A False Reality ||The Dragon Prince||

Chapter 16

If Callum was going to succeed he'd need help. Specifically the help of Ezran and Bait. He found the pair playing hide and seek in the courtyard. Ezran saw Callum approaching and ran over.

"Hey, what happened?" Ezran asked

"Well, we have a complicated situation," Callum replied then preceded to tell Ezran of what had happened with Rayla.

"That's not good. What do we do now?"

"We need to find where the scepter is, but where do we start looking?"

"I don't know," Ezran said pondering the question, "Wait, I have an idea of where we could look."

"Where?"

"Well, I've been exploring the castle and I found a secret office."

"So like a lair," Callum said considering Ezrans idea, "Could it be Virens?"

"Yes, I think so considering it's filled with a bunch of dark magic stuff."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go!" Callum said as he signaled for Ezran to lead the way.

They were once again in the passageways beneath the castle, but these passages led deeper and further than the ones leading to Rayla's cell. Ezran turned a corner and the group came to a dead end. Callum sighed in frustration, "Great, so now we're at a dead-end!"

"It's not a dead-end," Ezran said as he started pushing on certain rocks and stones embedded in the wall, " It's a secret entrance, and I figured out the combination."

When Ezran finished the floor started to rumble, giving way to a descending spiral staircase. Ezran started down the stairs and Callum stumbled after him.

"How did you figure that combination out?" Callum asked his brother, awestruck.

"I have a lot of spare time," Ezran said as the reached the bottom of the stairs. The room they entered was lined with shelves that housed pieces of magic creatures.

"Rayla's right," Callum said as he stared at a pair of elf horns that look similar to hers, "Dark magic is evil." Ezran, Bait, and Callum searched the room for the scepter and Rayla's voice but found neither. So the went down a hall that opened into a room that served as an intersection. There were four other hallways that branched off of the room. Callum headed straight, choosing the first hallway, and entered a small room filled with bookshelves. There was a closed-door across the room and Callum noticed a faint glow coming from underneath it.

"Ezran," Callum called, "I think I found the scepter!" Ezran raced over to him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, see that faint glowing?" Callum said pointing to the door. He walked forward and pushed the door open. Inside was a vast room with tall ceilings, and on the far side stood Claudia's gold scepter resting on a raised platform.

"We found it!" Callum said before letting okay a sigh of relief.

"It seems almost too easy," Ezran noted, "Shouldn't there be a guard or something?"

******************************************************************************

Soren had been given strict instructions from his dad. He was to not leave his post guarding the weird scepter thing unless something suspicious happened. That had been what Soren was doing before he had heard the voice. It had spoken with a peculiar accent, not from one of the human kingdoms. He counted that as suspicious activity, so he had embarked on a heroic quest to find the voice, vacating his post. Soren was currently walking down a hallway that he hoped would lead him to the voice. It hadn't spoken in a while, but Soren knew he was going the right way. After walking quite a ways, the hallway had been ridiculously long, he came to a door. He paused just outside and he once again heard the weird voice. "It's not a weapon. It's an egg." The voice said. This wasn't good, the voice either had a weapon or an egg. Soren crashed through the door to find an empty room except for a few shelves. One of the shelves held a jar containing a glowing orb. The voice was coming from the jar, Soren scoffed. The voice was just a weird dark magic thing, he had gotten worked up over nothing. Soren turned and closed the door behind him. He needed to return to his post.