The biggest mountain was directly in the middle of range and all the mountains around it seemed to block any cloud from coming near so Jayde figured that was the one. She performed a magic scan and located a doorway in the far side.
"We've got only a short journey in there." Jayde said, and she created a portal which transported them to the other side of the mountain with the last of the magic Krys had given her. The doorway had a large picture on the front but the pieces are jumbled. It took Jayde about an hour to recreate the picture on the ground with a stick, unjumbled that is, because both brothers were trying to give advice as to what it could be, and interrupting her constantly. Eventually when Jayde had unscrambled it, she could see that the picture showed a key inside a fake boulder next to the door and a piece of slab that moved away to reveal the keyhole. Jayde retrieved the key from the boulder, which opened like a trunk. That was considerably easy because she both brothers were sitting against a tree, arguing about the relative merits of magic rings, and therefore were not interrupting her. The keyhole was another matter. There was no problem with interruptions, rather there was a physical barrier. Jayde had to borrow a dagger from Darius and with alot of work and alot of time, she managed to force it open. Inserting the key, she opened the door. There were scratchmarks on the other side and the bleached white skeleton of a minotaur, long dead and the bones picked clean of any meat.
"There was an obvious flaw in that plan." Jayde said. "Sure, A minotaur is a good guardian but you really need to feed it once in a while. I'd say the bats and other monsters are dead too."
"Looks like we're facing the labyrinth." Said Mozenrath. "I'll provide the light but watch your step. A place this old will be riddled with pits and that guy, Galeb, mentioned traps."
The place lit up with a flash from Mozenrath's hand and a ball of orange light hovered above the trio. Jayde took a step forward and surveyed the area.
"Uh... seems okay." Jayde muttered. "No big holes around here."
"Which way do we go?" Asked Darius, as if he expected Jayde to know. "There are three tunnels."
Jayde shut her eyes and concentrated. A minute or two passed before Mozenrath interrupted.
"Jayde... what are you doing?"
"Nothing." Jayde replied. "Just resting my eyes. Here, we should go through this tunnel. It slopes down further than the others."
With those words, the party commenced. Jayde went first, then Mozenrath, with Darius following close behind and the orange ball of light even further back, sharing just enough light for Jayde to see by.
The tunnel went deeper and deeper, and the air had a mouldy, musty feel to it. Almost like someone had died in there. Well, someone had died. Millions of bats, a few monsters and one minotaur, to be exact. The cave got colder and damp and Jayde shivered.
"I should have brought a cloak." She said, her voice seemingly muffled by the darkness. "It's a little bit cold."
Mozenrath didn't get the hint, and he drew his cloak tighter around his thin frame.
"Yeah, It is pretty cold." He said. "But I don't know where the dampness is coming from. I can't hear any water."
"It comes from being underground, Moze." Said Darius, dryly.
They continued in silence, the passage snaking all over the mountain. Sometimes now, the tunnel sloped up, but mostly it went down, and fairly steeply.
It was all ramp and no stairs, so Jayde's legs were beginning to ache.
Just as they though they could go no further, the tunnel sloped further upwards and opened out into a small chamber, an eerie red glow filling it.
"Wow..." Jayde gasped. The ceiling was covered in crystals, and even the first Princess of Agrabah couldn't hide her awe. Galeb had been right, there was a pedestal in the middle with two gems.
Darius was about to take a step forward when Mozenrath stopped him
"Wait." He said. "Galeb said something about solving puzzles. We can't have bypassed them all."
"You're right." Jayde said. "Close your eyes everyone so that you don't have to believe what you see."
They did this, and Jayde muttered a few magic words to lift any illusions. Upon opening their eyes, the trio was shocked. Most of the room had dissappeared. The rest was a pit, yes, filled with spears, with a small ledge around it.
Jayde sighed. "We've got a while longer to go..."
The three carefully and in single file, walked over the ledge. They tried not to look down, but Darius did and what he saw was not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, he swallowed and trudged on.
The tunnel sloped down, with tunnels branching off as they passed. Mozenrath glanced down them, hoping to find magical artifacts he could pilfer. Down one he saw a thousand skeletal warriors waiting to be awoken by their true king, down another, piles of gold, another held only a tarnished old lamp on a pavillion of gold. Mozenrath had a good idea of what was in the lamp, and he made a note to come back to all of these places some day.
Suddenly, the cave came to an abrupt hault. It was a dead end.
Jayde cursed at the wall. She was sure they could keep going if they could only get to the other side. She tried a digging spell, but the wall engulfed it. She tried various magical passwords, both Mozenrath and Darius lending their knowledge of passwords.
Frustrated, Jayde kicked the wall... and her foot went right through it. it was another illusion.
"Okay guys." Said Jayde. "Follow me."
Jayde strode through the wall and everthing went black. She kept going and the world cleared. She was in the passage on the other side.
Jayde saw her digging spell digging it's way into the wall and she called it back. Then she remembered the magical passwords. Doors that should have been left shut were opening up all over the passage.
Mozenrath and Darius chose that specific moment to move through the wall and bump into her.
"What's the old up?" Mozenrath asked.
"Shhh..." Jayde whispered. "Back we go..."
Jayde pushed the two back through the wall and hoped fervently that the monsters didn't know about it.
The group sat down a good distance away from the end of the passage and Jayde explained what had happened.
"Overall." She said. "It should take them about a day to either kill each other, or get everything sorted out and go back to sleep."
"So we have to wait." Said Mozenrath.
"Yup." Said Jayde. "I suggest we use the time to sleep. We should be quite safe here."
"But what about the monsters?" Asked Darius.
"Do you see them crashing through the wall?" Asked Jayde. "They don't know about it."
"They could find out." Darius persisted.
"So you stay up an guard." said Jayde. "If it'll make you feel better."
Darius stopped complaining and Jayde did what she could with the area, japping a few cushions.
Jayde settled down and went to sleep, Mozenrath not far behind her. Darius remaned vigilant for a while but sleep eventually got the best of him.
All three awoke at the same time, and they had a short conversation on what should be done next.
"Alright... I think we've had enough time waiting here." Said Mozenrath. "Whatever monsters are left, we should be able to take out."
"Oh yeah?" Asked Jayde. "And what if there's a thirdak?" Jayde had heard about some of Mozenrath's adventures from her sister Jasmine, through correspondance while she was away.
It was at this point that Darius decided to give his input. "Why doesn't one of us go check?"
"A covert operation?" Jayde was enticed by the idea. "It sounds like it might work."
"I don't think we should split up." Said Mozenrath. "One of us, alone, is a lot weaker than all three."
"Except for one of us..." Said Darius.
"I'll go." Volunteered Jayde. "There's nothing that could hurt me, I'm sure."
Mozenrath was not happy with this arrangement. "But what if you got hurt?"
"But what if all of us got hurt." Jayde countered. "It's better this way. You're not afraid... are you Mozenrath?"
"Well, yeah!" Said Mozenrath. "Afraid for you."
"You needn't be." Darius said. "There's practically no chance anything will happen."
"Oh, so now we're saying will instead of could." Said Mozenrath. "Then I guess it's already decided."
They argued some more, Mozenrath eventually giving in. Jayde vapourized the cushions from underneath them and stood up.
"You guys are gonna have to be on your toes in case there's an emergency." She said. "So no relaxing."
Darius made a sound of contempt. "There won't be an ememrgency."
"Don't jinx it." Hissed Mozenrath.
The bickering continued until finally Jayde put her foot down.
"Okay, I'm going now." She said, hiding her fear and walking through the wall.
The world went black again, and Jayde felt a tingling, a cold mist wrapping around her. It was almost suffocating but suddenly Jayde felt like she couldn't move. Her limbs felt heavy and she just felt like going to sleep. Her mind was slugginsh, but on last throught course through her brain. Something was wrong. Jayde struggled forward and everthing cleared. There were no monsters on the other side but Jayde was afraid to go back through the door. Obviously you weren't supposed to travel through it more than once. Jayde considered teleporting, but that was too risky. She didn't want to end up waist deep in solid rock. There was nothing left to do but to wait, and hope that the others would follow.
Instead of staying there, Jayde wandered further down the passage to check the doors. They were all closed and would not open again until the magic passwords were said once more. Jayde wandered back up the passage, she didn't want to get lost without the others.
An hour passed and Jayde heard a noise from the wall.
"Ah! What's going on? I can't move."
Jayde decided to risk it and she reached an arm into the wall and pulled. Out came Mozenrath, who was gripping Darius's arm tightly. Together, they pulled, and Darius popped through the wall.
"We ahh... got stuck." Mozenrath said, and looked inquiringly at Jayde.
"I have no idea." Said Jayde. "It did the same to me. That's why I didn't return."
"You couldn't call out?" Darius asked. "Why did you make us wait an hour?"
Jayde explained. "I know these illusions. You can hear what's inside the wall, but not what's on the other side."
The trio dusted themselves off, and continued down the passage together.
After more endless passages and chambers filled with skeletons, and even a wraith, the three reached a second large chamber. Jayde tried to lift the illusion again, but the scene stayed the same.
Once again, the ceiling was covered with crystals, but these looked dull, like they had been there a long time. This was not an illusion.
There was a pedestal in the middle of the room and two gems lay on it, greyish in colour.
"So let's grab the real on." Darius said, and he strode forward. jayde stopped him.
"Which is the real one?" She asked. Darius didn't know the answer. Jayde through for a moment, and then reminded Jayde about the necklace he had given her.
"Necklace? What about the necklace?" Jayde asked. "Oh... magical aura! That'll work."
Jayde dug the necklace our of the pocket and slipped it over her head. There was a faint red glow from the ceiling and a faint red glow from the gems. There was no way, however, to discern which gem was the right one. The glow from the ceiling disturbed Jayde, so she motioned the others to stand back, and she sent a ball of light to hover near the pedestal. As she had expected, the entire ceiling of crystals came crashing down, they would have skewered the trio.
Jayde looked at Mozenrath and Darius.
"This pendant alone will not help us." She said. "But I think I know another way."
Jayde plucked a hair from Mozenrath's scalp, "Ouch!", and another from Darius's, "Ouch!"
She twisted them together in a complicated knot and muttered a magic spell.
"A brother spell." Jayde explained. Now the crystal on the left was glowing black, and the one on the right was glowing white. Jayde strode forward and oicked up the white one. Nothing happened.
"We've got only a short journey in there." Jayde said, and she created a portal which transported them to the other side of the mountain with the last of the magic Krys had given her. The doorway had a large picture on the front but the pieces are jumbled. It took Jayde about an hour to recreate the picture on the ground with a stick, unjumbled that is, because both brothers were trying to give advice as to what it could be, and interrupting her constantly. Eventually when Jayde had unscrambled it, she could see that the picture showed a key inside a fake boulder next to the door and a piece of slab that moved away to reveal the keyhole. Jayde retrieved the key from the boulder, which opened like a trunk. That was considerably easy because she both brothers were sitting against a tree, arguing about the relative merits of magic rings, and therefore were not interrupting her. The keyhole was another matter. There was no problem with interruptions, rather there was a physical barrier. Jayde had to borrow a dagger from Darius and with alot of work and alot of time, she managed to force it open. Inserting the key, she opened the door. There were scratchmarks on the other side and the bleached white skeleton of a minotaur, long dead and the bones picked clean of any meat.
"There was an obvious flaw in that plan." Jayde said. "Sure, A minotaur is a good guardian but you really need to feed it once in a while. I'd say the bats and other monsters are dead too."
"Looks like we're facing the labyrinth." Said Mozenrath. "I'll provide the light but watch your step. A place this old will be riddled with pits and that guy, Galeb, mentioned traps."
The place lit up with a flash from Mozenrath's hand and a ball of orange light hovered above the trio. Jayde took a step forward and surveyed the area.
"Uh... seems okay." Jayde muttered. "No big holes around here."
"Which way do we go?" Asked Darius, as if he expected Jayde to know. "There are three tunnels."
Jayde shut her eyes and concentrated. A minute or two passed before Mozenrath interrupted.
"Jayde... what are you doing?"
"Nothing." Jayde replied. "Just resting my eyes. Here, we should go through this tunnel. It slopes down further than the others."
With those words, the party commenced. Jayde went first, then Mozenrath, with Darius following close behind and the orange ball of light even further back, sharing just enough light for Jayde to see by.
The tunnel went deeper and deeper, and the air had a mouldy, musty feel to it. Almost like someone had died in there. Well, someone had died. Millions of bats, a few monsters and one minotaur, to be exact. The cave got colder and damp and Jayde shivered.
"I should have brought a cloak." She said, her voice seemingly muffled by the darkness. "It's a little bit cold."
Mozenrath didn't get the hint, and he drew his cloak tighter around his thin frame.
"Yeah, It is pretty cold." He said. "But I don't know where the dampness is coming from. I can't hear any water."
"It comes from being underground, Moze." Said Darius, dryly.
They continued in silence, the passage snaking all over the mountain. Sometimes now, the tunnel sloped up, but mostly it went down, and fairly steeply.
It was all ramp and no stairs, so Jayde's legs were beginning to ache.
Just as they though they could go no further, the tunnel sloped further upwards and opened out into a small chamber, an eerie red glow filling it.
"Wow..." Jayde gasped. The ceiling was covered in crystals, and even the first Princess of Agrabah couldn't hide her awe. Galeb had been right, there was a pedestal in the middle with two gems.
Darius was about to take a step forward when Mozenrath stopped him
"Wait." He said. "Galeb said something about solving puzzles. We can't have bypassed them all."
"You're right." Jayde said. "Close your eyes everyone so that you don't have to believe what you see."
They did this, and Jayde muttered a few magic words to lift any illusions. Upon opening their eyes, the trio was shocked. Most of the room had dissappeared. The rest was a pit, yes, filled with spears, with a small ledge around it.
Jayde sighed. "We've got a while longer to go..."
The three carefully and in single file, walked over the ledge. They tried not to look down, but Darius did and what he saw was not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, he swallowed and trudged on.
The tunnel sloped down, with tunnels branching off as they passed. Mozenrath glanced down them, hoping to find magical artifacts he could pilfer. Down one he saw a thousand skeletal warriors waiting to be awoken by their true king, down another, piles of gold, another held only a tarnished old lamp on a pavillion of gold. Mozenrath had a good idea of what was in the lamp, and he made a note to come back to all of these places some day.
Suddenly, the cave came to an abrupt hault. It was a dead end.
Jayde cursed at the wall. She was sure they could keep going if they could only get to the other side. She tried a digging spell, but the wall engulfed it. She tried various magical passwords, both Mozenrath and Darius lending their knowledge of passwords.
Frustrated, Jayde kicked the wall... and her foot went right through it. it was another illusion.
"Okay guys." Said Jayde. "Follow me."
Jayde strode through the wall and everthing went black. She kept going and the world cleared. She was in the passage on the other side.
Jayde saw her digging spell digging it's way into the wall and she called it back. Then she remembered the magical passwords. Doors that should have been left shut were opening up all over the passage.
Mozenrath and Darius chose that specific moment to move through the wall and bump into her.
"What's the old up?" Mozenrath asked.
"Shhh..." Jayde whispered. "Back we go..."
Jayde pushed the two back through the wall and hoped fervently that the monsters didn't know about it.
The group sat down a good distance away from the end of the passage and Jayde explained what had happened.
"Overall." She said. "It should take them about a day to either kill each other, or get everything sorted out and go back to sleep."
"So we have to wait." Said Mozenrath.
"Yup." Said Jayde. "I suggest we use the time to sleep. We should be quite safe here."
"But what about the monsters?" Asked Darius.
"Do you see them crashing through the wall?" Asked Jayde. "They don't know about it."
"They could find out." Darius persisted.
"So you stay up an guard." said Jayde. "If it'll make you feel better."
Darius stopped complaining and Jayde did what she could with the area, japping a few cushions.
Jayde settled down and went to sleep, Mozenrath not far behind her. Darius remaned vigilant for a while but sleep eventually got the best of him.
All three awoke at the same time, and they had a short conversation on what should be done next.
"Alright... I think we've had enough time waiting here." Said Mozenrath. "Whatever monsters are left, we should be able to take out."
"Oh yeah?" Asked Jayde. "And what if there's a thirdak?" Jayde had heard about some of Mozenrath's adventures from her sister Jasmine, through correspondance while she was away.
It was at this point that Darius decided to give his input. "Why doesn't one of us go check?"
"A covert operation?" Jayde was enticed by the idea. "It sounds like it might work."
"I don't think we should split up." Said Mozenrath. "One of us, alone, is a lot weaker than all three."
"Except for one of us..." Said Darius.
"I'll go." Volunteered Jayde. "There's nothing that could hurt me, I'm sure."
Mozenrath was not happy with this arrangement. "But what if you got hurt?"
"But what if all of us got hurt." Jayde countered. "It's better this way. You're not afraid... are you Mozenrath?"
"Well, yeah!" Said Mozenrath. "Afraid for you."
"You needn't be." Darius said. "There's practically no chance anything will happen."
"Oh, so now we're saying will instead of could." Said Mozenrath. "Then I guess it's already decided."
They argued some more, Mozenrath eventually giving in. Jayde vapourized the cushions from underneath them and stood up.
"You guys are gonna have to be on your toes in case there's an emergency." She said. "So no relaxing."
Darius made a sound of contempt. "There won't be an ememrgency."
"Don't jinx it." Hissed Mozenrath.
The bickering continued until finally Jayde put her foot down.
"Okay, I'm going now." She said, hiding her fear and walking through the wall.
The world went black again, and Jayde felt a tingling, a cold mist wrapping around her. It was almost suffocating but suddenly Jayde felt like she couldn't move. Her limbs felt heavy and she just felt like going to sleep. Her mind was slugginsh, but on last throught course through her brain. Something was wrong. Jayde struggled forward and everthing cleared. There were no monsters on the other side but Jayde was afraid to go back through the door. Obviously you weren't supposed to travel through it more than once. Jayde considered teleporting, but that was too risky. She didn't want to end up waist deep in solid rock. There was nothing left to do but to wait, and hope that the others would follow.
Instead of staying there, Jayde wandered further down the passage to check the doors. They were all closed and would not open again until the magic passwords were said once more. Jayde wandered back up the passage, she didn't want to get lost without the others.
An hour passed and Jayde heard a noise from the wall.
"Ah! What's going on? I can't move."
Jayde decided to risk it and she reached an arm into the wall and pulled. Out came Mozenrath, who was gripping Darius's arm tightly. Together, they pulled, and Darius popped through the wall.
"We ahh... got stuck." Mozenrath said, and looked inquiringly at Jayde.
"I have no idea." Said Jayde. "It did the same to me. That's why I didn't return."
"You couldn't call out?" Darius asked. "Why did you make us wait an hour?"
Jayde explained. "I know these illusions. You can hear what's inside the wall, but not what's on the other side."
The trio dusted themselves off, and continued down the passage together.
After more endless passages and chambers filled with skeletons, and even a wraith, the three reached a second large chamber. Jayde tried to lift the illusion again, but the scene stayed the same.
Once again, the ceiling was covered with crystals, but these looked dull, like they had been there a long time. This was not an illusion.
There was a pedestal in the middle of the room and two gems lay on it, greyish in colour.
"So let's grab the real on." Darius said, and he strode forward. jayde stopped him.
"Which is the real one?" She asked. Darius didn't know the answer. Jayde through for a moment, and then reminded Jayde about the necklace he had given her.
"Necklace? What about the necklace?" Jayde asked. "Oh... magical aura! That'll work."
Jayde dug the necklace our of the pocket and slipped it over her head. There was a faint red glow from the ceiling and a faint red glow from the gems. There was no way, however, to discern which gem was the right one. The glow from the ceiling disturbed Jayde, so she motioned the others to stand back, and she sent a ball of light to hover near the pedestal. As she had expected, the entire ceiling of crystals came crashing down, they would have skewered the trio.
Jayde looked at Mozenrath and Darius.
"This pendant alone will not help us." She said. "But I think I know another way."
Jayde plucked a hair from Mozenrath's scalp, "Ouch!", and another from Darius's, "Ouch!"
She twisted them together in a complicated knot and muttered a magic spell.
"A brother spell." Jayde explained. Now the crystal on the left was glowing black, and the one on the right was glowing white. Jayde strode forward and oicked up the white one. Nothing happened.
