Antithesis, An ancient stage is set
#12 of Antithesis
And chapter twleve. I hope you enjoy it.
As always, comments are appreciated and requested.
Continued from 'The Fall of Neutrality...'
Winded, Shandi settled back against the magically sealed door, leaning wearily upon the stone surface. It had been carved perfectly smooth, ground down by a stone mason of great skill until it felt almost silky against her fur. Letting out a sigh of relief, Shandi closed her eyes for a moment, her whole body trembling in the aftermath of the magic she had been forced to use. Outside, she could dimly hear the impudent roars of the horrible creature and the screams of the dying soldiers, but she smiled grimly because, for the moment, with her formidable magic sealing the door, and the magic of the long forgotten creator of this vault, she was safe from its rage. Opening her eyes, she found that the chamber she was in was very dark, almost a perfect black as her seal faded to invisibility, but she could still see, a dim glow filling the space around her and it took her a moment to figure out where it was coming from. The runes upon Fal-cotha's blade were glowing dim blue, illuminating the form of her guardian. He appeared to be standing against the wall beside the door, having leaned his rune blade up against the stones beside him. But then, Shandi realized that something was wrong. There was something in his outline that didn't belong.
Forgetting her exhaustion for the moment, Shandi moved closer to her protector, her tired eyes becoming accustomed to the rune light, she saw what it was that had changed and gasped, sudden fear crossing her face. Beneath the proud warrior's left arm, the side that had been facing their enemy, a feathered shaft protruded from the seam between breast plate and back. Hurrying to his side, Shandi laid a hand on her Knight's arm, surprised to find his face contorted, not in pain as she had expected, but in frustration. Puzzled, she regarded him with concern and he spoke finally, one hand grasping the shaft and tugging.
"Damn bolt is stuck." He grunted, heaving at the shaft and then wincing as it shifted slightly. Shandi leaned back from him in confusion, trying to see what could possible compel him to treat having a crossbow bolt stuck in him so lightly and he managed a smile. "Its not stuck in me, my lady. The mail turned it. Trouble is, one of the points is jammed in the middle of a ring. Figures one of those Kirinus fools would get lucky." Gritting his teeth once more, the Knight gave a great heave with his arm and with a curiously musical tinkling sound, the bolt came free and Shandi saw at last what he meant. One side of the flat bolt head had been bent downward, likely when it contacted his breastplate. The bent portion must have gotten lodged in the closely knit chainmail, pressing itself hard against the knight's side, which, beneath the form-fitting metal plate, must have been very uncomfortable. "There, that's better."
Shandi chuckled in spite of herself as he discarded the projectile and let out a sigh of satisfaction. But, even as the knight straightened up and dug a cloth out of the inside of one of his gauntlets, wiping down his glittering sword, Shandi saw that the edge of the bolt's point shone in the light of the runes, its head glistening wetly with red blood. Concerned, she picked up the projectile and looked at Kael questioningly, ready to tap her magic to heal him despite her weakened state. Seeing her gaze, he smiled, another of his rarer then rare genuine grins and spoke once more.
"It's just a scratch, really." He said, laying aside his sword for the moment and unbuckling the plates of his armor. Removing his breast and back plates and setting them aside, he showed her the small gap the bolt had made in the finely knit chainmail, splitting all of about eight rings as it penetrated. Beneath the mail was indeed a small scratch, so shallow that it had barely even drawn blood. "Don't worry yourself, my lady. Save your strength for when it is needed."
Relieved, Shandi nodded in agreement, throwing the bolt over her shoulder, not listening as it clattered against the opposite wall. Smiling at her guardian, she straightened up fully in a stretch, and suddenly, the dimly lit hall spun around her and she seized Kael's arm to keep the crazily shifting floor from slipping out from under her feet. Kael instantly supported her, settled her back against the wall gently, peering close at her face.
"Are you alright?" he questioned. Shandi nodded, feeling suddenly nauseous, letting herself sink down to the floor. The world slowed its spinning and she shook her head, swallowing against the acid that rose in her throat.
"Yes, I think so. That last spell really took it out of me." The magus replied, still holding the knight's arm gently, relishing the touch of the cool metal he wore. He seemed to be the only thing that was steady in the world, everything else spinning around her. And then, as she closed her eyes to block out the swaying stones, she felt her guardian settle beside her and she leaned her head tiredly onto his shoulder, not caring that her pillow was a hard metal paldron, smiling as one of the white wolf's arms encircled her. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to get a handle on everything that she was feeling.
She felt so strange in the aftermath of the fight. Odd emotions and images kept rising within her mind, and prominently among them, undeniable in its intensity, was an odd feeling of elation. Aside from the fear that had almost ruled her, aside from the knowledge that both of them had only just barely escaped from death, was a very confusing idea, something that she couldn't deny, no matter how hard she tried. It had been exciting, almost fun to vie with death on that level, to come within a hair's breadth of the barrier between its realm and the realm of the living and to come away alive and well. Even though she was so tired she felt that she might slip into sleep in a moment, she felt very...alive in that instant. There was no other word for it. She had to wonder if this was the way that all warriors felt like after having lived through a close fight.
"What now, my lady?" Kael asked suddenly, his quiet voice rousing her from her musings. She opened her eyes to find him sheathing his freshly cleaned sword, tucking the bloodied cloth back under his gauntlet. "I assume that we cannot simply open a portal and leave this room."
"No, I don't think that would work." Shandi agreed, staring into the sudden darkness, trying to get her eyes to adjust to it. Sighing, she shifted so she was more comfortable, finding that the mail that the knight wore was actually warm, picking up the heat of his body beneath the plate armor he wore outside it. Shaking her head once more, she tried to focus on the problem at hand, but instead found her thoughts drifting, random images and considerations rising one by one to the fore of her mind, then finally falling back into the ether of her subconscious. Her thoughts seemed to be crawling by at a snail's pace and at last, her mind seemed to come to one inescapable fact, a fact that was accompanied by weariness settling in upon her like a thick blanket. "I don't know, to be honest. I can't think right now. I need to rest."
"Very well." Kael replied, unbuckling the rune sword from its baldric and settling it upright against the wall on his other side before pulling her closer. Shandi smiled into the darkness, thankful for once that it was so dark. No one could see her snuggling close to her secret lover, drawing strength from his embrace, an embrace that was most certainly too intimate to be proper. For a short time, the pair were silent, only their breathing to be heard. She could feel the exhaustion dragging her down into the warm fog of sleep, but she could also feel that it was one of those ever-frustrating occasions where her mind wouldn't let her go just yet. Heaving a sigh, Shandi spoke, whispering her words so they wouldn't echo in the room.
"Kael, tell me something of your homeland." She said thickly, yawning, and felt her guardian look over at her in surprise.
"What do you wish to know?" He asked, and she smiled once more, sensing his surprise.
"I don't know." Shandi replied, "Tell me something about your family's lands. We have never spoken of it, and you have seen my home, so I think its only fair."
"As my lady wishes," Kael replied, and she heard him draw in a slow breath, obviously collecting his thoughts. "I was born in my family's castle, a place called Ker-line, which is the only castle to be built so far to the north on Antaria. My people used to call it the Ice Palace, because it only unfreezes for about a week or two a year. It was built in the cleft between two mountains, high on a ridge overlooking the valleys below it. Though the castle rarely is without ice, I always remember that it was so warm inside that you felt like it the sun itself were trapped inside its walls. Down below us, there were a pair of valleys that stretched out to either side of the ridge, east and west, and there was something with the way the mountains bent the wind, but they were actually verdant and green for a few months a year, enough for crops to be grown. There were many villages there and I can remember I used to play with some of the common children when it was warm enough in the valleys..."
Shandi smiled as his words filled her ears, images swimming to life in the darkness, images of the land he described. They were as clear as glass, and she knew that somehow, she was seeing exactly what her knight remembered. With a smile on her lips, she settled her weight against the cool stones of the wall, letting the images take hold of her, losing the thread of his words for a little while, idly watching the images as they passed her. Then, the images began to change to other things, the frozen castle, strong and elegant, fading into the distance and she focused on Kael's words once more.
"The forest to the north of Ker-line was always so beautiful, especially in the endless night of the winter. My parents used to call it the Crystal Forest, and only our people knew its secrets." For a moment Kael paused in the telling and she felt him smile beside her as he recalled the images. "When the lasting night fell, my siblings and I used to sneak out after the ice storms, and everything would be covered in a shell of water. And when the northern lights would shine down on them, it made it look like the trees were made of gemstones. And it was so cold out there that this icy mist would rise from the ground, twisting among the trees, picking up the colors of the lights above, reflecting them infinitely like the mist was magic. We used to say that it was like we were walking in the dreams of the entire world. We used to play hide and seek out there, and with Fire tea, this special drink we made, we could stay out for hours without getting cold..." Shandi's mind drifted on into the images once again, losing the thread of his words utterly, but the images still came out of the darkness, her mind drifting from one to the other, and all at once, she found herself floating above an ice shrouded expanse of dark pines, a thin mist rising from between the endless trunks. She could see the frozen and yet stunning forest as Kael had described it, every detail vivid and clear as if created at that moment, unviewed save by her eyes alone. She saw the wonder of the mist floating below her as the shimmering lights turned the forest into a land of ethereal wraiths, the endless stars spread out in the midnight blue above shining through it all with a pale radiance. And then, as she watched, diminutive figures began to appear, running through the trees.
They were wolves, all of them white furred, and none of them could have been more than ten years old. But all of them had a distinctive silver circlet of fur on their heads, the mark glowing brightly in the starlight. One even looked somewhat familiar and she realized that somehow, she was watching Kael when he had been a child, playing with his siblings and cousins. She watched the children play among the misty trees, chasing and wrestling each other while the mist swirled about them, half obscuring their forms. And then, gradually, subtle changes took place in her vision. Now new figures were playing in the mist, figures that looked strange to her eyes, but she could only catch brief glimpses of them. And then, as if a breath of wind had swirled the mist aside, she saw one of them clearly.
It looked like a wolf child, but its ears were a little rounder, its muzzle a little less angular. Its tail was longer, fluffier than the others had been, and more, its alabaster pelt was spotted with black, the very same pattern as a snow leopard, except for its head, where the distinctive silver circlet still stood out in sharp relief to the white fur. And then, with a start, she realized that it had feathery wings, as pure white as freshly driven snow. And then, the strange child turned its slit-pupiled blue eyes at her and she felt a familiar shiver run through her, as if it was seeing through her. The eyes were so alike to those of another, the very same quality as the eyes of Kael, but they were feline...
With a start, Shandi woke from a sleep she had never realized she was falling into, her head popping off Kael's paldron to find the room dark, no swirling, multicolored mist filling it, no glittering, ice covered trees, and no wolf and snow leopard hybrids staring at her. For there could be no mistaking that that was what the apparition had been. Shivering with a sudden chill, she also realized that the room was almost silent. Looking at her companion with the dim sight her finally adapted eyes brought her, she found that Kael was asleep as well, his head lolling off to the other side, his arm still around her. Smiling at the sight of her warrior's sleep-calmed face, the chill fleeing in the warmth the image brought, she leaned in and gently kissed his cheek, making him stir slightly, a smile twitching his lips upward. Then, carefully shifting so that she could stand up without waking her guardian, the magus stretched and pulled herself to her feet, feeling refreshed. Several hours at least must have passed, for the room beyond the sealed door was utterly silent.
Smiling to herself at her subconscious mind's musings, she filed the image of the hybrid child away in her mind, feeling oddly pleased by it. It was something that almost certainly wouldn't exist, not while she was a prisoner of the noble system, but still, she could let her imagination dream, couldn't she? Still smiling, she turned from where her knight slept and noticed the ghost of a dim light shining from the opposite direction of the door, glinting along the mortar of the stones, catching their pale outlines here and there. In the haste of closing the door to their enemy, Shandi had forgotten to wonder what someone would take such precautions to hide.
Curious, the young magus walked toward the odd glow, noticing that it was pale blue, like that of magic, but something told her that magic wasn't the source this time. And, as she walked forward, intrigued, she began to notice that she was in a corridor, not a room, and that the corridor was sloping downward slightly. And, as she followed the curve of the corridor towards its lightening destination, she became aware that the air was changing, becoming moist and warm, like a hot day near the shore, slicking the stones with humidity.
Finally, after about a minute of slow, careful walking, Shandi heard the faint, tinkling sounds of water dripping into a pool. Intrigued, the young magus continued, and then, all at once, she felt more than saw the stone walls to either side suddenly move away from her, opening into a far larger chamber, one that might have passed as a hall in the library had it not been so humid. Pausing at the threshold, she realized that it was from here that the odd light seemed to be coming. And more, the stone beneath her feet seemed to have been suddenly replaced by something soft and yielding, something oddly fragrant. Kneeling to brush her fingers along it, she realized what it was.
It was a kind of soft moss, like that which grew on stones in stream beds. And, now that she was closer to the ground, she realized that the light was coming from some sort of liquid; warm fluid that seemed to spread all the way around the room in a great arc, filling the chamber beyond the thin stone walkway upon which she knelt. Cocking her head to the side in curiosity, Shandi lay on her stomach in the soft moss and examined the liquid close up, not wanting to touch it in case it was some sort of trap to the unwary. But, as she drew near, she discovered from its odor, and the lack of the magical tingle that accompanied all potions, that it was merely a very large pool of warm water, a grotto fed by some sort of underground source. And, when she leaned yet closer to the surface, she realized that the water itself wasn't glowing. Instead, countless little specks floated in the water, specks that seemed to be giving off the glow on their own. One or two would glow for a moment, and then fade, and the glow would appear someplace else, like tiny ghost lights in utter darkness.
Hesitantly, knowing that she was pushing her luck, the young magus reached out and dipped a hand into the water, attempting to catch a few of the floating specks in her cupped palm. The instant her fingers broke the surface of the pool, the nearest specks suddenly lit with a brilliant blue glow, a glow which spread like lightning through the whole pool, thousands upon thousands of tiny glowing specks making the water itself shine with pale, iridescent blue, filling it with enough light that she could see everything in the chamber quite clearly. Fascinated, Shandi swirled a few of the specks to the surface, watching as their glow grew brighter for a moment. Now that she could see them clearly, she realized that the specks were actually tiny creatures, animals that must use the light as a defense, warning their fellows of disturbances in the water. Then, as she looked around the newly lit room, she forgot all about the miniscule glowing animals in the water.
There in the center of the circular room, as if placed in a shrine, was a plinth of pale marble, rising from the white moss like bone. Its top had been carved in the shape of two identical paws, one marvelously white, pristine and perfect, and the other pitch black, the very incarnation of darkness. And, resting in their grasp, forever held in their stony grip, was a green marble scroll case, an odd, tantalizingly familiar symbol carved into its surface. Getting back up to her feet, Shandi walked to the plinth slowly, noticing that runes had been etched into the stone, just beneath the hands; curving runes, as smooth and clear as the day they had been set in the stone. The runes were of the language of magic, though they were not a spell in themselves. They were a warning, written so only a mage could read them. It warned that only the destined could read the scroll, only they could take it in hand. To all others, it would be a knowledge forever lost. Then, with her hand trembling slightly in anticipation, Shandi reached out and touched the marble case, her hand doing it without her input. At once, the stone hands seemed to come to life, relaxing their grip on the case, giving their long held secret into her keeping.
The green marble case was cold, like it had been sitting in ice, but the top of it lifted off at her touch like it had only barely been set in place, though it had been quite clearly tightly sealed. At once, the curious odor of fresh parchment met her nostrils and she peered inside the case, apprehension rising within her, knowing that here was something truly special. Then, with all the fur on her arms standing on end, she reached inside, finding that the large case held only a single scroll, its crisp parchment tied closed by an outer covering of leather, embossed with a curious symbol of two paws reaching out as if to clasp each other, but never quite meeting. With her heart thumping out a wild jig in her chest, the young magus unrolled the parchment scroll, finding not one, but two sets of runes upon the scroll, written as if by different hands. Looking at the first with amazement, Shandi realized that it, like the runes upon the stones, was written in the ancient tongue of magic, and she began to read, her eyes growing wider and wider as they took in the ancient words, a realization exploding in her mind like a supernova.
'This cannot be!!' her mind exclaimed within the sudden silence of her head, trying to deny it, trying to find any other explanation of the words upon the page, but none came. This was it, this was the answer she had been seeking. For long minutes, she stared at the scroll's surface, utterly bewildered, reading the runes again and again, lost within them, not even looking at the second, much smaller set. And then, slowly, her mind began to accept the words set down by the nameless magus that had scrawled them here, countless years ago. One by one, as she sat on the soft moss, the scroll falling from her hand onto the ground before her, the unanswered questions began to find answers, and the details of the truth began to take shape in her mind; a truth so great, so wonderful and terrible that it blocked out all else. Finally, after who knew how long a time, as the whirling pieces continued to fall into place in her mind, she blinked, realizing that she was sitting in the shadow of another person. Looking up, she found that Kael stood over her, clothed in full armor once more, looking at her in concern. Clearly he had just spoken, but she had not replied.
"What?" She asked, the word coming out of her lips as the barest whisper, as if she had forgotten how to talk. At that moment, it occurred to her to wonder how long she had been sitting there, for the glow from the water had faded once more, though not quite as dimly as before she had disturbed it. Kael smiled at her once more and spoke again, his voice sounding almost far away to her ears.
"Are you alright, my lady?" he asked, and she nodded a little, most of her mind still racing, fitting all the pieces of the story together. "Are you sure? You look like you have just seen a ghost."
"I think so." She said, shaking her head while picking up the scroll once more and turning it so the knight could see it. "Look what I found."
Kael examined the document for a moment, his eyes tracing uncomprehendingly over the first set of runes, not recognizing what they said and then, his own eyes grew wide, staring at the smaller section of text, the one she had ignored. Perplexed, Shandi looked at her knight with amazement, for his face was frozen in a look of utter surprise, something she had never seen in his face before. Then, looking back at the scroll once more, Shandi let out a small gasp, a jolt of surprise welling up within her. For there, written in three simple lines, were runes that could be nothing but ancient Antarian, the very same sort of letters that were engraved upon Fal-cotha, but she had never seen these words before.
"How is that possible?" Shandi asked, stunned. "These letters can't be here."
"I don't know." Kael replied, looking just as shocked as she was. "According to your own histories, no other world has used these runes. And Antaria has always been separate, at least so our own historians say."
"Can you read them?" Shandi asked hesitantly, trying to buy time for her mind to reconcile this latest surprise, and the vague, terrible feeling that somehow, all of this was wrapped up in her own fate. At her question, Kael looked dubious, tracing the runes with one finger gently.
"Some of them, perhaps." He replied, "But I have never claimed to be a scholar of the ancient tongue. It might help if I knew what the rest of this said."
"Please try," Shandi said distractedly, getting up to her feet. "I need to think for a minute." Kael nodded in surprise at her command, settling in on the moss and looking at the runes once more. As he deciphered the ancient text on the page, Shandi began to pace, back and forth along the spit of moss covered stone, her thoughts whirling. She had always known that there was something her family hadn't told her when she was growing up. She had been able to sense it in the way they looked at her sometimes, the way they seemed to be considering her as she practiced her magic, or studied the lore of their house. But she had always expected it to be something inconsequential. But this... This was monumental, cataclysmic almost in its importance. Why hadn't someone mentioned it to her? Couldn't they understand how important this was?
When her wandering feet carried her back to where Kael sat, puzzling over the scroll, his gauntlets laid beside him, she heard him mutter something in an odd language, shaking his head and peering at the words closely once more and she turned, heading back towards the corridor once more. And, even as the mutterings of the Knight faded back into the gentle drip-dripping of water drops falling from the stalactites in the ceiling, a sudden cold realization came to her as she recalled one day, long ago, when she and Shaden had both been very young. They had been sitting together outside in the gardens, stargazing, when their parents had wandered by. The adults had been deep in conversation, but a few words had drifted over to them, words that had not meant much at the time. But now, she remembered her mother's words, drifting back into her mind from where they had fled. She had mentioned a prophecy, a prophecy that was a secret known only to the heads of the houses, jealously guarded by the magi. Her father had vehemently denied that they should speak of it, but she had never known the rest of the conversation, for she and her twin had been spotted and sent to bed before he had completed his thought. And at once, she stopped short in her pacing, her toes gripping the moss tightly to stop her from toppling forward.
This scroll, locked away in this hidden chamber for so long, this scroll that spoke of ancient events long forgotten, must be the prophecy that they had been speaking of. There was no other explanation for her instinctual response to its words. Shandi shivered despite the warm air of the grotto. She understood at last what had been left out in her childhood, what she had never been told. The realization was chilling and terrible, sending a trickle of icy fear and elation through her.
"My lady." Kael called and she turned back, finding the warrior beckoning to her. When she hurried to his side, excitement flaring within her despite his frustrated look, he spoke again, his voice so steady and calm that she suddenly wondered if her own had betrayed her odd emotions. "I have deciphered as much as I can for the moment. I regret that without a context, the passage is almost useless. It is all frustratingly vague. What does the rest say?"
"It is a history and a prophecy Kael," Shandi replied, her eyes bright with her excitement. Drawing in a deep breath, she began to explain what the scroll said, her eyes flicking over the curling runes every now and then to insure that she didn't leave out anything important. "It tells that long ago, in the Savage Era, before the formation of the noble houses, when magic was in its infancy, a mage was born to a powerful house. This mage was incredibly talented, truly a prodigy in magic, but while his skills were formidable, his heart was twisted. He sought the dark magicks, pushing the boundaries of power beyond anything that the worlds had ever seen. Eventually, the mage grew so powerful, so learned in the ways of magic, that he challenged the power of the gods themselves.
But, fearing the wrath of the creators of all the worlds, his own followers turned on him. In the greatest act of selflessness that had ever been known, the magi of all the orders came together, united in purpose for the first time, in grand alliance with warriors and peoples from every world. And while those who wielded the powers of good kept the evil creature at bay, the dark magi, who alone knew the most about him, worked to strike a death blow against him. But all their combined powers were not enough. Many died in that final battle, the powerful citadel where the magus had dwelt crumbling around them until at last, darkness stood alone against darkness. And then, protected by many great warriors who gave their lives to buy time, the last of the dark magi gave all to seal their foe away in a vault, deep under the fortress, where he would forever sleep, unable to break the seal upon the door, for the key lay beyond his grasp. Bound by their sacrifice within a vessel of enchanted steel, the spirits of the magi forever kept their foe within his prison, until the one who could defeat him would come." Shandi paused in the telling, pointing to the last line of runes. "That is as far as the story goes, but this last line says something odd. 'For though the powers of light and darkness alone could not destroy him, perhaps together they can conquer.'" For a moment, the knight was silent, frowning down at the page, and then, he spoke, shrugging slightly.
"Well, that helps a little." He said, running a finger under the first part of the second passage. "The first part is fairly clear. It says, 'the gods, in their fear that the chosen who would destroy this hated foe would turn against them as well', then there is a word I don't know, then 'in the gods' cruel irony the...'" He trailed off for a second, muttering something that sounded like 'esthu duath', "The words don't translate directly. It means something along the lines of 'one who is two'... 'wielding great power in the'...something I can't read," He trailed off again and shook his head, touching the last bit of the second line. "I can't make anything of this last part. I know the words, but they don't make any sense."
"How do you mean?" Shandi asked, impressed with Kael's translation. For a wolf who professed not to know much of the ancient language of his world, he seemed remarkably versed in it.
"Well, this word here, 'pren'nuart' means very different things depending on the context." He explained, touching a set of runes with a finger. "In one context, it means Day, or alternatively, Light, but in another, it means Night, or Darkness. But in the context of the sentence, it could mean either."
"Or both." Shandi said, her eyes growing suddenly wide, a new chilling realization coming to her mind, something so terrible she couldn't give voice to it, not yet. Shivering, she understood at last, the knowledge stilling her mind as if it had frozen in time. Though her knight looked up at her questioningly, she couldn't say it. It all made sense now. Shaking her head, she looked back at the scroll and nodded at the last line, by far the shortest of the three. "What does that say?"
"Oh," Kael said, looking back at the parchment. "It is the signature of the writer. I don't have any way of knowing who it is. Names in the ancient tongue were lost a very long time ago. Does any of this make sense to you?"
"Some; more than I thought." Shandi replied absently, shaking her head and pushing a lock of white hair out of her eyes. It couldn't mean that, could it? "Well, there is nothing else here as far as I can see."
Shivering, she sat down beside her Knight once more, tucking her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, the chill of her terrible thoughts freezing her from the inside out. Was her life really that far out of her control? It was a frightening prospect that all her choices in her life were leading up to something, a single terrible event, ordained long before her time. As Kael shifted over so they were sitting with their sides touching, Shandi smiled in spite of the shiver that passed suddenly down her spine, a thrill of fear that had nothing to do with what they had faced in the library, what they would have to face again to escape. And then, just as a feeling of hopelessness started to crystallize in her mind, she felt it shatter in the warmth of her Knight's comforting presence, simply having him close keeping it from her. The young magus felt a sudden wave of gratitude towards her protector and she spoke again, looking over at Kael, whose face had resumed its stoic strength once more, though she knew he too knew what they would have to face to get out. And finally, she pondered her protector, finding it suddenly strange that he would be here with her, so far from his home, fighting her enemies.
"Kael, how can you devote yourself so utterly to a cause, to one single purpose that you will face down anything in its service?" She asked after a moment, feeling fear begin to edge its way into her mind once more as she contemplated the task ahead, finding a way around the warmth her knight provided. The wolfish warrior gave her a small smile once more and replied.
"It runs in my family I guess." He said, mirroring her position. "Kardis ardet un tarden."
"I beg your pardon?" Shandi asked, recognizing the words as Antarian, though what they meant, she hadn't a clue.
"Family motto." The wolf explained. "It means, 'Loyalty beyond death.' We Duranus' are known for our devotion." Shandi smiled at this and then shook her head, the hopelessness returning, bringing with it a wave of fear that chilled her to the bone.
"I wish I was like you Kael." She said, resting her chin on her knees, trying to fight off the feelings that were swiftly consuming her will to go on. When the young knight looked over at her with a questioning look on his face, she continued. "In protecting me, you have faced impossible odds again and again, and you do it without hesitation. Do you feel no fear at all?"
"Of course I feel fear." Kael replied, putting a warm hand on her back, his gentle touch weakening the hold of the fear in her heart. "All warriors do. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar."
"Then I wish I were braver." Shandi said, arching her back beneath his fingers as they trailed through her fur. "If I am right, then I will face something...truly terrible, soon. Something that will, in all likelihood, kill me. And I am terrified at the prospect."
"My mentor once said something that might help you." Kael said, gently stroking her spine and Shandi looked over at him, surprised. "'Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the defiance of it. So, without fear, there would be no courage.' He once said that everyone fears, but that, in time, something changes in them, something breaks its hold, forces the fear back, and forever after, it will never again rule them. It just hasn't happened for you yet." Shandi smiled, embracing her companion.
"Thank you, Kael." She said, giving him a light kiss. "For all you have done."
"You are more than welcome, my lady." He replied, returning the kiss. Releasing the warrior, Shandi stood up, turning to face the corridor once more. The fear was still there, but somehow, the words of her protector kept it from drowning her, though it still chilled her nearly to the bone. Now that she was up, and resolved to doing something, the task ahead seemed less terrifying somehow.
"Well, I know what I must do." She said, swallowing nervously as she began to walk towards the exit, her knight trailing behind her. "Might as well get it over with."
It took the pair about a minute to reach the sealed door once more and Shandi reached out, touching its smooth surface with both hands while Kael hefted their packs, moving them out of the way of the door. Then, reaching out with her mind, Shandi began to undo the spell that sealed the door, speaking the words softly into the darkness, pronouncing them backwards, the inflections all in the wrong places. A soft blue light began to glow from where she touched the stone, and then, as the last syllable left her lips, the door suddenly blazed bright, almost blinding her after the dim light of the corridor. At once, the door shifted backward towards her and Kael dug his newly armored fingers into the gap, pulling the door open. And there, on the floor beyond it, the stone tendrils of the lock lay broken, severed from their resting place by a powerful spell that had nevertheless been unable to break her seal. And then, Shandi's gaze was drawn towards the towering figure across the room.
Cloaked in darkness, the reflected starlight having no power to penetrate its magic, it matched perfectly to what she had seen in her nightmare of seven days past. Twenty feet tall at the least, it towered above her, a hideous shape. It might once have been a lion, but dark magics had twisted it, deforming its shape until now it looked like a hideous mockery of its former self. Its eyes burned crimson upon a black field, and its fur was glossy black. Its face looked almost like that of the Kirinus commander who had tried to overcome them the day before, complete with a full mane, but its fangs stuck out from its jaw like daggers, and hideous horns thrust up from its head. Dark spikes of bone decorated its body at every joint and its tail was scaled, long spikes gleaming darkly from its tip. And it seemed to have been waiting for them, for when it saw them, it spoke, its voice like distant thunder, deep and resonant, and so very cold that it made Shandi's flesh crawl to hear it.
"Well, well," it said, smiling a terrible smile down at her. "A magus of Light, a female no less. How delicious." At its words, spoken in a tone wholly unconcerned at her obvious power, and the hungry light that burned to life in his eyes, Kael stepped forward, interposing himself between them, Fal-cotha raised in a high guard. And, incredibly, the creature seemed not only to be unsurprised that he wasn't a feline, but Shandi saw a look of recognition flash across his twisted face, his eyes blazing bright with excitement. "So, we come full circle after all." At their looks of confusion, the horrid creature continued, looking down at the riven shield that lay at his feet. "Oh yes, though your shield may have changed, I recognize your silver crown, scion of Duranus." Now wholly dumbfounded, both Shandi and Kael took a step back, bewildered at this pronouncement. "How could I not know you? It was your sire and his king, Jyrian, who held me at bay while my servants worked their betrayal. And now, the gods have seen fit to give me my revenge. How fitting it is that you should die here, where the alliance that sealed me away in that infernal tomb for so long was formed."
Understanding ran through Shandi like a lightning bolt. The vessel of enchanted steel where the magi's spirits had been bound had to have been something made of brightsteel, much like to Fal-cotha. And more, Antaria must once have been open to other worlds. And that, in turn, explained where the Antarians had learned the power of making runeblades, the only magic that had existed on their world. As if it were a memory she had long suppressed, she saw the scene in her mind. Jyrian, whom Kael had mentioned was the name of the first King of Antaria, must have offered the services of his warriors to the magi, to protect them while they dealt with the threat posed by the creature that now stood before them. And then, when the battle was over, having seen what magic could do, Jyrian had taken his surviving soldiers and had fled, sealing off his world from magic's influence for thousands of years, taking with it the ancient knowledge of the rune weapons, until that world and its people had been forgotten by her world. And that also explained the Antarian writing on the scroll. It must have been Jyrian who wrote that last line, scribing the words of an ancient seer. The chill of the realization settled in Shandi's heart once more and she realized that there was no doubting the scroll's words now. Steeling herself for what she knew was inevitable, she tapped her magic, and readied the most powerful spells she could wield. But before she could let loose a spell upon her foe, something happened, something that she had never expected.
A portal suddenly swam into being beside her, its blue-white surface almost blinding her, a thousand times brighter than the starlight that lit the chamber. But, with her eyes watering at the sudden light, she felt her jaw drop open as a figure stepped through it. It was a winged leopard like her, but as dark as she was light, its outline as familiar to her as her own. And at once, as she felt the touch of her brother's consciousness upon her own, she understood what the last line of mage letters had meant. And at last, with the fear settling back down beneath the certainty of one who faces an inevitable challenge, and in accepting it, has found serenity, Shandi looked up at the towering foe who stood before her, and smiled...