Chapter 42

Mage of Fire

I didn't follow Sun-Summoner to the room under the stairs but rather climbed back up the stairs to where the levers were.

"There's nothing but boulders down here!" Sun-Summoner's voice exclaimed back to me, but I stood staring at the last lever by the door. Finally, after a moment of thought, I turned back to see the wise man exiting the chamber from between the stairs.

"I think we should try this last lever," I stated.

His eyes grew wide and he nervously stepped away from the boulder room. But he didn't say a word, and I pulled the second lever down.

The door responded with a deep rumble before retreating up into the ceiling. Crashing as it did and making me choke on my breath. Though, funny enough, the ice that had formed around the door stayed in place, keeping its door-like shape.

The only way through the ice was a small hole in the center near the floor. Without turning back to see if my companion still stood where he had, I lowered myself to the cold ground and crawled into the opening in the ice.

The opening, however, became smaller quickly and the frozen tunnel hugged me tight, its cold seeping through to my skin. The floor's slipperiness made it difficult for me to crawl forward and it was shortly after that when I couldn't inch ahead at all. I was forced to creep back the way I came, but that proved even more of a challenge. It took me a moment to realize that I had crawled as far as possible and the tunnel grasped me tight enough that I could barely move at all!

"I'm stuck!" I yelled, hoping my companion could hear me. A slight moment of silence followed before I heard him trying to stifle his laughter.

"I'm sorry, I was trying not to." He replied another moment later.

I sighed, breathing in the cold and growing aggravated. Every sound was much louder down here. When he did help, I was expecting him to pull my legs, but he paused and assured me he had a plan.

Soon after that, I heard a crackle followed by a quiet roaring of flame, and the ice tunnel around me quickly responded by becoming even more slippery and left me coated in water.

"Ha, It worked this time!" He boasted and helped me to my feet when the iced door frame was completely melted. "Are you all right?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so." I returned, though I was cold, wet, and I couldn't stop shivering. "If you were able to melt the wall of ice, then why didn't that work when you tried it on the frozen spire?"

He shrugged and began to stroke his beard. "Tt's probably under heavier magic."

"That would make it important somehow…" I concluded, and Sun-Summoner pondered for a while longer before nodding.

"I guess so, but if it is important then we would be able to interact with it, one way or another." The wise man caught on and gestured to continue. I then turned away from him and walked down the hallway that was lying behind the frozen door. Would the ice spire in the first room lead me to the guardian of the Hidden Palace? Or was it an artifact that would help me reach the Great Palace? Who knew? Maybe it only protected money.

The water that soaked me became colder and I wrapped my arms around myself in attempts to stop the shivering. The passage was long and empty and I found myself wondering at what purpose it held. Was there a puzzle to solve here, or will it take us straight to the next room? My thoughts were interrupted by a heavy thudding behind me, and I turned in haste to see what it was.

The door was in its place once more!

Sun-Summoner looked at me with fear in his eyes. "I really hope the door down here is unlocked." He whispered and continued down. The door at the end of the nearly endless hall was, however, firm in its place.

My companion began to lose focus. "What will we do now?" He exclaimed. "We fell for a trap!"

I looked at the hall. The only thing we passed at one point was two statues, one flanking either side of the passage near the door we came through.

At first, I thought them to be frozen Ironknuckles, but a closer look revealed where the ice had seeped through the cracked stone. "Would you summon your flame to melt the ice covering these statues?" I asked, and he replied by shrugging his shoulders.

"I sure can, but why would we want to do that?"

I told him this was the only other thing in the room and gestured for him to go on ahead. He nodded and spread his hands out to one of the sculptures. I waited and watched as the fire exploded onto the ice, but as soon as the spell met with the frost, I heard a roaring flame that didn't come from Sun-Summoner's magic. He was shocked by the sound as well, and flung around, canceling his spell, to see what happened…

The opposite statue was also aflame! Both of the Ironknuckles were free of their icy shell and remained on fire, and a short moment passed before I heard a shifting sound and turned to see the door we were trying to go into had opened.

There was no time to celebrate, however. Cracked lines ran through the slippery floor beneath our feet, and water ran from the statues so the floor was even harder to stand on. I yelled for my companion to run before breaking for the door at the end of the long hallway. I couldn't see the wise man behind me, but my breath caught again when I heard him scream!

I risked falling down the floor when I turned to see he was nowhere to be found. My stomach churned. This was the one thing I feared would happen!

I couldn't stop myself from nearing the hole in the floor. "Summoner!" I yelled, but no answer came back. I couldn't even see anything down there…

The edges of the ice I stood upon continued to crack and break and I was forced to go on, forced to leave the elder of Kasuto behind. I ran as fast as I possibly could and didn't look behind me until I slid past the open door and heard it thud back in its place. But then my feet continued to slide. I slid out of control, and couldn't help as I fell backward against a wall. The ice was strong and thick so it didn't even crack when I fell onto it.

I had to go back, I have to make sure he wasn't hurt! I hustled to my feet. The ice sure was thick here, it made even a slow walk difficult without fighting for balance. At the very least, I wanted to open the door again and see if the floor opened up enough I might see him. Though that was unlikely, I was desperate. But the door wouldn't budge, it was too late.

It was hopeless, but I stayed by the door, screaming his name, and trying to wrestle the frame open until I exhausted myself. This was all my fault. I knew something like this could happen, and yet I allowed it anyway. All that I wanted was some company, but now he's gone for good! There was nothing I could have done to help him either. What do I tell Kasuto? What about Daniel? How long will I carry this guilt?

Eventually, I left that door behind, but it was hard to drag myself away from it, and it wasn't because of the ice. I felt like there was a string attaching me to the door, and it fought harder the further I was pulling it. But it was time for me to move on, there was nothing left here, I told myself repeatedly. And if there was ever the smallest chance he survived that fall, I wasn't going to find him here, I will better my chances somewhere else in this palace.

The icy chamber continued in the same fashion as the last one. It was mostly empty, and deeply frozen marble walls flanked passages to other parts of the temple. I took to the passage to the far left of the room. The hall didn't last long before I was stopped in front of a sudden staircase turning even further left.

The stairs were under a heavy sheet of ice, and I mean to say that it was more of a transparent slide. I could barely walk on the ice over here, let alone climb it! Now would be a good time to have Summoner's magic... This is going to be a lot harder without him. But while I may not have his kind of power, I did have a basic fire spell.

I drew my sword and waited for the hilt to warm up. Then, I shoot at the first step, and the small flame flickered there for just a second before it went out. This was no good, it wasn't a big enough fire. I may have to leave the stairs behind, I thought to myself, and I tried to see where it might lead at the top. I couldn't see it from here very well, but I could see it was leading to a pretty big room. I wonder if it led to the guardian?

So I left back where I had started with the door that now trapped me from turning back. There only remained one passage left to take, and for some reason, the further I walked down this icy hallway, the more light filtered warmly to me. But the cause for this light was soon discovered. The ice floor dropped off in the middle of the room, and to my utmost astonishment, it was filled with boiling lava! I was stunned. How!? I thought, how can a lava pool bubble peacefully in a frozen palace!? I didn't see a way around the pool, and there was nothing to help me cross it, but after standing there for a minute, that line of thought vanished when I saw a form in the boiling magma.

Its body was large, narrow, and scaly, and I held no doubt it belonged to a dragon of some sort. The red warmth of the lava reflected beautifully off of the rich green color of the scales. The lean body of the large beast slithered forward and the head appeared from the magma to release a roar. The dragon's head was turned away from me. I don't think it even knew I was there.

After the call echoed through the frozen walls, the dragon's head retreated once more into the lava. The thin yellow whiskers upon its face flung into the air before following it down, and it wasn't long after that when the rest of the body vanished under as well.

How many dragons are in here? I found myself wondering if that beast was a simple minion protecting this place. If that is the case, then the guardian of the Hidden Palace would surely be the end of me.

I waited for a moment longer, waiting to see if the dragon would appear once more, but I didn't see it after that. Where did it go? How deep was that pool? When I realized the beast wasn't about to show again, I turned my focus to finding a way over the pool and to the rest of the palace beyond. It didn't take long for me to think that I should use "fairy" to reach the other side, for there was literally nothing to help me on this side.

I quickly cast the spell and flew over the lava and to the next frozen room. There wasn't much here either, save for a locked door and an elevator. I had to wait to use the elevator however, for my size was too small for the platform to recognize I was standing on it.

When the room around me looked to be at a familiar size again, I stepped upon the magical podium and let it take me below the floor. The surface of the elevator was cold to the touch, but it wasn't that badly frozen and moved smoothly down like it was supposed to.

The closer the platform came to the floor below, the louder I heard the explosions of flame, and I thought I saw flashes of red light along with it.

The lowering platform under my feet soon came to a sudden stop in front of frozen iron bars. Before I could even begin to ponder on how to pass through however, they mysteriously lifted upwards and the way was clear!

I flinched for only a second, and then I held my sword and shield before me, ready to defend myself from this possible attacker. But I recognized the figure once he appeared. It was Sun-Summoner! And he was alive and well!

"Finally, that took me a while." He said, looking over his shoulder and into the chamber. "And look who's here."

"I-I thought you were dead!" I yelled and sheathed my weapon once I was able to move beyond shock. My mind calmed, and I breathed easier. There was nothing to describe how thankful I was I wouldn't have to carry his death with me forever.

He shook his head. "The fall under the floor landed me onto a rather cold slide that brought me here, and it took me this entire time to lift those bars that kept me in that small chamber."

"I'm sorry, I should have known that was going to happen. I should have done more to help."

He wove his hands in the air to calm me. "And do what? It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done. I knew this place was filled with traps, monsters, and other dangerous things. But this was my choice, I'm the one taking the risks."

"Yes, but if something happened to you then-"

"You still would have done everything within your power, I'm sure. But sometimes, you aren't in control of everything that happens. It's just life." He lifted to stroke his beard. "And you know, I've been thinking... I don't think it's right for people to make up all of these hero stories about you. I do believe you have the ability to do amazing things, but no one's perfect. If anything, it just pressures you into being a superhero, or people will be let down and angry."

He's right, he finally understands. I thought many of the people back in Kasuto, including his son, were under that mind-frame. It was reassuring to hear him say otherwise.

"So try not to let it affect you." He continued as he stepped up on the elevator platform. "There's only so much you can do."

On the ride back up, I briefly told him about a few of my encounters while he was gone. I even told him about the dragon I saw just in the room above. Surprisingly, this sounded familiar to him. He said he heard a story that the Hidden Palace was protected by a powerful dragon named Barba. Would that make the dragon the guardian then? But how could I possibly win a fight against a dragon swimming in lava? Rebonack said this would happen, that my journey was growing more challenging. Can I even withstand it? Even if I can, what about the Great Palace?

Even though Sun-Summoner now knew what to expect, he was still shocked by what he saw when we exited the elevator. "By the Goddesses!" He exclaimed.

I was staring into the glowing red lake, looking to see if the dragon came back, but there was nothing. All I could see now was the bright hot lava, even when I turned away, my eyes were stinging.

"So what now?" Sun-Summoner asked me, taking my attention off the dragon for a moment. He was glancing back and forth repeatedly. "How did you-? Did you pass by the lava somehow?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I used the fairy spell?"

He gave me one final, blank stare before he threw his head back, holding his belly from laughter that bounced off the icy walls. "That's the best I've heard all day!" He mustered between gasps for air. After a while he calmed down, wiping tears from his eyes. "Did you really cast the fairy spell? I didn't know you knew magic."

"It's kind of a newer investment, I guess."

He chuckled again. "That's fantastic! So can you cast it on the two of us?"

I nodded and we flew over the lava shortly after. "I'm impressed by your ability to cast this spell on both of us!" Sun-Summoner said. "That's not an easy thing, keep it up and you can grow to be a powerful wizard!"

We marched straight for the room with the frozen staircase, all the way back to where he first fell into the floor. Everything was where I left it, the door was still tight in place, and the staircase was still just as frozen. I stopped the march and allowed him to deal with it. I waited patiently, and the icy temple became as quiet as a winter morning, and not even the sound of the lava, nor did a dragon's roar break that silence.

Which made the fire between his fingers roar all the louder as it feasted on the ice. Like the ice on the door, it melted before Summoner's magic, making the stairs drenched in cold water, but now it was climbable. He was the first one up the stairs, and therefore the first one checking the treasure chest just before the door. Other than that, the room didn't have much and was quite small.

There was a boulder sitting by the wall, however, already unfrozen and loose. Surely there was a reason this was here, though it was funny that it was in this room, as the room was too small for it to really go anywhere, nor will it be able to squeeze beyond the door. Perhaps it has something to do with the lever in the wall not far from it?

Pulling the lever opened the floor under the boulder like a latch and the rock rolled underneath the wall and to the room beyond. It continued to roll into the room where we came in with the elevator and the ice spire in the center.

The rock ran right through the spire, shattering it in a thousand pieces! They flew high and sparked most beautifully in the air before falling onto the floor, and the rock rolled harmlessly out of the way. It was then when I saw the chest sitting right where the spire was. It must have been in there the entire time!

I crouched down and planted my feet onto the fallen floor and let myself slide down. Summoner joined me as I headed for the chest. It was not cold to the touch surprisingly, and I was astonished when the item inside turned out to be a holy symbol of a cross on a chain. The cross gleamed gold and had a single red gem placed in the center. I wonder what was special about this? It didn't seem any different from a normal holy charm.

"This isn't ice at all!" Summoner suddenly remarked behind me, holding a piece that broke from the spire. "This must be cold crystal or some kind of never melt ice. No wonder I couldn't do anything to it."

I picked up the cross and placed it around my neck, right next to the silver Triforce. Sun-Summoner dropped the shard on the ground and held a key before me. "I think this should open that door by the lava pool." He then dropped it in my hands and told me to lead on. It was time to scope our last door.