Flames And Starlight

Chapter 44

The first thing I noticed when stepping through the portal and into another world was the warmth of the sun against my skin and the tight pull of the mating bond between Lyria and I relax. Where it once felt like the bond was stretched thin in the bridge between our worlds, now it felt like I could finally breathe.

There was still a breeze but it was much lighter than on the mountain in Prythian, like only a whisper. The ground was soft beneath my feet and I could see the grass sway in waves from the breeze. I heard birds chirp some sweet song from the trees behind me.

When I looked back, I saw that the portal had opened right on the edge of the forest and, just as abruptly as it had appeared, the portal disappeared with a blink. I didn't give myself much time to dwell on the thought that I was now, in a sense, trapped in another world.

I froze when the realization truly dawned on me. I was in another world. Lyria's world. Something I never thought possible. Something I believed to be a fairytale was now very much a reality.

I kept moving, silently cursing the portal for not bringing me any closer to the castle in the distance when it opened. But I didn't horribly mind the walk as with each step, with each breath, I could feel my bond to Lyria growing stronger. I could get drunk on the feeling.

It wasn't long before I was staring up at the tallest spire of the castle, the tip of which seemed to scrape against the clouds. Now that I was closer, I realized how much I had underestimated the overwhelming size of the castle. It was made mostly of stone that must have taken ages to construct. It had a certain ageless yet ancient beauty to it and I couldn't quite place how old it might be. Vines climbed up the walls from the foundation as if trying to reach the height of that tower above me.

I shielded my eyes from the sun and squinted as I thought of a plan, scoping out the perimeter of the castle. Well, I'm here. But now I need to find a way inside.

With half of a thought, my wings unfurled behind my back and I hoped to fly around the castle to find some kind of way to get in. I wouldn't be surprised if the castle was reinforced with a kind of magic like my home was. Although, I don't even know how similar our magic is. Is it even similar at all?

I really hoped that as I flew around the castle I wasn't spotted from some window and shot down without a second thought. That circumstance was actually very much a viable reality so I tried to stay more towards the top of the castle spires and avoid the viewpoint of the windows as much as possible.

I landed on a balcony towards the top of the castle and closed my wings tightly behind my shoulders. I didn't want to risk shifting them away as I felt that having to desperately fling myself off this five story balcony might very well be a possibility in the near future and I'd rather be prepared. I peeked around to look through the window of the glass doors.

The room appeared empty and I relied on my Fae hearing to confirm that there truly wasn't anyone in the room. I checked the door handle silently hoping it wouldn't fry me alive just for attempting it. There's no way that —

A click.

Maybe there was a way that the door would have been left unlocked. I'll have to talk to Lyria about how unsafe it is to leave a door unlocked even if it's on the 5th story balcony. You never know what kind of creepy creatures could get in. I'll ignore the fact of that currently applying to me at the moment.

I pulled the door open and held my breath as I slowly and anxiously made my way through the threshold. I really hoped that I wouldn't trigger an alarm by doing so and luckily I didn't hear anything as I was now inside the room, slowly pulling the double doors closed behind me.

The bedroom was neat and organized to the point that I thought it may actually be an unused guest bedroom. However, there was one thing that betrayed identifying the owner of the room.