Chapter 11: Questions and Answers

The mirror had managed to answer a couple of my questions. First, it had indeed been spying on us for Lynx. Second, Lynx was not away like a couple of his goblins had believed. He was here. He was with the Frozen Flame.

We made our way back to the ballroom. It was just as creepy then as it was the first time. Kid didn't take long to find the right candle. She was burning to get a go at Lynx. "Okay, third on the left. Here we go."

She pushed against the candlestick, pressing it slowly into the wall. When it was pressed all the way there was a faint click. Then the ground bellow us lurched. I stumbled before regaining my footing. "What's going on?"

"The entire room is sinking downward," Magil told me.

Then the room began to fall much faster. My stomach came to rest somewhere near my head. As I got use to the sinking sensation I realized the enormity of my situation, the finality of it. This was it, the conclusion to our adventure. My heart was filled with a violent mixture of anxiety, expectation, and hope. What would the Frozen Flame do once we had it? How would Lynx try to stop us?

The room continued to sink further underground like an elevator to Hell. Then I heard Kid speak. "Sometimes. Sometimes I do struggle to win, even when I know I've already lost, just like that old woman said. Why do I do that?"

She was speaking meekly. Not anything like her usual self. When I looked at her I saw a shy smile on her face. She wasn't the same Kid I normally saw.

Looking at her I felt something powerful go through me, it felt like a wave of fire surging through my heart. "Don't worry, we can't lose, there's no doubt!"

"Whatever," she said under her breath. "Sayings like those never made much sense to me. There's never a case where there ain't a doubt. Not a single one. But…thanks, mate."

Seeing her smiling at me like that I realized that there wasn't another girl like her in the entire world, and there never would be one like her ever again. Ever. Seeing the way I was staring at her she said. "What's up with you all of a sudden?"

I tried not to blush, but I think I failed. "Nothing, it's just that for a second you looked like a different person."

"It's probably because of the Frozen Flame. We're getting close." Magil said, his low rumbling voice causing the shadows to tremble.

She wrinkled her brow in confusion. "What do ya mean?"

He turned to her. "Look inside of yourself and you will find the answer, Kid. The struggle for your catharsis is upon you…"

Then she was really confused. "What in the world are ya talkin' about?"

The room began to slow. A metallic grinding noise filled the air as the breaks kicked in. "Guess this is our stop," Kid said into the darkness. Most of the candles had had the life shaken out of them during the fall.

Then the organ roared to life. It's song blaring. I shuddered at the music. The song was twisted, powerful and well written, but something about it made me wonder about the sanity of its composer.

"Sounds like a funeral march." I stared at Kid after she said that. "Heh, Just kiddin."

Personally I thought it was a bad joke, but hey, that's Kid. "All right! Let's do this," she said as Magil opened the door. "It's a funeral march all right! Lynx's that is!"

We found ourselves in a long straight corridor. Longer than any of the hallways we had previously encountered. This one was made differently too. The walls, the ceiling, and the floor were all made from a strange type of metal. Blue veins ran through the walls, radiating softly, they illuminated the tunnel in a light bluish glow. The ground was covered in an eternity's worth of dust.

The three of us were dead silent as we walked. For Magil this was normal, but for Kid such a prolonged silence was more than unusual. The weight of the situation finally started to sink in. Three years ago I was nothing more than a wandering minstrel. I enjoyed plenty of travel, but little in the terms of real adventures. Now somehow I had found myself miles below the ground, trying to steal some kind of magical gem from a tyrannical madman.

It wasn't that I regretted joining up with Kid. That was in fact the thing in my life I regretted the least. But I felt like the whole thing was somehow bigger than I was, that I didn't belong. I didn't even know what the Frozen Flame was. Deciding I had a right to know, I asked Magil. I told him that I deserved to know what I was risking my life for.

At first I thought he wasn't going to answer. I figured he'd ignore me outright, but I was wrong. A moment or two later he began to speak, "It is said to be a gem which soothes all scars, granting eternal life to its owner, or so people believed. The Frozen Flame is more than just an object. It's not even of this world. It descended from the heavens long ago, part of a huge meteorite.

"Once there lived a people who sought to harness its power, hoping to tap into their yet unknown potential. And so, it became a treasure of great importance and dreams. However, whether a gift which bestows power is actually a blessing or a curse, is another question altogether. Since the birth of humanity, at least one entire civilization has fallen because of it. These people once built a great thriving kingdom with its power, but now, all knowledge of this era has been completely lost within the sands of time."

I noticed the sadness that had crept into his voice as he spoke. That night I had seen Magil exhibit an unusual amount of emotion. For him that is. How he knew all of that I had no clue. Although I've been able to piece some things together since that night.

"Well, whether any of that's true or not, it'll all lead us to the same place. Say yer prayers, Lynx! We're comin for ya! That's all I know, and that's plenty!"

Kid seemed a little more like her old self as she made those fiery proclamations, so I asked another question that had been burning in my mind, "Kid, why are we after the Frozen Flame. I understand your vendetta against Lynx, but why are we pursuing the Flame?"

Kid met my question with a cold gaze. I know how much she hates talking about her past. And from what I learned from the mirror, I now knew why. Normally I wouldn't have asked a question like this one. But once again I thought I deserved to know the answer.

Seeing that I wasn't going to back down Kid shrugged and began to speak, "Well, I guess I shoulda told ya earlier anyway. I made a promise with my big sis, to get the Frozen Flame, and bury it for her."

I understood that her 'big sis' was the woman that was abducted in the mirror. The woman that the old lady said was murdered by Lynx. Still, there was something I didn't get. "Bury it for her? Where? Why?"

Kid explained, "At her old friend's grave. I was still little at the time, so I can't remember much of it, but there was this friend of hers who she'd grown up with, who died a while back. She said she wanted him to be able to rest with the Frozen Flame. I don't know what she meant by that, but after what happened to her, I vowed to get my revenge, and honor what she wanted."

I stayed quiet after she finished. I didn't know how to reply. "I'm sorry, Serge," she said, "I shoulda told ya more before getting ya involved.

"It's bad, Serge."

Somehow having Kid openly admit how bad our situation was, made me feel really worried. None of us really felt like talking anymore. We continued to walk in silence, our footsteps thudding dully on the dusty floor.

"Do not move."

I froze. I didn't know what was going on, but Magil sounded very serious. Kid and I looked around for some sign of a trap, or whatever else might have alerted Magil. To my horror the ground was covered in bones. Human bones, some of them cut cleanly in two. Not only that, but the walls looked to have been stained with blood. I sighed inwardly. We had come upon Viper Manor's final trap.