Chapter Text
Nyx wandered the halls of her library, hoping that she could find something intriguing. Her day had been utterly eventful so far. The daily lessons in etiquette and the duties a duchess must perform continued to disinterest her.
"I understand that I will need to do all of these things eventually," she said to herself. "That still isn't going to be for a few more years. I'd much rather spend time here and read; or talk to Lloyd."
Speaking of Lloyd, Nyx couldn't help but wonder what Lloyd was up to now. The last time they talked, he mentioned a plan to leave his school.
"He needs to get out of that school," Nyx said. "They think he's not evil enough for that school; I can't say I disagree with them. He doesn't need to be evil just because of who his father happened to be.
She looked through the shelves and continued through the maze, looking for something she hadn't read yet.
"I don't think I've gotten to these yet," She said, heading to a shelf of rather large musty, looking books.
"Well," she said. "Let's see what this one is about."
Nyx pulled one of them from the shelf, wiping away any tiny dust particles. Then she headed over to a table and sat down. Nyx read through page after yellowing page.
This information must be decades old.
The minutes continued to go by as she absorbed the knowledge written on the pages. When she turned the page halfway through the book, something new caught her eyes.
"This doesn't look like something that belongs in a book like this," she said.
In front of her was an image displaying small geographical regions, several forests, and rivers Nyx were sure she had learned about at some point in her lessons. This was a map; now, where does the map lead to?
Nyx pulled the map out of the book and ran her fingers over the landscapes drawn on it.
Suddenly her finger stopped on something that did not look like a natural part of the landscape. It was a building of some sort. Written underneath the image were three words in a foreign language. Nyx did not understand the first word, but the second one looked familiar somehow.
'Wait a minute," she said. "I know what language that is."
Nyx got up from her table and made her way to the languages section of the library. She grabbed the translation book she needed and returned to the table. She sat down, opened the book, and searched the pages for the unknown word. A few pages in, she found it.
"Library," she said. "It means library."
Nyx could not believe it was a map to a library.
"This must be a huge library filled with knowledge that isn't even accessible in the kingdom," she said.
She have to find this place. The amount of knowledge I can obtain from it must be unimaginable.
Nyx took the map and made her way out of the library. She went home and packed up a satchel with some essentials.
"I better leave a note," she said. "If I don't, someone will think I'm missing or kidnapped. The last thing I need is for knights to be sent out to look for me."
Nyx grabbed a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink, sat down at her desk, and began writing.
Once she had all the details she needed on the parchment, she signed it, stamped her royal seal on it, and left it on a table so it could be easily found.
She made her way to the stables, but halfway there she had a realization.
Taking a horse is probably a bad idea. They're going to notice one of the horses is missing and get suspicious. It looks like I will be roughing it out of this journey.
Nyx traveled for hours, following the ancient map's path through the vast woods surrounding her kingdom. When the sun began to descend in the sky, she decided to stop and set up camp for the night. She made a fire and cooked some of the food rations she had packed.
It will take her days to reach the library at this rate. It's a good thing she left that note after all.
She couldn't help wonder how Llyod's day went? She could always ask him about it later. Nyx finished her dinner, entered her tent, and lay down on her sleeping mat. She spent the next several minutes looking at the map before drifting off.
Nyx woke up in the bright sunny forest of the dreamscape to see the ten-year-old Lloyd sitting between two oak trees.
"Hello Lloyd," Nyx said.
Lloyd looked up at her with a melancholy expression.
"Hi Nyx," he said.
"That's not the kind of greeting I was expecting," Nyx said. "Then again, I never really know what to expect with these dream talks a lot of time. Do you want to tell me what's going on?"
"I don't know if I should," said Lloyd.
Nyx gave him a puzzled look. "You can't say something like that and expect me not to want an answer, Lloyd. Come on, spill it."
"Alright," said Lloyd. "I got kicked out of that school for bad boys I attend."
"I see," Nyx replied. "It sounded like from what you've been telling me over the years, though, that it wasn't the place for you, Lloyd. Did you want to stay at a place where you don't fit in?"
"I guess not," Lloyd said. "It's why I was kicked out that bothers me, though."
"Why did they kick you out?" asked Nyx.
"I was told I lack the morale and the ambition to become a truly evil villain mastermind," said Lloyd.
Nyx sighed. "Lloyd, we have been over this a million times for several years. You don't need to be evil."
"How else am I ever going to get my father's love and affection?" asked Lloyd.
"I don't know how many times I can emphasize this, Lloyd," said Nyx. "You don't have to be like your father, and from what you have told me, it almost seems like he's too far gone even to feel love."
"I refuse to believe that," said Lloyd. "Plus, I have the perfect plan to get his attention and prove to that whole school that they were wrong about me."
"And what, pray to tell, is that plan?" asked Nyx.
"I'm going to awaken the Serpentine and have them be my evil minions. The people of Ninjago will be terrified and have no choice but to submit to my will."
"Hold on, Lloyd," said Nyx. "What, or who I should probably be saying, are the serpentine?"
"They're an ancient race of humanoid reptilian creatures," said Lloyd. "From legends I heard, centuries ago, they were the dominant race of Ninjago and lived in peace humans. It didn't last, though, they went to war with the humans for years; until the sons of the First Spinjutsu master and the elemental masters led the people of Ninjago against them, and they were locked away in five separate tombs."
"Do you even know where these tombs are, Lloyd?" asked Nyx.
"…No," said Lloyd. "I just know there has to be something that will lead me to one of them, though."
"What makes you think you can control these creatures, Lloyd?" asked Nyx.
"Every race in Ninjago has some sort of weakness," said Lloyd. "I need to find out what the weakness of the Serpentine is."
"I still don't like the sound of it," said Nyx. "I also know, though, that there's not much I can do to stop you. It's not like I can hop through a portal to your world and do so."
"Come on, Nyx," said Lloyd. "I wouldn't do this if I didn't think it was possible."
"So you say," said Nyx. "Hearing all of this makes what I'm up to sound like a stroll through the countryside."
"What are you doing right now anyway?" asked Lloyd.
"I'm on a journey to find this massive library hopefully containing new pieces of knowledge.."
"Where did you find out about it?" asked Lloyd.
"I found this map in a book in my library, " Nyx said. "I would show it to you, but my satchel did not follow me here for some reason."
"And you're certain it's a library?" asked Lloyd.
"Yes," said Nyx. "One of the words on the map was in a foreign language, but it's one I've studied before. When I looked it up, it translated to the library."
"How long do you think it will take to find it?" asked Lloyd.
"At the rate I'm going, days," said Nyx. "I didn't even bring a horse with me. I thought it would look suspicious if my tutors and servants noticed one of my horses was gone."
"Does Edmund know you're gone?" said Lloyd.
"I have no idea. Someone has likely noticed by know though, so it's only a matter of time before he is told," said Nyx.
"You know that he's not going to be happy with you when you get back.," said Lloyd.
"Well, hopefully, the knowledge I'm bound to discover will be worth it," said Nyx.
"Who knows," said Lloyd. "Maybe you'll find knowledge on how to travel between dimensions."
"I doubt it, Lloyd," said Nyx. "It would be amazing if I did, though."
"What should we do now?" asked Lloyd.
"Why don't we go for a walk?" said Nyx. "We can tell each other about other little non-major things that are going on in our lives, only if we feel like it."
"Sure," said Lloyd.