A shadow surrounded the princess's body. Above, to the sides—everything she could see was darkness. She tried to speak but couldn't. She couldn't even see her body, though she could feel it.
She thought she was dead. Perhaps that was the afterlife. Though the thought frightened her to the brink of tears, she couldn't sob either, so she just stayed there, trapped with her thoughts.
When she was beginning to accept that it was the end of her journey, a light in her periphery caught her attention. Small at first, it began to grow brighter and brighter.
The light formed a humanoid figure. Though it shone with intensity, the princess discovered that it didn't hurt her eyes.
"It's not the time," the light said.
Zara wanted to ask it questions. Who was it? What is this place? Was she dead, or was it just a dream?
"Return to your world. We'll talk another time." The light raised its hand in the girl's direction.
It began to grow brighter, to the point that it dazzled Zara, forcing her to close her eyes. When she opened them again, she was greeted by the pale and golden walls of the ruins.
"Zara!"
And a hug from Derek, which she returned as best she could.
It took her a while to recover. Though her arm still hurt, she realized the arrow was no longer there—now in its place was an improvised bandage made from cloth.
Derek had something similar on his leg. She also noticed that a piece of her clothing and his own were missing.
"Derek, I think I saw God," the princess said with a sigh when the mage moved back a little.
"Were you that bad off? I mean, you were asleep for about an hour, but..."
"An hour!?"
"Calm down. It's normal for those who awaken a spiritual ability."
It was true—she had forgotten. She quickly looked at her reflection again. But she had returned to normal. She was the same Zara as always. She sighed, disappointed.
"You went back to normal after losing consciousness," the mage said, standing up carefully.
"Those assassins—are they still out there?"
"I wouldn't risk finding out."
Both walked around the room a bit. It was large—very large. Somehow it had remained untouched by the passage of time, at least in terms of dust.
There were tables—or what appeared to be tables made of the same material as the walls—destroyed. Parts of the ceiling had fallen, forming small piles of rubble. There were no skeletons or anything, though Zara thought they would find some.
"I took a few laps on my own. I wouldn't risk drawing conclusions, but I think this place was some kind of study."
"And what if it was, I don't know, a dining room?" Zara said, stopping to look at one of the tables.
"Seriously?" Derek asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What? People tend to eat at tables when they don't spend the day outdoors," the princess responded.
They kept advancing. At the end, there was a door that connected to another small room. The room wasn't illuminated.
The princess looked at Derek. He shook his head.
"I don't know why, but I can't use my ability down here," he began to say, crossing his arms. "Why don't you try using yours?"
It was true. She was so used to not having any ability that now she didn't remember its existence.
The princess smiled—a proud smile. She stretched her hands forward, but that made her wounded shoulder hurt. After complaining slightly and Derek laughing a little, she raised her healthy hand this time.
And nothing happened.
"Are you using your ability yet?"
"Give me a moment."
The princess waved her arm as if that would activate something inside her. The result was the same.
"By Ignus, it's the first invisible ability I've ever seen," Derek joked.
"Shut up or I'll hit you."
The princess frowned and began making movements with her hand. She tried to concentrate as much as she could, but she was incapable of feeling anything inside her. But she was sure—something had changed.
"Derek, how do you use your ability?" the princess asked, lowering her arm.
"Describing it would be strange since it's something quite natural for me. From the moment of my awakening, it's as if I always knew how to do it," was the response Derek gave.
In her memory, she also recalled having had a similar conversation with her brother Callen some years ago. The response Callen had given was very similar to the one Derek had just given.
That awakened a strange doubt in Zara. She remembered how it looked—Derek did too—but now she was incapable of accessing that power again. She could say it was the ruins' fault, but before, she had been able to use it.
Why couldn't she use that power now?
She leaned against the wall, discouraged. Then the lights of the small room turned on, just like those of the hallway from a while ago.
"Whoa, you did it! What did you do?" Derek asked, surprised.
"Nothing. I just leaned here, and that's it," she responded, pointing to the room's door.
Derek tilted his head, confused, then looked up again.
"They must have runes. They detect your spirit somehow, even if you can't use it," the mage assumed.
I suppose that's plausible, the princess thought. After all, we know as much about the bottom of the sea as we do about this civilization.
She set her thoughts aside to enter the room, closely followed by Derek. As they imagined, it was much smaller. They were surprised to find bookshelves, though empty.
On the wall was an enormous inscription in black stone, also bathed in that golden light. Illegible—aside from the fact that neither Zara nor Derek knew the Illuminated language, the inscription had been destroyed. It gave the impression that they didn't want anyone to read it.
"I don't think so. The Illuminated were intelligent people, or so it seems."
Zara began searching around the small room, watched by Derek from the doorway.
"They wouldn't create a door impossible to open from outside," she began to say, while finding a small button on the wall behind a shelf, "without an emergency escape route," she finished saying with a smile.
Upon pressing the button, the whole place trembled. Derek went on guard, though he knew there was little he could do in a dangerous situation—at least with his powers deactivated.
But nothing could be further from reality. One of the walls opened, revealing a small passageway.
"How did you know...?"
"We have some similar ones in the palace, in case something bad happens," the princess stretched a bit. "I assumed there would be something similar here."
"You're our savior," Derek said, applauding from the doorway.
"Where do you think this passageway leads?"
The mage walked to the entrance, turned toward her smiling.
"There's only one way to find out."
At the same time, in the village, it was getting late. Alice already had the information she wanted and was waiting at the inn for the young ones to return. Time began to pass, and when the seconds threatened to turn into an hour, the woman set out to look for them on her own.
Frowning, sword ready, and hood on, she had clearly told them they couldn't take so long on their damn expedition, but it seemed they had ignored her. She couldn't help but feel like she their mother reacting like this.
She stopped without having advanced much, being stopped by a woman wearing a pirate outfit and a hat with a feather.
"Hey, where are you going so fast?" the woman said with a small smile.
"Who are you?" Alice asked, her hand on her sword.
"A humble follower of Prince Callen, that's me," she joked in response.
"Sure." Alice tried to pass by her side, and she blocked her once more.
"I'm afraid that, although the prince is busy dealing with matters with Lord Halad, he's still worried about his sister's whereabouts."
"And he'll start worrying about yours if you don't get out of the way."
"I want to help you, woman," she said, shaking her head with a sigh. "The prince doesn't want anything to happen to his sister."
"I don't want anything to happen to her either."
"See? It wasn't that hard after all. I'll accompany you to look for her, and then I'll disappear." Lin patted Alice on the shoulder.
"Shadow, what's your name?"
"What a childish nickname, but oh well, I respect your tastes," Lin said, leaving Alice a little embarrassed. "My name is Lin."
"I want you to know I don't trust you. One wrong step and..."
"You'll cut my neck, my head, an arm, blah blah blah," the woman added. "Save those threats for someone who hasn't spent half their life raiding merchant ships."
Alice spent a few seconds analyzing the woman's stance, sighed, and started walking, closely followed by her.
"They said they'd go to the ruins of the Illuminated, so that's where we'll go first."
"I know where they are. Follow me," Lin said, walking carelessly.
The two women began to walk toward the ruins. With luck, they would find the young ones there. Alice bit her lip—she felt something was wrong.
"No, walking is too slow," she began to trot, then to run.
Lin followed her with a surprised expression, running a little behind her. Deep down, Alice hoped her suspicions were unfounded. Her brother had always followed her orders to the letter. If he didn't, it meant there were problems.
The young ones made their way through the narrow passageway of pale stone. The golden light threatened to blind them, but it was bearable, as long as they didn't look directly at the wall.
As Zara suspected, this passageway seemed to move away through the cliff, and more than once she felt she was walking downward. She didn't know what she would find at the end, but surely it was a hidden exit.
"Zara."
"What?"
The mage walked behind the girl, nervous—almost scared.
"I hate closed spaces."
You can't be serious.
"I think we've been walking for a few minutes now. We've only seen white and gold. I'm starting to get nervous," the mage added.
"It's not the moment for childishness. With luck, this will get us out of a very big jam."
"That doesn't change the fact that it makes me nervous."
The princess sighed. The truth was that even she was beginning to question whether this passageway would really lead to an exit.
Though at the moment her faith began to waver, Zara managed to spot light—not the golden light of the walls, but a white light at the end of the tunnel. She quickened her pace. Derek noticed it too and quickly followed her.
As they drew closer to the light, its shape changed to the color of the sky and the sea. But there was a small detail—there was no ground. The passageway ended at the top of the cliff.
Zara and Derek stopped just in time. Both looked at the fall that awaited them if they hadn't. A fall that could easily kill anyone.
"Well, we walked all that way for nothing. How funny," Derek huffed, leaning against the wall.
"Can you use your ability?"
The two young ones sighed. They had reached a dead end—or rather, to be more precise, an alley with a deadly exit.
Zara looked at the ground, many meters below them. She couldn't help but wonder how long it would take to fall to the ground if she fell. A few seconds at most, she imagined.
Then she looked at Derek and remembered the ability he had used in the morning—the one that let him fly by launching fire from his feet. A convenient ability from her perspective.
She returned her gaze to the free fall, then to Derek. She swallowed. She couldn't believe such a risky plan had occurred to her.
"Derek, if we leave this passageway, you'll be able to use your ability," the princess began to say, her gaze fixed on him.
"Yes, I think so," he responded.
"So you'll be able to use that fire to fly," the princess continued.
"Yes?" the mage said, tilting his head to look at the void behind the princess.
"Hear me out."
"I don't think I want to."
The princess brought her hands to her head.
"I have an idea—a very bad one, but it's the best we have," Zara said.
"We're not throwing ourselves into the void," Derek responded, taking a step back.
"Don't try to make me change my mind."
"Are you that convinced this will work?"
"Quite the opposite, but it's the best we can do."
"Better to go back to..." The mage looked at the endless passageway stretching behind him. "I swear if we die, I'm going to..."
"Kill me?" Zara completed with a nervous laugh. "Nature will have taken care of that by then."
The two approached the edge of the passageway and looked down. It gave the impression that the ground was distant and at the same time very close.
"Ready?" the princess asked.
"No," the mage responded.
The two prepared to jump, and Zara began counting down. 3. 2. 1.
"Now!" the princess shouted.
Neither of them jumped.
"I knew it!"
"I knew it!"
They accused each other.
"If you were so confident in your plan, why didn't you jump!?"
"I'm not the one who can fly! I would have been splattered against the ground!"
"And what if my ability didn't work!?"
"It was going to work! You wouldn't still be in the passageway!"
Being so close to the edge, it only took the princess losing her balance for a second to feel herself falling sideways.
"Huh?"
"Zara!"
Derek grabbed her by the arm, but all he managed was to be dragged by the princess's weight, both of them plunging into the abyss.
"Fly, Derek, flyyyyyy!" Zara screamed in terror as she saw the ground approaching dangerously.
The princess clung to the mage, and the latter, depending on his life for it, used his ability now—launching flames from his feet and hands that slowed the fall enough.
Though they didn't avoid hitting the ground, since due to the strain, Derek had to extinguish the flames when they were already near the sand.
The two young ones fell next to each other, face up with their arms stretched out, breathing as if they had run a marathon.
"We're alive," Zara said slowly.
"I don't want to do something like that ever again," Derek said afterward, also slowly.
"We survived!" Zara jumped up, groaned in pain for a second from her arm wound, and fell to her knees.
"We should go back to the village." Derek looked at the sky—it was probably past midday. "My sister will be angry with us."
"She said to come back before midday. Do you think she came looking for us?" Zara asked.
Derek looked at her slowly, then returned his gaze to the top of the cliff. A small dark figure was falling rapidly, until it slammed into the ground a few meters from the two of them.
It was obvious he died instantly from the fall, though before that he had been stabbed in the abdomen. The most important thing was that he was dressed like those assassins who had attacked them.
"Does that answer your question?" Derek said, frowning.
"I think so." Zara moved a little away from the man. "We should go up. If your sister is up there..."
"She'll need help," Derek finished saying. "Let's go."
The two young ones started walking, then running as fast as they could. It would take them a while to reach the top again. They hoped their worry was unfounded and that Alice could handle them all without problems, but seeing themselves so outnumbered, the two had no time to lose.