: Chaos Crystal
The vision was real. When she had touched the Fairy King he had relayed a vision of a wall of black rock to her. At the same time he had warned everyone to flee the realm because some horrible dark power remained that would destroy everyone. The fairy queen had dismissed it. Until the astrid had come in telling of a powerful magic that had already destroyed a unicorn and fairies.
Now, Kendra knew the vision was real. But for some reason, she decided to keep that information to herself. She would rather not be questioned a hundred times about it. Besides, the Fairy Queen would be able to deal with it. Right.
But the way the Fairy Queen and Bracken looked at the astrid, told a different story. Because they both looked afraid.
"What could possible destroy those beings? It takes an immense amount of power to destroy a unicorn. A power well beyond anything in this realm. Who was it that was killed?" Bracken asked the astrid.
"I am not sure." the astrid said in reply. "One minute they were working on converting the wall. The next, they all disintegrated. Nothing is left of them."
"Could they have been transported somewhere else?" Kendra asked. The thought that this wall of rock could destroy fairies was not an inviting one. And she wanted to be sure there were not any other possibilities.
"It is possible."
The Fairy Queen joined the conversation, "No. It is not." she said with finality. "The realm prevents travel through space except by means of one of the portals. I doubt even the Translocator would work here. This realm operates on magic different then that of the mortal world."
"So they're really destroyed?" Kendra asked.
"It's that, or this magic is more powerful than that of the realm. And that is a very frightening thought." The Fairy Queen paused before speaking again, "Is anyone currently watching over this wall of rock?" she asked the astrid.
"I retreated everyone far away. I did not think it would be wise to keep them so near such powerful magic."
"Bracken..." she looked over at him. "We are going to investigate this wall. To see if iit truly is as powerful as it is claimed to be. I will personally attempt to convert it. If that proves to do nothing, than we truly have an issue on our hands."
The queen began to walking towards the door.
"What about Kendra?" Bracken asked her. "We aren't risking taking her are we?"
"Absolutely not. There's no telling what is in store for anyone who goes near that magic. Keep her here for now. We shouldn't be gone long anyway."
Part of Kendra was glad that she did not have to go with them. But another part of her was bothered by the fact that they both thought it was too dangerous for her to come along. After all, she would be with two of the most powerful beings in existence. What could possible happen?
Kendra had never been the risky type before. That was more Seth's area of expertise. But she felt that she needed to go with them. Something was bugging her about the vision she had seen. She wanted to see for herself if it really was what she had been shown. But for that she needed a real reason to join them. And she didn't have one at the moment.
She looked over at Bracken and whispered, "Can I come with you? I'll stay away from the wall. And whats going to happen with you and the Fairy Queen there."
Bracken reacted like she just asked if she could go free Gorgrog from the new Zyzzx. "Absolutely not!" he exclaimed. "Neither my mother or I have any idea what this magic is or how dangerous it is. And we don't want to risk anything happening to you."
"Besides..." the Fairy Queen said from the doorway, "You aren't supposed to be here anyway. And none of us would enjoy telling your family that something happened to you when you weren't supposed to be here in the first place."
Bracken nodded his agreement to that statement. "We won't be gone very long anyway. Go ahead and look around the realm. After we get back I'll tell you all about it."
Kendra knew the conversation was closed from there, so she resigned herself to hearing about the wall second hand. "Okay." she sighed as Bracken escorted her from the Fairy King's room .
Bracken and the Fairy Queen left the temple a couple of minutes later, leaving Kendra alone. She decided she could at least walk around inside while waiting for them to return, so she busied herself with seeing how many different types of flowers, plants, and fruits she could find.
A short while later, Kendra was well over a hundred distinct different species of plants when a group of fairies flew into the temple. Three fairies were bright blue with clear butterfly wings and one other appeared green with no wings at all. The green one was glowing faintly and was being supported by the other three.
The three blue fairies were struggling to fly while still supporting the other fairy. They got almost all the way to where Kendra was sitting before they all passed out and dropped to the ground. Luckily, they were not to far above the ground when they fell and Kendra thought they would all be okay. But she was curious as to what was wrong with the green fairy that had left it unable to fly. She doubted that it could not fly at all.
She stood up and walked a few paces over to the fairies, careful not to walk on any flowers that were growing. She knelt down next to the creatures and noticed that the three blue fairies were already recovering from their short fall. The green one, on the other hand, was still very much unconscious.
"Do you know what happened to her?" Kendra asked the other fairies.
One of the fairies looked up at her, "We found her trying to flee from some unknown darkness. She was barely able to fly at all at that point, and when we got to her the darkness was almost on top of us. And then it stopped and dissipated."
"What happened then?" Kendra asked the fairy. The fact that some darkness was chasing fairies around the realm was definitely not an inviting one. But it also fit with the circumstances that had developed since the astrid had informed everyone that some wall of dark magic had been found.
"By then she was unconscious. We managed to fly her back here before we ran out of magic. Any farther away, and we probably would not have made it"
"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Kendra did not think that fairies falling unconscious was a normal, or good, thing.
"We have no idea. All we can tell is that she had been touched by some dark energy. It has changed the light she gives off and absorbed all of her magic. Other than that, we don't know."
So some "darkness" was absorbing the magic of fairies. That could not be good Kendra thought. "Is it possible, that she could get some of her magic back? Supposedly, I'm full of magical energy and some fairies have become brighter and more powerful after touching me." She wanted to try and help the poor unconscious fairy. Plus, if she could revive her, they might get some information about this darkness that was changing her.
"It is possible. Though she is very weak at the moment. It might be beyond your abilities to revive her." the fairy replied. "Though you may try." she added.
Kendra turned to the green fair who was lying in her back in the grass and sat down cross-legged beside her. She reached out and picked up the fairy and placed it in her other hand. Instantly, the small amount of light the fairy had been emitting increased.
The light began shining in a green hue, increasing in brightness steadily. After ten seconds, the light began to change colors to yellow.
"Should the color have changed?" Kendra asked.
"No." one of the fairies said in reply. "The light should have stayed green. She had always emitted a green light. Never anything else. But I guess, you energy may have some effect. Just wait."
They waited. The fairy stayed glowing yellow for a while. And then the light flashed out completely.
"Uhhh...what happened?"
Then the light came back; in a jet black color.
Instantly, an image flashed through Kendra's mind. A black crystal sphere. For a second, it reminded her of the oculus; except that this one was smooth across its entirety. And that, inside, it was glowing hundreds of different colors. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Pink. And many more. The image shifted to that of the black wall again. And that when the voice began to speak:
Nothing can stand against chaos forever. When Zzyzx was last opened I had expected that I would at least be freed. But you and the guardians of light destroyed that chance. But now, I have the chance at my revenge. At this very moment, the chaos crystal is absorbing energy from the inhabitants of this realm. Soon, it will be fully active and the most powerful source of light in the universe will be destroyed.
And you, princess of light, will help me in the destruction of this realm.
Then the image cut out.
Kendra managed to look down at the fairy she was holding, just as its body disintegrated into ashes. Then she passed out.
"Kendra?!"
"Kendra?" she heard her name being called.
"What happened?" It was Bracken speaking.
Kendra opened her eyes to see Bracken and the Fairy Queen standing over her. The three blues fairies that had come into the temple were hovering around as well. Her vision was spotty at the moment, with various patches of black floating by. She blinked several times, managing to clear her vision for the most part.
Bracken asked her again, "What happened?"
She managed to relay the story of how she had tried to revive the green fairy and ended up having a vision of the black wall and a black crystal sphere. She also relayed the majority of what the voice had said to her. All but the very end. The part about her helping. She left that out.
The Fairy Queen knelt down beside her, "Are you alright?" she asked. "We came back to find you unconscious here. Bracken brought you back conscious."
Kendra sat up, causing her vision to return to the spotty way it had been. "Yah...I think I'm...fine." she said between shaky breaths.
"Bracken. Why don't you take Kendra to her room. She can stay for tonight, but you will return her back to the mortal world tomorrow morning."
Bracken nodded and helped Kendra up to her feet. They walked back to where Kendra's room was and sat down on the edge of her bed.
"Did you guys...find anything?" Kendra asked him.
"The wall itself is extremely powerful and definitely emanating some powerful dark magic. Neither of us could affect it in anyway. And it was sapping a lot of power as we worked on it. Eventually we gave up and started to come back here. That's when we found the crystal. Its exactly how you described it in you vision. Jet black, smooth, and its center filled with hundreds of colors. I don't at all know what it is." Bracken told her, "But I think my mother does." he added. "She became worried when we found out."
"Do you think those fairies and the unicorn were destroyed?" she asked
Bracken bowed his head, "Unfortunately, yes. I do believe they were destroyed. And the magic that destroyed them is most definitely coming from the wall."With that, their conversations about the events of the day stopped. They sat together in Kendra's room for awhile, relaxing, taking about meaningless subjects, and just enjoying themselves. After the somewhat stressful day they had both been through, this short time together was nice. Unfortunately, it did not last long.
An astrid Kendra had never met before, poked his head into the room. "The Queen has requested to see you Bracken."
"I'm going to assume it has to do with today's excursion?" Bracken asked back.
"She did not supply any details. She simply asked to see you."
Bracken sighed, "Alright." He turned to Kendra who was currently sitting cross-legged on the bed, "Do you want to come? At this point with the two visions you've had I think you should at least hear about whatever it is we found."
"It sounds like she only wants to see you." Kendra replied.
"I know. But, unfortunately, I think you have been wrapped into whatever it is that's happening here."
Kendra shrugged, "I guess I'll come then."
They both exited the room and followed the astrid though a copious amount of rooms and passages. Eventually, they entered a room tissue closely resemble a library.
Leather bound books stood on shelves. And scrolls of being varying ages stood, wrapped into cylinders, next them. The Fairy Queen stood looking over a rather large book on a lectern. Beside her was the crystal sphere.
Kendra and Bracken stood in the doorway of the room for several minutes before the Fairy Queen addressed them.
"The finding of this," she gestured at the sphere, "is a very strong sign that evil and chaos are readying themselves to enter the world again."
"So what is it?" Bracken asked. He genuinely had no idea what it was that they had found. Only that it was not good.
"This...is the Chaos Crystal. It's essence is tied to the rise and fall of the chaos demon. When it appears, it usually signals that the forces of chaos are attempting to break through the forces of light that keep order in the world. It has not been seen for many millennia. Not since Zyzzx was originally sealed. The colors in its core, are the life forces of creatures of light that chaos has claimed. We now know that this is what destroyed those fairies and the unicorn."
"So what are you going to do with it?" Kendra asked her.
"The Crystal is tied to the force of chaos and, therefore, can not truly be destroyed. But it also harbors the potential to be used to destroy the world of light. And it is therefore not safe to be kept in this realm. But it is even more dangerous to release into the world of mortals. Chaos can spread within our realm, but in the mortal world it would run rampant. Destroying any thing it came into contact with.
And so, against my better judgement, the Crystal will remain here, under guard by five astrids. No one will have access to it. And it will not be able to be activated or further destroy any creatures here."
"What do you mean by 'activated'?" Bracken asked her.
"When activated, the crystal would be able to be used as an access point and portal for demons and creatures of darkness. Even the demon hoard in Zzyzx would be able to use it to break out of their prison given sufficient time. Thankfully, only a creatures darkness could activate its powers. Keeping it here would make it most difficult to be activated."
"So...that's it?" Bracken asked. "Nothing more"
"Little is know about the ways or powers of chaos. I am doing what I feel will provide everyone with the most amount of safety. Beyond that there is little more to add. You may go."
Bracken turned towards the door looking confused. "Lets go then." He said to Kendra, gesturing at the doorway. They were just seconds from leaving the small library completely when the Fairy Queen made one final statement to them.
"Oh. And Bracken. Come by here later. I have some information to discuss with you."
Bracken gave her like, "go-ahead-and-tell-me-now".
"Information nor regarding this current situation." she added.
"Understood." Bracken sighed as he and Kendra walked off down the hallway.