Chapter 28: The Forgotten Palace
Ancient stone roads appeared beneath the roots. Broken walls stood between the trees. Collapsed watchtowers watched over a kingdom long dead.
Nobody spoke much.
The revelations from the Skeleton King still lingered in everyone’s minds.
Ahead of them, Athena was walking faster than everyone else.
Arthur noticed immediately. "Before we go any farther."
Athena glanced back. "What?"
Arthur pointed at her. "Try not to go insane."
Athena blinked.
Athy narrowed its eyes.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Arthur tilted his head. "Well..."
"You usually start talking to yourself."
Athena frowned. "I do not."
"You disappear for hours."
"Research."
"You stop responding."
"Research."
"You start muttering."
"Research."
Arthur nodded. "See?"
Athena’s eye twitched. "That isn’t insanity."
Arthur smiled. "I don’t mind, though."
Athena paused. "What?"
"You’re more interesting when you’re excited about something." He said with a shrug. "It’s genuinely nice watching you happy."
Silence.
Athena froze, and then her face turned red. She immediately started walking faster. "That trait of yours is annoying."
Arthur watched her leave. "...did I upset her?"
Mithra smiled softly. "No."
Arthur blinked. "No?"
"Our Athena is just shy." Mithra folded her hands behind her back and continued walking. "About certain things."
"Oh," Arthur said.
Athy buried its face under one wing.
Several Hunters exchanged glances. "Could the Divine Strategy also be giving her a test?"
"It makes sense... What is it though?"
"Maybe he wants her to be patient?"
"Ahh, that could be it!"
"Even at a time like this... What a terrifying person."
Melo looked confused.
Vedas opened his mouth. Then slowly closed it again. "...I’ve learned."
Mithra looked at him. "You have?"
Vedas nodded. "...Sometimes saying nothing is safer."
Mithra laughed. "You’re growing."
...
The palace appeared when the trees ended.
Massive stone pillars stretched toward the sky. Cracked walls remained upright despite centuries of neglect. Vines covered nearly every surface. Even now, it felt important, like the forest refused to take it back.
"...it’s real." Gruk’s voice trembled. The old Goblin slowly approached, and his hand reached out to touch the stone.
One of the Hunters walked beside him. Then another. Then another.
Suri stood completely still like she was afraid the palace might disappear if she moved. Vedas smiled as he gently took her hand and headed to the stone for both of them to touch.
Arthur smiled before stepping forward, and the moment he crossed the threshold.
Golden light appeared, and the ruins became a palace. For the space of a few seconds, the area was filled with goblins moving through the halls in a rush.
A servant carrying something.
Two guards in quiet conversation by a doorway.
A goblin child running through the courtyard.
Laughter past the edge of vision. The sound of a city that did not know it would be forgotten.
Then it was gone as everything returned to normal. But nobody was speaking; all of them were blankly staring ahead.
Arthur slowly turned in place.
Golden particles still drifted through the air around him.
Everywhere he looked, someone had been there.
Someone had laughed here, worked here, and lived here.
Then disappeared.
Arthur smiled quietly. "It’s like the palace is telling us its own story."
Athena looked away from the empty hallway. "Maybe."
Arthur smiled. "Then let’s not forget it."
For a brief moment...
Nobody answered.
But several Goblin Hunters quietly looked around the palace again. They weren’t seeing ruins anymore but a home.
Then Athena suddenly reached forward, but her hands only touched air.
"I know they’re not solid," she said softly. "I know that."
"But you reached for them anyway," Mithra said.
"I know," Athena said while still staring at her hands.
Athy covered her face with one wing.
"Tell me there will be more," Athena said.
Arthur looked at the palace around them. At the golden particles still drifting slowly in the air, catching light that had no source. "Probably," he said.
Athena took a breath before taking her notebook out. "Then let’s keep moving," she said. She was walking before she finished saying it.
Arthur watched Athena rush deeper into the palace with her notebook already open.
He laughed quietly. "She’s definitely talking to the walls now."
Arthur glanced to the side.
Mithra was watching Athena move toward the interior with fond attention. "There it is," she said quietly.
"The talking to herself?" Arthur asked.
"The happiness," Mithra said.
...
The memories appeared throughout the palace as they moved through it, each one brief and unpredictable. A courtyard filled with young goblins training.
Then it vanished.
One of the hunters had stopped walking.
He was standing very still, watching the formation drill. Mithra stepped beside him. She did not say anything immediately. She watched the vision with him for the few seconds it lasted.
When it faded, the hunter said: "That looks like..."
He stopped.
"Go ahead," Mithra said.
"It looks like something that should still exist," he said. He was trying to find the right words. "The training. The way the older one was teaching." He shook his head. "We don’t have any of that."
"What do you have instead?" Mithra asked.
The hunter thought. "We figure things out when we have to." His voice was flat. "When something attacks us, we try to survive it. If we do, we remember what worked."
Mithra nodded slowly. "That’s its own kind of training."
"It’s not the same," the hunter said.
"No," Mithra agreed. "But you’re still here."
The hunter was quiet for a moment. Then he said, very quietly: "We should have had the other kind."
"Yes," Mithra said. "You should have."
She said it simply, without softening it. Because the truth of it deserved to be said plainly, not carefully.
The hunter looked at her. She looked back at him with the steady warmth she brought to hard things. He nodded once. Then kept walking.
Athena appeared at Arthur’s shoulder. "What was that?" she said quietly.
"Mithra giving someone permission to be sad about something real," Arthur said.
Athena watched Mithra move ahead through the corridor. "She’s very good at that."
"Yes," Arthur said.
"I’m not good at that," Athena said. Not self-critical. Just observational.
"No," Arthur agreed. "But you’re good at other things."
Athena looked at him.
He was already walking.
She followed.
...
The one that stopped everyone completely was in what had been, at some point, a plaza attached to the east wing.
Children.
Dozens of goblin children running between the stalls of some kind of festival, chased by exhausted parents who weren’t really trying to catch them. A goblin child falling down, starting to cry, being picked up by an adult who kissed the scraped knee.
Then it vanished.
One of the hunters said softly. "I don’t know why this hurts."
Mithra turned to him.
"You do know," she said gently. "You just don’t have the word for it yet."
The hunter looked at her.
"You saw something that should have been yours," she said. "Something that was taken away before you were born, so you never got to miss it. And then you saw it, and now you miss it." She paused. "That’s what it is."
The hunter was quiet.
"You’re allowed to feel that," Mithra said.
He looked at the empty courtyard where the festival had been. Then he nodded, once, slowly.
Suri had been watching the vision from the edge of the group. She had not moved toward it.
"Suri," she said.
"The child who fell," Suri said. Her voice was completely flat. Not emotional. Just naming something. "Someone picked her up."
"Yes."
"Without thinking about it." Suri was still looking at the empty space. "Like it was just what you did."
"Yes," Mithra said.
Suri was quiet for a moment.
"I never had that," she said. The same flat voice. Not asking for sympathy. Just saying a true thing. "I don’t know why I noticed it."
"Because you’re paying attention," Mithra said.
"To something I never had."
"To something you wanted," Mithra said. "Even before you knew you were allowed to want it."
Suri turned to look at her.
Mithra held her gaze.
"You’re allowed to want it," Mithra said.
Suri looked away. Her jaw was tight. Then she said, very quietly: "I want the people Vedas leads in the future to have this."
"His people," Mithra said. "And yours."
Suri did not answer.
But she stood straighter.
Gruk had been on the other side of the courtyard. He had watched the parents chasing the children with the expression of someone watching a specific memory, not just a scene. He was an old goblin. He had carried things for a long time, and yet the sight of those goblins looking free?
When was the last time he saw such a scene? A child that could run freely without worry? A parent who could chase after their children with little worry? A festival that can be resounded through an area without danger of predators?
Gruk realized they had never had that.
One Hunter asks. "Elder? Are you okay? Is it too much–"
"No... it’s fine." Gruk laughs softly. Then wipes his eyes. "My grandfather used to tell me stories like that. I refuse to believe it because I would get jealous at how good... Goblins in those stories had it compared to us."
Silence.
"I think he knew that because he always had that regretful look on his ugly face..." He closed his eyes. "But he kept telling me and said, one day you will experience the same thing..."
"I thought he was lying." Gruk laughed softly. "...Turns out I was the fool."
...
The archive room had been, at some point, a library. Time had not been kind to the library.
Most shelves had collapsed.
Most books had rotted away.
Most scrolls had turned to dust.
Gruk picked it up with both hands, and he opened it. His eyes moved across the page, and his expression changed. "I can read this."
Athena appeared at his shoulder so quickly she may have been there already. "Read it."
The old goblin turned pages carefully, pausing at the ones that were still legible.
"Year Eighty-Three. The northern campaign was successful."
Athena began writing.
"The Storm Giants accepted peace."
Several people froze.
Athena’s eyes widened.
Arthur blinked. "Storm Giants?"
Gruk nodded. "It says Storm Giants."
Another page.
Gruk continued. "Year One Hundred and Twelve. The Fourth King expanded the eastern border."
Another page.
"Year One Hundred and Thirty-Seven." Gruk paused. He looked at the page again. Then back at the group. "The northern dragon has agreed to negotiations."
It was silent for a couple of seconds.
Arthur turned to look at him. "...dragon?" Arthur said.
"...dragon," Gruk confirmed.
Even Athena stopped writing. The implications were ridiculous. A kingdom powerful enough to negotiate with dragons.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Gruk reached the final intact page. Most of it was damaged, the edges burned and the center torn, and what remained was one line in the lower right corner.
He read it.
"The experiment has begun."
Nobody spoke.
Gruk frowned. One hunter shifted uneasily. Another rubbed his arms.
Nobody knew why.
But the words felt wrong.
Athena wrote it down with the same motion she used for everything, but she did not immediately follow it with another note. The pen stayed on the page, and she looked at the words she had written.
Arthur thought about what the Skeleton King had said. We were a mistake. He looked at the final line of the journal again.
The two things were connected. He did not know how. But they were.
...
Eventually they reached the heart of the palace. A large chamber stood before them, and at its center rested a statue of an armored Goblin King. The room felt strangely peaceful, like it had been waiting.
Arthur slowly approached and then stopped. Something golden rested near the statue’s base. A golden key.
Arthur walked toward it and picked it up.
Immediately, a golden light exploded, making everyone jump and cover their eyes. After it faded, they quickly began looking around for a threat or anything.
But they saw nothing.
"What did you do!?" Athena shouted.
Arthur looked down to see the key was melting. It turned into liquid gold that began flowing over his fingers and into the back of his hand. A glowing symbol appeared. He looked at his hand. Then at the empty space where the key had been. Then at the symbol.
"Well," he said.
Mithra pointed. "You touched it."
Arthur nodded. "I touched it."
Athena looked ready to faint.
Arthur turned his hand over, examined the symbol from the back, and turned it over again. "I don’t think I can put that back."
A screen appeared.
[King’s Key Acquired]
Nothing else followed.
"That seems important," Arthur said.
"YOU THINK?!"
Athena’s voice had reached a pitch that Athy responded to by gripping her shoulder more firmly. She pointed at the palace around them. "Ancient palace!" The finger moved to the statue. "Ancient king!" To Arthur’s hand. "Ancient key!" To the symbol. "Ancient mark that is now apparently part of you!"
Arthur looked at his hand. Then at Athena. "...When you explain it like that, it does sound concerning."
Athena grabbed her head. "Haven’t you learned not to touch mysterious ancient objects!?"
Arthur thought and then chuckled. "Honestly... No. I haven’t."
Silence.
Athena was speechless.
Arthur rubbed the back of his head. "In my defense."
Everyone waited.
"It looked important."
Silence.
Athena stared at him. "That somehow makes it worse."
Arthur looked at his hand.
"Yeah. That probably does make it worse." He then grinned at Athena. "But you touch mysterious things too. The only difference is that nothing special happened."
Arthur pointed out, making Athena’s eyes twitch.
Mithra began laughing hard while Athy looked away; Melo trembled. The others turned away with their hands covering their mouths.
Before Athena could respond, the symbol on the back of his hand began to shine.
Everyone froze.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The golden mark glowed brighter and then pointed. Toward a section of wall that was just solid stone. But then the area began rubbing before the walls began pulling apart like a doorway, and then a path into the darkness could be seen.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Gruk stared and then whispered. "...that wasn’t here before."
Arthur’s eyes lit up. "A secret passage." He looked genuinely delighted. "I’ve always wanted to find one."
Mithra laughed. "...Of course you have."
Arthur pointed excitedly. "This place keeps getting better."
The darkness beyond the doorway seemed endless. And for the first time since entering the palace... Arthur felt like something was waiting for them.
Instead of making him nervous...
It made him smile.
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