Quil immediately took on his councilor form and blasted the dragbeast with his blue flame in the close quarters to stun the beast without harming Jason or Joyce, yelled at them to run down to the cellar while creating a barrier between them and the dragbeast with his body. He shot out two more bursts of blue fire as Jason and Joyce ran past him into the cellar before he let loose his lethal red flames incinerating the abomination and let the stairs crumble down behind him, barricading the door keeping the three of them safe under the stone foundation of the inn, at least for now. He could still hear the cries of dragbeasts outside the barricaded door, but a look down the steps to the cellar floor, including a second, even thicker and heavier iron door armed with multiple locks and two sliding bars, assured him that it had been built with this sort of scenario in mind.
Quil proceeded down the cold stone steps, his claws clicking lightly on their naturally semi-rough surface, to the second door which thanks to his strength closed easily with a heavy thud as well as the two thick, iron bars that he locked into place with a clank. He looked at the locks and was about to ask Joyce if she had the keys but hesitated, not knowing if the others were planning to escape via the tunnel as well, which he had already a difficult enough task to do.
As if Joyce was reading his thoughts she answered, “There’s a second tunnel she built under the lobby for guests to use if something like this happened. It connects to this room too.”
Quil felt a small bit of relief, believing she must have inherited her mother’s ability of perception, and nodded, “Thank you. Do you have the keys to the door?”
“Yep,” Joyce replied, pulling three weighty looking keys tied together with a piece of rope from a pocket in her skirt. “The symbols on the keys match up to the lock it goes to.”
“Thank you again,” Quil said as he picked up the keys from her hand, locked them in, handed them back and began to plan out their actions beyond traveling through the tunnel.
First, he looked over the two checking for any visible injuries. They were both covered in ash from the fire in the stairwell, as was Quil, but with no obvious burns or bleeding. Joyce showed no signs of injury or any other pain and was waiting expectantly for Quil’s next orders. Jason, though he didn’t appear to be injured or in pain, was grasping his right arm tightly and was looking away.
“Jason, have you been injured?” Quil asked, but he didn’t respond and instead kept staring off to the side.
“Jason?” Quil asked again but more firmly, if something was wrong then it needed to be dealt with now if they came under attack while in the tunnels.
Jason turned to look at Quil but instead of a pair of hazel-green eyes human eyes, Jason irises were colored a fiery, molten gold that were over twice their normal size with oval instead of round pupils. He looked on at Quil but still didn’t say anything.
Joyce walked calmly over to Quil and thanks to her perception was able to, somewhat, explain what was happening, “Quil, I don’t think Jason is, completely Jason right now.”
“You will need to elaborate,” Quil replied, immediately fearful of what Shea had been worried about, especially with the horde above them.
“It’s kind of hard to explain. Like my mom I can read most dragons and their fire like a book and he was normal when we headed down here but by the time reached the cellar, it was like some part of his fire or abilities hijacked his mind,” Joyce explained.
“Is this ability, dangerous?” Quil nervously asked.
“No,” Joyce and Jason answered at the same time, catching both Joyce and Quil off guard.
“…Is that you, Jason, speaking?” Quil asked.
“Yes,” he replied in a dry, flat tone, “But I can tell the rest of my personality and memories that make me, me, are being cut off to be able to use this ability safely. I also know I won’t be able to remember any of this once it recedes.”
“And what ability is that? I can’t tell what exactly this is,” Joyce asked.
“…I don’t know, but I think we’ll all find out soon. There’s something other than dragbeasts in the tunnel,” Jason said before he set out before them down the tunnel and Quil and Joyce didn’t know what else to but follow.
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