The Four Flames
In Leana's last words to her, or the last ones Daniella could understand, she had mentioned sacred flames, and the well. Daniella crouched down, reading the inscription in the hollow of the altar once more. THE FOUR SACRED FLAMES OF THE ALCHEMICAL ELEMENTS SHINE THE WAY TO IMMORTALITY. MAY HE WHO USES THEM WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE BURN IN THE ETERNAL FIRE. Whatever she'd been talking about, Daniella had the feeling that this was the key to it. She reached in, grabbing all four of the small cloth pouches inside and bringing them into the light. They felt like they were filled with sand or gravel. Each one was tied off at the top with string, and had the name of an element written on it in faded ink. Water, Air, Earth, Fire. Daniella was reminded of the puzzle in the library, with the spinning globe and the Latin words, which also had to do with elements... but what was she supposed to do with these? She untied the string on the pouch marked Fire, looking inside and recognizing the familiar stench... sulphur. But when she looked in, she did not see the yellowish color she was expecting, the pouch instead containing a deep red powder. Perhaps it had been transmuted...
Daniella realized in astonishment that 'transmuted' was a word she'd never used before, a concept she hadn't learned, and yet somehow she knew what it meant. It was just a small piece of the huge library of knowledge and experience that her progenitor had passed on to her. This is going to take a long time to get used to, she thought as she tied the string back around the pouch. It felt like there were now two distinct people living inside her mind, but she knew better. They were the same. Her eyes scanned the chapel, looking for anything that stood out, any sign of flames, but there were none. The candles, lit by the ghost of her subconscious, were gone. She walked around the altar, examining it for any other compartments, with no success. Finally, she walked behind it, looking up at the great work of art there.
The brass sculpture was no longer stained with blood, and it towered above her, grandiose and monumental. The giant statue of Christ on the cross in the center looked down upon her, the eyes reflecting a touching sorrow, and the angels soaring around him were all staring upwards, arms outstretched, in devotion to their god. Each one had their hands raised with palms facing upward, and each set of hands held a round pane of glass with a gold border... just like the one she'd seen atop the canopy over the altar. The moonlight made the whole thing look like it was glowing with some sort of heavenly radiance. It was beautiful. She reached out, touching the metal at the sculpture's base, when she noticed a plaque in front of her, set into the base of the cross. She leaned in, reading the inscription.
Gabriel's horn to end the earth,
Michael's sword in the air rallies God's might,
Raphael's staff to yield new birth,
And the red flame shall bring forth holy light.
Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael... she recognized those names. They were three of the seven archangels at the right hand of god. Or so Leana had so devoutly believed... Daniella did not. If she had ever been sure of anything, she was sure there was no god. She had begged and pleaded that some higher power would deliver her from this nightmare, scraped her knees on the cold ground in prayer, screamed for god to help her when she was at the end of her rope. She had been violated, abused, and ruined, and each time she held out hope that things would get better, that some benevolent overseer would take notice and have mercy. But there was nobody. Nobody to save her, nobody to blame. She was alone. Staring up, she noticed now the accessories each angel carried. The highest had a horn hanging at his waist, the second highest a sword in a sheath, and the one closest to her a long staff, with a large fish on the end of a line held in his left hand. So she knew their identities, but... did it have anything to do with these sacred flames of alchemy? The last line had mentioned a red flame. Daniella looked again at the inscription, trying to glean anything else she could from it. She read it over and over, beginning to get frustrated... when certain words suddenly caught her interest. Earth. Air. Flame. The alchemical elements. The only one missing was water.
So, then... maybe the elements correspond to the angels, Daniella thought as she examined the four cloth pouches. Earth was mentioned in the same line as Gabriel, air in the same line as Michael, and while the inscription did not specify an element when speaking of Raphael, the last line referenced fire, which meant that Raphael's element had to be water. And that would make sense, she thought as she stared up at the angel, holding the fishing line. She thought about her logic for a moment, trying to decide if it was sound. It did seem a bit of a stretch, and it was entirely possible that the mentions of earth, air and fire in the inscription was mere coincidence... but she didn't think so, not after all the inference and subtlety of the other cryptic, mind-bending puzzles she'd seen in this house.
So what now, Daniella wondered as she stared up at them. If these pouches matched up with the angels, what was she to do with them? She began to get an uneasy feeling as she looked again at the glass panes held by each of the three. She'd known the answer before she even asked the question. She had to go up there. It was obvious that the glass had some kind of functionality, since the three gold-rimmed panes stood out from the dark brass of the rest of the monument. Staring up the topography of the sculpture, she noticed few defined footholds. She could potentially climb up the folds in the long, flowing robes of the angels, which fell all the way down to her level to support the base of the statue, but the climb would be slippery and precarious. There was no other way up, or so it seemed, so finally she accepted the fact that she had no choice.
Gripping the cold metal of one of the sculpted folds, she pulled her legs up onto the small ledge, reaching up and grabbing hold of the next one. Slowly, she made her way up toward the top. Even the closest angel to the bottom was high up on the cross, so Daniella took it slowly, only stepping onto a foothold when she knew there would be enough space for her to stand. She tried not to look down, but every time she caught a glimpse of the floor, getting further and further away, she had to take a moment to cling closely to the sheer face and catch her breath. Fortunately, it was not as slippery as it had first appeared, and as she got closer to the top her will became bolstered by confidence. By now she had climbed higher than the canopy above the altar, which was close enough to the sculpture for her to step onto, but she kept ascending toward the first angel, Raphael. Another leg-up and her hands found the spacious ledge of the angel's main body. With one last heave, she lifted herself over the top and stood eye-level with the statue.
She took a quick glance out at the chapel, which immediately made her dizzy and nervous. Turning toward Raphael, she climbed atop his head and examined the object he held in his right hand. There was the circle of glass, which she could now see was thick and curved like the lens she'd found in the mines, but that wasn't all. Behind it was a small, shallow basin, which was made of a reflective mirror-like glass that Daniella could see her face in, which itself was attached to some kind of striking hammer holding a piece of flint. The mechanism made her think of Riccardo's gun. So the hammer makes a spark, she deduced, igniting the material in the basin. Cautiously, she sifted through her pocket until she had found the pouch marked Water.
She carefully opened the pouch, but hesitated before pouring it in, the vague warning on the inscription running through her mind. MAY HE WHO USES THEM WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE BURN IN THE ETERNAL FIRE. What would happen to her if she was wrong? Was it a threat of physical harm, or just a religious conviction? Daniella took a deep breath. She'd dealt with foreboding portents like this before, but each time she had to steel herself for the potential consequences, and each time it tested her faith in herself. This was right. She could feel it. She decisively overturned the pouch and emptied its contents into the basin, the powder in this one a dark blue color, also reeking of sulphur. With that all-too-familiar feeling of doubt,she pulled back the hammer and released it.
As soon as the hammer struck, sparks flew into the powder, which was slow to react. The places where the sparks had landed began to flicker with a blue light, which spread to the rest of the material over the next few seconds. Soon, the entirety of the basin was alight with a dazzling blue fire, which continued to grow in size until Daniella was unable to stand next to it due to the intense heat it was giving off. As she climbed back down to the angel's body, she noticed that the light given off by the fire was hitting the lens in front of it, which focused it into a bright, almost opaque blue beam, ending atop the altar canopy. It hit a similar, highly reflective basin there, then bounced into the lens on the canopy, which in turn concentrated the beam further, and sent it high, out the gaping hole in the chapel's ceiling Daniella had noticed upon entering. From this angle she could see that the blue beam streamed into the night sky toward a tower in the distance... the same tower, she realized, where she'd looked out the telescope... the place where Fendari had started coming after her. The memory sent a chill up her spine. The beam became weak over the long distance, and it did not appear to reach the tower.
She was finally beginning to understand. If she lit the three flames in the angels' hands, then a fourth in front of the final lens... the light would be bright and strong, it would reach the tower... and then, hopefully, something meaningful would happen. Daniella couldn't tell where all this was going, but it was obviously important. She remembered the conviction and purpose when Leana had told her. Find Mercury. My legacy. Daniella hadn't the slightest suspicion of what she was referring to, 'Mercury' having no meaning to her outside of alchemy... but maybe it was just a pseudonym for something with a deeper meaning. After everything she'd learned here about alchemy, Daniella had begun to realize that the core ideals of the discipline were as much allegory as they were science.
Taking a deep breath, Daniella continued her perilous climb, which entailed crossing to the other side of the cross to reach the next angel. She was able to do this without too much difficulty, as the sculpted cloth was now thick and rife with broad folds that she could use to climb on. Carefully, she crossed the gap from one brass robe to the other, and continued up the complicated contours of the sculpture. She did not dare look down from here, as her proximity to the ceiling was now closing rapidly. With a grunt, she pulled herself onto Michael's shoulder, catching her breath and peering over the top of his outstretched hands. The mechanism here appeared identical to the last, and Daniella confidently extracted the Air pouch from her pocket.
She untied the string with her teeth, using one hand to hold onto the arm of the statue so she felt a little safer up here, and poured the powder into the basin. This stuff appeared to be ordinary sulphur, the powder a familiar yellow-green color. Gritting her teeth nervously, she struck the flint hammer. The same reaction ensued, the flame slowly engulfing the contents of the dish, but this time the fire was a natural yellow-orange. She stepped back from the flame as it heated up, watching the first lens concentrate its light into a powerful streak. When it reached the altar canopy lens, it combined with the blue light and together the two made a greenish beam that was obviously stronger than before. She saw it reach the far-off tower through the hole in the ceiling, bouncing off a large reflector atop the tower's roof she hadn't seen before. It seemed to be bouncing the light back toward her... but it was still too weak to tell. She had to light the rest.
Daniella set off again, ascending higher, toward the last angel, Gabriel. However, she could tell this was going to be trickier than before. She had to cross to the other side of the crucifix once again, but now she was high enough that the legs of the looming statue of Christ were between her and her destination. If she was to make it over there, she would have to do some risky maneuvering. She tiptoed to the edge of Michael's robe, the broad chasm between her and the other side opening up beneath her. She stepped back, pressing her back against the cool bronze, breathing heavily. If she fell, it would be all the way to the floor. It was not a fall somebody could survive. The only way she could cross would be to make a leap of faith and grab onto one of the massive legs in front of her. She looked up at the face of Christ, his expression now appearing ominous and judging to her, looking upon her with doubt and draining her of confidence. I can't do this, she thought as she imagined plummeting to the ground below. So close to the end, and she couldn't bring herself to continue.
No, no, no. I'm not giving up now, not after all this. Once again, her faith in herself was being tested, and to give up now would be to give up on everything she'd accomplished. Turning back had long ago ceased to be an option for her. Get out of this place or die trying, remember? She allowed herself an anxious chuckle as she peeled herself from the metal, facing the dangerous crossing once more. She gripped the cloth of the bloody, sweaty gown she wore, mentally preparing herself for the jump. Her eyes were locked onto the hanging ankle in front of her. All she had to do was grab onto it, and the angled foot would provide enough resistance to keep her from falling. One chance. Now or never. With a sudden burst of speed and adrenaline, she took two running steps and leapt over the edge.
There was a moment of horrifying weightlessness as she hung over nothing but thin air, then she slammed bodily into the smooth trunk of the leg, wrapping her arms around it and squeezing desperately, sliding down and unable to prevent it. Finally, she felt the giant foot underneath her, stopping her descent. She closed her eyes, breathing deeply, clinging to the statue for dear life. She didn't want to move, knowing that a few feet of metal was all that stood between her and the last fall she'd ever take. Her legs dangled above the pit, suspended in empty space. Finally, through a great effort of will, Daniella heaved herself upward, bringing her legs around and raising her feet onto the uncertain expanse of the statue's foot. Still keeping the leg in a vise grip, she put as much weight as she dared onto her feet, standing precariously on the slanted surface.
Looking nervously ahead, Daniella was relieved to see that the hardest part was behind her. The other leg was close enough for her to touch, and from there Gabriel's robe was within stepping distance. If she kept her wits about her, she wouldn't have any trouble. It was building up the courage to do it that was the hard part. She exhaled determinedly, inwardly cursing herself for her cowardice. Just do it. Transferring her weight, she kept one hand wrapped around the right leg, with her other reaching out for the left. She touched the metal with her fingers, her body now suspended over the pit beneath her. Finally, she pushed herself off, grabbing the leg with her other hand. As she brought her legs onto the left foot of the statue, there was a brief flash of panic as one of her feet slipped off the polished surface, but she held on tightly and kept her balance. She stood still on the hanging leg, trembling.
Desperate to get the horribly tense crossing over with, one foot stepped gingerly onto the robe next to her and felt the relieving flat surface of the folds once again. In one fluid motion, she released the leg and launched herself onto Gabriel's voluminous robe, transferring herself to relative safety. Letting out her breath, Daniella wiped her forehead with an unsteady hand. That was not something she ever wanted to do again. She would find a different way down. Shaken, but feeling more assured, she began the final climb toward Gabriel's skyward-reaching hands. After what she'd been through, the ascent was relatively stress-free. She kept her eyes on the metal directly in front of her, looking neither up nor down, which helped tremendously. Finally, she felt the bulk of the angel's body beneath her feet, and relief freed her heart from the weight that had been pulling it down.
Allowing herself a glance at the chapel beyond, she saw that it was even more beautiful from up here, all of the architecture and elegance visible from this vantage point. It still made her queasy, though, so she focused on the task at hand. Treading carefully up the slope of the angel's body, she finally faced the last lens. Reaching into the pocket once again, she took out one of the two remaining pouches in her possession, the one marked Earth. She observed the dark green powder as she overturned the pouch into the basin. As before, she pulled back the hammer and released, sending sparks flying into the sulphurous substance.
Within moments, it too was alight with a dazzling flame, a bright green that reflected off the bronze of the sculpture. The light was concentrated through the lens and combined with the light from the other two flames. The resulting beam, now a nearly white shaft of radiance, was becoming difficult to look at. Daniella was too high now to see through the hole, but she imagined the beam was reflecting brightly off the top of the tower. Only one more to light, she told herself hopefully as she stared down toward the decorative canopy above the altar. It would be much easier to get down there than it was to get up, as the bottom of Gabriel's robe was close enough to the canopy roof that she could drop onto it without injury. Slowly and carefully, she made her way back down, noticing that descending made her quite a bit more dizzy than climbing, since she was constantly looking down. Her arms and legs were beginning to tire, but she pressed on, knowing she was nearly finished with the harrowing trial.
Finally, she reached the last fluttering strand of the bronze robe, and she crouched down, lowering herself feet-first toward the canopy. When she was hanging off the edge as far as she could go, she let go of the metal and her feet hit the smooth iron of the roof. It was so relieving to finally be off the statue, and Daniella took a moment to relax, and even smile a bit at her daring endeavor. Though it had been heart-poundingly frightening, the adrenaline in her veins gave her sort of a high. She hadn't thought herself capable, but here she was. Her curiosity now piqued, she wasted no time in making her way to the lens at the center of the canopy, where the three beams of light behind her were bounced and re-concentrated.
On her way there, thinking nothing of it, Daniella passed through the green beam of light from the statue, and suddenly she felt an intense heat, heard a sizzle. Gasping, she jumped back and examined the spot on her side where the beam had touched her. The medical gown was singed, a tiny hole burnt through it. They really don't mess around with this stuff, she thought as she approached the lens, weaving around the other beams, taking care not to touch them. When she stood at last in front of the final mechanism, she opened the last pouch, Fire. She noticed that this one didn't have a striking hammer, but was fairly certain after seeing how hot the light was that she wouldn't need one. Since the three beams were bouncing into the reflective dish where she was to put the powder, she poured the red material in from a good distance, careful to spill none of it outside the basin. Almost immediately, the brilliant beams ignited the powder, creating a fourth and final flame, its hue a vibrant, saturated red. This light was added to the three that were passing through the lens in front of it, and the resulting ray of light was such a brilliant, blinding white that Daniella had to shield her eyes. It had to be the brightest light she'd ever seen. She saw spots in her vision after looking away.
Staring up at the ceiling, she saw the luminous streak shooting into the night sky, seeming to lose none of its power as it hit the reflector atop the faraway roof. The reflector was bouncing the light at a tight angle, the end of the beam definitely close by. Daniella had a hunch she knew where. The well. That beautiful door in the garden. She'd known it to be meaningful, even before any of this had happened. She had to get back there, for she was positive that she would find the last piece of Leana Belli's legacy behind that door. She had been promised. Her heart beating faster with anticipation, she quickly returned to the edge of the canopy, climbing down the short distance to the floor. The footholds were much more obvious here, and she made it to the floor in a matter of seconds. Grateful to be on solid ground again, Daniella made haste down the short stairway and between the rows of pews, heading for the hallway leading out. When she was most of the way there, she paused, turning for one last look at the chapel.
Four multicolored flames burned brightly on the great sculpture, and the bright, colorful lines of radiance that they created changed the atmosphere of the room completely. It was no longer the silent, dark place where her deepest fears had been made flesh... it was now pulsing with life, the decorations reflecting light of every color, the entire room wrapped in white majesty. And the same thing had happened inside her. When she'd entered here, she was afraid of the woman she had been, wishing she was somebody else, and completely lost in the dark. On exiting, she was enlightened. She had faced the nightmare of her inner self and accepted her past, seen what it all really meant to her. The knowledge weighed heavily with pain and grief, but she finally understood where she fit into all this. There were still questions, but those were ones she could only answer for herself. Turning on her heel, satisfied, she left the chapel, heading back into the dark stone hallway.
She emerged into Leana's bedchamber, and though her initial reaction to the room was one of reluctance, she felt more at peace with the place, knowing everything here to be her own. She could remember the long, lonely nights spent in here, day after day, year after year. She remembered smashing the glass wall, put in place by Aureolus to keep her from the chapel, from God, the object of her obsession and devotion. The glass had cut her flesh and given her deep scars, which she had justified as the cost of salvation. What Daniella herself had seen in this room, the terrifying death in the closet, the dead spectre in the mirror... nothing but the reflection of her uncontrollably strong negative emotions, of returning to a place that held such trauma and anguish for her. "I didn't know how to make sense of what I felt here," Daniella said quietly to herself, lost in introspection. "So my mind took over. It fabricated everything." It made sense. But even now, she was unable to convince herself completely. Everything she'd seen had just been so real to her... And she couldn't prove that she was right...
"So what then? Her dead spirit is still wandering around here, waiting for some poor sod to show up so she can haunt them?" Daniella shook her head, refusing to entertain the idea. It may have seemed plausible when she was in the throes of terror, but the thought now seemed ludicrous to her. Still, in spite of herself, she couldn't help but feel a chill in her bones as she stepped through the broken pane of glass in the center of the room, and she looked over her shoulder a few more times than usual on her way out. I guess I'll never really know.
Getting onto her knees, Daniella sighed dejectedly, then entered the cramped tunnel back to the garden. It seemed to take even longer than the first time. After what felt like an eternity of snaking down the passage on her belly, enduring feelings of nausea and general discomfort, she finally stood in the open, moonlit garden once more... and immediately, her eye was drawn to the new light. There it was, streaming through the panoramic window on her left, ending its long journey at the door at the top of the stairway across from her. The beam hit the door right in the center, striking the sapphire of the brooch and infusing it with a cerulean glow that cut through the night air. Everything the light touched inherited its alien beauty, the stairway around it appearing to her a path up into another world.
Enthralled, she made her way across the room, ignoring the idol and the crosses and the scratched messages, and all of the dementia and loneliness they represented. She was only seeing the guiding light before her. She felt the warmth wash over her as she ascended the flight of stairs that led to the spire above, feeling Leana's presence within her, her last testament ringing in Daniella's ears. Something very dear to her was inside this door. Climbing the last few steps, she stood in front of the swirling, sparkling gateway, feeling the angels' brilliance around her. Slowly, humbly, she reached out for the door handle, turned it once more. This time, it rotated with a resounding click, and the door swung open, the silver light spilling into the room.
Daniella stood before a modest, circular room at the top of a keep. A chill wind whistled through an open doorway to her left, the opening leading out onto a narrow, ancient-looking balcony. In front of her, velvet banners lined the walls behind an array of artfully crafted metal flowers, arranged in tiers of elegant vases and trellises, which drew the eye to a beautifully painted portrait of Leana. In the painting, she was resting her face on her hand, wearing a gorgeous blue evening gown, and she was smiling, she was really smiling. A look of perfect contentment lit up her face, and for the first time, Daniella saw her true beauty. She looked like a completely different person than the ice queen that she had become. It was below this painting, though, that the room's most defining feature lay. Raised above the floor, surrounded on all sides by the steel flowers, was an open coffin, made of red mahogany.
Daniella began to tremble. She was not yet close enough to the coffin to see inside, but she knew what she would see when she looked into the padded interior. Here was Leana Belli's final resting place. This was where Aureolus had laid her to sleep after stealing her life away. It was where her story ended. Daniella inhaled slowly, the emotions running deep, and began to walk forward. She was afraid, knowing she would see nothing but her own remains when she peered over the edge, but she also felt the need to confirm it for herself, and close the book on this dark chapter of her life. Reaching the edge of the coffin, Daniella looked down into it, composed, ready. But what she saw was not what she had expected.
Inside the coffin was a golden cane.