Snippet #1733773

Marina frowned at what Jet said.
He had been told to kill something? What kind of task was that? And what could it possibly prove? Her task had seemed to be a test of her intelligence... no, it had called her wise.
It was her wisdom that was being tested.
“Children’s fairy tale? What do you mean?”
For some reason that line caught her off guard, and something else came through to her mind. An old rhyme that had been written on the back page in a book of Aquarian fairy tales, no one knew who had done it or why but it had always been there. Many of the scholars dismissed it as some nonsense scribbling but now that she thought about it, that rhyme suddenly seemed significant, but she couldn’t sa
“The goblin shrouded in darkened form, spreading poison across the lands, is frightened by the crystal light, cast by six hearts and six hands...”
Marina was only half aware she had recited the rhyme out loud. She looked about her, doing a quick count around the room. Twelve people, nearly all different races. Twelve... six and six... six hearts and six hands... but who was who? As for the goblin in darkened form spreading poison... the Shadelian Prince. She may have lived a sheltered life but her father had informed her of what was happening to the lands. The darkened form was because this power acted through the shadelians, the poison was the pollution and environmental damage which spread throughout the land. Part of her couldn't believe it, an old rhyme that none could make sense of before suddenly sounded like the situation they were in? Surely that was too fantastic.
Maybe... or maybe it was the simple truth.
At Zet’s words she turned to him, broken from her train of thought.
“Yes, I think that all of us have endured a task for a purpose... this isn’t coincidence. I think someone, or something, has planned all of this.” She looked at him. “These tasks seem to be tests. When you were given yours, did you hear a voice at all? Telling you what your task was supposed to prove or what was going to happen to you afterwards?"