The Prophecy of Five

I: 20 :I

Claudia

"Fine. I'll help."

Claudia couldn't believe she'd just agreed to rid the world of primal magic. She hit her forehead with the palm of her hand.

What are you think?! Idiot!

She looked back up at the ghostly form of her father's 'friend', Aaravos. He smiled at the her response. She shuddered. He seemed likeable enough, but that smile. It freaked her out. 

"So now what? When do I get to see my father?" she asked.

He produced another slip of paper, presumably from her father. Claudia took the paper and read it.

'So glad you've decided to help. As for what you need to do, stay at the castle, gather a few items I have stored away there and keep tabs on the prince. I will contact you again when I am ready.'

"What? No! I agreed to help him! You have to let me see him!" she shouted at Aaravos.

Again, he said nothing. He shook his head at her, disappearing into a cloud of smoke. She threw her spell book at the shadowy figure but it passed right through him. Soon, Claudia was left alone in her father's study, alone. She quickly looked around for where the smoke had gone, but she couldn't find it. She stormed around the room for a while, pissed off by her dad's instructions.

"Oh YeAh. JuSt StAy HeRe. WaTcH tHe PrInCe. GeT mE SoMe StUfF." she said mockingly, sitting down in the comfy desk chair.

She pouted there for a while, looking through her spell book as she did. None of the spells she knew could locate her father. She knew that he would've hidden himself from everyone, including her. Glancing around the room, Claudia remembered why she had come there in the first place. To find a way to help her dad.

Well I can't help him if I can't see him. Oh well. Might as well look.

She began digging through Viren's stuff. Bookshelf after bookshelf, tome after tome, nothing on this 'Aaravos' character or why her father seemed so odd. So... disconnected. She angrily threw a book against the wall, hitting a large painting as it fell. She heard a creaking noise and looked up as the painting swung open, revealing a secret passageway. She noticed a faint jelly handprint on the painting, realizing this is where she had chased Callum and Ezran out of the castle. And that moonshadow elf. A mixture of emotions overwhelmed Claudia. Feelings of happiness when she would watch Callum and Soren practicing 'princey' things, Ezran running from the baker after stealing a healthy number of jelly tarts, and reading peacefully in the library with her dad. But she also remembered the bad. Chasing her friends out of the castle, watching Callum's face as she told him about the king's death, trying to capture them for her father. She missed the good days when she was younger, when she didn't know magic.

No. Not magic. Dark magic.

Looking down at her spell book, Claudia realized that all of her worries; losing her friends, her father's madness, Soren getting hurt, it was all because of dark magic. While she loved it, she now saw that it's nothing but a means to an end. An end that she didn't want. Getting up, she walked over to the fireplace and started a fire. She held her spell book over it, convincing herself that this is what she needed to do.

But how can I help dad? How can I do that without help?

She stood there for what seemed like forever, holding the spell book over the open fire. Eventually, she pulled it back and doused the flames. This was her life. It was all she'd ever known, and now wasn't the time to start over. But that day would come, sooner or later.