ALANNA "Nature of runes? How did she-" Azalea pauses and stares at me for a moment."Are you okay, Alanna?" She asks and I blink back my tears. "I-I'm fine" I respond and Talon sighs."You're not fine, Alanna" he states and I look away, swallowing hard."I still can't believe she's dead. Who could've done such a thing?" I say, grief weighing me down. I'd really liked Taera. She'd been a very good friend to me and she's been there for me most of the time. After her ghost had appeared to Zeron and I, Zeron had ordered a search party and her body was found in the servant quarters. Presently, Hera and some of the coven elders are in the coven room using a spell to try to figure out who Taera's killer is."Taera's death is unfortunate. But, we have to do what she wants us to do and we have to figure out what she died protecting" Azalea says and I nod."The nature of runes......tha
HERA Humming under my breath, I take my time to water the emerald gold flowers in the coven room. They are ordinarily called the peace and well being flowers and they're the ones partly responsible for keeping war away from our kingdom for quite a long time now. I halt at the presence of prince Talon's aura approaching the coven room. Few minutes later, he knocks on the door and I open it up with a snap of my fingers. He gives me a polite smile and walks up to me. I can tell by reading his energy, that he's deeply troubled about something but he's doing a good job at covering whatever it is with several layers."Good day, Hera" he greets and I give him a smile."Good day, young prince" I say and he looks around the coven room."The peace flowers don't look as healthy as they looked before" he comments and I sigh."It appears so""You know what this means, right?" He says and I
ALANNA "We need to act quickly, Alanna. If he finds out-" Azalea begins but is interrupted by an all too familiar voice that belongs to my husband. "Find out what?" He asks and we all freeze.Just how much did he hear?"Z?" I say but he just stares at me blankly."Um, how long have you been standing there?" I ask and he blinks."I just got here but that doesn't matter anyway. What are the three of you hiding from me?"Now at this point, I have no idea what to do. Do I lie to him or do I tell him the dreadful truth? With his face all blank and expressionless, it's hard to tell if he'd lied. What if he'd actually overhead everything and is counting on me not to lie to his face? But still, what if he's telling the truth?"Has all of you suddenly become dumb?" Zeron asks, placing the bowl of winter berries
ZERON Alanna is hiding something from me and I don't know what it is, but I'm certain that she has decided to keep it to herself. Maybe it's because of the way I'd reacted when I'd found out that she knew about Lochan sharing my life force with me. I'm trying not to get upset about the fact that she doesn't trust me enough to confide in me but I'm failing miserably. I can only hide the hurt and frustration I feel with a blank face, with the hope that Alanna won't see right through it. Who am I kidding?I'm a hypocrite. I've been hiding things from her too.I just hope she doesn't do anything stupid."Zeron?" I blink and turn away from the window of my chamber."Are you alright?" Talon asks but I don't respond. "You know, all you have to do is respond" He huffs and I walk away from him and sit down on the couch. "Is there something you want to talk to me about?" I ask and he sighs."
ALANNA "What's going on?" I ask Azalea the next morning, seeing as the palace seems to have been thrown into confusion. "Zylon was poisoned. He was found dead in his cell this morning" she responds."Poisoned? What's really going on? Queen Tiana lost her life, then Taera was murdered, now this?" I say and Azalea sighs."I think whoever poisoned Zylon didn't want him to let anyone know who the real culprit is" "But the coven elders can still figure it out by using a spell, right?" I ask and she nods. "We need to leave the palace by tonight. Since Azeroth is a different plane, it would be daytime over there by the time it's nightfall over here" Azalea says. "How are we supposed to leave the palace without alerting Zeron or any of the guards?" I ask."You have to be careful enough not to wake Zeron up when you get out of bed. Also, there's a secret passage in the library
ALANNA Azeroth generally looks like a large swamp with overgrown mangroves. This place is very creepy and even the slightest sound is enough to send shivers down my spine."Are we really in the right plane? This place looks like a swamp to me" Azalea says as she draws out her sword."We don't know what to expect around here, so we have to be careful" I say as I unsheathe Zeron's sword. It is a bronze colored sword with a jeweled silver handle. I've only seen him with the sword a few times and I'd taken it with me in case I needed to defend myself. "Come on, let's get going" Azalea says and I frown."How do we know where the seal is, exactly? We just can't go walking around until nightfall" I say and Azalea smiles."You don't have to worry about that" "What do you mean? Do you have a map with you or something" I ask and she takes out a piece of paper from her bag. Then she unfolds
ZERON Dread sinks into my heart like the cold blade of a dagger at the thought of Alanna being in grave danger. Could it be that Valdrin had taken my wife with him? Or worse still, had Lochan succeeded in taking her away from me? No, no, this can't be happening. Talon shifts his weight to his left leg, his gaze refusing to meet mine. Now that I think about it, there's an air of uneasiness around him. It's almost as if-- he knows something about Alanna's disappearance. "I want to be alone" I say and the rest of the guards leaves the chamber. Just as Talon starts to leave, I stop him."Talon, I believe we have something to talk about" I say and he stiffens. Slowly, he turns to look at me. "What is going on, Talon?" I demand and he lowers his gaze, an air of remorse around him. This doesn't help with my growing frustration. Now, I'm definitely sure of the fact that he knows somethi
ALANNA The tiger gem begins to glow brightly, the palm of my hand barely containing it's radiant light. "How do we use this?" I ask Azalea who quietly takes out a knife. "Here, the tiger gem can only be activated by non-magic users. Your blood just needs to make contact with the gem" she replies, maintaining eye contact with me. "Okay" I breathe and quickly make a cut on my palm. As soon as it begins to bleed, I tighten my injured hand into a fist, positioning it directly above the gem. The gem begins to glow even brighter as soon as my blood makes contact with it. Then, all of a sudden, the whole place begins to turn grey, then white. Finally, we find ourselves standing in a field of Jasmine flowers. Standing few metres away is a very old man with wrinkles on his face and a bald head. Judging from the cloak he's wearing, he must be Azeroth's guardian. He has a grim look on his face and he