"What the fuck did you do?" he breathed out. The sound became louder and louder each second, and eventually everyone could hear it. It wasn't a threatening sound, but it still made the students feel uneasy. As it grew louder, it also appeared to speed up. The ticking came closer to each other and the grinding became somewhat harsher.
The students simply sat there, not saying a single word to anyone, awaiting what would happen. If anything would happen, that is. But something did. Only seconds after the sound began to speed up, an invisible force entered the room and took out every candle, leaving the teens in an embrace of near complete darkness. The only things giving light to the room being the soft cresses of moonlight shining in through the windows and the screen of Cassíes pod.
The girl took notice of the sudden darkness and looked up at the confused and somewhat scared students. "What are you guys doing?"
"N-Nothing" Audra stuttered. She was standing closer to Weide than she was before. The grinding and ticking was still going and in the darkness it was just unbearable, putting all of the students on edge. The sound gradually grew louder and faster until it came to a sudden stop, leaving the room in dead silence. But before anyone could say or do anything the golden frames lit up with a soft golden light, and seconds later one of the mirrors that were standing on the ground smoothly slid to the side.
The students stared in shock as the mirror opened up and revealed a secret passage, a soft light was emitting from its depths.
"..is that a sign that we should go down there?" Tarrio asked, him and his sister stood up from the armchair.
"Hope not, because I'm not going down there" Yune stated, joining the rest of the group from his previous location behind the wall.
"I don't think you have a choice" Feíx shrugged at the shorter boy, grinning whilst walking towards the passage's entrance. "There is no way in hell you're really about going down there" Aiven called out, making Feíx stop in his steps and turn to look at the other. "Um, I'm doing it right now. And besides, what other option do we really have other than wait around here?" he crossed his arms and leaned forward, still wearing his grin that now was accompanied by a raised eyebrow.
Aiven didn't know how to respond to that question. Quite frankly, no one in the room did. But that didn't change the fact that going through an apparently secret passage that led to Fengári knows where wasn't the best idea.
"Don't know, don't care. But I'm pretty sure everyone in here would much rather stay in here than go down there" was what Aiven decided to be the most suitable response.
"Actually, I kinda wanna know what's down there" Terrie admitted, gaining weird glances that she seemed to pay no attention to. "And really, what's the worst that could happen if we go down there? Someone clearly wanted us here" Tarrio added. The two walked up to Feíx, gave him a quick smile before they all started walking, darkness engulfing them further with every step they took.
"Welp" Raión shrugged "Guess we're going down then" he walked after the previous three into the darkness, walking with the confidence and the fearlessness as if he was the first one to go down. Cassíe scoffed before turning off her pod and followed after. A small part of her questioning why she was following Raión of all people in the room.
Aiven, Derin, Zam and Adriam took a few moments of thinking before they too walked through the passage. Leaving the last four alone in the semi-dark office.
"I suppose we have to go down there now" Liviné sighed and stood up from her seat, towering over the other three. As she noticed, her pale cheeks got a pink tint of embarrassment. Liviné was way too tall for her liking. She gently cleared her throat, trying to forget about her current thoughts, and walked over to the passage. Entering without hesitation or a word.
The last three shared worried glances before they too walked into the darkness, leaving the office behind them, and as soon as the last one made his way over the thin threshold dividing the office and he new found passage the mirror closed behind them. There was no going back now. Using the weak light before them as a guide, Audra, Weide and Yune all made their way through the darkness.
Even though they got closer to the rest of the group and the light with every step they took, Audra's heart was beating fast as she was filled with fear. She walked with her arms close to her body, not wanting to touch anything that could potentially be on the walls. Perhaps was it because of the shallow darkness she was leaving behind her or the unknown laying before her and the other two. Or maybe it was something else. Whatever it was it made Audra uneasy. She reached out her hand to hook her pinkie with Weides who was walking in front of her. He calmly hooked back out of reflex. The action made Audra relax a bit more and her lips formed a small smile.
Yune reached the light after a few seconds of walking. The dark oak wood door that counseled the secret room before him stood open and the rest of the group were inside, staring in awe at everything within the room. And walking in resulted in his eyes filling with awe as well. The room was huge, almost as big as the headmaster's office, and the spherical ceiling was painted a dark blue with millions of white dots decorated it. Paintings were hanging from the walls, all framed with a rustic golden frame and showed detailed artworks of creatures and people. It wasn't easy to see exactly what due to the dim lighting of the room, because the only source of light present where black an purple candles that stood in random locations throughout the room. Bookshelves stood against the wall and held many old looking things like books and scrolls.
"Wow..." Yune breathed out, spinning around once to take in the new surroundings. "Where are we?"
"We don't know" Adriam said in response. "The office is on the top floor of the academy and it doesn't match the outsides"
"We'll say it's underground for now" Feíx jumped in and Yune nodded before he too started giving the room a closer examination.
Zam was standing still and stared up at the painting on the ceiling. The edges had Lumenian runes written on them and Zam recognized almost all of them. It seemed to be a quote of some sort. Once he finally could take his eyes of the lines of runes, something else caught his eyes. A circle on the floor with dots and small lines connecting them in the middle and symbols close to the edges, which he hadn't paid much attention to. But it didn't take long before he saw what it was. The symbols for the twelve zodiac signs, and with that he also realized the dots and lines both on the floor and the roof where stars and constellations.
Zam kneeled down to get a better look at the circle, brushing his fingers over the symbol for Gemini. His fingers allowed him to notice that the symbols, and probably the entire circle, wasn't simply painted on the wood floor but carved into it.
"What's that?" Tarrio's voice came from Zam's right side, startling him a bit, along with his hand pointing at the painted circle. Zam cleared his throat before he spoke "I think it's some sort of decoration, an element to sorta give the room personality. Just like the ceiling painting"
"It's very detailed" Audra commented. She knelt down, her blue eyes shining with admiration for the attention to detail in the carving as she let her fingers gently brush over the sign of Pisces. As soon as she came in contact with the carving, it began to glow. Audra's eyes widened a bit and she pulled her hand away from the symbols as quick as he could and hurried to her feet.
"What did you do!?" Zam stood up and stared down at Audra. His intense eyes made the contact far beyond uncomfortable and the Caerulian teen had to look down at the floor to able to say something.
"I-I don't know I just touched it" Audra stuttered.
"Is something wrong?" The three teens standing in front of the circle whipped their heads around. All the others were staring at them, making Audra face heat up in embarrassment. "I didn't- I didn't know something would happen!" she shrieked in defense.
"What would happen?" Terrie questioned. Her bright, copper red ears raised up slightly out of curiosity. Audra didn't have to answer the question as the same force from the office entered the room and aggressively hit them all over. The force caused the candles to once again go out and the door slammed shut, so for the second time that night they were in darkness.
"Well shit" Feíx said while his eyes were trying to get used to the darkness.
"The fuck was that necessary for, Audra?" Raión snarled at her. Audra couldn't' say a word, she just stood there with her mouth open. But fortunately she didn't need to say anything as Zam came to her defense.
"She didn't know something like this would happen, it was an accident" he said in a stern voice, giving the reigance before him an intense glare. One that could suck the soul out of you if you looked long enough.
"Yes, but she was the one who touched the, whatever it was she touched" Aiven pointed out.
"Obviously she didn't touch it on purpose"
"Technically she did"
Whilst the other had begun their small chatting and a mild argument, Cassíe had turned up the brightness on her pod and made her way to the door. She pushed down the handle and tugged harshly. Nothing happened. "Damn it" she groaned, tugging again a lot harder.
"Great!" she exclaimed once she finally gave up the tugging, silencing the others. "We're locked in" she announced and threw her arms up in defeat.
"How lovely" Aiven said sarcastically and crossed his arms over his chest. The mood in the room quickly changed to a cold and dark one. Not only in the sense that none of the teens felt like starting up another conversation with the others, but in a physical sense as well. Strong shivers were sent shooting up their spines from their feet, shaking their bodies.
Liviné was fast to cover her thin-clad shoulder in hope to warm them, in the act managing to catch a glimpse at the floor. A thin, white mist covered it, wrapping around their feet and ankles causing the cold. Liviné was also able to catch a flashing light from behind her, so she gently turned her head and her eyes immediately landed on the carved circle. Each of the symbols lit up one by one, creating the illusion of a spinning circle.
Liviné stepped back, turning her entire body towards the circle. "Guys.." she said, trying to get their attention. They all turned their eyes towards her, following her gaze to see the blurry circle of light coming from the symbols as it sped up. Suddenly, a strong wind emitted from the circle and it started to rise up, stopping at about eye level with Adriam.
"What is even going on right now!?" Yune yelled, the wind changed direction from out to in and the circle became brighter. It was almost impossible to see that the symbols were being lit up one by one by now, as it only appeared to be a spinning circle of light. The teenagers tried their best to stand still, clutching onto the nearest objects whilst their hair violently whipped around them in the air.
As it spun in the air, a small orb of light arised from the center of it. It left no time for anyone to take in its features as it wet shooting directly towards Audra. It hit her hard in her chest, causing her in inhale sharply before falling unconscious on the floor.
The circle left no time for either action or reaction before another orb emitted from its midpoint, this one targeting Zam. As soon as it hit him he was sent flying backwards into one of the bookshelves before he too fell to the floor, along with a couple of books.
One after another, the orbs raised up and shot towards someone of the students, each one falling unconscious directly after they were hit. And finally, Aiven was the last one standing. The spinning circle stopped and now gave the teen a chance to see what it was, and it wasn't really a simple orb of light, but a symbol. Aiven recognized it, but failed to identify it in that moment.
Aiven, knowing that there was no use of trying to run away from it -Feíx had tried and proved it to be useless as he was now laying with his face pressed up against the wall- , closed his eyes and braced himself for the upcoming hit. Once it came, he immediately felt a warm feeling throughout his body for a split second before his head hit the floor and he fell unconscious.
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