[[Musica ౨ৎ]
“An Amani original? Hmm, perhaps it is. I just have a knack for creating the best of sayings, don’t I?” she said playfully. “Or perhaps I just happen to know the essence of human curiosity—to seek out the hidden, the forbidden fruits of knowledge?” She leaned back, her gaze thoughtful. “We may not need to peek, Sellenova, but the temptation is always there, a whisper in our ear, a thrill in our heart. And sometimes, just sometimes, it’s that very peek that makes the show all the more captivating.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “After all, what’s a performance without its audience yearning for just a glimpse of the magic backstage? But I suppose since you so love your boring curtains,” she playfully rolled her eyes, “I must wait, though I hate to wait.”
As they walked more and more into the Botanical Conservatory, Amani realized something: Arya had been here before, meaning, Vincenzo had brought her here before. The thought of that caused a strange smile to latch itself onto her face, though her eyes were blank. She was happy, happy indeed, for this meant that between Amani and Vincenzo, there were fewer and fewer things that made their former relationship special. If this ‘special’ place of theirs had truly not been quite so special, it meant that just like the spheres in the Botanical Conservatory, their so-called relationship had been nothing but an illusion, and Amani had neither lost nor given up anything. As they continued to walk, Amani asked if Arya had seen the place, knowing the answer. Once or twice had been the answer, making Amani raise her brow.
She wondered just how much Arya knew about the ‘Eden of Enchantment’, perhaps about the same as Vincenzo or how much he had allowed her to see (probably everything, meaning the basics that he knew). This meant there were still a lot of things left unknown for Arya because really, when Amani had discovered it, she had gone exploring after Francis or was it Atticus? They had told her that there are a lot of hidden places in Wyndham, as after all, the Ninth House was nothing if not ‘magical’ and filled with hints and passages left by past students. Now, Amani had not been told what these ‘hints’ or ‘passages’ meant or were because she had not been concerned to find out. The Eden of Enchantment had been the first one she had found. It had not been easy to find, being kept hidden at all. But she had followed a person who seemed to be hiding something and walking down an unfamiliar path, and she had found the Eden of Enchantment and had explored deep within it, finding a lot of doors, a lot of special places. Amani, being selfish, had concealed some of the places that she had found within the Eden of Enchantment through magic. She had always been good at illusion magic and shadow manipulation, being taught by her father, and she had found a way to conceal a lot of these ‘hidden places within the hidden botanical conservatory,’ leaving only what the few people that knew about this place and had not decided to explore already knew about it. When she and the balding psycho (she really needed to stop referring to him by his name, even in her mind. It was not fun thinking about him) had come here, she had shown him the basics, and they had enjoyed it quite well.
As they talked about the poems hanging on the walls, Arya pointed to one of the poems, stating that she had been the one to write that one, causing Amani to smirk as she teasingly said, ‘pas étonnant que ce soit celui que j’aime le moins’ in French. Amani then asked, “Why did you decide to write it?” as she stared at the rest of the papers hanging on the wall. Though she had never truly taken the time to decipher the poems, she had always wondered what was the purpose of hanging the poems on the walls, or at least the words on the walls. She had noticed that some of the writings on paper hanging on the walls were not even poems or short stories; they were more like journal pieces, she supposed. “Or more like why did you decide to hang it? You thought yourself so deserving of your work being showcased on the walls of E.E., or was it the cipher in you that spurred that idea?” Her hands went for the poem, carefully removing it from where it was hung so as not to tear it. “Shall you read it to me, so I may try to guess what it is you meant by those words, or do you wish to tell me yourselff?” she playfully asked, raising a brow.
They ventured more, and Amani leaned against a statue—one she had bought herself—and asked Arya to guess what the statue was. Though she was not really just asking her to guess what the statue was, she was also asking her to guess what this whole thing was—what E.E. or Eden of Enchantment really was.
Arya began, her voice laced with playful curiosity, “a hidden sanctuary for wayward souls seeking solace amidst the chaos of university life?” She met Amani’s amused gaze with a playful glint in her eyes, her tone filled with subtle intrigue.
“Huh?” Amani raised a brow confused before spurring into fits of giggles, clutching her stomach with her hand. “Is that what your ex lover boy had told you this place was? I suppose if all this is the only thing you know about the E.E you might consider it by that dull corny stereotypical nature, that this place was ‘a breathe of fresh air, a place where you really get to be yourself’ and blah blah,” Perhaps, she should have let think that, turn around and go to their classes, in case they go late for it. It was for the best that only Amani and maybe Tae or Celestine in the future knew of the true nature of this place, but for some reason- say maybe due to the sparks that has been flying around them since today’s conversation- a reminisce of their childhood, Amani felt the need to show her something more, something that those that knew about E.E did not really know about it. “But see, The Eden of Enchantments is not just called that for fun,” She said as they continued walking, reaching a place. Amani had muttered something in Latin and then in French, flickering her hands, as a large door emerged from the grounds quite spontaneously with a loud noise.The word quattuor wrote itself on the front of the door, and as Amani pressed her hand to the door, a place for a key formed. The creature within her pocket, had given her the key and Amani opened the door, a smile on her face as she turned to Arya. “The Eden of enchanment is a living breathing entity of its own, where your deepest desires can come alive even for a just a moment. I don’t exactly know who was the first to discover it, but I know the Eden of Enchanment is a place for enchanmets- for illusions, for mysteries and for the brave to thrive, but especially illusions. It is not simply a hidden sanctuary for wayward souls to thrive,” As they dove deeper inside the room, countless of mirrors began to be appear, but the mirrors strangely did not show their physical form as they walked, almost as if they did not truly exist. She turned towards one of the mirrors, with a smile, “Instead, it is a place for you to live many lives, and at the same time none at all, and this place in particular within this section is called the room of reflections.”
@CerealKiller - Arya
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