by Steven Drake
“Are you alright?”
“Yes,” he said with a ragged, gasping breath. “That was the most powerful sealing spell I’ve ever encountered. It probably opens with a particular word, or a particular object. The Shades probably discovered it, but they would not have left any clues lying around, so I had to break the spell.”
“Like you did with the door to your cave?”
“Exactly, but this was cast by a much, much more powerful mage.” Darien continued to breathe heavily in and out. “This was someone as strong as myself, perhaps much stronger. I’ve never tried making a void that large before, not without the Demon’s Blade. I pushed myself to the limit. I’ll be weak for a while, but at least we can get in.” Miri shut her eyes to focus on her mage sight. Darien seemed to glow brilliantly, his form outlined in glowing white, a beautiful aftereffect of expending so much magic. Miri felt burning heat radiating off of him, a quite fascinating sensation. The glow slowly subsided as Darien recovered from his exertion, and as it did, the dark mist began to grow stronger, thickening like a fog building in the night.
Miri put her hands on his shoulders and let her power flow out of her, she wasn’t sure exactly what to heal. This was not an injury, but still she felt the need to try. Perhaps she could lend him some energy. She shut her eyes and focused, and a few moments later, when she opened them, Darien was staring at her with wide eyes.
“Thank you,” he stammered. “I don’t know what you did but… it feels much better now.”
“I don’t know either. I just had a feeling.”
“Let’s go then.” Darien walked into the dim room. This time Miri provided the light.
With the stone wall destroyed, the space behind had been revealed, a chamber perhaps half the size of the library itself. It had a rounded back wall and a domed ceiling, but the most remarkable feature was the floor, which was deep blue, almost like the surface of a frozen pond, but it was not made of ice, rather some kind of crystal. Dozens more bookshelves lined the outer wall, but these shelves had been emptied. In addition to the bookshelves were tables containing various types of glassware and strange looking tools. Many of these were broken, and judging by outlines of objects in the dust, several of the tools and much of the glassware was missing as well.
“This is what they wanted in this library.” Darien said. “They took all the books, and most of the alchemical tools. Some of these must have still had reagents in them.” Darien pointed to a spot of greenish blue liquid near one of the empty circles, evidence of something spilled from a missing container.
Miri barely noticed, her eyes had suddenly been drawn to the center of the room, where a bowl sat atop of a pedestal about four feet high. The bowl appeared to be filled with something like water. No, not water, rather more blue crystal, a brighter shade of blue than the floor. Miri felt power emanating from the bowl, and from a multifaceted blue crystal that hung directly above it, near the ceiling. Miri drifted towards the pedestal. She heard someone call her name from far away, but her mind felt dim and her senses seemed dull and muted.
Suddenly she felt two strong arms grasp her about the shoulders, and whip her around. She blinked dazedly and looked into Darien’s eyes.
“Are you alright?” Darien asked. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to see that bowl. I felt it, like it called to me.” She craned her neck back around, trying to see it again. “I need to see it.”
“Hold on,” Darien said. “This is powerful magic, and we don’t know what it is.”
“It isn’t dangerous,” Miri answered without thinking, and she was certain of the truth of her statement, though she had no idea how she knew that. “I need to touch it.” She pulled away, but Darien held her solidly. She tried to look him in the eye, but instead caught him staring at her chest. She started to blush but then she noticed that she no longer had her conjured light in hand, but she still saw Darien’s face perfectly, illuminated by a blue glow. Darien ran a finger along her neck, pulling up the spider necklace, the source of the glow. It shone a bright blue. “Don’t you see Darien? This is my necklace, the one I was found with. I was supposed to find this place. I need to look into that bowl.” Darien’s face creased with obvious worry, as he raised his eyes to her own. He so seldom looked her in the eye, and she lost herself for a moment in his sharp grey eyes, drinking in the powerful feelings she saw within. She felt a pleasant, tingly, fuzzy warmth fill her body from her head down to her toes. Darien’s cold and distant nature had momentarily fallen away, and Miri felt her resistance begin to crumble. If she let him hold her like this much longer, she would eventually capitulate to anything he asked, so she found the last of her strength and forced herself to turn away. “I can do this. I have to. Please.” Finally, Darien relented.
“Alright,” he sighed, “but be careful. I’ve already expended a lot of my magic, and I don’t know whether I have enough strength left to counter this if it turns out to be dangerous.” Miri smiled at him confidently as he released her. She turned to the bowl, and gazed into the blue crystal. Her necklace hung down as if pulled towards it. It seemed to radiate with power, but as she drew nearer, she sensed that the crystal was damaged. Tiny, hairline cracks interrupted the smooth surface, barely visible even inches away. The cracks along its smooth surface seemed to frown sadly at her. She reached out, and ran a finger along one of the tiny lines. Her magic sense prickled at her, as she felt the turbulent disruptions in the magic power around the fractures. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew that this thing was a device of some kind, and she knew it would not work with the damage present.
Without thinking, she loosed her power, as though she were healing an injury. As soon as she opened herself, however, the power poured out, pulled from her just as Darien’s void had pulled in everything around it. She gripped the edges of the stone bowl with her hands to steady herself. She started to panic as she realized she could no longer stop the energy pouring out of her, but then she felt Darien move up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, pressed against her back, and grasped her wrists. She sighed as Darien’s touch dispelled her fears, and for a moment, she felt his aura more acutely than ever before, a cool, refreshing, and soothing sensation, like bathing in a cold mountain stream on a hot day. She wanted to be even closer, to immerse herself, body and soul, in that cool water, but then the energy of the bowl changed, and drew her attention away.
The cracks smoothed and disappeared, first one, then another, until the surface smoothed to a crisp perfection. The blue glow brightened, and seemed to take on a depth, as though she were looking into deep clear water. Blue light shown down from the crystal above, and she leaned down, gazing into the water. Her necklace touched the blue glassy surface, and she heard a clear chime in her mind, a familiar sound, and she lost all sense of where she was. Without moving, she fell forward, as though she were falling out of her own body, into the blue infinite depths of the bowl. She lost all awareness for a moment, and then felt as though she were floating in blue light.
Chapter 31: Ancient Memories
When her mind returned, she found herself in the same dream she had seen so many times before. She saw the spider, sitting placidly in the center of its web. She saw the butterfly caught, then wrapped up by the spider, felt the urge to save the butterfly, then heard the voice of her father as he stopped her. The dream usually ended there, though sometimes she watched the spider for what seemed like hours. This time, however, the dream continued in perfect clarity.
This time her father picked her up, and embraced her. She saw his face, his smile filled with love. She recognized him immediately as her father, but not just as her father. He was also the man she had seen in the faerie’s vision. The fair-haired elf who had loved the faerie, who had fought the fierce dark man who carried Darien’s sword, this was her father. He hugged her, then whispered an ‘I love you’ in her ear. She heard herself giggle in her ten-year-old voice, but she wanted to cry at seeing him for the first t
ime in so long.
She recognized the place now. She was in a corner of the garden where she had been found sleeping. It had been her garden. Her father had made it just for her. She remembered now, and it made her want to weep with joy. She clung to him for several minutes of delirious joy. After a while, he put her down, and walked off into what appeared to be a fog. Miri sat down and watched the spider wrap the butterfly in silk. She continued to watch, lost in the memory, much clearer than it had ever been before, until she heard footsteps, and felt a familiar presence behind her.
Mirisa tensed as she felt someone draw closer, but rather than fear, she felt anticipation, even excitement. She turned and looked with joy upon the face of her mother, not just her mother, but the beautiful faerie woman from her visions as well. She, Mirisa, was the daughter of a faerie. She knew it without doubt, as though she had always known, but only now remembered.
Her ten-year-old self ran to her mother and embraced her, grasping her about the waist. Miri felt every sensation, the softness of her mother’s dress, the gentle touch of her mother’s hand as it cradled the back of her head, the soft, silky, dusty feel of yellowish glowing wings that wrapped around her back.
“Watching the bugs again, Miri.” Her mother asked. She nodded.
“Father says not to save the butterfly.” She heard herself ask in a child’s voice.
“That is because we are the spiders, Miri.” Her mother said. Miri looked strangely up at her mother, confused. Her mother smiled warmly back, a disarming smile that conveyed a deep knowledge, a wisdom that only comes with experience. “We are all entangled in the web of fate. Some are helpless, like the butterfly, and some are not. We, mortals who possess free will, have the chance to shape the web, if only in the smallest ways. It is both a blessing and a curse, and it comes with grave responsibility. We must always consider the consequences of our actions. Like the spider’s web, the web of fate is stronger than it appears. We cannot destroy it, but we can make our web into something beautiful, or something horrible.”
Miri blinked while looking up at her mother, considering the words, and reveling in the joy of rediscovering her family. Her father reappeared from somewhere else in the garden and joined their embrace. Miri could feel the love between them, for each other, and for her. She wanted to remain in this happy memory, playing in the garden with her mother and father forever, but suddenly, she felt something change.
She felt a twinge of fear rip through her, and heard footsteps.
“He is coming,” someone said in a rushed voice. “We have to get out of here.”
“How is that possible?” Miri’s mother asked. “I felt nothing, no warning? I should have been able to anticipate his coming.”
“Perhaps your powers of foresight have dulled with time.” The new figure said with a hint of distaste on his voice as he strode into view for the first time. This elf had pale whitish hair and sharp angled features. His eyes were ashen gray, paler than Darien’s, and he wore an unreadable expression that Miri found disturbing. Whoever he was, she got the sense she didn’t like him very much. He frightened her, but she didn’t know why
“It doesn’t matter, he was bound to find us eventually. Sound the alarm,” her father said as he turned to this new figure. “Begin the evacuation. Send everyone we can through the portals, while there’s still time. We have an hour before Meela and I can finish the seal and the portals close. No more.” Meela, so that was her mother’s name. The elf scurried away and disappeared back into the fog. Then Miri’s father set her down and took her small hand in his. He reached into a pocket and produced an amulet with a blue gemstone. He spoke clearly into it.
“Citizens of Albenar, heed my words, the executioner has come for us.” Her father’s voice boomed out from somewhere above, echoing through the mountains, even as she heard him speak beside her. “Arcanus is coming. I urge you do not engage him. It is pointless. Save your own lives, save your children. Flee to wherever you will, to the east beyond the desert, west across the sea, or to the south, deep in the forest to my brother’s sanctuary of Catarina. Wherever you go, however, leave your old lives behind you. Those of you who carry the blood curse, conceal your power in any way you can, Arcanus will never stop hunting you. The age of the elves is over.” Miri’s father returned the stone to his pocket, and hugged her. The voice that boomed out above them vanished. “Mirisa, precious daughter. You are the most important thing in the world to us.”
Miri’s mother’s voice then replaced her father’s, and she spoke in a similar tone, almost as if she were continuing his thought. “We wanted more than anything to see you grow into a woman, to see your happy face for many years, until we grew old and weary, and wish you well when we journey to the land of death, but fate has denied us. Perhaps we deserve it, but you do not.”
“The time has come.” Miri’s father spoke again.
“As my sisters warned me it would. Is everything ready?” Miri’s mother continued. Her father nodded his reply.
“What do you mean… Daddy, Mommy?” Miri felt the tears in her young eyes stinging hot, finally matching her own emotions.
For just a moment, everything shifted out of focus, and her father’s image blurred. She didn’t understand what was happening, but as quickly as the disturbance had come, it vanished, and the vision seemed to sharpen again. She relaxed as her father’s smiling face came back into focus.
He began speaking softly, consolingly. “Your mother and I have to go away now. We probably won’t see you again, but I have to keep you safe. The bad man I told you about, the one who hunts us, Arcanus. He is coming.”
“Your father and I have to face him.” Miri’s mother continued where her father had left off. “We have to try to stop him. If we defeat him, we will come back for you. If we don’t, then someone else will find you, a long time from now. That is our promise to you. My sisters have promised me it will be so.” Miri wept bitter tears in her mind, and she could not tell which were her own and which were those of her childhood self. Several minutes later, the fair-haired elf returned.
Her father turned to the fair-haired elf and spoke sternly, “It is time, Varias.”
“Are you certain of this course, Lord Algalon?” The man her father had named Varias asked with a hint of disapproval on his lips.
“Still so formal, Varias. How many times have I asked you not to call me Lord Algalon? Can you at least call me by my name once?” He smiled kindly at the younger elf, who looked down at the ground.
“My apologies, Lord Argas.” Varias stared resolutely at the ground. “But I question this course. The star belongs to all our people. To deprive them of that. There is already so little magic left.”
“I understand your concern.” Argas sighed and gazed upwards. “And in some ways, I agree with you, but if Meela and I fail to defeat Arcanus, he will destroy it anyway. There are other stars left, some are already sealed, and others are well hidden. He cannot find them all. Magic will not be extinguished entirely. The two things I treasure most in this world, the two things I must protect at any cost, I will put beyond his reach forever.”
“I will fight with you, my lord and lady.” Varias looked up with fire in his eyes and conviction in his voice. “I will die with you, if that is my fate. You cannot ask me to abandon you. We could use the avatar. With its power, the three of us would stand a greater chance of victory. I will not abandon you.”
As Varias spoke, Mirisa felt vague dread, muted and indistinct, but insistent, and somehow distant, as though some evil lurked within this elf that was not yet fully formed, one which still lay dormant, a seedling that would not bear fruit for many seasons.
Miri’s father looked kindly at the young elf. “I am not asking you to abandon us, Varias. I ask you to trust in our judgement. We cannot all die here, and I cannot use the avatar. It is linked to the memory stone, and we cannot risk him following that link to destroy our history as easily as he takes our lives. No, Arcanus comes for us, and we will fina
lly face him, alone. We will do as we have planned.” The elf scowled at the floor and clenched his fists. It sent a shudder down Mirisa’s spine. “Varias, come with us. We require your assistance one last time.”
“Anything my lord,” Varias said with a pang of sadness and more than a little resentment.
Mirisa’s father reached into another pocket and produced a small vial of dull blue gray liquid and a tightly rolled parchment, tied together with twine. He handed these to Varias.
“What is this, my lord?”
“A weapon,” he answered. “A poison, specifically, one which I hope to use against Arcanus.”
“How will this help? Everything we know of Arcanus suggests the Demon’s Blade protects him from all known poisons.”
“Known poisons, yes, but this is different. It contains ground bloodstone, mixed with a secret concoction the demon lords once used on one another, a legacy of our former masters. I placed a particular enchantment upon it, similar to the ones woven into the sword itself. I’m not entirely sure what it will do. It may kill him immediately, it may accelerate the progression of the blade’s curse, or it may sever his connection with the blade entirely. I can’t be sure, but I believe it will at least weaken him enough to be killed. I have enough to use against him myself. I am giving you this in case we fail, a sample and everything I have learned about the formula.” Father turned and looked at Varias, then placed a hand on his shoulder. “My friend, there is a reason I choose you for this task. Our people have no more strength left. We are divided, fractured into so many pieces, most of whom no longer even acknowledge the others’ existence. With your ability to alter your appearance, you may find new allies in the world of men. If I am defeated, it will fall to you to refine my formula if you can. Arcanus must be defeated eventually, or he will finally deteriorate into a monster, little different than those he seeks to destroy, and the cycle will repeat. How I wish I had never helped those fools make that damnable weapon. Though it ended the reign of the formless demons, it came at too great a cost. Now we face a threat as deadly as the Lord of the Void himself. Whoever controls the power of that weapon is every bit the equal of the Demon King himself. If I fail, you must succeed.”