The Three Enigmas: The Diamond of Strength

Chapter 14

It was the stroke of midnight. The world calmed down. The moon showed it's radiance through the inky, unilluminated sky. Shadows seemed to reach out and share a stroke of stomach-churning fear. Distant noises scattered the feeling of resented terror and fright. Rebeckah Hughes, her twin brother James, their cousin Rupert and their instuctors, Olympia and Alecto, walked through the Dark Forest at 11 o'clock, nearing a fate of obliteration and possible death.

They were armed with bows, arrows, swords, their own bare hands to fight with, and the most important,  their magical wands, which would protect them at all costs. But Rebeckah's company were only there for a short while, once they helped her penetrate the castle they'd leave back for Regnum, and she'd be left to find the diamond all on her own. Rebeckah herself wasn't even sure how she would find the diamond, but she did know that it would take a lot of courage and a lot of searching to do it. "No pressure, Rebeckah," Rupert constantly reminded her, obviously just trying to ease the look of discomfort on her face. "Why wouldn't I feel pressure?" she'd say inwardly to herself, but keep going on despite this. 

Then, the five of them came upon the castle. It was stereotypical to be quite honest. It rested on the cliff, as if it was giving it's occupants a way to escape if they wanted. The castle, white, tall and towery, it was as if it was painted against the sky which had a cool mist draping itself around it's dark complexion. One of the three Regnumese moons hung right next to it's tallest tower, illuminating a bright shadow unto it. "It gives me a dreadful feeling," said Olympia, for the first time ever, sounding weak.

"It does to me too," said Rebeckah.

"How can't it?"said Rupert. "But it'll look a whole lot better once we have taken it under seige."

'What's the first order of business?" asked James, looking frightened.

"Get Rebeckah inside the castle swiftly, obviously. But to do that, we first have to kill the guards protecting the towers. There'll be four guarding each tower, and we have to kill the first four and then the second four on the tower to our right. After that, we ambush one of the women, without killing her," said Rupert upon seeing the befuddled look of sorrow and uilt on Rebeckah's fce at the word ambush. "We have to use one of the arrows that injects Slytherslobber snake serum into it's object. and don't worry, it'll only knock the ambushee out for about two hours or so. And then she'll be perfectly okay. But we have to switch the picture of her and put in yours, and you'll pretend to be whoever she is. 

"This is the party for King Azazel's son, Melville, and it'll be an all nighter and will continue on into the next day. All of Hostiban society will be there, and therefore, you have to all that time to search for the diamond. can you do this, Rebeckah?" Warily, Rebeckah nodded. "Okay good. so what we want to do first is take down all eight of the guards, and then we'll use the time freezing charm for us to switch out Rebeckh for with the other person."

They moved towards the castle slowly, hiding in bushes and only moving forward in broad night light when needed. Alecto had chosen to jump ot of his bush at the wrong time, and was seen by a hostibn man, who was dressed in a colonial looking overcoat, and had his long hair tied back in a ponytail. He opened his mouth to be in a perfectly shaped O, and when it lookd like he was just about to say something in protest or shock, Alecto had his wand readily accesible in his hand and muttered the spell only for himself to hear. "Evanscere." The man's eyes were open, but stared dreamily and vacantly, so it looked as if he was dead. Pretty soon, he shook his head violently, as if he was trying to ge water out of his ear, and turned back round to face the group who was in line to get to the party.

Taking this as his que to begin his quest, James stood up from the bush he was in, and from where he was standing, knocked his arrow, drew, anchored and aimed at the guard who was standing still as a statue on the tower above him. The ir flew gracefully in the ir, and the arrow hit the man in the stomach, and he fell to he ground, dead as a doornail. James had killed his first person.