Chapter 3 – Checkered
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"We're good now."
Keir turned beside her, and Aziel stood there even though he fought with the lurkhounds several feet away mere seconds ago.
And he's holding her hand.
He let go and walked towards the fallen people in cloaks and hoods of dark grey. He stretched one hand ahead, a black oval with purple borders appeared on the floor where they lay, and it disappeared right after swallowing their attackers.
He glanced behind him, gesturing his head towards the portal with the same feature as the one that took the summoners away.
The closer Keir got to the portal, the more the difference between this and the other one distorting on the side became evident. The other one later shattered and faded at the same time she set a foot inside the black entryway of the portal.
A blinding ray of light shot through Keir's eyes. She opened one eye slowly, both later adjusting to the sudden change in sensation as if everything slowed down even when the vibrant colored bushes and trees swayed gently to the slight spurt of wind that came from the portal's closing.
On one side, lined up different colored trees in a pastel rainbow order close to a stone bricked wall. A diverse assortment of trees of the same color palette filled another side with the same fortified walls hovering over behind them. And grouped bushes of various shades of green with a distinct array of flowers graced the ambiance, even more so with the faint light in their radiant petals.
The white light that hit her earlier appeared to be a single massive star in the sky of light blue and navy reflected through the bluish-grey glass windows of a magnificent snow-white painted twisted tower topped with a pointy slate gray dome from a distance. Its position forced Keir to raise her chin to view the structure better.
Keir lowered her gaze from the odd formation of the tower, eyes coming across a couple more domed rooftops that differed in size—surrounding the neatly painted palace and where they stood situated smaller buildings and waved forts with battlements at their peak.
A castle?
"Let's go." Keir turned to her left, only to meet Aziel's creased cape.
She picked up her pace with his precise turns, heels clacking every step she made on the flagstones just between each arrangement of shrubs. "Do you frequent here?"
He peeked, "Why?" Keir shrugged. "The royal garden is a secluded area close to the throne room. This is where I drop off when I have urgent business with the royal family." So, he does go here often?
The flagstone path ended, and refined silver stones took over. Keir gazed upwards, cased doorways with arched ceilings closing in.
Aziel took a turn and pushed a pecan brown double sash door open, tea green with black and chocolate brown beaded marble floors replacing their foothold.
"Az." No answer. "Do you have heterochromia?"
The room allowed beads of emerald green and lapis lazuli blue decorated on the walls to gleam, providing an exceptionally faint light to see Aziel's head turn to the side slightly.
Their eyes met. "..Heterochromia?" Keir nodded. Aziel looked back in front. "I don't know what that is."
"Eye condition."
He stopped and turned around, his unique eyes of silver, grey, and navy flaring in the dark. "So there are humans with eyes like mine?" Keir shook her head.
"But there's a sectoral heterochromia type wherein there's a different color in the irises in a random spot."
"I see." Aziel swiveled back, and they continued walking.
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The Warlock's Azalea (EDITING) ✔
FantasyCURRENTLY EDITING/REWRITING OFFLINE - The Warlock's Azalea: The Secret of the Enchanting Stone - Leaves and petals of different hues were falling around, and to her, in the middle of it all, was the soft gaze and gentle smile Aziel had for that one...
