"Are you okay?" A whispery voice occupied my attention. I showed the lantern towards the direction of the voice and the dreadful look on her face scared me. "What are you doing here?" she mumbled in her trembling voice. She was the same old lady who had not stopped following me since the minute I stepped into the palace.

"You scared me!!!" I whispered exclaiming. "Sorry about that. But what are you doing here, at this hour?" she repeated her question. "Sorry, if this seems rude, but can you just leave me alone for a minute? I need to search for my friend," I tried my best to be polite but she was just getting on my nerves. "I can help you in searching for him," she suggested. I sighed and nodded my head. I was too tired to argue with the old lady. I moved further followed by the creepy old lady and had completely forgotten about the trunk. That passage was dark and was covered with spider webs. A typical haunted passage, if you ask me.

"Why are you searching for him?" she mumbled all of a sudden. "Will you please stop giving me heart attacks? And, I am searching for him because he is my friend," I snapped. "Oh okay. Is he only a friend? It doesn't seem like that," she said, increasing the pitch of her voice. "What do you mean?" I faced her as I questioned. "I overheard all the conversation you had with him before he left," she said, fiddling with her wrinkled fingers. "You, what?!!" I thundered. My voice echoed all around the castle. That lady was a goddamn trespasser now.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to. But you two seem more than just friends. It is really interesting to gossip about this stuff," she replied, ignoring any contact with me. "What?! That's so cringy. And that shouldn't be bothering you, I suppose," I grunted as I resumed searching for Trevor. But the next words that rolled out of her tongue were unexpected and kind of disturbing for me.

 "But someone said, she doesn't need anyone else to destroy her life when she is herself capable of doing so. But I guess she changed her mind." She walked towards me as the sound of her stick hitting the stone floor intensified. The sound halted when she faced me. "Olivia!!!" I gasped and hugged her. She embraced me lovingly. "So it was you all along. But why are you disguised as an old lady? Moreover, why are you even here? Aren't you supposed to be in South Shields right now? And how did you get he-" I was interrupted when she hit my head with her stick.

"Shut up, will you? I will tell you everything. Just stop bombarding questions," she shushed me down. "Okay, okay," I calmed myself down. "Come here, have a seat," she gestured for me to sit on a stone slab.

"Remember, the night we returned from that mall? I mean, the moment we last saw each other?" she asked. "Yeah, when I was confused about all the things Arabella said and pushed you out of my room. Not exactly push though," I replied, snickering. "Yeah, that night. I was walking back to my home and was stopped by a very bright light. I felt dizzy and my head felt heavy. I collapsed on the street and when I opened my eyes, I was here, in this castle. They have treated me like crap and have always asked about you. But I never revealed anything. About South Shields, that was a lie. My mom was threatened by them to lie to you and all others. You know what, I am not even allowed to look into a mirror. They said, if I do, then I will die," she sighed.

I hugged her tightly. "I am so sorry, Olivia. I should have dropped you at your home. Only because of me you are here, suffering for nothing. I am so sorry. Please, forgive me," I cried. "It's okay, Maureen. It is not your fault. And I don't know for how long, I will be an old lady," she sighed, "But, you know what, I am still the most beautiful girl," she giggled. "You sure are!" I exclaimed, making both of us laugh.

"Olivia," I addressed. "Yeah?" she responded, braiding her hair. "Who are 'they' exactly?" I questioned. "The Negasi and her bloody people," she gritted her teeth. "What?! I thought they were nice. I am not going to spare them for torturing you. I am going to kill all of them," I declared. "You said the same when Trevor had poured that disgusting liquid over your head. And here you are, so in love with him," she smirked. "Hey no, I don't love him. Eww. And this time, I mean it. How dare they hurt you?!" I roared. 

"Calm down, Maureen. You need to rest. Let me take you to your chamber," she chuckled and held me by my shoulders. " No wait, Olivia. I have to find Trevor. He is in danger because of me," I stated, disappointed in myself. "It is not your fault. But how do you know that he is in danger?" she asked. "Because-" I halted. She was right. I didn't know if he was in any danger. "But how do you know that he is not in any danger?" I quaked. "Come on, Olivia. He is a solid 15-year-old guy. He can handle it by himself. And what extra would you do if you were with him?" she laughed and pulled me towards the direction of my chamber. "He doesn't have superpowers like me," I blurted out.

"What?! You have superpowers! So that's what they meant when they told me that you are special and they need you," she reported, trying to solve the case. "Yeah, maybe," I mumbled. "Maureen, don't worry. He will be alright. Come on, let's have a girly night," she shrieked in excitement and started walking towards my chamber, hitting her stick on the stone floor. I finally convinced myself and followed her.

We walked in the dark, with my lantern as the only source of light. The floor was still slippery due to the rain. After a few minutes, we reached the place where the trunk was kept. "I wonder what's inside it," I stated all of a sudden, making Olivia flinch a little. "Why don't you open it?" she replied. "Can I?" I asked, my voice giving a clear hint of excitement. "I mean, yeah, If you want to," she remarked. 

"Okay, hold this for me please," I gave her my lantern and landed on my knees in front of the trunk. I dusted off the dirt with a piece of cloth lying beside it. I could say the trunk was strong. I patted my hands on its iron surface to feel networks of roots and woody branches. "Shoot!" I exclaimed, "This is secured with well-networks of branches. How am I going to open it?" I further added.

"Well, let me see your superpowers then," Olivia suggested. "I can't. The only power I have is to create a fireball. That's it," I muttered. "If you can create a fireball, why can't you do this? Focus, Maureen," she commanded. I agreed to try for once and thought of burning down the branches with my fireball. But the moment one branch turned into ashes, another one crept in from nowhere. I tried many times, but nothing happened, except the fact that the trunk turned red hot. I was afraid I would burn the important things inside it.

I turned my gaze to Olivia and she still had hope. She showed me a trembling thumbs up and a wide grin with no teeth. I sneered at the look on her face and got back to work. I closed my eyes and calmed myself down. Then, I slowly opened them and stared at the complex network without blinking my eyes. The branches started to shake violently. A teardrop rolled down my right cheek due to excessive strain on my eyes and fell on one of the branches. The second the woody surface of the branch soaked my teardrop in, the other branches started unlocking automatically. The branches glided out revealing the beautiful engravings on the iron trunk.

I rejoiced at my victory and hugged Olivia. "Look, I knew you could do this," she chimed. I nodded my head vigorously at her statement and jumped around the trunk. For a moment, it felt as if I was God. I am just joking, I was definitely not. But powers and all are so cool, you know.

After a brief ten minutes of celebration, I got down to open the trunk. It took me some time to open because the trunk was still hot and the locks were kind of jammed. It finally opened and Olivia directed the light of the lantern towards the iron box for a clear visual of the things inside it.

The first thing I saw was a picture of a woman who looked pretty similar to me. I took out the antique frame from its place and examined the picture. Her eyes, her lips, her nose, the way her hair flowed down her shoulders felt very familiar to me. I felt a weird attachment to the woman. I turned the back of the frame and traced the letters of her name, 'Queen Remua'. "She looks like you, doesn't she?" Olivia inquired and I nodded my head once as a reply. "She can't be my mother, can she? I already have one," I justified. "I don't know," she whispered. It was so strange, so I kept the frame beside me and hunted for more information.

The next thing I got was a diary, with empty pages. I flipped through all the pages but it was spotlessly empty. So I used the trick we used when Remora, Trevor and I found that book in the library. I kept this diary open on the stone floor and let the breeze flip a random page. I created a massive fireball and kept my hands above the diary. It worked. The texts were visible but someone was writing them right there, at the moment.

"Greetings of the day, Ms Maureen," the texts read. I was staggered a bit and then replied by saying, "Thank you, Mr Diary." "I am Arlyn Despan, the minister of Queen Remua," the text faded in. "So, the Negasi is your daughter, right?" I inquired. "Yes, she is my daughter," the letters showed. "Is she your only child?" I questioned, not trying to miss any chance of gathering important information. "No, I have two daughters," the letters got arranged to form a sentence. 

"Mr Despan, can you tell me where your other daughter is?" I interrogated him. Before he could tell something, Olivia shut the diary with her stick. "What?! What did you do?" I gasped. "Someone is coming. I can feel it," she said. "Really? Then I should hide this diary," I stated and hid the diary beneath the first layer of my waistcoat along with the picture of the woman. "Moreover, you should ask him about Queen Remua, not about the Negasi," she reported.

"Yeah you-" before I could complete my sentence, a human silhouette stood in front of us with a lantern, "What in the world are you two doing here?"

A/N

To be continued

Hiya Nickons, so this is the 18th chapter after a long break. I am so sorry for this very long pause. I got busy with my exams, copy submissions and I wasn't well for a few weeks. Moreover, I didn't feel like writing. I don't know why. But I am back with a new chapter. This chapter revealed a lot of things, didn't it? That old lady was Olivia?! Oh my god, what?! Yes, she was. Interesting, right? How is Maureen related to Queen Remua? Why do they look similar? Who is the other daughter of Minister Arlyn Despan? To whom does this human silhouette belong? What will happen next? Maureen discovered another power of hers! She can manipulate the branches of the trees, which I can tell will help her in the future. And is Trevor in any danger? Will he be alright?

Keep reading to learn more. If you liked this chapter, then please hit that star and comment down how you feel about this part. LOVE LOVE. xx

Yours Nonsense wonderful-not writah
~Nick~ 🤡🤡