“Well, after I started describing them, I felt a pressure in my head but thought I was imagining things. I continued reading out another one but then it got worse, so I stopped reading and you freaked out and tried to get me to keep telling you about the murals, but your eyes had no light in them. That’s when I knew something was wrong, so I blasted you with my aura and you collapsed” said Kat

“I don’t remember any of that I’m sorry Kat. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” asked Minor

“No, just the shaking before I knocked you out” said Kat

“That’s a relief. I’m not sure what I would have done if it turned out I hurt you” said Minor

“It wouldn’t have been your fault Minor; it would have been whoever developed the enchantment on the murals. Do you think your Grandma is behind this?” said Kat

“Um, I’m not sure, she does use illusions but, I don’t really know enough about her to say that it was intentional” said Minor

“How could something like that be unintentional?” said Kat

“Well, um I know there are some special pieces of art in the castle that I’ve never been allowed to look at because they can cause some serious damage if you aren’t strong enough or you have a weak mind like me. Maybe the illusion placed over the mural was actually to prevent people that were weak like myself from getting hurt but because you could see the mural anyway it didn’t work properly when you started to describe everything to me” said Minor

“I thought you said you didn’t know much about enchantments” said Kat

“Well, um I’m not sure if the paintings are enchantments per say, it’s complicated and hard to study because no one would let a priceless artefact like one of those be taken apart just to find out what happened. I only know about these specifically because Mother was extremely clear that we must never look at those paintings in the castle. Apparently, she needed to display them for some reason but she never said why. Just to stay as far away as possible” said Minor

“Well that is a little scary to hear. Trapped in a room of magical murals and I have no idea how we are supposed to get out. At least it seems like I’m somewhat immune to the effects as long as I don’t start talking about them and even then, I certainly didn’t suffer like you did” said Kat.

“Yeah, honestly that probably saved us. I have no way to recognise magical paintings and if you hadn’t shrugged off the effects who knows what would have happened” said Minor.

“Well, the new question is how do we get out of here? I can’t see an exit anywhere” said Kat

“Um, the tunnels certainly wanted me to go into this room but I can’t feel it anymore. I guess this room isn’t part of the enchantment network that has been guiding us but hopefully this is somewhere in Grandma’s house”

“Well, what’s the plan Minor, any idea how to get out of this room Minor, you’d know your Grandma better than I would. Any idea how she would have hidden the exit?” asked Kat

“No, but if you don’t mind can you lead me back out of the room just to confirm this is the direction we need to go. I was a little excited when the lights came on and might have missed it if the enchantment tried to steer me somewhere else. It isn’t perfect” said Minor

“Sure” said Kat

Kat held Minor’s hand and directed her towards the exit. Kat had removed her hand from Minor’s face but the Kitsune made sure to keep her eyes completely closed and tried to keep her mind off the murals by focusing on the sound of her footsteps. As soon as the pair stepped out into the hallway the weak but ever-present indication of which way Minor needed to walk to reach her destination returned and this time there was no mistaking that it was indicating she needed to return to the room.

“Kat, I wasn’t wrong, we need to find the way forward in that room somehow” said Minor

“Is there anything else in the room Kat? Anything at all” said Minor

“Well the floor looks really weird” said Kat

“Describe it, um broad strokes, as unspecific as you can be just in case”

“Well it’s kind of a mess, lines and squiggles everywhere, nothing I recognise at all” said Kat

“Is there any straight lines? Any order at all to it that you can see” said Minor

“Nope none” said Kat

“That’s very strange. If the floor was enchanted in some way I’m pretty sure there would need to be at least some straight lines to make it work. See I asked because a lot of enchantments are hidden in other things, like pieces of art or basic patterns on the walls but as far as I know they do need some regularity and a few straight lines are a must. I think, any enchantments Grandma has are certainly above me but I think that rule holds true, enchanting is like a language so you need patterns” said Minor

“Right I understand, so the floor isn’t enchanted. What’s the next place she could have hidden something” said Kat

“Well, Grandma can fly I’m pretty sure, or if she can’t it’s pretty easy to jump up to the murals. I hate to ask but can you take a closer look at them with your wings” said Minor.

Kat stretched her wings carefully feeling a twinge in her back still remained.

“Not really Minor, I tore something in my back or wing, I’m not quite sure where the line is drawn, but anyway, I damaged it before the landing, and it hasn’t completely healed. It’s already much better than when we went to sleep. In fact I haven’t been as careful as when walking and I didn’t notice at all, so maybe if we waited, I could try but for now at least that option is limited to us” said Kat

“Hmm, your eyes are really good right? Or can they just see in the dark?” asked Minor

“They seem to have been improved a bunch but it’s hard to tell a lot of the time” said Kat

“Well I’m thinking, um you know how they glow occasionally?” asked Minor

“No? My eyes glow?” said Kat

“Um, yes, I’m not sure why they do, but they can at least. They’re purple when they glow, but I was thinking that if they light up like that you can probably try and use the same technique, I do to push mana into your eyes. If they glow occasionally already it should be hard to damage them like most people” said Minor

“I don’t think I have any mana” said Kat

“Oh right you’re a demon, well you certainly have something, we call it demonic energy just uh, force that to your eyes or something” said Minor

Kat shrugged towards Minor then realised she couldn’t see her response.

“I guess I’ll see what I can do” said Kat. *Hmm, channel energy into my eyes. The easiest thing I can think of is to try and push my calming aura into my eyes. It probably isn’t demonic energy but it’s the main power I have control over so let’s try it.*

Kat summoned her calming aura but instead of allowing it to flow outwards she concentrated it on herself. Pushing it towards her eyes she felt only a slight resistance before her vision expanded and she felt like she could see everything. The grains of the stone, the wear on the tiles, the dust that had barely accumulated despite the room seemingly being abandoned the secrets of the world almost seemed like they’d opened up to her. Kat’s mind was adrift in the detail, it was simply to much for a human mind to take in and Kat wasn’t able to properly process everything she was seeing. Suddenly Kat felt a push on her side and her concentration broke. Her eyesight returned to normal and she looked curiously at Minor who still had her eyes closed.

“What’s up Minor, I didn’t spend that much time looking” said Kat

“Kat, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you haven’t moved in about fifteen minutes. I was getting worried so I thought, if something had gone wrong maybe a little push could fix it” said Minor

“Curses, I hadn’t noticed at all. It felt like an instant to me, or perhaps an eternity. It was too much for me to concentrate on. If there is something in the room I need to be more careful and not just shove all my power into my eyes” said Kat

“Ok, just be careful Kat, please” said Minor

“Of course, how about this, if I don’t say anything for five minutes push me again” said Kat

“Ok” said Minor.

Kat once again tried to force her aura into her eyes, however this time rather than trying to shove her aura into her eyes like an overstuffed suitcase she tried to pour it into them instead. Initially there was no reaction but as she kept imaging herself pouring her power into her eyes the details slowly started to sharpen. Glancing carefully over the room Kat noticed that just at the back of the room underneath the first section of the mural the one of the tiles had the slightest discolouring to it in the centre.

“Minor I think I’ve found it” said Kat as she walked over to the tile in question. Placing her finger gently on the discoloured section she felt a click and heard a rumble coming from behind her. Turning around she noticed that the top of the room had disappeared, and a platform was dropping down seemingly by itself coming to rest in the middle of the room

“Minor I’ve definitely got our way out, a platform just dropped into the centre of the room. You think it’s safe to hop onto?” asked Kat

“Yes, I think so, it’s probably a levitation platform, they aren’t very common because they are ludicrously expensive to run mana crystal wise and it only gets worse the longer the distance they need to float so most people still use stairs” said Minor. The girls carefully walked over to the disk and placed their feet onto it.. As soon as both of them were firmly planted on the disk it started to rise slowly up towards the ceiling.