Memori: Tower Shadow Sword - Volume 3

Chapter 16: In Secret Places Part 4

It was sometime after midnight and Vikey couldn't get any sleep. She rolled around under her sheets trying to get comfortable but it was useless; she just wasn't dozing off.

She sat up and clapped her hands over her face.

"My god... what am I to do?" she whispered to herself.

The reason she was having trouble sleeping was because she'd slept through most of the morning and afternoon. Sleeping was all she ever did those past few days.

Staying at the Tower was no longer fun for her. She wasn't competing in the Sword Challenge because of her falling out with Ves. She couldn't hang out with her other friends, Aine and Trudy, because they were closer friends of Tammi, whom she really disliked now. Because she shared little or nothing in common with the other girls, she couldn't hang out with them either.

Mocto's diary was all she had for company these days; she could re-read it from start to finish, sunup to sundown, if she felt like it. And now, with nothing for her to do in the dead of the night, she decided to read it yet again.

She got up, reached under her bed, and grabbed the diary and her flashlight from her bag. She threw the sheets over herself, turned the flashlight on and turned the pages to her favourite entries.

She read for a whole hour before she felt her eyelids becoming heavy... and her vision becoming blurry.

"Oh, thank god," she yawned.

She put the book down, turned off the flashlight, and lay her head on her pillow to sleep at last.

Just as she was closing her eyes, she caught sight of a dim and unnatural glow in the dark. It was coming from beneath her bed sheets; she was certain that it wasn't the flashlight. She slowly pulled the sheets off the bed and the source of the glow was revealed: the pages of Mocto's diary.

She slowly picked up the book and brought it closer to her face. She noticed that certain letters on a particular page were giving off a strange blue glow.

"Why haven't I seen this before?" she wondered in amazement.

She got out of bed and reached for her own diary and pen on the desk. She wrote down each of the letters on an empty page in her diary in the sequence in which they appeared in Mocto's diary. Once she was done, she was able to read a message by spacing the letters into sets of words.

My darling sister, Mocto,

Before departing for Machus Bradil, I wish to give you a parting gift, a family secret that is only revealed to the male heirs of the Trent family. But I don't buy into that kind of exclusive nonsense; I believe every Trent deserves to know about it. See for yourself... go to page 106 of your diary.

I wrote this message in Mother's most precious midnight ink. Be sure not to show it to her and please keep your diary from Father.

Your loving brother,

Elfan Trent

On page 106 was a strange love poem written by Elfan Trent in vertical and horizontal words. Vikey had read it before several times and hadn't made any sense of it. But now, with several words illuminated by the blue glow, she realised that the poem was in fact a sort of map marking a number of stairways on Beltry's Way that if taken in sequence, led to a secret location.

Vikey was curious about this secret place and thought about going there for a moment... but she was well aware that using Beltry's Way was strictly forbidden... And it was really late in the night; she'd be in deep trouble if she was caught. But then she thought to herself... what would Ves have done if he'd found this map?