Guardian: The Great Beginning

Chapter Seventeen - The Master of Nightmares

Part Three:

The Dark

Chapter Seventeen

The Master of Nightmares

Akilah was met with a rather rude awakening. She woke up in the Castle of Light, in her bed and her own bedroom.

Immediately, Akilah sensed something was off.

It was dark outside. Permanently so, it seemed. Dust had settled on the castle's furniture, and the walls were beginning to crack. It was as though the castle had been left abandoned for centuries.

Akilah immediately began to fear the worst. She had to find her siblings to confirm her fears to be true or false.

She quickly made her way out of the bedroom, only to find that the rest of the castle was in even further state of disrepair. The servants had left, the tapestries were destroyed; some walls had gaping holes in them.

It was as though a battle had been fought inside the Castle of Light.

And perhaps, Akilah considered, there had been.

Akilah's worry grew once she discovered that her siblings were nowhere to be found within the castle. The entire building was deserted; she was completely alone. There wasn't even a single guard left outside the gate.

Akilah's second option was to check on her youngest brother, who was obviously behind all of this. She simply wanted to know what happened while she was out, and she did still believe that her brother would at least give her an accurate description of the events.

Lying was below Asura. Or, at least, the Asura Akilah knew.

She found herself unable to use any Magic; the Dark around her was too strong and was suppressing the Light inside Akilah's soul. Either that, or she'd been stripped from her Element entirely. Right now, she couldn't be sure. Akilah was left defenceless in this world, but that would not stop her from finding out what had happened while she was gone.

How long had she been gone for? Where were her siblings? Was she on her own?

If she was, then that meant she was the only one left to finish this. She'd first try and talk to Asura, then continue the plan she'd set in motion before Aharnish interrupted it in favour of the Ritual.

Without Magic, the situation would be more difficult to solve, but Akilah knew of a solution. Or, at least, she hoped she did, because at this point, she admitted that she knew rather little.

For now, she had to focus on trying to reason with Asura.

Akilah felt lucky that the two castles were within walking distance of each other. Still, she decided to take a look inside the stables to check if the horses were still there.

The Spirits each had their own horse. Akilah's was a white mare. The horses were rather unique; if necessary, they could quickly sprout wings and fly, transforming into pegasi. For now, just a horse that would be able to take Akilah to the Castle of Dark quicker than her own legs could, would do.

Akilah was somewhat surprised to learn that the horses were still within the stables, well-fed and taken good care of.

Who'd been taking care of these horses, if all servants had left?