The Lost Monarch

Clues and Questions

Eva followed the wisps through the Underground. She hadn't told anyone, but she had left the sheet of ice on the table where Theodore would be able to see it. Maybe he would be able to see the wisps too, but somehow, she doubted it.

     The decorations from the celebration had already been taken down, even though it was still the early hours of the morning. She didn't really pay much attention to her surroundings anyway; she was entirely focused on the floating blue orb dancing in front of her eyes. They looked like tiny candle flames, but bright blue and dancing across her field of vision.

     And then a wisp stopped right at a wall, dancing around a certain stone. Eva pressed on the stone, and then the wisp moved to another. She pressed on that one too, following the pattern until she heard a click. The stones began grinding together, shedding dust down onto the floor beneath the wall - no... door.

     The opening widened, and Eva followed the glowing blue wisp through. A chill washed over her as she began to descend the stairs revealed by the opening. She had never seen this part of the Underground before.

     Something compelled her onward, despite her every instinct screaming at her to wait for backup, to wait for her friends. She couldn't stop. She couldn't make herself stop. It was like she was being pulled along, like a puppet on a string. It was similar to how she'd felt when she'd had her vision the other day.

     Eva descended deeper and deeper into the darkness. The only light was the eerie blue glow of the wisp, bobbing down and down and down. The stairs began twisting into a spiral, the air growing colder and colder the further she descended. Wait for help. Go get Theo. Tell someone. Tell anyone where you are. She was practically screaming at herself, but her lips wouldn't move, her steps carried her forward.

     A light started shining ahead, something at the bottom of the steps. Eva's night vision was relatively good, considering she was unseelie, but for some reason, not even her eyes could make out what exactly was causing the light.

     Onward she went, until she reached the bottom of the stairs. She struggled against the strings pulling for her, struggled and fought, but her body didn't so much as twitch in response. Eva clenched her jaw, stamping down on the spark of fear in her gut. She shouldn't be afraid. Whatever it was, she could handle it.

     Right?

     She had to squint as she walked through what must've been a doorway of some kind. Her eyes burned as they struggled to adjust to the new lighting.

     When they finally did, she gasped.

     The room was entirely coated in ice. It was a dome in shape, with a firepit in the very centre of the room. The firepit burned with blue fire, and it surrounded a podium that seemed to be set in the middle of the flames. The wisp floated over to the podium, and set itself down on top of it, before disappearing.

     The tugging sensation vanished too, but Eva was too curious now to turn back. She strode forward, slipping a little on the slick ice. The blue fire didn't burn, so she stepped right into it without hesitation. It didn't hurt her, nor affect her clothing in any way.

     From there, she could clearly see what sat atop the podium.

     A... book?

     It was a leatherbound, worn book with no title and very few signs of ageing. She picked it up and held it carefully in her hands, stepping out of the flames. The moment she did so, she found herself standing in the meeting room. Everyone else was there too, and the slate of ice she'd left for Theodore was sitting on the middle of the table.