The hall was entirely silent, save for the frantic tiptoes that came moments after moments. There were two pairs, moving in the shadows towards the King's main wing of the palace.
"I think it is here. However, I am not sure." Cedric whispered to Aefia's direction as she caught up and watched him twist the knob. Enter what looked like a store room. "Yes, its here."
This was the room where artifacts were kept. Any artifacts collected from dungoens or as war spoils were portrayed here. Inside—although the room was filled with dust—it was still bearable. The walls was shiny—the light bouncing off the bodies of a few tall trophies.
The trophies were, as Cedric explained, used as an emergency energy restack whenever the king ran out of his reserves too while fighting. But he also said his father barely went to any war up until he knew. Just once did he go, and he didn't need the extra energy. However, as she took a closer look at them, they all were used up. Just the shells remained as a piece of ornament to display on a high shelf.
Weird... A trophy which is an artifact, giving energy when someone needed it. Alright, so the idea for it is traumatizing enough, but it is also an 'empty' artifact. Funny, huh? This is thing could be used as a prop in a comedy movie!
"Look at this vault! And look at these strange dolls!" Cedric yell-whispered towards Aefia, causing her attention to drift. She stepped up to it, but suddenly, her powers reacted. As she looked back, her vision was swimming. Her fingers wrapped onto the vault to stabalize herself—which worked. Was it the dolls? Or was it the vault?
"Their hands... Are a bit strange. As if pointing to something." She whispered to herself while holding one. And instantly, black smoke covered her vision, she was dragged into a strange dark abyss where she stumbled backwards in shock and fell.
I knew! God bless this! Where am I?!
She looked around, expecting to find something like the last time she had found herself standing in front of her. However, this time, it was nothing. As if she was pushed out of her mind completely. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking for a wall. But she only saw a faint white dot in front of her.
She stood up and walked forward, squinting her eyes in curiosity. Never in my life have I ever felt this panicked! I don't even have Spectrum around with me!
To make matters worse, her magic had also stopped working. As she neared the white object, more colours started to form. A blue dress, and blonde hair, pale skin, chubby limbs... And then, a living, breathing face. Aefia's heart stopped and her breathe caught at her lungs, she felt dizzy and this time her vision swum to create illusions for her.
As soon as she stopped, the doll that she touched started to move towards her direction. Not moving a single part, as if it were standing on a threadmile that was working fast—yet slow.
'Are you lost too?'
Crack
The doll asked Aefia with a tilt of its head. The sound of it echoing in her ears as it got louder and louder. A laugh ringing off the distant barriers which she couldn't see. As it neared, she took a step back.
'Isn't he rude too? Once he finds you, he will turn you into a doll too!'
What is she—wait... Could it be the king's doings? Or is it Cedric's elder brother? But Cedric mentioned each member had their own store room and this belonged to the king only.
Aefia gritted her teeth until a muscle jumped at her jaw. "Who is he?"
'#####'
The unknown name registered into Aefia's ears like a death note. She froze completely. Her body not responding even as she tried her best to move. Although she didn't know who exactly that name belonged to, she remembered seeing it written in own particularly catchy line in the novel she had read about this competition.
Her eyes were wide, her lungs couldn't inhale anymore. She looked at the doll in question unable to move her mouth. Truly... We have reached the half-way point. So fast?
The doll smiled, eeriely.
Her small fingers caught Aefia's jaw as she leaned in and whispered one thing. 'Whatever you are doing, you missed a very crutial detail.'
The doll recoiled to her standing position, gave Aefia's cheek a soft pat and pushed her by the shoulders, backwards... Into a well that appeared out of nowhere—like it were a fever dream.
Finally, her eyes flew open and she found herself gasping for air while staying sitted on the floor of the store room, directly in front of the vault.
What crutial detail did I miss? This was the only thing circulating inside her mind.
"What just happened?!" Cedric shook her shoulders hard, which was something he was doing for quite the time it seemed.
"What just happened...?" She whispered back while while staring up at the doll with her platinum blonde hair and blue dress.
"I don't know. You touched it once, then you zoned out. Then you touched it again, and you came back. I don't understand the sequence myself! You don't understand it too?!" Cedric ran his fingers through his hair back and forth in confusion and utter frustruation. "And... Why does it feel like I am irritated of everything right now?! I don't even want to stare at the doll's eyes for a second!"
"Well that is strange..." She answered while taking a closer look at the hands. "But if you feel irritated by looking at them, try avoiding their gazes..."
He looked curiously at her face. He watched as she looked through every doll's hands. Each holding a unique shape and none of them similar.
"If you observe carefully, they are trying to tell us something." She finally muttered while letting out a sigh. "By chance, do you know what the passcode to the vault is?"
"I don't know..."
"And are you sure what you are looking for is in this vault?"
"I don't know..."
"Then why are we here?" She asked in frustruation at his direction. "What is the thing you are looking for?"
"An artifact... Its a pendant." He answered while scanning the room quietly. "In order to reach a specific place, you are to wear it. Although it doesn't quite have a work that is linked to our plan, it prevents you from falling victim to the illusions forming into the punishment room."
Aefia stared at the dolls while listening. What kind of a punishment do they wish to force on a person using illusions?
As far as she had read in novels, these illusions sync to your mind and force out a scenario where you had to suffer a tough time and got traumatized from it. Although, sometimes emotions are hard to describe, the kind that a person feels during that time is somewhat less or more then feeling fear of being chased by two large sharks. While also, you don't know how to swim that well and you have thalassophobia.
Especially to those who are trying to forget those times and restart their lives to correct their mistakes. This sort of punishment, is equivalent, yet more torturing than death.
To think a strong kingdom choses a punishment which even an Empire is afraid to use. They have the guts to be humans with hearts that beat the same way as the victim, and treat that human so badly.
They really are worse than I expected.
"Listen. I know this isn't my business to interrupt whatever you are doing... But I just want to ask... Why would you want to go the punishment room?" She asked with a sincere tone of voice.
"It because... I want to punish my brother for causing me such problems. It is part of my revenge to force my siblings into a reality they created." He answered while standing up, dusting his clothes. "Let's go, its not in here I suppose."
"You didn't try the vault?"
"I don't need to. There will be nothing important."
"But is has been a decade."
"Yes, although it has been a decade, my father rarely changes the placement of where he keeps what items. However, he does leave hints somewhere along where he keeps his most important things in case he ever forgets. Come on, we will search somewhere else."
Aefia stayed crouched and took a last glance at the dolls' hands. Her eyes squinted before widening in shock.
"Wait... If he leaves hints, could it be that he left a hint right here but we just didn't see it because it wasn't common. That is a psychological way to hide something very hard so that no one can easily find what he finds upon seeing it. When faced with these types of problems, observation is necessary."
It is because I am obsessed with action and thriller that I had gotten this information. And luckily, my eyes fell too hard on these dolls for too long.
"Such as... Decoding what they are trying to say using their hands. Using sign language." She pointed out at the first doll, wearing an orange dress, then scanning the rest of them in their original order.
"R-O-I-E-M-A-R" Aefia decoded, before pulling her sleeve over her fingers and realigned the dolls based on the colour of their dresses. She put them in the order of the colour of the rainbow. "And rearranging them like this, gives the letters an order too. Which translates to, 'Armoire'. There. Why not we try to find the thing you are looking for in the armoire?"
Cedric stared at the dolls for a while, as she decoded the word. Then, his head immediately spun to the furthest corner of the room, which he raced towards and lunged at.
Aefia followed after, putting the dolls back in the order they had been on. By the time she had reached there, he already had a key with him and twisted a drawer open to reveal another secret entry.
"What is it this time?" He asked while flipping the rubriks cube around, looking even more frustrated with the pattern that he was presented with. He shifted his gaze to her, asking for one more help. She sighed and took the cube from him, tapping on each and leaving her fingertips holding the one which worked like a button.
"Now we just tap them according to the colour and position of the dolls."
Cedric looked confused at first. "Isn't this cube only six-sided? So there are only six colours here. While the dolls are wearing seven different colours."
"Yes but there are two R's in armoire. So there are two 'red' buttons. And if you skip the one missing colour—which is indigo—you get a pattern like this; red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet-red. And given this cube doesn't have white, you can tell what I mean by violet. But remember that the colours are not linked to the letters. Actually, this puzzle is easy since it throws many hints at you although it is hard to notice at first."
As she spoke, her fingers tapped the buttons corresponding to the colours she had mentioned. When she reached the red again, the button pulled off to reveal another key inside.
"I have got to say... Whoever made this, is quite the genius." She smirked while handing the metal key over. "In case you are wondering where this goes, you might be able to tell by now by my own actions that people keep their top secrets in a hidden latch under the drawers."
He shot her a questioned glance, just for a fraction of a second. But tried it out anyways. Immediately, he found what she was talking about and pulled on the handle.
"Wait—no way!"
He pulled out a small object tied to a thick black string. The pendant, as it truly looked, was a brilliant navy colour that was almost blinding to look at in such a dim area as the store room. However, as he dusted the under section, a white gemstone came visible, with gold trims following around at the edges of the stone.
So this... Reflects illusions in the punishment room.
Not only was it pretty, but if it truly did as he had said, then it is extremely powerful too. Aefia could instantly tell why it needed to be so securely placed, anyone might mistake it for a very expensive jewelry. And once lost, who knew how hard it would be to retrieve it.
Cedric put the pendant into his pocket and placed back the things how they were inside the armoire, before closing the door and rushing out of the store room along with Aefia. Like how it was supposed to happen, the guards were rotating. This made it hard for them to move along.
"So what now?" Aefia asked in a whisper. "When are you going to proceed with the next phase of the plan?"
Cedric chuckled mischievously for a second before returning an answer. "The next phase... Has already started."
***
As he had said, the next day, Aefia was approached by someone the age of Elanor, who greeted her formally and had striking pastel pink hair and golden eyes. The exact copy of the Queen—like how George and Henry was the carbon copy of the empress.
"Hello! I hope I am not disturbing you... But I really wanted to meet our guest this morning." She spoke, her voice ringing like a bird has suddenly learned the human voice. It was actually piercing through Aefia's sense of peace.
She bowed her head in respect, "greetings your Majesty. Today, you dress matches the colour of your eyes very well!" Her hair, which was styled quite intricately, fell forward to frame her face as she did.
"Oh don't do that." The girl reached out her hands to straighten Aefia. "In fact, I should be the one to bow at your presence."
Of course I do... Are you just realizing?
"How is your majesty doing?" Aefia asked in the contrary, offering a forced smile while closing the book she was reading and tucked it under her arm. Unlike how Cedric had described her, she looked like someone who would never have betrayed her siblings.
"Oh I am doing fine... I am actually excited." She clasped Aefia's hands into hers and leaned forward in anticipation of something. However—Aefia being an introvert—felt quite uneasy.
"I have come to ask... That is... If you have the time, to join me and my mother for tea. Since it would be nice to get to know more about our guest, we would like to have a 'lovely' conversation with you." Her eyes hinted something, which made Aefia immediately grasp the situation.