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Chapter 5

Merianna

I stared at the floor...

And stared some more...

Nope it still didn't change. I nudged a curious foot onto the spot where the guy had disappeared through. Nope, solid. Solid enough for me to jump on. No trap door or hole.

I lifted an eyebrow and stared up at the man with the long silver hair. "Where'd he go?!" I asked incredulously.

He smiled at me sweetly. "Why, through the floor my dear." He said, pointing to the spot that the man had disappeared through.

My eyes widened. "Yes. I could see that, but HOW?" I asked fluttering my hands at the spot.

The man chuckled at my expression. "Magic my dear child. Magic is the basis of what we are all about here in this castle."

I blinked brilliantly up at him. "Magic...? Castle...?"

He just looked at me indulgingly and waved a hand to one of the curtains against the wall. The curtains ripped apart wide without anyone so much as touching them, revealing long and polished windows, framed and shaped by incredibly dark cherry wood. Windows!!! Something I've only heard of from my mother and father, glass shaped and stuck in the holes in the sides of a house so you can see outside the wall without having to get cold in the winter.

The windows however didn't hold my attention for very long. I gazed at the view that was revealed past their transparent surfaces. Trees, grass, mountains and early morning sky. It all stretched out in front of me endlessly. Even thinking that an end to it all might exist felt like blasphemy.

I hadn't realized that I had walked towards the view until the tip of the scythe clanked lightly on the glass. I pulled the scythe away and turned back to the man in grey. Heral who was standing next to him had an amused smile on his face.

"My name is Fog." The man in grey said. "Welcome to the world of witches."

Witches... My heart thumped excitedly in my chest at the word. My mother used to tell us scary stories about witches before bed, yet somehow, I never felt like that was how it was supposed to be. I imagined witches weren't the hags with warts on their noses, or the evil beings that cursed lands and kingdoms, or the demonic bloodthirsty crones that snatched children from the woods after sunset.

I looked back at the view from the window, and I felt so alive, so safe, so... at home. This was the world of witches that I should have heard of.

With the light of the morning streaming into the brilliant hall I followed Fog and Heral through a hidden passage to the left which I realized Heral must have come through the first time.

I saw a few people milling about in a library we were passing through, and those that noticed us lifted their heads at the sound of Fog's approach. The moment they caught sight of me they gaped. I suppose it was because of the Rune Reaper I still clutched in my hands. For some reason it just made me feel more stable and grounded, I had no intention of letting go of it yet.

When Fog noticed a stunning woman with long Chestnut hair walking past one of the archways he paused and called out to her. "Arasule!"

The woman stopped dead in her tracks and turned curiously in our direction. "Fog!" She yelled and instantly her face no longer looked sweet and regal, she proceeded in storming our way. "You son of a half-wit donkey's mother! There you are!!! I surely hope that you will teach that Blasted Nochtandriel something important about stumbling into someone else's bedchambers without checking first if it was the right blasted one!!!"

I blinked at her. She was now smack in Fog's space, not caring a drop that he was smiling and making simmer down movements while leaning back from her rage. I looked around Fog at where Heral had been standing a second ago. Apparently something better had pulled his attention away for I just caught sight of his boots swiftly disappearing around a bend.

The people around the room made similar attempts at blending in with the furniture, books, or swiftly ducking out of sight into a shelf section.

"Now, now Ara. I'm sure he didn't do it intentionally." Fog said trying to placate this mad woman. I could almost see the sweat beading on his neck.

"Didn't mean to?!" She hollered incredulously shoving a finger into his face. "He tied me up with wild roots!!! WILD ROOTS!!! His roots broke five of my invisibility potions! Five!!!! Have you any inkling as to what kind of ingredients I had to barter for to get them?!!!" Arasule grabbed the front of his robes and shook him.

I was staring at her curiously. Her face had gone from pink, to red, to popping veins now. It was like watching a butterfly climb out of its cocoon... but instead of looking weird at first and then becoming beautiful, this seemed to be happening in reverse.

"I'll have him replace the ingredients Ara, I promise." Fog said, although by the look on his face he couldn't make that other man – Nochtandriel - do anything even if he wanted to.

By this point I had a very good idea who this Nochtandriel guy was...

"You'd better Fog... Or I swear you will have rubble to manage instead of a castle!" Arasule let go of the front of Fog's robes and for the first time looked down at me. She cocked her head to the side like a chicken, her face returning to the normal colour I associated with healthy people.

"Oh, Ara this is Merianna. Noch brought her to the castle a few hours ago. He found her wandering and wounded in the woods." Fog said while straightening his robes and smoothing out the wrinkles.

Arasule kept looking from me to the scythe and back at my face again. Then she stepped back and looked at me again. Her face lit up in a brilliantly beautiful smile and she squealed. "She's so blumen CUTE!"

Before I knew it I was wrapped up in a sweet-smelling embrace that almost felt like it would break my tender ribs. Then she put me down again and turned back to Fog.

"She's staying right? Tell me she's going to stay." She said in an almost pleading voice.

Fog looked from me to Arasule and back again. "You aren't afraid of her, are you?" Fog asked me.

I frowned at him curiously, what on earth did that have to do with anything? "Ahhh, no." I said cocking my head to the side curiously. "Should I be?"

Fog gave a startled laugh but didn't answer me. Instead he turned back to Arasule.

"Well Ara, we'll see. She has a sister out in the woods and Noch is going to help her find her. Do you have a small enough armored jacket we can give to her and some boots?" He asked nodding to me.

"I might have just the thing!" Ara said whirling about in a flurry of skirts and vanished down another hidden passage.

"Is every passageway a secret one?!" I asked in a burst of air.

"Almost." Fog said winking at me. "Only certain people know about every single hidden passage. Mostly they are for when we are attacked or in case the castle gets raided. No stranger has dared set foot inside our castle as yet. It's warded and spelled up to the gills."

I just nodded slowly like I understood what he meant by "warded" and "spelled", even though the words meant absolutely nothing to me. Before we knew it, Ara was back just as suddenly as she had disappeared, with subtle material in her hands and one pair of boots dangling from her delicate fingers.

I took the material she thrust in my direction with my free hand. Its texture was that of tough strong leather, yet it was so subtle and light it might have been cotton fabric. It smelled a little like leather yet also fresh and flowery for some reason.

"Go on!" Ara urged. "Put it on."

I looked at the scythe in my other hand and back at the jacket.

"I'll hold the scythe for you dear, while you fit it." Ara offered and laid the boots down at my feet. Fog on the other hand looked at her with wide eyes. Not that Ara noticed or Fog bothered to voice his concerns, whatever they might have been.

"Okay." I said and held the scythe out with one hand for her to hold.

As soon as my fingers left the cool metal however, I finally understood what Fog might have been thinking. Once transferred, the runes - to my eyes - faded and Ara yelped as the real weight of the weapon bore down on her with a vengeance. Her muscles bunched automatically but not soon enough. The now unbalanced substantial weight between the blade and tip caused the blade to tip Ara over to the right and sink under its bulk.

The tip of the blade struck the tiles and sliced right through the ground. Vaguely I could hear a shriek from somewhere under the floor where the blade had struck. Ara clambered to her feet shakily and looked back at me like I had caused the blade to poke out over someone else's head.

I just looked at her and shrugged with my most innocent face – the one I always used with my pah - and pulled on the green jacket and boots. Surprisingly, they all fit perfectly...

Fog was smiling, his mouth wobbling slightly on the sides like he was trying very hard not to laugh out loud at Arasule who still gaped at me. Then I walked over to the scythe, and as soon as my hands touched the shaft's runes again, the symbols flared to life and I pulled it out with one hand like it weighed nothing at all.

"Thank you for the jacket and boots." I beamed up at Arasule who was still gaping at me with surprised awe.

"Where is that idiot who is supposed to take me and help me find my sister?" I asked Fog, and he snorted a laugh.

"I'm sure he'll be at the front of the castle soon. Let's carry onwards." Fog said leading the way out of the library and down another flight of stairs. I followed along feeling good that I was doing something.

Nelia, you better be alive when I find you. I won't forgive you if you aren't.

Finally we reached bottom after what felt like forever. I was blinded by the morning light that streamed in when Fog pushed open the insanely big darkly wooded double doors that led to the outside.

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