The wall that had initially been like any other wall – solid and real – somehow seem to suddenly dissolve right before her eyes. And in the blink of an eye, Iryz was swallowed by it. Zeres had been holding her arm the whole time to support her as he still thought she was not fully recovered. Therefore, the both of them ended up getting swallowed by the wall.
The next thing they knew, they were already inside another room. It was so dark that Iryz could not see anything around her. Then that cursed room where she got tortured in flashed in her mind out of nowhere. That had caused her to start panting and trembling as she felt herself fall into the beginnings of a panic attack.
“Iryz,” she suddenly heard someone’s voice calling out to her. Zeres? She was not alone!
Suddenly, there was light. Beside her, she could see Zeres who was still holding onto her arm and looking at her with worry in his eyes. “I’m here. It’s okay, it’s okay…” he added in a soothing voice. “Look… this room safe and I’m right here with you.”
The gentle look in his eyes seemed to work like magic, erasing all the haunting images in her mind and reducing the crazy beat of her heart. Iryz took a number of deep breaths until her breathing finally stabilized.
“Thank you. I’m… fine now. Where… are we?” she forced herself to quickly focus on something else because she was about to jump on him just now and bury herself in his embrace. He had no idea that his presence and touch on her had such a magnetic draw and almost caused her to embarrass them both.
She tore her gaze from Zeres and quickly looked around. There were old candelabras that were now lit up all around the room. As her eyes swept the space, she noticed that it was not that small. The long shelf in the middle that divided the room looked very old and everything inside was even older than everything in her old house. If she did not know better, she would have thought that they were visiting an antique museum.
“Did you just magic in the candle lights?” Iryz asked, blinking, as she still could not quite believe that there was a secret room like this in her house. But… was this place even a part of her house? She knew the exact size of her house and she knew that it was impossible for a secret room this large to exist inside no matter how hidden it was.
Zeres just gave her a nod. “Can you stand properly now?”
“Oh, yes. Thanks.” Iryz pulled a step away from him, but Zeres still did not let go of her arm as she thought he would. It was as if he was expecting her to wobble. “I’m really fine now.” she smiled reassuringly at him, and he finally let go.
“Is this the place in your dream?” he then asked as the two of them examined the room further. They both looked behind them and found out that the wall was made of bricks.
“I think yes.” Iryz replied, sighing. She was not expecting another library to welcome them. Were they going to have to search through all these again? She was expecting to find the book immediately.
“I believe this place is created by magic. I can somehow sense that everything inside is just a magic façade… except perhaps for the real thing that we are looking for.” Zeres said as they walked across the shelf slowly. Their eyes were looking around, looking for a hint of where the mysterious book might be.
“So we need to find the real thing among the masses of these illusions?” Iryz asked Zeres. Her eyes a little wide with incredulity.
Zeres nodded. “And we should make haste. Because we can’t get out of here if we do not find the book.”
“What?!!” Iryz exclaimed loudly before she swallowed. She quickly looked around and tried to estimate how many books were there that they needed to go through. Her anxiousness started to return as she realised that there were many!
“It’s alright. We’ll definitely find it.” Zeres did his best to sound calm and reassuring. He was actually a bit troubled. This magic that had been cast was not a simple enchantment. It was actually a very high-level spell that could trap anyone to death. It was not something just anyone could escape from. Zeres could of course escape from this if it was just himself being trapped. But with Iryz, he did not want to risk her. Especially not when she had barely recovered from her earlier injuries.
So their only choice was to find the book as quickly as possible. Because Zeres also knew that time in this kind of spell was not an illusion. That means, they could not stay in this place here for long because Iryz would still need to eat and drink. Not to mention that she was in a bad condition and was still recovering right now. He must have her out of this magical space before she starts to even get thirsty or hungry. He could not allow her to starve here.
“I think we should split up and search, Zeres.” Iryz suggested. “You check over here. And I’ll go check the other side.” Iryz thought that using a divide and conquer method, that would be the most efficient.
She was already walking away as she said that, so Zeres did not stop her anymore. And she was right. It was better for them to split their search areas if they wanted this to be over soon.
“Remember not to overexert yourself. Don’t forget you’re still recovering. Call me if you can’t reach –”
“Yes, sir!” her playful voice echoed loudly before Zeres could even finish his sentence.
When she was out of his sight, a small smile curved on his face as he shook his head a little.
