Chapter: 40: The Four Artifacts

My body jumped when the door brushed against my back. The creature shrieked again, clawing at the wood separating us.

I jumped forward, my pulse racing as I feared the Faceless Shifter might be strong enough to break through the wood.

It didn’t. The wood seemed to be enduring the hits, which meant I was safe—for now.

I turned around to see where the door had brought me but was met by yet another wall of darkness as dense as before.

All I could describe of the room was the rough texture of the wooden door against the palms of my hands and the coldness of the tiles under my bare feet.

My heels had been lost to the emptiness on the other side of the door. If I hadn’t sacrificed them, I’d be nothing but an empty shell, stripped of all human emotion. I’d probably never see them again.

The chill against the soles of my feet felt uncomfortable. It reminded me of the cold winds and the water from the river, where Koa and I shared many memories.

It was silent here too. The creature seemed to have given up on its pursuit, leaving me alone and trapped in this eternal darkness. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do from here.

Then a light emerged as if I’d summoned it—a cold, artificial light from a square lamp in the tall ceiling. It wasn’t bright, but it was enough for me to glimpse most of the sparsely furnished room.

It was even emptier than the room Caiden had brought me into on the first official day of the Crown Trials. And in the middle, just as back then, was a long wooden table.

The dim lighting barely made it possible for me to discern the silhouettes of the four objects on the tabletop from my current vantage point. They weren’t instruments but something much smaller.

I forced one foot in front of the other until my fingertips touched the silver lining surrounding the border of the tabletop.

Moving from one end of the table to the other, I carefully examined the four contrasting objects as I gently traced my hand along the cool metal pinching my skin.

The trial wasn’t over—there was a second part.

The success criteria of the first trial had been relatively straightforward; fight the Faceless Shifter and get to the end of the path. This one, however… I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

I bit my lip as I pondered the different objects.

The first object that met my adjusting eyes was a mirror. An ambiguous design of roses and feathers decorated the cold, brass border.

The reflective surface looked worn and blotted, barely able to return a clean reflection of my features.

Next was a golden tiara—an accessory fit for any princess or queen deemed worthy of their titles.

I continued to the third object lying a few feet to the tiara’s right. The dagger’s silver blade reflected the white light while the dark hilt absorbed it.

The pommel was rounded—not quite spherical—with a red ruby fused into the golden metal.

The golden crossguard was modest, each of the quillons no longer than half an inch, and golden scripture in the ancient language was etched into the dagger’s fuller.

It was a beautiful yet deadly weapon.

I’d once tried teaching myself the ancient word long ago, but the convoluted scriptures had been too confusing for me to distinguish. The only word I could recognize was ~Iridis~ and ~Crown~, I think.

The last item was a rose as red as the first blood. There was nothing immediately unusual about the flower apart from its spellbinding beauty.

Then, placed among the items, I noticed a bleached envelope with my name scribbled across the front in golden letters, evidently meant for me to uncover its secrets.

I reached for it and carefully broke the seal that secured the flap to its backside before pulling the sand-colored paper from its throat.

For once, the intricate scribbles didn’t form a riddle or some mysterious wordplay. The message was straightforward, but I wasn’t sure whether it was a bigger help than a riddle.

~Choose an artifact.~

A fancy envelope and a golden seal just to tell me to choose one of the items. That was far too simple to be believable.

Then I remembered what Caiden had also told us during the introduction.

~“Follow your instincts.”~

Was that what we were supposed to do? Choose an object based on what appealed to us the most.

What if we chose the wrong object? Was that all it would take to send us home?

If this was only the first of the three trials, I hoped to be done with this competition before the second trial began. This was already brutal enough.

I stepped in front of the first artifact and picked it up.

The mirror was heavy but nothing special. The distorted reflection staring back at me suited the worn brass pattern surrounding it—an old, ordinary mirror.

The tiara didn’t appeal to me at all. It was nothing but a reminder that I didn’t belong here.

The dagger was beautiful and perfectly balanced in my hand. It gave me a sense of power, yet something was off.

I’d never felt comfortable when handling bladed weapons like this. With it in my possession, I had the power to take a life, which was the sole purpose of this deadly dagger.

So, I put it down and continued to the last artifact—the rose.

It was the first time I’d been so close to one so red.

They didn’t grow in the sparse soil that could be found in our neighborhood. So, we’d often used lilies instead to decorate the dull facades of the crumbling buildings around us.

The thorns spiked from the stem, aiming to protect the delicate flower. They couldn’t kill me, but I still had to be careful.

My eyes located the safe regions where my fingers could touch the stem without breaking my skin and moved the crimson flower to my nose.

The petals were velvety and tickled my sensitive skin as they made contact.

The scent was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. It was sweet but not like sugar. It made me think of the berries I’d occasionally found in the forest or the wine I’d served at the mansion.

In short, it smelled like summer.

My mind automatically drifted through the memories related to the sunny summers of my previous life. I wanted to let the scent of the rose swallow me whole.

My thoughts carried me to another world. I raised my other hand to ensure the rose wouldn’t fall from my grip and break the sweet illusion entrapping me.

However, I’d forgotten about the rose’s defense in my reverie, and the thorns penetrated my tender fingertips.

The pale-blue blood from my veins tainted the green stem before I could move my bleeding fingers.

It didn’t hurt much, but the sight of my blood made me consider something the Faceless Shifter had said to me.

~Who am I?~

I was Willow Aldwyn, daughter of Elia and Calder Aldwyn, sister of Tristan Aldwyn, and best friend to Nakoa Levine. I was an Air Iridis, but I wasn’t yet sure what that meant.

A golden shimmer momentarily blinded me as I stretched my back.

The brass mirror caught the light, and one angle of the intricate pattern sent a beam shining in my direction.

I carefully put down the rose and moved my feet to the other end of the table.

My hand wrapped around the cold, brass handle, and I brought the mirror to my face again.

The reflection might be distorted due to blotting, but I could still recognize myself.

My eyes were glowing in the dim light—eyes I had from my dad, along with a small nose. The dimple on my right cheek was from my mom. Tristan had one just like it.

My eyebrows had been freshly plucked, and my eyelashes were longer than usual, but I still looked like me.

“This,” I whispered, moving my hand across the uneven frame.

“I choose this,” I said louder and looked around.

A new light began shining through the emerging cracks in the wall, revealing a door hidden in the facade.

Daylight finally touched my skin, and I couldn’t wait for it to envelop me.

Time felt relative in there. It felt like I’d been in the darkness for days, but it had probably been less than an hour.

“You’re okay!” Piper shouted and threw her arms around me as I stepped out of the room.

Her ferocious assault nearly caused me to drop the fragile mirror, so I squeezed the handle firmly between my hands to the point where my knuckles started burning.

Calla was right behind her, but she waited patiently for Piper to finish before she overwhelmed me too.

“We could see everything,” Calla cried, squeezing me so tightly that I started seeing stars.

Before Calla could respond, we noticed Caiden fighting his way through the crowd wearing a troubled look on his face.

The sleeves of his shirt had been rolled up, and the tie no longer squeezed his neck.

His usually perfect hair looked like a hot mess, which tempted me to assume that he appeared desperate, but that would be ridiculous.

His hands suddenly reached out for me, violently twisting me from side to side. Then he grabbed my cheeks and repeated the process.

My skin burned as his fingers brushed against my skin. Not in the literal sense.

Caiden didn’t wield fire; he wielded water and was already healing the minor injuries the Faceless Shifter may have caused.

Maybe that was why his touch burned.

“What happened in there?” Caiden asked, forcing my eyes to look directly into his.

I squeezed the mirror so tightly, I feared it would shatter in my hands. I tried stepping back, but he wouldn’t let me go—not until I’d answered his question.

“I-I’m not sure, I—”

I didn’t even know the answer to that question. Hadn’t everything in those rooms been meant to be part of the trial?

“What did the Raeewh say to you?” Piper whispered beside me in an attempt to clarify Caiden’s question when Caiden didn’t.

“What do you mean?” I mumbled through my pouty lips. Caiden still refused to let go of me, so I couldn’t turn my head to look at her.

“We could see your movements from here, but we couldn’t hear you,” Caiden finally explained. “That Raeewh was never meant to be able to touch you, much less absorb your abilities and use them against you.”

Caiden sighed, his brows pulling together. “We were on the verge of intervening. If you hadn’t kept calm—and then you chose that artifact.”

The mirror?

“Son,” the king said before he put a hand on Caiden’s shoulder. “We still have five other suitors to keep an eye on. We must be ready if the Raeewh pulls a trick like that again.”

Caiden nodded without leaving my eyes. “Yes, father.”

“Here, dear,” King Alaric said and stepped forward as Caiden stepped back. “I’m relieved to see you made it out alive.”

The blanket he wrapped around my shoulders was warm. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been trembling.

“Thank you,” I said, slightly overwhelmed by everyone’s reaction to the fact that I’d made it to the other side…alive.

The royals turned around and walked to a door that separated them from us.

Maybe to the room where the suitors who hadn’t yet been subjected to the dangers of the first trial were waiting, blissfully unaware of the horrors that awaited them.

I felt my heart skip a beat when Caiden’s eyes glanced back at me before disappearing into the crowd. I shook it off when I remembered what he’d said to me.

The mirror—what was so special about the mirror?

I relieved the pressure around the artifact and examined it again—thoroughly, this time.

It had been too dark to distinguish the details in the other room, but in this light, it was unmistakable.

The engravings on the back of the mirror had been initials.

PA—Pangea Awana.

This mirror had once belonged to the Lost Queen.