"I do not feel that we are truly as one yet. It would seem we made a pre- emptive strike. We are still imperfect. Because of your eagerness, we have lost one. However, they were too foolish to kill him. He can be reclaimed."
"There was no clue that Taelos had such. It is difficult to follow the outside world from our prison. You were just as eager as me."
"That may be true, but I did not act upon it."
"This can wait until later. It would seem the carrier is coming once again, with Truth."
"His power is insignificant, and yet with that mirror he holds a weapon that is strength beyond his comprehension. He will be coming for one of us next."
"I volunteer. I may be small, but my scythe will leave as nothing more than several pieces of bloody flesh. Any who meet my magic will find themselves utterly dissolved."
"No, not you. The carrier cares for one of our hosts, and his incompetent feelings of strength and loyalty will be his undoing. Thus, we must let her take care of it."
"Oh, a challenge? How invigorating."
"It may be invigorating, but don't hesitate to kill him. Even if someone after him takes up Truth, as long as he is dead, someone else will reclaim the weapon and we will remain immortal. No mistakes like the one before did, Taea."
"I shall leave him in pieces."
Celos bit her fingernails as she looked at the wall of rock in front of her. Kidria remained silent at her side, and held little expression on her face. The thought of Daleth inside with a former friend that wanted to kill him seemed overbearing. Furthermore, the ground had stopped rumbling nearly an hour ago, and there was no sign of Daleth.
Celos stood there for a moment, and Kidria watched her stare into nothingness, obviously lost in though. She finally stamped her foot, and shouted to no one in particular.
"What the hell is going on in there?! This is boring as hell! Daleth is getting all the fun! If this ends up as a story in the history books, I don't want MY part to be 'While Daleth fought for the safety of the entire world, Celos stared at some broken rocks.' LET ME OUT!" She kicked the wall and shrieked in pain as she grabbed her foot, which she had just sprung from the impact.
Kidria sighed. "Would you prefer 'She stared at some broken rocks and yelled at no one in particular.'? Because that's all you are really doing. Seriously, if you want to do something, let's quit standing around."
Celos crossed her arms and glared at her little sister. "I suppose YOU have an idea?!"
Kidria stared at her angry sister for a moment, and perked up.
"Fireworks."
"What?"
"You know those utterly useless fireworks we got from the Moogles the other day?"
"How could I forget? You tried to light them in our house."
"Well...maybe we can grab a bunch of em from our moghouse up here, and..."
Celos paused for her moment and cocked her head at the little Elvaan. "You know, you get more like me every day." She gave an evil grin. "I'll go grab some matches and gasoline!"
Twenty minutes later, Kidria hid behind the corner as Celos bent over the group of a hundred or so fireworks they had stuck in the rocks, and tried to light the fuse on one of them. As soon as it sparked, Celos turned around and dove out of the way as the hallway shook with a force that knocked the two sisters senseless. Sparks, fire, blue blazes, and all kinds of explosions flew out from the corridor as the two covered their ears from the shockwave. The air filled with a rainbow of colors, blue, black, green, yellow, brown, and even purple. The explosions stopped a moment later, and Kidria and Celos glanced around the corner.
The entire hall and everything in it had been scorched black as night, but the rocks remained. Celos got up and growled at the stubborn wall of rocks, which refused to budge.
"Man, all that, and the rocks didn't even flinch."
Kidria gave the scorched hallway an odd, quizzical, confused look. "Ya know, that's odd, the big one didn't go off?"
Celos slowly turned towards her sister and asked: "Uh....what big one?"
"Well, it was green, and rocket shaped, and was the pride of my collection. It was about yea big." Kidria made a motion with her hands to show a box like motion about two feet long and about eight inches wide. "I thought it would make a bigger boom that that." She shrugged.
Celos' eyes got very big, very quickly. "Oh, shit!" She noticed a spark come from the pile of rocks.
She barely dove to the side of the hall before the entire area of Jueno was filled with a giant shockwave of sound, small rocks, and screams. The entire ground shook like it had been put in a blender and turned to max, and Celos and Kidria couldn't even hear their own screams from the blow. But just as soon as it had started, the rocking and debris stopped. Celos looked at both at her own hair and her sister's to see them utterly covered in dirt, rocks, scorched ash, and burnt remains of rock. Where once remained the column of rocks and part of the walls of the hall was nothing but a gaping hole. Kidria put her hands in the air and screamed a joyous, happy laugh.
"That was FUN!" She seemed ecstatic.
Celos merely looked at her like she was crazy.
Celos walked into Lower Jueno to find some sort of humongous heat had scorched the entire area and that it was even more messed up than before. Daleth was nowhere in sight, but the two of them noticed a black Galka lying on the ground breathing normally. The two of them jogged over to Takmir, and checked him for wounds, but there seemed to be none. He opened his eyes a little bit and looked at the two girls kneeling next to him.
"So, I must be dead, and this is hell. See, there's Celos, and Kidria..." He coughed as he spoke, but that didn't stop the two of them from slapping him.
"OUCH! I was just kidding..." Takmir winced, then looked back up at the two again. "Good to see I didn't kill you too."
Celos remained silent, but Kidria shook Takmir as she spoke. "Where's Daleth? Is he dead? Did you kill him? Where did he go? Where's the mirror? What happened to the street?"
Takmir summoned all his strength and reached up to close her mouth. "Please be quiet. I'm really not feeling well. But Daleth can tell you himself...he's at the Crawler's Nest." He let his hand fall back the ground and closed his eyes again.
Celos spoke slowly but very strongly. "What the hell could he possibly want at the Crawler's Nest?"
Takmir took a few breaths, and answered.
"Taea." He said. "He's taken Truth with him."
Celos gave Takmir a quizzical look "Who's truth?"
Takmir gave a start as if a brick alongside the head had struck him, and then sighed a long deep breath before actually answering Celos.
"Not a who. But a what." He was beginning to heave in his breathing.
Celos' eyes grew wide and she began to get angry. "God damnit Takmir, I don't have time for riddles or tricks. Tell me what the hell is going on here!"
The Galka watched Celos scream at him for a moment, but did not react. After a short time, he closed his eyes once more and lay his head down and spoke.
"While I was one of them, the pale warriors, I was...taught things that are not even comprehendible in the mortal mind. This knowledge is scary to behold, and it involved you two, but even now it flees my mind, seeking its original home in the Silver. Daleth seems to think he knows what is going on, but only the Echo's and the Evil actually know what is at stake here, and who is in danger. There is no battle for the existence for the world. It is greater than that. Evil has two goals in its mind at the moment: one is to destroy Truth, and the other is to either capture you two, Kidria and Celos, or to hang your corpses from the walls. Do not let that happen."
His head fell back to the ground and was silent. Despite Celos' attempt to continue shaking him for information, Takmir did not move nor stir. Kidria placed a hand on Celos shoulder, and gave her sister a knowing smile. The two of them nodded in quiet unison, then got up and jogged out of Jueno towards the Crawler's Nest, leaving Takmir to recover in peace.
"I want her alive, but if that is impossible, bring her to me in pieces. I don't care if you have to shoot her down, just bring her to me. No one pisses me off." The Duchy of Jueno attempted to shout over the ruckus caused by the shaking cave. "It sickens me to see that I mistook such a treasonous wench for a warrior of valued stature, and even gave her the honor of attempting to kill off the evil plaguing this land. I should have known that she would only come back to haunt me; she is nothing more than a child with a sword."
Daleth entered the cave, still carrying the mirror, and since he was already limping, he found it hard to run, dodge the falling debris, and search for Taea all at once. He did pick up the sound of the Duchy earlier on, and had followed it here, where he found the gray haired Elvaan speaking to his men about someone he wanted dead.
Taea.
"We can't fight her! She barely twitched a hand and left five of my men dead! I will not fight for your grudges only to get killed!" One of the captains yelled right back into the Duke's face, and the Duchy did not seem too pleased about it.
The Duchy watched the Captain start to leave, and as soon as his back was facing the Duke, the official promptly drew his sword and slew the Captain on the spot. His lifeless body fell to the ground, and the Duke kicked the corpse into the middle of the group of his men and sneered.
"Disobedience, no loyalty, disrespect, and a lack of intelligence earned you that spot on the floor." He seemed to be talking to the corpse, and then turned back towards his men and gave them a condescending look. "Any more objections? No one leaves until I see the bitch's head on a stick."
Daleth, seething with anger, charged forward and pushed his way through the men until he was face to face with the Duke, and spat in his face as he screamed. "Why the hell are you here? Why did you leave all those civilians to die, no, to be SLAUGHTERED and BUTCHERED in the streets in Jueno while you merely chased after this one with all your men?"
The Duke turned towards his new adversary very slowly and gave him a hating look like an adult would give to a child who was covered in mud. "Ah, the coward returns from his beauty sleep, to try and restore a reputation by trying to act like a hero? On a better day, I would decapitate you on the spot, but I have other, more important matters to attend to at the moment. The only reason I am here in this godforsaken cave is because YOUR traitorous bitch that you call a 'friend' attacked me nearly an hour ago. That is an attempt on the life of an official, and punishable by death, so I have come to slit her throat."
Daleth growled and moved his face in until he was mere inches from the Duke's pointy nose. "That 'bitch' has a name: Taea. If you so much as lay one slimy finger of yours on a lock of her hair, I will shove my lance through your neck and out your empty skull. That wouldn't be a 'suitable' death for a Duke, so I recommend you leave. Now."
The Duke seemed surprised at such belligerence and blasphemy for a moment, but quickly recomposed himself and stared at Daleth for a moment. "First insults, then a death threat on a government official? That's treason." He gave Daleth an evil smile. "And punishable by death. Seize and bind him." The Duke stepped back and gestured to his guards, whom immediately pounced atop Daleth and tied his arms and legs together with rope. In a moment's time he was bound like an animal, and looking up at the Duke, who seemed to enjoy the sight.
"A treasonous coward like you does not deserve a quick death, and I myself would enjoy to see you boiled alive or flayed to death, but time is of the essence, so I am forced to make this quick." He drew the sword from his sheath and pointed it directly at Daleth's head. "If you are so eager to see your bitch friend again, then you may meet her in Hell. Now, you die."
The Duke raised his sword, and swung down at Daleth's neck. There was an array of sparks and a flash of blood in the air, and Daleth looked to see Taea kneeling right before him, with her head hung so that Daleth couldn't see her face. Her skin was incredibly pale, and her hair, which was once red, was now a dark brown, but still looked the same other than that. She was equipped with black armor, and held a black tower shield in one hand and a black sword in the other.
The sword was dripping blood.
Daleth looked farther up, beyond Taea, to see the Duke standing right behind her, gasping for breath, his sword still in his hand. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, and he soon collapsed backwards, whereupon Daleth noticed a large, bleeding gash, right in his chest. He lay there for a moment, making sickening breathing noises and twitching in his blood, before Taea stood up, turned around, and with a fluid motion slit the Duke's throat with her sword.
The Duchy stopped having spasms after a moment's time, and soon was still. The pool of blood around him seemed to reflect light onto his gleaming armor, and the guards who served the now dead Duke promptly turned on their heels and ran out of the cave.
Daleth, still bound at the arms and legs, was left to watch Taea stand there, motionless, with red blood ever dripping from her sword. There came a cry from behind, and Daleth recognized Celos' and Kidria's voice, who soon burst into the room.
Almost as if Taea had been waiting for them, she turned around and a glint formed in her eye. She raised her left arm holding the shield, and smashed the nearby wall with the shield so hard that the room began to crumple and the ground began to shake.
Celos and Kidria immediately rushed forward to Daleth and began to untie him. Daleth, still watching Taea stare at them, tried to yell at them through the incredible noise.
"Kidria, get the mirror! Forget about me for the moment and make sure the mirror doesn't get destroyed!" Kidria nodded to Daleth, and dove to his right, where the mirror lay resting upon its back. The shaking of the room grew louder and fiercer, and dust choked Kidria's senses as she dove into a nearby alcove and watched Celos drag Daleth away from the falling rocks. In less than a minute Kidria could not see anything due to the choking dust, but the shaking soon stopped and the air soon cleared.
When she finally managed to see beyond the dust, Kidria viewed a large wall of rocks, much bigger than the one Daleth had left in Jueno, blocking the pathway out of the cave. Standing up and brushing herself clear, Kidria looked about the area and found she was trapped in a large round room with the mirror and no weapon. Celos and Daleth were nowhere in sight. Kidria hoped that the falling stones had not crushed them. However, Kidria soon forgot about Celos and Daleth, as another fear replaced the void in her mind.
Taea, sword and shield still in hand, was standing in the middle of the room. She was smiling, and looking directly at the weaponless young Elvaan who was holding the mirror in the corner of the room.