The Ring of Fire

Chapter 8

Alice and Castor sat with their mother as long as they could but they were soon forced to lie down when fatigue hit them. It had been a restless night. The bed too hard, the smell of disinfectant too strong. The fact that they were restless and woke up at every small sound didn't help either. Castor's mind was filled with curiosity about what could be there in their father's study. The ring from Alice's description sounded intriguing.

The next day, Catherine woke up, tired but still very much alive. She forced her children to go home and get some proper rest and despite their unwillingness, they finally agreed.

The sun hung low in the sky, slowly yet steadily rising above the horizon. Autumn's last winds blew breaking the bonds of the few hanging leaves and further lightening the great willows of its weights. The day seemed bright, cheerful and filled with hope, warring against the thoughts of the two teens.

Castor was seeing Albert's study for the second time in his life, first being when he was seven years old and was finding a place to hide from Alice while playing hide and seek.

The room was exactly the same,the navy-blue wall still had strokes of light blue that made it look like the calm blue sea. The tall bookcases mostly hid the walls. A variety of books about the myths and legends of different countries and times were neatly stacked on the largest bookshelf. The smaller shelves had books on accounts, science, geography and general knowledge. The wood board floors were in need of polish but still looked impressive. A large and polished rosewood desk dominated the center of the study. The ray of light illuminated the room the same way it did, still the smell of big books and leaflets would hit their nose, the window still overlooked over the garden lushing with the same flowers. Everything was the same except that the room was missing its life. The thought of Albert reminded him of the time when all was good and he always had someone behind his back protecting him of any danger out there. Castor stood still reminiscing about the better times, lost in his own thoughts. It was pleasant to be able to do so but there were much more important things to do.

Now that they were back home, Alice's worry about Catherine just grew, but she pushed to the back of her mind and joined Castor in the study. Their Mom had not wanted to disturb the place, she did clean the room but the book and drawers were left untouched. It almost seemed wrong to move them around, but Alice's curiosity got the better of her. She moved to the large desk, opened the middle drawer and motioned Castor to come forward. There were many letters in there but absolutely no sign of the ring.

Castor would have thought that his sister was pranking him had he not seen the look of distress on her face. He knew what she felt. The ring could have been a clue about his father's death but now it was gone, the ring had given them hope only for it to be snatched away. There was no sight of the ring but that did nothing to discourage Alice, she was still opening up drawers and rifling through its contents. Castor sighed but chose to help her nevertheless and started searching through the books. There were books about geography and ancient politics and wars and books about self motivation and cooking. What was his father doing with a cookbook? He had no idea. Among the many books, what caught his attention the most was his book. Sitting among the thick spined books, with their names written in golden print, sat his favorite book. At first he thought that his book must have gotten here, except for the fact that he remembered reading it just a few days back and he was positive that the book wasn't his, yet just to make sure he ran back to his room. There sitting on his night table was 'The Unnatural Events of our World'. He picked it up and ran back to the study, he was positive that he had a clue. Alice had been standing by the bookshelf, with a confused expression. She had no idea why Castor was in such a hurry. One minute he was reading the titles, the next he was dashing out of the room. When he came back, Castor paused at the door, his eyes were wide and he was clutching a book in his hands. "Castor? What –" Alice was interrupted by Castor thrusting the book into her hands and then he proceeded to pull out a book from Albert's shelf. "Look at the title." Castor commanded. " 'Unnatural Events of Our World' What does this have anything to do with Dad?" Alice questioned raising one eyebrow at her older brother. "Dad gave it to me, but that is not what bothers me. Look at this." He points towards the book he had taken from the shelf. "It's a copy of mine, with the difference that the writings on the cover are in gold. Why would he need this book? If he ever wanted it, he could have just borrowed mine or something but he still has this book" Amid his explanation, Castor had been frantically waving his arms with the book in his hand, causing a few pages to fall out of it. Two of them had been an electric bill and one a grocery list, but what caught their attention was a letter. It was on a cremè paper, addressed to Albert. Alice, who noticed it, caught Castor's hand and asked him to stop. She then picked up the letter and waved it in Castor's face. "Look at this, will you? It's addressed to Dad."

Then without waiting for Castor to say anything, she opened up the letter and started reading it.

Dear Mr. Albert Coolwater,

This is a follow up letter that lets us know that the Ring of Fire is safely hidden. The following details are the copy of the clue you left behind. We request you to keep this information safe and hidden so that it may not fall into the wrong hands. Please verify and let us know that it is in fact the right clue. We trust you to have created them in a way only the ones worthy can decipher them.

Seek our home

Or forever roam

Amidst the throne

Attacks are prone

Beware dear stranger

Thy path enlists danger

Whoever has the Ring

Shall be crowned the king

"Seems ominous doesn't it?" Alice asked. "Yes. now read on." Castor replied

"There is nothing to read ahead."

"What do you mean there is nothing to read on?"

"Precisely what it sounds like. The letter ends here."

"That can't be possible. If this is a clue then it sucks."

"This sounds more like a warning."

"I don't think this is the whole letter.What about the conclusion? The line that says 'yours truly' and the name of whoever sent this."

"I told you this is all this sheet of paper has. We need to look for more clues. There's got to be something."

"Alice, we have no idea what we are looking for."

"Well, how about we search for paper the same shade as this. There must be something. We can't reach a dead end like this"

Alice was growing frantic by the second, her eyes were darting around the room, trying to find something but there was nothing to be found or maybe whatever needed to be found was hidden. Castor stood still for a second, debating the next course of action and decided to take inventory. "Alice calm down. That's going to take some time, besides there are loads of books and drawers, we have no idea where dad might have kept it. First let's see what we have and what we understand." He then took the two books and the letter and then proceeded to drag Alice to his room. He sat on the desk while Alice took her seat on the bed. "So we know that Dad's death is unusual, and that there is no way he would have just dropped dead, so we assume that there is more to this than we know." Castor says and then proceeds to write it in a notebook. "We know that the ring was dangerous and that Dad had that." Castor spoke again while jotting it down. "Why on earth was dad carrying a dangerous object and how on earth is a ring dangerous." Alice asked, sounding frustrated. "I have absolutely no idea but right now we are jotting down facts, things that we know for sure, questions come later. " Alice was torn between slapping her brother or just letting go of her emotions and cry herself to sleep, but she chose a third option to act calm while a storm raged on inside her. "There is someone out there, The one who sent the letter, who knows about Dad and whatever this accursed Ring is about" Castor continued. "The riddle or that poem in the letter tells us that seeking the ring is dangerous. That might mean that there are some kind of traps or other things protecting it." Alice ponders all this for a minute. The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. After trying to assess the situation for a few times, Castor still couldn't find anything meaningful. Nothing made sense. He would have thought about it a bit more had he not been interrupted by a phone call.