The Threads of Life:

Chapter 19

Mindelan?

A/N: I'm SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry for my not updating in super long! It's just been really stressful; tons of stuff to do, finals, etc. And I know you guys probably don't care about that, so I'll just shut up, and get along with the story.

Heartdamoose: Wow, that was incredible! Thank you so much for that! I've actually had a person write poem for me before, but that was for flute….I must attract poetry! Although, maybe you're just super nice and take the time to write a poem for everyone; in that case, you're a very, very, very, very nice person!

Lady11occult: They haven't slept together…yet… That's all I'm going to say :-P

Alenor: When I read your review, I thought to myself 'Of course I'll have a chapter up before Christmas, is she crazy?' Now look at me…it's past the middle of January, and I'm only just writing it! I'm hopeless…

Thanks to: Lady of Masbolle, Wake-Robin, Jennyvre Moss, Heart Kel.


Kel was thoroughly lost.

She was in the middle of Mindelan, and for some reason, even though she had lived in Mindelan for three years, she could not for the life of her remember where in the Goddess she was.

Surrounding her were white walls, similar to the ones in the room in which she had been tortured last time she had been there. She hadn't recognized that room either.

Somehow, she thought that she wasn't in Mindelan anymore.

But how could Dom have found me if I wasn't in Mindelan? she thought. Still completely confused, she kept on walking.

She was now walking down a white hallway, empty even of doors. Figuring that she couldn't get more lost if she walked down a hallway that was straight, she kept going.


Ten minutes later, there was no end in sight.


Twenty minutes later, she could feel the passageway start to turn to the left. She decided to run down it, hoping that would make her torture quicker – if she was condemned to walk down an all-white hallway for the rest of her life, she could at least get some exercise in.

Finally, after what seemed like hours – and probably was – the hallway abruptly ended. At the end was a door, and she almost thought she was imagining it, so perfectly did it blend into the wall.

Walking up to it, she started to dread what would happen if the door was locked or she couldn't pick it. She didn't think that she had the strength to go all the way back through the tunnel. Well, she went through eight years of page and squire training, so if it was locked, she could damn well do it! She had never given up.

She tentatively reached out to grab the handle, not wanting to know whether it was locked or not. After all, if it wasn't, there could be worse things waiting inside the door than a white-washed hallway. She turned the handle.

It was unlocked!

She almost groaned in despair though when she saw what was inside the door.

It was another hallway.

This time, it wasn't white. It was a sort of silvery gray. The hallway seemed to almost shimmer with life, the walls rippling. She slowly stepped into the hall, not trusting the sturdiness of the floor with it moving like it was.

Thankfully, it held her weight. She reached out to touch the walls, and gasped when she did. The shimmering substance was papery! Now she doubted the sturdiness of the floor even more.

She couldn't tell if she was imagining it, but with every step she took, the floor seemed to sag even more.

A ripping sound made her run. She was surprised at herself though – usually things like this didn't scare her.

She didn't want to fall.

After a few minutes of running, she finally came to another door, and the ripping sound had stopped. She fervently prayed that both the door would be open and if it was, the next hallway or room wouldn't have a floor that threatened to collapse under her.

The next room was made of glass.

Kel swallowed nervously, then stepped out onto the glass. She shut her eyes and forced herself to look down.

Below her was Mindelan! The entire thing was laid out beneath her like a doll's house. Somehow, she had gotten herself two hundred feet in the sky.

Maybe her enemy knew her fears. After all, she was still afraid of heights, but she could tolerate them. Kel swallowed, and closed her eyes, putting one foot in front of her slowly. The glass beneath her was thick, but she still didn't trust it.

Besides, where was she? What was this? Was she just in an illusion? Was this what the Divine Realms looked like? But she couldn't be in the Divine Realms because she had heard stories from Daine about them, and they didn't look like this. In fact, they looked a lot more like the regular world than she would have expected.

Finally, after what seemed an age, she opened her eyes, surprised to find that she was no longer standing on glass, but on regular stone floor. She sighed in relief, and took another step forward, only to fall.

She kept falling, down, down, down. It felt like she would never stop. Unfortunately, she did. The landing was soft – it seemed to have been padded by some sort of magic.

What she saw, however, wasn't near so pleasant as her landing.


A/N: Oooooh, I'm evil! Well, I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, but I hadn't even started it until not that long ago, and I felt that you deserved another chapter! After this, as per the notice in my bio, I will be taking a short break from posting (hopefully not as long a break as it was between these chapters), so that I can catch up on writing, and alsodo editing on thechapters from the stories that are already posted.

-Crystaltambaia