A Forgotten Promise: Part Two

     Celes gave the Friendly Glowing Lantern to Blossum so that she could open the box. It opened easily - revealing its treasure: A small glass circle with an ornate golden rim. It slightly glowed with a yellow hue.

     "Is it the Good Heart, the un-kept promise, or the power of the light?" Blossum asked.

     "Perhaps ... it's all of the above," Celes answered her.

     *ahem*

     Celes and Blossum turned around to see several members of Shenkuu's Royal Palace Guard standing between them and the only in and out of the massive chamber. "You're coming with us to answer for your crimes." One of them, the captain, stated.

     "Oh great, how are we going to explain this to my family?" Blossum wondered.

     "Think of it this way - we'll have plenty of time to come up with something creative." Celes said as she handed over the artifact to one of the guards.

     One by one, they marched through the tunnel and climbed up the rope just beside the giant Blurgah Shield carved into the hillside. (This one was lowered by the guards to save the two fallen tourists - which was what all the people in the courtyard thought had happened.) Once everybody was up on land and the rope was removed, the entire group marched into the Palace Gates - with the whole crowd of merchants and passers-by staring at them to their left and their right.

     Celes did most of the talking, though Blossum found places to agree by adding in occasional 'that's right' and 'um-hm.' She explained how they had discovered Shenkuu Mystery written by Empress Solara in the Library, how the learned that she was recorded in history as Empress Solana, and how they followed the clues written in a clever poem to find the artifact in a hidden vault below the courtyard just outside the Palace Gates.

     "So it seems our ancestors Solara and Solana are one and the same individual. I guess if royal families ever run out of mysterious secrets, there would be nothing to talk about," the Emperor stated wisely.

     "Captain, summon the Historian. Have him bring up everything related to Solara and Solana - we might have an important piece to this puzzle somewhere in our possession," the Emperor then ordered.

     Several minutes later, the Historian appeared, with his arms full of official documents. "If it pleases the Emperor, I would like to read the official account that I believe explains the events in Shenkuu Mystery in more detail."

     The Emperor nodded in agreement.

     The historian cleared his throat and put down all of the documents save for one scroll. He began reading:

     "In the final year of the reign of Emperor Youki and Empress Yuri, The Shadow of Evil fell over the land. It was pure darkness and held together by malevolence. It sent waves of fear before it so that no warrior that faced it could stand in battle - each and every one of the king's bravest warriors fled wherever the Shadow of Evil fell. All the land that it fell upon was destroyed completely, all houses destroyed by fire, all trees were pushed down, and all lights were put out by its terrible darkness. The Shadow of Evil drank in the confusion and fear and grew ever larger. It sought out the royal family and destroyed the Emperor and the Empress wherever they were, thus ending their reign. Hope however, remained in the heart of their precious daughter, Solara. She raced to the neighboring kingdom of Altador and implored their noble king to lend her his strongest weapon against evil, known as the Good Heart of Powerful Light to some, and by other names to the learned. She promised that once she had vanquished the Shadow of Evil, she would return the Good Heart to its guardian. Knowing the need was dire, the king agreed to these terms. Solara hid the Good heart in her pack and raced back to her kingdom. The Shadow of Evil had grown twice as large and now threatened Shenkuu itself, where nobody could flee from the inevitable destruction looming toward them. She challenged the Shadow of Evil, standing in front of the darkness. It raced to swallow her up. She then revealed the Good Heart and summoned its powers. It created light from every direction, leaving nowhere for the darkness to hide - not even a shadow existed anywhere on the mountains that day. The Shadow of Evil was no more. Solara remembered her word to the king, and so traveled back to the neighboring kingdom. Standing on the heights of the mountain between the two lands, she realized that in the time she had left and returned, the neighboring kingdom had completely vanished. Over the next two weeks she had her brightest thinkers investigate the disappearance to no avail. She finally decided to hide the Good Heart and protect it until such time that it could be returned to its rightful owner and her promise fulfilled."

     "Such marvelous bravery!" Princess Terrana exclaimed.

     "And amazing courage!" Princess Lunara added.

     "It is a worthy tale to be remembered, thank you for bringing it into the light. However, I am now ready to pronounce your sentence. For the crimes of trespassing, pilfering treasure, and general sneakiness, I hereby sentence you to a task of community service. This shall be your task: to fulfill Solara's promise by returning the Good Heart to King Altador himself," the Emperor stated officially.

     At least community service looks good on a resume, Blossum thought to herself.

     The Emperor of Shenkuu generously provided an official escort to help Celes and Blossum get to Altador without getting lost along the way. They used the time to figure out just how they were going to return the artifact; after all, one just does not pop in on the King of Altador.

     "We have the artifact and lots of proof in Shenkuuvian books and official documents - but if we do a little research, we might be able to find something Altadorian that proves the story. The question is where to start," Celes mentioned.

     "Isn't it said; 'If it's Altadorian, it exists in the archives.'?" Blossum asked.

     "We do have to start somewhere, it's only logical. So we'll go ... to the library! Um, I mean, to the archives!" Celes exclaimed.

     Blossum decided to try to write a note to send to her family explaining the detour from the itinerary. She tried to think of something creative and ended up with this message: We decided to expand our horizons and visit Altador while we are in the neighborhood. It's only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Shenkuu, so it won't be long before we're back home. P.S. I miss normal dinners.

     "Altador is just in sight!" one of the guards shouted. Everybody stopped to look at the city's massive white walls. The guard continued, "Right where it ought to be. I'll have you know that during Empress Solara's reign, she ordered that every year somebody ought to go check to see if Altador had reappeared. That's why this route is called the Altador Walk."

     The whole group stopped at the city gates. "These were our orders, to see you safely here. Now it's time for us to return home," the Shenkuuvian Guards stated. "Good bye!"

     Celes and Blossum waved as they disappeared from sight. The two walked into the city and looked around. "The huge structure is the Coliseum. When the Altador Cup is going on it's also the loudest building. Right now things are pretty quiet though. The Hall of Heroes is in the center of town. That's where King Altador and his council of leaders will be. Just to the left of that are the Archives - our destination." Celes said.

     "You seem to know your way around the city fairly well. Have you been here before?" Blossum asked.

     "Yes, on my very first archaeological adventure - I was here to solve a series of puzzles... I might have flooded the entire city twice, but I did fix it eventually." Celes answered.

     Upon entering the Altadorian Archives, they immediately met Finneus.

     "Excuse us, but do you have any information on the Good Heart of Powerful Light?" Celes asked.

     Finneus broke out in laughter. After several minutes of trying, and failing to contain the laughter, he took a deep breath and asked, "Is my nephew trying to play tricks on me again? I have to give you credit for making something up that sounds too silly to be serious."

     Celes and Blossum were soon kicked out of the archives so that Finneus could return to his work.

     "Hm. Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. Shenkuu is known for its poetry, but all Altador is into are facts," Celes observed.

     "Didn't Empress Solara's official account state that this artifact had other names? Perhaps there's somebody here in town who would recognize it," Blossum pointed out.

     Celes and Blossum first went to Magical Marvels hoping that its keeper would recognize a magical and marvelous Altadorian artifact when she saw one. She had no idea what the artifact was. So they went to the Illustrious Armoury instead, it's keeper looked at the artifact carefully and said, "It's reminiscent of my Telescope Lens, but it very much matches the description of its predecessor - a Magical Solar Lens. I only know of one that was ever built, but it was lost a millennium ago."

     They thanked him and returned to the archives.

     "Why didn't you just say Magical Solar Lens in the first place? A 'Good Heart of Powerful Light' could mean anything!" Finneus told them. He wrote down the instructions on where to find books about Magical Solar Lenses on a small piece of paper and handed it to Blossum. This is what it said: Room X=4 and Y=3, Wall=West Bookshelf to Left

     "Just don't flood the city again, Celes; it takes weeks to dry out all the books properly," Finneus teased.

     "So we're going four rooms in and three rooms off of that one. Just keep a careful count - people have gotten lost in here for weeks at a time." Celes said, looking at the instructions.

     It didn't take long for them to find the right room and wall, but now they were looking at two bookshelves and they weren't certain which the left one was. So they each chose one to look through.

     Blossum read the relevant titles aloud as the found them:

     "The Invention of the Magical Solar Lens"

     "Instruction Manual for the Magical Solar Lens"

     "The Legend of the Lost Magical Solar Lens"

     Celes looked at all three books and stated, "It's not so important how they were invented, but the Legend of the Lost Magical Solar Lens looks most promising. While you're reading that one - I'll take a look at the Instruction Manual. I'm curious to know how to use it correctly."

     Blossum picked up The Legend of the Lost Magical Solar Lens and blew away a majority of the dust on it's cover. It's sunny yellow and orange colors had darkened over the years but it seemed in almost pristine condition otherwise. The book was still stiff, as if it had never been read before. She hoped that it the very proof that they had been looking for.

To be continued...