RAVENNA SUCKED IN a sharp breath. Her arms immediately folded across her chest as an uneasy feeling seeped through her veins, making her whole body feel like lead. Her gaze flickered around the room again. There was no telling what that assistant had planned to do to them. The failed spells made it obvious that he wouldn't have been able to guide them through the forest. He couldn't even navigate it by himself. And it wasn't like he had planned to use their magical abilities either —he'd tried to murder Ravenna!

Had she not killed him, neither she nor Vyses would have ever found this room and escaped.

She pursed her lips and absently watched Vyses skim through some of the pages of the open spell-book. The more that she thought about it the whole ordeal, the more that it all made sense. No wonder he'd treated her so rudely at dinner. It probably stung quite harshly that she, a mere woman, could actually perform magic while he couldn't. It also made sense why he'd attacked her after nightfall. He'd hoped to catch her off-guard with a surprise attack, while she was asleep and defenseless. The mere thought made her sick.

"What should we do now?" Ravenna asked quietly.

For a moment, no one said anything in response to her. A small, annoyed sigh escaped her. She cleared her throat and repeated herself, this time speaking much louder. Both Vyses and Lyth paused in their exploration and looked up at her.

"Well, what exactly do you mean, lass?" Vyses asked. His eyebrows were furrowed together with confusion.

Ravenna gestured to the open spell-book in front of him. "I believe that we have two options," she explained. "We have found our path to freedom, so we can easily move on through the forest and take out the guards as we had planned. Then we can move on to the next down."

Vyses arched an eyebrow. "What would be our second option?"

She lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. "We stay," she responded. "While this castle is old and crumbling, it has a pretty good defense system surrounding it. I mean, even when we were going through the tunnels, there was a pretty good chance that we would be attacked and we were risking it. I think that, with enough guards, this castle would make for a very good base."

Vyses pursed his lips and hummed. "I'm not sure about that," he said.

"I'm not saying that we need to personally stay here permanently. I just want to point out that, eventually, we are going to get tired of running from town to town. We are going to want a safe haven that we can return to," Ravenna added.

"That is true," Vyses murmured.

"Not to mention, this whole city is perfect for protection. The edges are always heavily guarded and relatively easy to defend. If replaced with our own soldiers, this location would be an incredibly good vantage point."

Vyses nodded, mostly to himself. "That is a very good point. Then it is decided. This will be our new home," he announced. He turned to Lyth and added, "All we need is to find a decent spell that will maintain the castle's upkeep and prevent it from turning into rubble. Preferably one that does not rely upon a living host like the previous spell did."

The three of them immediately began to rush around, scouring the room for a potential spell. Ravenna and Lyth made their way to the second floor, rummaging through the bookshelves filled with scrolls and books. As they searched, Vyses skimmed through the massive spell-book on the podium. He talked out loud, mostly to himself. "There is a spell that I use for the tavern," he said. "But I'm not certain that it will work for something of this magnitude. There's different materials involved, different things that will need to be done in order to keep this castle maintained. I don't know if it will work."

Ravenna leaned against the railing that lined the edge of the second level floor. "This old wizard had to have collected some other spells to help maintain this place. Even if he didn't use them. I'm sure that he has at least one other as an emergency spell, just in case the spell that he'd been using failed," she said.

Vyses shook his head and sighed. "I wouldn't be so sure about that, lass. The spell that he'd been using was an incredibly powerful one. And he was a very talented wizard. I almost wonder if we could simply alter the original spell. I need to see the ingredients for it."

Time passed and, eventually, Ravenna decided to take a break. She sat down at the top of the spiral staircase, hugging her knees to her chest. "I haven't found anything yet," she told Vyses.

"Neither have I," Lyth's disembodied voice floated from somewhere within the second level.

Vyses frowned. "I found the original spell," he told them. His eyes were filled with uncertainty. "I think that I may be able to alter a few ingredients to make it work. But I'm still not certain it will work. I've honestly never used a spell like this before."

"I think it's still worth a shot," Ravenna said.

He sucked in a sharp breath and squared his shoulders. With a nod, he glanced around the room. He began to read off a list of ingredients to Lyth, who darted around and collected them. Once all of the ingredients were situated atop a nearby table, Vyses snapped his fingers.

The stones that covered the floor shifted until, in the center of the room, a small fire-pit appeared. Logs and dried grass were piled atop a circle of freshly uncovered dirt. A small flame immediately started to engulf the wood.

Vyses waved a hand over the flame and a giant ball of red magic dropped from his palm. It hit the firewood with a crack. The red magic faded away from the circular shape, revealing an inky black cauldron.

Lyth handed Vyses each of the ingredients. As Vyses examined the spell closely, he dropped the ingredients into the pot. He snapped his fingers again and a strange vial of liquid appeared in the air. It poured into the cauldron and Vyses immediately began to stir it with a wooden spoon.

Ravenna's nose curled with disgust. The spell bubbled within the cauldron like boiling soup, but it smelled like burnt carrots.

"That should do it," Vyses purred. He stirred the mixture a few more times before he lifted the wooden spoon from the cauldron. His brows furrowed slightly with confusion and he lifted the spoon higher to examine it. "Fascinating," he said softly.

It appeared as though the end of the spoon had completely disintegrated. The wooden handle ended mere inches from Vyses' hand. Ravenna's eyes widened as she shifted her gaze toward the red-orange liquid. "Is the spell supposed to do that?" she asked, mildly concerned.

Vyses shrugged. "To be quite honest with you, lass, I don't know. I have never performed such a spell to this magnitude before. The spell that I used to maintain my tavern was quite different, as the tavern had much different needs. We will find out if I've mixed it correctly soon though. Stand back."

Ravenna took a giant step backwards. From the corners of her eyes, she managed to catch Lyth as he ducked behind one of the tables. She pressed her lips together to conceal her laughter.

The cauldron began to glow a faint, reddish brown color. The flames beneath it seemed to grow, licking up the sides of the cauldron until they danced across the surface of the potion inside. Vyses raised a glowing red hand. His lips moved around incoherent words as he chanted the spell. The small cauldron trembled within the flames and then, when Vyses snapped his fingers, a beam of red light shot out of its mouth. Ravenna watched in awe as the beam of light raced toward the ceiling. It slammed against the stones above their heads like ocean waves and slithered into the cracks between each individual stone. The magic spread throughout the ceiling, flowing in between the stones, glowing bright red. It reminded Ravenna of human veins.

It slipped through the walls and the floors that surrounded them, spreading throughout the rest of the castle. Vyses lowered his hand and stared intently at the ceiling. He muttered a few more words under his breath. The beam of light started to die out, until finally it fell back into the cauldron. The glow that illuminated the ceiling, floor, and walls slowly began to fade away.

For a few moments, there was nothing but a nervous silence within the room. Ravenna listened for anything —anything that sounded like what she'd heard earlier when the castle tried to collapse. She didn't hear the sound of pebbles raining to the stone floor. She didn't hear the walls groaning from lack of support.

"Did it fix the castle?" she asked hesitantly.

Vyses turned around to face her. "Honestly, I'm not sure yet, lass. The spell that I cast earlier hasn't stopped working yet. It will soon though. Once it does, we will be able to tell."

"Ah," she responded. "What should we do in the meantime?"

He smiled at her. "Would you care for some dinner?"

hey friends!

I'm sorry for the lateness of this chapter. My mind is literally all out of sorts right now. So much has literally happened just within the last month. I'm still trying to process it all. Thank you for your patience and continued support! I promise I'm trying to do better! ❤

I love you all! ❤