abyssgirl's May challenge. Ok, it was a minimum of 500 words per chapter, but I have a tendency to ...twist the rules. For abyssgirl.

Open your eyes, Stone Mountain. What do you see?

The Chamber of the Ordeal was… Different to what I thought if would be; made up of temptation –jewels, lands, things I had to resist.

But it wasn't. Resisting was easy for me, so it gave me something much, much harder – a test of vision.

The sexless voice echoed in the caverns of my head, between my temples like a cord.

What do you see, Stone Mountain? WHAT DO YOU SEE? The voice thundered in my wors nightmares, like the dark or monsters in the closet. But I could stand it. I could easily stand it.

I gazed fiercely at the vision infront of me – rolling hills, forests and mountains. Lakes and Lands. Everything. Tortall, from a bird's view.

I frowned, and gasped. "Fiefs!"

NO!

"Beings!"

NO!

"The…the…Tortall!"

GETTING CLOSER!

"Why are you asking me these things? I have no need to see this to become a knight!"

Yes, Stone Mountain, you do. Do know what this place is?

"No." I replied, sullen.

The Realm, Stone Mountain. What you were meant to protect.

I blinked at the stone face suddenly in front of me.

"So what if it's the Realm?"

I'm showing you this because it's what you were meant to protect.

"Failed? I never fail."

Oh, but you do! You failed here, Stone Mountain. In the Chamber of the Ordeal.

"How?"

Do you not know what the Rules of Weakness are? You spoke, Stone Mountain. Did you also not know what happens to squires who speak in the Chanber of the Ordeal?

I shook my head, confused at this lesser being.

They never become knights. The thing whispered.

The cord between my temples snapped, bringing the two fortifications of my mind crashing together…unberable pain…struggling to breathe…

And freedom.

I sat in a courtroom, with Mithros as the final Judge.


It was time. Time for a change.