04 - A new adventure

The next morning begins calmly, much like the majority of days there. Birds soar over the city, and the wind rustles through the trees. The only difference is the increased activity of wagons and visitors arriving for the festival.

Secilia sleeps comfortably in her bed until the sound of knocks echoes through the door of her room, doing her wake up. but, the girl just shifts in bed, covering her head with the pillow. The knocks continue, now accompanied by the voice of one maid on the other side of the door.

"Secilia, your mother is calling you. She said if you don't get up immediately, she'll come to fetch you herself."

The voice behind the door is direct and emotionless. Secilia turns in bed and sits up immediately, eyes still closed and hair tousled. Slowly, she opens her eyes, turning her face to the window beside her bed, unlocking it and opening it to look outside. The view from her room reveals the white rose garden and the vineyard next to the mansion. The girl gets up from bed when another set of knocks begins.

"I'm coming, let me get ready first."

Secilia yawns as she speaks. She walks calmly to the wardrobe, takes out a light blue dress, and puts it on right there, using the comb on her dresser to finish getting ready. Finally, she heads to the door.

"Good morning, Rosaria."

Secilia smiles, rubbing her right hand over her eyes, while the maid sighs, shaking her head.

"Your mother is in the dining room. She asked you not to be late for your studies..."

The woman makes way for the girl as she speaks in a serious tone. But before Secilia could leave the room, Rosaria adds.

"Please, don't repeat what happened yesterday, or I will come after you and Clark."

Secilia freezes for a moment and walks a bit faster, not responding to the maid. 

"I feel sorry for anyone who annoys Rosaria..."

To Secilia, Rosaria always seemed to know everything; she both frightened and comforted Secilia.

...

"Ah, finally showed up. Did you sleep well, daughter?"

Helena sees her daughter and Rosaria arrive at the dining room. She is sitting in one of the chairs on the side of the table, near the opposite end to the door, where Secilia is standing.

"Yes, Mother, sorry for being late."

The girl goes to her chair, facing her mom, and sits down, noticing her father's absence as a maid places her plate.

"Where is Dad? Did he go to the vineyard already?"

She starts picking at some food, putting it on her plate. Before her mother responds, she begins eating calmly.

"In fact, he went to welcome Duke Bargosa. Apparently, they decided to show up for the festival."

Helena glances at Secilia, expecting some reaction to the name of the Duke.

"Hmm, he will have work then. How many lots did they request?"

The older woman sighs and grabs her wine glass, slowly taking a sip.

"A much larger quantity than usual. Your father almost declined the request... But coming from the king's brother... it would be impossible to refuse such a request."

Secilia senses the strange tone in her mother's voice but prefers not to comment. She didn't want to get involved in any business involving the five families of Aldena.

"How about we take a stroll around the city today? The festival will be quite lively this year."

"I intended to help Mrs. Ana and Alina finish the decoration."

Helena glances at her and smiles. Normally, she would refuse this, but maybe it would be a good thing, even her father, Duke Andino, had agreed to it.

"All right, come back early, and don't forget: Rosaria will go with you. I've informed your teacher that you'll be absent today, but you won't escape tomorrow, understood?"

Secilia beams a wide smile. Finally a day where she could rest from her duties without having to dodge her parents' guards or employees.

"Today is going to be a great day! Finally, I'll get to see the caravans!"

Secilia thinks, hurrying to finish her breakfast.

After breakfast, Secilia heads outside and gazes down the long street from the mansion to the city center. Next to her, Rosaria pauses, taking a deep breath for a moment. Secilia feels a bit uneasy with Rosaria following her through the city, but she knows she can trust her, and the maid would protect her from any tricky situations. Although Secilia maintains a smile, Rosaria keeps a serious and calm expression, walking a little behind her.

As they walk, Secilia observes the city center, now with even more people outside homes and shops, adorning their entrances with vases of white flowers and strips of fabric over wooden door arches, along with some new mercenaries strolling down the street.

In the street, various mercenaries of different races freely chat and walk around. Secilia pauses for a moment, observing them with great curiosity.

"The mercenaries have already started gathering. I wonder if Emm'ou's family will come?"

"You should be careful with what you say. Emm'ou Island residents are prohibited from stepping onto Valandor lands without a formal invitation. Don't let your father hear you saying that."

Rosaria cautions Secilia about the conversation, but the girl has always shown curiosity about the ancient forgotten land, especially its secrets—a land that was prosperous and rich two thousand years ago but is now just a dry and lifeless desert, with only one remaining city.

"I'm sorry; I'll be more careful."

Secilia resumes her walk, noticing a group of Velvets near the atelier, a peculiar race of half-animals. The group consists of a bear-man, a bird-man, a hooded figure, and a semi-amphibian. Turning her head a bit the other way, near the Cyclops Inn, she sees a group of dwarves grumbling as they inspect a human adventurer's hammer. He seems awkward in the situation.

Secilia enjoys observing people in their daily lives, especially those from distant lands, but rarely has time for it. She smiles happily at that feeling and continues walking towards the statue, noticing the lady who owns the flower shop.

"Good morning, Mrs. Ana!"

The girl greets loudly, approaching the lady with a wave and a smile. The woman, who was crouched organizing some white flowers in a vase made of interlaced branches, startles at the shout and turns toward the girl, opening a friendly smile.

"Oh, good morning, my dear. Good morning, Rosaria. I see you're not running away today."

The lady rises with the vase, walking calmly toward a cart filled with other vases.

"Yes, my mom let me off today. I said I wanted to help organize things for the festival.

Secilia approaches the cart and observes the lady.

"He's organizing everything by herself again? My God, Alina! Where are you?!" 

Secilia thinks, looking around to find the girl.

"Alina went out to organize some things around the city. She said she was going to talk to Clark at the Cyclops first. Why don't you go there?"

Secilia looks at the lady with a surprised expression but quickly changes it, remembering that Ana was excellent at picking up on things, although she never commented on everything she noticed.

"Okay, but I'll help you here first."

The lady chuckles lightly as Secilia and Rosaria help her arrange the vases.

After some time, the cart is full, and Secilia's clothes are muddy, but she doesn't mind. She just pats her clothes, removing much of the dirt. Rosaria, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a single stain on her clothes.

"Thank you, Secilia. You can leave the rest to me now."

The lady says, pushing the cart toward the side of the shop.

"We should return to the mansion to change clothes."

After the lady leaves, Rosaria addresses the girl.

"I'm still going to get very dirty today. It would be pointless for me to do this."

The girl continues walking toward the Cyclops Tavern, the central tavern in the city. In front of the tavern's door, three mercenaries from the desert lands of Harlas, stand by the entrance, chatting. When Secilia passes, one of them glances at her and makes a small move to follow her. but, Rosaria passes just before the man really follows Secilia. She looks at the man's face with a serious and intimidating expression, making him instinctively retreat.

"What's wrong, Rahsan?"

One of the group members asked his friend who stepped back.

"Nothing much, just blocking the way," he replied to his friend, looking back at the group and sweating.

 "Where have I seen this woman before?"

 He question on his head

As the two women entered the place, they were met with several boxes scattered around the tavern. Next to the cash register, Clark was checking the list of received items, and near one of the boxes, Alina was checking the objects.

"10 boxes of desert beetle."

"Confirmed,"

Alina answers — A girl with red hair and green eyes wearing a brown skirt, beige shirt, and a brown apron — as she counts the boxes.

"Seriously, who drinks this?"

Clark turned his gaze to the door upon hearing Secilia's statement and smiled, waving. Alina opened the lid and ran to the girl, hugging her.

"Secilia!!! What are you doing here at this hour? Did you run away again?"

"If she had run away, Rosaria wouldn't be here too. Hello, Rosaria!" 

Clark replied, receiving only a stern look from the woman. For a moment, he froze; she always knew where the girl went when she ran away from home and with whom she was.

"I came to help you, if you don't mind."

"Sure, sure, help me organize the things that have already been checked. Clark, what's next?"

Alina took Secilia toward the boxes that were already correct, starting to organize everything together with Rosaria.

"How are the caravans this year?"

After a while, Secilia asked while placing behind the counter some bottles of foreign drinks on the giant shelf, full of other bottles with small tags naming them.

"I haven't been there yet; I'll go when I finish here. But I heard that more people than usual are coming this year, maybe because of the tournament."

Alina responds next to you, helping to finish organizing the bottles.

"Several tournaments took place in all kingdoms to decide who would come as the representative of each one after the qualifiers. I don't know if they're the best in the world, but I know there are some strong people. It seems that Astrid is coming this year too; she'll represent Frosttorn."

Alina said, putting the list on the counter.

"Really?! It's been so long since I've seen her!"

Secilia said, the girl seemed very excited to the point of letting fall a bottle of maple whiskey from Besua, but Rosaria stopped it with the top of her foot before it touched the ground.

"Sorry, Clark!"

"It's okay; we can always count on Rosaria."

The woman throws the drink up and catches it in the air, finally placing it on the shelf.

"Not always..."

She whispered, but only Clark heard what she said, making him clench his fists.

"I think we're done here! How about we go to the caravans?"

Alina asked, seeing Clark clench his fists, and she held Secilia's hand. But before she could take the girl outside, the door of the place opened with a tall brown-haired guy with a bow on his back and all muddy.

"You're messing everything up!!!"

Alina shouts, letting go of her friend's hand and storming towards the boy.

"It's okay, I'll clean up later. What happened, Oly?"

Clark asked, turning to the man but not moving away from the counter.

"I found a weird cave on the lower slope of the forest. You guys will want to see what's inside."

Oly says with a wide smile on his face and a disturbing excitement, but his smile slowly disappears when he sees Rosaria in the room and then swallows hard.

"H-Hi, Rosaria? How are you?"

Rosaria remains silent for a moment before looking at Secilia.

"Your father won't let you go there."

"BUT... You also want to see the cave, I'm sure you've never seen anything like what I found."

Oly says, walking a bit ahead of Alina.

"What's there?"

The girl asks, getting irritated again by the dirt, but leaves it aside due to curiosity.

"Secret, I'll only show it if you come with me."

Oly puts her hands on her hips, opening a wide smile looking at Rosaria, who slowly looks at each of them, ending up looking at Secilia pleadingly with her eyes.

"Come on, Rosaria! I promise not to run away for a month!"

Rosaria looks at Clark, who slightly changed his expression but quickly regained his usual calm.

— It would be good for her, like a birthday present, you know?

Clark tried to steer the conversation with Rosaria, although everyone knew what it was about.

— All right... But if I say we should go back, we go back, regardless of whether we've seen the cave or not.

Rosaria asks the group seriously and directly, and everyone agrees with just a nod.

— Show the way, Olyver.

After leaving the town, the group walks along a newly opened trail in the woods, with Olyver leading in front and guiding the group.

"We're almost there, I made sure to hide the trail when I came back from the slope. Be careful, the descent is quite steep."

Olyver says, arriving near the slope he mentioned. From there, it was possible to see the ocean clearly. Olyver ties a rope to one of the nearby trees and starts to descend.

"Tell me, how did you find this cave if no animal would go down that slope?"

Asks Alina, approaching the coast more, noticing that it was high, probably 10 to 15 meters.

"How do you think I got all muddy? I slipped and rolled down the slope, lucky not to break anything."

Oly answers while descending on the rope; when he reaches the bottom, he finishes his answer by shouting.

"The hard part was finding a way to climb up!"

Clark and Secilia burst into laughter while Alina just shakes her head negatively. The whole group descends slowly, with Rosaria being the last to descend.

"So, where to?"

Asks Clark after descending the hill, looking around for an entrance.

"About 10 more minutes in that direction."

Oly points with his head, walking ahead and continues.

"When I fell, I had to find a way to climb up and ended up stumbling upon something strange and decided to follow the trail. Before I knew it, I was in the cave."

He stops for a moment, pointing to a slightly glowing green mark amidst the vegetation.

"See? This is spread in several places under the slope's vegetation, but I didn't see it on top; I believe it's in the roots of the older trees."

Rosaria frowns for a moment, and Oly notices, opening a smile, standing up, and following the path.

"I told you, but that's not even close to the strangest thing; you guys will see."

After some time walking, they finally arrive at the cave, a huge light gray stone on the slope with only one opening in the rock. On the ground, various branches and foliage are scattered.

"I cleaned it up because it was hard to pass through. The strangest thing is that the opening is recent, I believe it's at most a month old."

Rosaria, who was right behind, opens a constant smile; he really was one of the best trailblazers in the duchy and undoubtedly competent.

"Who's going first?"

Oly asks, putting one hand on the side of the cave and glancing at the group.

"And no torches."

Rosaria goes first, taking the short sword from the hunter's waist and entering the passage. When she arrives on the other side, she just shouts for the others to come in.

After the group enters, they come across a large cave with the same greenish marks. The cave's tunnel has a formation that begins to descend.

"What is this... that sound...?"

Secilia thinks, looking at the marks, and the group continues with curiosity, letting only the lights on the wall illuminate the place.

At the end of the tunnel, a huge underground lake is visible, with the green light shining from inside the lake, giving it a faint greenish color.

"How amazing!"

Alina said upon seeing the water, but before she could walk to the water, Secilia passed in front of her, looking at what was in the center of the lake on a small piece of land illuminated by a diagonal light slit.

A statue entirely made of Jade.