The Sword and the Sorceress
The Sword was calling her. "If only it wasn't so bloody dark in this hellish castle." Sienna muttered to herself as she carefully climbed the moss-covered staircase. "Should I risk it?" she thought, "Well, someone would be sure to notice if I fell down the stairs and broke my neck. Then what good would I be? I'll just have to chance it." she mumbled. Simultaneously a faintly glowing orb appeared in her outstretched hand. "Well, that will certainly make this easier. Now, if only the sword would be quiet for a minute and let me think."
A door formed out of the darkness on Sienna's right side. It seemed to reach out and pull at her. She quickly muttered a spell under her breath. The pull lessened but did not dissipate entirely. "I just need to think." she said aloud. "No, I was right," she thought, "this isn't the turn. At least not yet." Sienna continued to climb. She had no idea what time it was; it felt like she had been climbing for hours. It was still very dark, so it couldn't have been that long. If dawn were approaching she would have been able to perceive the lightening of the sky through cracks in the mortar. There, she felt it. To her left, tugging gently. The sword's song was stronger, more insistent here as well. "Nothing, there's nothing here." Sienna thought as she examined the wall on her left. "Appearances can be deceiving." she said to herself. She laid her pale, thin hand against the stone, half expecting her fingers to move though the wall as easily as through air. They didn't. Her hand made contact with the rough damp stone. "It's got to be here, I can feel it." She ran her hand down the stone searching for something to indicate that her senses were lying to her. No luck, the wall was just that, a wall. There was no opening.
Then she felt it, so light it was almost unperceivable, a slight shift in the air just to the left of her hand. Holding her light as close to the wall as she could she stared at the pin sized whole just beside her thumb. "That was lucky," Sienna thought, "to think I almost missed it." Reaching with her free hand into her coiled hair she retrieved a hairpin, which she then carefully pushed into the whole. Nothing happened. Then slowly with a monstrous grinding noise a section of the wall moved back about a metre. Darkness was the only thing revealed. "This is it," thought Sienna, "This is what I came for." She stepped tentatively forward into the gap. The door closed behind her with an echoing thud. The light held in her hand flickered once and went out. Sienna was left in complete darknessā¦
