No More Secrets - The Caregivers: Part 2

No More Secrets
The Caregivers: Part 2

   Despite the spacious Caregivers crystal-laden cave with beautiful pools exuding the sense of safety and calm, Melline and Aethone quite couldn’t shake off some minor uneasy bug in the back of their heads. Perhaps the encounter with the Order clan had left a permanent mark on them, and with the memory so fresh in mind their instincts screamed to be careful. Fortunately they had Cailu with them, a Haedian they knew they could fully trust and his cheerful presence steered their thoughts off Shira’s smoldering eyes and crazed grin. Elywen didn’t seem to have such problems as she was focused on the energy around her, deciphering its flow and purpose. She sensed the connection between the pools, and this network extended even further to a separate smaller chamber, where she could also sense the handmaiden and Governess patiently waiting for… something.

“I assure you, friends, you are safe here and we’ll cause you no harm. It’s now your turn to trust me as I have trusted you throughout your journey here.”

   It seemed very important to Cailu that his guests felt relaxed and secure. His words helped Meline tremendously as she started to focus on the good memories she had collected in Cailu’s company, while Aethone didn’t feel as strong a friendship with the Haedian as Meline did, but despite that, his words still had some effect on her.

“There’s a lot of magical entwined energies here, mind telling me what’s their purpose?”

   Elywen had caught up with the others, appearing to Cailu’s side like a ghost, which made the young guide nearly jump. Despite that, he smiled warmly at the winged Runner.

“As I mentioned before, we need to take a glance at your souls before The Governess deems you ready to meet the Matriarch. This is your final and most important test, and the journey I’ve had with Aethone and Meline has made me confident that they’ll do just fine. Sadly I can’t provide any assurance to you, lady Elywen, as we’ve just met.”

   Cailu shrugged a bit sheepishly in the end, but Elywen didn’t seem to be worried at all. As long as it had something to do with magic she could even faintly sense, she could handle it just fine. Meline took a deep breath before addressing Cailu.

“Alright. I trust you. What do we need to do?”

   Aethone sent an insecure glance towards her companions before she hid it behind her usual neutral mask. If the other two were ready, then she couldn’t hold everyone back from getting on with this, whatever it was.

“All you need to do is enter one of the pools, immerse yourself in them and simply relax. You won’t drown in them, plus I’ll be keeping watch right here. We’ve done this countless times before so we’ll respect your boundaries, but you’ll have to allow us in so we can explore just a little bit.”

   Cailu vaguely gestured towards the pools in the room, to which Meline sighed nervously and while convincing herself to calm down, she started heading to one of the pools.

“Thank you, Cailu. I’ll see you later, right?”

   Cailu couldn’t help but smile at Meline’s nice behavior, and having nodded encouragingly in response, he observed how Aethone and Elywen picked their pools, after which he chose a vantage point where he sat down to keep an eye on all three of them. Noticing Aethone’s thoughtful gaze on him, Cailu playfully cocked his head to the side in hopes to ease the big Puller’s worries. Aethone responded with a weak smile before she approached the odd body of water before her.

   All three topsiders took caution when touching the “water” for the first time. It wet their fur like water, but at the same time, it quite didn’t feel like normal liquid. It felt pleasantly warm and cool at the same time, so immersing in it wasn’t a problem even for a non-swimming enthusiast like Aethone. Elywen was the first to roll on her back, wings spread and the rest of her limbs spread out in a fully relaxed pose. She closed her eyes and began to meditate before giving in to the gentle tugging of her mind. Meline and Aethone weren’t that experienced with magic as Elywen was, so having closed their eyes and attempted to prepare, they were caught by surprise as something pulled their consciousness down deeper into the pool, giving them just a split second to start to panic before they fell unconscious. Sadly, the seed of fear joined them in their journey and Cailu noticed how Meline and Aethone tensed up just moments before going under, which created a glint of worry in the young Caregiver’s eyes.

   Meanwhile, the handmaiden and The Governess were simultaneously observing tiny ponds in the cave they were at, to guide themselves through the visitors’ minds. There they could see the trio’s memories unfold, and witnessed which ones they were thrust into.

*** Meline ***

   She sensed chaos. Then confusion. Then fear. She was twirling and falling somewhere, not able to move but she couldn’t reach full panic as her descent slowed while her surroundings started to take shape. She recognized a forest. A nighttime forest. Was it Warrenfall? She felt the soft grass beneath her paws, a warm breeze gushed over her fluffy fur and heard crickets singing high up in the trees. She was small. Tiny, in fact, as Meline was just a small Tyrian pup and despite the idyllic night around her, she felt her heart rate rising and fear numbing her body as she was completely alone. And she could hear a pack of wolves surrounding her.

   She started to sob and hyperventilate through her nostrils. The glimpse of panic she experienced before her consciousness was grasped by the Caregivers’ magical pool had sent her to this moment, but right now all this was very real to her. Like a nightmare where you don’t know that you’re sleeping. The pack of hungry wolves cautiously approached her, only their eyes glistening eerily in the shadows, as there was barely any moonlight to highlight their coats. Oh how the little Meline wished she had somebody to help her, or somebody who would scoop her up and fly far away from those scary monsters while hugging her and assuring that she’s safe now. But the reality was brutal, shaking the little Tyrian to her core as the wolves crept closer, licking their lips in anticipation.

   Meline curled up, hiding her head under her wings and wrapping her long tail around her. She was desperate. Her little body was shivering from sheer terror as she kept dropping tears into the ground under her. She didn’t want to be here, she didn’t want to be alone, she didn’t want to die as her life had just begun. All this desperation fueled something in her, awakening a force she had no idea even existed. She felt a warm ball forming in her stomach, which spread to the rest of her body, then limbs and tail, then to her head. When it reached her mind, she suddenly felt powerful and unstoppable as she jumped up, seeing nothing but bright light around her for a blink of an eye, as the next moment, she was gasping for air, finding herself back in reality and still floating in the pool while Cailu’s worried look witnessed her return.

*** Aethone ***

   Aethone’s consciousness was swirling through a tornado made of countless emotions she kept bottled up inside her. They attacked her mind in an attempt to control her, but before that could happen, her descent slowed as she landed gently on her four paws. Her surroundings shifted into a familiar courtyard during a sunny day. Shapes of perky Vayrons fussing around her appeared, and by the time the scene became crystal clear, Aethone realized with horror that she’s back in school - the place she despised the most in her life. She had shrunk down in her pre-teenager size, but that was still a lot bigger than the other Pullers and Runners of her age around her. She felt her heart sink as others had noticed her presence and started exchanging whispers while vile grins gave away that their secretive talks were nothing good. Aethone swallowed, and started heading inside to hide herself in the classroom from the bullies.

   She walked cautiously, doing her best to avoid eye contact with the mean schoolmates and suppressing her anxiety the best she could. She didn’t want to be here at all, but sadly she had no other choice but to endure this hell every day. There will be a time when she gets far away from here, but till then, she just has to hang on.

   Aethone’s attention was on the group of Vayrons following her inside, so she didn’t even notice how there was a trap set up for her right before reaching the classroom. Some bastard had pulled a rope across the corridor perfectly high enough from the ground for Aethone to trip on it and stumble on the ground, hurting multiple spots on her body in the process. Through the pain and unpleasant surprise, she could hear the others start to laugh behind her, obviously entertained by her misery. She felt one tooth starting to ache badly, while one of the leaders of the bullies stepped out of the classroom, chuckled menacingly at her direction before he proudly made an announcement to his audience.

“I have downed the Zataro! Glory to Bereth and his House!”

   The spectators cheered, and Aethone couldn’t hold back tears anymore. Ignoring the pain, she got up and ran further away in the corridor, following the other corridors from there till she took a sharp turn to the side, ending up in an empty cabinet. Quickly closing the door behind her she collapsed to the floor, crying uncontrollably while trying to understand why she is being punished for something she can’t change. Before the agony could swallow her mind as whole, she opened her eyes while gasping loudly, finding herself back in the pool.

*** Elywen ***

   Unlike her two unfortunate companions, Elywen had managed to properly prepare for the upcoming process. She briefly managed to meditate, conjuring serenity and clear state of mind. This tranquility allowed her to softly descend into a memory of her choosing as she navigated through her own consciousness. Not wanting to reveal something too intimate straight away, she guided her thoughts towards the day she found her favorite spellbook.

   It was a chilly winter day in Warrenfall, when Elywen was heading to the famous ruins of an old castle in the forest nearby a small village. These ruins had been extensively studied by both archeologists and scholars all over Reos, but they all didn’t have the secret information Elywen managed to dig up from forgotten archives in Thedale, out of all places. This accidental piece of knowledge brought her here, as her hopes were high for rediscovering the long lost infamous Tome of Thalgar.

   As she spent the majority of her time in Roenden, Elywen didn’t require wooly scarves or thick coats to keep her warm in the Warrenfall winter. She just had her basic gear with her as she approached the location of the ruins, gently landing on a clearing next to them. During winter, there were no tents or fussing scientists here as camping outside was so much better during summer, so the researchers spent the colder days analyzing the findings they had brought back during the previous season. Elywen liked how deserted the ruins were, this only allowed her to wander around undisturbed, or without the fear of having to share the credit of the discovery with some random nerd.

   She headed towards the main entrance, where clear signs and chains forbid Reoseans from entering, but that obviously didn’t stop her. Paying no mind to that, she slipped in, took a moment to position herself in this maze before she started heading east with the intent of finding the nobleman’s office. Thanks to this place being charted well, she had no issues navigating to her destination. Having cleared some rubble in her way, she entered the crumbling room. Assessing its sad conditions, Elywen reached for one of her satchels to pull out a runestone with a complex sigil carved on it. This was supposed to be a key to a hidden chamber, which she learned in Thedale and then completed a successful quest of finding it among the archaeologists’ piles of items they had scavenged from here. Thanks to her high status, she received it without questions being asked from her and she was free to continue the journey on her own.

   She took the runestone with the claws of her right wing, and started to slowly walk around the cabinet, scanning the floor and walls with it while focusing on detecting even the faintest of magic. It took her a good while, but no result. She grunted from frustration and sat down, examining the rune closer. She got an idea - having carefully resonated with the speck of magic left in the stone, she gave it a slight boost, charging it up. This trick seemed to work as she could immediately sense something responding to the stone, and with a victorious grin, she headed to the remains of the fireplace. She stuck her head in there and surely enough, there was a slot for the stone inside the darkened smoke shelf. She slid the stone in there, and the key opened the door - the floor of the fireplace slid back, revealing a narrow staircase leading down. Elywen didn’t hesitate for a moment and with a victorious grin, she went in, descending into a pitch black darkness. She summoned some magical wisps to illuminate her surroundings once she reached the bottom of it. She found herself in a small dusty room that smelled of ancient secrets. Letting the wisps spread around, she saw magical chandeliers hanging from the wall. Deciding to charge them with arcane energy as well, the lights came on, perfectly revealing every detail in the hidden chamber. She noticed various valuable items being stored in here, glistening in the light they hadn’t seen for eons but her attention stopped at a heavy book chained to the stone pillar it was standing on. Having carefully approached it, Elywen was more than sure of finding the treasure - the Tome of Thalgar was right in front of her, seducing her with the powerful magical secrets hidden in it. Reaching her paws for it and holding it in front of her gifted Elywen one of the strongest positive emotional moments in her long life. She knew right away that the book wasn’t a copy but the very original one she had been dreaming of. It was an unusual behavior of her to even give a gentle kiss to the dusty cover as she was simply ecstatic over this find of the millenia.