Epilogue

The High King of the West softly closed the door behind him, shutting out the starlight that had enlightened his path so far. He quickly lit a torch that would guide him to the room. The torch made his dark blue coat shine with a purple light. He didn’t like it. Nobody could be watching but… he preferred no light when he was around here.

He descended the steps that let him deep into the earth. The room was down there, safely guarded by the barriers of prana that he had set up. If anyone had tried to enter, he would have known. Therefore he knew now that the room was safe. He could go. He walked even deeper down. Only a few minutes later did the end of the staircase come in sight. The room’s door was only a few meters behind it.

He chanted the spell that would deactivate all of his barriers. He could feel the prana fade from the place when he was done. He took his rather ordinary key and used it to open the door. When it was unlocked, he put the torch out. It was not needed inside the room and would only disturb it.

When the torch was out the High King opened the door. The bright red light greeted him when he stepped in. The solid but rather boring grey walls reflected the red light that came from the cradle in the center of the room. Shaped like a large flower, the cradle held his treasure. The treasure that he could use under his command to make everyone do as he desired. The treasure that would one day grant him all his wishes. He was sure of that. And then, one day… his eternal wish would come true.

“Right, my precious stone?” He whispered to the pure red, round stone that lay as a forgotten child in the centre of the flower shaped cradle. But the High King of the West was deaf to the voice of the stone. Otherwise, he would have heard its cries, like his daughter Asana once could.