"Could it be…"
Alexander's breath hitched at the thought, but the logic didn't hold. The likelihood was laughably low. The Elandor Veyne he had studied in the public library was a legend, an unmatched monarch who once held dominion over truth and lies, reflections, and all things hidden. .
But the woman before him was different, less honed, and though strange in ways he couldn't define, still a long way from the stature of the four other monarchs.
She was the daughter of a monarch and her presence emanated nascent power… but the histories never spoke of a monarch that rose from chains. Never mentioned one who was once sacrificed by her own bloodline.
And this woman, with her unkempt hair and tired eyes, who could alternate between regal silence and mischievous remarks, surely, she couldn't be the missing Fifth Monarch.
"Elandor is strong, no doubt," Alexander thought, "but she is too easy going, her posture slouches when she forgets herself… and no monarch would be this casual with their disciple."
He buried the thoughts.
"And by the way, Elandor… My name isn't really Alex. It's Alexander Valeir."
Elandor tilted her head, an amused smirk teasing her lips.
"Yes, I know. You were probably thinking something overly dramatic, like a curse of names that will suck away your life force, or… or a spell that can steal your voice and control your mind just by calling out your name."
She chuckled, her laughter soft but vibrant, her chest rising gently with it.
Alexander flushed red. "Yeah… something like that."
"No need to apologize," she replied, her gaze leveling with his, unblinking. "Caution is wise. There are indeed sorceries that twist a name into a noose. But after opening your soul to me… guarding your name is like locking a window when the front door stands wide open."
Her soft chuckles elevated Alexander's dampened mood, he gently held the golden bracelet on his arm, it was cloaked by her glamour spell, so only Alexander and Elandor could see it.
The next moment, Elandor reached out for his arm, Alexander watched calmly, as she grabbed his right hand and pulled it to their middle, she held his hand with her left.
And that was the hand her own golden bracelet rested, the golden bracelet was a slave mark that binds the soul, but now it was about to become a symbol of trust between them.
Elandor silently closed her eyes, she pulled essence from Alexander, and using that essence she channeled to her own soul sea.
If Alexander could see her soul sea, it would resemble a world of hazy clouds that hover between real and illusionary. The ever reaching ocean beneath the clouds moved calmly, but also seemed like it was moving in and out of reality.
Deep within the ocean, was five massive circular cores, blue in colour and decorated with white clouds all round, her soul sea was a thing of beauty.
But if one looked even closer, they would see dark voids at the edges of her soul sea, four in number, and each one had a massive black pillar underneath, clearly suppressing the river of essence.
At this very moment, golden essence from Alexander poured into her soul sea, nothing really changed, so the essence roamed freely, and found its way into her cores.
After a certain amount of time, her cores lit up with hazy blue light, and from them, an endless stream of words converged, the words were like symbols, strange, but beautiful.
The words detached themselves from her cores, one at a time, and flowed to the middle of the space in-between her soul cores.
Then that was when things started to change, Alexander's essence latched onto the words and pulled strongly, her soul trembled, massive waves rocked her soul sea.
The words moved with Alexander's essence, and left Elandor's soul sea, just then, the bracelets on their hands turned pitch black, almost like they had been corrupted.
Alexander's eyes twitched. "What did you just do?".
Elandor opened her eyes, a flat expression on her face.
"I gave you the Codex, it contains the language of the Black Tongue, with it, you can become a master of sorcery even without my assistance… think of it as a gift for officially being my one and only disciple, you may appreciate me now".
Alexander didn't know what to say, the Codex is a priceless object, it contains the life's work of Carl Arthorne, the pale scholar and the monarch of forbidden Knowledge.
Not to mention, it was probably the reason why she ended up as a sacrificial slave to begin with. Alexander felt like he didn't deserve it, but he still couldn't reject her good intentions.
"Thank you, I don't know what to say…".
Elandor shot to her feet, she stretched her back and yawned inelegantly.
"Now all that remains is swordsmanship, I'm not good at that so you have to find someone else to teach you, get some sleep, we'll start training using the Codex from tomorrow night and every night after, until we find our way out of this hell hole".
Alexander almost collapsed when she said she was not good at swordsmanship.
"You literally just claimed to be the world's second best swordmaster".
"Well I want my only disciple to master the best of everything, besides, learning Swordsmanship from scratch takes too long, I need to give you a foundation in sorcery as quickly as possible… Isn't that what you want as well?".
Alexander nodded lightly. She wasn't wrong, the most logical option he has is to learn what he can, as quickly as he can.
There's no definite method of escaping a mystery in the tower, people just awaken at some point, but sometimes it goes on forever if the hidden criteria is never reached.
Alexander doesn't want to be like those people that walk into the tower looking like teenagers and coming out as old men with one foot in the grave.
Just imagining it gave him chills.