Enigma of the attic

The final chapter : A new life

"You're here, what took you so long. I can not stand here my whole life waiting for you to come ", roared the old woman who was kind enough to wait for Jane near the cave entrance.
" I'm sorry, the Greens won't leave the house, so I had to wait. I have told them nothing at all", told Jane.
The woman groaned and asked Jane to follow her to her house.
There were timing differences between London and Malar. The day was growing in Malar and it was very hard to walk to the woman's house, it was a perilous journey.
When they reached the house the woman slid the wooden plate and said a few magical words. The space between the walls was immediately filled with bricks. The woman did the same thing with the window-like hole in the wall. After the while room became fully closed, the woman took of her coat and her long ears were visible.
"Come here.", the woman pointed at her mattress and brought out a map.
" Why acting so furtive?", asked Jane.
The woman frowned and said, "I haven't done anything such as this before so I do not know if planning the murder of a king should be furtive or not?", mocked the woman.
Jane looked offended.
"Look here", said the woman pointing at the map of the castle.
" This is the middle of the castle. It's where Pogaey sits on his throne. 10 guards are there to protect the king and most importantly the throne.
There are many ways to get to the throne, but the safest goes from the dungeon, where your parents are. "
"That's it, we take my parents, and destroy the throne. But, ..... But, no it's not simple, how do we defeat the soldiers? ", asked Jane.
"We can not defeat them silly. I'll curse them. They will fall asleep for a while, so we take our chance there and destroy the throne. But we better not encounter Pogaey there. Otherwise, it's not going to be a happy ending at all."
Jane was scared, she didn't want a sad end today. She had gathered courage only to end up living a life of love and happiness.
"How can you curse? Do you know how to?", asked Jane.
" That's not your matter to think about. The only task of yours is to destroy the throne as only a human can do it.", replied the woman.
"Fine, let's go but I have a question. Why are you even falling me with all this? Why helping to save my parents?", asked Jane. And it was a much-anticipated question. Why would a stranger help a random kid to betray a king and save her parents?
" When your parents were brought here, they were very dark times. No soul would care for any other. I fell sick one day. Your mother noticed it when I used to go to the dungeon to clean. She treated me and cured my ailment. That is why I owe something to them. I promised that one day I'll get them out of here. But I can not. It's only a human that can destroy the throne and luckily I wasn't one.  So now when I can get someone to help them, I will."
Jane seemed convinced.
The woman had tears in her eyes.
Jane went and patted the woman reluctantly.
"We'll save them", said Jane.
After having a thorough discussion about the plan, they went to the dungeon. Rona and Max were still sitting near the fire, drowned in thoughts.
Jane and the old woman entered the room and explained everything to them in detail.
" It's okay mom, dad, we'll be together." Said Jane.
"Can you forgive us? You do understand that it was the need of the hour", told Max.
" No one could ever give up on their child but it's not important. Let's go", said Jane.
Rona and Max packed their stuff and followed.
They asked secretly, hiding from the guards. Most of the time they could hide from the guards but once in a while when a guard used to find them, the old woman cursed them and they used to fall asleep but it would not remain for long. They had to quickly destroy the throne and to be precise, live a happy life.
The middle sections were very much populated by guards.
"Can you curse them, they are a lot," asked Jane
"Don't worry, just be quick to destroy it " advised the old woman.
Luckily Pogaet was a bit there but unlucky a guard saw them.
He shouted and a lot of the guards formed barriers around the throne. The front side of the throne was not visible only the back could be seen.
Everyone began to rush. The old woman made way for Jane to reach the throne.
It was hard for the old woman to control a lot of guards at the same time. Rona and Max stood behind the pillars and once in a while used to creep out and fight with a soldier.
"To the throne", shouted the old woman as she made way for Jane.
All the soldiers were asleep and a protection barrier was made.
As Jane went towards the throne, grabbing a sword on her way she saw a man sitting on the throne. He wore a big still smile on his face, his long hair was tied in a braid. As he saw Jane he woke up from his seat and laughed, "All this effort. I appreciate it. But all in vain.", he said.
Jane looked at the old woman, " It's Pogaey.", she shouted.
The old woman used her powers and somehow managed to throw Pogaey away from his throne. Jane grabbed the opportunity and tried to attack the throne.
She held the sword up in the air but Pogaey had stood up in all his might and prepared to attack. He figured that to save his throne he needs to get rid of the old woman so after pushing Jane away, he cast a spell and
caused the old woman to limp.
Jane found Pogaey busy with the old woman she stroke the throne with the sword. As Jane did that multiple times Pogaey fell to the floor losing his balance. Although he tried to push Jane but did not have enough strength.
Then the throne was destroyed, it had been stabbed multiple times and a crack had appeared in the middle causing a smoke of blue and green colour to emerge, the same coloured smoke came out of Pogaey mouth.
The old woman had fallen fighting. Jane ran and picked her up."You okay?".
"Yeah, let's get out of here. You did it. ", said the woman.
As they were about to go out Pogaey got up breathing heavily and bleeding from his knees," If I die, I'll kill each one of you too".. Saying this, he threw his dagger at the ceiling and everything began to crackdown
"Let's get out quick. The castle is destroyed ", shouted Max.
They rushed towards the main gate but Jane tripped over as her cape got stuck under a broken piece of ceiling. The old woman had reached outside but Max and Rona tried to help Jane up.
The ceiling had been partially broken and now pillars were falling. The main door was blocked due to pieces of ceiling falling.
"We better hurry up.", said Max using a pocket knife to cut the cape.
After it was cut they got up to leave but it was too late, the main door had already been blocked.
Max and Rona tried to push the pieces away and made enough space for Jane to get out.
" Mom, dad please hurry up. "
Max tried his level best to remove the pieces but it was too late to make any effort.
Rona looked at Max with an expressionless face and then looked at Jane with tears in her eyes.
"Jane, just so you know that we love you..., love you soo much and we always will.", said Rona
Jane felt as something cold pressed at her skull.
She felt like tearing the door apart. Trembling, she said," No, please try you can do it. I love you. Please don't do this to me again."
Suddenly a huge piece fell from the top and the door was now completely blocked.
It was done. They were gone. This time they were completely gone.
Everything went silent. The wind stopped blowing and birds no more chirped and animals stopped gazing.
Jane lost her parents for the second time.
The castle had broken to pieces but only the statue of Pogaey was left.
It was about to fall too.
The old woman had to drag Jane away.
"No no, let me go. My mom and dad are in there. Let me go. They need us. Stop. Nooooo......, ......, ......, mom, ... Dad!!!!!!!", cried Jane.
The old woman hugged Jane and comforted her.
After a while when everything became calm, Jane looked at the old woman, " They are dead. I couldn't save them. I lost then again."
"You tried to save them. It was written. It was fate. If not this way then maybe some other way. Life goes on. With or without".
Jane cleaned her face and turned towards the woman." I did what I could."
"Yes, you did. They would be proud of you. You were really brave."
Jane sobbed still looking at the destroyed castle.
She could not see it, the old woman took Jane to her place and made Jane fall asleep.
When Jane woke up, she found herself under covers. The fireplace was lighted. As she looked around, she saw the woman sitting near her feet.
The woman saw Jane getting awake.
"Hanna Feline, that's my name. "
Jane looked at the woman and felt herself wanting to listen to her.
The woman continued, "I was the strongest magician in Malar. When Pogaey asked for your blood, I was there. I was the one closing the portal. I had opposed Pogaey and asked him to spare you. He could not bear opposition and so he cursed me.
I lost my beauty, most of my powers and most importantly I lost respect. People were scared of Pogaey and so were forced to hate me. ", Hanna sobbed.
" You have been through a lot ", said Jane.
" Yes, I've seen a lot. I saw my parents die in front of me, faced eviction from the castle and lost my beauty too. But that is why today I can say this to you, that life goes on, with or without anyone. People die and new ones are born but your cycle of life won't stop.  So get over it and accept your new life."

Jane knew what exactly Hanna meant.
She got up from her seat, thanked Hanna and left.
Hanna walked to the wooden piece, slid it and peeped. Jane had gone back to her parents, in her own life, accepting all the changes. Sometimes things do not always end up the way one plans but this certainly does mean that we stick with the disappointments and never move on. Life goes on, and if we do not move with it and remain stagnant we never grow, as age but never grow.
Days passed, winter ended. Jane had settled with the Greens and was happier than she could ever can.
"Will we ever see her again?", said a woman.

"We will. We will unite", replied a man.

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