Aleara and Tylene rush towards Azreth with a look of worry on their faces.

“What happened here?” asks Aleara.

“I’m not really sure” Azreth replies with a confused expression on his face.

Both Aleara and Tylene have an astonished expression on their faces due to the absolute destruction of the surroundings.

“This…This, how is this possible!?” Tylene picks up a brown dagger with half its blade missing. The surrounding antiques were absolutely decimated, some of them devoured into nothingness.

“There was this sword…it was attacking me and after I touched it…it disappeared as if it never existed” Azreth left out the smoke incident in his explanation.

“Lyra said that you were bleeding from the mouth. Are you alr-” Azreth’s surroundings go to black.

Azreth wakes up to the smell of roses or what he presumes the smell to be. He had passed out. He looks around to find himself in someone’s room with plenty of toys around.

“Ah! My head is killing me” Azreth looks around for some water and finds nothing. He tries to open his mouth to call for someone, but he can’t seem to get any words out of his mouth.

“Mother! Look the idiot’s woken up” Azreth hears a familiar voice. His anger flares up instantly after hearing this girl.

Aleara rushes in and then tightly hugs him. “Azreth, how are you feeling? The healer came in and said that there was nothing wrong with you and then left a while ago” Aleara says with a worried expression on her face.

“I am fine mother, just a bit thirsty” Azreth replies plainly.

Lyra walks in with a glass of water “Take this dummy; don’t go around blacking out on me”.

After quenching his thirst Azreth looks around “Lyra this seems to be your room, why are there so many toys around?” he says with a smirk on his face.

Lyra’s face becomes red “These are not mine…they are Mikhail’s” she says with a blushful expression.

“Mother, why did you need to put him on my bed?” Lyra says bashfully.

“The smell of roses…its very nice” Lyra blushes at Azreth’s statement.

“I…I really like the scent of roses” She says meekly.

“Now, become my servant and I will give you many roses as a reward” Lyra demands.

“Shouldn’t I be the one to give you roses” Azreth says confusedly.

Lyra’s face flushes with red. She then digs her face into her mother’s skirt due to embarrassment at the words of Azreth.

 Both Aleara and Tylene let out a laugh at both these children’s words.

“Aleara don’t worry about the damage in the basement, they were all worthless antiques anyway” Tylene says with a smile on her face.

“That sword was as ancient as it could get. No one knows of its origins, everyone just presumed it to be a piece of scrap from a bygone era. As for the destruction that occurred I shall have it investigated.”

Azreth lets out a sigh of relief; suddenly there were grumbling noises “Mother, can we get something to eat” he says with an embarrassed expression.

“Sure, I will ask one of the servants to get you something” says Tylene.

“Mother, I am hungry as well” Lyra says unabashedly.

Soon, one of the servants came in with a tray of what looked like meat buns and orange juice.

“Umm…I love spiced meat buns” Lyra had a mouth-watering expression on her face.

Lyra kept chugging down meat bun after meat bun. It seems she has an endless pit instead of a stomach.

“Lyra, you are quite the glutton aren’t you.” Azreth had quite a bit of difficulty in holding down his laughter.

Lyra’s face went red with half of a meat bun sticking out of her mouth “Sht ub, wht wod u kno!” she mumbles incoherently.

After we finished our meal, it was time to say our goodbyes as it was soon to be dark.

“Azreth, will you come again? It seems Lyra had a great time with you.”

“Who had a great time with this dummy?” Lyra pouts incessantly.

Aleara takes Azreth in her arms and goes outside the house. She brings out her bracelet and opens up the portal back to the mansion. Azreth feels a chill run down his spine. The sudden thought of what went down the last time he went through the portal had his mind racking up all sorts of different thoughts.

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The portal opens up and Aleara walks in with Azreth in her arms and then the next moment they are inside the garden outside of the mansion.

Azreth has his eyes tightly shut and when he opens them up again, he lets out a sigh of relief.

He thinks about all that has transpired throughout the day. It went from being a normal day to having two near death experiences.

“Azreth your father will be coming home today”

Aleara then walks in the mansion with Azreth in her arms. She goes towards his room and puts him on the bed.

“Rest for a while. Once the food is prepared you can join me and your father for dinner.”

Azreth starts to feel drowsy and before he knows it he fall asleep.

He wakes up after some time and then proceeds to freshen up. He goes downstairs and sees his mother and father sitting at the dining table.

“Father you’re back!”

Raleth looks at his son with a bright smile on his face.

“Azreth your mother told me what happened earlier at Tylene’s antique place. How are you feeling now?”

Raleth looks on with a concerned expression towards his son.

“I just feel a bit light headed…nothing else really.”

Azreth says with a smile on his face.

Satisfied with the answer, Raleth decides to drop the subject.

“Father why aren’t there any servants in our mansion? At Lyra’s place there were plenty of them.”

Raleth frowns at the question form his son, not sure what to tell him.

Aleara interjects “Because I like to do all the housework as it helps me keep fit” with a light smile on her face.

Azreth seemingly unsatisfied with the explanation decides to drop the subject.

“Father, Mother I also want a younger sibling like Lyra”

Azreth says with a proud expression.

Aleara starts to blush while Raleth lets out a laugh “Why do you want a younger sibling?”

“Lyra has a younger brother to play with. I also want someone to play with”

Azreth pouts with a cute expression.

After dinner Azreth was not feeling sleepy, so he decided to head towards the library. Azreth needed to find some information relating to the weird phenomenon he experienced previously. The mystery of those three flames back in the cave, the black smoke emitted from his body repelling the attack of the black sword and after that the sword disappearing somewhere.

As he entered the library he started looking around various books and journals but to no avail.

These books contained absolutely nothing related to the phenomenon he experienced.

Azreth started to get frustrated due to the lack of information pertaining to these events.

In his frustration he decided that he will try and enter the second level of the library. This was just instinct or a hopeful fantasy because he was running out of ideas on obtaining any information.

As he approached the barrier, it started to buzz and vibrate. Azreth was not sure what was happening.

Azreth tried to touch the barrier and then suddenly his hand went through. But, his hand seemed to be stuck on the other side of the barrier. He started to lose control of the movements of his body.

Small strands of black smoke were coming out of his body and pounding the barrier. After some time Azreth managed to get his entire body across the other side of the barrier.

Azreth started gasping for breath as this entire event sapped most of the energy from his body.

He looked around to find that he was lying on the ground outside what seemed like a massive hall containing thousands of books.

Surprisingly, all the books and furniture were well maintained and there was not a spick of dust on any of them.

As he started to get up and trudge towards the hall, there was what felt like a massive explosion in his head. There was a large hoarse thundering voice.

“WHAT LIGHTS UP BUT DOES NOT LIGHT DOWN?!!!”