The Girl of Prophecy

Chapter 10: The Plan

Ariel's POV

When King Hart called me and my friends forward, I suddenly felt uncertain. But I have to do this. I need answers. If the gem can lead me to the answers I'm looking for then so be it. I took a deep breathe and looked at my friends for support and they smiled and nodded in confirmation that no matter what, they'll stand by me and my decisions. I started.

"Greetings to the Royal Union. As King Hart has briefed, this meeting is about the discussion to retrieve the corrupted stone. Here with my are individuals that I see as my friends, my older siblings, and my family. There are no others who I would place my trust in besides them. To my right is King, Princess, and Jack. To my left is Queen, Prince and Ace. Together with myself as the Joker, we make up Shadow Academy's Elites. We extend our shadow greetings to you." As we greet and gave our academy's signature bow, the shadows beneath our feet, extended across the floors as if it was coming alive. We could hear shock and surprise shrieks from some of the royals. We only smiled and laughed a little to ourselves as we expected that kind of reaction considering how we reacted the same way the first time we became students of the academy. Ah, memories. Anyways, back to topic. I continued my briefing.

"As we know so far, a copy of this map has been shared to the enemy by the spy in custody using a magic inscription stone. However, before the spy could finish his sketch of the map, he was thankfully apprehended by the royal guards. So, what could be implied from this is the fact that the enemy may only have a partial copy of this map. As for which partial part of the map, that we cannot be certain, but nonetheless, we still have some leeway to get to the gem before the enemy does since we have the full map. Hopefully."

Queen as our team's strategist then took over from me. "As you all can see from the map, the journey to the gem is not easy. Ignoring the minor obstacles like trolls and witches, the major problem with the journey is in these three areas." King then displayed to everyone a hologram of all the three problematic areas.

~Quick Montague On The Areas~

-Cave of Exile-

As the name suggests, it is the cave where those who were exiled go to and die. During the time of our ancestors way back 3000 years ago, the rulers back then, before the formation of the Royal Union in Mystic Realm, were merely clan rulers. These clan rulers had their own strict laws to govern and protect their own clan. It doesn't matter whether these rules were just or unjust. Those who disobeyed these rules, were exiled out of their clan. Those exiled could go one of two ways, either find another clan to take them in, or leave. It's not easy to find a clan to take you in as they know you were exiled due to disobedience of clan ruler's law, hence, they wouldn't wasn't to take in someone who disobeys the law. So, many who were exiled left to the borders of Mystic Realm.

Across the border, is the Forest of Words. The Forest of Words is not a problem for most of the people in Mystic Realm, but sometimes, legend says that the forest knows the deepest desire that you want to ignore, and the trees will show you words that would lead you to these desires. It is said that those who were exiled were led by the words of the forest to a cave hidden from the plain eye. They would enter the cave, and never come out. Hence, no one really knows what were the deepest desire of the exiled. As the years progress, and even after the First Great war and the formation of the Royal Union, there are still people who would stumble through the forest and end up in the cave, but the recollection of the journeys are all the same, they could see and hear the souls of the exiled, and a strong gust of wind will push them out of the cave, forcing them to turn around and run away out of the forest.

-Time River-

Yeah, none of our ancestors were creative with their naming of these locations. As the name suggests, the river is time. The way this are works is that, you will take a boat and light a candle, a specific candle. You can only travel at night. When you row, do not make any sound or voice out anything. However, even if you can avoid doing so, the river has some enchantment that induces the people on the boat to talk about anything and everything. You may think what's the big deal? Well the big deal is that, the more you talk, the longer time drags on and you'll never finish your journey. It becomes worst if you have more people on the boat and you have long conversations. The talking you do in Time River enchants you with the effect that you still have a longer journey and the day hasn't arrived. The reality of it is that, this enchantment will only stop being in effect when the sun is already out and your boat is close to the edge of Time River's waterfall, which lead to a death drop down spiky rocks.

Many people disappeared from Time River, the only thing that remains the same is that Time River's boat will always row back on its own to the starting point waiting for its next victim. There is no definite way to get through Time River, but the only thing that has been passed down from during the times of legend, is that do not speak of anything, or else, you'll end up at death's door. If you managed not speaking during your journey through Time River, you should be able to reach the end port of Time River before the sun rises. Because, truth is, the distance between the starting port and the end port of Time River is relatively close, but with the curse of the river making you feel as if the journey is still long, the boat will purposely row you past the end port and take you to down its waterfall.

-Butterfly Garden-

Yeah unlike the name, its not as pretty as it sounds. Butterfly Garden is home to many butterflies, including the deadly ones. One such deadly butterfly is the Dreamboat. This butterfly's beauty will awe you into slumber, and you'll be trap in a dream. Sounds nice? Not so much actually. The dream you'll be trapped in will be your worst nightmare. What's worse is that, the butterflies in these gardens will sometimes take the shape of humans or pixies, and they'll watch you struggle in your nightmare as a form of entertainment.

When you've fallen into slumber and are trapped in your nightmare, the garden will tie you to its walls with the vines from its flowers, and your dreams will be broadcast by the ILLUM, also known as light butterflies. The ILLUM will broadcast your nightmare by growing their wings the size of a big screen for its friends to watch. The Butterfly Garden is the worst area to be in because, by the time you wake up from your nightmare, your body would have been devoured by the Re-gals, also known as the butterflies that feasts on human flesh. You'll definitely be awake, but by the time you're skin and bones, well, you're dead.

Legend has it that to pass Butterfly Garden, it is impossible to avoid these deadly butterflies. Especially the Dreamboat. However, if you become trap in your nightmare, you must do the absolute best to wake up from your nightmare before the vines of garden chains you up as entertainment and food. That is your only way of getting through Butterfly Garden. However, legend also has it that sometimes, you can make a bet with the garden. The bet that is if you can out-beat the nightmare before being chained by the garden's vines, Butterfly garden would have to give you a one-time free passage for yourself and anyone else that you want to bring. This one-time free passage would allow you to get through the garden to reach the other side, and also allow you to get through it to go back to the main entrance of the garden.

~Montague Over~

Still Ariel's POV

After that quick explanation from Queen and King, all the royals were stunned into silence. Words of terror and protest could be heard, particularly from those who doesn't want me to go through with the mission. Someone from the royals, I believe, King Evan asked, "how do you kids know about these areas anyway?" I answered him, "we learnt it in Shadow Academy. It is a requirement for us to know of every realms' history."

I saw Haley about to speak up, and I know she wants to stop me from going on this mission, so I signaled Q to continue with her briefing. Queen cleared her throat and continued, "the plan is, our team will start find a drop in point midway of this map instead of starting way out from the front, it should save us time and effort. After that, depending on where we dropped in, our first major trial should be the Cave of Exile. Once we make it out, we should be going through the MAZE, then depending on what else we might face after that, we should directly be met wuth Time River's starting port, once we reach the end port, we should be facing a few unforeseen circumstances, before reaching Butterfly Garden. Once everything goes well, and we make it through, we should be met with a cliff drop before reaching the place where the corrupted gem is hidden. That's the plan."

I looked at each and everyone in the room and they all adorned the same looks. The looks that screamed WTF! King Hart voiced out his opinions, "Forgive me for doubting, but that hardly sounds like a plane. There are no specifics to this plan."

"That's the point. No clear plan, harder for the enemy to know our next moves." Jack responded. I immediately summarised our briefing, "I trust in my team, and they trust in me. All I ask if that all of you trust in us to retrieve this corrupted gem. Now, if there are no further questions, my team and I will be prepping up to get started on our mission." with that, my team and I started clearing out the dining room, and headed to my room. Before I got too far, I heard Haley calling me. I told the team to head on without me first, while I sort out the matter with Haley.