Raghav stepped through the opening, and the torches lit up the moment his foot crossed the threshold.
Inside was a circular hall that spread far and wide; in width, it was larger than the castle.
King Belreid looked at the size of the hall, shaking his head. "This cannot be. How was there a hall this big hidden inside the castle?" "A subspace."
Everyone looked at Raghav in confusion. Mage Olda gave words to everyone's thoughts. "What is a subspace?"
Raghav turned around, narrowing his eyes. "A subspace is when a dimension/reality, whichever word you prefer, is joined to another through a tear in space. It is the concept behind pocket dimensions and reality pouches. Some beings are born with the power to do this while others learn or discover the method over time."
Queen Anessa looked around at the vast hall, filled with random items piled across the floor and on the bookshelves lining the walls. "So we are in a different reality?"
Raghav shook his head, noticing a window behind a table and chair at the other end of the hall. "No, we are still in our reality, but this hall is not located inside the castle."
General Temis looked at a sword sticking out of a box. "So we teleported here? I did not sense it happen." Raghav looked at him, shaking his head. "No, this is a unique form of subspace; the tear is placed at two points in this very reality/dimension. Then, through the use of extensive amounts of Mana, these two tears were connected. In a way, we walked through a doorway connecting this hall to the library."
He then walked to the other end and climbed onto the table, looking through the window. "Aurelia, come take a look." Raghav leaned back, extending his hand as Aurelia ran forward, took his hand and climbed onto the table beside him, and looked through the window. "By the will of The One. It can't be."
King Belreid frowned as he turned to General Temis, who shrugged his shoulders. "What is it that you see?"
Aurelia turned to face her father with a smile on her face. "Paneria, we can see Paneria from here."
King Belreid, General Temis, Reinhardt and Mage Olda all rushed towards the table, climbing on it. Raghav grabbed Aurelia and shielded her between himself and the wall.
The four men looked through the window, their mouths wide open. Through the window, they saw the Planet of Paneria.
Raghav heard the sound of creaking and looked down. "Guys, the table is about to…" Before he could finish, the table gave way, and all six of them descended to the floor.
Luckily, they were still standing on top of the now broken table. Raghav looked at the four men, raising his eyebrows. "We could have taken turns."
The men stepped back as Raghav let go of Aurelia and moved off the table. Mage Olda cleared his throat and reached his hand above the broken table. A green glow emerged from his hand, and the table was reassembled.
King Belreid looked at the other three before turning towards Raghav. "I apologise for our action. Our instincts took over."
Queen Anessa looked at the window. "Where are we to be able to see the planet?"
Raghav turned to the queen, climbing back on the table. "We are in space, by the distance and the way we are travelling, we do not seem to be on the moon but rather orbiting Paneria." "Orbiting?" Raghav looked up, moving his tongue in his mouth, before looking back at the queen. "Orbiting means we are floating above the planet, making circles around it."
He then looked back out of the window, slightly narrowing his eyes. "I can see The Hole from here. If my estimation is correct, the Hole should be about forty thousand kilometres in diameter. I guess we would have to wait some time before we can see The Fog, but if my estimates are correct, it should be just as big."
He stepped down from the table, looking at everyone going through the items and books. "What are you all doing?"
Mage Olda picked up two books and compared them. "Looking for something of use." Raghav looked at General Temis, searching the box full of weapons. "What about the issue with Marne and Xalath?"
General Temis picked up a gauntlet and examined it. "The Duke is en route to Marne; he will handle everything there. Wars happen all the time; it is nothing new, but when it comes to the prophecy of the world's end, that has never happened before. I am not going to miss out on this."
Raghav crossed his arms, looking at everyone. "Everyone, stop." Just as he asked, everyone stopped putting everything back in its place and turned towards Raghav.
"This place turned out to be bigger than I realised. I will go through everything here and report back when I find something useful. You still need to decide on the situation with Xalath, and I would not like to distract you from it."
He then gestured towards Mage Olda and Aurelia. "Mage Olda and Aurelia will help me look through Istreid's collection."
General Temis sighed, dropping the sword he had picked from a box. "Leave everything where you found it. Your Grace, Reinhardt, Mage Olda. If this space does not close, we will place a barrier on the entrance and give runes to Princess Aurelia and Raghav."
"That would not be necessary. When I removed the mural, I overwrote the seal; it now obeys me." General Temis looked at Raghav, smirking. "You overcame the power of a Grand Master. Is there anything you cannot do?"
"Very well then, Raghav, Aurelia and Mage Olda, the moment you discover something of importance to saving our world. Bring it to the council."
After making his statement, King Belreid left the hall with his council.
Mage Olda looked at Raghav. "Where do we start, Mr. Detective?" Raghav looked at Olda, narrowing his eyes. "Records, we go through Records, surely someone must have categorised and named the items here, and if you find anything in a foreign tongue, bring it to me, I might be able to read it."
He then turned towards Aurelia. "Help, Mage Olda, meanwhile, I will go through King Istreid's book and see if there is anything of use in there."
Raghav was about to walk forward towards the library when the book flew towards him. He caught it out of the air and looked to his left at Aurelia. "Thank you."
He took the book and sat in the chair and table, reading through the book.
.
.
.
.
After a few hours, Raghav closed the book. 'His life was certainly something.' Raghav stood up from the chair and looked at Olda and Aurelia, who were looking through the records and looking for items.
"Found anything useful?" Mage Olda and Aurelia looked at him, shaking their head. "All we have found till now are weapons that he collected during The Great War and spell books. I have never seen spells of such high refinement and diverse nature. If I spend some years learning through his books, I might become a Grandmaster myself."
Raghav nodded. "That reminds me, no one ever told me about the ranks of mages."
Mage Olda smiled. "Allow me, just like the ranks of warriors, the mages are classified into four ranks; however, there are no subdivisions. These four ranks are the Apprentice, the Mages, the Sorcerers, also classified as Masters and lastly Grand Masters, beings who can tap into the fundamentals of existence."
"Fundamentals of existence?" Aurelia tilted her head in confusion. Raghav placed a hand on her shoulder, making her turn to him. "The fundamentals are the core aspects of existence: space, reality, time, life, death, fate and creation."
He counted each one on a finger as Mage Olda nodded. "Beings who can manipulate them using Mana are classified as Grand Masters. For instance, this subspace is made possible by the manipulation of space."
Aurelia frowned. "How does one do that? Manipulate the fundamentals, I mean." Mage Olda smiled. "I hope to learn just that."
"Shall we eat something before we continue?"
Mage Olda nodded, and Aurelia looked at Raghav. "This quickly?"
Raghav nodded, showing her his black wristwatch. "It is afternoon, Princess, we should fill our stomachs."
Aurelia frowned, looking around before sighing. "Alright, off we go." Then the three walked out of the subspace, and the mural reappeared.
Aurelia looked back at it. "If you could make it disappear and reappear, why did you not just break in yourself?"
Raghav looked at her. "This castle does not belong to me, nor did I have the permission of King Belreid. So I decided to show it to him to get his permission. Not doing so, I would have crossed my maryada."
Aurelia tilted her head. "What does maryada mean?" Raghav looked forward. "Boundary, limitation, also propriety of conduct. This one word has several translations. But in the context of my previous usage, boundary is the most fitting translation."
Aurelia nodded, Mage Olga turned to Raghav, stroking his beard. "Mr. Raghav, if I may ask, in what language was King Istreid's book written? What was it called again?"
"Die Reise meines lebens. It was written in…"
Raghav's head shot back. 'I heard something tick inside Istreid's vault' He ran back towards the vault, moving through the threshold, observing each stack and pile with great care.
Aurelia and Mage Olda followed after him. They were about to say something until Raghav placed a finger on his lips, turning his head back. "Do you hear it?"
Mage Olda and Aurelia focused on the surroundings, and they too heard it. "We did." They immediately joined the search and spread throughout, looking for the beeping sound.
After a few minutes of searching, Aurelia stood still and closed her eyes. She spread her Mana across the floor, waiting for the tick.
When the sound came, she felt a vibration in her Mana, and her head shot towards the origin of the sound. "Found it." She rushed towards the spot and began looking through the pile.
Raghav and Mage Olda drew close and watched as Aurelia pulled something out of the pile. A golden disk the size of her palm
The Three leaned closer. Aurelia was smiling. "I found it."
Mage Olda was confused. "What is this?"
Raghav was serious and stoic. "A compass. Good job, Aurelia." He finished looking at her with a gentle smile on his face.
Raghav reached forward, taking the compass from Aurelia. He opened it, and inside was a miniature grey metal sword floating in a golden liquid.
On the side was a button; when pressed, the compass began spinning until it stopped, pointing directly at Aurelia.
"Why is it pointing at me?" "It isn't pointing at you." Raghav looked past her and saw the window. "It is pointing at Paneria."
Raghav turned around and walked towards the library. The moment he crossed the threshold, the compass sharply turned to his right.
Raghav turned his head to his right. 'To the west? This is no ordinary compass.' Raghav closed it, walking back inside the hall.
"It is something special, we should look for the entry of this compass."
Raghav began walking towards the table until he turned around. "Aurelia, show me your Mana."
Aurelia and Mage Olda stopped in their tracks, and Aurelia looked confused, but held her hand forward and activated her Mana.
A bright golden glow surrounded her hand as Raghav observed it. "Mage Olda, why does Mana colour mean?" Mage Olda stood beside the two. "Mana is naturally blue; however, as you know, Mana is not the only power/energy on this planet. These other energies/powers have different colours."
He then pointed towards Raghav. "Such as Chaos Magic being deep red and your powers having a pure white colour. I believe King Istreid's Mana was mixed with one such power, and that led to all in his bloodline to possess yellow or golden Mana."
Raghav nodded, looking between Aurelia's palm and the compass. He opened the compass and hummed, walking towards the table and placing the compass on the book.
He turned around and began walking towards Aurelia and Mage Olda. When he looked at Mage Olda. 'This cannot be good.' Raghav thought to himself, turning around.
A golden glow emerged from the compass, rising before striking down in the book.
It then emerged out of the book, taking the form of Istreid himself; he looked down at Raghav, Mage Olda and finally at Aurelia. He gave her a gentle smile before turning to Raghav, standing there, with a serious expression on his face, his hands behind his back, with the wrist of his right hand held in his left hand.
"Is it his soul?" Raghav exhaled through his nose. "No, Mage Olda. This is not a soul."
"Then what?" "A vestige." Mage Olda looked at Istreid. "What year is this?"
"1238 T.N.W." Istreid closed his eyes. "The comet passed, did the hero come?" Aurelia moved beside Raghav, gesturing towards him. "Forefather, my father, the current King Belreid, summoned this man, Raghav Suryanshi, from Earth. We have all placed in him our hopes and faith to guide us through the doom."
Istreid smiled. "Raghav Suryanshi of Earth, you are Indian, I believe. You found my vault. In here, you shall find all that I gathered within my life."
He then looked back at the table, glancing at the book and the compass before turning towards Mage Olda. "This compass was with me in my last moments. I stored the last of my energy within it. I had also planted my energy within this book."
He picked them up. "When they came in contact. It activated a vestige of my memories. I am nothing but his memories."
"How did the compass come here?" Istreid looked at Raghav. "When I was dying, I teleported everything in my possession here. I had already left the journal outside before leaving. I never knew that I would never return. But maybe deep inside, I felt as if I might not return."
Raghav extended his hand forward, and Istreid looked down at his hand, handing him the compass. He held the compass in his hand, looking down at it. "What does this compass point towards?"
"Ancient Relics." Raghav looked at Istreid. "What Relics?" "Weapons or artefacts belonging to Ancient Spirits, Deities, Supernatural beings, most of whom are gone, leaving behind nothing but their power stored in these Ancient Relics."
Raghav narrowed his eyes. "How did you come to possess this compass?" Istreid stared at the compass, shaking his head. "I found this in Solara Kingdom in a cave alongside a small book. I translated the book and discovered what the compass does and found in it the name of some Ancient Relics, one of which was named Crimson. So I made up my mind to embark on the quest to find Crimson."
He glanced at the book. "Before leaving, I wrote this book, I left out the details of this compass from the book, then I planted the Morse code within the library books, which led to this vault. Then I began my journey, it took me to the Far East, where I met my end."
Raghav opened his mouth but closed it. Istreid looked down and saw the glow returning to the book. He looked back at Raghav. "Raghav Suryanshi, finish the quest I started. Find Crimson and complete this Dead Man's Quest."
With his final parting words, Istreid's vestige returned within the book.
Raghav picked up the compass. 'The liquid turned blue.' Mage Olda walked beside Raghav. "What do we do now?"
Raghav walked forward, opening the book, and reached the last page, where the journal ended. He turned the page, and now there were new entries, written in golden colour.
Raghav remained stoic, turning towards Mage Olda. "Did you not hear the man, we are going on A Dead Man's Quest."