REDEMPTION

45. REVELATION.

Her eyes opened and she swiftly moved in panic. Her body refused to obey and for some reason, it was stiff. She could still feel the beddings under her which was a sign she was still in bed. Achlysa could not tell if day had come or not. Neither could she tell how long she had been out. Perhaps time had frozen, perhaps not.

Outside, the moon still stood proud. Sometime had passed it was not so much that it would alarm someone. The whole castle was asleep, that was, apart from the few individuals on night patrol. No birds flew in the sky and no wind blew the clouds. The night was still and peaceful. Or was it?

Suddenly, the squishy feeling she had disappeared and she fell on something hard. It was cold and dusty. Wherever Achlysa had landed seemed to not have been used for eternity. She sneezed a couple of times. And even after a while, she did not seem to get used to it.

She was in her night attire. It had picked up dirt that was unevenly distributed. Luckily, her gown had been brought along with her. There were bloodstains on her knees but she did not notice. In fact, she dis not look like it hurt either. She used her hands to confirm the ground was solid before heaving a sigh of relief.

Achlysa lifted herself off the ground. Her staff had not been teleported with her so her hands would do. She saw grey all around her which meant she was inside a house. But what house had no door? She walked to the closest grey and touched it. The surface was rough and uneven. This ruled out it being a house. It felt more like a cave.

Picking a direction, she followed it slowly. It did not take long for her to find a smooth part along the walls. Achlysa scanned the whole thing. It was two meters wide, she was not tall enough to determine its height and it had no handle or door knobs. However, it did have weird writings on it.

As she scanned she had come across a few strokes in the wall. She was uncertain how long they ran. And how far they stretched. A few of them had occasionally intertwined. Two circles were felt as she searched and her palms fit.

It was a gamble but she had an idea. Achlysa remembered learning a spell that could channel her energy into lifeless objects. Her mother had kept on insisting to train her in weird magic spells. She had not seen the use of them then but now she was glad she did not skip her lessons.

OAchlysa closed her eyes and channeled half of her power into her palms. As the power surged in and out of her, she felt the stone doors shift. They opened so suddenly she was not prepared for it and landed fast first on the floor.

Cursing under her breath, she sat there for a moment rubbing her forehead. It took a few seconds but she was soon on her feet. The door locked itself. She was startled and went ahead to search for a way to open them again. To her surprise, she did not meet a smoothed out wall but a rough one. There was only one explanation, that was the way in…but not the way out.

Achlysa dragged her foot on the floor. Her feet swept the dust that had accumulated off the floor. The sound she produced bounced from one corner to the other, it was an empty space. She walked around trying to find anything. After a few steps, she hit something. She stretched out her hand to grab it but nothing was there.

“Focus.” The little girl's voice reminded her.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and listened. At first, she heard the sound of her own breathing but as time went on she picked up different sounds. She could hear water dripping from the ceiling of the cave. The water was added to already existing water that awaited to be replenished. No wind was heard and no movement whatsoever.

Due to the new sound filling her eardrums, she could tell that there was a pillar beside her. On top of it lay something heavy. Achlysa approached it carefully. She might have been brought here safe and sound, but the intentions of her bringer were still unclear. She circled it first. Even though she could not see, she was sure it was not a trap.

She stood in front of it and hoped she was not jumping from the frying pan and into the fire. Her hands gently felt the item. It's shape suggested it was a box, however, just like the door, it had no keyhole. However, it also did not posses the drawings the door had. Achlysa tried lifting the item from its stand but it weighed a ton.

Achlysa concluded that it was not an item she could just decide to leave with. She had to reveal its contents there before getting the chance to get it for herself. If it could not be opened or taken then perhaps it needed to be earned. She searched for clues, anything that could help her open the box.

Nothing came to her mind. The dripping of the water had increased but she ignored it. After thinking she thought of how she would look like in this state. And that's when it hit her. A single phrase had been repeated to her over and over again. ‘You me alike.’ And that could only lean one thing. The water.

She followed the sound. Achlysa walked into the water source. She knew the answer would be there but did not know how it would present itself. She left her mind open for options because she did not know how it would appear. And anything was better than nothing right?

The water was freezing as it wrapped its body around her legs. She shivered but continued walking in. Her legs collided with a colder and more firm object beneath the water surface. Achlysa dived into the small lake to retrieve it. The object was smaller version of the box on the pillar. As she walked back to it, Achlysa wondered how a box could open a box.

She tilted the cube in her hand. Her hands thoroughly brushed the faces of each side and soon she did find consistency. There was a single line that ran a top four faces of the cube. She was sure if she had her eyes, she still would not have seen it. Achlysa opened the box using the lines she had felt. And in it was water which poured over the bigger box.

Achlysa was confused. Why was water trapped in water? And why wasn't the water in the lake enough? And what had been so important that it had to be kept away. Her answer came sooner than she expected. She heard the box open.

“I was right about you. You and I Are alike.” A young gentle male voice said. “Don’t be afraid. I am not your enemy. My name is Dreco Malvargo, I am the author of the rumored ‘Entity divisibility'. I cannot answer your questions at the moment because they will all be revealed once you recover what you have lost. But, I will tell you this ‘everything is not as it seems’. The rest is up to you.

The pain Achlysa had been feeling came back. Her legs buckled but she did not give in. She had to listen to what was being said. Her body leaned forward making her try to grab hold of anything that would support her. Her right hand went into the box and she immediately withdrew. Achlysa had felt something grab hold and burn her skin.

“My research was a cover to protect what had been lost. Since I was part demon, I could easily blend in here. However, our people were torched and killed wherever a'd whenever the other races found us. That was until you came. You taught us a culture we would never forget and made our existence acceptable. I wrote the ‘Entity divisibility' to fool those that wanted power into thinking it was a source of power. In real sense it was not. The ‘research' was the only way we could record our culture. It has now been given back to its creator. It will all make sense. I am glad I got to see you once more…it’s about time. Wake up, my Queen.”

Her consciousness slipped away from her.