Thank you all for your reviews last chapter! I would've had this up sooner but I work weekends so I didn't get the chance to write until tonight.
Anyway, I threw some more clues in this about who the bad guy is and I want to say only about 2-3 more chapters until the bad guy is here! (Unless I drag this on longer but who knows)
Chapter 8:
After a few tentative minutes of walking with Cedric's wand light, Cedric deduced that they weren't attracted to magic which was a relief. Sofia walked close to him, occasionally checking behind them to make sure nothing was there.
The cave was large but looking further down she noticed the size reduced greatly. There were stalagmite formations on the sides and for the most part the cave was extremely moist. Water dripped from all directions and made echoing noises down their path. Despite being wet, the cave had several really hot spots that Sofia almost choked on. Cedric was dripping sweat only to walk into a chilled part of the cave right after. It had them both shivering.
"What is with the temperature fluctuations?" Sofia asked and Cedric dabbed his face with his vest after removing it. He tossed it to the side, now only wearing his shirt and pants. Sofia unbuttoned her riding jacket and tossed it with Cedric's vest, now only wearing a camisole.
"I'm not sure. I don't sense any magic though." Cedric answered, trying not to stare at Sofia from the corner of his eye. He'd never seen a woman wear something so revealing before! He didn't know what to make of it. Sofia was always dressed up with every body part covered, this was indeed new.
Sofia made a loud shout that she muffled quickly with her hands when she saw a figure standing several feet in front of them. It looked just like a normal person but there was something eerie about the way they stood there.
When she squinted her eyes, she noticed something familiar about the creature. Its body was decayed but it was... definitely familiar. She couldn't place it though and it creeped her out even more. It looked like it had blonde hair, but it was so dirty and matted with mud she couldn't be sure. The eyes though were a bright green. Whatever it was, it looked like a male.
"Be careful Sofia, that's a wraith." Cedric whispered and Sofia felt herself sweat again even though they were in a cold spot. "As quickly as you can, try to shoot it. Remember, silver kills them you just have to pierce their heart."
Sofia nodded shakily and tried to calm her nerves. The wraith made a few staggered steps in their direction and her heart thudded harder. She felt the impending doom of the creature slowly making its way towards them, something about it unnerved her in a way she'd never been before. She took in a deep breath and grabbed the arrow from her quiver and shot at the wraith, hitting it in the shoulder. It stared down and growled and looked back up at her with its eyes burning with hatred. The area sizzled as the silver burned its skin.
"Calm down, Sofia. You can do this." Sofia grabbed another arrow and the wraith was now levitating from the ground and making its way to her quicker.
As it got closer, she noticed its rounded chin and strong jaw. She shook her head, not wanting to believe who she thought it could be but it freaked her out more than she cared to admit.
She let go of the arrow and completely missed. She shook as the wraith closed in on her. Sofia's amulet started glowing and a sword appeared, but Sofia stumbled back and fell to the ground. Cedric dropped his wand and grabbed the sword and shoved it through the wraith's heart and it let out a loud scream and burned into ash.
They sat in darkness, the wand ceasing the spell once it was discarded so Cedric couldn't find it for a moment. When he finally grabbed it he mumbled a quick lumen magnum and the cave was illuminated with light once more.
"Are you alright, princess?" Cedric asked as he helped her up, sword forgotten on the cave ground.
"Did you see him?" Sofia asked more aggressively than she intended to.
"I did..." Cedric looked at her confused but her eyes welled with tears. "What has you so upset?"
"Did you see him?" She asked now completely facing Cedric. She was worrying him.
"I saw the wraith—"
"He looked like James!" Sofia cried and Cedric's brow furrowed.
"Sofia... It has to be a coincidence; James is in the castle in the throne room." Cedric assured and Sofia ran her fingers through her greasy hair.
"I-It doesn't matter. He just looked like James and it really... freaked me out I guess." She took a deep breath and Cedric glanced at the pile of ash on the ground, wary.
"How long have we been walking?" Sofia asked after what seemed like an eternity.
"I'm guessing about 30 minutes but what's strange is I hear many wraiths and yet we've come across none." Cedric sighed. "Merlin's Mushrooms this is going to be bad."
"What are the odds that we don't run into any more?" Sofia asked hopefully and Cedric gave her a dry look. "That bad huh?"
"Slim to none, I'd say." The silence around them became rather heavy. "Cedric?"
"Yes princess?" Sofia frowned to herself.
"What do you think is going on with your mother's ring? Who would take it?"
"There's many people in the world that would want a ring with those abilities. The weird part is, no one really knows the ring is that powerful. There's a... glamor of sorts on the ring to make it so it looks slightly different to people who aren't actively looking for it. My mother hasn't told anyone, aside from family, what it does. I can honestly say I don't know who knew enough about it to even steal it."
Sofia stopped walking, her body felt weak, like it was being drained of all life force. Cedric paused and turned around when he noticed she wasn't following him anymore. A wraith was behind her and he could tell it was feeding. Sofia's eyes hazed over and she dropped to her knees. Cedric felt shaken to his core and it took him a second to leap into action. He rushed the wraith, grabbing one of Sofia's arrows and jabbing it through its heart. When the wraith collapsed to the ground, so did Sofia.
Sofia felt fire all around her body like she was burning, she was so hot. She looked around the room but it was all a blur of orange and yellow. Flames danced around dangerously close to where she laid. Suddenly she saw a black blurred figure walking towards her. She could only see the silhouette but even sitting down she could tell that he was much taller than she was.
"Did you enjoy your sleep my darling? I hope the wraith didn't scare you too bad. I'd never let them hurt you." the voice was familiar. "Don't worry, I'll see you soon..." He purred. "But now you need to wake up."
"Sofia! Wake up!" Sofia's eyes shot opened and she shuttered and shoved Cedric away from her. "Are you alright?"
"I-I think I saw who stole the ring." She said uncertainly. She felt like what she saw wasn't a dream, it really did happen.
"Who was it?" Cedric asked quickly.
"I... don't know." She looked confused, but not nearly as much as Cedric.
"I thought you said-"
"I saw his outline. But I'm not sure. I don't know what I saw. Let's just get out of this cave." Sofia tried to push herself up and felt herself stumble. Cedric caught her arm and respected the fact that she needed to think quietly for a while.
When they arrived at the cave exit soon after they both shared an incredulous look.
"How did we not run into any more?" Sofia asked and Cedric glanced around, waiting for an ambush. It never came.
"As strange as it sounds, the shrieks ceased after you'd fallen unconscious."
"Hm..." Sofia pursed her lips. "In... my dream or vision or whatever it was, the man told me he wouldn't let anything happen to me. Maybe it was his doing?" Cedric frowned, not liking the thought of this mystery man keeping Sofia out of trouble, it could potentially mean that Cedric was a target for being eliminated if the guy thought he was a threat to whatever he thought him and Sofia had.
"I wonder why that is. Let's just try to get this maze done and over with. It's a little over a half mile this way." Cedric stopped his light spell and put his wand in his pocket and both continued the trudge.
At the very entrance of the maze, there stood a sphynx. Cedric shared a look with Sofia and they both walked up to it.
"Before you enter, you must first prove you are worthy." It said slowly. Sofia gave a tentative smile.
"What is your riddle, sir?" It looked at her odd but continued.
"I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation and I surround every place. What am I?" Cedric looked completely crestfallen.
"I suppose this is up to you princess. I'm not very good with puzzles." Sofia smiled at him and thought.
"Do you have an answer?" The sphynx asked and Sofia bit her lip.
"How many guesses do I get?" The sphinx frowned.
"I usually only give one, but I will be merciful and allow you two. One for each of you." He gave Cedric a look and Cedric took in a deep breath.
"God?" Cedric offered lamely and Sofia giggled.
"No that isn't right."
"Well, I told you I wasn't very good at this..." Cedric sighed.
"One more guess. Do you need to hear the riddle once more?" Sofia shook her head and looked up at the sky.
"Beginning of the end... end of time and space... essential- oh, the letter E?" Sofia offered and Cedric looked at her confused.
"What do you mean the letter-"
"Correct." Sofia smiled and Cedric looked even more confused.
"You can just... do all the riddles. I don't even know..." He shook his head incredulously and the sphinx let them pass.
"Excuse me, Mister sphinx. Do you think you could tell us what exactly is in the maze?"
"If you go the right way, you will come across more than one sphinx, but that is all I can say." Sofia smiled warmly at him.
"Thank you for that."
"I'm pretty sure we should go right here." Sofia insisted and Cedric shook his head.
"No, we went right at the last one, I don't want to get caught in another dead end!" Cedric was growing increasingly impatient. They'd been wondering around the maze for an hour and hadn't run into another sphynx and they've been to 14 dead ends so far.
"I don't appreciate you yelling at me..." Sofia said quietly and walked right despite Cedric's complaints.
They were met with another choice of straight or left. Sofia went straight without asking Cedric and Cedric frowned.
"Are we not consulting each other anymore?"
"I'm getting really tired of you berating me each time we run into a dead end so I'm just going to walk! I don't care if I get lost, eventually I'll find my way out!" Sofia snapped and Cedric pursed his lips and held his tongue.
Sofia barreled her way through the maze until she came across another dead end. She huffed but turned around and went the other way without a word. She finally got the result she wanted when not 10 minutes later, she came across another sphinx. She almost cried with relief and jogged over to it.
"Hello. It's getting rather late, don't you agree?" The sphinx said and Sofia glanced up at the sky. She hadn't noticed it was almost sundown. She was just on a mission. "I'm sure you aren't here for conversation... My riddle is I have seas with no water, coasts with no sand, towns without people, and mountains without land. What am I?"
"A really terrible place to vacation..." Cedric mumbled to himself and Sofia stifled a giggle, the tension between the two dissipating instantly. She turned to him and gave him a smile and he smiled weakly back at her.
He felt terrible for arguing with her. He wanted to blame it on Malignant Falls but he wasn't sure if that's honestly what it was. He was happy to make her laugh though.
"Is that your final answer?" The sphinx asked and both turned to face it really quickly.
"No!" They shouted in unison.
"Then what is your answer?" Sofia was grumpy and tired and she wasn't sure why she was so happy to run into the maze when it was so late in the day. She should've camped out so her brain had enough time to think. They hadn't even eaten anything yet.
"Okay... so seas without water. Could be the letter C but that wouldn't make sense for the next part..." Sofia started to pace. "...towns without people..." She scratched her head and couldn't come up with the answer.
"A map." Cedric said meekly and Sofia turned to him amazed.
"A map?" She grinned. "That's brilliant. How did you even think of that?"
"A map is flat but it has pictures so..."
"Correct." Sofia ran to Cedric, hugging him tightly.
"I'm so proud of you." She laughed. "You guessed before me. I don't know that I would've come up with the answer. I'm so exhausted..." She shook her head and pulled away from Cedric with a sigh. Cedric cupped her cheek and she looked into his eyes.
"You always make me feel like more than I am." Cedric admitted softly and Sofia shook her head.
"Don't say that. You're amazing. Just because you don't see that doesn't mean it isn't true. And I'm grateful to know you, Cedric. You're one of the best people I know." Cedric hugged her tightly and let his chin rest on her shoulder. At that moment, it didn't matter the fights they had. What mattered was they were going to get through everything together.
He just hoped he didn't have to deal with the siren with her by his side.
Okay serious question! I honestly need answers for this because I don't know. Should this story continue after they break the curse or should I just let it end there?
Also! I want to write another Cedfia after this one is done but I'm unsure of the plot. Any ideas?
