Page 98 of Castle of the Cursed
I have no idea what this space is—it could exist outside the other castle, outside the other side, outside everything.
As Antonela walks onward, shadowy doors begin to spring up on either side of her. There are no handles or textures, and they look like rectangular black holes, each with its own distinctive pull.
Antonela keeps moving, like she’s trying to find the door that calls to her loudest of all. Her attention is drawn to a door that isn’t black like all the others but bloodred. The red smoke billows less like air and more like a sea of blood. Right as my sister takes a step toward it, something happens to the adjacent door.
Black smoke starts to puff from the door-shaped black hole, and my sister freezes at the sounds of others approaching.
She looks around desperately for a hiding place, and when she doesn’t see one, she raises her hood to cover her face.
At first, I think she’s given up—then her cloak darkens to black and she shoots up two feet in height, until she’s the same size as the three instructors now approaching.
She’s casting a glamour. Seems she took her instructor’s advice and chose to work on one technique.
Antonela joins the other administrators’ ranks, pretending to be one of them. As they gather round the burning doorway, smoke billows out until it blankets everything. Once it clears, a child with black eyeballs steps through.
The others are quick to carry the new student away, but Antonela hangs back, staring after them. She must be wondering the same thing I am—Is that how she looked when she crossed over?
She reverts to her original form and keeps walking until walls bloom around her, and she enters a majestic golden chamber with a dozen windows and a domed ceiling. I look up at a ring of designs that makes me think of the twelve constellations. Each drawing has a different word embedded that lines up with a window, giving the impression of a clockface.
Antonela walks ahead, and she stops at one of the windows. She looks out for so long that I go over to see what view has captured her attention.
It’s not a window. It’s a mirror.
Yet the glass is empty, like my sister casts no reflection. I look up and see the word overhead: Caidoz.
She walks ahead to the next mirror, which doesn’t register her, either. Overhead, I read: Siranul.
She walks past the next glass, barely giving it a glance—then she does a double take.
This time, she reflects.
I look up: Earth.
Antonela stares at herself. She approaches the mirror, reaching a hand toward the surface. As soon as her finger touches the glass, her body stiffens and her eyes roll to the back of her head.
She begins to seize, her whole body shaking violently. I look around for help, but I don’t see anyone else here, and each second of Antonela’s seizure seems torturous—
Then at last, it stops.
And my sister is sucked into the mirror.
I follow her through the glass, into a small room with the same sentient red walls as the castle. I barely bother taking in my surroundings because I’m distracted by the sight of Antonela curled on the floor, trembling.
I think she’s seizing again, but then she sits up, and I see a change in her expression. There’s an intensity in her gaze that wasn’t there until now.
Looking around, I don’t see anything in this cave other than a large hourglass. Nearly all the sand has already funneled through the top chamber to the lower one. The grains are dropping slowly, but time will be up soon.
Antonela approaches the hourglass, transfixed. She touches the glass gently, but nothing happens.
An idea flashes in her eyes, and she raises her other hand, pushing against the timer like she plans to tip it over—
“I would not do that.”
My sister spins around. A hooded being has followed us through the mirror.
She watches them with dread, likely anticipating pain or punishment or both. Yet this instructor stays silent and still.
“Why not?” she dares to ask.
