by Tom Hoffman
Proto replied, “I believe they used a complex system of ropes and pulleys to raise the great stone slabs, quite a remarkable feat, considering the primitive tools they had. Shall we go in?” He grabbed one of the massive iron rings bolted to the huge wooden doors. Much to his surprise, when he pulled on the ring the doors did not budge. “Odd. They must be locked from the inside.”
“Who would have done that?”
Sophia gave Orville a sideways glance. “I think you know the answer to that question. What we really need to know is how to get in.”
“What about the vertical slots on the tower used by the archers? Maybe we could climb in through one of those.”
“I have a better idea, let’s make our own doorway.” Sophia stepped back a few feet and a blinding purple light shot out from her paws, blasting into the massive wooden doors. The heavy timbers glowed brightly for a moment, the glow quickly fading.
Sophia frowned. “That should have burned a big hole right through the doors. Something absorbed the energy. Proto, can you scan the doors for defense fields?”
A pale green light panned across the entryway. “You are quite correct, there is a powerful defensive energy shield covering the doors, protecting them from damage.”
“Let me think for a minute.” Sophia gazed up at the rectangular archer slots. “They’re too narrow for us to fit through.” Orville watched as Sophia paced back and forth in front of the doors, her mind racing. She stopped, a curious smile on her face. “I can’t fit through an arrow slot, but a glowbird could.”
“A glowbird? How does that help us? What are you talking about? Are you feeling all right?”
“Formshifting, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Orville’s eyes bugged out. “Formshifting? That’s really dangerous, Sophia. Have you ever done it? It doesn’t sound like a very good idea.”
“Master Marloh has been instructing me for over six months.”
“You never told me about that. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t want you to worry. You know how you get.”
“I still wish you would have told me. You really know how to do it?”
“I’ve formshifted into a glowbird at least fifty times. Master Marloh said I was ready to use it in the field if I needed to.”
“How does it work exactly?”
“It’s simple enough. When I blink somewhere, I turn my physical body into a thought cloud, travel for no more than two seconds, then use my inner self to convert the thought cloud back into my physical form. Formshifting is the same process, but I don’t travel anywhere, and instead of converting back to my mouse body, I convert myself into the physical form of a glowbird.”
“That’s kind of weird. You can still think okay, even with… a bird brain?” Orville tried to stifle his laugh.
Sophia ignored his joke. “Of course I can, I’m not using the bird’s physical brain to think, I’m using my inner self. I’m going to do it. It’s our only way in.”
Sophia stood silently, closing her eyes, then vanished in a flash of blue light. A split second later a glowbird blinked into existence at Orville’s feet.
“Creekers! Sophia? Is that you? You’re really a bird?”
The glowbird gave a loud squawk. A green thought cloud floated out of its feathers up to Orville. “It’s me, I’m fine. Master Marloh said he would teach you how to formshift, if you want. I’m going to go through an arrow slot and unlock the doors from the inside. I’ll pound on the doors when I’m done and Proto can pull them open.”
With a flurry of feathers Sophia shot up into the air. Learning to fly had been far easier than she had originally thought it would be. When she took the form of a glowbird, flying was instinctive, as though she had always known how to do it. She let out a loud squawk. “This is the most fun ever!”
Orville watched as Sophia swooped and soared around the black tower. She shot straight up almost two hundred feet then blasted down, a shimmering blur, swooping past Orville with a loud screech. He jumped backwards. “Be careful, please!”
Sophia did a snap barrel roll, circled around the tower and flashed up to one of the rectangular slots. She landed on the stone ledge and peered into the tower. A thought cloud floated down to Orville.
“I see a circular stairway. I’m going in. Don’t forget, have Proto open the doors when I pound on them.” Sophia disappeared into the dark tower.
Chapter 31
The Dark Wizard
Sophia converted back to her mouse form once she was in the tower. She found herself standing on a narrow spiral stairway worn smooth from countless centuries of use, illuminated by a narrow shaft of light coming in through the arrow slot.
“Let’s see what’s down there.” She sent out a bright orb of light, then cautiously descended the stairs, alert for any sudden sounds or movement. There was neither, only a heavy stillness and the musty smell of ages gone by.
She padded silently down the stone steps, finally reaching ground level, a circular room with the same diameter as the tower. The floor was covered with an elaborate mosaic created from innumerable brightly colored tiles.
“It’s beautiful, a Thaumatarian rabbit wearing silver armor battling a big blue lizard. The lizard could be a mythological creature, or maybe even one they brought with them from Thaumatar. That would make Proto happy.”
It was readily apparent why the doors had refused to open. A massive wooden beam ran across them, held in place by four stout iron brackets.
Sophia tried to lift the beam out of the brackets. “Too heavy. A little shaping should fix that.” She backed away from the doors and extended both paws. A brilliant red light shot out, cutting the beam in half. “That should do it.” A heavy stone blinked into her paw she and pounded on the doors.
The iron hinges squealed as the massive doors opened, Proto and Orville stepping into the keep.
Orville recognized the room instantly. “This is where I entered the castle in my dream! It had the same design on the floor, that rabbit fighting a big lizard. We took that staircase down to the dungeons.”
“Are you ready for this? Ready to meet your dark wizard from ages long lost?”
A powerful sphere of defense blinked up around Orville. “Ready.”
Proto headed down the long spiral stone staircase.
Sophia flicked her paw and a sphere of light flashed out. Within seconds the orb dimmed to the brightness of a single candle.
Orville whispered, “That’s what happened in my dream. My light orbs dimmed down to almost nothing. It was really hard to see.”
Proto flipped on his ear lights. “This should help. An unknown force is dimming your light orbs, but perhaps only shaped energy fields are affected.”
“That’s better, we can see the stairs.”
The adventurers continued their descent, Orville gingerly feeling for the edge of each step, his eyes searching the darkness ahead. The light from Proto’s ears dimmed, just as their light orbs had.
“What happened to your ear lights?”
“I am uncertain. The amount of light energy being emitted from my ears has not diminished, but it is being absorbed by an unknown force. This is reminiscent of the sticky green ball creatures on Periculum who surrounded themselves with perpetual darkness.”
Orville knew dark magic when he saw it, but kept this thought to himself. “Okay, I’m at the bottom of the stairs, ground level. In my dream we turned left.” Orville held out both paws and a dozen blazing white orbs shot out across the vast room. The lights dimmed, but not before Sophia had gotten a glimpse of their surroundings.
“I saw the stairs. You were right, we turn left and go straight for about fifty feet.”
Proto’s ear lights were now casting a barely visible glow around the party of adventurers. Step by step they crept across the uneven rocky floor.
Sophia touched Orville’s shoulder, whispering, “The stairs are straight ahead.”
“Do you hear it?”
“That dull pounding sound. It was a lot louder in my dream, like a giant heart beating.”
“I hear it, but we’re not supposed to go toward the sound, we go down the stairs. That’s where we’ll find Mendacium.”
“I know.” Orville concentrated deeply, letting go of his fear, becoming an objective observer.
“Let’s go.” Sophia took the lead. Proto’s ear lights had gone dark, forcing Orville to run his paw along the rough castle wall so he wouldn’t lose his balance.
Sophia whispered, “Orville, take my paw so we don’t get separated.” Orville gripped Sophia’s paw, then reached back for Proto’s hand.
Proto stopped short. “Hold on, I may have a solution for this peculiar darkness. Something is absorbing the light energy, but perhaps I can see using light outside the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your eyes use only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to see, the segment we call visible light. I will adjust my optical input system to sense infrared radiation, which lies outside the range of visible light. What I will be seeing is the heat energy emitted from surrounding objects. If something is warm, such as you and Sophia, I will see glowing white forms. The warmer the object is, the brighter the image appears. Ah, it’s working nicely, I can see the steps quite clearly now, since they are cooler than the air which surrounds them. Three more steps and we’re there. I see a set of enormous doors.”
“Is there a gold medallion above them?”
“I see a round object, but I am unable to make out any details.”
The adventurers pressed on, creeping silently across the room.
Orville whispered, “There’s a purple glow coming from between the doors, just like in my dream.”
“Oh, dear.” Proto stopped in his tracks.
Orville had a dreadful sinking feeling in his stomach. He could hear the doors groaning open. “What is it? What do you see?”
“The good news is my thermal vision is working exceptionally well, far better than I had anticipated.”
Orville gulped. “What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is we are not alone. There is a glowing white form about thirty feet in front of us. It’s rather tall, I’m afraid.”
Orville’s voice was barely audible. “Mendacium?”
“It’s quite possible.”
“Sophia, what should we do?” Orville’s breathing was fast and shallow.
“We face him head on. We are Metaphysical Adventurers, we are powerful shapers, and we are smart.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Sophia grabbed Orville’s arm. “Wait, think about it, why is Mendacium keeping the room so dark?”
“Because he’s a creepy dark wizard who wants to kill us?”
“Think, Orville. He’s keeping it dark because he wants to scare us. Why would he want to do that?”
“So we’ll run away screaming like little mouselings?”
“And why would he want us to run away?”
Something clicked in Orville’s mind. “Because he’s not as powerful as we think he is. If he was, he wouldn’t need to frighten us, he would just destroy us.”
“Bingo. Either he can’t destroy us or he doesn’t want to. I think we should find out exactly why Mendacium the Dark Wizard is afraid to show his face.” Sophia strode forward across the ancient stone floor.
Orville gave a low gasp. “Look! Just like my dream, a purple glow surrounding a black silhouette.”
“Whatever Mendacium is, he is producing a great deal of infrared radiation, especially his upper half. I am seeing his form quite clearly with my thermal vision.”
“Did you hear that, Orville? Mendacium is not some ethereal dark wizard, he has a warm body just like we do.”
“Giant carnivorous centipedes have warm bodies, but that doesn’t mean I want to stand next to one.”
“The light around him is getting brighter.” The three adventurers watched in silence as Mendacium’s glowing aura slowly revealed the form within it.
“It’s him, it’s Mendacium.”
Sophia’s eyes locked onto the tall gaunt creature. It was indeed Mendacium, twelve feet tall, draped in a flowing purple robe, his face hidden deep within the shadows of a large floppy hood. His eyes glowed with a fearsome burning yellow light.
Orville could scarcely breathe.
A gnarled wooden staff topped with a crackling fiery orb appeared in Mendacium’s hand. Three times he raised the staff and three times he brought it down with a thundering crash, the impact shaking the castle walls.
A hissing whisper slithered through the darkness toward them. “You stand on the border of nothingness, the land of the dead, the world of the lost. Leave now, while you are able.”
“Sophia, I think we should– wait, that doesn’t make sense.” Orville frowned, taking a step forward. “You said this is the land of the dead?”
There was no reply from Mendacium.
“Just to be clear, you’re saying that you’re dead, and this is the land of the dead?”
The voice shook with rage. “You try my patience, mouse! Leave now or you shall join me forever in eternal darkness!” A brilliant blast of red light shot out from Mendacium’s staff, exploding a few feet away from Orville.
“Just a few more questions then I promise we’ll leave you alone. Are you Mendacium the Dark Wizard?”
“YOU DARE SPEAK MY NAME???” Orville’s bones rattled from the thundering blast of Mendacium’s voice, but he was sensing something quite curious about Mendacium. “No need to yell, we’re not deaf, you know.”
“SUCH INSOLENCE!! MY ARMY OF SPECTRAL DEMONS SHALL DESTROY YOU!!!”
“Orville, thought cloud coming our way!”
A large blood red thought cloud flashed across the room, surrounding Orville and Sophia. Orville screeched when he saw the horde of pale slithering serpents undulating across the floor toward them, their narrow red eyes glowing brightly, orange flames sprouting from their long yellow fangs.
“They’re not real, they’re from his thought cloud.”
Orville flicked his wrist and Mendacium’s thought cloud shot back across the room. The horde of approaching serpents vanished. “He’s starting to make me mad.”
Orville marched forward toward the towering purple figure. “Why are you trying to scare us? Do you really think I don’t know what a thought cloud is? Did you think I’d be afraid of your silly slithering serpents?”
Mendacium let out a terrible roar of maniacal rage, his yellow eyes in flames. A gigantic purple beam of light shot out from his staff, streaking toward Orville. When the blast of light reached him, however, it was absorbed by Orville’s sphere of defense.
Mendacium vanished in a blink of light. The room was filled with a terrible silence.
“Where did he go?”
Proto scanned the room using his thermal vision. “I’m afraid he is presently standing directly behind us.” Orville and Sophia whirled around.
An unexpected voice came out of the darkness. “You are shapers?”
“What?”
“A simple enough question, I asked if you were both shapers?”
“Yes?”
Sophia added, “We’re not only shapers, we’re Metaphysical Adventurers.”
The room was flooded with daylight. Orville covered his eyes, squinting up at the twelve foot tall creature, its face still hidden in the dark folds of a great purple hood.
“You are Metaphysical Adventurers?”
“Yes, we’re here on a mission.”
“I suppose I should not be surprised. Who else would dare enter such a frightening place as this?”
Sophia smiled pleasantly. “You’re exceptionally tall, aren’t you? It must be hard to find clothes that fit properly.”
“One must keep up appearances.” Mendacium’s heavy purple robe slid off, falling to the floor in a heap.
“
Creekers!”
Orville was gazing up at a rather handsome mouse sporting a blue striped vest and dark green pants, a handsome mouse who was perched atop a pair of tall stilts. The mouse hopped down, the stilts clattering to the floor.
Sophia smiled pleasantly. “Stilts? Really?”
“If you could show me your rings? Just to verify your claim?”
Sophia and Orville held out their paws, showing Mendacium their Metaphysical Adventurer rings.
“Righto, they look authentic. So, what brings you to Castle Caligari?”
Orville was trying to process this unexpected turn of events. “Who are you?”
“I’m Mendacium the Dark Wizard, I thought I had made that abundantly clear. Now, if you would please answer my question. Why are you here in the land of the dead?”
Orville gave a start. “Wait, we really are in the land of the dead?”
“In a way. Not precisely the land of the living, and not precisely the land of the dead.”
Sophia said, “It’s the land of the dead because time does not exist here.”
“I’m impressed, truly I am. Most visitors don’t pick up on that. They get disoriented and confused and can’t run away fast enough.”
Orville was filled with a burning curiosity. “We know you’re not a twelve foot tall dark wizard, so who are you? The villagers said they bring you offerings and in return you prevent all plague and pestilence.”
Mendacium shrugged. “Give me a hundred gold coins and I’ll keep the Nirriimian Purple Skrilly Beasts from nibbling at your toes while you sleep.”
Proto frowned. “I’ve never heard of such a creature.”
“My point exactly. There are no Purple Skrilly Beasts, and likewise there is no plague or pestilence on Tectar. The Thaumatarians were quite meticulous in their colonization practices.”
“You know about the Thaumatarians?”
“Of course I do. Mendacium the Dark Wizard knows all.” He waved one arm with a great flourish.
Sophia rolled her eyes. “It looks to me like you’re nothing more than a common crook, tricking villagers out of their gold and food and books. I am curious about the books, however. Why books?”