Misguided

Alessia stares down at her hands. They are filling up with blisters. She splashes some disinfectant that Donn gave to her. She didn't realize that practicing with a sword would be hard work. She wouldn't mind returning to her old ways of fighting demons. She wanted to learn how to fight with a sword while pulling her powers into it. But Zagreus hasn't even touched on the subject yet.

Throwing the towel, she was using to clean her hands. She flops down onto her bed. It's been a week since she decided to start training under Zagreus, yet Alessia feels no progress, and at times she can feel the hostel energy return to Zagreus. He hates her, even if he won't admit it.

Alessia looks up at the ceiling. It has a carving of different creatures and demons and is white and gold. It is beautiful, much like everything in the castle. She hasn't had much time to explore it, as Zagreus makes her spend her days practicing.

She would love to explore more and find out more about Mania and the princes. Why are portals opening up more, and what happens between both realms? There are so many things that Alessia wants to study, understand and protect.

The way the training goes, everything is distracting and not helping her. It's beginning to annoy her.

Flipping to her side, she glances at the door, notices a shadow figure appears and quickly disappears as Alessia sees it. Her heart jumps at the sight.

She sits in bed, glances around the dimly lit room, and notices nothing out of place. Alessia stands up and walks to where the figure stands. As she approaches the door, it slowly opens.

She swallows hard, unsure if it's a good idea to open the door more and see what lurks in the corridor.

Against Alessia's better judgment, she pushes open the door more and sticks her head out. She looks to the left and the right. She doesn't see anything out of place and goes to shut the door when she sees the figure out of the corner of her eye. It was standing at the end of the hall.

Making her way down to where it stands, it once again disappears. A growing feeling of frustration creeps up her back. What is going on? She isn't sure if her mind is playing tricks on her or if an evil presence tempts her.

Either way, Alessia's curiosity is getting the best of her as the figure is at the end of yet another hallway.

She follows the figure around the castle, yet no one is aware of her walking around. Alessia hasn't seen Donn or Zagreus, making her slightly uneasy.

Alessia approaches a dead end. There was a stone wall with two torches, but nothing is in the middle, no door and no paintings or art.

"It was a wild goose chase." She kicks the ground with her foot and turns around.

A creaking noise makes her turn and looks over her shoulders. The stone wall opened. It was small opening.

Of course, a secret door, Alessia mocks at herself.

She pushes it open more, and the smell of Mongolian flowers surrounds her. Grabbing a torch off the wall, she steps entirely into the room.

Alessia looks around the walls for a place to light more torches or candles; it was too dark to make out much.

After a few minutes, she had the room blazing. To her surprise, Alessia was expecting a bedroom or maybe some office. What she didn't expect was it was a library, and it was long and wide.

There are rows and rows of bookshelves as tall as Zagreus, if not taller. The other side of the room has more books and shelves up to the ceiling.

She sees the figure again at the far end of the room, standing against a shelf. She walks towards the side of the room.

The figure was gone, but what she finds in its place makes her heart skip a few beats. The books on the wall are carefully placed with labels that go in order.

The shelf's title made her heart go wild with curiosity and fright.

"The missing Goddess."