Efia
"Ready?" Ailia asked as she faced Efia, her arms outstretched.
"Yes ma'am! I've never been more ready in my life!"
Ailia looked worried. "Are you sure that they'll believe you? I mean, weren't you thrown into their dungeon the last time you went there? I'm not sure that's a very reassuring idea."
Efia gulped. The last thing she needed at that point in time was for Ailia to be voicing the exact concerns that she'd been thinking to herself. "I'm sure I'll be fine," she said, as much to herself as to her friend. "Do you think I have everything?"
Ailia looked at her skeptically. "Yeah...I'm pretty sure you have everything."
Efia's entire body was covered in ropes, bags, and weapons. Basically everything that she'd ever need plus a few extra unnecessary things.
"Alright, Ailia," Efia said, taking a step back from her friend, "I think it's time for me to leave."
Ailia's bottom lip began to tremble and she rushed forward, wrapping Efia in a very tight embrace. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she whispered into Efia's ear.
Efia pulled away, a slightly annoyed look on her face. "Yes, Ailia, I'm sure. Thank you so much for helping me today. I know how much it hurts you to help me, especially because of your mother. But please, shift into me again. I can't risk anyone finding out that I'm gone, especially my father."
Ailia nodded. "Got it. Just," she looked away, tears filling her eyes, "be careful, okay? You're the only friend I've got at the moment and I want you to be safe. Don't take any unnecessary risks."
"Yes ma'am," Efia said with a grin, saluting to her friend. "Ready when you are, Ailia."
Ailia took a deep breath, calming herself, then she raised her hands towards Efia and whispered, "Incantasia Murindan."
Tears trickled slowly down Ailia's cheeks as she watched Efia melt into a cloud of black particles and get swept away by an invisible breeze.
Efia had been tellied multiple times before but she'd never enjoyed the experience and this time was no different. She hated the feeling of being disembodied but still being able to consciously think about what it felt like. Like usual the ride felt very long but it usually didn't actually take as long as it felt.
She landed in the middle of a small, very nicely furnished hut. The room was lit by bright moonlight streaming through the circular windows in the wooden walls. It was round and had a little round cornered door right near where she had landed. There was a small bed on one side of the hut and lying on the bed was a pile of flowers and notes.
"Huh," Efia murmured, standing up and walking to the bed. She picked up one of the notes, gently placed the rose that was attached to it back on the bed, and held it up to the moonlight to read it.
Dear Nyx,
I hope that if you come back to your hut that you
will remember the good time we had together. ♡
Evander
Her brow furrowed slightly but she picked up another one. This one read:
Nyx,
I hope to see you again one day soon.
I have no idea why you ran away but I sincerely
hope that you are well wherever you may be.
(If it's something that I said, I apologize.)
Love, Auntie Mari
Efia had just picked up another note when the sound of approaching footsteps came from outside the door. Throwing the note back onto the bed, she only just had enough time to dive under the bed before the door swung open with a loud creak.
From under the bed she saw a pair of leather boots walk into the hut and right up until their tips were almost touching her nose. The person sighed deeply and dropped another note onto the pile, making all the notes rustle.
"I miss you, Nyx," the man—at least, Efia assumed it was a man given the depth of the voice—whispered softly.
Without meaning to, Efia let out a small snort of laughter.
Immediately the man dropped into a defensive pose and called softly, a warning note in his deep tone, "Who's there?"
"I am," she said, sliding herself out from underneath the bed.
The man—or rather, the boy—dropped the dagger he'd been holding. Taking a tentative step forward he reached out a hand and brushed Efia's cheek.
She jerked away from him, catching his hand and pinning it behind his back. "How dare you touch me, boy!"
He whimpered in pain and whispered, "Nyx, please! Whatever's gotten into you, don't hurt me!"
At the mention of her sister, Efia let go of his arm and folded her own arms across her chest, glaring at the boy. "How do you know my sister?"
"Your...sister?" the boy asked, confusion etched across his moonlit features. "What are you talking about, Nyx? You don't have a sister, do you?"
"I'm not Nyx," Efia insisted, "I swear."
His confusion grew deeper. "But, how come you look exactly like her?"
She rolled her eyes. "Because, dummy, we're identical twin sisters. You know, it doesn't take a genius to work that out."
The boy rubbed his eyes and stared at Efia again. "I'm tired, okay? It's pretty late," he glanced out the window for a second before turning his gaze back to her. "And I'm not really supposed to be in here. No one except Mari is supposed to be in here."
"So how come you are?"
He looked away, embarrassed. "Well...you see, it's a long story but—"
"Let me guess," she interrupted, glancing at the bed full of notes and roses. "You're here because you wanted to deliver yet another note in the hopes that Nyx will one day come back and know that you care about her?"
He stared at his boots, his cheeks glowing hot pink. "Something like that," he muttered.
"You're Evander, right? And you know Mari?" Efia asked, ignoring his embarrassment. She continued without waiting for his answer. "Will you please take me to her? I have urgent matters that I need to inform her of." She strode to the door and flung it open, stepping out in the chilly moonlit night.
Evander hurried after her, almost tripping over his own feet in the process. "Y-yes, of course, Miss—"
"Efia," she prompted with a slight smile.
His eyes widened. "You're Emperor Havel's daughter aren't you?! The one who was impersonated by an Enchantiss, was found out, and then mysteriously disappeared that same night?"
Efia sighed. "I suppose, if that's what you want to remember me by, that is accurate."
Evander led her through the winding passages and up long flights of stairs until they finally reached Mari's suite on the top floor of the enormous stone building that was the centre of Magewell.
As soon as they reached Mari's suite Evander rapped sharply on the ornately decorated door and stepped back, waiting for an answer.
A few seconds later the door creaked open revealing a short older woman standing in her nightdress and night cap standing in the room beyond.
Her bright blue eyes swept over the two children standing in front of her, searching for some sort of silent answer. After a second she silently ushered them into her suite and sent them to her sitting room.
"You'll have to excuse me," Mari said as she sat down in her rocking chair by the fire. "I wasn't expecting visitors this late."
"That's alright" Efia offered an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry for calling on you so late."
"Oh pish tosh," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It must be very important for you to have come all this way. Besides, I couldn't get to sleep." She smiled back. "Now that that's out of the way, please commence with your news." She settled back into her arm chair, ready for quite a story.
And quite a story she was in for.
~ ~ ~
Nyx
We landed in a clearing right next to a dark stone building that I recognized as the exterior of Gloomglen. Nalrae was already waiting at the entrance to the building but I gestured for her to follow me, not go inside the dark building that surely gave her the shivers.
She'd lived in Gloomglen for a number of years and had only broken out about a year ago. No doubt that she had many bad memories of what would surely be the worst place in the world to live.
I led them into the thick woods, relying only on my memory of the dream that had led me to the Phoenix Stone in the first place. The path I trod was one that had been well used many thousands of years ago but had fallen out of use after the Great War. Thick green vines hung in my way and I was constantly hacking through them with the bush knife my father had given me.
At long last I finally cut through the last very thick vine and fell out of the trees where they stopped very abruptly, giving way to another large clearing.
A crescent of trees outlined the clearing and the rest of the clearing was outlined by the base of a mountain. The small cave opening in the base of the mountain was our destination.
I got up and brushed myself off, turning to the group of Enchantiss that was following me, Havel, and Nalrae. "This is it. The Phoenix Cave."
There was spattered applause offered from the crowd of Enchantiss.
"Well done, Nyx," Havel said, coming up next to me and placing his hand on my shoulder. "I am very proud of you. You are a very valuable asset to our team and I hope that after this is all over you will allow me to spend more time with you?"
I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my real feelings. "Maybe." The truth was, that was what I really wanted; to get to know my family. I jogged away, all choked up for some reason.
"You there! Nyx was it?" Nalrae appeared behind me. "I wanted to speak to you for a moment."
"Okay?" I followed her into a tent that had just been erected. "What is it?"
She motioned for me to sit down across from her on the floor of the tent. "Sit."
I did so.
"How difficult is it to get to the Phoenix Stone?"
I shrugged. "Difficult enough that you'd have to know the way otherwise you'd get very lost, very quickly."
"So it's very difficult to get there?" There was a note of worry in Nalrae's voice.
I shrugged again. "I suppose you could say that. You couldn't get there without me as your guide if that's what you were wondering."
She frowned, her brow furrowing deeply. "I don't like your tone, girl. You'd better fix your attitude by the next time I speak to you or else there will be consequences."
"Okay. Will that be it, Nalrae?" I asked, rising to my feet.
"Yes," she replied coldly, "that is all."
I started to leave but remembered something that I had wanted to ask her. I turned back to her, standing in the entrance of her tent. "Nalrae?"
"What is it?" she asked grumpily, eying me with a look of distaste.
"Well, I was wondering, how is the Phoenix Stone going to help bring back the dead?" I paused, gathering my thoughts before continuing, "The Phoenix Stone was created thousands of years ago when the only phoenix left in Greater Everneau laid an egg. It was in danger as the humans were hunting its kind. It died right after the egg was laid but its tiny counterpart will live on for the rest of eternity unless the Phoenix Stone is shattered. The power of the phoenix inside the stone is just a smidgen of how much power a full grown phoenix would have and even then phoenix's have never been known to bring the dead back to life."
Judging by the look on Nalrae's face she had no idea what I was talking about.
"What I mean is, why would the power of a phoenix help bring people back from the underworld?"
"Uhh, well dear, you see," she began, "it's only because—nobody before us—has ever used the Phoenix Stone or the full grown phoenixes before it to bring people back from the underworld."
"Oh yeah, that makes sense. Thanks Nalrae!" I had been worrying about that so much that I hadn't realized that maybe Nalrae wouldn't have an answer and so, I believed her answer when it did come.
"You're welcome," she grumbled, "Now get out. I need to get some sleep before we go into that cave. Speaking of sleep, you need to go to bed too you little rascal! Shoo!"
I left and walked to my newly erected tent which was right next to my fathers. I poked my head in the opening and said goodnight to him before I actually went into my tent and went to bed.
The next morning dawned, dull and rainy just like the day before, but I didn't let that put off my high hopes.
"Are you ready?" Nalrae asked me when I bounced into the circle of people who were waiting outside the cave.
"Never been more ready in my life!" I said happily. "Let's go!" I started off into the cave but Havel called me back right away.
"Hold on, Nyx. We're not quite ready—though you certainly seem to be," he said with a chuckle. "We still need to attach some ropes to us so that if we do get lost we can just backtrack all the way back to the campsite."
My good mood faltered slightly. "We have to have ropes attached to us? That's so stupid! You should just trust me. I know my way to the Phoenix Stone, Father."
He winced very slightly when I called him Father but I noticed and that newly filled hole in my heart was slightly punctured again.
"Just trust me!" I pleaded.
He glanced at Nalrae who gave a nod of approval. "Very well," he sighed, "Let's tally forth into the unknown then."
Once again I walked into the dark cave. We were just out of earshot of the group when I realized that it was going to get very dark, very quickly in the cave. "Hang on." I racked my memory for the fairy-fire spell. "Ignacius Fae," I whispered, my eyes fixed on the fairy-fire orb.
"Good job," Havel rumbled. "That's not a very easy spell to master."
I grunted but my heart swelled. For the first time in my life, the orb of fairy-fire actually stayed where I wanted and the size I wanted and my father had witnessed my success, not my failure.
I heaved a great sigh of relief and continued walking. A few steps later, my fairy-fire orb revealed a split in the rock and two tunnels leading opposite directions from each other.
"Which way?" Havel asked, his deep voice echoing off the walls more loudly than I would've liked. The vibrations caused a hoard of bats to come flying from both tunnels straight at us. They flew above our heads and screeched in our ears, their wingbeats echoing endlessly off the stone walls.
Pushing through my memories, I found the dream and rewatched it, paying close attention to the directions. "Left."
He nodded and motioned for me to walk ahead, leading the way.
It was slow going as I had to remember the directions as well as pay attention to if I was about to hit my head on a low hanging rock. As we progressed through the tunnels they continually got thinner and lower until even I was stooping through them. About an hour into our journey we had to squeeze through a very narrow crack in the wall. Luckily it was long enough for Havel to get through otherwise that would've ended our entire trip right there.
"How much further, Nyx?" Havel asked breathlessly as he only just managed to squeeze himself through a narrow, low roofed tunnel.
"Only one more small tunnel until we get to a series of larger caverns," I replied, sticking my hand in front of my head to make sure that I wasn't about to give myself a concussion. "The Phoenix Stone is in one of the furthest caverns but it should be easy going once we get through this final tunnel."
He didn't answer, his breath coming in short bursts.
The final tunnel was by far the longest and hardest going. Pillars of rocks sometimes blocked most of the tunnel but I realized that if it really was that hard going then we could just use magic to move any blockages. That was exactly what we did when we came to a massive fall-in which blocked the entire tunnel. The passage was soon cleared and we continued on our way.
When we finally fell out of the passage on the other side we were covered in dirt and grime, my pant legs were ripped and fraying, and we were thoroughly out of breath.
"Not much further now," I panted, dragging my feet as I walked.
When we finally got to the cavern the Phoenix Stone was in we were very tired but the sight of the light gave us energy and we managed to squeeze through the tiny crack that led into the cavern.
The grotto was lit with a warm glow that seemed to come from another little extension of the cave. We made our way through the maze of stalactite and stalagmites to the smaller cave.
The little cave was more like a room than a cave as it had what seemed to be stone stools lined against the walls. Little lanterns of fairy-fire skirted the room creating the warm glow that lit up the cave. At the very end of the room there were two huge statues carved from some sort of bright green stone. They seemed to be guarding yet another passageway.
This passageway was long and had a very tall roof. It was more like a great hall in a castle than an underground tunnel. The fair-fire lanterns continued lighting the hall but they stopped abruptly as we neared the end of the hall.
The room at the end of the hall was small, only just big enough for Havel and I to squeeze into. The podium where the stone was supposed to be was at the very back of the little room and it was that that caught my eye first. The pedestal was made of a beautiful grey and white marble and had orange gems in the shape of phoenixes embedded around the entire pedestal.
The second thing that caught my eye was the fact that the pedestal was surrounded by a ring of bright light. I assumed that the light acted as a magical barrier against any person who had bad intentions for the Phoenix Stone.
Speaking of the Phoenix Stone, that was the third thing I noticed—or rather, its absence. The Phoenix Stone was supposed to be in the middle of the ring of light but there was a vacancy on the pedestal where the Stone should've been.