White Thorn | On Hold

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Arya hesitantly stepped into the darkness, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the sudden lack of any light. Her footsteps were loud, the sound of hers and Lydia's breathing all she could hear as she ventured further into the unknown.

"Wait up," Lydia whispered, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let me go first... in case there's any more traps."

"I should go first then," she said. "I'm less likely to get any permanent damage," or die. The words were left unsaid, her heart thudding frantically as the stepped further in, Lydia seemingly ignoring her.

A sudden flare of light made them both jump, torches lining either side of the corridor flaring to life, marking both the start and end of the wide corridor. Thankfully, it wasn't too far away so they didn't have far to walk over the possibly trapped territory.

Didn't mean they walked any quicker.

"Keep an eye out for any holes in the wall," Lydia warned, her eyes scanning everything in front of them. "Any sticking out rocks could be switches, so don't touch them," she said, hesitantly stepping forwards.

"Why does this school even have traps?" Arya grumbled. "Isn't that a health hazard?"

Lydia shrugged. "Well, this school was built a fairly long time ago... right after they cleared out a nest of Unkine."

Arya stared at her. "Unkine?"

"A particularly tricky kind of Underfae."

"Oh."

"Indeed," she mumbled, sniggering at Arya's blank face. "You'll learn more about the big baddies up north once you get to your third year. Underfae aren't something to scoff at, unlike your face."

"That was just uncalled for," she huffed.

"Come on," Lydia said. "Let's go and find this tale which should be burnt into our minds."

Arya nodded, eyeing the walls as she walked on, breathing a sigh of relief once they reached the end of the worrying corridor. There were apparently no traps aside from the one which had almost got her outside.

Though the innermost part of the secret passage wasn't any less creepy.

"Um," Arya mumbled, blinking as she stared up at the shelves in front of her. "Which tale exactly are we looking for?"

There were stacks upon stacks of books, all of them bound in some form of dark fabric. They lined the shelves, a single desktop light illuminating it all, and Arya had a horrible sense of foreboding. Things just didn't look right.

"I have no idea," Lydia mumbled, plucking the nearest book off the shelf, blinking as she read through the pages.

"Anything interesting?"

"I can't understand anything for the life of me," she said, sliding it back into place. "It looks like some of the books in here are old as dirt... I'm fairly sure that was written in the Old Dialect..."

"Old Dialect?" Arya pressed.

"Language changes over time, you know..." Lydia shrugged. "Before there were words, there were symbols used – the contents of that book looked just like the texts we looked at in history."

"Oh goodie," she grumbled. "So we probably won't learn anything at all, will we?"

Lydia grinned. "Probably not... but it's worth a shot, eh?"

Arya stared at her witheringly. "A waste of time, more like," she muttered. "What's this tale we're supposed to find in here? How would we even know which one it is?"

"No clue," she said, shrugging, "but seeing as we've come all this way..."

Arya nodded, reaching for the nearest shelf, plucking the first book which caught her eye off the shelf. It was an old tome, the leather on the front cracking as she opened it gingerly.

A sheet fell out, her free hand snatching at it before it could fall to the ground.

"Damned old... books..." she muttered, trailing off as she saw the oddly white paper.

The rest of the books pages were practically yellow.

She turned it over, confusion written across her face as she read its contents, eyes narrowing on the single word.

Alive.

The page crumpled, her hand curling into a fist, her expression darkening as she quickly stuffed it into her pocket.

"You found anything yet?" Lydia called from across the room.

"Nope," she grumbled, glaring daggers at the book, ignoring the way the lines of text seemed to be blurring together. She set it back, sighing loudly. "I can't read a damn thing."

"Annoying, isn't it?"

"Yep—"

"ARYA! GET OUT OF THE DAMN RESTRICTED SECTION!"

"Damn..." Arya muttered, recognising Flynn's voice in seconds. "He found us..."

Lydia eyed her scathingly. "You sure he doesn't have some sort of tracking device on you?"

"You know... that is a very good question."