Chapter five: Fire and Death

“So…?” Kyuhyun asked when Leeteuk didn’t immediately answer. “Where do we find him?”

“The dragon is residing in a cave behind the church but only priests and other high figures are allowed to step into that cave. The civilians only see the criminals walk inside and they’ll never return.”

“How do we get in?” Tiffany asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know,” Leeteuk scornfully admitted.

I turned around in annoyance. Even though we probably knew where Donghae was, we still had no idea how to get to him. I crouched down by the water and put my finger in the water. Softly I moved it back and forth, creating mini-waves that made the little candles and flowers move around in the water. The others watched me but eventually sat down next to me.

It was strange to sit so comfortably and peacefully in enemy territory.

“Maybe,” Kyuhyun began after we sat ten minutes in silence, “if we find out more about the dragon, we’ll find a way to get inside.”

Leeteuk jumped up. “That’s it!” He said almost too loudly. “We need to get to the library!”

Kyuhyun, Tiffany and I stood up too. Tiffany clapped excitedly in her hands. “That’s a great idea!”

Kyuhyun and I smiled at Leeteuk who immediately led the way out of the cathedral.

We walked over the main streets again. It seemed even livelier than before. The crowd was so thick that I had to grab Tiffany’s hand to make sure that she wouldn’t lose us.

“Down!” Kyuhyun suddenly hissed and we all did even though we had no idea why. Kyuhyun sneaked through the crowd and we followed him to one of the little alleys.

“What was that for?” I whispered after we settled down behind some crates.

“Look!” He pointed at the crowd where we saw some people with silver armor and white capes.

“Oh,” Leeteuk said, “The Templers.”

The Templers were walking through the crowd with great authority. The crowd dispersed for them to the sides. They didn’t seem to be looking for us but it was not a good idea to walk in front of them either. That would be asking for trouble.

Five minutes later, everything seemed like it had before and we slowly came out of hiding.

“We should hurry up.” Tiffany stated as she cautiously looked around.

And we left partly jogging, partly running.

Finally we reached the library. Or as Leeteuk called it: ‘The Topebury Archives’. The archive was huge. Well, not as huge as the Cathedral but it was a pretty big eye-catcher. Two towers were linked together by a thin wall which was, according to Leeteuk, the corridor that made the two towers one building. Apparently one of the towers was for the city-affairs; bird-certificates, law-books, testaments and other things were held in the left tower. In the right was everything that had to do with the religion of the city.

Kyuhyun scowled as he looked at the right tower. “Don’t tell me that we have to go through every single book in that tower?”

Leeteuk shrugged. “I’m not sure, I’ve never really looked into the right tower. Only highly religious people and priest go regularly to that tower.”

I wasn’t really worried about how we would find information in the tower, I was more worried about the Templers that were guarding the entrance of the right tower with a stoic face. We would never get past them without being caught. Tiffany noticed the same thing and expressed her worries too.

“We’ll go in the archives through the left tower. There are regular guards guarding the door there. They shouldn’t be able to recognize us.” Leeteuk smartly solved the problem.

Kyuhyun snorted. “Geez, the authorities here aren’t really smart, are they?”

Leeteuk shrugged. “It is their way of showing the separation of church and state, moreover most of the time the people who are wanted by the church are also wanted by the state and vice versa. So I wouldn’t immediately say that it’s stupid.”

Kyuhyun already opened his mouth to go against Leeteuk’s opinion but Tiffany quickly averted his attention by saying: “Let’s go inside; we don’t have any time to lose!”

We walked inside the left tower without any trouble. Tiffany, Kyuhyun and I were awed the moment we looked around us, again. The bookcases were as high as the ceiling. It reminded me of the beauty and the beast library in the movie, complete with balconies and long ladders.

“This is probably what the internet would look like if you would put it in a library.” Kyuhyun muttered in complete wonder. I nodded mutely but Leeteuk caught the words too and confused, he repeated: “The inter-net?”

I shook my head, “Never mind that. Let’s go to the other tower.”

Leeteuk frowned but nodded and we walked to the small corridor on our right side. I pulled Kyuhyun along and angrily whispered: “Watch what you say! We can’t afford more trouble!”

Kyuhyun only grumbled as we walked through the corridor.

I was surprised to see that there were as many people in the left tower as in the right. I would’ve expected many people in the left tower because it was like the town hall, the notary public and the library in one. But surprisingly there were many people studying in the right tower as well. It came out handy for us because we could now go up in the crowd.

Leeteuk walked to a large book that was lying on a big table in the middle of the tower and he began to browse through it while we looked around us again. It was funny to see that both towers had their own colors. The right tower had a white interior with blue accents while the left tower had a red interior with gold accents. Though the predominant color in both towers was the brown color of not only the floor but also the bookcases.

“Found it!” Leeteuk exclaimed.

“Do you know how we can get to Donghae?” I was immediately reading over Leeteuk’s shoulder but only frowned as I saw an index.

Leeteuk chuckled. “You are going too fast.” He tapped with his finger on the book. “I found the place with the information about the white dragon. It’s on bookcase E23.”

“And how do we get to this particular bookcase?” Kyuhyun asked as he looked up into the huge tower with more thousand books.

“Simple,” Leeteuk provided, “The letter stands for the floor so we need to find the fifth floor and we need to find the twenty-third bookcase on that floor.”

“Let’s go,” Tiffany clapped into her hands and urged us to go up. I smiled, it had been quite a long time since Tiffany clapped into her hands but it seemed like she was becoming more and more like herself again even though things weren’t quite as normal anymore.

We walked up five stairs and walked past the bookcases that had silver nameplates with numbers on them.

“Found it~!” Kyuhyun eventually sang with a mocking tone.

I slapped his arm to make him behave normally and turned to bookcase twenty-three with narrowed eyes. I had to do my best because this bookcase would lead me back to Donghae and hopefully the others too.

Leeteuk, Tiffany and Kyuhyun grabbed a random book from the bookcase but I carefully scanned the covers. ‘The Dragon’s Nest: A mythical story’ ‘The elf and the dragon: truth or fable?’ ‘The white Dragon: A history’

I began to read the first book and after that the second. By then several hours had passed. By the time that I grabbed the last book, it was late in the afternoon. I scanned the index and got slightly disappointed that there wasn’t anything useful at first glance. Nevertheless, I began reading. I opened it on the page that described how the cleansing ceremony was performed.

The cleansing ceremony of the white dragon is executed at sundown. Several sources revealed that on that time of the day, the fire of the dragon is the purest. He’s been hunting the whole day and is left satisfied at sundown. The satisfaction of the white dragon is a critical point for the ceremony. If the dragon is not satisfied, he will use the misbeliever for his own satisfaction instead of the blue queen’s satisfaction. And that will make the misbeliever doomed forever.

“Guys, come read this!” I urged the others as I stared with horrified eyes at the next pages.

Tiffany took the book out of my hands and began to read the next paragraph:

The cleansing ceremony is only performed in front of people who are blessed by the high-priest. That way, the dragon will know who is in need purification. But for the safety of the witnesses of the ceremony, they are allowed to watch above the purification chamber through a hole in the ground. The misbeliever will enter the purification chamber through that same hole.

The dragon will spew his fire as soon as the misbeliever enters the purification chamber. There will be several minutes of cleansing the misbeliever. It’ll involve excruciating pain for the misbeliever to make sure that everything that is evil has left the body.

After the misbeliever is purified, the dragon will spew a blue fire. The misbeliever will then join the blue queen in her eternal realm and will be free of all the sins of this world.

As soon as the dragon is done with the purification, it’ll leave the now empty purification chamber and he’ll go back to his own lair.

And so, the high priest has helped Pintura once again with sending the blue queen another humble servant.

Tiffany slammed the book shut without any hesitation. “How horrible!” She spit out. “They’re describing murder and they’re treating it like the greatest good!”

Leeteuk frowned in distaste while Kyuhyun grumbled: “What did you