The Seven Keys of Areid **COMPLETE**

Chapter IX: The Final Guardians

So close to the end *sad face*

 The tunnel became a dead end, Adalira soon discovered. At least, the main one did. The once pleasing-to-the-weary-eye darkness had soon become claustrophobic and pressing, and Adalira had been forced to her hands and knees to crawl her way back to a tiny crack of a side pathway.

Twenty yelps of pain and two broken fingers later, the utterly exhausted elf's eyes were met with a faint silvery light, like early morning on a rainy day. Scrambling towards the light down the continuously widening path, Adalira finally stumbled out into a small, circular cavern.

The cavern was divided right down the middle. One side was a pure, sterile white, a bright absence of color that almost burned the eyes that were adapted to darkness. However, in the very middle of this half circle was one circle of a full, jet black, a drop of ink on white parchment, venom on bones, eye on whites. The other half was the polar opposite, deep ebony with a luminescent point of white in the center; a solitary pearl in a dusky sea.

The exhausted elf, still kneeling precariously on the dull slate grey of the tunnel, was hesitant to move towards either one. The white seemed too innocent, too pretty, and contained what could be a dangerous dark core. The black, on the other hand, was simply dreadful. What if there was some form of trap before the potentially secure white spot?

Normally Adalira would never have thought in such a paranoid way about a mere cavern floor. But these tunnels had done something to her. Something drastic that had altered every single thing about her. It terrified her to realize this. Who even was she anymore?

 “We don’t know,” a clean, light voice answered, as if reading her thoughts. Adalira’s eyes widened as she realized the voice was her very own, only higher in pitch; a falsetto, so to speak.

“Yes, yes, so do fix this for us,” her voice continued, adding a silky mischief to it that Adalira didn’t know it could even possess. “Who are you, elf of the rather unfortunate voice?”

Adalira waited a moment out of pure fear. Could she even answer? If this person- or people, for it kept referring to itself as ‘us’- was using her voice, could she use it?

“My name is Adalira,” she found herself saying. Directly afterwards, she exhaled in relief. It seemed as if her voice was her own as well as the mysterious person she couldn’t see. Instantly, two figures formed out of the stale air of the cave. Adalira was way past the point of being startled when people came out of nowhere. Instead, she stood up with her arms purposely crossed in front of her slightly swollen abdomen and watched.

Two people-or was it one?- floated steadily in the air, surveying her with identical appearances of mischief. One was a girl, aged maybe seventeen, with the perfect appearance of a ghost or an angel, maybe. From head to toe, she was pure white. Her long hair floated prettily as if in water, and her smile, despite an air of eeriness, was beautiful.

The other figure was the exact opposite. He was probably the same age, but he was pitch black from head to toe. It was scary, like a demon or a smoke djinni of some kimd. Both sets of eyes were closed, and their hands were intertwined in a way that suggested they had never ever let go of each other; as if it were second nature. And, of course, they were adorned with the traditional keys around their necks. Strangely enough, the pale girl wore a charcoal key and the shadowy boy wore the crystal white key.

“Adalira? My, that’s an interesting name,” the girl spoke. Gleefully, Adalira realized that the girl was not using her voice, but an airy voice that suited her appearance perfectly.

“I don’t like it too much. Too much your style, Sister,” the boy retorted. His voice was not as appealing to the ear, like rocks being shredded, if rocks could in fact be shredded.