INTRODUCING THE WARLOCK FOUNT

26 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, WARLOCK TIME

I was beginning to understand why my cousins in night forest hated spiders...

We had stepped into the first hole in the wall, using it as an entrance into the broken off tower. So much for minimizing structural damage.

Now that the magic was splintered into a million pieces, I was beginning to have questions about the building integrity of this tower. It wasn't that I was a civil engineer or anything like that, but looking closer, the tower wasn't like a hundred floors up.

It was also lacking any sign of mortar or cement. What did the Warlock use to glue all the rocks together? Magic?

"We should be on the fourth floor now." Ben said.

I see. The first floor was the pillows and magic chimes, the second was the tropical jungle, the third contained the Warlock's personal version of the StairMaster.

The fourth floor of the tower looked like a dark hole. This could be either because whatever magical mechanism for the enchantment of this floor had been damage, or because the fourth floor was really just this - a dark hole filled with spiders.

But they seemed to be rather ordinary and harmless spiders. Although I hated the feeling of walking into their webs (and we kept doing it because the webs were EVERYWHERE).

I pulled my cape around me and I think Ki understood, "Would beta kindly lead the way?"

"You're the one that glows in the dark. You do it." Ben growled. I don't think he liked the spider webs either.

Ki glowed, "If you insist, beta."

And the two guys took their places. Ki walking in front of me, while Ben took rear guard.

I thought the dark cave was bad, but with Ki's glow, it was really much worse when all the webs were illuminated by our passing. But other than that, it was alright. We got to the fifth floor (which was now really the second floor).

The fifth floor was also a dark hole, or so it appeared that way at first, but when we stepped into it, the lights came on and we found ourselves in an old dusty library. Before you imagined it to be the kind of mysterious library which might have been a grand place once upon a time, let me tell you it was not. It was more like a used book rental store which forgot to close down when ebooks was invented.

But the magic force humming from the books made every one of them feel like a magical treasure in itself. It made my wolf ears shift so I could hear the distinctive humming from each book, it was similar to the warlock crystals about to strike, but when coming from the books it was not accompanied by any killing intent. In fact, the books didn't seem bothered with us in the slightest.

While walking across the room, I did see an opened book left face down in a corner. It looked like it had been thrown across the room.

I went over to pick it up.

"Be careful goddess." Ki warned, "These books are not normal."

The book on the ground was handwritten, was it a diary?

I turned to the first page, "The Prophesies of the Warlock Fount."

And then, I just... I don't know why I did it, but something in my heart twisted, a muscle spasm? And the book levitated just above my hand so that its weight no longer burdened me.

And I just spoke the words to the first spell that came to my lips, "Tell me the story of Rebel."

The pages flipped over and then stopped at the page where Bell's prophecy was written.

"Whoa, Sam." Ben said. My two betas were now peering over my shoulders, "How did you know it would do that?"

I didn't. I just... I still couldn't quite explain it.

"Do another." Ben said.

Okay... Urm, what should I ask?

"Tell me a story of Kingsley." Hahaha. I couldn't help it, some things happened and I got me curious about my Dad today.

The book flipped a few pages down. My stomach did a little flip of its own. It couldn't be that there was something! Okay, I knew I was the one to ask, but I was half expecting it not to work.

"It's turning forwards." Ki observed, "So this prophecy was written some time after your Luna's"

I nodded, so this was a prophecy that was written after Bell was born and Fount was exiled?

Kingsley had three daughters,

Each one as lovely as the other.

Men send countless sons to fight the war,

But three princesses were enough for him to conquer it all.

The first princess became Alpha

Her territories ran from the wild plains

To the peak of Idonia by the sea.

The second princess became Queen

Her influence covered wherever it snowed,

And she reigned in the City of Magic and Gold.

The third princess became Luna

Her inheritance spanned the Central Plain

and all across the human domain.

Tell me now if it's better,

To have a hundred sons or three daughters?

Kingsley had three daughters.

Three daughters, each one as lovely as the other.

Men send countless sons to fight the war,

But three princesses were enough for him to conquer it all.

"Whoa..." Ben said as he processed the words.

I read everything a second time.

Ki took out his phone and scanned the prophecy into a document.

And then Ben frowned, "It's not true."

What?

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Not all of Alpha Kingsley's daughters were as lovely as the other." Ben shrugged.

"Haha." I said, "I know, I know, you must be thinking I'm the odd one out."

"No." Said Ben, "I was thinking you're obviously the prettiest."

I laughed out loud then, "Yeah right, nice save Ben."

Ben smirked, "You think?"

"Keep talking like that, and maybe you'd actually get a girlfriend." I teased.

"Too troublesome." Ben shrugged, "Come on, Sam. We've wasted enough time."

So we went up to the sixth floor. All in all, I was expecting to find the warlock here. It was the top floor of the tower after all.

The sixth floor was like a treasure room. Besides the usual piles of jewels and stuff, it included opened plastic boxes of money in various currencies. I guess the Warlock traveled a lot but didn't buy very much, the foreign currency became clutter and he ended up sorting them into clear organizing bins.

"This was from before the war." Ben said picking up one of the coins, "Because they were made with Argon from the Colored Mountains, they were smelted after the war to make heirloom treasures and magic weapons and apparatus. There are only a few left in the museums now."

Ben put the coin in his pocket.

"Ben!" I scolded. Hadn't he watched the movies? Read the legends? "Don't do that! What if you trigger off some kind of trap?"

Ben just laughed, "But I didn't. Don't worry, it won't be missed."

We considered the small mountain of coins in the large plastic bin.

And then Ben pocketed a few more, "It's Argon, Sam. I could get Ink to analyse it. Haven't you ever wondered about it? Why we cannot touch silver but argon is alright? Or how argon conducts magic?"

No. But then again, I wasn't the child genius here.

I guess if its for research, it's alright. The Lycan legends often told stories like these to test the hearts of wolves. Greedy wolves were a dime in a dozen and those who succumbed to their greed would fall. But a hero's heart is pure and would remained focused on the prize.

In this case, the prize would be that meeting with the Warlock.

But seriously! The trials we had to endure to get to this point were so annoying it wasn't even funny anymore. I wasn't even sure the prize was worth it. Even if it were a lifetime supply of ice cream, it wouldn't be worth it. Unless it was Gelato - real handmade Gelato, like the kind Ki bought from those fancy artisan cafes in Gate City.

The Warlock better had a magical Gelato making machine and some good recipes when we see him!

"There's a door there." Ben pointed out. Ki led me over and Ben opened the door to reveal.. more stairs, but this led up to the pointy roof of the Tower.

Boo surfaced ever so mildly, {Approaching Warlock.}

"He's up here." I told my betas, "Let's go."

As we made our way up the stairs, we could hear crashing and yelling sounds from the Warlock's attic.

"S...stop it!" River's voice.

Ki smiled and raised his hand to knock, but Ben shoved him off and smashed the door down. We stepped through the rubble.

"Arugghhhhh..." A very old man shrieked, "Do you wolves not know how to KNOCK? The door wasn't even locked!"

I turned around and looked at the broken door. Opps, I guess that was our bad.

And then the old man pointed a crooked finger at River, "I told you NOT to bring anyone with you. This human bodyguard is one thing - but the wolves too? Do you have any idea how hard it is to kill a wolf?"

I can't believe it! We had taken all the trouble to come here and return a stone to this guy?