Castle of Vines

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

"Lendan, is it done?" His gruff voice echoed through the walls of rock.

He heard footsteps coming towards him. The sound of heels clicking on the smooth, wet stone.

She comes out of the shadowed hall way. Her features are recognisable by the light coming from the hole above. The light caused by the shining moon.

She genuflects to him and bows her head, her bright red dress flowing around her. "Yes, Your Excellency." She mumbles, facing the ground.

"Get up, you'll ruin the dress."

She slowly stands up, still looking towards the ground. "Yes, Your Excellency."

"Come, sit." He gestures towards the empty seat to his left. "And you look at me when you speak, I can't hear you when you mumble."

She clears her throat. "Yes, Your Excellency." She speaks clearly. She moves her body towards the stone table and takes a seat in the wooden chair.

"Now tell me what happened. Exactly what had happened." He states. Staring her dead in the eye.

♖

"Amuda Kavuda." She swishes the powders together, creating a blue fog that rises up into the air. The symbol of a bat.

The blue fog quickly vanished, leaving red steam behind. This showed that her spell had worked, however long it may have taken her to work on it.

She got out the wooden pail of water and sat it on the stone ground. Grabbing ingredients from the stone shelves that have been carved. Some greenish powder, a couple of white flowers and a sparkle of yellow powder.

She knelt down next to the pail of water and began mixing in the green powder, all the while chanting. "Let there be vision. Let there be light. Show me the way I would like."

She used a mortar and pestle to crush up the flowers and turn them into a liquid like mixture. She added them into the greenish water.

One last time she chanted, "Let there be vision. Let there be light. Show me the way I would like." She threw the sprinkle of yellow powder in.

The water began to glow. A bright white light filled the room, blinding the woman. She quickly covered her eyes before it went down.

The liquid in the wooden pail was now glowing, with a clear window into a room. The old lady, her victim, was talking to a young girl. The young girl who was known to be Saffron Elowen, His Excellency's enemy.

"No one knows if the realms are even real or if they have gone extinct. Not a single soul has found a gateway in the last thousands of years, what makes you think someone will find one now by you teaching me about the realms?" Saffron Elowen said.

"It is a part of your education, I don't decide what I have to teach you..." The old lady begins but is cut off. Cut off by the spell the woman casted.

She begins to hold her head and starts chanting in a different language.

"Weird. I didn't expect that to happen." The woman mumbled to herself.

"Mason!" Saffron screams. "Mason! Come here now! Ms. Willis is having an episode!"

Saffron starts screaming but then she gets up and opens the office door.

"MASON!" She screams with all her being.

The woman can hear footsteps running, more than one person.

She sees a blond boy with striking blue eyes turn the hallway corner. Not long after him a man with black hair turns as well, although she can't see his eyes.

"What is wrong?" The man with black hair asks.

"Ms. Willis is having another one of her episodes." Saffron says, she turns back to see the old lady still grabbing onto her head, chanting.

"Vance you grab her left, I'll grab her right." The black hair man says.

They both go over to her and each grabs one of her arms. She is still chanting but her hands are off of her head now.

They turn her around so she is facing Saffron at the door.

"Do you need me to help?" Saffron asks.

"N-" The black haired man begins but is cut off by a loud shriek.

"What the actual fuck." Saffron mumbles as the old lady continues to shriek.

Her eyes open but they are marble white. No sign of any irises.

"This isn't meant to be happening.." The woman starts to panic.

"You will..." She shrieks.

"You will..."

"Uh Mason, is this normal?" Saffron asks.

"It looks like she's having a vision, but could be possessed." He says, he laughs to himself at the last bit.

"You will doom us all child! You will doom us all!" The old lady shrieks, pointing at Saffron.

"You will doom us all child! You will doom us all! You and your little friend! You will doom us all! As long as both of you are living, you will doom us all! One needs to go! Or you will doom us all!" She shrieks.

The woman grabs her hand and slashes it across the liquid, ruining the window into the room.

"That wasn't meant to happen." She shakes her head.

She stands up and takes the pale of water up and out of the caves. She pours it onto the grass outside.

♖

"After I had casted my spell that you told me to do, I made a concoction that let me see into the pail of water where the victim of my spell was."

"And...?"

"And she was talking to Saffron Elowen."

"What about?"

"The gateways to get into the realms."

"Now why would they be talking about the famous realms?"

"I don't know, Your Excellency. What I do know is that they didn't get to finish the conversation before the victim was in a trance."

"Was the trance a part of your spell?"

"Yes, but what she said wasn't. I do not know what she was seeing but it wasn't what I casted her to see. It was like everything of the spell worked but the vision."

"What did she say that wasn't intended?"

"All of it. It started to freak me out so I stopped my spell of spying."

"Tell me what she said." He entwined his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands.

"About her dooming them all. And that her and her friend are dooming them all, as long as they are both living."

"Who is her little friend?"

"Well I saw a boy there with blondish hair and blue eyes, next to a man with black hair but I couldn't see his eyes."

"Hmmm. The darker haired one must be Mason Tilon, not sure about the blond one though." He thought, rubbing his fingers along his chin.

"Well that is all, off you go." He waves his hand off to her.

"Yes, Your Excellency." She stood up and bowed her head. She had begun to walk out as he called her.

"Lendan?"

"Yes, Your Excellency?"

"Do me a favour and keep an eye on Saffron at all times. I don't need her getting in my way."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

She walked out, her heels clicking on the cold stone floor. The sound fading until he couldn't hear them anymore.