Chapter Fifteen - Unweaving The Deceptive Web

*** Gianna Cazador ***

“Whose room is this?” I hear my husband ask. His father, Edwards, was also present. There were some maids and butlers present but they were quickly retreating from the scene now that their duty was done.

“I don’t know…” King Edwards replied, his face had an expression of confusion and suspicion.

The room was decorated much like any young lady’s room, it had a base color of red with black and gray splashed here and there.

“Well it seems the very one who knows the occupant of this room is also missing,” King Edwards said after a moment of staring at the bed. I had been searching through the desk in the corner, there were papers there that might have clues. I turned to look at what he was staring at and noticed a painted portrait above the bed, my son was in it and…a girl?

“Is that…?” I heard my husband say as he walked up to the king.

“A desert elf,” the king said nodding his head.

“A desert elf?” I asked. I know a little about elves, but what was a desert elf?

“There are many kinds of elves,” the king explained. “Among their kind is a rare breed called the desert elf, they are naturally very beautiful and very rare to see outside their native lands. If this portrait is any indication not only did my grandson get his hands on a young one, but he’s been keeping her here for quite some time.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

“Look over there,” he pointed to a specific corner of the room.

I walked over there and found something shocking, a crib! He’s been raising a child since its infancy! I always knew my son was very mature for his age, but this didn’t make sense, for goodness sake he is only eight years old! The girl can’t be more than two or three years younger than him!

“This doesn’t make sense,” my husband said.

“The servants didn’t know about this room at all,” king Edwards explained. “We all didn’t know about it at all. This part of the castle is rarely used. I can’t imagine anyone helping him do any of this and for a while now I have been feeling residual energy in the room, his strange mana permeates the walls, the door, everything. Doesn’t it scare you?”

The last he said looking towards me.

“It does not,” I replied confidently. “I...I may not understand what is going on, I don’t know how he could have raised an infant when he was just an infant himself. I don’t know what I really know about my child anymore, except that he is my child.”

“It’s overwhelming how unnatural he is,” he said closing his eyes. “Many of the times I see him I find myself thinking that he is a being that is trapped in our mortal realm, a being who is beyond us. In his early years I saw him as a prodigy, I saw him as a genius, a genuine miracle sent to us. A future great king. I have seen how he looks at things, he has never had that curious look that all children have at some point, he’s never wondered, even when I would find him in the library. He wasn’t there because he wanted to discover something, instead it always appeared that he was studying, researching, developing, he wasn’t there like any normal child to just learn.”

“When…when we crossed swords,” he said cautiously, he looked towards me as if unsure if he could speak of the even just yet, but I gave him a nod and he continued. “I felt something strange. When you spar with someone you can tell something about them, whether they have killed or not, it’s in the way they hold their sword, the way they clash, the way they choose to strike. He’s…he’s probably killed before. His footing on that ground wasn’t strong, but it was there.”

“Are you telling me my son is a murderer?” I asked him very seriously.

“No!” He quickly replied. “I mean to say he knows what killing is, I can’t tell you the reason for which he killed except that he has in fact killed.”

I looked away from him as I did not want to think that my precious little one was anything other than the kindest and warmest of human beings. I went back to the desk and rifled through the things on it. There were trinkets, pens, letters between the girl and a family whose surname was Helton. Then, as I went through the first drawer, I discovered something even more important.

My husband went to call for a court mage to decipher the spells in the room giving me some peace while I looked through my newest discovery. A diary.

Dear Diary 1(the one is smudged like it was written, erased, then rewritten),

Papi gave you to me today! I was born on this day! Not today but born I mean. I am five now and Papi says that I am in the middle of years to becoming adult!

Uhm!...!!!!

(Undiscernible scribbles)

(Poor attempt at drawing Leo?)

I cant think what I want write here now, BUT I make more bigger UH (scribble)

Dear Diary 2,

Papi left me in the room today he wont come four more days. I see him two days later but not all times. Maybe times.

I am bored Bored BORED…(the dots gradually get darker and larger)

(there is a slash on the page by a pen)

Back! I heard people out of the door!

I hear them many times they were closer today. (dot is heavily circled)

“My lord,” A voice broke me from my concentration. It was the court mage…Granate? “You requested my presence my prince?”

Bastion was back in the room, in the middle of my reading, I guess, he had returned and waited for the court magician to appear. Now that he was here and announcing his presence my husband nodded towards the man.

“Do you feel the spells in the room?” he asked.

“Yes my lord,” the magician replied and as he did he poured out mana which revealed the seals in the room as they burned brightly leaving hot steaming seals on the floor, walls, ceiling, and door.

“Can you tell me what they do?” my husband asked.

“Allow me to study them for a moment my lord,” the magician requested. After my husband nodded he entered the room and looked at the seals, he muttered many times. I picked up some words here and there.

“Impressive.” He said. “So that’s how it’s done.”…”Work it that way…no…possible! (gasp) “…”What is…then with that…wow…whoa…”…”hmmm…”

I went back to reading the diary.

Dear Diary 3,

Papi gave me a letter with earth magic in it. It is Calcium Control.

The letter had bones inside I am going to control them. The spell tells me I can bend them they wont break after twisting them.

(Scribbles of bones doing all kinds of things)

They fly when I make flutter rise them up! I still cant twist around them because they blow up.

“My lord there is black sorcery in this room,” the voice of the mage cut apart my concentration again. “It is no longer effective against anyone but, there is mind altering magic written on all the seals.”

“Black sorcery?” King Edwards asked. He knew very well that anyone accused of black sorcery could have their heads chopped off, it was an agreement between all nations the country was associated with that no black sorcerer should be suffered to let live. “Are you sure.”

“It is not powerful and meant only to leave strong suggestions in the mind,” the mage replied. “It merely keeps anyone from remembering the room, you can and have probably walked past this very room a dozen times and thought nothing of it.”