Chapter 7 – Sirrion

After a good nights sleep, the companions set off on their way to Sirrion. They walked for what seemed like hours until they finally stood before the great cloud wall of Sirrion. From the outside, Sirrion looked beautiful, you could see the castles tallest tower, and it was a shimmering white. It was an amazing site until they approached the big gates that looked to be made of diamonds. Looking threw the gaps of the bars; the beauty that they saw from the outside had been crushed by the site that now lay before them.

"HEY DOWN THERE!" yelled a voice from above.

The group looked up to see a tiny man looking down on them from the tower beside the gate.

"I am the gate keeper of Sirrion! Leave this place! Our great ruler refuses entry to any outsiders"

"I can handle this" said Toran as he pushed passed Siera

"Rude much" Siera said grumpily

Toran raised his magic staff and whispered some words in the language of the mages. The deep blue crystal on the top of his staff began to glow and the gate keeper fell asleep and the giant diamond gates opened.

They entered the city only to see it was in complete ruin. Buildings and homes were broken and decayed and all the people were in chains and were working. They could see the castle fully now, it wasn't white at all, it was black. The only thing that had remained white was the tallest tower.

"Talk about your fixeruppera" said Neraka sarcastically.

"I've sure got my work cut out for me" said Jaelie

"Why is that tower still white?" asked Kiara pointing to the tower

"The Tiara of Light must lie in it" answered Ewan "You each have a tiara that you must find and claim, they are all hidden in your cities."

"So we head towards that tower first" said Toran

The companions headed towards the white tower unaware of the danger they were about to face. Sneaking threw the city unnoticed; they cautiously approached the dark castle realizing they could not reach the tower without passing threw the castle.

"We will get caught by the guardian if we go threw there!" exclaimed Kiara, the voice of reason.

"That's assuming he doesn't already know where here" said Toran "We should watch our backs, I sense a familiar presence"

"Perhaps we should split up once we are inside" suggested Ewan "I will take Jaelie and Kiara with me to find the Tiara"

"Yeah of course he takes Jaelie" teased Neraka as she gave Jaelie a quick nudge in the ribs.

Ignoring Neraka's immature remark Ewan continued.

"The rest of you hide inside the castle we will send Stem or Pegasus if we run into trouble"

The huge castle doors easily opened for the companions. They had taken only a few steps before they realized in the centre of the room on a black throne sat a hooded figure.

"Ewan when I say go, take the girls to the tower and find the tiara and then find another way out." Whispered Toran

Ewan seeing the firmness in Toran's eyes decided not to argue with his orders. Siera overhearing these orders jumped in and yelled…

"There's no way im running! He doesn't look so tough"

"Im not going anywhere either" added Neraka

The dark figure descended from his throne, he slowly removed his shady hood revealing a face identical to Toran's.

"Toran" said the man that now stood before them

"Narot" said Toran staring straight into Narot's piercing eyes

"Hang on!" Siera yelled as she disturbed Narot and Toran's stair off "Narot! Is that really his name! Why not name the kid parrot for Christ sake!"

"You will do well to teach this princess to hold her tongue" said Narot as he carefully raised his staff at Siera. Toran saw the attack coming so he quickly cast a spell to block Narot's vicious hex.

"I think not my brother" said Toran with a smirk "No harm shall befold this princess"

Misty hearing all the commotion from inside Siera's heart shaped locket, emerged from her slumber to circle around Siera's head preparing for battle. The other majestic creatures soon followed Misty's lead and also came out of their sleeping places to defend their princess.

"Ewan go now!" shouted Toran "Neraka, Siera and I can handle this"

Ewan grabbed Jaelie and Kiara by the arms and rushed them towards the stairs.

"Your friends are foolish" began Narot as he watched Ewan and the 2 girls run up the staircase "They will die before they reach the Tiara, and you will be soon joining them"

"We will see" said Toran with an arrogant grin

Narot and Toran then lept towards each other and many different spells, curses and hexes began flying across the room creating a whirlwind of many colors.

"Siera we have got to help Toran!" shouted Neraka with much concern in her voice "He can't keep going like that forever! We can use our attacks to help him!"

"We Can't! What If we hit him by accident!" yelled Siera, her voice full of concern.

Neraka, looking at the disaster in front of her, whispered to herself.

Hurry up Jaelie!

Kiara, Ewan and Jaelie had almost reached the top of the tower, they had dodged every enchantment that had lurked threw the narrow staircase. Jaelie began to feel her power growing as she drew nearer to the tiara. A silver door was now in their site and the three exhausted companions burst threw the door and slammed it shut. The second they turned around they were blinded by a piercing light that filled the room. Jaelie saw the tiara resting on a pedestal; she looked at Ewan who gave her a nod of reassurance and then carefully began to approach the tiara.

The tiara's silver diamonds sparkled as Jaelie drew nearer to it, in the centre of the tiara was the symbol of light which had also been on Jaelie's destiny egg. Jaelie cautiously picked up the tiara and placed it on her head. Jaelie was soon engulfed by a pink and silver light, Ewan went to pull Jaelie from the light that surrounded her but Kiara stopped him. The light faded and Jaelie stood before them unharmed, but in a pink dress that sparkled like the diamonds in her Tiara.

The battling mages had been so busy fighting that they had not noticed the bright light now surrounding the castle. Siera and Neraka however had noticed the light and were extremely curious as to what was going on. They knew that something had happened to the others, but they didn't know whether it was bad or good.

"You need to help Toran!" cried Misty

"He is greatly weakening!" said Ember with concern in her voice.

Siera rushed forward preparing to attack Narot when she looked towards the staircase and saw Jaelie standing there surrounded by a soft pink light in a stunning pink dress, wearing the tiara of light. Everybody had stopped what they were doing to stare at Jaelie, Pegasus proudly fluttered beside her.

Before Narot had a chance to defend himself, he was stuck by a powerful beam of light that had come from the palms of Jaelie's soft hands. Narot instantly fell to the ground and crumpled into a black dust. A light wind then blew past, sweeping the dust away.

Jaelie, exhausted from the amount of energy she had just lost, began to fall, Ewan catching her before she hit the ground. Jaelie was no longer wearing the pink dress, her clothes had changed back into its fighting form. Siera ran over to Toran as he collapsed to the ground tired from his battle.

The group stood in dead silence evaluating what had just happened. Just as relief washed over their faces, the castle began to tremble and shake causing the group to tumble onto the ground. They looked out the castle doors and saw a wave of light passing threw the city with great speed and force.