Lunae was on the ground, coughing up water, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She looked around, and something about the air felt wrong as she got up. She quickly went to the library to the hidden chamber, and when she got to the library, the books had been tossed. The library was big, and she didn’t know if the perpetrator was still there. She used the sight and soon saw a figure in the back of the library. She proceeded with caution. She quietly walked back there, and that’s when she saw him. Lunae noticed that it was the same man she had seen in the hall.
“Ah, I see you’ve come. Now be a good girl and open this door,” Shardoe said. This took Lunae by surprise.
“What are you doing here? How the fusht did you even get here?” Lunae said. Shardoe laughed and immediately forced her to the ground using her water.
“What the fusht!” Lunae exclaimed. He then turned all his attention to her.
“All that power you hold, and yet you can barely tap into it. Shame really. I don’t know how the water has been able to shield you from me for this long, but no matter, I will take what is rightfully mine, and then I’ll be able to take control,” Shardoe said. Lunae was trying with all her might to get up, but it was no use. That’s when Shardoe started taking her water. She screamed in pain, and for some reason, her eyesight switched to the sight, and she saw him taking it in on himself.
“Stop please!” Why are you doing this?” Lunae said. This made him stop. Lunae could tell he was contemplating something.
“What’s the harm in me telling you. Besides, you won’t be around long enough to tell anyone,” Shardoe said, feeling like he had already won.
“I have been around for centuries, my dear, and I once was referred to as Master, but the water didn’t like how I did things, so it tricked me into bringing along a new Master only for him to kill me,” He said, reminiscing on the past and while he was doing it his grip on Lunae started to fade. That’s when she knew she needed him to talk if she was going to get out of this alive.
“How did you survive?” Lunae asked, which pleased Shardoe.
“You see, in the chamber of water where the essence of it lives, I stole some of its water and absorbed it, and that is what kept me alive. I have used it to make my platoon of loyal followers. See, I can hear the water and can manipulate what it says this is how I know it is safe to come here. You are nothing compared to me and I will be a true Master once more!” Shardoe said, Lunae was trying hard to move and little by little she could.
“Dahak that Gunnar! He took my power, and I was left in some woods holding onto the only life he didn’t perceive to grab. He ruined everything! And now I am stuck trying to figure out this puzzle he has left,” Shardoe said, fully enwrapped in his old life that his grip on Lunae faded.
She needed a plan. He was still cursing Gunnar when she decided to make a wall of water. She used all her strength to push him down a hallway, and she franticly ran into the hidden chamber, the door closing behind her. She rushed down the hallway to come to an altar where water was somehow filling it up. She thought about escaping, but the thought of why he wanted in there stopped her. She looked around and could barely see anything. She then switched to the sight and saw lights of water behind the wall. She went towards it, but she just bumped into the wall.
She didn’t know what to do. Her heart was racing, and the adrenaline from current events made her head race. She desperately needed guidance, but none was coming. She slowed her breathing down and tried to calm her mind. She looked at the water light and tried pulling it towards her, then the next thing she knew, she was in a different room filled with books. She looked around and realized this was the study of the Master's. She remembered this place when the Master would be dutifully studying and taking notes, all the while she played. She scanned the books, which held so much information about the water and how it could be used. She knew this information was important, but something was telling her this was not what he was after. She looked at the wall, and there were cabinets with names on them. She then saw the name Gunnar. She opened it up and started going through the pages. Everything didn’t seem that important until she got to a note, and all it said was:
I’ve hidden it, the fulcrum to acquiescence.
Now it can never be used to harm again.
That was it! What he was looking for. She stayed there for hours, going over things, but couldn’t find anything. She then realized she needed to go to Fulch. She got back to the room with the altar and was about to leave, but she just stared at the water. She decided to put her hand in it. She was transported to a memory of a child listening in on two people.
“Lannyre should be king!” one man said, slamming his hand on a desk. The other man, a priest, a Piskalian, was there.
“He is a bastard, not one of a true line; he can never be king!” the priest said. Then someone came up behind the boy.
“You shouldn’t be listening to that Lannyre,” the man said. Lannyre looked ashamed. The man bent down to the boy.
“Besides, I have plans for you,” the man said, and with that, Lunae was back.
“What the fusht!” Lunae said, confusion rattling her brain. She put her hand in the water again, but nothing.
“So that’s important…okay, well fusht me,” She took a deep breath and got some water, put it in a pitcher, and made a puddle.