Page 22 of Darkening Truth
Chapter Eight
Farren
We turn a corner, and both freeze at the sight before us.
A castle, one that puts even Hades’ one to shame, commands our attention. It’s enormous, with giant towering turrets and more windows than I could ever hope to count. It has to be the biggest castle I have ever seen, which is saying something because I’ve seen quite a few castles. The Fae Realm is so full of them that after a while, they become pretty boring. This one though, could never be considered boring. It is absolutely stunning.
It’s made out of some kind of black stone, which makes the whole place look even more imposing than it would anyway, thanks to the sheer size of the place.
There are openings high up in the towers and along the walls that were obviously made for something that flies, most likely the winged creature that Isaw flying around earlier. However, I haven’t seen it again, so it’s a bit strange that there are so many places for them to enter, which would suggest that the spaces were used by a lot of them at some point.
Of course, this place seems to be deserted, so there’s a good chance that there were once more of the creatures flying through the skies.
As I look up at the castle, my mind struggles to wrap itself around just how big it is. It’s mind-boggling. Thousands of people could live here comfortably, with no problems whatsoever, and there would still be space.
Even though the grounds are overgrown and nature has clearly been taking it back for a while, you can tell that it was once an amazing and beautiful place.
Marring the scenery even more than the overgrown state of it are the bodies that are scattered everywhere, and there’s no way of knowing what kinds of supernaturals beings they were when they were alive, since they’re now just piles of bones, tattered clothing and weapons.
That’s not the only thing that’s been left behind.
Sitting in front of the once opulent main entrance are several rows of carriages. All of them have some kind of damage. Some are missing wheels, some are completely caved in, and a few of them are just burned-out shells of what they once were. Arrows are sticking out from them, and the bones of some kind of animal are piled at the front of most of them.
“I wonder what was happening here when they got attacked?” Zev says as we carry on walking up to the main doors of the castle. “There are a lot of carriages here, and not simple ones either. These are all ornately decorated, which means they were owned by high-ranking people. Which would suggest that there were a lot of important people here when the place got attacked.”
“I have no idea. Do you think they knew that the attack was coming?” I ask as we make our way closer.
“Maybe that’s why they were all here?” Zev muses. “They could have all been coming to help defend the castle from the attack?”
“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” I reply thoughtfully. “Maybe these were the carriages to evacuate some of the people that lived here, and they arrived too late?”
So much life was lost here, and sadness washes over me. I can’t help but wonder what prompted such a massive attack.
We start to make our way up the stairs and toward the giant black doors, which, on closer inspection, are made from wood.
As I reach my hand out to open them, Zev stops me with a hand on my arm.
“Careful, Farren, they could have put protection spells on the doors to stop whoever was attacking from getting in. Even though they appear to all be long gone by this point, their magic could still be active,” he warns me.
I nod, and instead of reaching out with my hand, I reach out with my magic. Now that he’s mentioned it, I’m unsurprised when my magic immediately identifies some spells woven into the door.
“You’re right, there are some spells still active on the door,” I tell him. “Give me a second, and I should be able to pull them apart.”
“Really? Are you sure?” He asks. “I know you’re fucking amazing at this kind of thing, but these spells are very likely ancient, and that’s magic that you don’t come across anymore, not even in Hades’ castle, with the princes. It’s most likely going to be infinitely more difficult to pull them apart, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
My eyes narrow slightly, “How do you know that they’re ancient? I mean, we know that the people here have been dead for a long time, but we don’t know that they’re ancient.”
Zev’s eyes widen, “Shit, you're right. I’m not wrong though, I can feel that, my magic is telling me that, I just didn’t realise.”
I nod and smile, “I thought it might be. My magic won’t let the spells hurt me. I want to try to pull them apart, even if it is ancient magic. If we can’t get in through this door, then we can either find another way to get in or explore more out here. This place is absolutely huge and I’m sure that there are a lot of interesting things to discover out here. I mean, we could probably explore for months and not see everything that there is to see out here.”
Zev nods but still looks worried as he says, “Okay, just be careful. Even though this is a dream, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get hurt here, and I’m not sure if I will be able to manipulate it so that you don’t.”
I pause and turn to look at him, “You can manipulate dreams?”
He nods, but looks around cautiously. I can only assume that he’s seeing something that I can’t.
“Yeah, but this one is different. I don’t know if it's just because it’s you that’s having it, and nothing you do seems to play by the rules, or if there’s something else at play, but it’s not behaving like it should, and my magic isn’t responding to it like it should either.”
