The Secret Plains

19

Narrator's POV

They stepped into a grand study room, with a solid dark mahogany wood flooring and the classic smooth stone walls. Unlike the rest of the house, the room was circular shaped and fairly large. Vines hung from the ceiling in varying lengths, some barely coming out of the ceiling and some sweeping the floor. There were tiny flying lights all around them. The walls were lined with bookshelves, and stairs going all around to the ceiling, with a pointed glass ceiling at the very top. There was a singular table and chair in the middle of the room, and a couch in front of it.

Sitting in the chair was a woman, her physique looking as though she was a middle aged woman, but Ilkesi and Kay knew better. Vampires lived for at least two thousand years, so looking like that would assume that the woman was at least no less than 200 years old. She had dull jade coloured hair, hanging in strands, falling slightly over her shoulders. She had a light beige skin tone, slightly shining in the warm light. But her posture was lean, slouched, more tired. Her dark circles indicated that she hadn't been getting good sleep.

The woman looked at Ilkesi and Kay, "You must be my visitors," she said, smiling slightly. "Please, take a seat."

Ilkesi and Kay glanced at each other before going closer and sitting on the couch in front of the desk, but Kay placed the tray on the desk before sitting down.

"Jhana said we should give that to you," she explains. "Is she your caretaker?"

"Yes, she is."

There was silence for a little while before Ilkesi spoke up, "My name is Ilkesi, and she's Mikayla. We came here to talk to you about Tal-Homan." The woman took a sip of the tea, raising her eyebrow. "You are Avalie, right?"

The woman chuckled, "Yes, I am. It's nice to meet you both. Why do you want to know about Tal-Homan?"

Ilkesi glanced at Kay, and Kay spoke up, "It's for school. Research."

"You're an explorer, I presume?" Avalie enquired, placing her tea down.

Kay nodded, "I'm an explorer, but Kesi is a caster."

Avalie smiled, "I was an explorer. It was what brought me to Il-Homan. I was so curious, so adventurous, so young. Well, I was about 78, young in vampire years, at least." she added, chuckling.

"I was wondering, Avalie," Kay commented, "You're half fairy as well, aren't you? It seems like you follow vampire traditions more than fairy traditions. Did you grow up in Bloedzuiger by any chance?"

Avalie hummed, thinking, "Yes, actually. My mother was a vampire, and I came out more like a vampire, so I adopted the traits of a vampire more. But obviously, if you noticed, my interior decorating skills came from my fairy father," she chuckled. "I decided to settle down in Flairya because it is honestly much more beautiful."

"If you don't mind me asking," Kay remarked, "Where did you meet Heifla?"

Avalie's facial expression dropped, "It was our last year in school, Level 7. That is the level for explorers where you get to basically choose your end of year exams. We would choose a place to go to, and we would be graded based on the usual criteria. We could partner up. That year, I wanted to go to the Numri Mountains. We learnt about it in Level 5. A dangerous mountain right in the middle of Mermain, yet the view from the top was magical. Heifla wanted to go there too, so rather than compete against each other, we decided to help one another. After that, we got a 92 percent average. And we became best friends.

"When we heard of a cave with rare powers, in the middle of Kobolde and Elvia, we couldn't resist! Both of us, plus a few others, set off for Il-Homan. Many told us to turn back," she shook her head sadly, "We didn't listen. We thought that being able to go there and enter the cave without suffering any effects would give us eternal glory, make us legends. We were wrong. It gave us something eternal, all right. Death.

"When we got there, we stuck to the forest, looking at the cave and journaling. There was a researcher in our little group, he told us that the effects of madness didn't affect animals as it did with beings. Heifla and I were overjoyed. We could turn into bats and simply fly into the cave.

"Heifla went to Il-Homan first. She turned into a bat and simply flew straight into the cave. She came out a few minutes later, coming back to us and transforming back. She said she saw something, but she refused to say what. She wanted to check again. I begged her not to go back, that we should just go. We reached Il-Homan, one of us straight up entered the actual cave! We were done, we could leave!" her eyes darkened, "Heifla didn't think so.

"Before I could stop her, she flew straight back into the cave. We decided to just wait for her to come out. Minutes turned to hours, specifically about 2 hours until I decided to turn into a bat and go into the cave to drag Heifla out. I turned, and flew into the cave. One problem: she wasn't there.

"I checked everywhere, she just...disappeared. At one point, I gave up hoping she was alive and started to specifically look for a dead bat instead of an alive one. There was nothing. She just vanished."

Avalie paused, and Kay noticed a tear fall from her dull red eyes.

"I am so sorry," she said calmly.

"It's okay, that was years ago," Avalie swallowed, catching her breath, and eating a biscuit, "Did I answer all your questions?"

"We only have a few more," Ilkesi reassured, "What did you see in the cave? Anything unusual?"

"Well, there was a sense of...dread in the air. Just because it didn't affect me, that doesn't mean I couldn't feel it. There were random piles of wood and ash and some bottles scattered everywhere, but the cave was mostly flooded, so everything was wet." she hummed for a moment, remembering something, "There was something strange, though."

Ilkesi and Kay instantly sat up, all ears.

"There was a specific pile of wood, near the back of the cave. Not only did that area look weirdly disproportionate from the rest of the cave, but the pile of wood was hot. Really hot. I could feel the heat from a bit away before I traced it to the pile of wood. I don't know how anyone got close enough to light a fire."

"Did the goblins or elves see anything?" Kay asked.

"Yes, actually. Before we went there, we asked some of them about Il-Homan. They said that they see eerie lights at random times some days. I feel like it was that fire. And some of them mentioned seeing figures going towards the cave. Weird thing is, when we came back from Il-Homan we stayed at Elvia for a bit. The elves that told me about the figures mysteriously went missing." Avalie sighed, "My memory is a bit rusty. There are some people that have gone to Il-Homan recently, maybe you can ask them."

Jhana came in, "Ms Starbough, you have a visitor."

Avalie groaned silently, which made Ilkesi and Kay giggle. She leaned in close to Ilkesi and Kay, "Don't tell anyone, but I hate unexpected visitors," She looked up to Jhana, "Who is it?"

"The Council. Or, a representative of the Council."

Avalie froze, looking at Jhana with an 'Are you serious?!' type of look. "What do they want?"

"They have...questions," Jhana said waringly.

Avalie looked at Ilkesi and Kay, "You girls should run along now, it was great meeting you. Maybe we can have tea together sometime, I enjoyed your company." She looked at Jhana, "Send him in."

Ilkesi and Kay stood up, thanking Avalie, and leaving. But not before passing a stern looking man, with wispy silver hair falling into stark blue eyes. A pixie, probably. He gave Ilkesi and Kay a wary look before entering the room and shutting the door behind him. Jhana looked at them.

"It was great having you guys here, I hope you can come again soon."

As they were ushered out of the house, the door shutting behind them, Ilkesi and Kay had one similar thought.

"Someone can enter the cave with no effects."