Melody of Blood and Night

Seven

Aedlyn stood in the cold, damp room, surrounded by complete darkness. She could hear the muffled shouts of The Crown Prince from the other side of the door.

"Aedlyn! Aedlyn are you okay!?"

"Yes, yes, I am alright," Aedlyn assured.

"Can you open the door from within?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so," Aedlyn concluded after feeling the door for any knobs or handles.

"I'll go get help then." He said hesitantly. She stayed there with her ear pressed against the door, until Prince Zaivian's footsteps faded away.

She turned and sank to the ground, sighing. Her thoughts returned to Caelan's harsh words as she rested her head against the cold stone and closed her eyes.

"Mei Ardor..." the whisper called out again. Her eyes flew open just as a dull, iridescent glow cast lit up the room.

Her lips parted slightly, gaping, as she realized that her ring had turned luminescent. She sprang to her feet, and slowly raised her left hand, her widened eyes fixated on the faint light seems to radiate from the hoop's opal inlay.

It was beautiful, like rainbows trapped in shards of glass, "Come..." the whisper beckoned. She tentatively moved further, her hand feeling the wall to her left, letting the iridescent glow of her iron band light her path.

Her heart lurched when her hand brushed against something cold, colder than stone. 'A metal handle perhaps,' she thought and brought up her ring-bearing hand to see what she had touched. The light of her band bounced off of what seemed like two long brass levers, placed close to each other. Aedlyn hesitantly pulled down the first one, with a bit of effort.

Something groaned before making a sloshing sound. Aedlyn froze, expecting water to rush in and the walls to close in, but when nothing happened, she uncertainly pulled down the second lever. Almost immediately, a fire flashed into existence in, a burst of red and orange.

She watched open-mouthed as the spark turned into a blazing river, flowing around the room. The fire licked the oil, slowly devouring it smokelessly. Aedlyn's eyes adjusted as she surveyed her surroundings.

The fire burned in an open channel that ran along the length of the room. The room itself looked ancient. The floor was littered with archaic relics, various types of dust-covered chests and peculiar looking urns tangled in cobwebs; allowing just enough space to manoeuvre one's way to the heart of the room, to the lectern.

Goosebumps speckled her skin as she gazed at it. Entirely constructed out of black marble, it had a roaring lion sculpted out of the same marble at its foot and an intricately chiselled vine of roses, running along the length of its cylindrical stem that stopped just below the slanted top in form of a beautiful, blooming rose; it looked out of place in that dank chamber.

But what made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, was the levitating book hovering over the lectern. Aedlyn advanced towards the ancient tome, as if hypnotized by it. It was bound in russet brown leather, cracked and dried with age. Her heart pounded in her ribcage as she reached for it with sweaty palms.

In one swift moment, she grabbed the manuscript in her hands, the sudden weight of it catching her off guard.

Aedlyn went rigid as she waited for something to happen but when nothing did, she relaxed, holding the heavy tome close. Aedlyn's brows knitted together in puzzlement as she peered down at the open book's blank, yellow-stained pages.

They were....empty. She had almost placed the book back on the lectern when all of a sudden, the book started to quiver before flying out of her hands. Its pages rustled, as they flipped back and forth.