Nothing could be witnessed except for an ancient well that was as old as time, in the middle of a huge empty area covered with grey fog, not a single ray of light touching the land. The torture of time turned it into a horrible site; it was all covered with thorny dead creepers, ferns and algae, without a mark being green. The water in it does not seem drinkable; it was greenish-blue and cold, strangely no movement of water at all. Paraiba threw a pebble in the well, which sunk immediately without even causing a ripple!
‘’No need to worry we shall get a way through this, together we can and we will.’’, said Flint with a touch of tremble in his voice. ‘’Don’t tell me we have to jump in this deadly watery cylinder.’’, said Teal taking a glimpse of the depth of the well.
‘’We cannot just wait and watch for a miracle to happen, we must get to the Amorael, We have a clue given by Miss.Birdwing. Come on people, it’s time for some action.’’, motivated Paraiba.
‘’We must first keep our pets out of this hazard.’’, saying this Flint ordered Lesotho to leave at once along with Sasha; they denied the order and persisted to stay.
Nevertheless, this resulted in Flint being rude and ordering them with utter rage to wait at some distance, so that they remain safe and leave if they did not return after the passage of a reasonable time. At this moment, Lesotho and Sasha were compelled to leave unwillingly.
‘’The skeleton, we must find a skeleton, look around mates.’’, said Teal with a grin.
‘’Exactly, I thought of the same datum.’’, added Flint.
‘’This is an open ground, the only place the skeleton can be is this water, but the question is how to confirm this.’’, said Paraiba.
Without even a second’s delay they all got to work, tried various spells to bring out the skeleton but to their disappointment nothing worked. The fog was so thick that there was merely any light and hence it was tough to see through the water. They tried continuously from dusk to night, were hungry tired and exhausted. They decided to have dinner and try again after a bit of rest, as there was no sunlight even if they succeed in moving the fog yet that would prove of no help. It was a well-lit full moon night; they were gobbling their food, and pondering for a way to get to Amorael. Dramatically
Paraiba got up and said-
‘’We can cast the lantern eyes spell to see in the dark, as the fog is created in a way to create hurdle, we can look for the skeleton in the well.’’
Therefore, to try out this suggestion they went near the well and pondered who will risk in for the task. Paraiba insisted to let her try, as she came up with this, if things do not work out she will face the consequences. After a bit of argument the other two agreed to do it together, and decided to dunk their face in and look for the skeleton through the lantern eyes. So as decided, they stood on three sided of the well, and on a count of three said, ’’Lantern Eyes’’ and dunked their faces in the well and within five seconds all of them took out their faces and started coughing. ‘’Did you feel it too?’’, asked Teal.
‘’Are you talking about the vacuum like force that was pulling us in, it was getting difficult to hold our breath?’’, added Flint.
‘’Yes, I felt that too but I am glad we sighted the skeleton in time otherwise we would have been one.’’, said Paraiba.
‘’So let us jump and get to Alcazar.’’, said Flint excited. ‘’No.’’, shouted the two.
‘’According to the poem we have to wait until the skeleton is gone.’’, said
Paraiba.
‘’Oh yes, I forgot about the clue lines, that means we have to check again, no way.’’, said Flint.
‘’I guess we must pass the night as the first line suggests, that is when we will find a way.’’, added Teal.
‘’It does not seem safe to sleep in such a danger dwelling place, we must secure our sleep.’’, said Flint.
‘’Leave it to me.’’, said Paraiba picking up a big stone and placing it below the tree whispers, ’’Stone Room’’ and says, ’’Come lets sleep.’’ ‘’Where? On this stone.’’, asked Teal mocking her.
‘’Nope in it.’’, said Paraiba.
‘’Stop joking around we will build a tent or something.’’, said Flint. ‘’Oh trust me this is better, if you doubt it, go and move the stone an inch.’’ ‘’Fine.’’, Flint tried all his might but the stone remained stable and did not move an inch, ‘’It is heavy, what did you do?’’
‘’Told ya, this is the stone room appears to be a normal stone but is actually a spacious room.’’
‘’You have shared valuable info but how will we enter it, look at the size difference.’’, said Teal.
‘’Oh just hold my hand and stay static otherwise we can get hurt, ready?’’
‘’Yes.’’, answered the two in an under confident voice.
Paraiba then kept her leg on the stone and with a swirl; all three were inside the stone, the room. The room has three beds, was spacious enough to be all-night and warm as well, all of them laid on their beds
and slept peacefully. The night went like a fraction of an hour, they got
up changed their clothes, got fresh and had a hearty breakfast. After all done, they held hands again, Paraiba touched the ceiling and they were out in a dash. All of them went near the well and positioned themselves. They noted that the water now turned to whitish-blue and the skeleton was nowhere to be glimpsed, so they decided to jump one by one into the well.
‘’Ready for a near death experience?’’, asked Flint.
‘’Why not! After all our life also deserves a blend of spices to make it worth relishing.’’, replied Teal.
Paraiba then stood on the rim of the well and jumped in straight, her scream could be heard getting fainter with each second and then it was all quiet.
‘’Be quick, jump in.’’, came her low echoed voice.
Both of them jumped in one after the other and they just passed through a layer of water and landed on a bushy grass bed, smooth as butter. The place where they have noted the decaying skeleton now lies a tunnel with a dead end and above their heads can be seen a clear layer of floating water from which not a single drop fell on them.
‘’It’s a dead end, is this the way that skeleton was created.’’, taunted Teal.
‘’Nope not a dead end, look there appears a ray of light coming from above at the end of the tunnel.’’, marked Flint.
They all passed through the tunnel and found a tube at the end with an opening, they climbed up the tube and through the opening came out from a tree hollow to the same point, right in front of the thick fog wall. ‘’What rubbish, we waited whole night to travel through a deadly well to reach the same place we left from.’’, said Paraiba annoyed. ‘’Look below the tree our stone room has receded from the view I don’t think we landed to the same site.’’, said Teal.
‘’We must go and check the well once again.’’, said Flint. ‘’Yes you both are right, let us try our fate.’’
They passed through the thick fog and to their surprise the well was nowhere to be seen but instead a gigantic black castle- The Alcazar. They were standing before huge black gates and a castle fortified by great
thorny walls, no one could dream of climbing. The castle tower huge as if
about to touch the clouds, the air filled with secrets and the inside may be labyrinthine corridors and rooms, glorifying paintings and enormous
thrones and jewels placed in the treasury, anyone could get a similar imagery standing at the gates of a mystical castle.
‘’Open up!’’, casted Paraiba.
Clang! the doors opened as swift as sliding sand even after being closed for the past twenty years. They neither rusted nor turned dusty; they were as novel as if made today. The designs and paintings still intact without any wear and tear and carved on it in the most artistic font: Klazead’s Heart – Alcazar, the only thing that was out of sight were colours, the doors were black as night as if the hues and tints were stolen away. They passed through the gates entirely mesmerized by the scenes their eyes were witnessing. They saw all around them the statues of humans so real as if alive but black. Teal tried to touch a human figure.
‘’Do not lay hands on anything Teal’’, shouted Paraiba, ‘’we are surrounded by concealed perils; in order to return victorious we need to be cautious. Be mindful!’’ Teal stepped back as soon as he heard these words.
‘’You are right Paraiba we must be extra careful.’’, added Flint, ’’the palace is huge in order to find Amorael we must divide and work, anyone who gets the book shall inform the other two through a tune message.’’ ‘’Now what is a tune message?’’, asked Teal.
‘’Oh poor Teal, that is a musical note created with a hidden message. The message can only be heard by the person for whom it is created rest others just hear the tune, understood?’’, replied Paraiba. ‘’That sounds interesting, would be fun, best of luck guys, see you soon.’’, said Teal. ‘’Yes, let us start, may fortune be our side.’’, said Flint, ’’Wait a minute guys, Teal look keenly, we have seen this statue man.’’ ‘’No, I am sceptical if I have seen him, after all it is an achromic statue, it’s tough to identify.’’
‘’Umm….now I recollected this face, I caught a glimpse of this face on our wall, he was in a memory spell with my father, that means these statues we sight around are real humans under a curse, we must find Amorael and free them.’’
‘’You might be erroneous in this case as one can sculpt such statues of real being, they could be created from magic, what makes you think that these are cursed to stone.’’, enquired Paraiba. ‘’You do have a valid point but just scan in the details these sculptures have, they are too realistic to be carved and if created by spells then why such random expressions and poses, I sense we need to hurry up.’’, said Flint worried.
‘’I am neutral in this matter but what’s drawing my attention are the words ‘memory spell’, what’s that?’’, asked Teal.
‘’This spell is used to preserve a memory on a paper so that it can be lived repeatedly through the sketch’’, replied Flint, when all of them where rushing towards the entrance.
They went inside the palace; it was unilluminated inside not a ray of light so they used the spell of light bombs to lighten the sources of lights present in the palace. Light bombs are compact balls of light that break
where a source of light is present and absorbed by such source to
conquer darkness. Teal went straight, Paraiba turned to the right and Flint chose to go left. They all set out with their light bombs, which divided and showed them the way. They started to check and search the rooms thoroughly as magic spells does not work on Amorael.
Flint found a small room at the corner of the corridor. This room was distanced from other rooms and was remote as of its location. This room seemed darker than the other rooms and its energies were strong
enough to give chills. Gathering all his courage, Flint entered this room
and to his utter surprise, the room manifested itself perfectly empty and pitch dark. He used his light bomb to look around which grew dim for some reason but found nothing except for some spider webs and dust. He thought this room fulfilled no purpose and was just a waste of space
and he was about to leave the room when he tripped on something and fell, it was a liver on the floor. That liver opened a door for a secret room and he thought he is close to find Amorael and he entered the stairs that led him down the room. With each passing step, his light bomb grew dim and on the last step, it was off. Now his eye could see nothing but darkness. He moved forward swinging his hands aimlessly where something touched his hand, he became alert, and a wave of silence engulfed the room. He felt a touch on his back, which terrified him, but he kept mum. He saw a beam coming from a wall inform of the room he thought it’s the way to Amorael and he rushed towards the direction of light. As soon as he entered the door, he collided with something and fell on the ground. The room was pretty lit so he could clearly see what he collided with and he shouted-
‘’Paraiba, what led you here we started in two opposite directions, how come we met at the same site?’’
‘’I think there is some trap, this place is giving me weird vibes, let’s get
out of here!’’
As they were about to leave the doors slam shut and they were trapped inside they tried various spells but nothing worked, as if the place was magic proof.
‘’What led you here?’’, asked Flint.
‘’I entered a silly room that was very bright, it was almost blinding light, as I was finding a way out of that room I felt a rope hanging from the ceiling I pulled it. I thought that it might take me to Amorael but to my disappointment, it pulled me upwards with it and I landed in the previous room from where we came here.’’
‘’Oh how can we miss it, we should have gone with Teal as Amorael is in the heart of Klazead it could never have been here. This was just a trap for the robbers and hence magic doesn’t work here.’’
‘’Exactly, spells will be ineffective here but our flairs, they can help us out as they does not require any casting of spells, here see my future and tell me when will we able to exit from this shack’’
‘’That is an excellent idea, lend me your hand miss.’’
So Flint held Paraiba’s hand and closed his eyes and he saw that Teal is rushing towards the room of the door where they are locked and he has in his hands the Amorael and he easily opened the door externally as the doorknob lies there and he set them free. ‘’Within an hour we will be out from here, Teal will come to the rescue and he will have with him the Amorael, now all we have to do is wait patiently.’’
‘’ONE HOUR!’’, said Paraiba with a fuss having no other possible course of action.
