The Dragon’s Sealed Heart

3. The Forbidden Truth

The library of the temple was cloaked in heavy silence, filled only with the faint scent of ink and aged parchment. Alia hunched over a vast wooden table, surrounded by towering piles of ancient tomes. A feathered quill hovered above an open scroll, but she made no move to write.

Loose strands of golden hair framed her tense face as her blue eyes scanned the yellowed pages before her, her expression growing darker with every word.

“Seals… dragon’s bloodline… the source of calamity…” she whispered, her heart racing. “This isn’t just an ordinary imprisonment spell.”

The parchment described the intricate details of the seal placed upon the dungeon—three overlapping layers of barriers, appearing at first glance like simple containment magic. But the deeper Alia read, the more she realized the truth: the seals weren’t merely meant to trap Reinhardt—they were designed to suppress something unstable within him.

She flipped to the next page, where golden script gleamed under the candlelight:

“Should the seal break, the dragon’s bloodline will fully awaken. At that moment, the host’s magic will spiral out of control, resulting in irreversible destruction—the birth of a calamity.”

A sharp breath escaped her lips as an icy wave of fear crawled up her spine.

“He… really has dragon’s blood?” she murmured, teeth sinking into her lower lip. Images of Reinhardt’s golden, slit pupils flashed in her mind—especially those moments when they shimmered with a faint red glow, barely held back.

“He’s been holding himself back this entire time.”

The realization twisted her gut with a storm of emotions.

“If I forcefully break the seal… he might lose control completely.”

Her fingers drummed anxiously on the parchment as her mind spiraled into chaos.

“But if I don’t act soon, the temple will execute him the moment the seal weakens.”

The weight of the decision nearly crushed her. She couldn’t tell if Reinhardt was letting the seal erode, patiently waiting for the right moment to escape—or if the dragon’s blood within him was breaking free on its own, pushing him toward an inevitable loss of control.

Frustrated, she slammed the book shut, taking a deep, shaky breath.

“I need to figure out his true intentions.”

That Night – Alia’s Room

The night was heavy, the moon hidden behind thick clouds. The temple was swallowed in a haze of shadows. Alia sat at her desk, the “Starlight Vial” turning slowly between her fingers. The tiny star cloud inside glowed faintly, casting a soft light across her worried face.

She hadn’t slept properly in days. Not out of fear—but because the more she uncovered, the less everything made sense.

Placing the vial gently on the desk, she pulled a fresh sheet of parchment and began sketching a simplified version of the dungeon’s seal. Her quill scratched across the page, the lines becoming more frantic as her frustration grew.

“This isn’t just a containment spell… it’s suppressing his power and monitoring his condition,” Alia muttered, narrowing her eyes.

She barely had time to process this new thought before a sharp gust of wind swept through the room. The curtains billowed violently as a tall figure appeared on the windowsill, shadows trailing behind him like smoke. Cold air rushed inside.

“You’ve been digging too deep,” a low voice echoed in the room.

Alia’s heart leapt into her throat as she whirled around, nearly dropping her quill.

“Reinhardt?! You snuck out again?!” she hissed, her voice panicked as she scrambled to close the window, glancing nervously toward the door.

“Did you really think, after all these years, I wouldn’t know every flaw in the dungeon’s seals?” Reinhardt lounged lazily on the windowsill, his golden slit pupils gleaming, the faintest hint of crimson dancing in their depths. “I just never cared to leave before.”

“Then why stay there?” Alia blurted out.

Reinhardt’s smirk deepened. He stepped into the room, his boots silent on the wooden floor, and raised his hand. Black scales rippled across his palm, shimmering under the moonlight.

“Because the seal doesn’t just trap me. It suppresses the dragon’s blood inside me.” His fingers traced the glass of the Starlight Vial. “If I tear it apart by force, the risk of losing control is… higher than you think.”

Alia’s breath caught.

“You mean… you’re not unable to leave—you’re too afraid to?”

“Afraid?” Reinhardt chuckled, though there was no real humor in it. “Let’s say I’d rather not turn into a real monster.”

There was a hollow bitterness in his voice.

Alia hesitated, a lump forming in her throat. Her mind flashed back to the first time she’d seen him—cold, sharp-eyed, but deeply, painfully lonely. It wasn’t the look of someone filled with malice.

It was someone who’d been abandoned.

“You’re scared of losing control, aren’t you?” she asked softly.

For a moment, Reinhardt didn’t answer. Then he snorted.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He turned away, the corner of his mouth tightening. “I’m not someone you should pity.”

“I’m not pitying you!” Alia snapped instinctively. “I just… don’t think you deserve to be treated like a monster.”

A tense silence hung between them.

Then, unexpectedly, Reinhardt laughed—a low, dry sound that filled the room. His golden eyes curved slightly, softer now, almost amused.

“You’re really something else.”

Alia flushed, quickly changing the subject. “Then why do you keep showing up here? Shouldn’t you be—I don’t know—plotting your escape?”

“Simple. I’m keeping an eye on you.” He shrugged. “Gotta make sure you’re not secretly planning to kill me.”

“Could you stop being so sarcastic for once?!” Alia huffed, raising a hand to smack his arm—but he caught her wrist mid-air.

His grip was cold and firm, and a strange pulse of magic flared beneath his fingertips. Before she could yank her hand back, she felt him tracing a symbol onto the back of her hand.

“Hey—what are you doing?” she demanded.

“Marking you with a protection sigil.” Reinhardt’s voice was nonchalant. “The temple’s tracking spells won’t work on you anymore. Consider it a little… perk.”

“…You just don’t want me getting caught, huh?”

“Obviously,” he admitted easily. “If you get arrested, who’s going to break my seal?”

Alia’s eye twitched. “Wow. That was so heartwarming.”

“You’re just bad at taking compliments,” he teased, releasing her wrist. His fingers lingered for a second longer than necessary, the faint warmth of his magic still buzzing against her skin.

His tone dropped, turning serious.

“Decide soon, Alia,” he said, golden eyes narrowing. “Set me free… or kill me.”

Before she could answer, he turned and vaulted out the window, vanishing into the night.

Three Days Later.

Thunder rumbled through the clouds hanging low over the temple. Crimson cracks zigzagged across the sky—like a web straining to hold something back.

Alia sat atop the temple’s highest tower, the cold wind whipping around her. Her fingers gripped a piece of parchment so tightly that it crumpled beneath her hands. In the past three days, she’d scoured every book on ancient seals, every forbidden scroll, but found nothing—no method to break the seal without triggering Reinhardt’s full transformation.

“Time’s running out,” she whispered.

As if in cruel response, a blinding red light shot up from the direction of the dungeon. A thunderous roar followed, the ground beneath the temple trembling violently. Overhead, the crimson cracks in the sky widened, fracturing outward like glass about to shatter.

The seal was collapsing.

Alia shot to her feet. Heat flared against her palm—the protection sigil Reinhardt had left behind pulsing like an urgent warning.

“Reinhardt…” she breathed, her heart racing.

And then she ran—down the tower steps, past the temple’s sacred halls—straight toward the crumbling dungeon.

End of Chapter Three