Graced

Chapter Six

Lia moved slowly towards the now open door, distracted and puzzled by the girl's parting message. She knew one thing for sure, and it was that she didn't trust anything the girl -who apparently was a goddess, according to what she'd said about the name of the sword- had given her.

She held the sword gingerly in her hands. She wanted to examine it more thoroughly, but needed to reach the hallways that actually had light first. In darkness, it was too hard to see even a meter in front of her, let soon examine a sword.

The corridor that lead to the chamber wasn't any better. The torches lining the walls gave off barely enough light to see anything. She needed the artificial lights of the rest of the place. Lia strolled silently through the torch light corridor.

But once she reached the door to the foyer she paused. It had just occurred to her, that there might be others in the foyer. Lia really didn't want any of them to see her exit this particular hall, and as for the weapon she carried... Well, one thing was certain, that would cause way to many unwanted questions.

So she waited, and listened carefully. She couldn't hear anything, so she chanced opening the door a crack. Thankfully, the foyer was deserted. She padded softly over to the door that led to the sleeping chambers, and hesitated. What if there were people in there instead? It wouldn't be quite as bad as seeing her exit the forbidden corridor, but still, she held a sword. Lia desperately needed a place to hide it.

She suddenly remember the small grey door hidden in the gym. The gym had been abandoned since they arrived, everyone preferring the movies and video games. Hopefully, it'd still be abandoned.

So instead of going to her bedroom, she headed down the hallway to the gym. She paused before passing the door to the arcade, which was open. Voices and the sounds of video games could be heard from within. It sounded like they were playing a shooting game, probably COD. She slipped past the door, and thankfully no one noticed.

The gym was indeed deserted, all the state of the art equipment lying unused. She hurried over to the far corner of the workout room, and pushed equipment out of the way of the door. Once she was certain there was no longer anything blocking it, she reached for the knob.

It was locked. Disappointed, Lia began to turn away. But she remembered one of the other presents the strange goddess had given her. Digging in her pockets, she felt the delicate silver of the -supposedly magic- key. Pulling it out, she compared it to the keyhole on the doorknob. She frowned, the keyhole was much, much larger than the key itself. But the goddess said it would unlock any door...

Gently, she touched the tip of the key to the doorknob. The key began to shimmer, and changed into a large, old fashioned silver key. Lia gaped at it. She inserted it and turned the knob. It worked perfectly. She stood for a moment before stepping through the door.

At first it was dark, but as she moved into the room, the lights flickered on. She tensed, but nothing happened. Examining the wall beside the door, she found that the lights had a motion sensor. Relieved, she decided that she was quite happy with normal, modern technology, rather than the unnatural magic and such.

When she finally looked around the room, she froze, gaping in awe. The whole room shone like perfectly polished metal, because, well, that's what it was. Nothing of the walls were visible, covered by racks and shelves of gleaming metal. She stepped closer, and realized the whole place was full of weapons. Not modern weapons, like guns, but older ones. There was everything from ornate little daggers to enormous battle axes.

She stepped up to a rack that held all curved swords similar to the one that now hung limply in her hand, almost forgotten. She recognized them as Japanese swords. "I think they're called katana... Or something like that," she said to herself, mostly unconcerned with the technical name of the weapon. To her, they were just swords.