Chapter Twenty-Two: Aralyn

Aralyn stood still for a moment as the crowd parted for Caldric, and the remaining couples stopped dancing. A hush gathered around the room as he seated himself at the piano and flexed his fingers. Then he closed his eyes for a moment, before he opened them, searching the room for her.

A smile spread across her face, and her heart fluttered as his hands hovered over the piano keys. Then he began to play.

And whether it was because of the look he'd given her or the music that filled the room, she could not say. But she knew at that moment that she loved him.

"Aralyn." Merri touched her hand, and she blinked, unable to see through the tears that misted her eyes. "We'll make sure everyone stays in this room."

"Thank you." She brushed her hand across her eyes and then headed out of the ballroom. As she went, she gathered a couple of the blood goblets that had been left on a sideboard. She darted into an alcove where a statue of a man who looked a lot like Bertram stood looking out enigmatically, with a rose in his hand.

Without pause, Aralyn took a small vial from the small purse hung on her wrist. With a steady hand, she poured the dregs of blood into the vial. Placing the goblets on the floor, she paused for a moment, listening to Caldric play.

It was a mistake. The haunting melody called to her, each note beckoning to her.

Aralyn shook her head and forced herself to leave the alcove, past people who stood enraptured by the music flowing from Caldric's fingers.

All she had to do was find the basement.

No one seemed to pay her any attention as she backed away from the music and hurried along the hallway. How could a house have so many doors?

She had no choice but to try each one, hoping she did not raise suspicion. But everyone was too focused on Caldric's playing to notice the woman in a red dress.

Many of the doors were locked. Aralyn guessed that the Tolioni family had plenty of things they either wanted to hide from or protect from the crowd of guests they were hosting. She could understand it completely, she wouldn't want people snooping around her house…if she had one.

However she didn't want to imagine what a vampire family like this could be hiding.

She was beginning to think that she would never find the right door in this huge manor with its sprawling corridors, or maybe it didn't exist at all.

But she had to keep trying.

Then she found it! Or at least she hoped she had,

It stood out among the other ornate doors of the lower floor. Made of stone and covered with runes and symbols, it looked incredibly out of place amongst the classy yet rich interior of the manor. It was as if someone had taken a magical door from a dwarven fortress and fit it into a normal door frame.

"Here goes nothing." Aralyn took the vial from within her dress, uncorked it, and placed the open vial against the door, tipping it as best she could to get as much of the thick liquid inside to run onto the door.

She held her breath as she stepped back and watched the blood drip down the door. At first, she was worried that she had picked the wrong one and that the Tolioni family made a habit of keeping strange magical doors within their house.

Then another thought struck her. What if there wasn't enough blood to fill in all the runes?

Just when she was beginning to fear she'd have to make her way back to Caldric and think of something else, she winced as the sound of stone grating against stone filled the corridor, and the door swung open.

She glanced up and down the hall, but it remained empty. She held her breath, expecting company. Bad company.

But once the sound of the door opening stopped, she could still hear the muffled tones of Caldric playing. It sounded like he was building the melody he was playing into a beautiful chorus. Pity she couldn't stay to hear it.

She slipped into the dark corridor beyond, pulling the door mostly closed behind herself, leaving just a crack so it didn't lock.

The passageway beyond was dimly lit and quickly turned into a flight of stone stairs that led down beneath the manor house. She shuddered. But down was where she needed to go.

And down she went. Step by step, her senses keen. As she descended she was surrounded by the roughhewn stone that made the foundations of the building. Here she got an idea of just how old the manor house was.

It seemed timeless from above, with its ivy-covered stonework, but down here, where the marks of pickaxes and chisels still scarred the walls, she realized how ancient this family truly was.

And when it came to vampires, ancient usually meant very powerful.

"Urgh." Aralyn ducked her head as something brushed against her face as the stairs leveled out. She swiped it away with her hand, feeling the light, gossamer touch of cobwebs, and grimaced. On to the next task.

But first, she needed to get out of this dress. It took some wriggling, and she knew she was wasting time, but once she was down to her familiar armored bodice and comfortable trousers she felt more confident.

More herself.

Before she continued, she kicked off her heels and stood barefooted on the stone floor.

The dress might be beautiful, but it would be impossible to maneuver in such a big skirt.

Plus, she did not want to ruin it. Not when it was irreplaceable to Caldric.

With a whisper of a quick spell into her hand, she released a small ball of softly glowing light that hung just over her head. With a gentle gesture of her hand, the light moved forward into the room ahead.

Great! Thin lines of translucent material crisscrossed all across the space.

Kraller spider webs.

She shuddered. They weren't like normal webs which were usually spun into intricate patterns. These webs were haphazardly stretched across the room, and they were thick.

Worse, by the way they shone in the light, it looked as though they were coated in something. Aralyn could only imagine that whatever was coating them would stick to her like glue.

She peered around, seeking out any sign of the spiders themselves. But thankfully, she could see no sign of movement anywhere.

"This can't be any harder than the dance, right?" Aralyn muttered as she moved, ducking under the first strand of web, twisting her body to avoid another before curling her body forward to snake under a low strand.

She was aware of the time she had already been missing from the ball, but also of how bad it would be if she were to get caught in one of the webs, and so moved slowly and methodically, planning her next step carefully every time.

Aralyn was about halfway through when a shadow moved at the edge of her sight. She froze. She knew it , the one who had spun these damn awful webs would be in here, but there was still that rush of adrenaline at seeing a cluster of eyes gleaming at her through the darkness when she glanced toward it.

Focus. Focus on what needed to be done. Not what might happen.

She pushed the light forward just a little and saw the passageway leading out. It looked to be just wide enough for her to fit through but narrow enough for the hulking shadow of the spider to her right to be unable to follow. At least that's what she assumed, since there did not appear to be any webbing inside.

Pulling the light back toward herself, Aralyn worked out the path she needed to take. The webs were thicker in the second half of the room, but she could see a way to thread through them and began to move once again.

However, this time, as she slipped in between the gleaming strands of web, she wasn't alone. It barely made any noise, apart from the very subtle sound of the web stretching under its weight, but she could feel the presence of the spider as it shadowed her across the room. At first, it stayed at the edge of the light, just out of sight, but as Aralyn neared the exit, it moved in closer.

Stalking her.

She only caught a glance of it, as there was no way she was going to stop and get a proper look at it. But that quick glance revealed its hairy face, tiny eyes, and huge mandibles.

For a second she hesitated, wobbling precariously.

She was only a few feet from safety, she could not blow it now.

Tucking her body forward, she dove forward through the last gap between the webs, hitting the floor and rolling back onto her feet in one smooth motion. Spinning around, she turned to look back at the entrance to the narrow passage, but the spider was nowhere to be seen.

Aralyn breathed a sigh of relief, before turning and realizing that she was face to face with another door. This must be the riddle door the Regulars had told her about.

"Okay, riddle me." Aralyn felt kind of stupid talking to the ornately carved door. But since there were no further instructions, and no lock for a key, what else was she to do?

Unless this door required Tolioni vampire blood, too. She glanced back at the dark room behind her. Somewhere on the other side of all that web was her small purse with her dress, along with that vial with maybe one or two drops of blood left. Would she have to go all the way back there? Would she even have time before Caldric stopped playing?

Aralyn shuddered. "Come on, please!"

A deep, low voice emanated from somewhere in the room, taking her by surprise.

" In the forest deep, I make no sound,

Yet without me, nothing can be found.

I am not prey, nor am I a beast,

But both depend on me, to say the least.

Without legs, I still hold sway,

What am I? Speak, and the path I'll lay. "

"Oh, an animal riddle." Aralyn rolled her eyes. "Of course."

Aralyn frowned, muttering the lines under her breath. "All right, let's think this through. ‘In the forest deep, I make no sound…' Silent. Something silent in the forest. That could be anything, couldn't it?"

She scrunched her face up, trying to focus. "Maybe an owl?" she guessed, remembering how they were known for their silent flight. "They don't make much noise…but, no, it doesn't fit. Owls are hunters, not something everything depends on."

She shook her head, dismissing the thought. "‘Not prey, nor am I a beast.' So, it's not an animal at all…or maybe it's an animal that doesn't fit neatly into those categories?"

Her mind jumped to different possibilities. "A snake, maybe? They don't have legs, and they can be silent…but they're definitely a beast. What about a bat? They fly silently, don't they? But, again, they're a predator, not something everything depends on."

Frustration began to build as she realized how tricky this riddle was. It was designed to mislead, to make her think of creatures when the answer might not be a creature at all.

She narrowed her eyes at the riddle, biting her lip. "Something that isn't prey or a beast…yet both prey and beasts depend on it. ‘Without legs, I still hold sway'… A tree? No, that wouldn't make sense for the other clues."

Her thoughts were racing now, grasping at possibilities. "Maybe it's something less tangible… Something more abstract… Think, Aralyn, think!"

Then it hit her—a moment of clarity cutting through the confusion.

"The path," she whispered, almost disbelieving. "A path in the forest… It makes no sound. It's not prey or beast, but everything depends on it. Prey and predators both use it…and it doesn't have legs, but it still guides."

She took a deep breath, feeling the answer settle in her mind. It made sense now, in a way that was frustratingly obvious once she saw it.

She leaned closer to the safe, her voice steady. "Path," she said firmly.

For a moment, nothing happened. The silence stretched out, and Aralyn's heart sank—had she guessed wrong? But then, with a soft click, a mechanism turned and the door slowly creaked open, revealing the contents within.

A small, satisfied smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Of course," she muttered to herself. "It's always something so simple once you see it."

She reached inside the safe, her hand closing around the Myasma Stone. But there was no time to revel in her triumph. She needed to get back, and fast.

But as she closed the door, she couldn't help but chuckle softly to herself. "A path," she repeated under her breath. "Who would have thought?"

That answer was simple. A vampire.