Ava

The palace had an unusual design. Each floor was almost the same, same arrangement of the rooms, windows, and doors. Except for the one. The one present on the 4th floor had a huge single room way bigger than the once present on other floors, alone occupying the space for 3 other rooms, and the area below the room for the next 3 floors had no rooms, only some windows, each having deteriorated porcelain vases probably used as plant vases. The palace clearly looked rectangular from the outside, but from the inside, it was more like a square. None of them had their attention going on the shape. Instead, they were troubled by something else as soon as they looked at the design.

"Hey Orion, look at the stairs." Zale was examining the building when he got a glimpse of the unusually built staircase. There were pairs of them on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th floor, arranged alternatively to each other. But none were visible on the rest of the floors.

"Yup, I saw it,"

His voice was coming from a little farther than expected Not because of any new kind of architectural or illusional trap but because Zale was too busy looking around that he didn't even realize when all the others except Berry were on the front side of the corridor.

Orion had already seen the staircase long before Zale noticed. After all, there is supposed to be some difference between a professional raider and a newcomer.

"Rest of them can be seen from this side. These are on the floors under you, so you weren't able to see them."

"What can be the reason for this type…."

"To consume some extra time of the invaders," Orion was too impatient and excited to listen to the whole question.

"Our time?"

"No, invaders of that era, to protect the queen and his secret; he must've planned it. It won't be too effective on the surface, but I think for each floor, only one staircase should be the safe one."

"How'll we go down then?"

"We don't a lot about the history of this king; neither do we know the specific time of the construction. And the most important part, it's not some common design. The best thing which can be done is..."

"Is what?"

"It's hit and trial. What else do you think I can do here?" He said and smiled.

"Ok, C'mon Berry let's go there."

Berry earlier thought hard to do something about it, he wanted to stop them. But he saw their desire for this secret throughout the journey. He is well aware that no matter what he does, it won't make a considerable difference. At most Archer will shout at him and Zale would try to talk sense into him, nothing else. He walked behind Zale like a zombie, with no emotion or brain. Berry now felt worry-free. His brain was just blank. Nothing was going on inside it. It was simply waiting for destiny to take its action.

They were on the corner of the corridor, and Zale was walking in front of Berry. 'Orion is probably gonna lose his calm and professional attitude if he gets too excited. I need to calm him down in order to prevent any mistakes.' Zale was busy thinking about this when he heard a thud behind him. He twisted around, only to see the empty floor. He looked around, no one there, no trace of Berry to be found. His face went pale. His legs started trembling, and he looked at others trying to call them over. Orion noticed something off and ran over, Liam and Archer following behind.

"What's wrong?!"

"Berry… Berry's gone."

"Did you notice something? Anything at all??"

"I heard a thud voice." Zale returned to his normal self but was still scared about Berry.

'It turns out that the one who was losing his calm and professional attitude is me. I didn't even pay attention to Berry…' He thought when a comforting hand patted his back.

"It's a common trap. Berry must be safe. Don't worry, from my experience, I think we'll see him soon. We just need to keep walking, keeping ourselves alive."

...

"Yes, mom I got the job, finally… I really don't know how I ended up getting it… I was very nervous in the interview and you know my resume too, it had nothing special to show and thinking that I don't even have the confidence an attendant should have... ok, ok I understand, you are just too nervous of me being away, I am on my way home… I'll call you when I reach there… ok mom bye."

Ava was on her way home, walking along the river, watching small children playing with puppies and small flowers sprouting from the buds. It's finally spring, my life is finally gonna change for the better. Best of luck Ava.

She got home and cooked herself a wholesome dinner. While cooking, she called her best friend over, and later, after finishing it, she went for a shower.

About half an hour later, she came out after a relaxing bath and saw her bestie in the kitchen; she realized she forgot that she called someone for dinner, but still pretended to act as if nothing happened.

"Oh, you came?" Ava acted normally.

"Yeah and I just realized from that look on your face that you forgot after calling me over, right?"

"WOW! How do you know that? I thought you won't be able to find that."

"You are too obvious. Ok, let's have dinner then. I am having a night over here. I brought some snacks and this movie series. Let's binge it tonight in celebration of you getting a job."

"How can you even know that?"

"What?"

"That I got a job." She said, while settling for dinner.

"You are too obvious." She said and giggled.

That night went well by plan and she enjoyed herself to the fullest, unaware of the crisis coming ahead.