Before I could give answer to this "Navlaan", my brother was charging him with an angry snarl. Just as he passed me, he was pelted with the dark projectiles of a hex. As strange and mildly surprising as that was, I decided I'd be better off with more room and took a diving roll out the doorway and back into the main chamber.

Aslatiel could have attacked me. I was much closer to him and I was surrounded. Perhaps he recognized me more than I'd thought...perhaps he still clung to whatever sanity he had left...It would be just like him. Despite myself, and despite the situation, I was proud.

Drawing my attention back to the sorcerer, I angrily snapped "What sort of game is this? A deathmatch? And I suppose your ghost will tell me these important secrets once you're dead." unable to suppress the sarcasm.

He grinned beneath the strange hood and rolled under one of Aslatiel's attacks, into the more open and brightly lit area of the chamber. He rounded the bottom of the right stairway and paused, smiling at me.

"I like your confidence. If you have the skill to match it, you shall just have to be sure not to kill me until I tell you what I know."

He placed a hand on the guardrail and his grin fell.

"I, on the other hand, merely have to kill you...and your doomed relative."

By the time he was almost finished saying his last word, he was readying another hex, and suddenly a circle of dark purplish orbs surrounded his head before diving at me simultaneously. I waited til they were just close enough, then rolled quickly underneath them, keeping my head down. They splattered harmlessly against the marble floor. When I looked up, the sorcerer was sprinting up those stairs, cloak billowing behind him.

I begun to chase him, and Aslatiel staggered after as well. To the left at the top of those stairs stood a petrified ogre I'd almost neglected to notice before. Navlaan ran straight ahead and disappeared around a corner after taking a sharp left. My brother passed me and went right after him blindly, but I took notice of several strange, identical mirrors hanging from the walls. My body impatiently tugged at me to follow and kill the stupid wizard already, but my instincts told me not to be impatient, that there was something...

A figure came into view in the clouded, purple glass. It brought it's fists up and began pounding them against the inside of the mirror. My eyes widened and I saw the same thing taking place in many of the other mirrors. That magic bastard knew. He knows this place. Why was that not obvious?

Purple fists smashed noisily through the glass before me and a dark, armored figure landed on hands and knees on the stone floor. It glanced up at me and grabbed hold of it's halberd, rising as it did. I dashed at it and spun my greatsword in a huge arc, slicing into it's side and slamming it into the wall just to my right. I jumped back just as it made to stab me with a short dagger. Just as quickly, I lunged and my sword passed through the slit in it's helm and out the back of it's head.

Taking just a moment to yank my blade from the creature's face, I turned just in time to see a dark projectile too close to dodge strike my left arm. Aslatiel had his sword lodged in the torso of a purple mirror warrior, but he turned just then and struck Navlaan's face with a backfist. I gritted my teeth and charged the sorcerer as he recovered from the strike, and he fired a single dark projectile at me before running for the rubble that halfway covered the exit. He climbed, and I sliced his heel. Aslatiel was engaged with a heavily armored, greatsword-wielding mirror creature, but I knew he could handle it. Hollow or not. So I made my way over the rubble in chase of the magic-user.

Even if he wasn't slowed by the nasty wound on his heel, there was a trail of blood to follow the man. He had just reached the top of the stairs, but I was speeding up them shortly after. He was leaning against the far wall when I turned the corner. There was a hex swirling around him, his cloaks flapping in the wind created by it. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth as he smiled at me.

"You're really not bad, not bad at all."

His hand glowed, and he made a low, slashing motion with it. A thick row of projectiles shot towards me and all I could do at this distance was use my greatsword to block. A burning chill ran through me, along with a fairly intense pain. He was already preparing another hex, and I dodged to the right and under the next staircase as he slammed his fist into the ground and a small maelstrom of dark swirled around him. He limped up the staircase, but the hex didn't give him enough time to make a good escape. Running as quickly as I could with the lingering pain, when it was within reach I thrust the tip of my blade into the back of Navlaan's other heel. He fell hard to the stone floor, and rolled onto his back, breathing heavily.

When I reached him he smiled again, and his hand glowed...but I stabbed it with the end of my sword. For a few moments I stared at him...hungry for his souls. I reached out and tore out his throat with my free hand...

Shaking my head,I tried to clear it of these terrifyingly realistic delusions. At least I still knew they weren't real...

"I think this counts as my win," I said to the sorcerer between breaths, "Tell me what you know of becoming human again."

Navlaan chuckled painfully, "Alright...you've won. So...you came to this land with the belief that the souls here could drive away the curse, is that correct?"

Being used to his creepy knowledge, I simply nodded at him. He coughed, then continued.

"That is a lie. Why else do you think this once magnificent, thriving kingdom has come to ruin like this?" He chuckled, "Aside from the giants' invasion." When I said nothing, he went on, "Vendrick and his brother, Aldia...never found what they were looking for. I trust you've seen the abominations that fill this keep? They are the results of a desperate search for a cure to the undead curse. Aldia...eventually went insane, though...perhaps he was mad from the very start..." He smiled more sadly than I'd seen before just then. "His brother Vendrick had to do something about him, but he loved Aldia...and so instead of having him executed for his crimes, he isolated him in his very own keep." He gestured to their surroundings.

I couldn't help interrupting him then, "What happened to Lord Aldia? Is he still here?"

He looked at me and grinned broadly.

"Yes."

AN: Another short chapter, I know. But I haven't had much time to write lately, life has been a real pain in the ass.

Hope you guys enjoy it anyway.