Aurora

Part 1, Chapter 10

Arrabella.nine

It's been a week since Tessa arrived.

I haven't seen her much since we got back from Ironwood. I'd imagine that she'd be in the library, but every time I went to check, I could never find her.

I find it odd that now that I'm not constantly around her, I actually kind of miss her.

Which is a big problem because she's only staying for two weeks.

I sighed, laying back on the grass covered floor of my room.

I'm screwed.

I lifted my hand in front of my face and rolled a small magical spark between my fingers.

My mind drifted into thought, thinking about Tessa and the way she looked and the way she acted. She was actually very pretty. Her bright yellow eyes were mesmerizing; they complimented her skin tone quite well.

You have a cruuush.

"Shut up, brain." I groaned, covering my eyes. I've only known her for a week and I'm already making my life difficult for myself.

I heard a light knock at my door. "Arra?" Tessa's voice filtered through and I sat up immediately, blushing hard.

"C-coming!" I called before rushing to the door and opening it. She stood on the other side, sporting a deep frown on her brow. In her arms, she held several books.

"Can I come in?" She asked and I nodded, stepping aside. "Sorry to bother you."

"It's fine, really." I blinked slowly, taking in all of her features before looking away. "So what's wrong?"

"I can't read these books." She stated, holding them out to me, and I looked at her, confused, as I took the books from her arms.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I looked down at the covers.

"These books are on the history of the other countries and kingdoms, but I can't read them. It didn't make sense in my head." She huffed. "I've been able to read or at least translate all of the books to something I could understand, but these have evaded me. I even learned Na'aine to see if that would work."

"That's odd." I frowned as I opened the first book. Turning to a random page I began to read it. It was all a jumbled mess. Confused, I opened the next book and was presented with the same problem. "All these books are in Na'aine, but I can't read them. They don't make sense. They aren't even words!"

"Well, can you tell me the history yourself?" She asked and I nodded.

"Yeah. I could start with Airenna, actually. The history, so..." I trailed off, frowning. My mind was blank.

"So?" She asked.

"I don't know, my mind is blank. It's the same with the rest. Do you know the history of Ibissi?" I asked and she nodded.

"That was the only one that I was actually able to read." She told me, crossing her arms. "Something is happening here, and I don't appreciate it. With all the information that I cannot access and the secret room in the library, I'm starting to grow wary."

"Secret room? What secret room?" I asked her, confused. "Can you show me?"

She sighed before nodding. We both left my room in silence, and we entered the library in the same way.

"This way." She told me as she led me to the farthest corner of the library. It became increasingly cold the farther away we traveled from the light. Here there were empty bookshelves with half-built books. There was dust everywhere and cobwebs in odd places.

Tessa ran her hands along the wall until she stopped abruptly, causing me to walk into her.

"Here?" I asked and she nodded.

"You see this thin crack on the wall? You wouldn't notice it if you were just walking by. The crack goes up and around until here," she ran her hands upward, before walking left a few feet, "in the shape of a door. And if you hold your hand up to it, there's a draft. All the signs of a door to either a cave or a large, ventilated room. Haven't you noticed how cold it is back here?"

"T-this doesn't make sense." I whispered, holding my hand up to the miniscule crack, and sure enough, I felt a small, cold draft hit my hand. "How do you open it?"

"I'm not sure." Tessa grumbled. I looked over at her, frowning. Was there something else that she was angry about?

"Maybe if I run magic through it?" I asked and she shrugged. Sighing, I pressed my hand to the door. Quickly pulling up magic, I sent it into the door. Almost immediately, it disappeared.

Peering inside, I saw piles and piles of books on tables and on the floor in the dusty room.

"Come on." Tessa said, walking in without a care. It seemed like she was more focused on the new information available to her than the possibility of being trapped inside. "It's fine, we'll be able to get out, you'll just have to open the door again if it closes."

Convinced, I shrugged before walking in behind her. The door reappeared, locking us in. Just to make sure, I touched the door and sent magic through it again. Luckily, it disappeared. Satisfied, I watched the door close again before turning to Tessa. I watched her quickly opening many books at a time, flipping through a couple of pages with a small smile on her face.

I blushed when I felt my heart skip a beat. I rushed over to the closest pile of books and picked up the first, trying to read the title, but it was a completely foreign language.

"I found a book that helps translate these books. Apparently they're in... English?" Tessa called to me from across the room and I turned to look at her. She was scanning the books with her memory device as she read others.

"They lived on a planet called Earth and there were millions of different species on it. Apparently, the dominant species on the planet were... homo sapiens? They were commonly known as... humans." She read aloud and I raised my eyebrows.

"I've never heard about this. I don't think these books were written recently. They look incredibly old and they're even handwritten." I pointed out as I put the book I was holding back onto the pile. "I'm surprised there's books about demons in here."

"Look at this!" She exclaimed and I walked over, looking over her shoulder at the book she was pointing to. "It says mundabisque impurum, contaminant purus, novis illis insciis." She paused, looking over at the translation book. "Hmm, that doesn't seem to translate."

By then, I was staggering backwards, feeling nauseous and dizzy. Tessa continued to read through the book, oblivious to my sudden ailment. My head was pounding and my mind felt groggy, clouded over, even. I stumbled, feeling my chest compress, making it hard to breathe. The lights in the room burned my eyes, so my eyes slid shut for a moment to relieve myself of it.

When I opened my eyes, I was on the floor with Tessa leaning over my face.

"Arra! You've been out for hours." Her eyes widened. "Can you get up?"

I blinked up at her slowly, before softly shaking my head. She sighed as she helped me sit up, propping me up on a wall behind me.

"I can't find a way out of here. There's absolutely no other cracks or openings other than the door. I've truly run out of options." She groaned in frustration.

"H-hit the door." I whispered and she looked at me quickly.

"I already tried and I-I don't have magic, so I can't open the door myself."

I tried to move my limbs but was met with an excruciatingly painful burning sensation that caused me to cry out.

"Stop moving!" She exclaimed, her hands hovering over me, unsure of what to do. I looked at her quizzically and a blush rose on her cheeks.

"W-what?" I asked softly and she looked away shyly.

"You may have been out for longer than a few hours." She whispered and I paled, waiting for her to continue. "It's been over a day..."

I choked on the little air that I'd been breathing in. I looked at her with wide eyes before attempting to move again. Tears pour from my eyes as I struggled to even lift a finger and Tessa stared at me, surprised.

"You've b-been alone." I gasped in pain, looking at her. Her glowing yellow eyes held mine for a moment before she looked away.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm not usually so... not collected." She blushed, looking at me from the corner of her eye. I slightly squinted my eyes, suspicious.

"What d-did you do?" I croaked out and she smiled sheepishly.

"I didn't exactly do anything... I just, you know, accidentally released a truth spell into the air... on top of a confidence spell." She laughed nervously and I sighed softly.

"How?" I asked and she shrugged.

"All it said was to read the words aloud and they would do the rest." She looked down before looking back at me. She most definitely was not herself. Looking around suspiciously, I realized that something about this room was terribly wrong and it was affecting us both heavily. In different ways, obviously.

"Y-you're not usually thi-"

"Do you like me?" She blurted out, cutting me off. "I mean I just think that you're really pretty and have nice skin and are a really nice person and funny and stuff. You're lips are nice too. Really nice."

I raised my eyebrows in shock, not expecting anything of the sort to come from her.

"S-so you like me?" I asked her and she frowned.

"You didn't answer my question. Answer it. Now." She glared and I gulped.

Or at least as much as I could.

"Well um. What if I do?" I asked and I was greeted with a wide grin. I blushed, looking away, before I felt lips on my own.

My eyes opened wide when I realized what was happening.

Tessa was kissing me.

Unable to move, she had to all the work. I could neither pull her closer nor push her away. I couldn't even enjoy it, so I just slid my eyes shut until she pulled away.

"That was, okay wow wow wow um." She laughed nervously, looking around absentmindedly. I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Tessa, you shouldn't do things like that. You're not yourself." I scolded her and she huffed.

"And what if I've wanted to do it for a long time, huh?" She glared at me and I looked at her sheepishly.

"If... if you still feel the same when you're level headed and actually yourself, then... we can talk about it or something." I whispered and she looked at me sadly before nodding. Silently, she came and sat beside me before pulling out her memory device and scanning her mind.

Once she was done, she silently went through all the information that she had stored in the device and, slowly but surely, I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

. . .

I groaned as I woke up, cracking my stiff neck to relieve some of the pressure. Looking down, I saw Tessa's head resting on my lap as she slept. Carefully, I stretched my arms above my head, reveling in the relaxed feeling afterwards.

I looked around at my surroundings and thought about why I ever wanted to leave this place. This feels more like home than...

Where did I live before?

I shook Tessa awake, feeling lonely.

She only groaned and smacked my hand away.

I sighed harshly before I closed my eyes again.