It was a very simply designed hallway, that was split into three sections. After each corner the hallway was the same length as the last. There were Candelabras on the walls but instead of candles, their cups were filled with oil and lit aflame. There was one every ten or so metres.
Craig had walked the entire hallway and come to another flight of stairs. This one only had a few dozen steps that led straight up to a bronze gate. He climbed the stairs and stood before the gate, looking through it.
It was Dark outside and the sounds of crickets and other nightlife could be heard. "I wonder if it's midnight already." He muttered. He could vaguely make out trees and shrubbery outside but it was too dark to see clearly. 'This place must be well hidden for the surroundings to be so dark.'
He then looked at the keyhole on the gate and realized that the key was also the handle of the gate. Without a key, the gate would always be locked. The design was genius. Fortunately he had picked up the bundle of keys, now he just had to figure out which one it was. After a moment of fondling through the keys and trying them out, one finally worked. With a 'Click' sound, the gate opened.
Craig carefully walked through the gate and squinted to get a better view of his dark surroundings. He did not attempt to use light to draw attention to himself.
All this time, Glowmyth sat on his shoulder recovering her mana. She was growing fond of having a giant mount as her ride. In fact, she didn't realise that she was starting to like the human she despised so much not long ago.
"This is probably the safest place we can be in order for you to recover your mana. Just to be safe I won't stay close to this gate." Craig muttered as he blindly brushed through shrubbery and found a secluded area to rest in.
He didn't know how many people knew about this place and how often they came by. What was worse was the fact that he was in unfamiliar territory. It wouldn't be smart to move around too much without some prior investigations. Glowmyth was perfect for the job as she was a wisp, but she had to recover first.
Craig could vaguely make out the outline of dilapidated pillars and walls, leading him to surmise that this was probably an old ruin. The pedestals, old rounded door with engravings and several other clues also gave credit to this assumption.
"How long will it take you to recover enough mana?"
"It won't take too long." Glowmyth replied. "About an hour if I continue to do it manually."
"Alright. Once you're done I need you to scout out our surroundings."
Glowmyth nodded and closed her eyes, focusing on recovering her mana.
Craig had sat on an old block, leaning against a wall at his back. He looked up at the stars like he would usually do whenever he was relaxing at night. He thought about Maeli, wondering if she was alright and what her whereabouts were. He also thought about the princess and if her current condition was stable. He didn't know why, but he felt like if he failed to save her, he would regret it.
As he was he cycling through his thoughts, he felt a surge of heat rushing through his body. The heat slowly intensified until it was accompanied by pain in his chest and joints. 'The poison is taking its toll.' He thought as he gripped his chest as if he was about to rip off the skin and study his rib cage. He began panting breathlessly and before he could do anything else, he collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball, gritting his teeth in pain.
Glowmyth was startled awake and thought they were attacked by someone or something, but when she looked, she realised what was happening. "It's the poison again? It looks like it's getting worse." She muttered. "Maybe I can slow down its spreading somehow. Otherwise, the only thing I can do is heal some of the damage."
She immediately got to work and used a cocoon of mana around Craig's body. Then using a minor enchantment, she shrunk the cocoon into his body to constrict his blood vessels. Afterwards she cast a healing spell to heal some of the damage caused to his body. Due to the effects of the poison she was only able to heal a small portion of the damage and the injuries from his fall.
It didn't take long before his facial expression changed for the better and his body relaxed. However, his pale complexion didn't change by much.
It took a lot of effort on Glowmyth's part to stablize his condition with such low mana reserves, which made her a bit too weary. She had basically used up all the mana she had just recovered. Wisps were not cut out for such heavy work since their mana reserve was a lot less than other fairies.
As she descended to ground feebly, Craig slowly propped himself up into a sitting position.
Cough! Cough!
He coughed a few times before stabilising his breathing. "I thought you hated me little fairy. You seem to be going against your emotions no?" He still found time to make teasing comments in the current situation.
Glowmyth only smiled weakly. "You aren't that bad." She remarked as she closed her eyes. "I need to recover but it's going to take a bit more time as my body has been under too much strain. I'm not built for such taxing usage of mana."
Craig nodded gently. "Right now you're the only person I can depend on so just focus on recovering. Once you scout the place out and we get through you can rest however long you want."
Glowmyth was focused on recovering her mana so she did not reply.
Craig stopped speaking to her and moved his attention onto his body; his arms. There were several black veins bulging on the surfaces of both arms making them look horrifying. Not just his arms, but his legs, chest and back as well. Only his face was still clear. 'Whatever she did to suppress it seem to be slowing it down.' He thought, shifting his gaze back to Glowmyth. "Thank you." He muttered.
Craig's situation wasn't too optimistic. He had less than a day before the poison spread through his entire body, taking his life. Yet, he had two days to research and discover the so called Lotus pond. He was feeling helpless and conflicted. Not only because of his current condition but also the possibility that Maeli would also run into trouble. If so then it would mean that they had failed completely.
If the lotus pond didn't exist or there were no rare lotuses there he would actually feel better. The possibility that everything existed made him feel like he would be letting everyone down by dying. It was a frustrating and depressing feeling.
'I need to find a way to remove this venom.' As thoughts of failure and death flooded his mind, the poison eroded his will to the point where it infiltrated his mind again. Or maybe it didn't, but who could explain the bright flash of light that manifested into a beautiful fairy in a white flowing dress. The same woman Craig had seen in his mysterious vision before.
Looking at the woman, Craig was surprised and confused. She pointed in a certain direction whilst looking at him for a few seconds. Then she fluttered her beautiful white wings and headed in that same direction.
"Wait!" Craig called out as he stood up and rushed toward her.
She turned around and placed her index finger to her lips, signalling him to keep quiet. Then she continued flying away.
Craig had come to a temporary stop, snapping back to his senses for a short moment.
Glowmyth was startled awake by Craig's sudden shout. When she opened her eyes she saw him standing a few feet away, spaced out. She flew over to him asking, "Are you okay? What happened?"
Craig however, did not reply. After a moment of silence he started walking into the dark forest.
Glowmyth didn't know what happened or why he was acting that way. She flew after him and called out his name a few times but he didn't respond. "Is he hallucinating again?" She flew after him and studied the surroundings, trying to figure out what he was after. No matter how hard she looked, she didn't see anyone other than Craig.
As for Craig, he kept the mysterious woman locked in his line of sight as he chased after her. Every now and then she would change direction and look back at him to ensure he was keeping up.
For a total of three hours straight, Craig followed the woman whilst Glowmyth followed him. It was then that the woman stopped and turned to face Craig. As she did, she pointed at the trees behind her before slowly fading away till she completely vanished.
Craig was standing a short distance away, looking at the woman vanishing into thin air. It was only when she completely vanished did he suddenly catch focus and started looking around in a puzzled manner. He spun around in confusion and lostness. "Wait, where am I?" He said; dumbfounded.
Glowmyth, who was floating just above, heard his muttering and flew down to his face. "Hey, why weren't you responding to my calls? Can you not understand me anymore?"
Craig had a bewildered look on his face. "Calls? What are you talking about, and... where are we?" He asked, placing his hand on his temple. "Ah, my head hurts. I feel like I've just woken up from a dream." He leaned onto a tree that was nearby.
Glowmyth furrowed her tiny brows. "You're the one who needs to explain who or what you were chasing. I kept calling out to you but you didn't respond."
"Chasing?" Craig closed his eyes, trying to recall anything of the sort. The last thing he remembered was sitting and looking at the sky in thought. Following that, the poison attacked him, then Glowmyth helped him to recover. After that... "I saw something, a light; no, a woman, that same goddess, or fairy."
"Goddess? Fairy?" Glowmyth Reiterated questioningly.
A realisation hit Craig. "Oh, that's right, you weren't there at the time. It was, Maeli." He collected his thoughts. "I had a vision before where I saw her, above a lake, looking at me. If I'm right then, she was probably guiding me just now, but... I had no control over myself. I only felt the desire to follow after her unquestioningly." A chill ran through his body as he thought of this.
"Are you sure it wasn't another hallucination?" Glowmyth didn't fully understand what he was speaking about. She only felt that he might have been hallucinating again.
"No, this was different." Craig replied. "I had control of myself when I hallucinated before. Unless... unless the hallucinations gets stronger and worsen over time." He felt perplexed. Another thing that suddenly crossed his mind was the fact that he hadn't run into anyone as he chased after her. "How long did I remain like this?"
"About three hours or so."
"And in that time did you see any elves or anyone?"
"I did keep a sharp lookout but I didn't see anything other than a few animals. I might have heard voices once or twice but it was like you knew how to avoid them." Glowmyth explained.
'I avoided them?' Craig looked in the direction the woman had pointed to before disappearing. Piecing everything together, he felt as if he was being guided to a certain place, which was most likely the lotus pond. It couldn't be a coincidence that he hallucinated his way through unknown territory. There was definitely some greater power at work.
"How are feeling? Have you recovered enough mana?" He asked, looking at Glowmyth. He felt as if he didn't even need to ask that question, noticing the bright glow to her skin.
"I have almost recovered completely." She replied as she spun around in the air. She was in a joyful mood because of it. "I'm able to help with anything right now."
Craig nodded. "Then, I'm going to need your help in scouting out what's beyond those trees." He pointed at where the woman did before she vanished.
"Over there? Okay, but why there?"
"That's where the woman I was following pointed to, then she vanished right after."
"Vanished?" A few drop of cold sweat appeared on Glowmyth's forehead as she thought of the possibility of a ghost. "Do I have to go there alone? What if... It was a ghost?" She covered her eyes.
Craig couldn't help but laugh. "Aren't you a fairy. How can you be scared of ghosts?"
Glowmyth pouted and folded her arms. "Give me a break. From the stories I've heard, ghosts are scary and do terrifying things like dragging your soul to oblivion."
Craig kept looking at Glowmyth and laughed even harder. "You truly are cute, aren't you." He continued to laugh.
Glowmyth's face turned red as she flew away throwing a fit. "I'll show you what bravery is frail human, just you watch." She disappeared in the direction Craig had pointed out.
After she disappeared, Craig couldn't help but mutter to himself. "I wonder, what is truly going on here. Ghosts huh."