The End of Lina Inverse.

Prologue: ...There Was a Young Girl...

The only door to the Shrine of Shabranigdo was located deep under the foundations of the Master's tower, dead center of the great Guildhall of Zefielia. Five other towers ranged around the Master's tower in a great circle and the walls and outbuildings stretched between them, making a giant pentagram of the complex. Some said it was by accident, some said by design, part of a giant seal spell around the master's tower, or the shrine beneath.

Lina descended the stairs, plunging straight, steep and deep until she reached the cave like chamber before the door. Round and rough hewn, the chamber was bare of any furnishings save twin torch holders flanking the shrine's outer door There a tall bored senior journeyman leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and eyes half closed. Startling to full wakefulness, he stood before the door and spoke in a tired, jaded voice.

"Who is it that enters the Shrine? By what right are you here?" The door-warden asked her in ritual challenge, peering down at the tiny girl.

"Lina, apprentice to Master Durian, by who's right and permission I'm here" she replied, trying to make her voice sound more mature (it failed), handing Jarick a note from the Master telling of her punishment.

Jarick read the note, and the weariness was gone from his eyes and body. Although unusual, it was not unheard of for a mere apprentice to be assigned door-warden, especially Lina.

Jarick looked the girl over and saw she was trying to look like the dejected, miserable delinquent reporting from some arduous punishment one would expect to see, but he wasn't fooled. "Don't get too lost in yer readin, remember to be out 'ere at midnight, when Sara comes to relieve, if ya knows what good for ya." he warned in a stern voice.

Lina just stared up at the tall journeyman's face, innocence and bafflement in her eyes, as if she had no idea what he was talking about. Jarick grunted and gave the girl a smile and a pat on the shoulder before rushing up the stairs, and to the large steins of ale he was sure to find in the common room.

As Jarick's footfalls faded from hearing, Lina stood before the Door. It was eight feet high and six across, a solid slab of black stone, dull and without any marks or blemishes though it be thousands of years old. It was enclosed by a twin pillars of the same rock but these were covered by engraved symbols of power and warding, as deep and as sharp edged as the day they were cut, millenniums before.

Lina took a deep breath and drove all thoughts from her mind, save for the door spell. It was simple, a mere line and any sorcerer of the guild could cast it, no matter how junior. "By the power I wield in the name of Shabranigdo, I command OPEN!" Nothing happened, which didn't surprise Lina at all. Others would joke and tease when took some one more than one try, but most times it took Lina at least four or five attempts before the door would yield to her.

Lina stepped closer, ready to try again, when she felt a sudden warmth touch her chest. The Master's amulet? she wondered, feeling it pressing against the warm spot as it hung around her neck, under her robes. Before she had time for any further thoughts, a dull rumble filled the room and the door slide aside and the way into the shrine was open.

Lina eyes went round in astonishment, never had the door open on her first attempt. The Master's amulet? she wondered for the second time, did... IT? ...cause the door to open. she asked herself.

The hall before her matched the door's dimensions of eight high and six wide and it was again made of the same dull black stone, unmarked and unadorned, save for crystal globes embedded high up on the walls every dozen feet or so. Light refused to reflect off the stone, and darkness blacker than the deepest night seemed to ooze from the walls.

She took a flaming brand from one of the torch holders and walked through the door, but found to her amazement it was not needed. As she stepped close, the globes mounted high on the walls blazed to life, magic lanterns lit for the first time in living memory. Not even Durian can light these! she thought, feeling a giddy rush of power. She knew she should leave, to back out of the shrine and summon the Master, but her curiosity, her thirst to learn and explore drove her on. Like all twelve year olds, Lina had a reckless disregard for danger and an overly strong believe in her own immortality.

Long and straight the hall ran, turning neither left nor right. As Lina walked down it, globe after globe burst to life, flooding the hall with bright white light. Markings and symbols never seen before, and words of power in languages thought long dead, glowed in silver on the black walls and Lina spent many along minute studying each new marking or inscription.

A chill washed over Lina, and she felt as if hidden eyes were watching her, judging her, intensifying the further she went. Finally she reached an open area, "The Crossroads" as it was nicknamed, were the main hallway ended and you had a decision, turn left or right down two different hallways. To the left the hall lead to the heart of the shrine, the altar room, and the right-hand hall lead to the shrine library and treasure-house.

But straight ahead..., it ended. But not in a flat wall, rather a recessed vaulted alcove, 6 feet high at the point, 3 at its widest and maybe 4 feet deep. It resembled a statuary niche, like you might find at a temple but no carved figure ever graced it. It was bare and empty as a schoolhouse in summer and always had been.

Lina started to turn down the right hand passage, towards the library, her ultimate goal when a flash of red caught her eyes. Looking into the alcove, on its the back wall chest high was a bright ruby red spot the size of a copper piece that glowed like a baleful single red lidless eye. It surrounded by a recessed circular indentation a hand span across and maybe a quarter inch deep.

It caught her eye and held it, like an iron nail to a lode stone. Hundreds of times Lina passed the alcove but never had she or anyone else seen a mark or indentation upon that wall. Forward, into the alcove she stepped, staring as if hypnotized by the disc shaped recess. It sparked a memory, a recollection, some where Lina had seen it before, a circular disc with markings around its edge and in the center a red... a red... what? A jewel?

Power gem? Damn! Lina thought, fumbling under her robes. She drew forth Master Durian's amulet and looked closely at it and the wall. Yes! It matched! The indentation on the wall was a mirror image of the Master amulet. Slowly, instinctively, she pressed the amulet into the indentation. It rocked from side to side slightly, not quite fitting, slowly she twisted the amulet and suddenly it snapped firmly into place and seemed to sink another quarter inch or so into the wall.

The amulet blazed with a golden light like the first light of dawn, then darken to a deep red glow like sunset on a hazy evening. Then amulet seem to melt somewhat and two rivulets of hot bright red like molten metal ran from it, one straight down and the other straight up the wall, deifying gravity, and both leaving a glowing red line behind. The rivulets each reached their ends, floor and ceiling, at the same moment and briefly they and the amulet blazed gold once more, then all light or glow disappeared as if quenched in cold water and the wall was dark and black again.

A metallic "PING" sounded from the amulet, still mounted on the wall, and it echoed up and down the halls building louder and more deafening, crashing like a thousand cymbals and chimes before dying away to utter silence. To Lina's dread and dismay the Master's amulet broke in half and fell free to the ground below.

Then a earsplitting "CRACK" like the bole of a great tree splitting asunder sounded from the alcove wall and it too echoed down the halls like the boom of many thunderclaps. The wall split in two, top to bottom, down the center along the path taken by the rivulets. Slowly, ponderously, each half of the wall slid apart, recessing back into the alcove's sides, exposing a dark blank opening with no walls or ceiling visible, like the maw of a giant beast or a door into a great cavern.

A gust of hot dry air, Or breath? Lina wondered, stale with a metallic tang emerged from the opening and blew over Lina and down the hall. As the wind passed by, globe after globe flickered out like a breeze on candles and the silver markings on the walls faded to black. Even the flaming brand Lina still held was extinguished. Lina was in darkness total, deeper than the darkest night, surrounding her like an enveloping blanket, heavy and oppressive.

No light, no sound penetrated the inky blackness, even the sound of her breath was muted but Lina could still hear, or rather feel, her heart beating quick and loud in her chest. Hours that seemed like days that seemed like decades but in reality only a few seconds passed. Alone and deathly afraid, Lina's sanity was slipping and her mind filled the endless silence with imagined noises, squeaks and squeals, animalistic utterances too low to recognize. Vague shapes also seemed to move about her, patches of total darkness that somehow stood out against the inky blackness, swirling around her, watching her.

In her fear and growing panic, Lina would have bolted from the shrine, if she only knew what direction to go. She turned to the right, but couldn't tell if she spun half around or made three complete revolutions in the total blackness. Her arms shot out and her left hand touched the cold smooth surface of stone. She pressed her body fully against the wall and laid her left cheek against it, the feel of its cold hardness giving her mind an anchor in her sea of fear.

Lina groped and slid her way along the wall, but after only a step her left hand felt the knife edge of the stone as the wall ended, or rather turned down another passageway. The Crossroads! Lina mentally cried out in relief.

A half dozen feet, just a couple steps, I'll be across it and in the main hall and then back to the door! Lina turned to face where the main hallway must be and started to take a hesitant step towards it when her right foot struck and almost tripped over a small rock or something laying on the ground. It clanged loudly against another stone or rock, the first real sound she heard since the darkness had come. Lina took another step, then two, feeling around in front of her for the mouth of the main hall and the way out when a sudden realization hit her.

A rock, in here? Clang? As in metallic? Lina wondered as she was unable to find the wall or passage that should be just before her. Metallic! The AMULET! That means...! The panic in Lina grew again, the "rock" she had stumbled over was no stone but the broken amulet left laying before the new "doorway" at the alcove's rear. Instead of being at the "crossroads" she had walked straight into the newly opened portal into whatever lay beyond it.

Lina stood frozen, ready to turn and flee when a small spark of stark white light burst forth, a dozen or more yards ahead of her and at least 10 feet above the floor. Like a lone star hanging low on the night sky it shined and drew Lina like a moth to a flame. She slowly moved forward, first one step then another, towards the tiny point of light. It blazed brighter and more intense with every step taken, lighting the chamber with a pale luminescence, growing into a silver-white luminescent ball.

The chamber was round, a hundred feet or more across with a domed ceiling 50 feet high, a perfect half sphere and made of the same black stone as the rest of the shrine. The light or star or whatever it was hung in the dead center of the room, halfway between roof and floor with no visible means of support.

Directly under the light was a solid slab of white marble the size of a small bed, a yard high and six by three feet in length and width. Some one or thing laid upon the slab and its clothes, weapons and decorations shown brightly, not a speck of dust or tarnish on them.

A bier! The body of a dead lord or mage from ages past? Lina asked herself. But as she stepped close, she saw that no body laid upon the slab or else it had withered until not even the dust of its bones remained. It was just that the clothes on the slab were laid out as if an invisible body was still wearing them.

And what a set of clothes it was! It beggared the ones she wore as threadbare hand-me-downs, more stains and patches than good cloth. They were the attire of a Master class, no! an Adept class Sorcerer! They were clothes such as Lina had only worn in her fondest dreams.

Quickly, without thinking or wondering if it was the right or even smart thing to do, Lina had stripped to her underthings, dropping her old clothes in a heap before the marble slab. Lina seized up the leggings, they felt like fine silk though they were thick and tough, and to her surprise they were still supple and soft as well. The leggings were a bright ruby red in color and she slipped them on.

They're too big! Lina saw as they hung loosely bunched up around her waist yet still there were many inches left over down at her feet. Suddenly a strange tingling started at her toes and spread up her legs, followed by silky smooth constriction that traveled the full length of the leggings and to her astonishment, when done, the red leggings were now a perfect fit.

Over this she donned a pair of sunshine yellow mini-shorts and a red tunic with a steel gray hem and edging, tight fitting round the neck and short shelved, or would have been if it didn't hang to her elbows and knees. Then the same weird sensation passed over her torso as did her legs and the tunic fit as well! It even cinched in at her waist and flared out over her hips making a proper little skirt of its lower portion, almost too short to be decent or not long enough to be indecent, depending on your views.

The tiny yellow shirt or cloth band had Lina confused. Being only twelve, petite, and ...well... somewhat under developed in some areas, she did not yet learned about chest bands or breast bindings, depending on what you want call them and ended up slipping it on OVER the outside of the tunic. The yellow chest band did accent well with the tunic and helped emphasize what little bust she had there, plus she thought it looked nice and made a great fashion statement. But for years to come, no one had the guts (or stupidity) to tell her she was wearing her "bra" on the outside.

And there was a jet black belt with a red jewel clasp and gold earrings and white gloves as smooth as silk yet as tough as steel gauntlets. A wide black hair band that matched her tunic belt and to her joy hid the twin moles on her forehead. Boots of light gray, soft as rabbit fur on the inside and as hard as a rhino's hide on the outside. AND A SWORD! with a blue and gold engraved scabbard and matching belt, light as a feather, thin as a rapier yet double edged, meant to hack and slash, not poke little holes. And Sharp! As sharp as a serpents tooth! Lina discovered while testing its keenness with her thumb.

At last came the cape, an ankle length sable cloak with gold trim on the outside, violet lining on the inside, with a high collar and twin matching shoulder plates of blue-black amour, adorned with red and green gemstones. The plates were edged with a blue rim and they were all polished to a high gloss like black marble. The whole thing was held in place by a gold chain with a rectangular clasp that laid across her neck like a choker.

Now fully adorn and clothed in the new raiment she found, Lina wished she had a mirror to see herself I bet the red of the tunic sets off the blue in my eyes! So captivated was Lina with her new attire no thought or question about keeping it entered her mind. She found it and it were hers and that was OK as far as Lina was concerned.

Then a little reality set in. Save for one small magic light, Lina was alone in the dark, far from the great door of the shrine that she should be guarding. Time had no meaning, no way to judge its passing, one hour could had passed or a whole day, she couldn't tell or guess. Though it can't be midnight yet, Sara would have raised an alarm if the door was found open and unguarded Lina knew. I must get out, hid my outfit...

Still afraid, Lina could not force herself to leave the pale pool of light, even if she did know where the main hallway was. Then the shadows seemed to deepen and all color faded to black and white. Lina looked up in terror, the light from the ball was now steadily fading, going dim then dark. Blackness flowed around her again but this time, mercifully, it lasted only for a moment. There! Another light! Lina rejoiced.

Is it the way out? With a little luck maybe she'll be back at the shrine's doors before she was missed!

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