A DRAGON'S JEWEL: the Ancient Mage and the dark arts

Chapter 21: Inquiring about the Dark Arts

After Alythia had fully recovered from the whole winter ball fiasco, Blake informed her of an old Wielder, knowledgeable in the dark arts, whom he was finally able to locate.

Apparently the old lady was very practiced in dark magic some time ago – though no one really knew what 'some time ago' meant since none had any idea how old the lady actually was. Nonetheless, it was well known that at some point in time she suddenly stopped using dark magic all together and disappeared without a trace.

However, because of all the danger Alyhtia and Karlyle now seemed to be in, the Prince had ordered his subordinates to search for her.

After weeks upon weeks of searching they finally found her.

She was now living in a desolate part of the woods, just West of Elysium's capital.

Originally only Blake and Alythia were to go but Karlyle wouldn't allow her to go anywhere – especially not anywhere unknown – without him.

Yet when he joined their expedition group Ray also wanted to join since she didn't want to miss out on any adventures and poor Blake could not refuse her. Kloeye heard about it as well and nagged until she was allowed to accompany them. Furthermore, she convinced them that Damien also needed to tag along since it would be wise to have a healing Familiar in their midst in case they might need one.

Thus the trip that started off as a trip of two, ended up being a trip of six.

Nevertheless, they promptly set out late Friday afternoon – after classes had ended – and arrived at an inn situated just outside the woods. After renting rooms to spend the night in, they set off into the forest early the next day.

Their escapades, as they made their way through the forest, were quite amusing but I shall not elaborate on it too much since it is not really the focus of this chapter.

But I will say that almost all of the disputes surrounded either Alythia and Blake arguing over some triviality or Karlyle and Damien being on the verge of strangling one another if left alone. Poor Ray and Kloeye seemed to be the only two sensible ones in the group throughout most of their journey.

When they got close to the top of the hill Blake and Ray charged forward like some two odd bulldozers. Karlyle and Alythia followed after them with Karlyle leading the way and Alyhtia being gently tugged forward – her hand enveloped in his. Damien and Kloeye were at the back with the former walking cautiously behind the latter in the hope of catching her were she to slip.

When they reached the top it was already twilight and they were about to set up camp when Alythia saw a red light flickering a few yards away.

She tentatively walked towards it, with Karlyle walking slightly in front of her as if to shield her against any possible danger.

As they got nearer it suddenly stopped flickering and started darting about all around them.

Then they heard a voice bid them welcome.

The moment the voice spoke the light died away and all six of the teens turned their eyes towards the one whom the voice belonged to.