CORDELIA

Chapter 8

Darkness fed away giving way to a beam of light which spread all over when I found myself sitting on the ground which was rather a dusty floor polished by mud and clay. I got up and looked around. I was on the balcony of a large hut surrounded by bamboo pillars, had a large door leading inside the hut , and the roof was made up of mud and straw. There were more huts like this but I could see not a single person there. It looked like a place which had been abandoned for not so long. I went inside the hut, it was brightened by the sunlight coming from the door and picking through the holes of the walls. I went inside when my eyes went to a wooden table. There were a bunch of ancient scripts which were written in the same language as that of the letter. It seems to be a study material regarding all the literary subjects. There were also a few paintings kept on top of it. I took one of the paintings, it was a painting of two small boys standing next to each other. Then I took another painting. It was a painting of a beautiful large palace with a statue of a king on the front of a palace. I took all the paintings with me and came out of the hut , I saw other empty huts but their doors were closed.  I thought of approaching someone for help and knocked on the doors of a few huts but got no response. I started pacing off through the huts.

" Eliza…", I was startled when I heard the voice of a lady. I turned around and saw a familiar face. The one I saw in my vision had reddish brown hair, wearing a white gown with leather bodice, she had a calm countenance. 

" I didn't expect you to be alive", she said, passing a smile when  drops of tears flowed from her eyes. I didn’t have the courage to speak, her tears made my heart ache. 

" Mother..", I whispered when she came and gave me a hug. 

" You escaped from your death Eliza, save everyone from the curse , don’t let the people become the victims of the past" , she said when she slowly disappeared in thin air.  

" Escaped from the death…", her words circled my mind when a stinging pain occurred, and the vision flashed in my eyes. 
I was on the Captain's ship in the middle of the dark sea, Edwin was surrounded by the crewmen beaten and injured and handcuffed. I was lying unconscious on the deck when the Captain took his knife and a thunder crashed when he took out my heart from the body. 
I flinched and hastily opened my eyes, panting hard.   

" Not again…", I panted even harder, a strange feeling of fear and emotion engulfed me when my eyes went to the glowing locket of my necklace , it had a mysterious white glow and pointed backwards towards the hut where I visited.  I followed its direction when I got backed off as I was about to go inside the hut. It felt as if I was bumping against something hard like a wall. I looked up and saw a faint transparent boundary surrounding me from all the sides. I tried to push it but I couldn't. When I looked back , I backed off , my jaw dropped as I saw  the huge palace with the statue of a king in the center standing in front of me. My necklace pointed towards the palace , I couldn't help but unintentionally walk towards it, it felt like the palace was pulling me towards it. As I stepped in its boundary , I found myself floating inside the water. I looked all around but I could no longer see the huts and ground. It was just a turquoise sea surrounded by beautiful colorful coral reefs on the sea floors, brilliantly hued diverse fishes floating all around circling the palace. I went near the colossal palace with intricately carved glassy walls, as I went towards the big main entrance I was shocked to see two guards standing there guarding the gate. It felt like entering into a world which only we can imagine. They were half human and half fish.Their upper body looked like a human covering their bare body with gold ornaments with emeralds and sapphire. They had long light brown hair and ocean blue crystal eyes  However they had hued tales of fish. They bowed and moved aside and the large gate opened. It was a large area surrounded with garden full of sand and coral polyps, there were beautiful mermaids with playing around with their colorful tales, it was a open palace which stretched all around with large pillars and open round casements, there were guards guarding, I looked around when I saw a beautiful young mermaid with white hair, her face looked so familiar , she had milky white skin with light blue tale with turquoise jewels stacked on it, had a lace white bandeau. Her curly hair was decorated with gems and pearls. Her deep blue eyes looked so mesmerizing and ethereal, she looked different from other mermaids surrounding her. They were talking and laughing, making necklaces from the shells and corals.