Slave of Eternity

by Secrets and Lies

18

Author's Note:

Revised January 9th, 2014

(18)

A cool morning breeze swept through the valley and underbrush as Zachary and the draconequine made their way through the Firelight Woods. He awakened at the first light of day and had been walking ever since. He was bound by the wrists again before they left the encampment; Eldian wanted to make sure the wizard wouldn’t cast any spells on his warriors. Strangely, he was surprisingly alert and awake for nearly being out all night. Zachary still couldn’t put all the pieces together from what he had witnessed, but in reality he knew he had to focus on what the draconequine were soon approaching.

“It will only get crazier, might as well make the best of it.” he said mentally to himself, as an act of assurance.

He hadn’t picked up on it until half way through their morning trek, but the group was leading him uphill. It was a slight ascension, hardly noticeable if not for the climbing trees in the visible distance. He had been venturing through this forest on flat land the entire time and knew that there was only one hill throughout the land.

Roren was accompanying Zack by his side as Zack leaned over towards him and quietly asked, “When do you think we’ll reach the top of the hill?”

He replied with enthusiasm, “The hill is wide, but the journey is coming to its end for you.”

Zachary smiled and stated happily, “That’s great. I can’t wait to finally end this.”

Roren agreed, “I, too, am happy. Not for your sake, but for seeing the Arx itself. I am a Knowledge Seeker and even I have not seen the great citadel up close.” He stopped for a moment to organize his thoughts. He then continued more solemnly, “I am saddened though.”

Zachary stopped along side him and questioned, “What for?”

“I am saddened for the fact that we must part ways. It would fill my heart with joy to learn about your people, from where you came and where you are going. You are mysterious, Wizard, and I wish to acquire the knowledge you possess. I have learned so much already from you, but I wish to know more–not necessarily in study–but in rapport ways.”

Zack didn’t quite know what the word, ‘rapport’ meant at the time, but accepted it as a compliment. The way he had been speaking and talking sounded as if he wanted to be friends, so he assumed that was what he was implying.

“Roren,” Zachary replied, “in the six years I’ve been in this world, I know for a fact that friendship is something that is very cherished. Friendship is much more powerful and mystical than it appears to be.” He looked up at Roren and finished, “I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we meet.”

They reached a point in their rising journey when the hill finally leveled off, coming over the slope rose the fortification itself. It was an impressive structure, a sleeping giant which appeared as old as the forest itself. Dark and moss laden bricks held the building and made up its walls and barriers. Each brick was massive, as large as a draconequine warrior and looked as if it weighed a ton. The Arx wasn’t as large as Zack had expected, but still large enough to get lost in. The building was squared off with a roof that came upward into a dome shape like a mansion. The outward appearance of the manor showed off stain glass, balconies, stone-laden decor, large metal and wooden doors, and hardly anything that would be related to any castle he had come across in his lifetime. Equadeus Arx was surrounded by an even larger wall, the citadel which housed the sacred hall. It shrouded the view of whatever the yard looked like from Zachary’s angle as he and the draconequines stopped in front of the massive guard wall.

Eldian spoke to Roren as he looked over the wall. He himself had never been so close to the Arx either. His face showed worry as his eyes darted along the fortification and his mouth began to murmur words under his quickening breath.

Roren translated what his Lord Chief had told him, “We have arrived. He continues to say if you have a change of heart, we will give you food and a place to rest in our village. He feels death lurches and swarms in this place, and wishes for you to rethink your plans of action.” Eldian swiftly turned and chattered quickly to Roren, making a chopping motion with his right arm. Roren then unsheathed his blade and cut Zachary’s bonds. Two other hunters which were carrying some of his belongings gave back his travel bag filled with the necessities Luna had given him. Zachary nodded and fastened the bag upon his back again.

“So,” the human wondered aloud, “where is the entrance?”

“There is none,” Roren replied coldly, “for none have entered it from a gate or opening.” Roren approached the wall and called out in his own language to another warrior. The draconequine joined his kind and two were stationed in front of the wall’s face.

Roren motioned, “Come, Wizard. We shall gain you entrance.” The two lowered their stance and placed their hands, paws, and talons together, locking their fingers with one anothers for Zack to position each of his feet in. He knew that even for the draconequines’ impressive height, he still wouldn’t be able to climb over the massive wall. He didn’t argue though as he made his way over and placed his feet in their combined hands. With one strong heave, they threw Zack up in the air, something he should have expected that he never really planned for. He looked up through the air and watched as he came closer towards the edge. His momentum slowed as he leaned in the air and landed perfectly atop the wall. He wobbled a bit after the landing, but bent downward and held himself to the massive brick to secure himself safely. Zachary looked over the edge towards the now much smaller group of draconequine.

Roren shouted, “We shall sing songs of the Wizard from Equestria! You will not be forgotten!”

Zachary pointed back down and replied, “Likewise, good friend! I assure you our paths will cross again... I will find you and show you the lands from where I come from, I promise!”

Eldian shouted something towards his group of hunters as each turned to face Zachary’s position. They stood firmly in stature as each pounded their chests twice–opened handed–and then held their fist out towards Zachary. It was some form of salute he figured, so he mimicked them and returned the gesture. The Lord Chief gave one last shout and the draconequines set off into the woods away from Equadeus Arx. Zachary was now alone again in the Firelight Woods, only this time, he was near the end of his journey.

With a firm swing and knees bent, he landed safely on the other side of the wall. He had found a tree that he could descend from on the inside of the barrier and swiftly made his way down. He stopped for a moment to look around the new terrain. Zack was in a wild garden; a very overgrown and green lawn. From atop the wall, he couldn’t even see the very bottom of the yard because of all the shrubbery and trees that blocked out the earth below. Down below the low foliage was a canopy of wildly growing flowers, broken and chipped tiles that were once pathways and large, moss and vine coated boulders partly submersed in the ground. Bushes and trees had sprung up from once organized flower beds of stone. Barely recognizable pathways snaked along beyond and past the green sheets of leaves and vines that hung about. The canopy, mere feet above his body, shimmered glints and glimmers of the sun’s rays overhead, letting the rays frolic and dance about the undergrowth. The warmth this gave off, along with the thick scent of leaves, exotic shrubs and herbs was much different than the smells and feeling of being in Firelight Woods. Zachary noticed a shattered pathway before him and into the brushwood ahead.

He said to himself, “The sooner I can get the Catalyst Stone, the better, because I have a bad feeling about this place...” He unsheathed his blade quietly and proceeded through the garden, cutting any branches, vines or thickets in his way. He soon came to a small stairway that lead to a brick porch. The bricks were crawling with vines and broken by roots from trees that had decided to grow in between them. As he made his way up onto the porch, the side of the house was visible and wooden doorways could be seen towards the end of the porch. He walked up to examine it more thoroughly. It seemed fairly old, but from what he had heard about the Equadeus Arx, he expected there to be better defenses than wooden doors. He wondered why the doors hadn’t rotted yet, or why the windows that were in the doors hadn’t been shattered yet from natural causes.

He tried to turn the rusted, yellowed knob to one of the doors, but it appeared to be locked after he had tried pushing and pulling it multiple times. He tried the same technique to the other door, and it too wouldn’t open for him. Zack knew the only sensible way to get in now was by breaking one of the panes in the doors and unlocking it from the inside out. He turned his blade around with the blunt of the handle towards the door and struck one the panes. It caused a shattering sound much louder than he had expected as pieces of glass fell all across the porch face. He picked a few shards of stray glass out of the pane before reaching his hand in and unlocking the door. As he opened it from the inside, both the doors swung open with harmonious, drawn-out squeaks and a cold breeze flowed outward over him and into the yard.

Before his eyes lay an ever increasing dark hall with doorless rooms before him; to the right of the hall was a stretching staircase which lead to the nothingness where shadows roamed, while to the left was the hall itself where at its end, the darkness prevailed over his vision. The entire house was gravely frigid, at least thirty degrees colder than it was outside. The decor was quite beautiful, but very tattered and old with faded walls and torn wallpaper. Wooden floors filled the chambers, while some halls had maroon-colored long rugs which had seen better days. The faded walls were a dark green color and the molding around the doors and ceilings were pale and chipped. The halls and stairways themselves appeared pitch black in the distance of an already darkened manor. Zachary sheathed his sword and stepped into Equadeus Arx.

He murmured his thoughts aloud as he took careful steps, “What type of fortress is this?”

As he stepped through the first hallway, each footfall he made echoed off into the rafters and throughout the house in a very uncanny way. The light from outside still guided his way down the hall, assuring him he was still close to his security, which was the light. Once he passed the stairway however, the light that guided him began to slowly retreat behind him. At first he didn’t notice it, but once the shadows had nearly set in, he immediately turned to see what had happened.

The double doors that were once opened had closed behind him without even giving a sound. He ran up to them and opened them promptly. What he saw scared him dearly as he scrambled backwards onto the floor in a frenzy of movements. It was a mirrored reflection of himself and this mirror took up the entire frame of the door. As soon as his heart slowed, he placed his travel bag in front of him and searched in the dark for his lantern. As soon as he found it, he noticed something incredibly sticky and wet in his tote bag. He took his hand out of the bag to discover the cause of the icky feeling.

“Great,” Zack said in a long moan. “I had almost forgotten about Pinkie’s Super-Sticky, Double-Bubble, Bubble-Gum, Gummy Cake.” He licked his hand clean of the frosting and continued to pull out his lantern.

As he took it out and wiped away the excessive icing, he opened the glass panel encasing the lighting mechanism. With his sword grasped in one hand, he channeled his inner magic and at the tip of his thumb created a small flame to light the wick. Even though this was very simple magic, he still thought of it as entirely too cool as he flicked his thumb and purged the flame that floated above his appendage. Once the glass door to the lantern was closed, he could see much better as he picked himself up off the ground. He then placed his hand on the reflection, making sure this was a mirror and no sort of dark magic that could have made a doppelgänger of Zachary. Of course, he knew it was dark magic that had trapped him inside, but only in Arteria would he suspect something like that–he could never be too sure.

Zachary sidestepped over to a window which he thought was beside the doors. He found the place of the window to be true, but on the other side of the glass was another mirror; it appeared the outside was blocked by glass shields. He wondered if he could break it and sat his lantern on the ground beside of his position. He unsheathed the Prevailer once again and with both hands grasped the blade and yanked it back. With as much force as he could muster, he slashed the blade into the mirror wall; the results proved his theories were folly as not even scratch was made on the mirror walls. He placed his blade back into his sheath and picked the lantern up off the floor.

“Be brave... You can do this,” Zachary shuttered as he turned to face the darkened manor’s hallway once again. He had no alternative and proceeded to venture through the house. He began making his way up the torn carpeted staircase, noticing the eerie silence of the entire house. At the top of the stairs was another hallway with doorless chamber gateways on both sides. Three on each side he counted, excluding the room at the far corner of the corridor, making seven in all. The hall itself was very wide, he figured ten of himself–shoulder to shoulder–could walk down this wall with room to spare on the sides. Another strange thing he noticed throughout the mansion was that it wasn’t dusty or filled with cobwebs, it seemed ‘lived’ in, but the state of the house itself was maltreated and torn up. He wasted no more time figuring out meaningless statistics and advanced down the hall.

Zachary could only see so far in front of him because of the short range of light the lantern gave. If only Luna would have taught him an illumination spell, this manor wouldn’t give him as much terror as he was experiencing now. He peeked into each room he passed, which seemed like a common bedroom, just without the living accommodations and just the bare room itself. Between each room in the hallway was a window, and behind every window was a mirror. Something about this didn’t seem right to Zachary; from an architectural stand point, it didn’t make sense to have this many windows on either side unless he was at the very top of the house, but the top of the manor was domed shaped and windowless. The more Zack thought about the oddities of Equadeus Arx, the more fear reigned inside of him. He walked through the inky corridor to the far room ahead of him, seeing that there was no other alternative besides going back down the stairs.

As he passed through the doorway, he noticed something very peculiar about the settings in this room. He looked to his right and saw something that peeked his curiosity; it was the double doors he came through into the house, and in front of him was the side of the stairway while to the left was the hallway he decided not to take. He rushed out of the hallway and made his way up to the front doors again to see if it was the same. Indeed it was to Zack’s understanding, he had somehow ended up back to the front of the house. He went to look back into the room where he came from, but when he peeked around the corner to it, it appeared to be just another empty room like the rest of the chambers.

“Impossible,” he thought as he reentered the room, inspecting each wall face, every crevice, and every other possible thing one could inspect in an empty room. Nothing odd or strange could be found, the only thing that had any reasonable suspicion about it was that there was a single window on the far wall facing away from the entry to the chamber. The window had a mirror behind it like all the others, but other than that, no clue or sign of anything that would alert Zachary about dark magic or the such.

As he exited the chamber, a shiver crawled down his spine as soon as he realized that something had happened behind his back again. Instead of reentering the main hall where the front doors were, he was in an entirely new place in the manor. He found himself in a large rectangular room, much grander than any other chamber he had been in so far. It was some sort of living space with a large blackened fireplace on one end and many new chamber entry walls littered across the sides of the room.

Zachary figured Equadeus Arx was under some sort of spell causing it to replicate rooms and send anyone through any door backwards and forwards in a never-ending labyrinth. He had no choice but to try every room and enter and exit every chamber, so he kept pressing onwards through the blackness of the manor. Even entering through different rooms, he always ended up in a hall of sorts, always different but very similar halls. Little things such as a lighter or darker shade of wallpaper, ceiling levels, the widths of the halls and the amount of windows always classified each hall different than another. It seemed he had spent already an hour walking in this house and and he was still very lost and very afraid. He never let his guard down; always keeping a firm and steady hand around the grip of his blade at all times. His eyes always searched for things beyond his limited vision, trying to spot if something was moving ahead of him in the shadows.

As he walked down one hall, he finally came across something he had not yet seen. On the center-left wall was a tall-legged table and above that hanging on the wall, a single rectangular mirror. This had been the first time he had seen a mirror that wasn’t in the front doors or behind a window. The rather ordinary mirror reflected a bleak image of Zachary back and seemed to him quite common and regular–nothing very strange about it; but yet, it was so very strange to Zachary that he had to stop and look into the mirror. He wondered why something so common was placed here rather than behind a window like the others. Zachary shook his head to get ahold of the situation he was in once more and proceeded onward past it.

As he did, he finally heard a noise that was somewhat common to his ears. Something had moved behind him, something so very subtle like a small pair of feet scurrying across the hallway rug. It only lasted a moment and then the silence of the house came back; but this noise was enough to stop Zachary dead in his tracks. He cautiously looked back around his shoulder while silently unsheathing his sword at the same time. Nothing was behind him, only the darkness could be seen. Before turning back however, he did notice something at the last second. He turned again and realized the mirror on the wall had vanished. He raced over towards the location of where it once was and shuddered upon truly seeing that the darkness wasn’t playing tricks on his eyes and that the mirror had disappeared completely.

He looked back down the hall where he came from and for a moment, stopped and held his lantern out as far as he could in front of him. Something was obscuring the doorway, something with a shape that gave off slight contours in the lantern light. The outline the light refracted upon it revealed it to be something Zachary did not want to witness in the full light–the outlines were of a human, and that human was facing him at the far end of the hallway.

Zachary didn’t know what to do as the human-like creature stood in the darkness watching him. Zack had frozen still in fear, with his hands shaking both the lantern and the sword. He brought the light back closer to him, shadowing the creature again in the hallway. He kept his eyes focused on the area towards the entryway to watch if the human would move again. He had an idea that this ‘thing’ had no intentions of helping Zachary, just being in its presence sent waves of malevolent feelings over his being. Zack knew he had to face this monster, if he didn’t now, it would attack him when he wasn’t looking. He took a long step forward and held the lantern outward again as far as he could. This time however, there was no outline of the human, it was gone and the entrance from where he came from could be seen without any obstructions. A split notion suggested that this was a good thing, but then rational thought came back to him quite coldly. It had simply moved.

A swift movement of air came rushing behind Zachary that his ears picked up first, he turned quickly and with his sword raised, blocked something in the darkness. A ring from the clash vibrated from his blade when whatever struck it collided with the Prevailer. In the lantern’s light, Zachary saw what he had blocked. The humanoid figure stood before him with sword in hands. His slender and broad sword was stopped by Zachary’s, but now his full details could be seen in the light. It was about the same size as Zachary and possessed a body much like his, only this ‘thing’ was made up of reflections only. It appeared to be a mirror creature with reflecting and jagged skin that splintered the lantern light around their location. It was a faceless enemy, and its sword mimicked his body’s details like it was apart of it.

Zachary could feel the being’s strength increasing in the blade as it tried to push Zachary backwards. Zack knew he had to drop the lantern to use both of his hands to control the Prevailer; so he did so as he let it fall and roll across the floor, still giving off its fire light. The mirror creature withdrew his blade and came at Zachary again with smooth strikes and slices towards him. Zack either quickly stepped aside from the coming attacks or deflected them with his sword. The humanoid persistently followed every attack with a quicker blow. Zachary couldn’t make an offensive move towards the creature; though that was when he remembered his one advantage.

He tried to focus magic from his blade and into his hand, but the mirror monster continued to break his concentration. He had to push his mind for a painful split second to give off a burst of magic to manipulate; however he wasn’t sure how he was going to control it, but he was going to try anyways. He felt a surge of magical energy build in his form and released it as soon as he deflected a blow from the being. He released his left hand from the handle of the blade as it gave off his signature red aura, meaning magic was built up in that hand alone. He swiped his arm in front of him in a rising-diagonal swing, and with it the magic was released. As his arm swung through the air, to the side of the beast was conjured a body of water that followed the movement of his hand. The liquid flowed upward, defying gravity and enveloping the side of the humanoid. As his hand reached a certain point in its continual motion, he balled his hand into a fist and as he did, the water instantaneously froze into a block of ice. The being was froze halfway into the ice, unable to move or control his blade.

Zachary stepped backwards and lowered his body, placing both of his hands back on his blade. Once he was in a firm stance of attack, he swung the Prevailer as hard as he could towards the enemy’s neck. Before his sword could even build the momentum needed to inflict potential damage on his foe, the humanoid’s free hand flung forward and grabbed the side of Zack’s face, ramming his head into the side of the wall. The sudden strike made Zachary miss his target as his head collided with the surprisingly firm wall. He stepped back and held his head with one hand while dragging the Prevailer in front of him with the other. He shook his head to regain his concentration and to fight through the throbbing pain, all the while the humanoid in front of him began to break free from his icy prison. As Zack placed both hands back on the grip of his sword, he noticed dabs of blood streaked across his hand from where he held his head, though this graze was hardly worth worrying about when a strange mirror man was trying to cut him down.

Zachary stepped a few more feet back, prepping himself for an oncoming attack as the watched his enemy finally break from from the block of ice. The foe wasted no time and charged Zack head on with his sword to his side and running fast as he could. With each powerful step, it sounded as if his enemy was pounding on shards of glass. The small amount of light in the hallway made it difficult to see Zachary’s entire opponent until he was close enough, making Zack fret before each attack.

As the enemy ran in range of Zack’s area of attack, Zachary stepped aside and swung towards the enemy’s waist. The humanoid saw this and in an instant hopped to the side while still proceeding forward. He placed one foot on the wall and thrusted his body sideways into the air, narrowly missing Zack’s strike. As he came back down behind Zachary, he thrusted his blade forward towards Zack. Zack reacted just in time to lean inwards and spin around the blade, escaping certain death once again. He darted backwards while still facing the humanoid in the hall and created a safe distance between the two. Zachary huffed in annoyance to his agile enemy.

He thought to himself, “Was this him? Was this the Excubris Luna warned me about? The one who guarded the Catalyst Stone?” Zachary began to let loose the magical energy he had been storing up inside of him again for another attack. He threw his hands in front of him with his fingers outwards as they glowed in a maroon aura. He still held his blade with his thumb wrapped around the handle as his magic continually charged for an emanate burst. The enemy saw he was planning for an attack and dashed across the shadowy hall towards Zachary. He waited for his attacker to be in potential range of his magical abilities before he unleashed his energy upon him.

When Zachary did, he created a sparse cloud of red magic around the humanoid, levitating him into the air. With a forceful shove, Zachary threw his enemy across the hall and into the room ahead of him as hard as he could. The mirror foe sunk into the eerie blackness behind him as Zachary soon heard a clash in the far off room where he threw his enemy. He immediately raced into the room, but had forgotten about the pitch darkness of the manor. He turned to go back towards the hall to get his lantern he had left, but before he could leave the room again, he watched the lantern light dissipate into the dark; the rooms had changed once again and he was back into darkness.

The cold and silence of Equadeus Arx crept back onto Zachary. His enemy could be anywhere in the room, he wouldn’t be able to react in time to dodge a fatal swing from his opponent in this darkness. Before fear got the best of him, he remained calm and focused his magic through his blade. He then enveloped his sword in thick flames, lighting most of the room. He figured he could have done this earlier, but doing this strains his magical energy, and he certainly did not want to deplete his magic. He could, however, continue to use magic beyond his capabilities, but then the fuel for powering his magic would began to sap his life energy, and that would most certainly kill him. Luna had warned him about that, to never go beyond your potential unless you wish to sacrifice your own life.

Zachary began to dart his eyes around the room, scanning the area for his enemy. The room he was in was familiar to Zachary, this was the living area he had been to before. His magical fire lit the room in a pumpkin orange and chimney red tint, chasing the shadows away as they raced towards the crevices in the room they fell upon. As Zachary turned, he met his reflection once again in the window mirror, startling him a bit. He gave a sigh of relief when he had come to realize this, but he noticed a blurry something approaching from behind him. He turned and was confronted by his mirrored enemy; with sword raised and on the verge of crashing his blade down upon Zack.

Zachary swung the Prevailer in front of him with both hands to parry the cascading attack. The swords united with the heavy chime of steel and scattering sparks. The enemy pulled his sword away and struck again and again. With each parry and dodge, the two danced around one another–whenever Zachary’s sword struck the enemy’s, flickers of sparks flung from the fiery blade across the room; yet nothing in the wooden room caught fire. This was perhaps caused by the flames from the blade being magical or perhaps it is because of the strange manor itself, either way, Zachary had no time to ponder on this thought while trying to ward off every blow his enemy sent forth. His mirrored enemy glistened and reflected the flames and sparks the Prevailer gave off, illuminating his frame and movements through the shadows about the room.

As their blades met once more, Zack birthed an idea in a quick moment and soon decided to follow through with it. He leaned into his strike, pressing his weight with the momentum of the blade. His opponent didn’t expect the sudden surge of strength Zack had mustered and let his blade drop along with Zachary’s. Zack–still in swaying motion with his forceful attack–pressed forward while spinning his body, letting the momentum he had built continue to flow in a planned array of movements. As he spun his body, he gripped the handle of the Prevailer as tightly as he could, preparing to unleash a second deadly strike. As his elbows snapped forward, heaving the blade with the sweeping motions of his revolving body, he aimed directly for his enemy’s neck. His foe had no time to react and was still bringing his sword back upward from the first deflected attack. Zachary was too quick for the enemy to parry a second time as the white blade met with his neck.

The sword clashed hard against its neck, however the blade did not sink in, it only bounced back off as if he had hit a solid rock with a regular sword. The enemy was almost thrown off his feet by the strength of the strike, but withheld the blow as he leaned to the opposite side to absorb the impact. Zachary was astonished by this, thinking his magical artifact would cleanly slice through the mirrored opponent's neck. He knew his blade was very sharp and strong, he was sure that it could cut through nearly any substance and material known. As the blade ricocheted back and Zachary held firm to it again, his mind went blank with ideas. He wasn’t sure how he could defeat this monster if the Prevailer could not harm it.

The monster leaned back upward from the strike as if nothing had happened at all, Zachary at once raised his in front of him, ready to defend himself once again. A sudden faint noise came forth from the monster it didn't make on its own. Cracking and splintering sounds emitted in a soft noise that gradually got louder. Zachary looked to see where the sound was coming from and was glad to see that he did inflict damage on the humanoid. The side of its neck began to fracture and split as it crawled its way across his shoulder getting larger. It immediately realized this and without thinking it swiftly placed his hand on the crack on his neck.

Zack saw another opening for an attack and within a second, he spun his body in the opposite direction as before and sliced his blade towards the other side of the enemy’s neck. It had no time to react and as the blade met once again with his solid flesh. This time–as the Prevailer struck the neck–it did not bounce off, but shattered its neck instantaneously. Its upper body fragmented into hundreds of shards, spreading forth from the impact. His foe’s head was sent flying backwards and when colliding with the floor, it too shattered, sending fragments in every direction. The right side of its upper body and arm broke from the rest of his body as it fell backwards and plummeted towards the ground. As the ringing noises of the demolished mirror monster echoed away through the manor, Zachary assumed he had defeated the Excubris and the Catalyst Stone was practically his.

As he sheathed his blade and at the same time extinguished its magical fire, he noticed slivers of light had begun to slip through one of the window’s mirrors. The luminescence was incredibly bright as it fell across the floor and over Zachary’s location in a rectangular ray of light. This was the only window that had a broken mirror and was shining its light through. Zachary began to wonder why this was the only window that was emitting any light, then it came to him that maybe Equadeus Arx was showing him the way–that maybe he was suppose to follow through this passage way. At that conclusion, he took a long breath knowing that it was smooth sailing from here on out. He passed through the chamber door way from which the light came from and continued through the manor.

Zack was right, the castle was showing him the way through this ever changing maze. As he passed through the first doorway, he looked down the hall towards his left and noticed that a stray room’s doorway was emitting a falling light as if from a window as well. He continued to follow and weave his way through the passage ways and rooms, even traveling up and down flights of stairs, always following the window’s lights. He was sure that he still couldn’t escape Equadeus Arx, judging by the windows themselves. If he squinted enough and tried to look past the window, all he could see was an incredibly powerful light as if looking directly into the sun. The manor was still playing tricks on him, but at least he was making progress through the manor, (or so he hoped).

He eventually made it to a room he had never been in, the largest and most differentiated chamber of them all. It was some sort of rounded chamber that reminded him of a small, seventieth-century castle ballroom with matching decor and all. The ceiling was rounded off in white plaster and the floor below him was of checkered marble. He had found himself on a balcony with winding steps on either side of him, both ways leading to the ground floor. He stepped forward and rested his hands on the wooden inlaid balcony guard rails, overlooking what was before him. Three large arching windows on both sides of the wide room shined blazing lights similar to the windows he had seen before in the previous chambers. The lights on both sides did not touch one another, but lay across the floor, giving the room an unnatural white glow to it. Facing before Zack was no more chamber door ways, but a large arched wall and within it was an immensely large, vaulted, stained glassed window. It refracted the incoming light from the outside space into a multitude of strong hues. The art carved in it was nothing like had seen before, all following in delicate, circular patterns.

Zachary had to get a closer look as he made his way down the right side of the balcony stairway. Each step on the marble steps echoed throughout the room, the uncanny silence of Equadeus Arx still haunted him even in this warmer, safer place. As he made it to the ground floor, he proceed to walk towards the archway window in front of him, which was now staring down upon Zack. He stepped into the light and stopped, letting the royal purples, ruby reds, sky blues, golden yellows and pine greens blanket over his body. The stained glass seemed to be telling a story, a tale in which Zachary could not follow properly.

There were twelve prominent diamonds in the whole design, six above and six below, and together as one circle. In each of them was a head of a pony, all seemed different, yet all alike in the holiness that portrayed them in this artwork. Around these diamonds were many different events and artworks, such as a hillside battle, a mountainous landscape, a few ponies forging what appeared to be a sword of some sort were only a few of the designs that Zack first spotted. So many events and things to look upon made Zachary dizzy. It would take a good while before he could visualize every detail of the grand design.

There was one key design he did recognize, and it was directly in the center of the piece, the foundation that everything portrayed in the artwork flowed harmoniously around and towards. In the center was a single, sapphire colored orb, and in that orb were two notable features. At the bottom of the ellipse was a hand reaching upwards, it was half open, but its thumb and index finger stretched directly upwards. From the top of the orb was a hoof stretching downwards, as if one was trying to grab hold of the other. The hair-raising feature of these two pieces in the artwork was not the way they had been drawn, but the colors used in them. Zachary slowly moved his right hand up into his line of sight and bent his fingers to the deign in the window. The hand was in the same shade of Zachary’s and the hoof was pink, which pointed to a very similar hoof he had held multiple times before.

Zachary soon felt something strange behind him, something was blowing his hair like a wind from the center of the room. A growing noise of a surging magical force came into his ears as he finally turned to see what was going on. When he turned, he couldn’t tell what was happening or where this noise and wind came from, but gradually something began to fade in front of him. A great sphere of energy began to form, emitting its blaring noise and now gusts of wind throughout the chamber. Zachary didn’t know what to make of it as he stepped back and withdrew his sword once again, thinking that maybe this was another trap or guardian of Equadeus Arx.

The ball of energy became violently unstable as it continually produced more and more noise and wind in front of him. Its shape began to morph and ripple, changing form before Zachary’s eyes. Electrical currents enveloped the sphere while beams of light shot forth from it like the sun’s rays piercing through clouds. Zachary raised his hand in front of his face to shield his eyes from the ever increasing intensity of the sphere and stepped back even further to avoid any harm that may come from this odd occurrence. In an instant, when the noise had grown near deafening and the winds nearly toppled Zachary off of his feet, the magical ball blasted forth a light that painted the room in an entire white canvas. It took a few seconds for Zachary to finally be able to open his eyes and for the radiance to not hurt them. The light faded steadily like the sun parting an early morning’s fog. In the area of where the magical event had taken place, was something entirely new. Something small, but strange to Zachary. He felt a peculiar presence now in the room, something which gave off an immense power, yet it was contained. He felt a magical essence much similar to some unicorn he knew, though he couldn’t figure out who. As the light dissipated, Zachary was finally able to clearly see what came forth from the sphere of energy.

Lying on the floor was a unicorn, a mare he had never seen before. Zachary wasn’t sure if this manor was playing tricks on him again; he remained still however, unsure whether or not to confront the pony. He examined her from afar the best he could as she lay motionlessly upon the marble. She was a midnight blue unicorn with a light colored, almost silver straight mane. Streaks were through her hair in three similar shades and her mane itself was beautiful to behold. She looked so delicate, yet Zachary could tell just by being in her presence that she was tremendously strong, overflowing with magical power. Though even observing this, he could tell something was off. Her once unceasing energy was fading slowly, she was being drained of not only her magical abilities, but her life force.

As Zack continued to observe from afar, she finally opened her eyes and looked directly at Zachary. It was sudden enough to send a slight jolt of surprise through his body. Her eyes shimmered like stars across a vacant, black sky; they were amethyst in color, a deepest and most dazzling purple Zack had ever seen nature produce. She rose almost instantly when Zack seemed lost in her eyes; she continued to keep eye contact with him as she appeared exasperated. With heavy breathes, her tired face gave a gradually smile towards him.

“Zachary,” she breathed in a low tone, “you’re so... young...” Her voice quivered only the slightest, but still it rang true with affection and relaxation. Zack was utterly perplexed–how didn't know how she could know his name. He asked her how she knew this, but she didn’t reply; she only smiled and kept eye contact with him. The unicorn then tensed up her body and held back a light sigh of pain. A single drop of blood trickled down her lip and ran below her chin. Her legs shook, trying to hold herself steady as she closed her eyes, holding back the pain of whatever it was that was harming her. Zachary stepped forward with his arm out, ready to grab hold of the mare and to steady her, but she put her hoof out and he stopped.

“No,” she sternly commanded, looking away from him, “I’m fine.”

Zack spoke in a trusting voice “You’re obviously not. Let me h–”

“You’re just wasting time,” her voice resounded in a bitter, but somber tone. The admiration in her voice she once expressed before Zack had fleeted away.

Something took a hold of Zachary’s mind and he spoke swiftly while questioning himself, “Wait a minute–” He turned away from her and looked over the stained glass window again, scanning each portrait in the artwork. He finally found what he was looking for, a unicorn mare that looked nearly identical to the one behind him. She was in the diamond on the very bottom of the eleven others that circled around the window.

He turned back, pointed at the window and hesitantly questioned, “That’s you, isn’t it?” She looked up at the stained glass window and tilted her head in affirmation, inspecting the piece behind him.

She began to slowly walk up towards it while saying, “This is Queen Rosetta’s second castle, Equadeseous Arxisix... I’m glad she created this in remembrance...”

Zachary, at a loss of words, broke out, “Who? What?” He then restated his first question to her again, “Who are you?” When she had walked beside him, her eyes darted over him and the Prevailer which he still held in his hand.

“Put that thing away before you poke someone’s eye out,” She snapped at him. He shook his head and sheathed his blade back. He figured if he did what she said, he would get some answers out of her.

Once he did this, he asked her a new question, “Answer me this then: Why are you here exactly?”

Her eyes were transfixed on the stained glass window as she replied quietly, “I don’t know.” She placed her hoof on the window and looked back at him. “All I know is, I’m here to help you.” Another quake of pain shot through her body as she began to cough up a small amount of blood. Zachary approached her once again and placed his hand on her shoulder.

She spat to the side of her to clear her mouth of the remaining blood and whimpered, “I’ll be fine... This is the end for me, but not for you.” She looked back at the window and told Zack, “Place your hand on the window, feel it.” Zachary did so and placed his hand on the stained glass archway. It was strangely cold and rigid; he could feel where the glass was melded with the other shards.

“It’s cold,” he stated, wondering if that was what this mysterious mare was wanting him to tell her.

“No,” she dryly said back, “feel it. Not with your natural senses, but with your awakened ones.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

“I sense you have a grasp on magic like a unicorn does, is this true?”

Zachary shrugged and replied, “Somewhat so. I’m not the best at it.”

“All magical abilities are ones which can be conducted, yet sleeping silently. One has to learn how to transmit this power outward and control it. Every living thing has magic inside of them.” She placed a hoof over her, rested it on the tip of her unicorn horn and continued, “Some are born with ways to easily conduct magic, but anything can perform magic with diligence and a mindset.” She looked back at the window and asked Zachary again, “Now, feel it.”

Zachary did so again while closing his eyes to concentrate; this time, he tried to sense magical energy than just blindly feeling the window. He could sense the mare beside him, but something much greater could be felt far off, something that was tremendously and terrifyingly powerful which gushed magical energy like a roaring waterfall. He took his hand off of the stained glass and stepped back as the unicorn watched him.

“I felt it,” he spoke up. “It’s faint–very far away–but it’s an enormous amount of energy, like an army of unicorns... What it is?” He looked back towards the stained glass with a new mindset and continued, “Is it behind this window?”

“It’s the Catalyst Stone. The foundation of the greatest magical artifacts known to this world–”

“The Elements.”

“Precisely.”

She turned towards him and continued, “I know of you Zachary, and I know of your mission. I know this because thousands of years ago, when the universe was brought forth in the new lights of heaven, the spirits and suns and moons sang forth harmoniously. They sung the song in which time took direction in, and you are part of this song. A grand ballad in which you play the most essential role in, yet you are the loneliest role; the first to begin and the last to end.”

Zachary stopped her by stammering out, “I-I don’t... What do you mean?” The unicorn stopped in mid-breath and sighed deeply with a restful smile upon her face.

“I spoke too much. You will learn in due time, my dear sweet Zachary.” Zack looked back up at the artwork and quite suddenly pulled the Prevailer out of its sheath.

“What are you doing,” she said in a startled tone.

“If the Catalyst Stone is behind this window, then we need to get through it somehow.”

“No, Zachary! We will not desecrate a magical artifact with another!” Upon hearing those words, Zachary stopped and lowered his blade, feeling awfully foolish about his rash decision. The mare continued, “If you destroy this, we will be cut off from the Catalyst Stone for all time. Behind this window is nothing but a wall, however, it is a portal to another dimension–a dimension much similar to our own. It was fabricated by Queen Rosetta herself and is only connected by her castle alone. She had to keep the Catalyst Stone safe, so she created what was called an Enigma Chamber.”

“Oh,” Zachary said, remembering the Enigma Chamber in Canterlot Castle. “Princess Celestia created an Enigma Chamber... but it was nothing like this.” He turned to the mare and asked, “How do you enter it though?”

The unicorn stepped forward as her horn began to glow with a white aura. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then Zachary began to notice that the artwork upon the stained glass was moving. Stars warped around the archway in the artwork, the previous art inside of it began to conform into larger shapes as the background of the window quickly spun day and night behind the moving pieces. The diamonds, spheres and other art pieces finally came together as one large, jagged portrait of a what appeared to be an alicorn flying before them in animation. He figured this must have been Queen Rosette, because he had never seen another alicorn quite like this one. It was of a cream colored coat with a flowing red mane and tail. Its eyes glowed in a sapphire brilliance as it looked upon him and the unicorn as if judging to see if they were worthy of entry. After a few seconds, the alicorn’s body burst into a thousand separate pieces of shards in the window and those shards began to form something entirely new. What was created was a wide stairwell leading into the underground. As it formed, the veil between the glass and the new set of stairs slowly faded from existence and the color corrected itself with their reality. The portal was opened.

The unicorn finally ceased her magic and as she did, she fell back down on her knees. Zachary turned to her to try and help her; he could feel her magic was nearly drained. All of her vast amount of power seemingly vanished from within her while opening the Enigma Chamber. Blood began to trickle down her lips and from her snout as she failed to keep her gasps of pain to herself.

She forcefully shouted out, “I told you before and I’ll tell you again: We don’t have time. I’m fine, now go!”

“I have to help you for all you’ve done! I can’t leave you! I can’t let you die!”

She softly chuckled at Zachary’s words of kindness, “You’ve done so much for me already. I’m just repaying my debt to you. Now please, please go.” He looked away from her and towards the window which was now darkened stairway leading below the earth.

“I just have to get the Catalyst Stone and I’ll be back. I’ve already defeated Excubris, I can just take the stone and–”

“No,” she cut in in a fit of coughs. “What you defeated was only a sentinel of the manor, a child’s plaything to the real Excubris who lurks below.” She grabbed hold of Zachary’s shoulder and continued more sincerely, “Only the Master of the Prevailer can defeat this foe–now go. I’ll be no use to you, only a hindrance; I’ll be fine here.”

Zack understood and rose upwards. He made his way towards the window and stepped into it. A rush a bitter wind came upward from the depths of the chamber below where the Catalyst Stone and Excubris was. He peered downwards, but saw only a curtain of blackness. Zack wasted no more time as he took a deep breath and began his descent.

Comments

[Shadow-Dancer]

this story has a small legend of zelda feeling to it defiantly with the labyrinth like layout LOL

[Scarheart]

This is an oddly touching scene between the mare and Zack.

[Linkerman]

2658526
The mirror-like figure reminds me of Dark Link, which really doesn't help with those similarities :v

[FourthWallAfroBrony]

...Anyone else think that the mare is a future Trixie?

[Grabnock]

...I think the author forgot about the map. I would have used it the second I realized everything was shifting.