Chapter Four
The Plata Test Part two
Present Time
Secret mugic hide out in an unknown location in the Underworld
Nivenna slowly opened up her eyes, she felt awful. Her head was pounding, her body felt like it was frozen, and she wanted to throw up. She was sitting down in a chair. She could not move her body because chains were wrapped around her and something was over her eyes so she could not see. Even though she could not see, she could sence another creature in the room.
"Where am I at and how did I get here?!" she demanded.
"We will be the ones asking the questions, Nivenna." said a deep, male voice that Nivenna did not recognize. The fact that the creature said "we" implied that there was more than one creature in the room, but all of her senses were saying that there is only one creature. It suddenly hit her that this might be part of the test, but just in case it was not she kept her guard up.
"Where is Kopon?" she asked in a more calmer voice then before.
"You will see him shortly, but right now you must focus on the task before you." the male voice said. The blindfold was taken from her head. Now that she could see there was definently more than one creature in the room. The lighting was very dim so she could not see much, but she could see that there were seven other creatures in the room. All of them were wearing black and red robes with the hoods down, so she could not see their faces.
"And what task is that?" she asked. One of the creatures stepped forward, Nivenna assumed he was the one that was talking to her earlier. He extended his hand and with one of his fingers touched her forehead. Red lightning came out of his finger. It was a small shock, but it made her pass out again without her realizing it.
"Now let's see how this young creature handles the test." said the masked creature.
Nivenna woke up on the cold ground in a location that she had never been to, but she had heard and read of it many times before.
"This must be Castle Piller." Nivenna was intimidated by its massive structure. Every since she first heard of it; she had been wanting to travel to the top, to see if all the rumors were true or not. From what she knows about the mysterious castle, it is supposed to continuously change. One minute a room would be on the south side then the next it would be on the north side, or the room would have completely changed in its design. The same thing applies with all the traps and mind games. You have to use your wits to escape alive. That is why there is no maps of it; every time someone made a map the next day everything will have changed making it useless.
Getting up to survey her surroundings, she noticed that there was no creatures around. Her captors must have left her here for some reason, but why? The fact that there was nobody around made her cautious. There was almost always a guard posted here for reasons unknown.
"I guess I should go inside." Thinking this must be part of her test, she enters the Piller through the front doors. After she only took two steps inside, the door slamed shut with so much force the wind almost made her fall down. The room was pitch black, so she couldn't see a thing. Suddenly all the candles, which Nivenna didn't know were there, were lighting giving the place an eary feel.
"At least I can see now." she thought. From what she knows of Castle Piller, it is a very dangerous place. She had no idea where she should go. There were so many doors, tunnels, stairs, etc; it made her head spin. The whole place was like a jigsaw puzzle that she needed to put together.
After a minute of meditating about her current predicament, she decided to walk up a flight of stairs hoping they will lead to the top. Half way up, she steped on a hidden string that triggered a bunch of circuler saws, some flame throwers and a hand full of other painful looking devices. To make matters worse she couldn't go back, because a huge wall of fire was blocking the way she had come from.
"Great, why don't you add poisoneous darts while you're at it." she sarcastically said to whoever made the place.
Meanwhile a certain chaotic player was not faring as well as Nivenna. Sam had been spotted by some Underworld soldiers and was now on the run. There were only three of them, so it wouldn't be that hard for him to escape, but since a lot has changed in the Underworld he might make a wrong move.
While dodging laser fire, he turned a corner to what he hoped was not a deadend. Underworld City was his favorite city for a reason; he rarely losses while battling in the city. He knows every hidie-hole the place has to offer and he intends to use that knowledge to the fullest today.
Now that he was out of their sight, he stopped dead in his tracks. Quickly, he pushed a lost break from a wall of an abandoned building and in a blink of an eye part of the wall turned around pushing Sam inside. The Underworld soldiers didn't see what happened to Sam, so they continued to run forward in their persuit.
Inside the ancient building, Sam was panting like a husky on a hot summer day. His legs collapsed and he fell to the floor. After he regained some of his strength, he took out his scanner to look at his numerous contact list. Scrolling down the long list, looking for a friend that might help him out. Stopping at one person that was not only a good friend, but was also his older sister. Pushing her icon, her face instantly appeared on the screen.
"Hey Sam what's up?" she asked, a little concerned, because Sam looked like he just came from a war zone. Sam's sister had the same skin tone and brown eyes as him, but she had much longer hair that was pulled back in a tight bun. The only thing he could see was her face so he didn't know what she was wearing except for her diamond earrings.
"Tamicka, I need help! Something is extremely wrong with the Underworlders." he declared.
"What are you talking about little brother?" she asked now more worried than ever.
"I'm in Underworld City and almost everything has changed in some way." he stated. Just then the signal began to break up and Tamicka's face was replaced with static. "No. No. No." he shouted. This has never happened before, the scanners always worked no matter where a chaotic player was at. For his scanner to just act up like that, must mean that there was something very wrong.
Looking at the rest of his stuff on his scanner, it looked fine the only thing that was not working was the communication systems. He began to panic. To calm himself down he wrapped his arms around his legs and burried his head in his knees.
"What am I going to do?" he asked himself. His sister was always there to help him through whatever trouble he was in. He wanted to transport back to Chaotic, but he needed to know why the Underworld was like this. If he didn't and if something bad happened to his favorite Tribe than he would never forgive himself.
"I was kidding about the stupid darts!" Nivenna shouted, trying to let her anger out a little bit. She somehow managed to make it out of the stair well and was now in a huge room with paintings on the walls. The paintings were of different creatures, locations, castles, ect. There was no door or any other way out the room that Nivenna could see and she sure was not going back down those stairs again.
Looking for any way out, she sees that on one wall there was a large mirror. Since it stood out, she thought it might hold a clue of exiting the room. Walking up to it, she was startled at what she saw in the mirror.
There was a creature that looked just like her, but the colors were reversed, she had hot pink colored skin and her hair was a blue silver. She was also wearing different silver armor and a smile that no Underworlder would ever make. Suddenly the creature's arms jumped out the mirror and grabded Nivenna, pulling her into the mirror.
Nivenna was thrown out of the mirror and rolled a few times before stopping. After recovering from the shock, she looked back at the mirror, but now it was just showing her reflection. Thinking that the weird creature must have been another trick made by the piller to confuse creatures, she turned her attention to her new surroundings. Apparently the mirror was some kind of portal that brought her to a huge library. There was so many books and scrolls, it was all four tribes gathered, all their knowledge and put it in this one library.
She walked around trying not to stop and read the books. Every since Takinom first taught her to read, it became an obsession with her. Reading was her passion. It didn't matter what subject the book was about, and seeing all these books in one place was overwhelming to her. After walking around, she sees what looks like a service desk and there was a creature sitting behind it, looking at a large book.
"May I help you, Nivenna?" the creature asked in a calm almost gentleman like way. Nivenna was shocked that he knew her name. Her body teansed, getting ready to fight if necessary. She walked closer to him. Nivenna never saw a creature like him before. He looked like a nine foot dragon with two horns curved back on his head, massive wings and on his long arms had two more wings that looked like they were more for gliding than flying. He was wrapped in bandages. No, not bandages, but stripes of paper that had words and red mugic signs on them.
"Who are you?" she demanded. The creature didn't look at her, he closed the book and somehow the book flew back to an empty space on a shelf. Now that the book was put up he looked at her with his eyes that Nivenna thought were absolutely breath-taking. They were black except for his irises which were white with a black pupil in the middle. It was like looking at the sky on a cloudless night.
"I'm Patronus de Conscientia, but you may just call me Patronus if you like." he politely stated as if Nivenna was no threat to him whatsoever. Nivenna didn't know what to do, this Patronus guy didn't show any signs of being a threat, but after all that has happened today. She now looks at everything as a threat.
"Well, Patronus what are you doing her?" she asked.
"I can ask you the same thing young lady. You are in my home after all."he said as if she should have known that. Nivenna was for the tenth time today shocked. Nobody was suppose to live in Castle Piller. Sure there are rumors of a creature living at the top, but they were just folklore. Were they?
"You live here!"
"I believe I just said that."
"But nobody lives in Castle Piller." she stated.
"Who told you that?" he asked.
"Well nobody, but-"
"Then how do you know that nobody lives here?" he cut her off. Nivenna didn't respond. In truth she never heard someone say that nobody lived here, and there were the rumors that said someone did.
"That is enough questions about me for now. Now you are here because you want to become a muge one day, but first you must pass a test to begin your training in the art of mugic. Am I right?" Nivenna nodded yes.
"Alright then I will come back in a second. Patronus got up and walked away behind some shelves. Nivenna stood there not sure what he was doing. A second later, he returned with his hands behind his back.
"What do you have behind your back?" she asked fearing it might be a weapon.
"Just two things that you have been wanting for a long time." he said as if it didn't sound creepy at all. He revealed in one hand a scroll and in the other there was a red coin with the Underworld symbal on it. "Consider this as a gift, the coin will allow you to start your mugic training and the scrool has your family tree written on it, but you can only choose one so pick wisely."
Nivenna was not sure how to react. Part of her felt like this was a trap, another part was telling her to take the chance, but which one should she choose. She never really cared mutch about who her parants were. She already had a family with Sazo and the other orphans and Takinom was now like a mother figure to her.
Her dream was to one day become the high muge of the Underworld. A secret she keeps to herself and this would possibly be the start of achieving that dream.
No matter which I pick, I'll still have the people I call my family. She thought of as she took the red coin from Patronus. Patronus raised his scaley eyebrow, intriged by her choise.
"Interesting choise. Why did you choose to be a muge?" he asked.
"Because I know nothing about my blood family, so they may not even want me. For all I know they might have tried to drawn me years ago in the river and I already have a family." she answered. Normally she wouldn't share something this personal, but there was something about him that Nivenna knew she could trust him.
"You do? Who is your family? Is it Takinom?" he asked. Nivenna had a feeling he already knew.
"Yes, but I also have a father, Sazo raised me from an infant and there were a few other orphans I called my sisters and brothers." she didn't even think if telling him would be wise, he just seemed so understanding and not judgemental. A rare trait for an Underworlder.
"I kept you here long enough, just remember that no matter what will happen in the future you will always have a family either here in the Underworld or somewhere else." Just then Patronus shot red lightning from his hands and Nivenna passed out.
"Glad to see you came back to us." said the masked creature as Nivenna slowly regained consciousness. The first time she woke up in this room she was chained to the chair and blindfolded, but this time the chains were gone and so was the blindfold. She stood up, but her legs were weak for some reason and she wound up falling back into the chair. Even though her body didn't feel so good like last time, her mind was much more clearer, so she could think straight.
"How long have I been out?" she asked him. Unlike before she hatefully demanded where she was, but this time she asked in a more nice tone.
"Only two hours. Your body never left, but your mind is a different story. Did you meet Patronus?" he asked. Nivenna nodded. She opened up her hand to show him the red coin. "So you passed. Would you mind telling me what your test was? Everybody is given a completely different one like mine was that I had to find the coin hidden in one of those books and you know how many there are."
"I would rather not." she simply stated.
"I understand, some don't wish to speak about it to other muges. Which reminds me, you cannot tell anybody else about the test. Only other Underworld muges, Understand?"
"Yes." This whole day was exhausting, all she wanted to do was go home.
"Good. Kopon will help you get home." he said before he and the other creatures left. A minute later, Kopon came out of the shadows and helped Nivenna stand up, he didn't say anything he just walked her home and told her tomorrow her mugic training begins.
That night, Nivenna dreamed about the girl in the mirror. She and her were infants and were in the arms of an older female that looked a lot like them with loving eyes, she looked tired for some reason. The image changed to them being thrown into an ice cold river by someone else. The river split into two, the current separated them where she went down the left side and the other girl went to the right. Nivenna never saw her again.
Author's Note
Sorry for the long wait, I just wanted to take a break from the story. I have a bunch of tests coming up, so it might take a month to finish the nest chapter.
Just to make sure you guys know, when I say present time it means four years in the past from when the show time line ended.
"Patronus de Conscientia" means protector of knowledge in latin, I think. I looked it up on Google, but I'm not 100% sure it is right.
