The Heir Of Aelia

🗡Chapter 4

Rowena's POV

As we ventured further, i slowed down my pace cautiously, unaware of what i'd find... A life destroying secret? A room filled with racks of potions brewed by cruel witches maybe? or maybe a dead body? Or a vault filled with bags of thousands of gold coins and riches.

All of a sudden it was very chilly. To make things worse it was very dark despite Sidus's luminous body. As if to prove my point Sidus the Oloragentum huddled closer to me in an attempt to keep herself warm. We kept walking further into the darkness untill....I hit something cold and hard. I closed my eyes wincing in pain.

When I opened my eyes I was met with a sudden bright flash of blue light surrounding whatever I had just banged into.

I saw a jet Black door in front of me. Something inside me told me, This was it..This was the solution to all my problems...My key to freedom, to escape out into the world, it was all just a door knob way.

Before me stood a black, hard, mysterious wooden door. The door knobs that seemed like they used to be a shiny spotless silver, now looked quite rusted and dull. The door had carvings of some sort that made it look very antique. A chill ran down my spine as I slowly traced the well defined carvings on the door. My eyes slowly drifted towards the top of the door. There, right in the middle, was a beautiful, majestic, fascinating image of the head of a wolf carved with hints of gold and copper.

I gave the magnificent doors a gentle push, afraid of ruining such a fine work of art. They didn't budge. I pushed harder, but they still wouldn't budge. Seeing me struggle Sidus tried helping me out. But our efforts were in vain. I was beginning to give up, and thought it was best i head back to bed before anyone could catch me roaming around the castle this late, or rather early, considering how it was probably Half Past 5 in the morning.

Only then did I think that there could be a possibility that this door was not meant to be opened by simply just strength and muscle but instead maybe intellect?

I studied the carvings carefully this time. I noticed there were words engraved in the area around the door knobs. They were written in Latin. Luckily for me I was fluent in latin.

"Solve sollicitat unlcok ianuam." ,I read out aloud. Loosely translated that meant 'Solve the puzzle to unlcok the door'

I read the words engraved around the other door knob.

"numerum pulsat = numeri", that would mean 'numbers knock= numbers'....That made absolutely no sense to me. What on earth was number knocks= numbers. "Knocks...numbers."

It was a numerical based riddle..that's for sure. But what did knocks have to do with numbers? Oh of course, how did I not see it before..Knocks=numbers being the number of knocks were only a way to answer through numbers, obviously one can't converse with a wooden door.

I focused on the prominent carvings on the door . There was a carving of a man who looked like he had been...chained?? There were vultures perched oh his shoulder. I took a closer look and identified that the carvings looked very much greek.

Then it hit me, the birds, they weren't vultures..they were eagles! Man..chained up...eagles. That was definitely Prometheus The Titan.

It is said that once prometheus had stolen fire from the olympians for human kind . When Zeus the king of gods found out, he wasn't very pleased. Prometheus was punished by Zeus, who bound him with chains and sent an eagle to eat Prometheus' immortal liver every day, which then grew back every night. Years later, the Greek hero Heracles, with Zeus' permission, killed the eagle and freed Prometheus from this torment.

I tried to think of all possible numerical relations...Prometheus..number? I wasn't sure.

Did prometheus have a brother? Yes Epimetheus...ONE..

Doubtfully, I knocked once. But nothing happened.

Okay maybe...not siblings. Suddenly I felt something brush against my arm. I turned around panicstricken.

It was only Sidus. I'd been so focused on how to unlock the mystery door that i'd forgotten she was here.

Sidus seemed to be growing tired with each passing second. I gently pushed her toward the floor, while she obediently followed, slowly resting her body on the hard cold floor. She fell asleep within minutes.

I turned my attention back to the door.

Right now, Prometheus and numbers..

Maybe the number of eagles that fed on his liver? Well the answer to that was one. But that was obviously wrong since it hadn't worked last time.

Hold on..

Is there a possibility that it it was connected to pythagorean numerology?

As a result of complex evolution of universe and occurence of ethereal space there was a celestial formation of olympic pantheon of various gods who have formed the hierarchical structure which is connected with the magic square or mathematical matrix of nine numbers of Pythagorean Numerology.

In this Prometheus was associated with the number 7. Maybe that was the answer. Seven knocks..

I stepped towards the door cautiously and knocked seven times. I waited.

Nothing happened. I sighed in disappointment.

Just then I heard an ever so faint creak. Then another creak, this time much louder. I heard various knobs turning, hinges moving and creaking. The faint sound of metal scraping against each other. It was expected considering how old the door must've been.

Sidus had already woken up by then. The loud twisting and turning of knobs and hinges had woken her up from her slumber. She moved closer towards me stretching out her left wing in front of me protectively in an effort to shield me.

I was scared but also excited and eager to see what I would find behind the door.

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