Hi everyone! I´m still alive and still receiving your reviews. We reached 60 reviews 3
You all probably wondered why it took me so long. There were a few things in my life happening which were really unexpected and traumatic for me. I needed to cope with that first. I can´t promise you a chapter everyday or every week. But you should all know, that I didn´t gave up on this fanfiction and I´m not intending to give up on it in the future. I´m really proud of this idea and want to share it with all of you. So please enjoy this chapter. I really had put my heart into it for all of you. You will read about a bit different version of the Casterwill story ;) Don´t want to spoil to much. So enjoy reading!
Zhalia and Sophie stood speechless in front of this mysterious woman. This woman who introduced herself as Aurora had a golden light surrounding her. It was almost like she was the source of it. She had long golden shimmering hair which were half pined up. Some strands were decorating her bare shoulders. Her clothes were also kinda strange. She wore a long cape with sleeves. At some places the cape had holes so you could see parts of her body. When she greeted us she wore a smile. This was now exchanged with a frown. Her eyes were focused more on Sophie the more time passed. The frown turned into a glare in a mere of seconds.
"You are a Casterwill!", she finally said, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.
"Yeah I am. I´m Sophie Casterwill the leader of the Casterwill-Clan and this is..", Sophie got interrupted by Aurora.
"I know all this already. I know who you are. But what I really want to know is, why a Casterwill dares to enter the Library of Dimensions!" She said and with every second she got louder. Sophie took a step back eyes widen.
"I´m sorry?" Sophie really didn´t know what she should answer. She also didn´t know why she apologized. There wasn´t any reason. She was just like Zhalia pulled into some kind of tunnel. Why wasn´t she angry with Zhalia? And why did it bother her so much that she was a Casterwill? Sophie turned to Zhalia just to look in her face and see a clueless expression. She looked at her and tried to give her a signal so she could help her. Zhalia understood what Sophie wanted immediately.
"So Miss Aurora? Why is it such an issue that a Casterwill entered your library? I mean she was just like me pulled into here. We were in the Casterwill library searching for information and the next thing we knew, we were here."
Aurora stopped glaring at Sophie and turned with a much softer expression to Zhalia.
"It must have been answering your wish?"
"My wish?"
"You were searching for answers. The amulet of power listened to your wish and brought you here. This is the Libary of Dimensions. It gives you every answer your heart desires. You need of course the help of the amulet. But I still don´t understand how the Amulet let a Casterwill enter." Aurora turned from understanding to angry again just by mentioning the name Casterwill. Both Sophie and Zhalia were confused till Zhalia asked the question, Sophie had wanted to speak out, but didn´t dare to do so.
"Why do you seem to have a grudge against the Casterwills? Have they done anything to you?"
This caught Aurora off-guard. She looked at Zhalia as if she was searching something, but instead of answering her question she asked another one.
"How come you asked questions about things you already know?" Zhalia gave her a dumbfounded look. Hadn´t it been such an unusual situation, Sophie would already tease her about it.
"Or is it that you seem to have forgotten?" Aurora didn´t wait for an answer.
"When this is the case, I shall explain it to you. The crime of the Casterwills!"
Meanwhile outside the Casterwill library the others tried to enter and called for Sophie and Zhalia, but it was no use.
"How can they be gone? Is there a secret exit? They can´t have disappeared into thin air."
Den was right, they couldn´t. But this didn´t help at all. As long as they couldn´t enter the library, they could just sit and wait. How they all hated it to wait. They all tried to be patient and waited. Some tried to continue with the research like Tersly.
Meanwhile Dante paced around thinking about what happened in the battle.
"What was that light illuminating Zhalia? Where did this power and energy came from? Did it effect Zhalia´s health somehow?" He was so deep in his thoughts, he didn´t notice Lok trying to talk to him. Only when Lok tipped him on his left shoulder, he noticed.
"Oh Lok, I´m sorry. Did you say something?"
"Yeah...I did. I said you should stop thinking for a minute and take a breath. We are all exhausted. What happened with Zhalia on the battlefield wasn´t normal, but it won´t help us when our leader can´t lead us, because he is to tired. Sophie and Zhalia are great seekers. They will return, I´m sure of it. But for the time being, we should rest a bit", Lok said and smiled.
Dante was impressed and said: "Sometimes I forget how much you have grown up. It feels like yesterday, that you appeared on my doorway surrounded by suits. But when I here you talking like that, it just makes me realise that this was almost three years ago. How time flies by." Dante looked into the sky. A feel of nostalgia overcomes him. Lok blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his head.
"Hehe. Sometime I am as surprised as you are. The thought, that we know each other for almost three years is astonishing and I don´t regret one moment. I don´t know what my life would look like when I didn´t talked to Sophie that day, asking her for her notes. I would never have been a seeker, never had you as a mentor and best friend, never met Zhalia with her sarcastic attitude and of course never met all the others. You are like a family to me. A really weird awesome family. Sometimes in moments of quietness I realise how lucky I am." Lok turned also his head towards the sky. Dante smiled.
"Me too, Lok. Me too."
Meanwhile in the library of dimensions Aurora finished with her story. Sophie and Zhalia just stood there, not able to move.
"This happened centuries ago, but I never forgot, no one of Lunatic did. It seems to me like yesterday, I swore my oath to this library. It was Lady Lunatic herself who gave me this position," Aurora said proudly. Both gasped.
"That means you are as old as Lord Casterwill!", Sophie realised. Aurora wasn´t that happy, when she heard his name, but her look softened a bit.
"You are right Sophie Casterwill, I am. I dedicated my heart towards the Lunatic kingdom and it´s dimension princess. To grant her the power of wisdom. I.." But she was interrupted by a loud explosion. Aurora´s face darkened.
"He of all people dares to enter this sacred place. He will pay for everything he did to our people!", she screamed.
"What are you talking about? What was that explosion?" She looked as if she just realised that she wasn´t alone. A look of fear crossed her face.
"Go! He must not find out that you and the amulet are here!"
"Go? Where? We didn´t even know how we got here in the first place? And who do you mean with "he"?" Zhalia asked looking around the library. There she noticed shadows crawling alongside the walls. She nudged Sophie against the shoulder and pointed towards the walls.
"What are these shadows?", Sophie asked. Aurora didn´t gave them an answer. Instead she demanded again, that they should leave.
"But how?" Zhalia asked.
"Use the amulet it will listen to your wishes. Speak to it! I..." There was another explosion followed by laugh. Zhalia´s eyes widen.
"I heard that laugh somewhere", but before she could say something else, Sophie pulled her at her sleeve.
"Zhalia we need to get out of here", as if the library had agreed, stones of the wall started to collapse onto the floor. Zhalia took the amulet around her neck in her hand looking at it.
"Amulet of power. Please help us escaping!" At first nothing happened. Zhalia and Sophie almost gave up on the possibility of using the amulet, when suddenly the amulet started to glow.
"Zhalia look it worked!" They started to vanish.
"Hurry! Stay save and in return save us all!" This were the last words they heard of Aurora before they disappeared. Suddenly you could here the laugh again.
"Do you really think she is save? She never be, now that I found her!" A figure in the shadows said. Aurora looked angry and a sword out of light appeared out of nowhere in her hand.
"You will never have her!" She screamed and attacked the figure in the shadows. You could only see the grin in the darkness.
Sophie and Zhalia reappeared again surrounded by the sky.
"You did it Zhalia. But where are we?" Then she looked down and noticed they were both up in the sky. A look of panic crossed their faces, as they started to fall. Both were screaming.
"We need to land safely somehow. But how? I don´t know any spell for theses kind of high falls. Do you know a Casterwill spell?", Zhalia asked trying to look at Sophie, while still falling down to the ground.
"I can´t think of one at this moment. But it is a bit difficult to think when you fall from this high down. Maybe you could use the amulet again", Sophie screamed. The wind rushing next to them.
"I don´t know, if I can do it again", she responded also screaming.
"Just concentrate. I´m sure you can do it again Zhalia!"
Zhalia tried to close her eyes and concentrate on the amulet around her neck. She imagined wings or a way to fly instead of falling. It took awhile but suddenly Zhalia felt a kind of familiar energy. She opened her eyes and like Sophie's they widen. She was surrounded by blue flames again. But instead of burning her they manifested to wings on her feet. She got slower but Sophie was still falling. She tried to reach her, but when she did, they both started to fall together again, but a bit slower now.
"It seems that you can just save yourself!" Both their eyes started to get wet, because of the wind.
"I won´t let you fall Sophie! Please amulet of power save us both!" As if it could hear Zhalia it started to shine again and out of it came the titan from earlier again. They both landed on the titans back. He was now flying through the air. They both started to enjoy the feeling and started to laugh.
"This is so much fun. I never flew on a titan. Now I know how Lok must feel when he flies with Kipperin. But where did the titan come from?"
"You don´t remember? You summoned it earlier in the battle. It came out of the amulet. You called it the legendary titan of royalty Pegasus."
"I did?" Zhalia was confused, she didn´t remember such thing, but it also seemed she had a empty space in her memory concerning the fight. She look to the titan under her now more closely and stroked the titan over his head a bit. The titan quite happy with the attention it got.
"So your name is Pegasus, right?" As on clue the titan made a sound, sounding like it agreed.
"Could you bring us to our friends again?", she asked while she stroked his head again. It made the same sound again and started to fly down safely.
Dante and Lok where still looking to the sky enjoying the clear view. Suddenly Lok narrowed his eyes.
"What is that?" He pointed to something in the sky. Dante took a look in the direction Lok pointed to. He also narrowed his eyes and they started to grew bigger.
"Is it a bird?" Lok asked.
"No...that is no bird! It comes in our direction!" The thing they looked at came closer. So close they could slowly recognize what it is. On Dante's face grew a smile.
"That are Zhalia and Sophie as well!" He said happily.
"Guys look!" Now they all looked towards the sky. The nearer it came the more they could see. It really were Zhalia and Sophie riding on the titan Zhalia summoned throughout the battle earlier. They waved and smiled. After a few more seconds the titan landed in front of the team. They both jumped from the titans back. Zhalia stroked the head of the horselike titan.
"Thank you for your help, Pegasus", Zhalia said a little smile decorating her lips. As on clue the titan vanished and returned into the amulet together with the dresslike armour Zhalia wore. She wore her jeans and other clothes again and her hair was also normal again. After watching with great interest what happens in front of their eyes, they all started to cheer.
"Sophie, Zhalia you are back!" Lok said happily and lifted Sophie into his arms. She just gave him a kiss on his cheek and hugged him.
"Where the hell have you been? We were worried sick!" Harrison said crossing his arms. Both Zhalia and Sophie looked at each other sighing.
"I think this isn´t the place for this kind of story. We should return to the hotel. There we can tell you the whole story", Sophie said still in Lok´s arms.
"Okay then lets go back", said Montehue starting to walk. The others grabbed their remaining bags. Sophie and Zhalia got their backs and the books they found and put them into their backpacks. All of them happy to have Zhalia and Sophie back, they made their way back to the hotel.
As they walked back to the hotel, Dante watched Zhalia, who walked in front of him alongside Sophie and Lok. Harrison was walking next to him.
"I´m glad they both are okay", Harrison said.
"Yeah,...me too. I don´t know what I would have done when she didn´t came back", he responded.
"Maybe you should go and tell her how glad you are. This would make her definitely happy", Harrison suggested. Dante just responded with a shaking of his head.
"No...I can´t. Not now and probably never." They didn´t say something again and walked silently to the hotel. Behind them Scarlett heard everything and a feeling of guilt overcame her and she started to shiver a bit. Suddenly she noticed Montehue who put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it a bit. A sudden warm feeling spread from her shoulders though her whole body. She didn´t know why, but she felt a emptiness when he removed his hand from her shoulder.
When they reached their destination everyone just felt like going to their beds and rest from the battle, but they pulled themselves together. They all gathered in Sophie's and Zhalia´s room, because it was the biggest one. They either sat on one of the beds or on the floor. Dante sat as near as he could to Zhalia, but far away enough that she didn´t notice. Nevertheless a tiny more egoistic part of Dante wanted her to notice. As they were all settled down, Zhalia started to tell what happened.
"We were searching the Casterwill library fro information like we were supposed to do. After a while I noticed a strange kind of energy coming from one of the bookshelves. I told Sophie and suddenly we where pulled through a portal. When we opened our eyes again, we were surrounded by darkness. We tried spells, but they failed."
"Then", Sophie continued, "Zhalia used an awesome new spell called Lightsproud. It is a shining golden seed which turned into a beautiful glowing flower. I never saw a more beautiful spell." They were all in awe, about how Sophie described the spell.
"Can you show us, Zhalia?" Den asked curiously, but Zhalia just put her had down and shook it.
"Sorry I can´t. I used a lot of my magic today, so it takes a while till I am recharged."
"This is totally understandable. Your health is more important", Zhalia´s eyes grew a bit bigger when she looked at Dante who just spook. The longer she looked the warmer she felt. But she needed to remind herself that her feelings weren´t mutual, so she turned her gaze away.
"As Sophie was saying", she continued her voice a bit unstable, "I used Lightsproud to spend us some light. After our eyes adjusted themselves to the light we saw, that we were in a much bigger library. In the middle of it was a podium."
"Zhalia and I noticed that on the podium the symbol, which is also on the amulet of power, was engraved." As on cue Zhalia showed them the amulet around her neck where a crescent surrounded by gems in different colours were on.
"Zhalia had put it on the symbol on the podium. After that a woman like figure appeared who introduced herself as the guardian of the dimension library Aurora." After that Sophie described how Aurora had looked.
"But when she saw Sophie she got really angry." They all looked confused towards Sophie, who put her head down.
"She was angry that a Casterwill entered her library." They all looked a bit taken aback.
"We asked her why she was so angry, so she told us the story of the origin of Lunatic." Zhalia paused and looked around waiting for the sign that she could continue. They all gave a short nod with their head.
"She said she swore an oath that she would protect the library and serve the Lunatic kingdom. Then she started telling us about the origin of the kingdom. Lunatic was the sister of no one other than Lord Casterwill himself. You of course know the story of how Lord Casterwill brought the titans down to earth." They all nodded.
"He had put them into artefacts like rings or amulets. They were used as weapons in the battle. Lunatic didn´t liked the idea of imprisoning the titans and fought with Lord Casterwill, without any success. So she brought magic to earth, to protect the titans. But instead of protecting them, the humans used the spells against titans and other human beings. This made her angry. Again she talked with her brother about how wrong it is to imprison and enslave the titans, but he still wouldn´t listen. So she left. She made it her duty to free the titans and help them. On her journey she met Auron Phantomhill, but he was no normal human. He was a mixture of a human and a titan, which was later called a hybrid." They all gasped. The thought of humans and titans having children together confused them.
"Before you judge, you should keep listen." They all nodded again, as a sign that she should continue.
"Titans didn´t always looked like they look today. They changed or more like they can shapeshift. Titan looked a lot like humans. They behaved and talked like humans and also felt human emotions." They looked all to Cherit who just sat on one of the beds and listen intensely absorbing every bit of knowledge he heard.
"The longer they were enslaved the more they changed. You all know that titans can be influenced by his seekers disposition. But what you don´t know is that the longer they are influenced by bad thought and motives the more monsterlike they turn out to be.
Lunatic liked the idea of humans and titans living together in harmony and happiness so she founded her own kingdom with Auron Phantomhill. They both dedicated their hearts to the rescue of enslaved titans and later on fell in love. When Lord Casterwill heard of his sisters doings, he spread all the artefacts around the world so she could never find them. Lunatic got furious, so she created magic barriers around her kingdom, so no one can enter it again. The people started to forget about the kingdom and Lord Casterwill erased the memories of Lunatic Casterwill out of everyone's mind. The people forgot the titans and the magic. The Casterwill clan however didn´t forget. They continued with gathering wisdom of the titans and the magic they new so little about. The knowledge Lunatic gathered was long forgotten. And this was, what the people of Lunatic called the sin of the Casterwill´s."
The room was silent. No sound escaped for quite a while. After a while Sophie sighed.
"I know that you are shocked. We were as shocked as you are right now. All this time the Casterwill´s lived a lie. Everyone forgot about Lunatic Casterwill, just because of Lord Casterwill´s stupidity. The only thing Lunatic ever wanted was equality and freedom for the titans." Sophie felt a rush of guilt and nausea overcome her. She always wanted to know everything about the Casterwill history, never knowing what great sin the Casterwill´s committed.
To change the topic Lok asked: "But how did you leave the library?"
"There was an explosion somewhere in the library so she said we should leave. Not knowing how, she said I should use the amulet. It will listen to the wish. It actually worked. But instead of bringing us to the shelve in the library again we where high in the sky. We were falling and in the adrenalin of the moment couldn´t think of a spell. So Sophie suggested to use the amulet again. I tried and then little wings out of blue flames appeared at my feet. They were strong enough to hold me, but not both of us. So we continued falling down. I asked the amulet again this time including Sophie in my wish. That is when the titan Pegasus appeared. It brought us back to the ground and to you."
"It was the same titan you summoned in the battle", Tersely said, taking further notes. He took notes throughout the storytelling, so they won´t forget something.
Then out of the blue Zhalia remembered something: "Aurora was also a hybrid. This is why she can live so long. She said something strange to us right before we left: Stay save and in return save us all! But what did she mean by that?" They all shrugged with their shoulders. No one had a clue.
"This is a lot to take in and process. We should call it a day and all go to bed", Dante said. Everyone agreed and started to get up. Cherit flew tiredly on Lok´s shoulder who, after he gave Sophie a good night kiss, left to his and Dante´s room.
"I´m going first into the bathroom, when that is okay", Sophie said and Zhalia nodded. Slowly everyone left the room till it was only Dante and Zhalia remaining. They stood in front of each other not looking each other in the eyes. After a while Dante caught and said: "I-i should go too. You know...to bed." He said awkwardly.
"Ehm yeah sure. I mean there isn´t really a reason for you to stay", Zhalia said and laughed embarrassed. "What was that? Awkward laughing? Pathetic Zhalia, you can do better!", she thought. She didn´t expect Dante to answer and react to her stupid response. Unexpectedly he came closer. They were just a few breathes and heartbeats away from each other.
"There will always be a reason for me to stay by your side", Dante whispered. Then he did something he though he will regret eventually, but couldn´t resist. He reached out his arm and took a strand of her midnight blue hair between his fingers. Zhalia suddenly felt really warm and fussy inside. He reached down with his head and gave Zhalia a small sincere kiss on her cheek. It was so short, but Zhalia savoured every bit of it. She could smell him. He smelled of his aftershave, also a bit of hazelnut and sweat. Zhalia enjoyed the smell. She always connected it with home. Not the home she had with Klaus, but the one in Venice, were the team always gathered in his livingroom. She missed the smell and the person it belonged to more than she would admit. Of course she accepted the fact that he didn´t love her back the way she did. He made that clear by kissing Scarlett. This didn´t mean hear heart and body stopped yearning the touch and presents of Dante Vale. She realised it would never stop, it didn´t matter how much she tried, but he didn´t made it easier for her by saying and doing such things. Then he reached down to her ear and whispered something in it only meant for her.
"Scarlett kissed me and not the other way around. This didn´t mean it makes my sin less bad. She is not the woman my heard desires." Zhalia held her breath listening to every word he said, feeling his breath against her ear. She could almost feel his lips touching her ear, which gave her a shiver down her spine. He pulled, way to early for Zhalia, away. He gave her a sincere small smile. She just wanted to kiss those lips, but held back, knowing that she probably wasn´t the woman he was yearning for. How could she? She was nothing Dante deserved. That was at least what she thought. She was so focused on his lips and her thoughts she didn´t even noticed the way he looked at her. You could see the love he felt and the pain of not being able to take what he desired most. But one person could see it. Sophie came out of the bathroom and saw the looks on their faces. They didn´t notice her. Sophie didn´t made a sound and closed the bathroomdoor soundlessly behind her, so she was in the bathroom again.
Dante realised he must be looking really stupid right now, starring at her the whole time.
"Good night Zhalia." He said. He wanted to give her a kiss again but decided against it. After taking a last glance towards Zhalia he turned around and opened the door. He resisted the urge to turn back again. He didn´t know what he might do. But he couldn´t resist saying a last thing.
"I´m glad that you are save. I didn´t know what I would have done, when you wouldn´t have returned." After that he closed the door behind himself. Zhalia started to breath again. At some point she had stopped breathing. The same goes for her heart, which now was racing and hammering against her breast. Her cheeks were red and she felt a sudden warmness again reaching even in the darkest of corners in her mind and body.
Sophie came out of the bathroom again smiling towards Zhalia.
"He said he is glad that I am save."
"I know. I heard it," Sophie smiled and went towards her suitcase were she put her dirty clothes. When Sophie finished, Zhalia hadn´t moved a millimetre. This made Sophie smile out of amusement.
"Shouldn´t you go into the bathroom or are you deciding to sleep standing up like a horse tonight?!"
Zhalia snapped immediately out of it.
"Haha very funny Sophie", Zhalia grabbed her things and went into the bathroom mumbling a few insults. This made Sophie giggle.
In the meantime Dante made his way towards his and Lok´s room smiling. He was kinda proud of himself telling her a bit of how he really felt and most importantly telling her the truth about the kiss. When he entered, Lok was already in his bed. He went to the bathroom and after he came out again he striped down to his boxers and collapsed happily into his mattress.
"Did you talk to Zhalia?", asked Lok with a muffled voice. Dante was a bit surprised, that he was still awake.
"Yeah...I did."
"Good", he yawned, "it was about time. You both needed to talk things out a bit. Are you two soulmates again?" Dante was a bit taken aback by Lok´s use of words. He wasn´t sure how to answer to that, but he tried his best.
"Not quite...but I think we moved in the right direction again."
"Okay, good to hear. I don´t like it when you two fight" A few seconds after you could here Lok´s soft snores.
Dante turned on his left side, closing his eyes.
"Yeah...me neither." After that he slowly drifted of to a world full of dreams...
Sooooo this was it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter ^^ took me the whole night to write it xD
Grammar, time and spelling mistakes are allllll part of this fanfiction ;)
Please leave a review when you liked it and tell me what was your favourit part :)
Love Xerxes-nii ^^
