SELENE EIN 👁 🌙

GLOW

"Hmm guys.... come here fast" there was such an urgency in her voice that made them cease laughing immediately. They grouped around her and followed her gaze. She was pointedly staring at a point. They also began to inspect the place.

"What?" Finally, Ol questioned after several minutes of silence.

Three of them were confused as to what she was pointing out, there was nothing else except the floor.

"you didn't notice when I fell?" Zem looked at them. All three of them had blank expressions.

"you might not have noticed but we were laughing our heads off, thus couldn't notice anything" Ein pointed out sheepishly.

"I think I found the answer to the riddle" she mumbled

"What?" they all shouted in unison. did they hear her wrong?

"This part of the floor is different from the other parts, when I fell on it there was an echo. In the other parts, a thud sound is usually heard while we walk. I think there is some kind of room under here" she let all this out in one breath and looked at them, who were looking at her with their mouths open confused.

Zem stood up from the floor, others mimicked her action. She moved a little bit backward and stamped on the floor it gave the usual thud sound. Then she moves back to the spot she fell and stamped on it. The thud sound was replaced by a hollow sound that echoed. Their faces lit up in realization.

"the ancient must mean here, this is one of the oldest buildings the selenes have lived in" Aze cleared their further doubts.

They started scanning the floor for something like a trapdoor that could open into the underground room but to their wonder, there was nothing. it was just a paneled floor without any cracks or anything that could be a door.

" It sounds hollow," Zem said looking confused.

"Are we supposed to break the whole floor and go underground?" Oliver questioned.

"no, I don't think so, there must be something that lets us in" Eim murmured.

"Moreover if we just break the floor and there is nothing underground our parents surely will bury us there," Zem said mockingly.

They once again stamped and knocked on the floor to confirm their finding.

"maybe it is connected to the hall or other rooms?"Ein questioned.

"nope, the library is upstairs and our house is underneath it.All the rooms are on the same level. There is no way the other rooms could be under this room" Aze said.

"Should we just leave it?" Einn asked.

"I don't know why but my mind keeps saying that the portal is under here" Oliver pointed. Others nodded in approval.

"So how are we going to go down?" Zem asked.

"I think this is not the entrance, there must be a trapdoor somewhere else in this house," Aze said.

"This must be just an attachment " Ein joined in his theory.

"Let's just split up and find if any room has a hollow floor" Ol announced.

"without being noticed by our parents" Zem added.

"Anyway as mom has called you Zem, you and Ein search the laundry room, kitchen, and dining hall. we will search the rest. We will gather back here if we find anything or not" Aze ordered.

They split up to search.

Ein followed Zem to the laundry room. As expected her mother was nowhere to be seen making it clear it she was making up an excuse to know what they were up to. They started stamping their feet around like marching soldiers. the laundry floor did not echo.

They moved into the kitchen. They repeated the same thing, the helpers in the kitchen looked at them confused. They must be thinking these girls have lost their sanity. They moved towards the dining hall, which yields no results and finally the infirmary. They walked back upstairs in disappointment.

"The boys might find something," Zem said reassuringly to Ein as well as herself.

They were seated in their room and were soon joined by the boys who had disappointed faces too. They lost their last spark of hope.

"why do end up back in square one after we find something?" Oliver huffed in annoyance.

"now we have found that it must be underground of a building we can search in books for some structure that is ancient" Aze tried to cheer them.

"I am too tired today to solve any more puzzles," Zem said. They all had the same thoughts as to her.

"Let's just start fresh tomorrow," Ein said.

They all agreed and got up from their seats. Zemstretched out her sore limbs. Ein moved to collect the book of aura, the letter ,pieces of the map, and the small parchment. She was assigned to take care of the things as the other three were careless.

"I am going home. Should talk it out with my parents" Ein said more to herself than to others.

She grabbed some extra books she found interesting and stacked it over the top of the huge pile in her hands blocking her vision of the others. The stack started to wobble with the weight of the books added .

"Woah " she yelled as the books slipped from her hand,all three of them stood up to catch the falling books. All the books fell on the floor scattered leaving all of their hand grabbing the air.

They all started laughing at the situation. Each had their bodies poised in in various ways that made them laugh out harder. The sunlight gleamed on their face.

"someone close the curtains, please. It's too bright" Zem ordered with screwed eyes.

Ein turned around to close it but to her surprise, the drapes were closed and the source of light was somewhere else.

She looked around, others had caught on this too and were looking around with their half-shut eyes. What met them made their eyes widen in surprise,the book of aura was letting out gleams of light.

They moved closer yet far away to check what was going on. Suddenly a strong beam of light projected from the book like a torch beam and hit on the map which was lying on the floor. The map started to light up and it produced a beam of its own which was directed towards Ein.

All were stunned rooted to the spot not knowing what to do. Aze recovered faster and pushed away Ein but the beam of light turned its direction towards Ein again. was it some killing curse like in Harry Potter? her mind spread hundreds of reasons the light was going to kill her. She put her hands on her face as it reached her.