The Falling Kingdoms: The Hidden Coffins

Chapter Twenty One: The Maroon Book

The fire chest was the most prodigious experience of my life. I hadn't ever seen something so marvelous happening right in front of my eyes. It astounded me to my very core. I was able to tame the fire eventually but not as good as Alcina did. She was an expert! The job was hard. It took a lot of my energy and a lot more of my magic to perform it. But with dedication and inspiration, I was able to perform well till the evening.
After that day, I went to the fire chest for two more days until I was finally good enough in the task. But there was something that Alcina said about me not being the fire tamer. When I asked further, she explained it to me. Each of the angel is good at taming any one sort of element. Each one of them follows one of the lords. And I didn't follow the fire lord, apparently. I was disappointed. I always found fire fascinating. It was a shame I couldn't do it faultlessly. Alcina thought I would be much better at air. That is why, after the weekend I'd be taken for the next element's training.

At the moment, Nick and I were at his place. He was teaching me to resist the vixen. We were sitting on the couches of his living room with legs crossed, facing each other. Our hands were joined in front of us.

"Close your eyes." He solemnly commanded.

I slowly closed my eyes.

"What do you see?" I heard him ask me.

"Nothing. There's pitch darkness here." I replied, afraid there was something unusual about that.

"Focus, Aileen. I know there's darkness. But there's a dot in the middle. Focus on it."

His encouraging voice helped me concentrate. I took a deep breathe and tried to find the dot he was talking about.

"I see it." I murmured.

"Now, keep staring at it and you'll find yourself moving inside it. Can you do that?"

"Yes,"

I fixed my sight on it, finding the dot getting bigger and coming closer to me. My heart beats fastened. The white dot was changing into light. It was coming closer, taking me into it.

A click and a thud made my concentration drop. My eyes opened on its own and I blacked out for a moment.

I groaned and kept my palms on my eyes.

The sound was of the door getting opened.

"Who is it?" I sharply questioned.

"It's me." Leonie's upset voice made me look towards her.

"Leonie... What are you doing here?" Nick stood up from his place and advanced towards her.

"I'm...just..." She stuttered, her eyes fixed on me uncomfortably.

"I'll give you two some space," I quietly said and exited in the nearby room, closing the door behind me.

The room was small and smelled like books. I let my eyes wander across it and saw three huge bookshelves. There were over thousand books in those, some so fat only three could fit in one case. My eye sockets extended in surprise. All his house had were books. There was a comfortable looking sofa chair in the middle of all that with a round coffee table in front of it. I smirked and nodded my head in appreciation, forwarding to check some of the books. I realized, even the lighting of the room was ideal for someone to read a book. And I thought, how can someone be so obsessed with reading? Sure, I read a lot of novels too. But I had a limit. This was extremely limitless.
I took out a medium-sized, maroon colored book from the third shelf to the right and went to sit on the sofa chair. Opening that book, I read its title: "The Legendary Swords".

I turned the first page and found myself looking at a picture of a black sword. It looked so real even through an old book. I traced my fingers over it, observing it closely. The blade was so thin and wide that I was sure it could cut diamonds in half. It was just black, just black.