A Castle of Wisdom: The Spellbook Adventures of Micah

Micah walked along the long hallway, his steps measured and cautious. His mother had warned him to be quiet, and he was determined to heed her advice.

"Be careful in the great hall, Micah," she had said. "The king and the prince are gone, but there are still a few guards patrolling the castle."

Micah knew where the great hall was, of course; he had been there with his father when he was little. He had even played there a few times when his father was home. But now, it seemed like an entirely new place. The whole castle did.

They were supposed to be back two weeks ago, Micah thought as he tiptoed down the corridor that led to the great hall. They had gone on some sort of diplomatic mission together, and Lady Cleonie had been left behind to rule while they were away. Normally she would have traveled with them, but Micah's father wanted her to stay home in case anything went wrong while he was away.

Something must have gone wrong, Micah thought as he turned a corner and crept through a narrow door frame into the great hall. The room looked deserted and eerily dark compared to when his father had taken him there before. Then again, Micah reasoned, his eyes hadn't adjusted completely yet either; what if it wasn't so dark? What if someone had just turned out all the lights?

Micah walked slowly across the hollow floorboards toward one of the tall windows that overlooked a courtyard at the entrance to the castle. He pressed himself up against one of the pillars that supported one side of the domed ceiling high above him and peered out between two of the stone supports that ran from floor to ceiling along each of its sides.

There didn't appear to be anyone out there either, no guards or servants going about their business in any way that suggested something was amiss. As quietly as he could, Micah crossed back over to where he remembered a large wooden table being when his father took him here before. He made his way around to another pillar and peeked out again through one of its windows; still no one there.

He circled back around until he came face-to-face with a set of wide double doors leading into what must have been his father's throne room once upon a time. Now they opened directly into this large open space where most of his memories of the castle took place: playing in this hall with Nolen decades ago during his brother's childhood; sitting through formal banquets with nobility from neighboring planets when his mother became Queen; listening to guests speak reverently about their years serving on King Jurek's personal guard as young men all those years ago when Lady Cleonie first met him at Marku Castle after she fled from her own family...

But now this space was empty except for some dust motes floating lazily in the rays of light streaming in from outside through those same windows Micah had seen earlier. The only thing left behind for Micah were these thoughts that kept swirling around in his head about how much things had changed since he last visited this place as a child many years ago...