Whispers of Eldoria

2

"We lost almost everything in the war. Documents, artifacts, family heirlooms. But not these." Astrid stated, opening a door in front of us.

We had been walking for a while, making small talk and answering questions about myself that anyone had. Like where I'm from, how old I am, what I do for fun, do I have a boyfriend. Things like that. When the door opened, the room was pitch black, at first, I thought it was a joke. Seeing a dark, empty room. We walked in, and Astrid spoke.

"Zahra, Leon, if you could?" Astrid asked.

Almost immediately, as if waiting for their que, fire eruped from their palms, floating into the air and towards certain parts of the room. All at once, torches are ignited, lighting up the room completely. And what I see shocks me.

Floor to ceiling portraits line the long hallway. Each person looking more and more like the element in which the watch over. The outfits, as we walk by, slowly start to look more lile what the six are wearing right now, either big gowns with many intricate designs and a lot of jewelry, and very detailed suits that match the dresses. As we make our way down the long stretch, and Astrid explains who they all are, three portraits with very familiar looking people line the wall ahead of us.

"And now, we've arrived to our paintings. We were much younger back than I will say. Oh how I do miss those days. But that's not why we brought you here. We brought you here to show you something else." Astrid says, before walking up to the painting.

She feels around for a second before pushing a piece of the painting into the wall behind it, the sound of stone rubbing against stone can be heard, echoing all around us. She moves out of the way, and I can see what looks like the start of a staircase.

"Follow me." Astrid says before disappearing down the stairs, I follow behind her and her husband, with the rest of the group behind me.

The spiral stairs, mixed with the cold and almost no light offer a creepy vibe, almost like I'm being led into a dungeon or torture chamber. At the bottom of the stairs, there is a huge opening, and inside. Is unlike anything I've ever seen. A huge statue is carved into the far wall, their arms outstretched, with swirly, magic like features coming out of the palms, their outfit is not like anything anyone else here is wearing, a tight, suit looking thing hugs their body, with a cape attached at the waist, carvings in the outfit give it much detail, almost making it appear lifelike, if it weren't for the size and fact that it is stone instead of skin.

There are more carvings along the other walls, weird, contorted figures being destroyed by the figure, it almost looks like hieroglyphs, but instead of small symbols, it's people. In the middle, a large, circular stone sits, with carvings and ancient looking writing along the sides and top of it, I run my hand along the cool stone. A layer of dust is lifted, clinging to my skin. Something doesn't feel right about this place. Like there's more to it than what I'm seeing.  I wipe my hands together to get it off of me, before looking at the group.

All of their eyes are trained one me.

"What is this place?" I ask.

"The Sanctum of the Chosen One. We await his arrival eagerly." Charles answers.

"His? How do you know it's a man?" I ask.

"Because the prophecy states that he will come to us in our most desperate hour. He will win the great war, and take his place on the high throne. We thought the big war was the one between us and Mattheo. But he never came. So we must continue to wait." Zehra states.

"Is Mattheo-?"

"Yes, he is the one we banished." Rowan states, looking sadly at me.

I didn't know how to respond, I didn't understand how they felt, other than they all look sad when we talk about him.