"Alright, you two be careful." Miranda said to Sofia and Amber as they stood in front of the carriage. "I'll be in town with James when you two are done." James stood beside their mother, it was his turn to see Avalor, sort to speak.
"Yeah, be careful you guys." James agreed with his mother. He gave smiles of encouragement to his sisters and to Isabel as well, which the younger princess returned. It was something that both Elena and Naomi couldn't help but notice.
"Don't worry Queen Miranda, I'll keep your daughters safe." Gabe promised her.
"We all will." Elena promised her and Blaze seemed to hoot in agreement. "It's the least we can do." She still felt indebted to Sofia and her family for freeing her so she could save her own kingdom and family. She was already positive she would always feel that way.
Elena helped the three younger girls onto the carriage, then Naomi and Mateo followed them on board. The crown princess sat by Gabe up front. "Let's get to the ruins Gabe." She said.
"Right away your majesty." Gabe said and then couldn't help but laugh a little when Elena rolled her eyes in amusement. Gabe gave her a small smile too as they headed off.
"Are you okay Amber?" Sofia asked her older sister.
"Yes, I'm just fine Sofia." Amber replied simply, though inside she was felt kind of tense. Although she knew she was a good person in general, she also knew she had done some things that would be contrary to that belief. The fact that Oona entrusted her with something as rare and powerful as the Jewel of the Ocean startled her, the fact that Sofia accepted that without a problem startled her even more. And now she was helping her sister and another very impressive princess to reveal an even deeper mystery. This was a new feeling for her.
"Don't worry Amber. It'll all be okay." Isabel assured her. Although she didn't know the circumstances behind her apprehension she had a general idea of it, because she was still a bit intimidated by Elena's decision to let her hold onto the golden feather. From what Elena, Mateo and Naomi had told her it seemed that the golden feather had helped immensely in helping the three of them pass the test of facing their darkest fears. It was all the more reason why she was surprised that she was allowed to hold onto the golden feather.
Amber glanced at her and felt that perhaps Isabel did understand how she felt a little. "You're right Princess Isabel. It will all work out." She said.
Kara sure hoped they were all right.
"How many ruins are there around here in Avalor?" Sofia asked.
"At least five that we know of." Naomi answered. "The three chambers that held the Duende brothers, the chamber in the mountains and another one further outside of Avalor."
"I wonder if any of these are in Enchancia." Sofia mused.
"I'm sure when we tell daddy about this he'll have a team start looking into it." Amber said. "Then maybe we can help uncover more information about the Maruvians." She didn't have much interest in history but she had a semi-secret love of the astronomy and even had a star named after her called Amber Major.
They reached the ruins and Gabe stopped the carriage. This time it was Naomi who helped the three younger girls out of the carriage and together they entered the ruins. Finding the door was easy enough. "This was where we were made to face some fears." Naomi noted with a bit of a shudder.
Sofia gasped. Elena looked to her. "I know, that's quite a lot of empty spots to fill in. Don't worry, we think that four will be a good start." She said to the brunette Enchancia princess.
"Well yeah, it is a lot of slots." Sofia agreed as she approached the door and ran her finger over the shield indentation. "But I know what this one is and where it is." She turned to the confused looks on her friend's faces, including Amber. It was in fact one of the few things that Elena did not know about since by that time she had been freed by Sofia. "This is for the ice fire shield."
"The ice fire shield?" Gabe asked her.
Sofia nodded. "It turns dragon fire into ice." She answered. "It's held by a knight named Sir Jaxon in Brazendell." From the corner of her eye Elena could see Mateo making a note of that, which was probably a good idea.
"Any idea what these other ones could be?" Naomi now asked Sofia.
She shook her head. "No idea. Sorry." She replied.
"So what do we need to do now?" Amber asked Elena as she took the jewel of the oceans and held it in the palm of her right hand.
Elena held the scepter out toward the door, jeweled end first. "I guess we need to place our Maruvian artifacts into the right indentations and see what we can do." The crown princess answered and then looked to Sofia. "I know how much you hate taking off the amulet Sofia but…" She started.
"It's okay." Sofia replied as she slid off her amulet. "This could be important." She seemed a bit sheepish as she added, "Besides, technically I don't have to actually give up the amulet." She held it in her hands, ready to insert it jewel first while still holding the chain of it.
Elena could sympathize as she placed the scepter in jewel side first and then adjusted it so that most of the scepter was in the indentation without releasing the scepter itself.
Amber was able to perform basically the same action as her sister was, which was a relief to her because unlike her three companions the artifact she was using didn't belong to her, it actually belonged to Oona of Merroway Cove but the mermaid could not come on land for this purpose and had entrusted Amber with the jewel for this cause.
Isabel meanwhile could understand the blonde princess's reaction as she gently slid the golden feather into its indentation. Technically the golden feather did not belong to her, it was simply appointed to her by Elena. They had originally simply borrowed it but when the woman in question was revealed to be a sorceress in Juan's employ who tried to weaken Elena, all chances of it being returned were pretty much ended, but it still left the question of what to do with it at least in Isabel's mind.
For a moment nothing happened. Then the door glowed green. They anticipated its opening and were surprised when it didn't. "Um, was that a colossal waste of time or was that me?" Gabe questioned.
"I'm not sure I can disagree with you lieutenant." Amber agreed.
Then from the side of the chamber they saw a glowing green door appear out of nowhere. This was followed by the four Maruvian artifacts falling out of the indentations, though since they had been holding the objects already they wouldn't have gotten damaged.
"That was unexpected." Gabe remarked.
Mateo was already taking a closer look at the wall that lead between what the assumed would be the chamber that would open and the door that appeared out of nowhere. "I don't see how from this angle but it's like the magic traveled between the door and the concealed area." He said.
"Like a conduit." Isabel said with a mixture of shock and approval.
"A what it?" Naomi asked her.
"A conduit." Isabel repeated. "A system of travel that would usually be constructed by pipes." She moved closer to the wall and touched the wall though she felt no evidence of any such construct for what that was worth. "I bet with the right material it could even allow magical energy to travel too."
"I guess the only way to what it is and how they did it would be to tear this wall down and look behind it." Mateo said. "And I don't think that idea would be well received."
"You're probably right." Naomi agreed simply. "But is that important right now?" She asked as she pointed to the now open doorway. "I think we have something else to occupy our time."
"She's right." Sofia agreed as she placed her amulet around her neck again. "We came down here to uncover something and even though it wasn't what we thought it was it still led us to something new." Amber followed suit with the jewel of the oceans back into the pouch and Isabel placing the golden feather back behind her ear.
"Then let's see what it is that we uncovered." Elena decided as she started toward the newly uncovered door. Isabel and Sofia were right next to her, followed by Mateo and Naomi. Amber and Gabe brought up the rear, the former more out of worry while the latter did so simply because it was his job to protect, though it was a tossup what was important, guarding the front or the rear. In the end he just had to hope that Elena could handle the front and squelch the thought that as crown princess he should be protecting her.
Elena wasn't too surprised to find more riches in the chamber, like they had found in the area that had first been discovered by the Jaquins when they had been tossing coconuts above the main streets. What they found for the first time were a few different scrolls. Naomi and Mateo immediately went to look at those even as Amber drifted toward the treasure.
"Okay, as nice as it is to find gold and reading material, why was it worth keeping this locked behind an invisible door that could only be opened up by four shiny objects?" Gabe wondered as he looked around, nudging a golden coin with his boot.
Sofia heard Clover say, "Yeah, it's not like this is a chamber full of radishes or anything." As he hopped in behind them.
"One should never question the value of shiny gold objects and brilliant jewels." Amber said lovingly as she picked up and emerald and looked at it. "So beautiful." She whispered.
"Something tells me the treasure itself is just a distraction from what's really important." Sofia mused.
"I agree." Elena seconded.
"Oh please." Amber said dismissively. "What could be more important than this?" She asked as she set the emerald aside to pick up a diamond. "It's pretty much flawless." She commented.
"That would depend on what's in those scrolls." Kara replied simply as she flew up toward the roof for the proverbial birds eye view.
"Total agreement." Elena said as she looked to Naomi and Mateo. "Any idea what those are?"
"Not yet." Mateo said. "I'm pretty sure it's not magic based on the wording. It's in a weird dialect."
"I kind of recognize it too, even if I didn't go through the same classes as a certain chancellor did." Naomi now said, poking slight fun at Esteban for having talked about going to archaeology classes as part of his royal training. Only she and Elena got that though since neither of the two boys nor Isabel were there for that and the Enchancia kids were too young to take those classes.
"What do you think it is?" Sofia wondered.
"Maruvian I'd guess." Gabe voiced.
"I don't think so." Naomi started as she was glancing at the scroll. "I barely recognize a lot of the more complex words of the Maruvian dialect."
"Something I do recognize because of the Codex Maru that I've been studying." Mateo reminded the royal guard.
"But this is almost recognizable, except for some parts here and there that I don't know." Naomi finished. "I would almost classify this as ancient Avaloran."
Isabel laughed a little. "Naomi, I know Elena, abuelo, abuela and I are technically from forty one years ago but I'd hardly say we're so old that we speak an old form of our language." She noted. Elena giggled just a little as Kara outright laughed, nearly losing her balance and barely avoiding crashing into a pile of gold.
Naomi shook her head. "No, I mean really ancient Avaloran Princess Isabel." The blonde corrected her. "Probably the first dialect established by our ancestors after the disappearance of the Maruvians if I had to guess."
Amber happened to wander over to where the older blonde was and glanced at the scroll before barely repressing a gasp. None of their friends saw it but her sister knew her all too well. "Is something wrong Amber?" Sophia asked curiously.
Now the others looked at her too. "Well, not exactly." Amber said and then after a second clarified, "You see, I don't know if this is ancient Avaloran or not, but I do recognize some of these words."
"You do?" Mateo asked, a little shocked. He liked the young princess well enough but had pretty much assumed being the temporary holder of the jewel of the oceans was about the only thing Amber would be able to contribute to this.
Amber was either unaware of his thoughts or didn't care. "This for example," The blonde princess said as she placed her finger just under a word. "This is an ancient word for one of the planets in our system, I think in this case Venus."
Naomi had to grant she was somewhat impressed even as Sofia giggled a little. "Amber is a hidden astronomer." She commented.
"Anything else look familiar?" Naomi asked as she handed Amber the scroll.
"Hmm." Amber mused as she looked at the scroll. "I recognize all of the planets of our solar systems, as well as mention of the sun and the moon." She told them all. "They all have the same wording next to them but I don't know what that is."
Isabel sidled up to Amber now to look at the scroll as well. "Hey I think I recognize that word." She revealed. "I see it some of the things I look it. The closest translation I've see to that would be receptaculo de."
"Huh?" Gabe asked.
"A receptacle." Elena translated for her royal guard. For some reason Blaze took the air now to look around, the crown princess saw no reason to stop her.
"What's a receptacle?" Sofia asked now.
"Usually it's what one would call a container that holds something." Elena answered. "It must be pretty important to be mentioned in scrolls locked behind a closed door. At least whoever placed it here thought it was important."
Amber handed the scroll back to Naomi. "Everything else looks like scribble to me." She said simply.
"Well we're talking planets and receptacles of some kind." Naomi replied as she took it back. "I have to say it sounds like that to me too pretty much."
"It looks to me like whatever these receptacles are, they hold magic in them." Mateo said. "Powerful magic."
"Like the Maruvian artifacts?" Sofia asked now.
"Almost but not quite." The royal sorcerer answered. "I don't think they're as old as the artifacts the four of you have, and I think there power levels might be different. For example this one only speaks of seeing what is around you and the one down here only speaks of immunity to falls."
No one seemed to quite understand what that was about.
Then Amber spoke. "How do we even know that these 'receptacle things' are even still around?" She now asked.
More silence before Elena stated the obvious. "We don't." She responded.
"But I do." Said a voice beside Elena that no one else heard, and she knew why. She glanced to the side to see something she hadn't seen a while, the spirit guide Zuzo popped up right next to her. Despite looking like an animal he had his hind legs crossed his legs like a human and his arms behind his head like a human would.
"You really think they're still around?" Elena asked now. She had forgotten that no one else could see Zuzo, not even Sofia who seemed to be able to do just about everything else with the amulet she wore. Actually Mateo could have if he were closer but he and Naomi were further in the chamber.
Still they could hear the crown princesses inquiry. "I guess it's possible." Mateo said now as he looked at the scrolls. "I mean magical receptacles would be much harder to destroy, and the fact we were able to access this Maruvian chamber tells us that some other magic has survived the times."
"Uh, yeah, what he said." Zuzo answered. "Those receptacles are pretty powerful magic indeed princess. They've survived not only across time but dimensions as well."
Elena blinked in surprise. "They've survived across time and dimensions?" She repeated curiously.
"What are you talking about Elena?" Naomi asked as she glanced behind her to her best friend, but of course she couldn't see Zuzo and it looked to her like Elena was just saying things out of nowhere.
"Oh, I was just thinking maybe these receptacles might not be from around Avalor." Elena said.
"That sounds impossible." Amber replied simply.
Sofia thought about some of the things she had seen. Her encounters in the secret library, the appearance of Princess Ivy from someplace still unknown to them when Amber had used her amulet without permission, even ghosts like the ones that ultimately helped her Halloween bash were somewhat mysterious in origin. "Maybe not." She said. "Maybe it could be possible."
"Well, if I'm interpreting this scroll right," Mateo now said. "It seems like whoever wrote these scrolls spoke of an attempt to duplicate power sources, though it doesn't say where they found them at in the first place. The result was the receptacles."
"Which aren't here then why?" Gabe asked.
"Because people are greedy." Naomi stated simply. When the royal guard gave her a questioning look she continued on, "No really. It looks like the Avalor of the past ended up in conflict with a rivaling neighbor who wanted the power for themselves. In the process one side seemed to awake an ancient evil which was sealed off somewhere. But that made them realize their mistake and they came up with a way to neutralize the receptacles powers, but before they could implement their idea they were stolen and scattered across the land."
"Hmm, it seems to me if there is any truth to those whatsoever we would be better off leaving these things alone." Amber noted simply.
"Normally I'd be inclined to agree." Elena said. "But we might not be the only ones who know about this."
"What do you mean?" Sofia asked.
"Isabel's golden feather was borrowed by someone trying to rival with Avalor, possibly even all the kingdoms." She still wanted to keep the details surrounding Juan and his group vague. "We never did figure out why they let us take the golden feather in the first place but I have to think they might have found a way to access a similar chamber without it."
"That door had over a dozen indentations." Sofia remembered as she glanced back out into the main entrance room. "We have four of them here, with us. And the ice fire shield should still be in Sir Jaxon's hands, but that leaves almost a half dozen more unaccounted for."
"Okay so say we pursue these things." Gabe said. "Where do we start? What do we do with them when we find them?"
"I think the answer to the last question is obvious." Elena replied. "We have to finish what they started and neutralize those receptacles."
"But Gabe is right, where do we start?" Isabel wondered.
Elena wasn't sure about that one either but before she could respond they heard a small screeching sound and Blaze tumbled from behind some golden goblets, looking very frightened. Elena went over to her friend and picked her up, starting to whisper to her in Spanish.
"What's got her so worked up?" Clover wondered as he and Kara started over to the spot. Gabe was quickly behind them, as was Naomi after setting the scroll she was looking at down on the floor. Both Sofia and Isabel didn't seem to be so keen on letting their respective animal friends investigate after Blaze freaked out.
"I don't get it." Gabe said
"What is it Gabe?" Elena now asked him as Blaze seemed to be calming down at the sound of the crown princesses voice.
"It's just a book Princess." Gabe answered. "It's pretty thick and the cover doesn't look like it's made out of anything I've ever seen but it's just a book."
"And how many books have you read in your life Gabe?" Naomi asked him playfully.
"Quite a few actually." Gabe replied. "Maybe not as many as you and Mateo but I've been around a lot of books before."
"He is right though Elena." Naomi said. "I don't' know what the cover is made it out of either, but somehow it's slightly warm."
"Don't touch it anymore." Elena ordered them as Blaze settled down enough to perch again on her shoulder. "Let's find a safe way to have it transported."
Kara had floated close enough to see the title of the book. "Um, Elena. Isabel. The title says this book is the Enciclopedia Daemonica." She called out nervously.
"What does that mean?" Sofia asked uncertainly.
Elena was not sure she wanted to translate that one. She was relatively sure that only she, Isabel, and Mateo knew what that meant. But Isabel reluctantly answered that one, "I guess its old dialect similar to these scrolls, but not as old. Roughly it means Demon Encyclopedia."
"Demons?" Amber gasped.
"There has to be some mistake." Gabe said. "Demons don't exist."
"Yeah, just like ghost don't exist." Elena heard Zuzo point out simply.
"Like magic doesn't exist, like those Duendes don't exist?" Naomi pointed out. "I hate to say it Gabe but I don't think we can rule anything out here."
"Gabe, get us some guards for this room, on the double." Elena said to him. He nodded and took off.
"If the contents of that encyclopedia are real, and aren't unique.." Mateo started quietly as she came up to next to Elena holding the scrolls in his arms."
"Then we may not be the only ones to uncover this. And we might all be in grave danger." Elena finished as quietly. "As soon as we have this chamber guarded, we'll get back to the castle. I'm sure your mother is worried about you two and we can use the library to try to figure out what to do with what we have here."
Amber again shook her head and repeated, "Demons?"
"I'm sure it's an exaggeration Amber." Sofia tried to reassure her sister even though she herself wasn't convinced. "I mean, everything can seem demonic when you don't know what it is after all."
"Oh yeah, just a big misunderstanding." Zuzo commented, making Elena give him a dirty look since she was quite sure by his tone he was just mocking at that point.
They had returned to the castle by midafternoon where Mateo and Naomi were taking the scrolls to the library while Gabe was telling Francisco, Luisa and Esteban what they had found. Meanwhile Elena and Isabel had a different task ahead of them.
"Wow, demons. That sounds cool." James said as the Enchancia family were walking to the dock with the two princesses of Avalor.
"Hardly." Amber commented but faltered. "What are we going to do about those scrolls? And if any of that demon talk is real?" She asked.
"How can we help?" Sofia wondered, though she knew her mother wasn't too keen on that.
"Let's not jump to any conclusions just yet." Elena advised them all. "We don't know that there are any real demons," She was glad that Zuzo was not around to make a comment on that one. "Or what it means. Right now, you guys should get home. Maybe King Roland can look into anything Maruvian there and we'll go from there."
"Meanwhile we'll look into the receptacle thing." Isabel added with a smile at James and the two Enchancia princesses. "If we need help we'll let you guys know."
They had stopped in front of the boat they had come in on. "You promise?" Sofia asked Isabel.
Isabel nodded. "I promise." She held out her hand and Sofia placed her hand over Isabel's. That was followed by James's hand and a moment later by Amber's hand. "Have a safe trip home you guys." Isabel said as she smiled at them.
"Be careful too Isabel." James said to her as all four of them released hands and boarded their ship. "We're just going home after dropping that jewel thing off to Oona, you're the ones going on a dangerous quest." Isabel couldn't tell if James was relieved or upset he wouldn't be going with.
"Good luck Kara, Blaze." Clover said to the two of them. He wasn't sure the little bujito understood it but thought it best to say anyway.
"Thanks. We'll probably need it." Kara said to Clover.
Part of Elena wanted to point out that she wasn't too keen on Isabel going with them and that would be a point of contention at some point soon. But that was for another time. "Thank you for all that you did today." Elena said with a curtsy.
"Anytime." Miranda replied as she returned the curtsy. "If you need anything from us just let us know." She then joined her children on the boat and they waved goodbye to each other as they sailed off.
"I bet you're going to miss them." Elena said to Isabel after the ship was out of sight."
Isabel nodded. "Yeah. I will." She agreed.
Elena smiled just a bit and then had to poke fun at her little sister. "Was someone crushing on a certain Enchancia prince?" She asked teasingly.
"No." Isabel said, though the slight blush in her cheeks and the way she averted her eyes made Elena think otherwise. "We're all just friends."
Elena tried not to laugh. "Yeah, okay." She replied as they started to walk to the castle again. It was the only time that Elena could think of where she wasn't with any royal guards. She suspected that was because too much was about to happen. "Did I ever tell you about my first crush?" She asked him.
"I don't think so." Isabel answered. She wondered if that was Gabe but somehow doubted it. After all Elena was Isabel's age long before Gabe was even born, and then she was sixteen when she was trapped in the amulet, which technically she was still that age now.
"I was a little older than you are." Elena started out. "And we had a neighboring kingdom visiting. Dad was meeting with the king and he had his son with him. You were like five at the time. His son was almost twelve. He had piercing green eyes and a captivating smile." She smiled herself as she remembered it. "The problem was, I was two years younger than him, and I think he could barely be bothered with me at that age. I tried for days to get him to notice me."
"He never did?" Isabel guessed.
"He never did." Elena confirmed. "I overheard him asking his dad why I was always around them. I think his father knew I was crushing on him but didn't want to embarrass his son by pointing out the obvious so instead he said it was because I wanted to know everything I could for the day I would rule Avalor."
"This wasn't entirely wrong." Isabel pointed out simply.
"No, it wasn't." Elena agreed. "But that day I was trying to get his attention and when I realized that wasn't going to happen, that to him I was nothing more than a pesky girl, I was so upset."
Isabel nodded. "I remember that part. I found you crying in your room and I didn't understand why. I just knew I hated seeing you so upset." She replied.
Elena smiled and sat down by the fountain. Isabel sat next to her. "Yeah, I remember that too. I couldn't say why then but I was so glad you were there for me that day." She revealed as she took her sister's hands. "It made me feel better, it made me remember there were important things than rather a guy liked me or not." She sighed a bit. "Look Isa, I don't know if you have your first crush or not, rather it's James or not. You may not even know if you do or not. But if you do, that's good. It's part of growing up. Just know whatever happens I'm here for you."
"I know Elena." Isabel said and then hugged her sister. "You always are."
After another few moments the two sister's stood up. "So let's go see what's going on at the castle." Elena said.
When they got there Isabel ran off to the library as Gabe came over to her. "The chancellor is going over to the ruins now to take a look around. He says he won't touch the book, let's hope he sticks to his word." Gabe said.
"I don't think that will be a problem." Elena said. "He may not say it but he'll feel the same way we all did."
"Well I think we've got a long afternoon ahead of us." Gabe said and extended his arm to the crown princess. "Shall we go to the kitchen and bring snacks back to the library for everyone?"
Elena laughed and wrapped an arm around his. "Let's do it." She agreed. Together arm in arm the crown princess and her royal guard walked toward the kitchen, to prepare for the long afternoon ahead.