Darek tried to swat away whoever was shaking him and yelling into his ear. “A few more minutes,” he mumbled in his sleep.
“We don’t have a few minutes!”
Darek felt someone slap him in the face furiously. “I’m up! I’m up!” Feeling a stinging sensation on his cheeks, Darek opened his eyes to see Azura in front of him. He blinked several times and scratched the back of his head, trying to put his thoughts together.
“Why are you here?” he asked.
“To wake you up!”
“No, not that,” Darek said. “More like—how’d you get in here?” “All the doors were open when I woke up,” replied Azura. “What?” Darek scrambled to his feet and ran to the door. Azura
was right. There were no signs that the lock or door had been broken. It was simply unlocked. But who could’ve done it? “Let’s get out of here before they find out!”
“Aren’t you worried?” asked Azura.
“About what?”
“The doors are opened and even the guards were knocked out,”
“What are you getting at?” Darek folded his arms. “Are you trying to say this is another trap? Why would they bother?”
Azura groaned in frustration. “I don’t know, but something’s not right.”
“Look, we’re free,” said Darek. “Who cares about the details? Let’s just get out of here.”
“Wait,” said Azura. “This might be a good opportunity…”
His servant bowed and said, “Yes, sir. Right this way.” As the two of them walked toward the prisoner’s rooms, they stumbled upon the bodies of the guards as they lay on the ground, beaten and bloody.
Rendall thundered, “What is the meaning of this?”The servant trembled and said apprehensively, “I’m not sure. I will find out at once.”
“Wait,” Rendall told his servant. He bent over and examined one of the bodies. “They’re not dead, only unconscious. Wake them up.”
Rendall opened up the doors of the prisoner’s rooms and saw that Darek and Azura had disappeared. After the five guards had regained consciousness they lined up against the wall and stood at attention.
Rendall asked them, “What happened here?”
The leader of the guards replied, “S-sir, to be honest, I’m not sure what happened. Something ran in and moved like a blur…I think it was a monster or a beast. That’s all I know.”
“That’s it? That’s all you know?” Rendall curled his lip at their incompetence. “The prisoners must be trying to escape! Tell all the men on this level to search above. We must catch them before they get too far. We can’t let anyone know we captured our guests.”
The guards obeyed his orders and left the hall. Rendall, now alone, looked back at the hall and sniffed the air. Then he went on his way, following the guards.
Azura poked her head out of a door and looked around stealthily. “They’re gone.”
Darek exhaled. “That’s a relief.”
Azura smirked. “See? If we tried to escape, they’d be on our tail.”
“But now we’re trapped down here.”
“Merdon did want us to look for some kind of hidden secret inside the castle, and so far, I think this fits the bill quite well.”
Darek shrugged. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. It’s a basement.”
Azura shook her head. “Look how big their castle is already! They don’t need a basement. The only reason, just as Merdon suspected, is to hide something from the public.”
“Ah,” exclaimed Darek. “Merdon has a secret basement too. I guess it’s pretty popular here to make one.”
“But something still bugs me,” said Azura.
“Again? What is it this time?”
Azura furrowed her brow. “Rendall sent all the guards to look for us in the wrong direction. Isn’t that weird? Why didn’t he send a few in this direction?”
“Maybe he didn’t really think about it,” said Darek. “Most prisoners do try to escape.”
“Or maybe, there’s more to this than we realize,” remarked Azura.
Darek and Azura ran deeper into the basement. While running, Darek reached for his satchel and could still feel the handle of his daggers through the opening. Azura did have some valid reasons for suspicion. He found it odd that they didn’t even bother to disarm him.
They did not see a single soul the entire time they sprinted to the end of the hall. They came to a dead end. There was only one thing there: a massive vault door.
Azura yanked on the handle. It didn’t budge. “It’s stuck.”
“Stuck is not the word for it,” said Darek, pointing at a keypad for entering passwords.
“Seeing as we don’t have the code, can you pick the lock?” asked Azura.
“Are you kidding? The only thing I pick is my nose,” said Darek sharply. “Why don’t you try smashing it? That always works in the movies.”
“People don’t design security systems so that people can just punch them to unlock,” said Azura. “Besides, if I break it and it doesn’t work, we’ll never get inside.”
Darek sighed. “Then should we go back?”
“Whatever’s behind this door must be important,” said Azura. “We have to get inside.”
“Ah,” said Darek, realizing something. “Whenever I get to this point in videogames, you have to find the code somewhere. People always leave the code out so they can remember it. It could be on a computer system or a piece of paper lying on a desk.”
“Videogames don’t imitate real life,” said Azura, frowning.
Footsteps echoed in the narrow hall.
“Someone’s coming,” said Azura in a hushed voice. “We’ve got to hide.”
“Hide?” said Darek. “There’s nowhere to hide…”
There was only one thing they could rely on in this situation. Even though there weren’t any places to hide in that open hall, it wasn’t very bright. Dim, flickering lights hung from the ceiling. Azura pushed Darek over to the side and motioned for him to stay there quietly. The two of them fanned out their arms and legs and flattened their backs against the wall; they remained absolutely silent and still.
This is not going to work, thought Darek nervously. This is silly. He’s going to see us.
A hooded man appeared in the darkness of the hall, steadily walking to the door.
I’m a wall, Darek thought to himself. I’m brick and mortar. I’m a piece of construction that is not, in anyway, out of place. I’m just a part of the building.
As the man got closer and closer, Darek clenched his teeth and swallowed loudly. The man spun his head towards Azura, and then swung his head back at Darek. As Darek looked into the man’s eyes, Darek felt his heart start racing.
Is he looking at us? Darek gulped, sweat pouring off his brow.
The man ignored them and walked up to the keypad. He entered in a code and the door cracked open. This was their chance to get inside. Darek and Azura leaped from the wall and simultaneously tried to the strike the man while he was still unsuspecting. Azura launched a flying roundhouse kick to the head and Darek thrust his dagger at the man’s side.
The man parried their attacks and said, “What do you guys think you’re doing?”
“Huh? It can’t be…” said Darek, recognizing the voice. “Sorren?”
“Yeah.” Sorren took his hood off. “What grudge do you have against me this time?”
“Sorren!” exclaimed Azura, elated. “I thought you were dead! Are you a ghost?”
“I’m not dying that easily,” said Sorren. “Still got things to do.”
“What happened?” asked Darek, looking confused. “How are you still alive?”
“I faked my death,” explained Sorren. “It was a risk I had to take to throw them off. If all three of us lived through the ceremony, someone was bound to be suspicious.”
“Was all the water okay?” said Darek.
“Only Azura’s was the real deal,” said Sorren. “The others were switched.”
Darek said, “But Azura could’ve died!”
“There was that possibility,” Sorren admitted. “But I believed that Azura could handle it, so I hinted for her to be careful. And look at us now. We’re all here, alive, and ready to go.” Sorren led them beyond the door and into another room.
“Were you the one that freed us?” asked Azura.
“Freed you?” said Sorren. “From what?”
“No, nevermind,” said Azura quickly.
The room they entered was very different from what they thought it would be. It did not match the corridors or the castle; instead, it appeared much more modernized. Computers were built along the walls and digital cameras were suspended in the corners of the ceiling. The room was a perfect square and inside this room was another smaller square chamber in the center. This small chamber was encased in strong, thick glass. Darek looked through the glass and all there was inside was a large hatch on the floor.
“Sorren, how’d you get the code to enter this place?” Azura stared at the room in awe.
Sorren replied, “I looked around. Found it lying somewhere.”
Darek had a smug look on his face and glanced at Azura. “See, I told you so.”
Azura turned away, refusing to admit defeat over something so trivial. “Whatever. Let’s try to grab as much information as we can.”
“Be careful what you say,” said Sorren. “If you haven’t noticed, there are cameras that are watching us. They’ve already caught our faces, but that’s okay. We just need to make sure no information ties in with our…client.”
While Darek and Azura went about inspecting and investigating, Sorren spared no time to begin looking through the items within cabinets. He reached his hand into drawer after drawer, and he grinned when he found what he was looking for.
“What’d you find?” said Darek.
Sorren lifted it up in plain view for Darek to see. “Goggles.”
“Night vision?” Darek’s interest was piqued.
“No,” said Sorren. “These are for blocking harmful rays of light.”
Darek was disappointed. “What do we need those for? We’re underground.”
“You never know.” Sorren opened the door to the glass chamber. “Come on, get inside.”
Darek shrugged and went inside after Azura. “Do you have any idea what this is for?”
Sorren replied, “I have a pretty good idea.” Sorren pressed a few buttons on a keypad and the large hatch on the floor clicked. The pressure from the hatch was lifted and a small elevator rose from the floor.
“There are more floors to this place?” exclaimed Darek. “I’m impressed.”
Sorren went inside the elevator and the others followed him in. Something struck Darek as odd. The elevator did not have many floors listed on the buttons. In fact, there were only two buttons for the elevator: up and down. What was even more odd was that the elevator was perfectly symmetrical. Even the ceiling looked exactly like the floor.
“That’s silly,” Darek snickered.
“What is?” asked Azura.
“Why would you need an elevator for two floors? The whole purpose of elevators is for multiple floors. They should have built stairs.”
“Stairs wouldn’t be practical for where we’re going,” said Sorren.
Long handlebars were screwed onto all sides of the elevator. Sorren promptly took hold of one of the bars and held on.
Vroom! The elevator rapidly descended down the shaft like it was freefalling. The speedy descent caused Azura and Darek to become weightless and float several feet off the ground. Sorren floated a bit, but he hung onto the bar to avoid floating too high. In a panic, Darek thrashed his hands about and seized a handlebar.
“What’s going on here?” Darek shouted over the roaring engine. He screamed as the elevator descended for miles into a never-ending chasm. “Don’t tell me we’re going to go splat on the bottom!”
The elevator suddenly eased up and began decelerating. As it did so, Darek could feel the gravity reversing and his body falling towards the ceiling. When the elevator came to a full stop, all three of them were now standing on the ceiling as though it was the floor.
Darek felt nauseated and wanted to vomit. He took deep breaths to settle his stomach. Azura patted him on the back to comfort him. The elevator doors opened up and the sight astounded Darek, making him forget he was ever feeling sick.
“This can’t be real,” Darek uttered, letting his jaw drop. “Wow, what is this place?” Darek gawked at the strange landscape.
They stepped out of the elevator to find themselves in a place that they were not familiar with. It was not a floor of a building, but rather, they found themselves almost seemingly in another world. It was similar to the surface of a planet. There was a giant blue grassy field that stretched like a fluffy rug across the land. Thousands of lonesome trees dotted the field like blemishes. Hundreds of serene green streams were networked through the land like connecting blood vessels. But unlike the surface of the planet, there was no sky and no sea. The entire place consisted of one large landmass, as if they were enclosed inside a hollow ball. The land began from where they stood and stretched all the way around.
The air was tremendously thick. Though fairly clear and nothing like fog, the air was still partially visible, as if they were looking through a very thin sheet of water. The density of water in the air made it excruciating to breath. Darek clutched his chest while panting for air.
In the very center of the space was a bright and shiny sphere as bright as the sun, and it filled the vast open space with limitless light. The sphere was a brilliant orange; splashes of molten magma spurted and oozed from its surface. It pulsated like a heart and the streams of water on the land swayed back and forth, following the rhythm of the beat.
“Don’t look directly into the core without shades. It’ll burn your eyes out,” warned Sorren, as he passed everyone a pair of goggles. “Wear these while we’re in here.”
Darek strapped on the protection for his eyes and marveled at the sight of this other world. “This is the core? So that means we’re—”
“Yes,” said Sorren. “This is what you’d call the center. Every planet is structured similarly to this one. The planet is hollow, except for the giant core in the middle. As you can see there is no sky, because we are within the planet. There is only land all around.”
“But gravity would pull us down into the core, right? How can we be standing up?”
“Didn’t you feel it in the elevator? The force of gravity was pulling us towards the bottom of the crust. After we passed the threshold, the gravity flipped. So in other words, gravity is keeping us to this floor.”
Azura turned to Sorren. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you? You knew about the goggles so you knew we would be going to the core. Merdon never said anything about going inside the planet. How do you know all this?”
Sorren turned away and glanced for a moment at the core. “I’ve never been here, at this place, before. But as I’ve said, every planet has a core. I’ve been inside another planet.”
“Is this common knowledge?” asked Azura. “I never learned this at the Academy.”
“No one knows. No one cares. And if you tell people about it, they’d think you’re crazy.”
Azura agreed. “You’re probably right.” She couldn’t help but smile at that moment. “But to think that something like this is possible. It’s amazing.”
Darek stood over a running stream of water and kneeled. He dipped his hands into the water and felt the warm current against his palm. He then cupped the water into his hands and was tempted to take a drink. Even though the water was a little warm, the water still looked so pure, crisp and sweet.
“Don’t do it,” said Sorren. “You mustn’t drink of the water on this side.”
“And why not? I’m pretty thirsty right now,” said Darek.
“You could die.”
Darek immediately let go of the water.
Sorren explained, “That’s the same water that was used during the ceremony. This is where they get it. You’ve heard the tales of the fountain of youth, haven’t you? People desperately search for the drink of immortality. And only those people who survive the many perils will find the entrance to the underground. This would be the so-called fountain of youth. If you don’t have the absolute will to live, you will die if you drink it.”
“You couldn’t have learned that from Merdon.” Darek turned to Sorren and shouted, “So you knew all along about the water? Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell Merdon? It could’ve—”
“It could’ve what? Made a difference?” Sorren said, “Do you really think so? Wouldn’t Merdon be more suspicious of me if I actually knew the secret of immortality? And if you knew of it, wouldn’t you hesitate to drink the water, unsure of whether or not it was still contaminated? There were too many things to consider.”
“So you always keep us in the dark on purpose?” said Darek bitterly. “You didn’t warn us when you pretended to die. You didn’t tell us about the water. You didn’t tell us about this place. You don’t tell us anything! That’s ridiculous. It’s like you don’t even trust us.”
“Does it seem that way? Well, it’s true. I cannot put my full trust in you. You’ve done nothing to prove to me that you can handle a situation like that.”
Darek grabbed Sorren by the collar. “You’ve never given me a chance! How can I prove myself if every time a situation like that comes along, you always deal with it yourself, acting like we aren’t even part of this. We’re working together, aren’t we?”
Sorren analyzed Darek for a few seconds. “Do you trust me?”
Darek released him and said, “I do.”
“Then you will be the one to suffer the consequences,” said Sorren. “Now, we must get moving. We’ll end this meaningless discussion now.”
“No,” Darek snapped. “I’m not ending this discussion because you say so. This is important! I’m trying to work as a team here, but it’s more like everyone’s doing their own thing!”
Sorren narrowed his eyes. “Then we’ll continue this discussion as we walk.”
Darek made direct eye contact with Sorren. “Why are you in such a hurry? You’re hiding something again, aren’t you?” Darek sat down on the ground. “I’m not moving until you tell me what’s going on.”
Sorren groaned, “Oh, all right…I’ll tell you.” He pointed at a gargantuan mechanical tower. It was the only building on the land and was fairly near to the elevator’s location. The tower was staggeringly immense. It was tall enough to reach all the way to the core. “Take a look for yourself. What do you think that is?”
“I don’t know. A tower, I guess—and an impressive one at that.”
“Yes. It’s not a natural structure. It didn’t just pop out of nowhere. Someone built it. The real question is: why is there something like that inside this planet? It’s not normal, and seeing that it even extends to the core, it has me concerned. Whether they are trying to study it or harness its power, the core is something that should not be disturbed.”
“And why is that?” asked Darek.
“The core is dangerous. It could have disastrous consequences.”
Darek got up. “Now that wasn’t so bad was it? I mean, it is kind of bad, but in a different sense. But now that we know a little bit more of what’s going on, I have some motivation to hurry up. See how a little explanation can make things better?”
“Right. Whatever.”
There was a concrete road that went from the elevator to the entrance of the tower. Giant slabs of stone were held up above the road by tall pillars, and these stones served as a roof that sheltered the concrete road from the dazzling core.
“Does anyone else feel that?” whispered Sorren.
“The heat?” muttered Darek. “Not so much. Sure it’s crazy humid but…”
“No. I’m talking about those watchful gazes.”
“It doesn’t seem hostile though,” said Azura.
Darek looked around the pillars, and sure enough, he caught sight of several small embers that floated around. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”
The embers floated around and slowly came together, consolidating into a ball of fire. The ball was then molded, as if by invisible hands, into the form of a human—an old hag to be exact. Her complexion was pale and her hair was bordering white. Her body was small and frail and she beamed at them.
“Hello,” said the elderly woman in a garbled vocalization. “Who might you be?”
Darek opened his mouth to speak, but Sorren quickly interrupted and spoke first.
“We may answer you depending on who you are,” said Sorren. “If you refuse to tell us first, then we’ll just be on our way.”
“What a cautious fellow,” the woman cackled. “I am a resident of this place. Is that good enough for you?”
Sorren thought for a moment. “Yes. As for us, we’re just a few people passing by.”
The woman smiled. “Why do you think I appeared to you?”
“How should I know?”
“Because you are different than the others,” said the old hag. “The foolish immortals have wrecked this place by building that horrific monstrosity. You are different from them.” She paused. “I need your help. The immortals are on the path of destruction. If nothing is done, misfortune will befall all.”
“That’s not our problem,” said Sorren coldly. “Unless you have something to offer.”
“How dare you ask for something from a helpless old lady?” Azura scolded him. She then said to the elderly woman, “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll help you. What do you want us to do?”
Sorren grumbled to himself, “This is why I hate working with Heroes. What kind of helpless old lady appears out of thin air like that?”
The old lady continued, “My request is quite simple really. All I ask is that you destroy the Tower of Legai—the tower before us— and the elevator that leads to the surface world. It all must be destroyed.”
Azura laughed nervously. “Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“What? Is there something wrong with my request?”
“Wrong?” said Azura. “I wouldn’t say there’s anything wrong. More like, it’s totally unreasonable to ask us to just destroy a massive tower.”
“Is that so?” Sniffling, she broke into tears and covered her face with her hands. “Then…I must live in torment and in fear for the rest of my life!”
“Save your act,” said Sorren. “Even Azura’s not going to change her mind about this.”
The old hag glared at Sorren. Sorren stepped back, startled. Tongues of fire erupted at the feet of the old woman and burned their way up to her head. When the flames were snuffed out by the wind, the old hag was gone but now a cute young girl was standing there. Her hair was tied in a little ponytail and she sported a pink dress with flowery frills along the sleeves and skirt.
Sorren gave her a dirty look. She was trying to play them for fools.
The cute little girl began to bawl her eyes out with tears that flowed like a fountain. Pearly tears rolled off her soft face, and wherever her tears wet the ground, roses sprang up and blossomed.
“Look here,” said Sorren. “I’ve already told you—”
“Please stop crying,” sobbed Azura. “We’ll help you!”
“What’s wrong with you?” Sorren snapped at Azura. “She’s not even human!”
The girl stopped her tears and said to Sorren, “Don’t worry. If you want, I’ll give you something in return.”
Sorren looked at her, trying to understand her intent. Then he said, “I’m listening.”
“You want to go in there anyway, do you not? I will help you get inside. With my shape-shifting capabilities, I can lead you through safely.”
“Hmm,” said Sorren, crossing his arms. “That sounds good to me…only if you can get us through undetected. If you pull any nonsense or do anything stupid that jeopardizes our mission, you can sure I won’t be very forgiving.”
“Once again,” grumbled Darek, “no one ever talks to me or wants to know what I think. I think this is stupid. I think we shouldn’t do this. No one ever listens to me. I bet you guys don’t even realize I’m here.”
The little girl ignored Darek and wandered over to the stream that flowed nearby. “I need to refresh myself first. All that transformation has drained me dry.” The girl burst into flames and out of the flames came a tiny fairy. The fairy had glimmering white hair and a cute white dress.
The fairy dove into the stream and playfully swam in it, drinking the water and bathing in it. She then enthusiastically popped out of the stream; with the flapping of her powerful, yet tiny wings, she bounced around in the air sporadically like a humming bird, excited to begin.
“What should we call you?” asked Sorren.
The fairy beamed and squeaked, “You can call me Ios. I’m the one and only. Nice to meet y’all! I’ll be your fairy guide! Let’s go and knock that tower down together! Okay?” The fairy flew in front of Sorren and gave him a warm smile and a hug on the nose.
Sorren wrinkled his nose and blew her away with a puff of air, muttering, “I liked you better when you were an old lady.”
Guards, armed with short swords and dressed in leather armor, were stationed at the entrance to the tower as sentries. Two stood at the main gate. The other eight were divided into two sets of four; each set was positioned on either side of the gate. The guards rested upon the palms of what appeared to be giant stone hands.
Darek and the others hid themselves from plain sight by sneaking through the row of giant pillars. Darek peered from behind a pillar, observing the guards from afar.
“How do we get past these guys?”In a squeaky voice, the small fairy Ios said energetically, “I’ve got the perfect plan! You didn’t think I’d try this without knowing what to do, did you? I’ve studied them for many years and I have analyzed their movements, their reactions. Anything you need to know, I know it!”
Aggravated, Sorren said, “Just tell us your plan.”“Oh right,” said Ios, turning away, pretending to blush. “We’ll do this step by step. First we need to lure three of them to us.” “It has to be three?” asked Darek.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “No more, no less.”
“And how do we do that?” said Azura.
“I don’t know,” admitted Ios. “That’s for you to figure out.” Azura frowned. “That’s not a plan…it sounds more like a basic
Ios shrugged. “Be careful though. Even if you pass the guards, there’re cameras behind their backs.”
Sorren suggested, “If it doesn’t matter which three, we can split up. One person on each side of the tower and someone will stay here. Ios will relay messages between us.”
Sorren sneaked over to the left side of the tower. He moved so quietly that no one suspected a thing. Azura wasn’t as stealthy; she had to walk all the way around so she wouldn’t get noticed. Darek stayed at the pillar.
Sorren motioned for Ios to come. Then he whispered to her, “Have Azura try to lure the guard on the right side.” Ios nodded and flew to the other side to inform Azura.
Azura roared like a tiger, startling the guards as they kept watch. The guard on the right side of the tower left his seat and tiptoed over to inspect the cause of the sound. As he disappeared from view of the guards, another guard heard a scuffling sound from that direction and asked, “Is everything all right?”
Hidden from their sight, Ios replied with a perfect imitation of the guard’s voice, “Yes, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Azura had quickly knocked out the guard with one swift jab. “How’d you know the voice of the guard? He didn’t even say anything.”
“I’ve a