"I'll return your precious 'Tia' to you for now. But mind you, Lexis Shaia… We shall meet again!"
Chapter Eleven: Mysteries of the Jewel
With those words, Tia convulsed violently. Lexis, fearing some new evil, let her fall. Tia barely caught herself in time to keep from toppling over. She blinked, and the color drained from her face. "H…how did we get here?" she whispered, not quite to the others, nor quite to herself either. "The dragons…are they…?" Looking up, she noticed Dekar and Lexis staring at her. "Oh no! Tell me what happened! Did I cast another spell we don't have a scroll for?" Lexis did not answer. Tia looked from Lexis to Dekar frantically.
"Do you mean to say that you don't remember anything?" Lexis asked her at last.
"No!" Tia retorted. "And why should I recall anything if you won't even drop a hint to remind me?" Fear tinged Tia's exasperation. "I have fought beside you for almost one hundred floors. I have drawn blood and lost my own!" Tia put her hands on her hips. "What could I have done that was so terrifying after all that? What now could possibly mortify me? Or the two of you, for that matter?" A slight tinkling, like tiny crystal bells, cut her tirade short. Tia, Dekar, and Lexis looked down to see…
"My jewel…" Tia whispered. She picked it up from the dungeon floor tenderly. "It is something to do with this jewel, isn't it?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Lexis asked.
Tia held up the jewel for the scientist's inspection.
Lexis gasped. The once radiant gem had turned the sickly hue of a bloated corpse. Along its facets glistened shiny tracks which resembled rotted hair. Lexis's heart thundered in his ears.
"I had no wish to frighten you, Tia," he at last managed to say. "But the fact is that this jewel is controlling you. I would venture to say that some force from within it is using you for its own purposes."
Tia shuddered, but her grip on the gem did not falter. "That may be," she said at last. "Yet it is also possible that the jewel has expended the last of its power. Look! Its light is dead and gone."
Lexis understood with dismay that Tia held firm to her conviction. "The jewel still holds you in its thrall," Lexis warned her. "So long as you desire it as you do, I will not concede that it is powerless." Lexis was angry now, shouting without really knowing why. Tia's eyes filmed over with tears. Unable to bear the sight, Lexis helped Dekar to a place against the dungeon wall. Turning from Dekar and Tia, he said, "I have a map to make…and some calculations to figure." Then he stiffly added, "Dekar, you should stay here with Tia. Don't wander off. The other Tia told me that this is the one-hundredth floor. If that is the case, we should meet Guy and Artea quite soon."
"The other Tia?" Tia whispered in disbelief. Mechanically she knelt beside Dekar. "What terrible wounds," she whispered. "Whatever happened to you, Dekar? Oh… Why can't I remember anything?" For an instant the cave corpse's warning echoed in her mind. "Dekar, is it true that this jewel makes me into a different 'Tia'? Am I a bad person because of it? What is the 'other me' like?"
Silent for a minute, Dekar managed a half-grimace, half-smile. "Lexis is afraid of the other Tia's power," he said. "Do you want to know where my wound came from?" he asked.
"Yes! Tell me!" Tia exclaimed.
"I'm not sure if you'll believe it," Dekar remarked. "In fact, I'm kinda skeptical about it myself, even though it happened to me."
"Well?" Impatient, Tia crossed her arms.
"When we were fighting the dragons, one of them breathed on me."
Wide-eyed, Tia clapped both hands over her mouth. "Im…impossible! You must be lying! Dragon fire destroys the body beyond repair!"
With an effort, Dekar gently took Tia's trembling hands in his. "Wait. There's more to the story. The dragon did indeed kill me. I felt my spirit detach from this cage of flesh… Hovering above the battle, I saw the jewel shine like fire…and from its flames emerged another Tia."
Tia's grip on Dekar's hands tightened. "Go on," she said in a quavering tone.
"The other Tia cast a spell that restored my ashes, a healing that bound my organs and severed sinews back into my flesh… When she had completed this spell, she cast a second one that drew my soul back. The only wound that remains is this terrible one on my left side."
"No," Tia whimpered. She let go of Dekar's hands and drew the jewel from her travel pouch. "I do not want to believe you… But I remember your death…I watched the dragon fire consume you!" Tia broke off. "Yet I can no more part with this jewel than deny that you live…"
Dekar placed a finger gently to her lips. "Tia, I agree with Lexis that this jewel, your attachment to it, and especially the powers that it bestows are unnatural. But…this different power restored me from death. For that reason, I cannot completely distrust it. Whatever it is, it wanted me to live. I owe it my life."
Biting her lip, Tia tried not to let the tears spill over.
"Also, the jewel is 'another you.' It works through you to realize its wishes. And you are yourself, if you know what I mean…" Dekar flushed and quickly tried to smother it with a grunt of pain. "I believe in you and your power, even if it is hidden… As you should!"
Before Tia could comprehend the warrior's words, he pulled her face close to his. Their lips met for an instant before Tia pulled away as rapidly as if she had been scalded. Her eyes widened with astonishment; his lingered on her tenderly.
"Tia…in Parcelyte I told you that you would find happiness. Have you found it on this journey?"
Tia's cheeks felt as if torches lit them from within. "I…I…" she sputtered.
"What makes you happiest, Tia?" It was a question which he did not intend for her to answer. "When you find that thing, whatever it is, you should use your life to pursue it. Once you catch it, you will find contentment that will endure to the end of your days."
"Dekar," Tia said, finding her voice at last. "How do you know this?" Her other question remained unspoken. What had the warrior's kiss meant?
"I died, Tia, and I returned to life." Dekar's eyes became glassy and his breathing became ragged. "At the end of life, one finds wisdom the living spend their lifetimes discovering."
Tia smiled faintly. "You must be hurt, Dekar, if you're speaking this way."
"Hey," Dekar protested indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Despite what she had said, Tia could not deny the truth in the warrior's words. She took out her blanket from her pack and covered him with it. "Sleep well," she said.
Tia leaned against the wall, as had been her habit in the cave, both when she needed to think, and when she wished to sleep. Dekar kissed me! And he was talking as intelligently as Artea! He must be out of it. So that means the kiss, too, was out of it… Somehow that did not sound quite right. And yet Tia wondered if the attentions of the warrior were really what she wanted. Dekar spoke of happiness, of finding it. There must be some truth to that, she thought. I wonder what there is that makes me happy enough to dedicate my life to it… In the old days I would have said "being Maxim's wife" without hesitating. But now… Oh, I just don't know! Tia closed her eyes, her heart beating faster. Lexis and Dekar both say there is 'another me' appearing… I wish… Exhaustion set into Tia's thoughts and terminated them with sleep.
Lexis, having just finished his calculations, returned from his self-imposed exile. He looked at Tia's vulnerable slumbering form, sighed, and opened up his log.
Excerpt from Lexis Shaia's log
Today has made me certain. Tia's jewel, or more appropriately, the presence within it, is possessing her. Thus far these incidents have been positive. Under the other influence, Tia has saved the party from certain defeat at the hands of several hundred dragons, long-time denizens of the cave. Additionally, she has resurrected Dekar's body, which appeared to be irretrievably shattered by dragon fire. Despite the obvious benefits of the presence, I wonder what it entails for Tia. Is she going to be absorbed into the jewel? Will she ever be able to control this entity? I fear for the girl, especially when I see her this way, asleep and vulnerable. Earlier when I challenged the presence, she told me that the party now stands on the one-hundredth floor. I have just affirmed that she was correct. Though the spirit hasn't been hostile, I fear this fourth member of our party. It knows so much, just how much I am uncertain. Unfortunately there is little I can do about it. Although the jewel's light has died, I fear that the entity within is only toying with us, trying to get Dekar and especially me to lower our guard. Perhaps these are the fears of a weary man who has just stared into death's one thousand eyes. For the moment I can only commit these cares to the morrow.
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A thousand apologies for that indecent wait. I have found that packing for college is no mean feat. For that matter, preparing for college in general is a big pain! I'm snatching moments whenever I can, yet time is short! Too short! Where does it all go?