Chapter 19
Stella's POV
"Something isn't right here," Leo's voice came in my head.
I looked up at him from where I was searching and nodded. I felt the same way. Something was completely wrong. We were given two hours and we had already wasted an hour. I sat down next to Leo and allowed myself to relax. I know I shouldn't but I was damn tired.
I closed my eyes and tried to remember how I got trapped in all of this. I felt my orb begin to heat up in my pocket. I opened my eyes and took it out. It was pulsing with great power that my hands felt like they were being burnt off. I remembered what Alberta told me when Leo escaped.
Your orbs will glow when they're near others
I jumped up and picked back up the orb. My siblings looked at me curiously while Sophie and Shay just sat there staring. I began to walk in a random direction but when I realized that the glow was dying, I went in the opposite direction.
"Stella," Leo called out, but he shut up when I glared at him.
"This can't do," I said while I kept going in different directions.
I closed my eyes and threw the orb into the air. I opened my eyes and say the orb hovering away from me. I ran after it as it went from building to building like a dog, sniffing out its prize.
"Hey," Glacia called out, "Wait up."
I ignored the sound of their feet trying to catch up to me. It stopped in front of a huge brick wall. I scratched my head and tried to figure out why they would be a wall here but I couldn't get any ideas.
"I don't think any of us here can go through walls," I said when I turned around.
"No," Aquilo said softly, "But we do have our orbs."
I nodded my head and we all took out our orbs. They were glowing radiantly. I closed my eyes and focused on the power in my orb and I felt my other siblings do the same.
Suddenly, I heard a rumbling noise. I opened my eyes to see the wall raising into the air. I tilted my head to the side and walked inside cautiously. Leo caught up with me while our siblings, the columans, Shay and Sophie followed.
"I don't feel good," Leo told me.
"I know," I answered, "I can feel it."
We remained quiet as we continued to walk deeper and deeper into whatever we were in. All we heard was the dripping of water and the sound of shuffling feet on the ground.
A light shone in the distance. Though it was small, it was bright. My orb, as if linked with my thoughts, went quickly ahead of me and I ran after it at full speed.
"Stella!" Alberta screamed out.
I ignored her and I did not stop until I was standing at the source of the light and damn, was it beautiful.
In front of me stood a fountain made entirely of diamonds. The water that came out of different parts of it was in different colours and seemed to glow. I could not hear the water though. The section of the cave I was standing in was so high that I could not see the top but it looked to be made out of the same things as the fountain. Diamond... How could that be?
My orb came back to me and I eagerly accepted it though I didn't remember why I came here in the first place. I watched the orb spin around me I swear I could hear it laughing as it did. I smiled and took in the sight before me.
"Stella," Cealie called out, "Stella, can you hear me?"
"Yes," I called back, "I'm ok."
A few minutes later, they came running towards me. They looked tired and sweaty. What happened to them? We had been separated for five minutes at most, right?
"We were attacked," Leo answered, "By some huge spiders."
I watched the rips in the clothes and the marks that the Columans had, mostly likely protecting my siblings. Shay looked calmed as ever and didn't have a single mark in her clothes. Sophie, on the other hand, had a large tear in her outfit.
I turned back around and looked at the fountain. It was completely still. No water. No glowing. Nothing. Almost as if something had warned it to stop.
"It was working a few seconds ago," I said to myself.
"Well," Briar said irritably, "Why did you bring us here?"
I suppose being left to fight off spiders while I ran away was reason enough to be annoyed with me.
"The portal is here," Shay answered for me, "But it's not opened as it should be."
I took out the letters and went through them. I stopped on one and read it again.
Coventina... water... head to W... the water goddess...baby for the family...
Coventina? I don't remember meeting her at all. I turned around and looked at my siblings. I knew that Leo was my brother. There was no doubt about that, our connection was special. Aquilo and Glacia were genuine, I was quite sure of that. Briar, Acorus and Teriana were the only ones I needed to suspect right now.
"Shay," I asked, "Can you come over here for a minute please?"
Shay walked over to me and smiled.
"Do you have a problem dear?" she asked even though she already knew the answer.
"Someone here isn't my sibling," I answered, almost immediately without hesitation, "That's why the portal would not open. It was open when I was here but when the others came, it... closed."
Shay looked at me suspiciously and turned around. The orbs were glowing brightly again and I could feel the fountain trying to start again. My siblings and I all had orbs so it was not going to be that easy to find out who was the false one this easily. Or maybe there was something else, something we weren't doing right.
What did we have to do? Sing a song? Do a certain kind of dance? Was there a ritual of some sort? I began to pace up and down the small area, and all my siblings stared at me, confused.
I looked at the ground and something caught my attention. They were marks engraved into the floor beneath us. I followed it and it head straight back to the fountain. I looked in the opposite direction and saw a circle from where the line started. I walked around it and saw that it had six more like it.
"I found it," I said.
"Found what?" Leo asked as he stood next to me. He was the only one who could relate to anything I was saying or doing.
I pointed at the ground. "These marks; they are probably for us to stand on."
Leo pondered about it for a while before looking up at me. His eyes appeared to glow but that could an illusion or probably it was the werewolf in him acting up. Either ways, he seemed to agree with me, and that gave my confidence quite a boost.
"Let's do it," he said, and smiled at me. "Don't worry Stella, it'll work."
"What if it doesn't?" I asked worriedly, "What if one of us gets hurt?"
Leo just smiled. "Trust me sis, we'll all be fine."
After we told the others what we were going to do, we each went to a circle. Alberta, Cealie, Shay and Sophie stayed on the outside as they figured it would not be safe to stand inside it. It was better to be cautious after all. I looked down at my orb and it hovered in front of me. Its power was calling out to me, begging me to release it. I sighed and relaxed my body and allowed it to do its work.
The orb began to spin and glow brightly. Suddenly, a spark of light shot out of my orb and circled me before entering the ground. The circle around me glowed and it went straight down the line towards the fountain.
The same thing happened with everyone else and a few seconds later, the fountain started to glow. Slowly, but eventually, water began to shoot out of the fountain at great force, carrying the glow of the orbs that we had, into the unknown parts of the ceiling. A door came floating out from the dark parts of the ceiling and with it came light, reflecting on the diamond walls around us. It rested on the ground and the fountain returned to a normal flow.
I looked back and saw that Sophie and the Columans were amazed. Shay on the other hand just stood there with a straight face. I felt that she was hiding something from us. I would find out in time. I was responsible for the safety of my siblings, at least I felt that way, and I would not let her travel with us if she was not wholly on our side.
The orbs dropped to the ground, no longer holding its glow. I picked it up and tapped a bit with my nail. It pulsed back to life and floated above my hand. Did it just go to sleep? I giggled at my own question. How can this orb be alive? Well, in a world as strange as this anything was possible.
My siblings came walking towards me and I smiled. This alone should tell me that everyone here was my sibling but something still ate at me. I looked back at Shay and the others and I was surprised to see Betasy and Uncle John standing there. I looked over at Leo and he nodded. I guess he called them. Though how they got here so fast was beyond me.
We walked over to the others and talked about what just happened. I looked at Sophie and the Columans. They looked eager to listen to what we had to say. Our mother said that we had two hours to get to the portal. The portal did not look like it was going to close any time soon and over two hours had passed. I did not have a watch but it felt natural to know what the time was.
"So," Betasy said, "Are you guys ready to go yet?"
My conscience screamed Coventina but I pushed it aside. Only the children of Leonardo and Stelliana could open the portal and the portal did open but why was my conscience still nagging at me like some deprived person.
"You know as well as me that something is wrong here," it told me bluntly, "It could be two things. Either someone here isn't who they say they are or the letters were forged with; making everything you went through a lie."
"Don't worry about it," Leo told me, "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all of this."
My worry went away and I released a sigh I did not know I was holding in. Although I hoped that I wasn't wrong. It would be horrible to leave one of us behind. Coventina was the youngest out of all us. It was out responsibility to protect her.
We talked about what would happen once we crossed through the portal to the other side and since we were heading to this new land, I'm sure that no one here ever went there so we were completely unaware of what dangers we may face.
"It's okay anyway," John said, "All of you are together now. Stelliana knew that was the only way you guys could have save her. There's nothing to worry about."
Boy was he wrong. That statement alone made me began to worry about the things we might see once we made it over. Will all of us make it over in the first place? I know there are werewolves so maybe it had vampires, witches and wizards and probably even elementals and dragons. What if my conscience was right and everything I went through since I left that desert was a lie? What if-
I shook my head and pushed all those doubts out of my head. I looked down at my orb and smiled as we walked over to the portal. It pulsed as if it smiled back. I chuckled slightly and looked over at my brother. He was watching me carefully but when he noticed that he was staring, he blushed slightly and turned back in front. I smiled. At least I knew that my brother was not a fake.
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Somewhere in the unknown; Coventina's perspective
"I'll get you for this," I said when they slammed the iron door in my face.
I screamed at in frustration and kicked the door only to breaking my toe.
"Damn," I groaned as I dropped to the ground. I took off my shoe and looked at my foot. My big toe looked a bit dislocated and slightly swollen but other than that, it was alright. I took out the chain around my neck and held it in my hands.
The blue orb glowed slightly and water flowed out of it and wrapped around my foot. I winced in slight pain as my broken toe was forcefully pushed back into place and healed. I sighed when it was over and placed the chain back under my shirt. I couldn't let anyone see that.
It was the only source of strength I had left. It was the only thing keeping me awake and I couldn't let them take it away.
The door opened a few minutes later and a guard stood there looking down at me. He looked a bit over six feet and he looked huge dwarfing my five feet three inches height even more.
"Time to go, goddess," he said gruffly.
I nodded quickly and slipped back on my shoe before standing up. I dusted of my pants and walked out of the room with honour and dignity.
I would not let them change me. I would not beg for help.
The guard guided me to a large room. The walls were obsidian, ominous lamps glowing from within them. The floor was black too, and so warm that I could feel it through the soles of my shoes. At the end of the room was a large throne in black marble and on it sat him.
He was their leader, and an absolutely heartless man. He was the only one here who truly ignited fear in my heart. He got up and said, "Coventina, are you ready to tell us what you know about your mother's secret?"
I shrugged. "I do not know anything. I have told you that so many times." I tried to sound nonchalant but in truth, I was quaking in my boots.
He began to walk towards me and I backed away. He raised his arms, pushing them palm outwards towards me, and black energy shot out of them. It wrapped around me, suffocating me.
I struggled helplessly, screaming as excruciating pain blocked out everything else. He only cackled, watching me with sadistic pleasure.
"Tell me Coventina, where are your other siblings?" he asked.
"I don't know, I really don't!" I sobbed. It hurt so much... everywhere... I didn't think I could take it anymore.
When I thought I would really die, he dropped me on the floor, leaving me there, a sobbing mess. "Help," I whispered. "Wherever you all are, please get me out of here."
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Stella's POV
Before we entered the door, an image flashed before me, of a girl with long blonde hair hanging around her waist and blue eyes, nearly dead.
"Help," she whispered. "Wherever you all are, please get me out of here."
I stumbled but Shay stopped me from falling. I smiled at her and she smiled back slightly.
"What happened?" Shay asked me.
"I saw her," I answered, "I saw Coventina."

......

VivaciousEvanlyn
Hey!! I'm VivaciousEvanlyn but call me Saum! I'm a high school student who loves coffee and reading and writing and more coffee and music and more coffee (you get the idea :P) It's been a wonderful experience being a part of this game. The story is pretty open for the next writer I think ;) Check out my profile if you have time...

KHMaster101
Kon'nichiwa min'na-san!!! That means hello guys!!! xD I'm a high school student who loves to read and write and listen to music more than anything else in the world. I'm also an otaku. I'm currently writing three books: a Fantasy, a FanFiction and a Romance (though it isn't going as planned). I hope you guys can check them out or PM me when you have the time since I'm always looking for people to talk to. I hope to see this story grow into one of the best I've ever read! Sayonara. (Goodbye)