The Forgotten Princess

The huge painting lifted up on its own and behind it was a door that leads to a staircase upwards.

William and I looked at each other in wonderment of our discovery. Good thing that this was the far side and usually deserted area of the second floor.

"Where do you think this leads to?" William lit up a torch that was found inside and lighted up the way.

"Well there is only one way to find out." I said and started to climb the stair case.

"Let me lead the way." William said while holding the lighted torch in his hands.

"Hmm, okay." I nodded in agreement.

Once we started to ascend, the painting started to go down from behind us.

"Well, we have no choice but to go forward I guess." William said.

The staircase that was leading up is enclosed with no windows, hence it was dark. The torch William was holding is the only source of light.

We have been climbing up the staircase for a while and we were hit on a dead end. Only a wall was seen in front of us.

"A dead end? William said curiously. But then I saw a crack on the wall sipping with light.

"Look." I pointed to William and he saw the crack.

William peeked inside for a while before looking at me once again.

"There is a room beyond this wall." William exclaimed. "But how can we go there?"

"Let me take a look." I said.

William gave way for me. I inspected the wall right in front of me. I tried to feel the walls surface with my hands. After sometime I felt a rough texture with edges.

'Is this another jewel like in the painting?' I thought. My hands were drawn to the jewel once again and I felt the same spark from before.

The sound of the wall moving was heard once again. In no time there was now a passage way towards the room William has seen before.

William quickly extinguished the torch and made a 'shh' gesture with his finger to me. I nodded, telling him I understand.

"I will go on the lookout first." William whispered to me. "You wait here for me, okay?"

"Okay." I replied and nodded.

William silently inspected the outside of the room and stealthily moved out. Snow and I remained inside the room.

'There are about three people in the vicinity.' Snow said.

"Then this section is a secret section only a few can enter." I concluded.

William came back after a few minutes.

"Outside is a whole new section, maybe a secret section in this library." William said. "The way we had gone thru is a secret passage that seems no one really knew about. The three people outside are using another passage way."

"How does the outside look?" I asked.

"It still looks like a library with many books outside. But other than books, they have a section where they are doing some kind of experiments using some kind of jewel stones. I do not know what they are specifically doing." William explained.

I thought about what William has said and I want to see this secret section for myself. I tried to feel my magic powers again and as expected it was still on effect, meaning there are no janetite stones in the vicinity.

"I want to go for a look." I said.

"But it's dangerous. What if the people outside find you out?" William refused.

"Trust me." I gave him a wink. "I can use magic."

And then I tried to use my camouflage magic. With this I am invisible to the naked eye. I have only found out I have this kind of magic a few weeks before being abducted so I was still not used to using it. The camouflage in my body is still erratic, blinking on and off.

"Alicia, are you sure you are going to be okay?" William looked worried.

"Don't worry, I can manage." I assured him. "I will be very careful."

I adjusted the camouflage around my body once more.

"There. Can you still see me?" I asked.

"No, you are completely invisible." William replied.

"Okay. Be back in a few." I said and exited the room carefully.

Once outside, I saw that this section was enclosed. It may be a separate section from the library or a complete blocked floor. As I remembered the exterior of the library building, I am guessing it should have at least four floors. But the map of the library only has three floors.

'So this floor is completely sealed from outsiders.' I thought.

I proceeded in caution and made my steps as silent as possible. I looked at the books on the bookshelves and saw the titles of the books.

'These books are all about magic.' I thought.

I silently picked one book from the bookshelf and started reading it. The book I am holding right now has contents about magical potions and concoctions.

I tried looking at other books and some are about various herbal plants that can be used to cure incurable illness. Some are about the formation of weapons using magical objects.

'These books can be very helpful to people but if used in a bad way it can also be dangerous.' I thought.

I silently walked towards the experiment section where three people are busy working.

"Ahhhh, I need a break." One man said.

"We are almost done. Just a little and we have hit the quota for this week." The other man said.

"I don't know about you, but this is my last piece and I am done." A woman said. "I can go home at last."

The woman was holding a jewel stone similar to the magical objects I have seen before. She was embedding some kind of magic inside of them and it was glowing yellow. The two men are also doing the same but with a different glowing color.

"This is really hard work. Embedding magic into these magical objects is exhausting." The man said.

"After we are thru for the day, others will come by to take our place. We have been doing this for the past week. We need to rest to restore our magic." The other man said.

'So these people are Atlantians.' I thought.

"This is just a little compared to what the queen and the prince had done for us." The woman said. "They had helped us live on after the fall. If not for them, we would have livened as outcast in other countries or probably be dead by now."

"Yes, this is just a small way to show our gratitude. The pain of losing our home land, I cannot forget this grudge." The man said.

"We will get our revenge on the countries that trampled on us. We will take their lands as payment for robbing us of our own home land." The other man said.

I can feel the anger and pain this Atlantians have. Their grief and anger are deep and with the queen's influence it became even more.

'I need to get more information while I am here.' I thought.

***