“How is your mom?” Faria asked nervously.

“The healers say that she’s doing better, but she still hasn’t woken up.”

Shortly after my mother and I were brought to the castle, she fell ill. It was sudden and violent, but just when it seemed like she was going to die, she fell into a deep sleep. None of the healers that had come before could find out why something like this happened, but she was getting better. I visited her nearly every day and had noticed a significant change in her health.

“Do you think we could go see her tonight?” Faria asked.

“Oh, sure. I’m sure that she’d love to have another visitor.”

Faria smiled brightly at my answer and continued to eat, petting Bella as she did. The cat continued to sit there, remaining perfectly still as my sister ran her fingers through her fur. 

Eventually, the cat stood, arching her back before leaping to the floor and strolling out of sight.

“Perfect timing, I guess.” Faria pouted, watching the cat leave. She then turned to me and asked. “Hey Mal, I’ve been looking for a book for a few days, but I can’t find it. I’m pretty sure it’s called Limfor’s Fables. Have you seen it?”

“Yeah. It’s actually in my mom’s room.” I answered. “She read it to me whenever I had nightmares. I thought it could help her if I read it to her.”

Faria tilted her head to the side and ruffled my hair. “Maybe I can read to her tonight.” She spoke, her voice soft.

She pulled her hand back and finished the last bite of a piece of bread and folded up the food bag as she stood from her chair.

“What’s next?” I asked, standing from my chair. I had finished my own food much quicker than she had.

My sister stood there for a moment, thinking, before asking with a grin, “How about we have some fun?”

“What do you mean by fun?” I asked, a little hesitant.

“Just follow me.”

I did as she asked. We headed for the nearest door that led outside. There were at least fifty guards patrolling the grounds at any time, but they usually had a kind of pattern to them that Faria and I had meticulously memorized so that we could get around without getting spotted. Quietly, we crept through the grounds, hiding behind bushes and trees to avoid the guards’ sight, aided by the position of the afternoon sun, and eventually came to the royal training grounds. The training grounds consisted of a small building made to look like a shed that hid the entrance to a massive field a good distance below the ground. This was where those who were training to become royal guards practiced. It had been unused for a short time since the captain of the royal guard was absent. He had been personally training Faria to use her powers as a sorcerer.

 We eventually made it to the entrance and quietly slipped into the small building. Immediately passed the door were the stairs leading down. If I had not been here before, I would probably have fallen down the stairs and hurt myself. Embedded into the stone of the stairwell were opaque crystals the size of my fist. Faria reached out to one of the crystals and touched it. The moment her skin touched the crystal, it began to glow, releasing a dim light. After the first stone lit, dozens more along the stairwell started glowing as well, lighting our way down.

At the base of the stairs was another door. I tried to open it, but found that it was locked. Faria stepped over the door and reached around her neck, taking off one of the chains she wore, revealing two keys on the end. She inserted one of these keys into the lock and turned it, opening the door. As the door swung open, hundreds of light crystals stuck in the ceiling activated, lighting the whole room.

The whole room was carved from solid stone and completely smooth on every surface except for a small portion of the room on one side where water flowed in through a hole in the wall and into a small basin on the ground that drained into the ground. Besides this basin was another door. Faria hurried over to this door and unlocked it with the other key, then called me over.

My sister stepped aside to let me step inside the new room. I’d always wondered what was behind this door, but nobody ever went inside.

“Welcome to the royal reliquary.”

“You mean…”

“Yep.” She interrupted, a proud smile on her face. “This is where every artefact that the royal family owns is stored.”

“Why do you have a key for this?”

“Don’t worry about that. Everything in here will be mine in just a couple of days anyway.” Faria replied quickly, brushing off what I said. “Now go ahead and find something.”

I stepped into the room. It was a large room with dozens of objects hanging from hooks, lying on shelves or resting in drawers. I didn’t even know where to start. There were so many artefacts to choose from, and I had no idea which one did what. Some artefacts were especially dangerous and needed to be handled with care, so I had to be very cautious with what I chose. Why would Faria let me do something like this.

Just as I was about to turn back empty handed, I felt something pull at me. It was in a drawer; a blood red gem the size of my thumb. I took the stone and left the room and showed it to my sister who examined it with excited eyes.

“What is it?” I asked, as she brought her face closer to the stone. I was going to give it to her, but she didn’t touch it.

“I think that’s called the Dragonstone.”

“What does it do?”

Faria shrugged then turned and stepped into the small room. After just a few moments, she came back out with her arms full of artefacts.

“Be careful!” I cried out as she nearly tripped. “You don’t know what those do.”

“Sure I do.” She replied, closing the door with her foot. “I made sure to research what I wanted to take.”

The fact that she put time and research into what she wanted, but not what I might take concerned me slightly.

“Watch this.” She said standing in front of me with her arms full.

Then, in a moment, every item she held turned into a translucent purple energy that was sucked into a ring she wore on her right hand.

“What was that?” I exclaimed.

“It’s the first working prototype of something that the nerds at the College have been working on.” She explained. “They call it a storage ring. It takes things and then puts them into this tiny gem on the ring. I’m honestly not sure how it works, but it’s definitely cool.”

She then held out her hand as the same purple energy flowed out of the ring and into her hand, extending outward into the shape of a sword. Then the energy disappeared and was replaced with an actual sword.

“It takes some practice, but I really like it. I’ll ask them to make one for you too.” She said, bumping me on the shoulder. “Now let’s see what that rock can do.”

I turned towards one of the walls and held out the stone. My black aura flowed through my eyes as I focused on the stone, but nothing happened. I rolled the smooth gem around in my hand then felt it get stuck. It had fused to my palm and wouldn’t move. I grabbed at it with my other hand and pulled, but it didn’t budge. Instead, it sank into my skin and disappeared completely. I could feel the stone moving through my body as it reached my chest and collided with my heart.