The Gift of Beauty | ONC2020

Chapter 11

Brandon was woken up by a bang on the door. Instinctively he reached for his sword. On the other side of the room he heard Rose do the same. He had learned to keep it close by at all times during this journey. He looked out the window. It was still dark out, it was the middle of the night! Why on earth were they woken so early?

He carefully opened the door, making sure to keep his sword between him and the opening. But there was no attack. In front of him stood one of the priests that had walked with them here. This was one of the youngest amongst them. Elizabeth, he believed her name was.

"What do you want?" Brandon said. It was abrasive, but he didn't care. Shouldn't wake him up in the middle of the night, if you want a pleasant conversation.

"Let me in and I'll tell you," Elizabeth said. She was constantly looking over her shoulders through the empty hallway.

Brandon grunted. "Look, your order allowed us to sleep here for the night, least you can do is let us sleep. Come back in the morning." He closed the door.

But he couldn't, because Elizabeth had put her foot between in the doorway. "I'm not here because my order told me to. I'm here because I want to help you. Now please, let me in. If someone sees me I'm done for."

Brandon turned around to look at Rose. She nodded. Brandon opened the door and let Elizabeth in. However, he made sure not to put his sword away.

"Thank you," the woman said, as she closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, yeah," Rose said. "You said you would help us?"

The woman nodded. "The priests have gotten arrogant. They believe that because they have devoted their lives to Mani that the goddess must have called to them, and only them. But the goddess has never said so. After I saw that the Great One has chosen you to protect him, I knew that you were chosen too. And if the other priests are too stubborn to see it, then I will have to do it myself."

Brandon lowered his sword. "You mean you're going to help us enter the sanctuary?"

"Indeed," Elizabeth said. "The guards currently stationed there are on my side, they won't stop us. We have free access, but we have to go now."

Brandon turned to Rose and whispered soft enough so the priest couldn't hear. "Do you think she's speaking the truth?"

"I'm not sure," Rose said. "But we don't have much choice. Either we trust her, or we can't get the moon core."

Brandon nodded. Failing their mission wasn't an option. They had no choice but to trust her. "We'll go with you."

The walk back towards the sanctuary was uneventful. Elizabeth knew exactly what kind of paths they had to take to get to the sanctuary unnoticed. Brandon was surprised by the amount of secret passageways present in a temple.

Nonetheless, it was exactly as Elizabeth promised. Under her guidance, they arrived at the sanctuary unseen. The guards greeted them happily when they arrived, it even seemed to Brandon like they were relieved that they arrived safely. Quickly they opened the doors for them.

Immediately Silver ran out. Brandon was surprised at how big he had gotten; it seemed like he had aged several weeks in the few hours since Brandon had seen him. That was probably a part of life for a Great One. Brandon couldn't help but feel sad for him, as he took him in his hands. A month from now he'd be dead. It wasn't fair that he had to carry such a burden.

The four of them, Brandon, Rose, Silver and Elizabeth, walked through the doors together. The guards stayed behind and made sure no one would catch them here.

Behind the doors was another room. It was quite a small room, with a small hole in the middle of the ceiling. Below that, was a set of three small puddles, with a silvery fluid flowing in it. The moon pools.

They were nothing like Brandon had expected. In his mind he'd had a picture of giant swaths of water, whereas these were barely the size of a bath tub. But it didn't matter, as long as they'd have enough magical energy for Rose to use, they were perfect.

Rose picked the dress out of her bag and lied it in one of the pools. Brandon could see Elizabeth cringe at the thought, but she said nothing of it. Rose then said a few words in a language that Brandon didn't understand, and suddenly the moon pools all lit up at the same time. A bright white light shone from them.

Elizabeth cursed. "Why in Mani's name did you do that! You just let everyone know that there's someone here!" she said.

"I didn't know it was going to glow," Rose said. "I'm sorry." She put the dress back in her backpack. It still looked exactly the same, but Brandon knew it would start to transform soon enough.

Watching the result of their work could wait, though. They had to get out of here, now. "We have to get back to our room. It's the first place they'll check."

Elizabeth shook her head. "There's no chance we'll get there before they do, it's too far away. We'll have to get you to the boats instead, I'll deal with the fallout later."

She walked towards the doors. "Follow me. Quickly now!"

Brandon and Rose didn't need to be told again. Immediately they went after her, leaving Silver behind in the sanctuary. Together the three of them ran through the halls of the temple.

"Where is everyone?" Rose said, when they were nearing the temple walls and still hadn't come across anyone.

"Cleo must have called everyone to the sanctuary once they realized someone was there. That's good for us. My friends will keep the others guessing for as long as they can. Once they realized what had happened, you'll be long gone."

"Won't they hurt you? Once they find out that you're missing?" Brandon asked. They couldn't have done it without Elizabeth's help, that much was clear, and he didn't want to see her get hurt for it. Nor her friends, for that matter.

Elizabeth grinned. "No worries, I'm used to talking my way out of things. As you might have noticed, I'm not exactly the best at following rules. Ah. Here we are."

They had arrived at the edge of lake Nisus. Before them it was stretching out as far as they could see. Brandon had never seen a body of water this big. On the edge were five little wooden boats lying on the shore.

Elizabeth walked to one of them and pushed it in the water. Once it was in, she commanded Brandon and Rose to get in.

As soon as the two of them had entered, she said a short prayer, and pulled out a silver stick from her robe. With it she drew something on the side of the boat. Brandon couldn't see what.

Once she was done the boat started moving on its own. Brandon looked at Elizabeth in surprise.

"This ship will see you safely to the other edge of the lake," Elizabeth said. "It has been blessed by Mani herself, and she will see that no harm comes to you while you are on it."

"Thank you! For everything!" Brandon shouted in response. They were now far enough away that she could otherwise not hear him. Elizabeth didn't respond, but ran back towards the temple, to deal with the issues their presence had created for her.