Chapter 2: Duet's Melody

We came into a bedroom. But this wasn’t any ordinary room. No. It was…ENORMOUS. It was bigger than five of my rooms put together! And I had a big room. At the far end, there was a huge bed, at least three or four times the size of my bed, which could easily fit four people. It was covered in lavish, royal blue sheets and topped with dozens of decorated pillows. There were beautiful carvings set into the oaken frame.

The entire right wall was hidden by a bookshelf that stocked hundreds of books, documents, and scrolls. The left wall was a very long desk with two extremely comfortable looking armchairs. The rest of the room was bare, but that space was the exact size as one of the training rooms.

What is a place like this doing up here?

Joren wandered to the bookshelf and pulled out one of the scrolls.

“You guys! This is-” He replaced the scroll and took out a few more, his eyes wide.

“What?” I asked. He held up the papers in his hand. I walked over and looked at them. They were written in the Ancient Language. I quickly scanned the words and gasped.

“They have spells on them!” Kairi exclaimed, reading over my shoulder. “I’ve never heard of these before!”

“They look…really…really powerful…” I said in awe. The spells were long and complex and required words in the Ancient Language I hadn’t even learned. I picked out a thick book from the shelf and almost dropped it when I read the title.

“Shiri’s Diary!” I exclaimed. Lady Shiri was one of the most powerful Guardians of all time! She had created many spells with the other Guardian, Lord Adon, most of which were lost after they died. Kairi and Joren quickly came to my side as I opened the dusty book. Inside, every page was filled with spells that she had been working on! It was even scrawled in her hand how she came to create them! Even spells she had tried and never finished!

“This…is amazing…” Kairi breathed. Suddenly Joren started pulling more books off the shelves and gasped.

“ALL OF THEM! FULL OF SPELLS!”

I carefully set the book down and looked at the others. There were thousands of high-level spells written out in the pages.

“If…we were to…learn these…” I said breathlessly. I flipped through a thick volume until I found a spell that seemed fairly simple. It would allow me to cool down the room. I reached for my magic and spoke the words written there.

The temperature dropped.

“COLD! CLEON STOP THE SPELL!” Kairi exclaimed, shivering like mad. I cut off the magic and the room slowly warmed up.

“They work…” I said in awe. It would take a few tries to master this spell completely, but the doors were flying open at alarming speeds.

“OH MY LORD! HEALING SPELLS!” Joren screamed. He started hyperventilating as he turned the pages in a journal. Kairi slapped him. “Thank you!” He stared at a spell wide-eyed.

“What does it say?” Kairi asked quickly.

“This is a much more efficient way to cure large cuts!” Joren exclaimed. “Kairi cut me really deep!”

“What?! NO!” she shouted. I sighed and materialized my sword. I stuck the blade down into my forearm, groaning. The blood dripped on the floor. “CLEON!” Kairi exclaimed fearfully. The things I do for the greater good. Ughh… Joren rushed over and spoke a few words under his breath. The skin started healing itself very rapidly. Much more quickly than usual. But it…didn’t hurt! Usually when a healing spell began, it sent sharp pains through the wound, but I felt absolutely no pain!

“That’s amazing…”

This was a mage’s heaven! We spent the rest of the day and night reading the books non-stop and trying out the spells.

“This was their room, wasn’t it?” I asked. “The past Guardians’ room…” Kairi nodded, her eyes glowing because she was conversing with her past lives. The glow stopped and her eyes became the normal shade of brown.

“They said that the first set of Guardians to live in this castle built this room so they would have a place to train, undisturbed,” she explained. “Eventually, it became a tradition for Guardian’s to stay here together.”

“We should all stay here now!” I proposed. “Instead of downstairs with everyone else.”

“I can’t,” Joren said idly, immersed in a text. “I have to stay in the Healer’s wing.”

“Oh, right.” I turned to Kairi. “What about you? You up for this?” She stared at me wide-eyed.

“Stay in a room alone with you that no one else knows about that’s in a hidden part of the castle no one goes in…” She said, her voice faltering a bit.

“Why?” I smirked. “What do you think I’m going to do? Rape you?” I burst out laughing at the idea.

“Shut up! And…ok! Let’s stay here!” she exclaimed. I goggled my eyes at her. She actually agreed?!

“Alright! It’s settled then!” I laughed.

“You should tell Master Numare, first,” Joren advised without taking his eyes off the book.

“Yeah, yeah…” I grumbled.

“This is so cool! It’s our own secret that no one else knows about!” Kairi said happily. “Except Joren and Master Numare, of course.” She grabbed my hand. “Let’s go ask now!”