Chapter 3871: Trophy Room (Part 2)

The tapestry depicted a colossal Phoenix shapeshifting into a stunning woman, who turned the barren dunes around her into a flourishing garden simply by raising her arms. She conjured heavy rain clouds, blotting out the sun and filling an ancient dry lake with fresh water.

The people of the Desert took off their headgear to soak themselves in the rain, welcoming the shade during what was supposed to be the hottest hour of the day. They knelt in front of the woman, who turned to face them.

She raised her arms again, emitting light without heat and allowing her people to witness life blossom from the dead sands. It looked so real that when Aryk stepped over the carpet, he remained surprised that his shoes didn’t get wet.

Then, the carpet went back to the giant Phoenix basking in the sun, and Aryk jumped back in fright.

"What is this thing?"

"An enchanted carpet depicting the unification day of the Blood Desert." Owl replied without averting his gaze from the bookshelves in front of him. "It’s an ancient piece. Only twelve were made for the original tribes of the Desert and entrusted to their Feathers to keep.

"Only five remain today. Six, with the one under your feet."

"How do you know about this, and what is this place?" Lilax asked. "I’m pretty sure this isn’t the same way we were brought in."

The room was made of gold-veined white marble instead of grey stones, and one large bookshelf filled with tomes occupied most of the surface of each of the four walls.

An exquisite black mahogany table lay in the middle of the room, surrounded by six padded chairs, each carved to resemble a different element of magic. They were made of plain cherrywood, and no paint covered the brown of the veneers, but the visual effect was hard to believe.

When the magic light coming from the crystals in the ceiling reflected on the chairs, the fire seemed to dance, the water to flow, the earth to harden, the light to turn silvery, and the darkness to blacken.

The table was also decorated with twelve elemental crystals. One elemental crystal of each element was placed in front of its corresponding chair, while the other six formed a circle at the head of the table.

Life-sized statues of beautiful women decorated the four corners of the room. The subject was always the same, but the woman was depicted performing different activities.

The first statue read a book, the second sewed, the third held a baby in its arms, and the fourth had its mouth open and its hands gesturing as if the woman were addressing an invisible crowd.

"This is a trophy room." Owl replied. "The antechamber to the quarters of the person who ordered our kidnapping and the next step toward my destination. As for how I know all this, I was there.

"I was there when Salaark wove that carpet. I was there when the first Magic Emperor established the Magic Council. When he appointed the first six Elemental Sages and decreed that no Emperor shall be allowed to sit at that table."

"He wanted to remind the Elemental Sages that an Emperor stands above all, and to himself never to get comfortable doing it." Owl pointed at the missing seventh chair in front of the circle of elemental crystals.

"I was also there when Valeron the First shaped the roughest stones known to man into the delicate features of his wife by his own hand, displaying the same patience and care with which he had shaped many recalcitrant neighboring countries into his Griffon Kingdom."

As the young boy spoke, an older, deeper voice emerged from his throat, and his eyes burned like embers.

"So, you are not a kid." Aryk swallowed hard.

"No." Owl waved his hand, and another intricate sequence of arrays appeared across the room.

"Did you come to save us?" Lilax asked.

"No, but feel free to save yourselves." Owl shook his head as five different runes lit up in sequence.

The first was on the oldest dating among the books, the second was in the middle of the elemental crystals circle, the third was on the reading statue’s book, the fourth was on the carpet where the sun rose and disappeared behind the clouds in a loop, and the last rune was on the most recent of the books.

"What a pompous jackass." Owl snorted. "Believing himself to be the beginning and the end of everything. As if nothing existed on Mogar before Azith started writing his first grimoire."

As the last rune lit up, the middle section of the bookshelf on the north wall slid forward and to the side, revealing a hardwood door with a golden handle.

"You don’t want to do that, believe me." Aryk moved to open the door, but Owl stopped him.

One second later, dozens of glowing yellow runes appeared and scattered all over the wooden surface.

"What’s that?" Lilax asked.

"A puzzle." A flick of Owl’s wrist and half of the runes formed a circle around the handle, rotating counterclockwise.

The other half formed golden chains that wrapped themselves around the handle and turned it open with a click.

"That’s it?" Aryk was flabbergasted.

"I said it was a puzzle, not that it was a complex one." Owl replied. "That was a perfect trap against a powerful intruder hard pressed by the guards. They would have rushed to open the door and gotten struck down by the spell."

"Wasn’t it to stop runaway prisoners like us?" The young man asked.

"No." Owl snorted while walking through the door. "A prisoner would have never gotten this far. Would you have been able to open even one of the rune locks if it weren’t for me? Would you have found the five runes to open the library?"

The luxury of the next room and the explanation made Aryk and Lilax falter.

Every piece of furniture showed the hand of more than one master artist.

The golden and silver handles shaped like small dragons could have only been the opus of a goldsmith, while the wooden inlays required the delicate hand of a woodcarver with dozens of years of experience.

The small and big paintings hung on the walls were all animated like the carpet, and studded with precious gemstones the size of a nut at the four corners of their frames.

Heavy armor lay against the wall, and priceless enchanted weapons formed small piles at random points of the floor. There were no tables or chairs, and just like the previous room, the place had more of the feel of a storage unit rather than a house.

"Owl, what are we doing here?" Aryk swallowed often, his body screamed at him to run away from the hidden dangers of the room, but he never strayed more than two paces away from the young boy.

"You? Nothing." Owl shook his head. "As for me, I’m on the hunt for a very bad... person. He has already escaped me once, so this time I decided to play it safe. I knew that after losing his main base after our confrontation, Azith would not waste time and restart his operation in a secondary facility.

"The problem was I had no idea how to find its location without alerting him of my presence."

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