With eyes opened, he looked into the darkness around him. He felt conflicted about the dream he just experienced. He always felt a bit unsure of how he ought to feel when gaining insight into his past. It was what he wanted but they always felt painful to him.
Whilst he lay there, a bit of light began to enter through the window. With a twist of his head, he spotted the butterfly surrounded by a translucent orb coming in to hover above him.
“What do you think you’re doing here at this hour? he said. “Are you trying to get me into trouble?”
The butterfly motioned to the left and right to answer no to him. He supposed that even if someone wandered in, they wouldn’t see this being or whatever it could be called. When he had asked Felghan whether they saw the butterfly during their first encounter together, they had given him a confused look. For whatever reason, he could see and sense the butterfly when others couldn’t.
It began to motion over towards the door going up and down. He began to sit on the edge of the bed planting his feet on the floor. “What is it?”
They motioned towards the door as if to suggest for him to follow with a sense of urgency. “You want me to follow you?” It went up and down. Of course they do. Why yes, let me follow you in a place where I am a practical complete stranger. Kiran felt that following them could get him into trouble, but at the same time, he felt like they wouldn’t have come to him if it weren’t important.
He put on some boots and grabbed a cloak leaving behind some of his things. The butterfly led him through the immensely quiet hall. At this hour, everyone was presumably asleep. It was always dark of course so that made determining the time a struggle, but everyone naturally grew tired around the same time after having been up for long enough.
The butterfly chose to go through the estate’s front door. Kiran looked around not spotting anyone that might see him leave. He carefully opened the door in such a way that it wouldn’t make a sound. It did so slightly, but not enough to alert anyone. He left and followed the butterfly that led him through the dark forest.
They traversed it off-path. “I do hope you have a good reason for having me follow you out here.” He supposed that wandering about wouldn’t necessitate an immediately hostile response towards him, but it was rather suspicious what he was doing. It wouldn’t look good if he were caught out here. I am a fool, aren’t I? I can’t help but drag my feet along when it might be better suited to staying still.
At the same time, he thought this being needed him. They had helped him before. If he could help them in return, then he always wanted to be capable of doing so.
Eventually, the forested area ended and instead, a barren bit of land sat beneath his feet. The butterfly led him over towards a declining path built on the edge of a cliff. He carefully strode down it finding himself in a constricted place with two tall cliffs on each side.
Kiran wasn’t particularly averse to tight spaces. Here, however, he thought it wouldn’t be hard for him to become claustrophobic if he stayed here too long. The sides of the cliffs were eager to bump up against him but thankfully he didn’t struggle to walk along the tight path that hid itself away not all that far away from Lady Meredith’s manor.
The constricted path soon ended and a dark cave entrance appeared. “Where the heck are you taking me? There’s a monster in there isn’t there?”
They motioned to the left and right suggesting no. They began to head inward forcing him to follow lest he find himself plunged entirely in the darkness. It suddenly dawned on him that if they ran off from him, he’d have a real hard time making it back to the manor on his own.
Dear the heavens. I really am an idiot.
He wanted to plant a fist into his head for being such a dolt sometimes. Oh well. What’s done is done. I can only follow them for now and hope they help me get back there.
The further into the cave they went in, the more and more exotic things became. Along the grounds, walls, and rocky ceiling above, glowing mushrooms began to appear. Pools of water gathered in certain places making him step over them carefully.
He supposed if he had to, he might have to grab a mushroom and use it to make it back if they were to abandon him.
“Hey, uh, you wouldn’t be able to actually speak to me, now would you?”
The butterfly didn’t respond sadly. If they could, he thought they would. All they could do communication-wise was make simple no’s or yes’s by moving their body in certain directions. This capability alone did enable some competent level of communication between them. It also meant that they clearly understood him and possessed the intelligence level of a human or familiar at the very least.
The mushrooms kept the parts further in even more well-lit. A strange force or energy also began to touch his body making him feel somewhat strange. It felt familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. He wasn’t quite sure whether his mind merely played tricks with him.
No this is no trick. There is something here.
A ton of light appeared from afar when the cave appeared to open up further ahead. He and the butterfly walked towards the bright opening until his two feet stopped right on the edge of a chamber built within the cave.
Unlike the rest of the cave he had wandered through, this part had been crafted by an architect. Along the four-sided walls, were intricate markings built into the stone. The markings devised by an intelligent being however, weren’t alone. Strange bluish crystals protruded on nearly every surface providing a bluish glow light inside of here.
None of this was the strangest thing, however. Within the center of this squarish chamber, a black-haired woman wearing a white dress lay atop a brightly blue glowing altar that had crystal-like objects protruding around it. Some of the rock-like crystals were small while others were quite large casting enormous shadows around the center of the chamber.
The butterfly flew over towards the woman who appeared to be asleep. He began to near her and notice her breathing in and out like someone who was in a deep sleep.
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She looked like someone in her late teens that appeared entirely normal from what he could tell from a mere glance. She had long black hair and skin that was as pale as milk itself. She kept her hands clasped over on top of herself and appeared at peace. None of these physical observations he made were particularly strange except for the fact that she looked familiar to him. In fact, the more he thought about it, he began to realize that her face looked like the two twin maids. So we’re dealing with triplets then, eh? Why then is this one here in this place I wonder.
Kiran found himself continually wondering who this person was and why he had been brought here by the butterfly. He kept a safe distance away from the altar and he couldn’t help but notice enormous amounts of energy surging around the altar itself. Bits of it hit up against his skin and motioned by him as if it were being gathered to the altar itself.
He became aware that these weren’t any ordinary crystals or rocks protruding from the ground around the altar and along the outer walls of this chamber. He began to remember how this energy swarming around here felt similar to the kind of energy he felt when he had grasped onto an arcane root briefly from his past.
These must be arcane roots. And this altar may even be an arcane root itself. He began to feel like this was not the place he should’ve discovered. But perhaps that was why he was supposed to be here strangely enough. He wasn’t quite sure how he ought to feel to stumble into this but he began to worry, especially as he heard someone approach him from behind.
“How did you find this place?”
He couldn’t immediately tell whether the voice came from Evelyn or Aphelia for they both had the same voices. He thought that had it been Evelyn who was behind him, he’d either have a knife of some sort directly against his back, or one already penetrating through him.
“Why won’t you answer me?”
“I’m sorry, I just wasn’t expecting you to suddenly appear.”
He turned around spotting Aphelia standing there a few feet away from him. With a look of concern on her face, she appeared hesitant about how she might next respond to him. “How did you find this place?”
“A butterfly led me here.” He looked over his shoulder to try to find them. They were gone however having disappeared. It wasn’t like they would be able to see them anyways since he apparently was the only one able to.
“A butterfly?”
He nodded his head. “Have you perhaps been following me this entire time?”
“Yes. I saw you leave the manor and wander through the dark forest. Did you drink a potion to help you see well enough to find this place?”
“No. I had a little friend provide light for me but for whatever reason people like you cannot see or perceive them.” As he finished saying those words, he realized how much such a statement would likely make them think he had lost his mind. Now’s not the time to choose your words poorly Kiran!
“Then this friend or rather, butterfly led you here?”
“Yes.”
She appeared to calm slightly. She eyed the altar and he couldn’t mistaken how her face appeared quite similar to the woman on the altar.
“You really shouldn’t be wandering around into places like this.”
He cracked a nervous smile. “I can’t help myself.”
“Come on,” she said urging him to follow.
They began to leave the chamber and he relaxed a little not finding her immediately going towards the route of violence towards him. “May I ask what exactly is going on in there and how she looks sort of like y—”
She pressed a finger to his lip causing them to stop walking through the dark cave lit by glowing mushrooms. “I would ask that you remain silent over what it is that you’ve seen in there.”
“That’s all I have to do?”
“If you want to live that is.” She said the words softly but he took them quite seriously. “Will you promise me to stay silent about this place to anyone and everyone else?”
“I promise.”
She appeared immensely relieved. For someone he had only met recently, she was a very kind person given he had stumbled into a place he had no right to be in. Even then, she was willing to trust him for some reason.
“Where’s your sister?”
“She’s asleep.”
“That’s probably a good thing.”
Had it been Evelyn who followed him here instead of Aphelia, he’d be dead. Heck, he might’ve ended up dead before he made it to that chamber in the cave. Such a thought made a shiver run down his spine.
“Is there a reason why you’re trusting me to stay silent about this?”
“If I told you it would sound silly. But I suppose it’s simply that you don’t seem like the untrustworthy type.”
“I get what you mean,” he said. “You meet a person for the first time and you feel like you already know who they are at their very core.” He sort of felt that way towards Aphelia. She reminded him somewhat of Della although she seemed far more of the quiet type while remaining kind and considerate towards anyone and all they came across. Her sister on the other hand wasn’t like her whatsoever. She had a fire in that heart of hers and had taken an immensely threatening maneuver towards him that first night at the manor.
It wasn’t so unusual though to know who a person was right from the start. Kiran had met plenty of people on his travels and he thought he could gage who they were generally speaking right from the get-go. He would be a liar to suggest that this gut intuition was always correct. He hadn’t felt the evil presence that existed within Noreko for instance. That man hadn’t signaled to him that he would one day be largely responsible for unfathomable amounts of death. He also wasn’t just some low member within the coalition and he had managed to fool everyone with his true intentions. This made Kiran aware that it didn’t matter how much his gut might feel towards an individual, always utilize some skepticism and keep his eyes open for possibilities he might otherwise not want to entertain.
As for his promise to Aphelia, he figured he would keep it. He wasn’t interested in digging into areas he had no reason to be involved in. Whoever this person was deep in the cave wasn’t his business nor whatever connection it had to anyone around here.
He had to stay focused entirely on finding his people and ensuring their survival. Only then could he begin to deal with other things. Which was why he felt stupid for having followed that butterfly in the first place. The next time they show up, I really ought to maybe not go with them. They had brought him to Felghan which was incredibly useful for him, but this time, there was little benefit as far as he could tell besides giving him a lot of questions that had no answers. Aphelia could answer some of them, but he didn’t get the impression that he should try to poke and prod at her when she was being so willing to look the other way when she had no real reason to.
I know better than to push things. All he could do for now was be grateful things didn’t escalate and he hadn’t gotten into too much trouble. It could be argued that he hadn’t gotten into any trouble whatsoever. But there was always the possibility that Aphelia could go ahead and decide to alert Lady Meredith of what he stumbled across, but he felt that she too would stay silent about him uncovering these oddities that made him question things. But in the meantime, if she would remain silent about it, he would too.