The Prophecy of Five

I: 16 :I

Claudia

"Ugg, I hate this place. Why did I have to come too?"

"Because he's your dad too, Soren. We need to find out what happened. I don't want to know what will happen to him if we don't find him first."

The siblings made their way down to the dungeon for the second time that day. Claudia had spent all afternoon trying to get the disgusting stench out of her dress, only for it to come back now. It was damp, dark, creepy... it reminded her of her father's private study. Making it down the stairs, they saw a group of soldiers gathered around the cell their father had been held in. The high priestess was inside looking through a large hole that opened up to the river below. The dungeon was positioned in such a way that one wing of cells was backed up to the fast flowing river the separated the castle from the forest below. It would be suicide to try to escape via the river, but people will do crazy things to escape imprisonment. She and Soren approached the cell, pushing past some of the soldiers to get a better look at the broken wall.

"Woah." Soren said, "He busted the wall down? Dad's a lot stronger than I thought."

Carefully looking around the wall, Claudia noticed some odd shapes. Runes or something, but none that she recognized. 

"No. He didn't break it down. He used a spell of some kind." she said, "I'll have to look in the library for which one though."

Claudia turned to start heading up the stairs when she felt a cold chill along her back. She turned around and all she saw was the soldiers and high priestess. Then, a dark figure started to manifest. It looked a lot like the shadow wolves she had summoned to chase Rayla and the princes, but this one seemed more... alive. It took the form of a hooded figure, a calm and collected look on their face. She starred in awe as the ghostly form produced a smokey map and pointed to a place in the woods, maybe a few miles from the castle.

Is that where my dad went?

Before she could say anything, the figure disappeared into a cloud of shadows. Soren had already made it to the stairs before noticing she wasn't with him. 

"Hey! I thought we were going to the library to look at your dumb nerd books."

She snapped herself out of it and spun around to meet his gaze.

"They're not dumb. They saved your sorry but didn't they?"

He looked like he was going to respond but quickly shut his mouth. Claudia was always happy when she could get Soren to shut up. He was so annoying when he spoke, and his poems were making him even more insufferable. Luckily, that part of his life seemed to be behind him. They walked up the stairs and made their way to the library, but instead of going in, they walked right past and headed for the stables.

"Hey. Isn't the library back there? What're we doing here?"

Claudia mounted her horse and shot her brother a look of 'not now, just follow me'. He seemed to get the message and got on his horse too, muttering something about 'library's are stupid anyways'. They made their way out of the stables and past the courtyard. Once they had made it out of the village surrounding the castle, Soren asked her where they were going.

"I... I saw something. Back in the dungeon. I think I know where dad is."

"Well why didn't know say so?"

"I don't know. Whatever dad did, it couldn't have been 'treason' worthy. I know what Opeli said, but I need to hear it from him. Dad's not a bad guy." she said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying.