As the heavy fog cleared, Emmy could see herself standing at the same dead-end room, she quickly scanned the surrounding but found nothing suspicious.
" Was it a dream or another premonition?" Emmy thought in mind but then she noticed the trinket which was in her hands, was on her neck. Emmy subconsciously had put that trinket as a pendant over the chain which she usually wore across her neck.
" Emmettina, just wear that around your neck, it looks pretty, isn't it?"
That woman had said to hang the trinket around her neck and now it lay on her neck beautifully, Emmy felt scared thinking of what all that woman said to her. But deep inside, Emmy wanted to keep this a secret as she believed that angelic woman in her heart.
Emmy quickly came out of the third door where the other women were waiting for her patiently. Looking at Emmy's pale face, they didn't know what to ask as they thought she might have had another disturbing vision.
"Aren't they back yet?"
Emmy broke the silence first, she was getting worried about them as the woman had mentioned that Emmy won't get the thing which she was seeking until she recovers her memory, so finding Ravenics behind these two doors were practically impossible.
" Not yet, we were worried that if they returned before you came out of that room, then Alex would fry us for sure."
Janet still was a bit scared of Alex. The others including Emmy laughed, hearing Janet complaining how haughty and arrogant was the Salian crown prince before he saw Emmy.
As they had nothing to do and was sitting idly, Juliet started to mention how she met Janet and Emmy. Then they started discussing the beginning of their college days and about how Juliet, as well as Janet's love stories, bloomed in the short while.
" I must say, all credits must go to Emmy, she supported us in achieving what we thought was impossible. When I met Janet, she was strictly against marriage and after Emmy entered into our lives, she opened her heart and gave it to the soldier man."
"Soldier man ?"
" Oh..oh… that's the name which we had given to Jordan as he always roamed around the campus having a stone face. Hey, by the way, do you remember that we had actually mistaken him to be my brother-in-law's bodyguard."
Reminiscing of their first meetings, when the women were having fun, on the other side, the men were struggling a lot.
The group with Alex which included Mike, Jordan, Houlson and Leon, was getting fed up. The damp ground and the musty smell of air had made this group of youngsters crazy. They were walking for at least half an hour now and the path was still stretched out. While walking, they were also exploring the path for more clues but got disappointed until Alex saw a light at the end of the pathway.
" Hey, men, check that out. I hope that is the end of this pathway."
Hearing Alex's cheerful voice, even Jordan and Mike was surprised, both of them ran towards the source of light. Soon, the other three also followed these two crazy fellows.
It was an opening on a mountain and they were standing at least 5500 yards above the ground. At a glance, everything down was green in colour and the youngsters got hyperactivated to check out the place. However, just as they moved forward, Houlson recognised the place soon.
" Hey, this is the training ground which had been closed since our princess went missing."
Leon and Jordan came forward to look at the area where Houlson was pointing, There was an arena which was now filled with shrubberies but the flags which were still hanging there made it possible for Houlson to recognise this place easily.
" Please could you enlighten me one thing, if this is the Esbertrazian grounds, where are the castle and the usual clan area which we are similar to?"
Mike was confused and so was Alex, they had thought that they had seen the Esbertrazian clan but looking at this mountainside, they realised that they had seen only a tip of the iceberg.
Jordan smiled and replied, " This is the northern side and on the other side of this mountain is actually your clan area. This place was specially selected by our princess and only she used to come here. The elders had built this arena after her 16th birthday. Look towards the south direction, can you see the tip of the dark towers? There is our Esbertrazian clan area."
While Jordan was explaining, Alex's mind was wandering over Lamia. They also met in the mountains but this side of the mountain was totally new to him. Now he realised that from the very first, Lamia must have known that he was betrothed to Lady Vilmon and she might have had some direct interconnection with the dark clan.
" Let us return soon and report our discovery to the elders."
Putting a halt to Alex's train of thoughts, Leon asked his group to return. But in truth, Leon wanted to see his wife more than giving the elders the report about the expedition.
Meanwhile, the elders, consisting of the three mighty Esbertrazian leaders - Elder Lathodore, Elder Miandrake and Elder Rotrigues were staring at a brick wall along with master Neshag. They tried to break this brick wall but couldn't succeed even after multiple trials.
Finally, Lathodore put his ears on the wall and then he asked everyone to stop trying to break the wall. On his face, there was the expression of huge relief.
" Elder Lathodore, what happened? Did you feel anything suspicious on the other side of the wall?"
Neshag curiously asked the Elder Lathodore who had stepped back from the wall and seeing that Elder Miandrake kept his ears on the wall.
" I feel the sea."
Suddenly, Elder Miandrake blurted out and both Rotrigues as well as Neshag were astounded by listening to Miandrake.
"Are you sure, we are standing inside a dry cave, where there is not even a single stream, then how would you feel the sea on the opposite side of this brick wall?"
Elder Rotrigues started to argue with Elder Miandrake as usual but Lathodore interrupted them again. This was the second time he was interrupting these two oldies' fight on the same day.
" Stop, it is not a joke. I could also feel it but I feel it not as a sea but deep under the ocean. Whoever constructed this wall must have connected this path to some other place but might be due to some critical geographical conditions, later this path might have submerged inside the ocean also."
Chills ran through master Neshag, he wondered who could be its architect, to build such a pathway near the beds of the ocean.
" Let us not ponder more into this path for the time being."
All the other elders also approved master Neshag's idea and they also started their return journey.
The first group to reach back was the seniors' group and later after another half an hour, the youngsters' group also returned.
"So the door one leads to the devilish training ground of the great Esbertrazian clan, well the door two lead towards a dead end. There was a huge brick wall which was blocking us and the elders felt the other side might be under the sea?
" What ?"
All the young people inside the space were equally surprised. How can it be geographically possible? They all decided to go back to the campus before it was late. The elders were quite disappointed as they still couldn't find the Ravenics while the youth were gloating over the adventure they had.
Alex felt Emmy was unusually quiet after returning back to their dormitory. After freshening up, he saw her gazing out the window, watching the night sky. The scene outside the window was a bit creepy. With the eerie graveyard and the hooting of the owls, also the sound of crickets with the dusty breeze made the view look pretty scarier than usual.
" You don't remember how he broke your heart once but the next time, the pain you are going to get is tons larger than the pain which I felt... Do not fall for his trap Emmy, please, you will be shattered."
Emmy's mind was buzzing with the voice repeating the same sentence again and again. Just as she wanted to scream loud, Alex hugged her from the back. Emmy calmed down and relaxed, the voice was no more disturbing her.
" What are you thinking of tonight, my dear?"
Emmy turned around and rested her head on Alex's chest.
" Alex, don't you think that one simple decision is powerful at times to alter our fates?"
Alex knew that something was disturbing Emmy from the time she had fainted, but he felt that she might open herself up gradually. As her soulmate, he had to understand that she also has a life, wishes and secrets...