A World Of Decree: And The Seven Laws

Calvin stared deep into her soul, waiting for a response she wasn't ready to give. Laena's mind was searching for answers, Did he see my signal? Did he see Faibel? Does he know what I'm up too?

"Laena!" His loud voice finally interrupted her mindlessly staring into him.

"Did you hear me?"

"I'm very sorry professor. No I did not."

"Oh, well you were staring at me like I asked you to do something crazy," Calvin laughed, leaving Laena still dazzled about the situation, "I just asked you how you're enjoying your first Halloween Festival? Princewood style."

A breath of relief left her lungs as she must've not heard Calvin ask the question when looking at Faibel, "Oh it's absolutely lovely. It's one of the prettiest ones I've ever seen. Definitely more exciting than the ones I had back home."

"No surprize there."

He smiled and continued to talk to Laena while walking across the plaza. Faibel quickly hurried back to Calvin's office, where Atlas and Rina were waiting for him patiently.

"Hey Rina! Hey Atlas!" Faibel quickly ran up to his friends while being as polite as possible. They both looked at each other in confusion, not expecting those words to ever leave Faibel's mouth.

Atlas responded in a puzzling voice, "Uhh, hey Faibel. Did, you see Laena."

"Oh my. Yes! I did indeed. She looked Fabulous along with Calvin. Their masks were stunning! I almost had to walk over and say how amazing they looked."

"I hope you didn't! This was your plan in the first place!" Rina raised her voice at how irresponsible he was acting. Leaving a baffled look on his face.

"My plan? What do you mean? I was just doing what I knew I had to do, that's all. I looked at Laena and saw she put up two fingers. However, I'm not too sure what that meant."

Without questioning Faibel acting completely strange, Rina and Atlas realized that the paper was in his office. Which turned out to be locked from the inside.

When Rina and Atlas trained together in the arena, she didn't show him everything she learned in her spare time. She was actually able to manipulate her body into water itself, causing her mobility to surpass any normal human. She told Faibel and Atlas to guard the door while she slips in and looks for the paper in his office.

Rina closed her eyes, slid her finger under the door and exploded into a soft splash of water. The water quickly got s.u.c.k.e.d underneath the door like a vacuum and she found herself standing in the same room she's visited many times in the past.

To save as much time as possible, she quickly started scavenging through all the loose papers on his desk, looking for the same texture as the one she noticed was in his pocket many times. Without finding a single clue, she noticed the desk had three drawers on the left side, all identical with a solid gold handle to pull on for an opening.

The first one had nothing but folders filled with student grades and essays that were submitted a few days ago. The second drawer had a mysterious impossible looking triangle in it. The blue diamond glow emitting off the triangle was extremely strange, but Rina had no time to be playing with Calvin's toys.

The third drawer had more papers, followed by dry ink and quill that lied on top. This confused her, not knowing where else to look. The only thought she could come up with is either Laena wasn't sure in her numbers, or she needed to look again. Since she had no control over the first option, she opened the drawers again, one by one. Again and again, until finally she found a small, leather padding on the first drawer that was built in to blend in with the marvelous wood that crafted the desk.

She lifted the padding and a secret fourth space she hasn't seen before revealed itself before her. Inside was a piece of paper that she vividly remembered from countless times before. The small rips on the edges of the sheet, followed by smudge marks and old stains that couldn't be traced.

She unrolled the paper, which revealed nothing but a few sentences written in red ink, splattered across the entirety of the paper.

Something sturrs in the depths below,

Glass will break, so enter slow

Darkness crafts the gate of snow,

Deep within, the walls will show

As soon as she finished saying the words in her head, her dark eye was struck with immense pain. She threw her hand on the top of her eye, almost scratching the area into blood to stop the pain she received. She was on the verge of screaming due to the unexpected feeling she received, but tried to keep her mouth shut as much as possible, and keep herself under control.

Rina was staring at those words for at least two minutes, trying to piece together what they could possibly mean. She quickly memorized that phrase as best she could until finally putting it back exactly as she found it. Once she finished closing the drawer, she bolted back towards the door, only to hear the door knob slightly ruttle as if someone was trying to come in from the outside.

With no time to think, she knew the closet wasn't a smart option, and nothing else had anything remotely close for cover. She did the only thing she knew was possible for an easy escape. Rina swung the window open and launched herself down at least 50 feet of air before the ground. The ground had a cement path laid down, followed by grass on either side.

This was the path to the garden beneath her, with only a few students in sight from far away. Right before her landing, she aborted her human body, hitting the ground like a water balloon and exploding on impact. The explosion of water stopped in mid air, reverting back into Rina's human body, without a single scratch to show.

The door knob was finally unlocked from the outside, with Calvin stepping in and putting his mask away in the closet. Atlas and Faibel followed behind, hoping that Rina somehow managed to hide. They both quickly realized how she managed to escape due to the open window Calvin mentioned he didn't remember opening.

Atlas and Faibel tried to stall him as much as possible, but Calvin had a feeling something was happening behind his back. As he walked towards the window and looked down, there were no signs of students below. However, right as he was about to walk away, he noticed there was a small unknown patch on the cement. A clear shade of liquid that did not have enough time to dry. Even in the darkness of the night sky, it was quite clear to see.

It didn't take long for Calvin to put the pieces of the puzzle together to realize what happened. He closed the windows and turned around to see Rina walking in, pretending she was surprised to see Atlas and Faibel here.

"Professor? I didn't know you were having a secret party here with these two."

Calvin laughed, "Rina! You're just on time!" He signaled for her to come in and sit down, along with Atlas and Faibel.

They all sat down on the cushioned seats circled around his desk, waiting for him to take the main seat behind the wooden masterpiece of a desk he obtained for a large amount of currency many years ago. Calvin reached into his drawer and pulled out the paper from the secret compartment that was hidden within. He placed it flat on the table, pushing it towards his three students waiting patiently.

Rina started to get anxious, along with Atlas who quickly realized Calvin caught on to what they were up to.

"Now then," Calvin crossed his hands, "What do you see on this piece of fine paper?"

Rina and Atlas both looked at each other in confusion. However, before they could say a word, Faibel leaned his head forward and claimed, "There's nothing written on the paper professor. I just see a sheet of old parchment."

Calvin smiled, waiting for Atlas and Rina to give their answers. They knew there was no point of hiding their plans, Calvin already figured them out.

Atlas reached out to grab the paper, holding it in front of his face with a puzzled look. He flipped the paper to the other side, but both turned out to be exactly how Faibel described it. A blank sheet of paper looking like it was dug up from a grave moments ago. Rina on the other hand, saw the same sheet splattered in red ink with the same words she read before.

She originally thought everyone was playing a prank on her, but could quickly realize that she was truly the only one in the room that saw anything on the paper.

Calvin handed the paper to Rina, "Tell me. Why is it that only you can see what's written on it?"

"What?! Why are you asking me that? I have no idea!"

"Exactly! Why is it that only you can see the writing? Because I've had this piece of paper for 6 years! And yet, Only one other person has been able to read it."

The room quickly went silent, only terrified faces stared back at Calvin, unsure of what any of this meant.

Calvin took the paper back, staring at the emptiness that he saw, "Rina… That other person was your sister."