kind-hearted, and did not agree with his creator's actions. He made a deal with Core, that he would give them their power, if Core would leave the Darklings unharmed. Core agreed, and with their combined force they managed to seal Dalton away inside the island, but every seal has it's undoing. The flaw in this particular seal....was human blood."

"Wait....so that means..." I trail off, looking back to the previous mural with the gruesome bloodshed.

"Yes. If an adequate amount of human blood is spilled into the island, Dalton's powers will become strong enough to overthrow the seal cast by the combined power of Core and the three races." Adviser Cecil responds.

"Core vanished shortly after that," He continues as he starts walking to the next mural, "Leaving only the sacred place we named after him. Ever since then, the island has not had a single human step onto it, well...until you and the expedition."

"Wait, no, that can't be right." I interrupt, following behind Adviser Cecil earnestly. "My mother came to this island many years ago. I've been worried this whole time a Lyncher may have gotten to her, or maybe one of you killed her out of fear or malice, but you're saying now that she never even reached her goal in the first place?"

He doesn't answer, and I swallow, my throat suddenly going very dry.

"What makes my father's expedition so different then? How come we could reach the island, but my mother couldn't?" I demand more than ask.

"Who knows?" Adviser Cecil muses,seeming honestly perplexed. "Maybe because you were in the presence of a being on the island. Maybe because Core allowed you in. I guess the next time you come face to face with Core you'll have to ask."

Suddenly I recall something, familiar words spoken by Zero a long time when we were still at Braun labs.

"I was told by the Kinling High Commander that you all learned the English language when an explorer named Christopher Columbus traveled to Dalton. If what you say is true, how did you come across English?"

Adviser suddenly gives me a very flat stare. "If you kept up to date with your human history, then you would know that this Christopher Columbus all of you humans learn about in your lifetime spoke Spanish and Italian, not English. While Core was not as interested in the outside world as Dalton, he did learn quite a lot from it, and English happened to be the first language he picked up. Which is why it's now our language too. Now it's time to get back to the story."

He wasn't done yet?

"What do you mean-" I start to ask, only to look up from where we were stopped and see there was another mural I had missed in front of us, this one depicts the a group of Darklings facing a group of Ligthlings. One Lightling and Another Darkling stand at the front of the groups, appearing to be shaking hands.

"Not all of Dalton was sealed away. The darkness from Dalton still remained inside the Darklings, and Core was very anxious about this, so before his disappearance, he had to figure out a way to subdue the Darklings. Much to his surprise, the Darkling High Commander came to him first, and he proposed a deal. He, and the generations of Darkling High Commanders to come, would bear all of the tainted darkness residing in his people alone, and every seven years, when the evil darkness grew too much for the Darkling High Commander to take, the Lightling High Commander would perform a purification ceremony which would relieve the Darkling High Commander for another seven years."

Flashes of images start going off in my head.

Mount Lux. An underground chamber much like this one. A circle. Malia. A Dark figure on the ground, with bright, orange eyes. It was End. Then the glimpse of blue hair, and now, this story.

Could it be...? There's no other explanation. The facts are straight, the puzzle pieces all line up, but why am I finding it so hard to accept......?

"Core vanished then, and the rest is history." Adviser Cecil speaks, drawing my attention back to him.

"Okay, so that right there, was a huge amount of information to take in, and I think I should take a moment to let all of this sink in, but something is really concerning me." I rant.

"What is it?" He asks while I breathe in.

"I may or may not have seen this purification ceremony with my own eyes. " I tell him, watching his reaction carefully.

No surprise flicks across his face. "I half-expected that." Is all he says, in a tone that's telling me to continue.

"So he should be good for another seven years, but ever since I've woken up, I've been told he's not in his right mindset. What's going on? Shouldn't he be fine?"

He nods, looking as if my question is something he was also expecting all along.

"You recall how you recently spilled quite an amount of blood, correct?"

I nod, before suddenly saying, "Oh no! Please don't tell me that was enough to unseal Dalton-".

"Fortunately, it was not enough, but while it wasn't enough for Dalton to break free, it was enough to strengthen him, even slightly, and that led to an increase in the tainted darkness which resides inside Darklings, the same tainted darkness that the Darkling High Commander has been bearing alone this whole time."

"Oh no." I whisper again, my hand clenching into a fist as I think about the turmoil Lager may be in right at this moment.

"'Oh no' Is right. That is why you need to go to the Core immediately and get the answer on how to strengthen the seal."

I open my mouth, about to explain that I would love to, but there's another mission I also have to complete that mat or may not be in serious jeopardy at the moment, when there's a bang as the huge stone doors leading to the chamber fly open.

Adviser Cecil and I whirl to find a figure standing in the doorway panting, their form flickering from shadow to skin and back again, familiar blue hair flashing into view every few seconds and a cape to go along with it. The only unfamiliar feature are the pair of glowing, orange eyes.

"Lager." I breathe out.





Dear Readers, woahhhhhhhhhhhhh I feel brain dead now! This has got to be a pretty long chapter compared to the usual, and it's all packed and stuffed to the limit with information and backstory, not to mention a cliff-hanger! I just spent the past two hours writing this, and don't necessarily feel like going back and checking for grammar errors, so sorry about that. If any of you guys still have questions about the history of Dalton please ask away in the comments and depending on what they are I will answer XD. Concerning COVID_19, things look like they're starting to get back on track, now if only our economy could do the same. Summer is approaching, and I'm veryyyyyy excited! Still, I hope you all are staying safe, satisfied, and stress-free! Vote, comment, and go through your closets ( I recently went through and cleaned mine out of sheer boredom. Who knew I had a vast collection of Goosebumps books back from elementary school XD. Those books are a classic!). Lots of love,

Dangeroustoken (I spelled my username right this time for any of those who noticed that last time lol! Yayyyy)