The door opened slowly as it revealed darkness towards us. Darok moved, not even batting an eye towards the fallen guards.
I felt disgust when I looked at him. Who would sacrifice their comrades just to open a damn door? He would.
As we moved towards the door, the environment began to gradually lighten up. Several torches on the wall lit immediately as if it was done by magic.
The full view of the room came upon us like magic. We were given a total shock.
What was ahead was not anything we had thought, but seeing it made us take an involuntary step back.
"How is this possible?"
The whole room was surrounded by sand, like sand in the desert. One minute we were in the room, the next we were in a desert.
This wasn't supposed to be possible unless magic was involved.
'Now that I thought about it, the strange movement of the guards, their blood being swallowed and the mysterious door could also be one of the reasons. And finally him,' I stared at the back of Darok as we continued to move.
Darok didn't bother about the sudden change in the environment, suggesting this wasn't his first time.
I carefully observed the desert, making sure to take note of its features. As we continued moving, I started to notice its eerily similarity with the desert we just passed through.
'Could this be the outer gate of the city?' I thought.
I hurriedly turned to the back to look at the entrance we passed through, only to find it not there — it simply vanished.
'Are they trying to trap us?'
That should not be their plan because it will also leave him trapped here with us, but considering the heartlessness the group have towards their members — it might be possible.
'Then what is the main reason they brought us here?'
That question would have to wait until we got there. I looked at the horizon, expecting to see the visage of the castle, only to find nothing there.
There was nothing at the edge of the desert, no castle at all, which was a surprise to us. Days of traveling through the desert have made us used to its presence and not seeing it there made everything seem abnormal.
"This place is strange, everyone keep your head up," I whispered gently, warning the others.
We kept moving until we finally reached a cave. The sand stopped at the mouth like it feared to enter. Darok glanced at us, signaling for us to enter.
We couldn't fight against him, so we entered the cave. As we entered, Darok finally spoke.
"This will be your prison until the leader says otherwise."
That was the last thing we heard before the entrance to the cave was sealed. There wasn't any means of escape.
"It seems we are stuck here," Mark came to a conclusion.
A conclusion that was very obvious. We were in deep shit. We can't leave unless the leader says so.
When signing for the expedition, I never thought something like this would happen. Well, nobody would. Until now.
The room was quiet at first until Mark replied again.
"At least this is better than dying, right?" he laughed as he joked about our condition.
I glanced at him and I knew he was trying to lighten up the mood.
Hours passed with Mark trying his best to lighten the mood until the entrance to the cave was finally opened.
Each one of us stared at the entrance, awaiting whoever opened it to enter.
We heard gentle footsteps approaching us until we finally saw who was coming.
"I take it you enjoy your new home," a gentle voice that was soothing to the ear said.
Everyone knew who the person was and that gentle voice made all of us frown.
"What, why are you being hostile? Darok, I take it you treated our guests well," her face twisted into a smile.
"Yes, leader, I treated them well," Darok appeared out of nowhere and answered.
"As you can see, guests, your lives are in my hands and if you don't want to die, you must do everything I say you should do. Okay?"
The way she said those statements was not threatening. Instead it was friendly. But the underlying meaning to the statement was not something anyone would wish to be in.
'It looks like she is going to be treating us like slaves. And what do slaves do? Serve their master. She is implying that our lives are in her hand and we must do everything to please her. What a terrifying woman,' I forced out a weak smile as I thought.
"Now that is out of the way, let's get straight to business, right?" she looked at us as she spoke.
"None of you have anything to say? Like why are we locked here, or what is the key they keep talking about, or anything?" Her mouth curled up to form a smile as she added.
Nobody had the courage to ask those questions, but the way she was saying it was like she was inviting us to ask.
"Ma'am, Miss Selka, why are we locked here and what is the key?" Edward eventually asked.
As if expecting us to ask, her eyes beamed with delight. She signaled to Darok to bring out something.
"This here, my friends, is how the city looked a thousand years ago," she took a photograph from Darok.
What we saw in the photograph was a desert. The city was a desert a thousand years ago. This proved my theory from before, but how and where did they get the resources to build the city?
"Ha, you are surprised? No need to be, because this is where you guys come in play," she said.
"We?" Mark asked to be clear.
"Yes. If I tell you this realm is collapsing, would you believe me?" she paused, waiting for our reaction.
As she wasn't wrong, each one of us was shocked upon hearing the news.
"How is that possible?" I asked.
"Nobody knows, but give it five years and you will see the true devastation. The collapsing might not be visible, but don't be fooled — this world will collapse whether we like it or not," she answered.
"So, what do you need us for?"
"A certain human came about some years ago claiming he could help us. We didn't believe him at first, but he provided us an important piece of information. He told us we could enter the castle only if he was part of us. We were shocked because we believed the castle was inaccessible for us beasts. We confirmed his theory and he was right.
We asked what he wanted for helping us and he said he wanted... nothing. Only to explore the castle. We were truly naive back then. We believed him and provided him resources and people to assist in his exploration. Well, unknown to us he never wanted to help, but to use our resources and people to fuel his exploration.
He killed our people and the remaining who survived, didn't survive unharmed. He betrayed us. And do you still think me treating you like this is worse compared to what he did?" she asked.
"No," we hurriedly said.
"But, we still need you and this time things will be different," she smiled. "This time, you won't leave the castle alive unless I allow it."