'We must seek... now.' I told them, without acknowledging what had happened. None of it at all. Not Rayn calling me stupid, not Russell kissing me and then abruptly pulling away. I just focused on looking for the sign.
I started walking in whatever direction, not checking to see if they were following me, even though I knew they were.
I reached a large staircase, which I climbed carefully, avoiding the huge holes. I didn't want to imagine what could have hit the steps so hard as to destroy them in that way.
And there it was, the corridor I had seen in the memory.
It was terrible to see it that way.
The beautiful window that extended down the corridor to the throne room was completely destroyed. The walls seemed to be maintained by an invisible thread, and the sun penetrated over every opening made by the impacts.
'Over there,' I told no one in particular.
There were no longer any doors to open when entering the throne room, they had been knocked down entirely. The brightness of the room was totally consumed by black shadows that even the rising sun could not dispel.
The throne was broken in half. It was gloomy just to see it.
Finally, I turned around and found the group there.
'The sign must be here or in the King's room. These are the two places I saw in his memories. Although they were nothing like what they are now. Everything was much more... alive.'
I felt Russell's hand on my shoulder as soon as those words came out of my mouth. He knew what was going on in my heart, the sadness that the whole situation was causing me.
As if we were children looking for treasure, we searched every corner of the throne room.
But we found nothing.
'We have the bedroom left, maybe it's there,' I said, hurrying to get out until I watched Fred standing still and didn't know what was happening. So, I went over to him.
His gaze was drawn. Very little sunlight was shining through the windows, so I could read his expression more easily. It wasn't until I followed his gaze that I understood.
A huge painting was hanging on one of the walls.
My parents. They were my parents.
I had seen them in the memories of the cave, but here they were portrayed in all their splendor. My mother wearing a golden dress, and my father in a suit of the same color. The gold highlighted my mother's amber eyes, my amber eyes. They looked happy, powerful, like two gods pretending to be human.
I looked at their faces and silently promised them that I would do my best to protect the legacy they had left me.
'The Queen... you look just like her,' Tryx commented sadly.
'No, she is much more beautiful than I will ever be,' I replied with melancholy.
I would never know the person who gave me life, I would never know what a hug from her felt like, a caress from any of them, my parents, my real parents.
'Let's look in the bedroom, it must be on the next level.'
Everyone followed me. Honestly, I wasn't really paying much attention to whether they were following me or not. I was trusting that they would, I was trusting that everyone would.
I climbed one more staircase and let my instincts guide me between the rooms on the next level. I opened a door, but it wasn't the right one. I opened another door and found a room with something unexpected.
A crib.
My heart broke into a thousand pieces. That was going to be my room. The crib was completely broken down. You could tell they must have looked for me before they left. Above it, a mobile was hanging. It had an image of the sun and the moon on it. Everything would have been wonderful.
I closed the door before the tears escaped me.
There was another door at the end of the corridor. My heartbeat intensified as I approached, and I just knew.
'This is it,' I said to the others. I opened it carefully, as it felt unstable, about to be knocked down.
What I found on the other side was devastating.
The bed was shattered, the sheets broken, the curtains torn.
I walked slowly around it and positioned myself right where the memories of the King had taken me. I could see him in my mind, I could feel him in my body.
I dared to look under the bed and around, but found nothing out of the ordinary. I realized that the others had stopped at the door. They didn't venture inside; I don't know if out of fear or out of respect.
I decided to look through the bed. I put my hands on the torn fabric and the shock was instantaneous.
A dark light pierced me thoroughly, blurring my vision and cutting off my breath.
The darkness spread across the room. The cries of my friends could be heard far away and with difficulty.
My eyes disappeared under the black clouds and then I heard it.
'I see you,' said a familiar voice.
Lucius spoke to me directly through the darkness.
I could not let go, I could not free myself.
'I see you,' he repeated.
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the image of my parents. Their love, their affection, their light.
That light invaded me and I felt it slowly freeing me from the clutches of darkness.
I opened my eyes and spoke to the shadows.
'And I see you.'
I let go of the cloths and fell backwards.
Everyone was around me. Russell held me before I hit the ground.
'Princess... Princess.' He kept calling me over and over again.
'I'm fine,' I said, even though I wasn't, not quite. Whatever had happened, it had weakened me, as if I had been trapped in a dungeon without seeing the light of day. That's how I had felt, imprisoned.
'Can you get up?' Galaga asked, holding my hand. Aaron grabbed me by the arm and the three of them helped me to my feet.
'What happened to you? You looked possessed.' Rich was the first to ask.
'We have to leave...now.' I didn't have time to explain, nor did I have a good explanation. I only knew that I had provoked a beast that would not stop until it hunted its prey.
Everyone's eyes filled with concern. Only Aaron seemed to stay calm before he said:
'Let's go back where we came from...'
Aaron couldn't finish the sentence.
An arrow came out of nowhere and went straight into his shoulder.
'Get down!' Russell shouted and we all threw ourselves on the ground.
More and more arrows began to hit the room. They came from outside and kept coming.
Russell crawled over to his brother and looked at the arrow on his shoulder in fear. Aaron was complaining about the pain.
'Get her out of here, leave me and get her out of here.'
I crawled to him and took his face in my hands.
'No one is going to be left behind.'
I put my hands on the wound and took a deep breath. I was exhausted, feeling like I was going to fade away, but I had to try.
More arrows were falling around us, but I couldn't think about it. I concentrated on what had happened.
Undo it, undo it, undo it.
Nothing was happening.
Please undo it, undo it, please.
'Leave me Your Highness, leave me.'
A strange feeling was awakened in my body. I felt my tummy burning. But it was as if I was filling up with energy, as if I was receiving a direct charge.
UNDO IT.
The magic shot like lightning into Aaron's shoulder, who let out an agonizing cry. The arrow shot out in the opposite direction, but it was not only that that changed.
We all went back to the same place we were a few seconds before.
The arrows disappeared.
The last few seconds were undone.
I found myself in Russell's arms. His surprised face was a mere reflection of the other faces. As soon as we understood, or tried to understand what had happened, we ran out of the room before the arrows came back from where they had come. We ran to take refuge in another room.
'How did you do that?' Fred asked me.
Russell and Rich were examining Aaron's shoulder, which showed no signs of injury.
'I don't know, it doesn't make sense, I'm only supposed to create things, not uncreate them, I don't understand what happened. How did they find us so quickly? I thought we'd have more time before Lucius...'
And that's when I saw what I hadn't allowed myself to see before.
What the distraction had caused.
The arrows attacked the room again.
The guards of Bieno were attacking us.
And Rayn had left us.