LINEAGE

Chapter 18

The theater was as elegant and refined as Nicholas had imagined. His eyes darted around the room as he and Elianna walked inside. The room was spacious, with dark brown painted walls and light brown wooden flooring. Brown wooden shelves with glass doors were lined against the walls. Inside the shelves were spherical objects with what looked like a white mist floating inside them, which Nicholas knew were illusionaires. Against the left side of the room was a large bar area with a rack of bottles hanging on the wall. In the middle of the room were four rows of brown leather reclinable seats, with ten chairs in each row, all facing a brown pedestal used to hold the illusionaire while it was activated.

"Told you we have a lot of illusionaires," Elianna chirped, gesturing to shelves around the room.

Nicholas nodded and looked at Elianna with a curious gaze, "Which one is your favorite?"

Elianna hummed, looking at the illusionaires around the room, "I used to love watching Wendy's adventure growing up. But I haven't seen it in a while."

Nicholas walked further into the room, looking at the brown leather chairs, "I don't think I've seen that one." He playfully plopped himself into one of the chairs and chuckled before looking back at Elianna, "What's it about?"

Elianna smiled humorously at Nicholas' playfulness before she looked up, recollecting her favorite childhood movie, "It's about a girl who becomes friends with a dragon, and he shows her around the world."

Nicholas hummed and smiled, "That sounds pretty cool. Maybe I'll watch it one day."

Elianna beamed, "I can watch it with you if you want!"

Nicholas nodded happily, "I'd like that. Maybe when I'm over another time."

The words another time rang loudly in Elianna's head, and her smile widened a little. She had been nervous about whether Nicholas would show up today, but now, here he was, talking about coming over again.

Elianna gestured to Nicholas, "What about you? What's your favorite?"

Nicholas looked up, scratching his head, thinking. A moment later, he smiled and looked at Elianna again, "The Valiant Five."

Elianna looked at Nicholas curiously, "I've never heard of it. What's it about?"

Nicholas leaned back into the chair and looked up, remembering the illusionaire. "It's about five members of a noble king's personal guard. One day, they discover a plot to assassinate the king and are framed for the idea. So..." Nicholas stopped himself and smiled before he looked at Elianna, "Well, I don't want to ruin it. Maybe we could watch that together as well."

Elianna smiled jovially, "Sure!" She excitedly looked toward the door, then back to Nicholas, "Do you want to continue looking around?"

Nicholas smiled, nodded, stood up from the chair, and gestured to Elianna, "Lead the way."

Elianna nodded gleefully and walked out of the room, with Nicholas following her. Nicholas' eyes traced the walls of the white hallways as they made their way through the mansion, observing the various paintings. They made a right turn, and Nicholas looked forward, seeing they were approaching a set of double brown wooden doors.

"And this," Elianna began as she approached the double doors and pushed them open. "Is the library."

Nicholas walked inside and saw that the library was vast and beautiful. Dark gray carpet made up the flooring, and mahogany bookshelves were lined up across the walls. In the middle of the library were multiple mahogany tables with books lying on top of some of them.

Nicholas' brows raised in amazement, looking around the room, "This is nice." He walked further into the room, curiously looking at the bookshelves. "Do you read a lot in here?"