23 Free

In front of a stone-faced Lee sat a finely curved box, wrapped in gold vines, that were slowly moving at their own pace. The item emitted an enchanting, almost hypnotic feel that could put any creature without strong mental defences under its spell.

"This is called the Divine Door, an item crafted by the keeper of the forest named, Mordor. He was a man who owed a great debt to you and as he owed you repayment he made you the ultimate storage item, with only your orders will it listen to," explained Theo gesturing toward the mystical box

Lee's eyes switched focus front the strangely familiar box to the smiling man as if asking him what am I supposed to do with this?. But the man said nothing but gestured for her to take the box. Sensing no malicious auras from both the man nor the strange item Lee reached towards the table, but just as she was about to touch the unknown object. The vines suddenly separated themselves from the finely curved box and attached themselves onto Lee's delicate hand, startling her into dropping the teacup in her other hand, shattering into thin sharp pieces

The vines didn't stop at just attaching themselves to her arm; they continued to rise above her arm towards her neck as a lovers caress except this lover had thorns and was feeding off the blood that it drew. Just as she was about to activate her soul power to fend off the unexpected attack, the vines started to merge with her body, and the box on the table began to glow. The strange thing was that when the plants sank into her skin, instead of feeling uncomfortable, it felt like welcoming an old friend home.

"Those vines are a special type of plants, they will help you in the oncoming journey, but right now they need rest, after all, they have been protecting this item for more than six thousand years with no rest," said Theo but Lee was barely paying attention to him as she stared dumbfounded at her arm.

The skin was perfectly clear with no scratches or any signs of the blood she saw a minute ago, as is if the vines never existed in the first place.

But strangely she still felt the existence of the plants inside her, like they were a living thing.

Lee switched her focus from her arm to the box on the table, except when she looked it wasn't a box any longer but a beautifully sculpted ring. This golden item was curved with exquisite detail down to the last line, similar runes to the ones she saw before were curved inside the ring, she didn't know it's meaning. Two gems on top of the circle were held by two little golden hands, excluding a chilling feeling.

The gems weren't ones that Lee recognized; they were black in colour, not the black you usually see but a deep black that made you feel like it was going to swallow you whole. Lee couldn't stop herself from picking up the strange ring and immediately attaching it to her middle finger, and like she thought it was the perfect fit.

"It's a storage item Master, it contains the answers you seek, and much more but right now isn't the time to explore that" as he said this Lee looked at his sudden hasty deminer with a questioning glance. He suddenly seemed wary of something.

"We need to hurry, or else, people we can't afford to meet yet will learn of your awakening, I think it's about time we get out of this prison don't you Master?"

____

In a separate ocean from the one Lee was trapped in named the Void, a figure of an impressive stature was looking into a spitting fire, not large enough to be called a bonfire but not small enough to be ignored either. If one looked closer into the fire, you could make out the faces of men, stuck in a position one would make only when in pure agony. Three bodies were stacked one on top of the other as the figure leaned closely with grave eyes and a shivering body

As the figure got closer, they reached their arms out, and... started warming themselves up? "Ahh that feels better" the figure exclaimed, completely ignoring the melting human face right in front of them as if the smell in the air wasn't of burnt flesh.

"Miss, are you sure that it was wise for you to kill them? Their bounty fetched fro more than three million each, a substantial amount that could help the debt you piled up with the guild!" said a boy looking to about 16 to 17 year of age, but the woman's face didn't change out of the pleasant almost blissful smile

"It's not my fault that they don't have eyes, who did they think they were calling old huh! I'm only 7845 years young you got it!" yelled the hot-tempered woman who was waving her arms around the fire as if trying to capture all warmth with her bare hands.

The boy behind the woman signed " Whatever, now will you listen to the message Master sent us? It was an urgent report that you were supposed to reply to day's ago."

With a wave of her hand that the boy translated as a yes he took out an old fashioned scroll and started reading the content.

"The Silent Queen has escaped."