Island of Adnia: Origins

CHAPTER IV: SECRET INTENTIONS

CHAPTER IV: SECRET INTENTIONS 

       The woman entered the tower. And became the first to witness the stately creation of the astonishing castle. Her amazed gaze appreciated during her walk, the meticulously elaborated crystal columns, whose essence remained a mystery. Along countless hallways, hidden passageways and forgotten chambers, which entangled furthermore the befuddled mind of the woman. She didn´t know where to go; which path to choose, exactly. She seemed to be the only person in there.

       Relentless, the guiding spirits continued the offerings for her mind. Choices through the shadows, for within them, laid the unknown intentions. Those whose whispers would lead her to the place where the God of Plasma really wanted to take her: his hesitant heart.

    “I don´t understand anything!” exclaims the woman out loud. “What´s all of this?”

     No sound seemed to ponder her, more than the echoes of the hallways, coming out of her sweet voice. The woman was lost in the infinity of the corridor, and in its seemingly endless entrance. Dozens of rooms upon the surrounding, while her vision forgot itself around the chambers of the palace. The interior was icy, dark, empty. She had no idea where to hold, as this looked like a real maze. Exclusively designed for the loss of her own mind.

      Suddenly, the resonance of the disturbed and notorious voice, which had spoken her before, began to come alive in all corners of the palace; heading directly towards the prevailing and confused mind of the beautiful human.

      "Welcome to the great Palace of Aravir, my dear mortal" exclaims the deep, mysterious voice. “I hope you enjoy it, for you are the first to witness this divine creation.”

     "It is indeed beautiful, but very messy" the woman replies. “There are too many rooms, too much colors, too much pathways. I´d like to know which of all these rooms should I enter? I'm not used to this.”

     “Silly stuff!” the voice exclaims. “This palace is a hundred thousand times better to whatever you might have been used to. These incalculable rooms are made to visit them, and amaze you. And it is part of the essence of the palace, to get lost.”

     "I see" says Emerita. “But you still don't answer the question, how do I know which room I should enter? How do I know where Arac is?”

        The voice said nothing more. The woman kept walking, trying to get her intuition to guide her, since the voice remained silent and in fact, it did not help her much. Quite the contrary.

      She stopped in her slow walk, as she reached a door different from all the others, which caught her attention. It was one of the strangest doors she had seen on her way, since it had a portrait of two children hugging each other on it; her thoughts were filled with curiosity, and she decided to pass through.

      The first thing she saw were two tiny beds. Next to them, a large box prostrated, which she could tell it clearly belonged to a child, since it looked of an innocent nature. She decided to open it, without thinking it twice.

      She then, saw toys made out of pērcklērs*, upon the inside of it. Some games of mortal entertainment. Emerita was puzzled, for she did not understand what these instruments were. Although, she instantly recognized, they were designed for human use, and then she was even more confused. She did not understand the reason for their existence, in this place of such higher energy. This question was answered in a few moments, after finding another portrait at the bottom of the box; in it, were the same children that she had previously seen, in the portrait of the giant door.

     She stared at the figure of the adorable children, who denoted real happiness at that moment. Although, for some reason, her heart reminded her of moments with Marlina, those that would never go away from her mind. She was so focused that she lost track of time.

   Abruptly, she returns to reality, at the hearing of the deep voice again. Anointing at her.

     "They are very cute, aren´t they?" whispers the mysterious voice.

       Emerita was so scared that she dropped the portrait, and since it was made of glass, it easily broke into dozens of pieces; leaving the figure of the broken portrait on the ground.

     To her surprise, the figure contained something written on the back of it. She raises the figure, and read what it said

"Arac and Amsiret"

Birthday Number Ten

       Her mind was speechless. The fact they had once been humans, was shocking to her recent judgment. This made Emerita want to speak to Arac, with greater intensity.

      “Enough of these games!” exclaimed the woman. “Take me to Arac!”

      "I can´t take you there. You must find him, for that is his intention" the voice said. “Only if you are really interested in finding your answers, of course. You must know every corner that the God of Plasma would like to take you, before finding what your heart is really looking for.”

     This time the feeling became personal. Emerita really wanted to find the god, she needed to talk to him. And at this point, if you she had to search every corner of the grandiose palace to find him, she would do so without any hesitation.

      She left the room, but took the figure with her. She still had rooms to explore, and something told her that the figure could serve for her use later.

     She returned to the hallway, and continued walking. Discarding doors, as her intuition indicated her. Many of those doors were not suitable to be the real chamber, where the god could possibly be. Some caused her enough intrigue to enter, but something held her every time. She was focused on finding the right one, for the idea of talking only to the god kept weighing on her.

      She kept walking, until she found the next room, elevating the beating in her heart. This time, the door was made of wood; it had a mirror in the forefront, and its handle was made out of gold. Worthy of the chosen one, she thought. It could be the actual chamber, and she entered it.

     As she passed by, she noticed that the entire room was made out of mirrors. The walls, the ceiling, even the floor; there was nothing there, only her reflection, projecting everywhere.

      She froze, staring at the forefront mirrors. Suddenly, she hears a noise behind her; turns immediately, stared back, but it was nothing.

       Upon returning her gaze to the front, the mirror projected her reflection, but behind her, Marlina's reflection was appreciated. Slowly, she could feel her touch one of her shoulders. Emerita's hair stood on end; she turns around, and sees no one.

      With her face pale with fear, she leaves the room as quickly as possible. She sat a while outside of it, trying to assimilate what had just happened.

     "What is it, Emerita?” said the voice. “Scared of your demons? Aren´t you worthy?”

      "I am" exclaims Emerita. “Tell the god that I will find him, whatever the cost. And it won't take me long to do so.”

      She gets up, and decided to continue on her way. This time, with much more intensity than when she started. She threw her intuition overboard, and started opening all the rooms. Door to door, chamber to chamber. She had too many questions, and needed the answers immediately. She opened each of them, without fear, without doubts; finding rooms without relevance, or at least, so the princess believed.

       In the midst of this aggressive attitude, she opened a room where she encountered a legendary creature. A tremendous ghocunus*, looking fearsome even asleep. It stood upon a room full of glass; her min immediately panics, and tries to shut the door quietly, so as not to wake up the furious animal. But the door hits the woman's shoe, making a noise loud enough, to make the forgotten dragon to open each of his six eyes, and smelled the presence of the mortal.

    The creature goes straight to attack her; the woman freezes. She closes the door as fast as possible, but she did it with such strength that she tripped on the impulse, hitting a door that was just behind her. Falling like this, to another room.

     She stayed a brief period on the ground. Stood up, turned around, and was inside of a chamber with all walls covered in white. She saw that the door she had knocked on had no features that made it special for her eyes. In fact, it was the simplest she had ever seen in the endless hallway.

      The young woman began to examine the room, and noticed a peculiar chest; embedded in one of the walls. Next to it, there was a long table with drawers attached. This chest looked interesting, so she decided to head towards it, to see what it contained.

    In one of the drawers on the table was a key. She had no idea why it was there, or what it did actually opened.  She assumed it belonged to the chest, but at the same time, she did not understand the simplicity with which she had just found it. For her, if there was something important inside of it, it was supposed to be difficult to find the key that would open it.

     Emerita took the key, went to the chest, and try to see what it contained; although her intuition screamed at her not to do so. But her curiosity drove her to do it, almost without a reason. And when she was going to introduce the key and finally discover its content, the mysterious voice reappears again.

     "Your time is up" the voice exclaims impetuously. “It´s fine! I will take you to Arac, but you cannot open that chest, for you have found it in the most inconvenient moment. Get out of the room now. I will guide you to your destination.”

      Emerita had to decide, since she still wanted to open the mysterious object. But she had too many questions to ask the god, and too much desire to see him at this point. She agreed, and chose to stay with the intrigue, as she left the key where she found it. Leaving the room, not without seeing the chest, one last time.

    “Where should I go?” asks Emerita

    "At the end of the route you will find the ´L´, the ´O´, the ´S´ " continues the voice. “Look through what you are searching for, and what you are trying to find for, will find you.”

    "What the hell does that mean?" asks Emerita.

    "Hello?!" continues Emerita, without receiving any response.

      The voice disappeared, and the woman knew it was no longer going to reappear. She was alone, with a single clue she did not understood.

     She thought for a long time about the strange hint, and only managed to understand the beginning of it. It seemed to be referring to the end of the tour, illustrating the end of the hallway that was to come. So she decides to continue her march towards the end of the corridor, which appeared to be non-existent.

    Reaching to the end, she found three doors with three different initials. A different letter, assigned for each one. The first, had the letter ´S´ as its initial. The second door, had the letter ´O´ as its initial. And finally the last door with the letter ´L´, as its initial.

    She had to choose one of the three letters. One of the three doors. And to choose one of these, she started to think about the puzzle, and the confusing hint. 

   "They´re inversed” exclaims the woman. “I´m searching for the end, but the end is just part of the beginning. They´re both ingrained. I want the beginning to find me, so I guess, I should probably go with the first one in here."

     She decides to choose the door with the letter ´S´, and when she enters it, she finds the royal chamber. And there he was; the chosen one, sitting majestically over his throne, like a named king. He looked so happy, seeing the young woman, smiling.

     "You did it, Emerita!" says Arac, laughing. "You are worthy of me, and of my new kingdom, exclusive for the both of us! You must be exhausted; come in! Have a seat!”

      Emerita didn't say a single word, she just sat down, took the hot drink found on the table, and thought very well about what she was going to say.

    “Tell me Emerita, how was the reco-

    "I can´t believe that Elgoneth's chosen ones were humans" Emerita interrupts.

    "Some things, aren´t necessary to know" answers the god of plasma. “Better left unsaid. The Architect of Life did not allow us to even talk about that, upon arriving here. Conditions of the game. Besides, are things from the past true right now?”

    “How can they not be necessary to know?” the woman asks. “You were supposed to come here for Marlina! Deities, meeting other deities. All this time I was thinking that the chosen ones would be perfect creations of Elgoneth, unlimitedly superior to my nature. And now it turns out, you were both humans! Just like me! I don´t get this.”

    “How are you a god now?” Emerita asked.

    "Physically, we are gods" replies Arac. “Creatures form the divine, spirits of the sacred realm. But it could be said that, in our souls, we are half deities and half earthlings. The first generation of this planet was destroyed, and all living things on it were extinct, including humans. All except for one man, Elgoneth. This was welcomed by the earth, miraculously raised from the fire, and was blessed as the new owner of these infinity lands. Baptized as the new mind of this planet. And after that, I was chosen by him, to be part of his new project.”

   "He revived me, and raised us from the dead.” Arac continued. “He held our souls, and raised me up with my brother as members of the new generation of gods, rulers of this new world. It is all you should know for now. Tell me, woman, what did you think of the mirror roo-

    "Do you think I will ever be chosen?" interrupts Emerita.

    “Stop woman!” answers the god. “There are things that are not made for you to know! And you shouldn´t want to know everything either. I don´t know the answers to the all, is this an interrogation? You are here now! You have proved yourself worthy of a god! And with me, henceforth, you will count on the promises of a new world! Which will be only build for the two of us; from the two of us. I can hear your heart, Emerita, and my intentions are as pure as yours. Since I saw you, I knew that your beauty was corresponding to me. And here I promise you, to give myself to you. I knew you had potential, but you have made it clear that you not only have the potential to be for to the God of Plasma, but that you are the true queen of this palace. These tests are made to deviate beings a thousand times more powerful than you, and yet, your intuition has proven to overcome each one of these obstacles. I demanded even more of you, and you have responded perfectly. I cannot be more proud of you.”

      The woman was moved by the words of the god, for after having spent moments of loneliness, omen, despair, and struggle, at last she heard words of encouragement. Words that made her believe in her again.

    “Now, let´s move on. Why don´t we change the subject?" continues the god. “What was the room you liked the most?”

    "The one with the chest" exclaims the woman. “Which reminds me, what's inside of it?”