Thank you for making it this far, if indeed you have! This story is still in-progress, but I'm determined to finish it and not leave it on any sort of hiatus. It's been a work in the making for years, and it's high time that the Five Heroes have their conclusion.
If you enjoy the story so far, please feel free to let me know! I assure you that hearing from readers is oftentimes a highlight of a writer's day.
Happy Christmas, to those of you who celebrate it. To everyone else: Happy Holidays. :)
-One Thousand Years Ago-
"Go! Quickly!" bellowed Matthias, and none of the remaining four waited to obey.
Arthur seized Elodie's hand—Elodie grabbed Ingrid's, and with the five heroes all connected, they bolted from the inner sanctum of the Palace of Shadow.
The demon was shrieking behind them, casting curses along the hallways and the corridors of the fallen city. Balls of swirling dark energy were hurtled towards them, colliding into the walls with deafening crashes. Chunks of stone began to collapse from the ceiling; Elodie yelped and dove into Arthur to avoid being crushed.
She dared to look behind them only to see the demon shedding her physical form. The silhouette of their adversary was no longer that of a woman: now, her true self shone through.
Elodie had long suspected that the demon had abandoned her humanity in all aspects, but watching this transformation was the final proof.
Her hands turned into claws; her hair burned wild, solid black but streaked with white and grey; the silver of her eyes sputtered and died, to be reborn anew in crimson.
And she was staring directly at Elodie.
"You traitor!" screamed the demon. "You are a disgrace!"
Arthur squeezed Elodie's hand and shouted, "There's no time, my love!"
Elodie blinked, realizing she had stopped running away as she watched the woman she once thought she knew turn into the monster she had been for years, and sprinted onward as her husband bade her.
They passed through the end of the corridors and reached the Hallowed Tower: it was shaking in the midst of the underground lake, ripples of water splashing onto the ground.
The woman spared only one glance towards it before hurrying onward.
It was the labyrinth that awaited them next: its maze an impregnable puzzle, one that only the wisest of heroes would be able to crack or identify.
Ingrid took the lead once they made it thus far; she navigated them swiftly without a word, as the remainder of her friends did what they could to avoid the shadowed minions that the demon was sending after them—
"Matthias, get down!" roared Arthur.
And Matthias did so, thanks to his unfailing trust in his friend—Arthur withdrew his sword from its sheath and sliced directly at the air above his head.
An earsplitting shriek sounded through the room: a bat-like demon with gleaming fangs lay dead upon the ground, a bloody gash newly adorning its chest.
Serene's emerald eyes flashed. The sorceress turned around and bellowed, a growl in her throat, "Keep back from us, fiends, lest we send you all down to the abyss!"
Elodie gasped as a glowing white shield purged the dozens of the demon's minions that pursued them. The shield was pulsing with energy, growing larger and larger with each passing second—and then, with a shudder and a bellow of rage, Serene propelled the shield down the narrow corridor from whence she and her friends had come.
"I bought us time," said Serene, her voice back to normal. "But we must go. As quickly as possible."
Ingrid swallowed and nodded, resuming her duty of leading her friends back to safety.
"You wretch!" screamed the demon's voice. But now it was becoming fainter and farther away—even so, Elodie felt tears spark her eyes as it shouted, "You were an embarrassment from the start, Elodie Lancaster, and I will be better off without you!"
"Keep going," murmured Arthur. He was clearly concerned as he looked at his wife; but Elodie did not dare to meet his gaze, lest he see the guilt that she felt deep in her heart.
It took ten minutes, but at last the Door was in reach. Matthias dove forth and yanked it open; the rest of his friends followed…
He slammed the door behind them.
The shrieking of the demon was finally silenced.
For a brief moment in time, Elodie stood in the chamber leading into the Palace of Shadow, one hand clasped upon her side as she struggled to regain her breath. The rest of her friends were doing the same—Ingrid was keeping a weather eye upon the door.
"She will be back," sighed Elodie at last, when her lungs no longer felt fragile. "We could not end her. She will… she will not give up."
Matthias looked back to the door and placed a hand upon the great-sword on his sheath. "Should we go back in?"
Ingrid shook her head, her curly red hair blocking her dark eyes. "No, Matthias. Our plan was successful, but only to a certain extent. We did not anticipate the reaction from the Crystal Stars. They are… too young still to be put to their ultimate use as of yet."
"How long will it take?" asked Arthur. He reached inside his tunic and withdrew the Diamond Star that he had held throughout the battle. "We will be dead long before fifty years are up."
Ingrid mimicked Arthur's gesture, withdrawing the Emerald and the Crystal gemstones from within her knapsack. She took a brief moment to inspect them before finally saying, "It will take hundreds of years. Maybe even a thousand."
"A thousand?" repeated both Serene and Matthias, their fear shining through for perhaps the first time of the evening.
It was Serene who regained her composure first to say, "We cannot… there is no spell, not even among my people, to prolong our lives for that long…"
"I know," sighed Ingrid, closing her eyes. "We must trust in the heroes of that time."
Another silence settled throughout the room.
"The demon will follow us by the end of the night," whispered Arthur. He placed a heavy hand upon Elodie's shoulder: it was a gesture of encouragement, a way to let him know that he would be by her side no matter what—but the trembling of his lip betrayed that he too was afraid. "Is there no way to delay her?"
Immediately after the Lord of Petal Meadows finished this question, the door behind them pounded.
Elodie gasped and whirled towards the door. Its color was normally a soft maroon, etched with the symbols of the seven Crystal Stars.
Now, it was black. Cracks were beginning to spread through the foundation of the chamber.
There was only one thing that Elodie could think to do, and still she was not sure that it would work.
She withdrew the Garnet Star from within her breast pocket and stared at it. The jewel glimmered at her with a faint orange light; even holding it in her hand, Elodie could feel the immense power of this gemstone.
Her plan could work, if…
"Give me the Crystal Stars!"
Serene shot Elodie an incredulous look, as though she were about to refuse—but Matthias and Ingrid and Arthur wasted no time in fulfilling Elodie's request. Before long, all of the gemstones were in the woman's hands.
With a deep breath, Elodie cast a brief charm on them to have them hover in the air. She stood upon a pedestal in the middle of the room: it began to glow aquamarine and so too did her hands.
"Be gone from here," said Elodie, using all of her strength to keep her voice calm. "You were defeated. You will be bested once again by a hero of our making. We will not concede, to let you end the world as you so intended."
The Crystal Stars floated in their places and began to spin, faster and faster with every word that exited Elodie's mouth. Somewhere deep in the labyrinth of the Palace of Shadow, a roar of unbridled anger could be heard.
But now Elodie knew it was working.
She could do it—she could seal it.
"Sleep. Sleep for a thousand years, for that is when our hero will come. There will be no darkness, nor everlasting shadow: not so long as our legend lives and spreads. There will be no darkness ever."
Diamond, Emerald, Gold, Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet, Crystal. Each of the seven Crystal Stars shook and wavered in the air—and then, they burst into a rainbow of color, filling the room with white and green, blue and purple, yellow and pink. Their light refracted off of the door that sealed the demon.
Etchings of color flooded the door, revealing the magic that built it in the first place. And then, with a final burst of power, a film of silver cascaded over the door.
As soon as the spell had begun, it was ended: the door stood silent, its normal maroon color.
It was over… for now.
Elodie collapsed to her knees. Her energy was gone, and she was spent—Arthur sprinted forth and gathered her in his arms, kneeling upon the pedestal so he might support her.
"Is she… gone?" asked Matthias, the first to break the ringing quiet.
The others gathered around the Lord and Lady of Petal Meadows, eyes wide and inquisitive.
Elodie swallowed to clear the dryness of her mouth before answering, "She will not be gone forever. But it will buy us time. That seal—it will last for the thousand years that we need. The Crystal Stars yielded to this much, at the least."
"But what about us?" asked Serene, her thin mouth set in a scowl. "We will not be around in one thousand years to combat it agin."
"No," Elodie agreed. "We will not. We must spread the word of this deed: sow our legend so it is not forgotten. There will always be heroes, Serene. We must trust in the hope that a thousand years from now… there will be one powerful enough to finish what we have started."
Arthur kissed his wife's forehead, holding her close. She took what comfort she could from his presence… no one quite supported her the way he did.
"I have an idea, for the hero that may one day come," she continued. Although her voice was soft, the attentiveness with which her friends listened caused it to echo around the chamber. "We can create a Map, to reveal where the Crystal Stars lay. They will be needed to best the demon, and it is a way to ensure the demon can never use them herself… it will take great magic, but we could leave a remnant of ourselves, to guide this hero down the path we have traveled. Once the gemstones have matured for the thousand years passed… they might be used to finally destroy her, as there is no way now that we can do so ourselves."
"That is… a monumental decision," remarked Matthias, whose nervous tick was scratching the back of his neck, and whose body language betrayed him now.
"It is not one we must make at this moment," said Ingrid. She looked towards Elodie and managed a small smile. "Elodie has given us time. That is all we needed. We should return to Petal Meadows and rest before making a choice such as this."
The quintet looked back towards the door: it sat quietly, and what cracks had formed upon the wall were no longer visible. It looked as though nothing lay beyond that maze, as though the Palace of Shadow were a truly ancient ruin instead of a city recently destroyed.
"Then let us return home," said Arthur.
He gently aided Elodie in rising to her feet; and after exchanging hopeful looks with one another, they exited the chamber.