Alex & Bain: Book 1: The Philosopher Stone

*Chapter 19*

The Irkalla city was very dainty. Everything seemed to be weak and unstable one touch of any house and it would come collapsing down. Every step we took dust would blew up from our feet. Pots and pans laid over the floors some clothing thrown around on tops of the houses that still stood. One of the houses that we were passing had a wall missing. As I peaked inside there were children toys and bedding inside the room. We kept walking slowly towards the Kingdom of Irkalla, which stood tall at the end of the row of the houses.

"What happened to the people of Irkalla?" I asked Rhion who now was normal color after turning off his glow effect.

"Some were spared by the Quandom and others lost their lives and were buried here with the city." Rhion replied as he continued walking. He reached into his pocked and pulled out a small wooden object that resembled something of a knife. He shook it a bit and then threw it to the ground. As the object bounced back up towards him it spiraled and enlarged itself into a spear.

I stood there in shock seeing how this large spear could fit into his pocket.
"You are full of surprises aren't you?" I said as we kept walking.

As we got closer to the palace the details of the palace began to come into view. It was painted white with black and gold trimmings around the pillars. The white was stained with dirt and some with blood from the battle it last had when it was on surface. The steps leading to the doors had empty bottles and torches thrown all around. Skeletons dressed the edges of the step way. The doors were big and bulky. They were painted bright gold with giant door handles painted black. As we reached the doors I heard something behind us. I spun around but nothing was there.

"Do you think there may be people still alive here"

"Yes. There here but if we don't make sudden movements they won't attack."

"YOU KNOW!" I shouted.
"Shh. Yes I know. But they are blind. They can only sense motion."

We got to the doors and pushed one open. They felt as though they weight tons and with every push we made it scrapped the bottom of the palace floor making an awful noise. We slipped through the opening we made walking into the palace.

As we entered the palace lobby I noticed a huge tarp was covering something. Rhion pulled the tarp off and a strong odor come off. It smelled as though a rotting corpse had been there for thousands of years. We waited for the dust to settle from the tarp coming off when we saw that in the case there was a man. He was kneeling on the floor with his hands tied together behind his back and a large rope was tied to the cage connecting to his hands. He had no shirt or shoes on. A cloth was all that was covering his bottom half and a stone masked covered half his face. It looked as if he had been tortured and beating with marking all across his legs and chest.

"Who is he." I turned to Rhion.
"He is Aita." Rhion replied standing back from the cage. His face seemed frightened.
"What's wrong?" I said to Rhion
"I've heard of the stories but to see him is a different thing" He said starring at Aita in the cage.
"Well we have to find the stone. So come on."

We searched the body of Aita, the once powerful alchemist, but couldn't see anything through the cage.

"I don't think its here." Rhion said
"It has to be where else would the curator have hid it." As soon as I said that I noticed something hanging from Aita's hands.

"Do you see that" I said pointing to his hands.
"What is it."
"I think he's holding something" I replied as I tried to open the cage.

"Are you crazy?" Rhion said to me pulling me away from the cage.

"You have no idea what he's capable of."

"He's dead Rhion what do you think is going to happen?" I replied. "We need to see what he's holding it might be the stone so help me open this cage"