Stolen Waters (Descendants Jay x OC)

Chapter 7

Once Lonnie had left, Sylphrenia bid the others goodbye, deciding to go on a walk around the grounds.

The day was beautiful, and it was still in the point of the season where everything was still lushly green and vibrant. As she moved out farther from the castle towards the forest, the grounds started losing their structured feel and became move wild, the colors more vivid, and the shadows darker.

This part of the grounds was Sylphrenia's favorite. It reminded her of Avalon, where she had lived before Camelot. It was where she had spent the longest part of her childhood growing up.

Everything here made her feel like she was home.

In essence, she was, because she soon came upon a lake. Its waters glimmered darkly and sinisterly. The water lapped quietly at the edge of the ground, where tree roots entwined together. It was not grand, like her old lake, but for her purposes, it worked very well.

Syl strode up to the very edge and, staring down into the waters, she made a fist. She felt the familiar kick of power as bright light encircled it and started growing. After a few seconds, when it had grown to a considerable size, she flattened her hand out. The light spread out, rippling away from her.

It was a detector spell, to make sure nobody was nearby. She could feel the light dissipating. There was nobody around for at least a mile. She was alone.

Syl took a step back from the lake and looked to the side, where a large boulder stood, halfway nestled between two trees. It was moss-covered and gray, with a small indent on the side. Slipping through a grove of trees, she arrived at the boulder and placed her hand onto the indent in the rock. "Memento mei, et aperire," she muttered.

Stepping back, she heard a rushing noise. The water started swirling and a stone step appeared where some of the water had receded.

Faster and faster it went until a narrow flight of stone steps appeared, wet and slimy. They descended down into the darkness of the lake below.

Sylphrenia started down, her boots slipping at intervals. Down and down she went, farther than should have been possible. She could hear the water rushing back to its place, and enveloping her in darkness. The only thing keeping her going was her memory of where each step was.

At last, she arrived at the bottom. The minute her foot hit the floor, light appeared, pushing out the darkness to reveal where she was.

She was in a large cavern, with stone walls and torches rimming the perimeter. The torchlight reflected off gold, silver, and other precious metals, giving the cavern a healthy glow. Among these possessions, Syl could feel the magical objects in the room radiating power, both light and dark.

This was Sylphrenia's vault. It contained all of her ascendant's treasures, both magical and non magical. Many of these objects hadn't been used since the Great War in Avalon, where the winter and summer counts had clashed, destroying millions of magical lives.

There was one object in particular that Sylphrenia was looking for. She slipped between two stacks of gold coins that duplicated if touched, past a collection of swords hanging on the wall, to one of the cavern's long bookcases. As she stepped on a carpet next to the the bookcase, it rose up. It took Syl a second to find her balance and she began rummaging through the books that were close to the ceiling of the cavern. They were all old, with a particular musty smell that seemed familiar, although she had only heard about the contents of these ancient tomes.

At last, she found what she had been looking for. It was an old thick volume that was deep blue in color and bound in iron.

It was her grandmother's: Lady Salophena the first. When a fight to stop her grandmother from opening up Avalon to the mortal world, Sylphrenia's mother had taken her spell book and given it to the council, who had returned it to Sylphrenia when her mother died.