Chapter 15: Gift of Sight

"Huntress, can you hear my voice?"

She opened her eyes in a flash, sitting up and darting them across the cell in search for the familiar voice of her grandfather. Ice King was asleep on the ground next to her, as well as Finn and Jake in their own cell, but they were the only ones present in the general vicinity. She thought that maybe she was starting to go crazy already, until the same voice echoed across her consciousness once more.

"Are you well, dear child?"

Her eyes closed as fast as she had opened them, focusing all of her attention on responding to her relative.

"Grandp…Master, is that you?" she asked.

"It is. A friend and I were able to find a way to get to you. We will arrive shortly."

Huntress sighed in relief. "It's good to hear from you again."

"Likewise. Do not fret. You and your friends will see the light of day again."

When the connection between her and Weimar began to fade, she opened her eyes once more and shifted their gaze towards the rest of the group.

Inside her cage, Ice King was sleeping on the ground, mumbling as a line of drool dripped down his cheek. On the opposite side, Finn and Jake were conversing with each other, but their voices were too low for her to make out their exact words. Nevertheless, they stopped when they noticed her standing from the ground and walking towards the cell's bars.

"Good news, my grandfather is nearly here," she said. Finn and Jake seemed relieved, but Ice King still remained asleep.

"Weird how he found us so fast," Jake said.

"He has his ways. All we gotta do is be patient and hope that little witch doesn't find us busting out of here."

"True that," Finn said. "I'm still on edge as to why she didn't just kill us."

"I bet she wants to eat our brains while we're still breathing; keep us as fresh as possible. Or maybe she wants to turn us into one of those things from before. Or worse…she'll kill all of you and then keep me as her pet, forcing me to play fetch for her entertainment for the rest of my days. I like fetch as much as any dog, but even I have my limit. I'm too lazy to run after a ball more than a few times, but I'll do it anyway because it's so tempting!"

Finn slapped his brother on the back of the head, silencing him. "Will you knock it off?"

Jake rubbed the place where he had been struck. "Sorry, I get really paranoid when I'm hungry. I haven't eaten properly in days. That stuff they served us in wizard jail was terrible."

"I'm hungry too, bro. But we'll be eating soon."

The yellow dog turned his gaze to Huntress. "If her grandpa is as reliable as she says it is."

"He'll come through for us, I know it," she replied.

"I'll take your word for it," said the human. "But from what I've seen of him so far, he's not exactly the most stable of people."

"I have no idea what exactly he was doing in those woods that day," she responded, recalling the story Finn had told her during their time locked up, "but he practically raised me. I haven't seen him in years, but I don't think he's crazy. At least not fully. This whole 'Shadowed One' thing you keep mentioning makes no sense to me. Neither does the mark on your hand. He never said anything about it."

"Let's hope he'll actually stop being cryptic once we see him again," Jake said.

The group turned their gazes to Ice King, who groaned as he rolled onto his back. "Can't a guy get some peace and quiet in here?"

"Ice King, you should pitch in on helping us get outta here," Finn said.

"I'm an ice wizard, there's only so much I can do right now. Why don't you just let your girlfriend here do all the-GAH!"

He was unable to finish before Huntress grabbed him by his robe and looked at him directly in the eyes.

"What did I say back in Oldtown?" she growled. "Don't. Even. Go there."

Ice King only whimpered and nodded his head. She let go of his robe, making him fall to the ground once more.

"Now then," she turned to face Finn once more, "I hope you can fight without-"

Huntress' words were halted when the door leading into the room opened. Two Mongos came in one after the other, walking on all fours to the jail cell holding her and Ice King. They never got any less sickening to look at.

"Mother wishes for your audience," one of them said while pointing at Huntress. It was the same one Finn and Jake had spoken to while being carried through the tunnel.

She scoffed. "I'm not going with you, you freaks. Tell your mother she can come down here herself."

The Mongos nervously looked around the room, as if terrified the Witch was around to hear. But that was only whatever remained of their actual faces, for their sharp teeth were curved in a way that showed rage. "Careful, she will not tolerate such words in her home."

Huntress crossed her arms. "Oh yeah? And what is she gonna do? If she wanted to kill us, she would've done it by now."

"Huntress, stop taunting them!" Jake whispered from his cell. He and Finn looked clearly scared.

It did not matter. She had no time to take back her words.

Out of the wards that surrounded the cell, numerous shocks of lighting ran through both hers and Ice King's bodies. After a few seconds of shock, Finn and Jake began to try and break through their own cell, but it only ended in failure no matter how many times Finn kicked the bars or Jake grew to try and break through the ceiling.

When the shocking ceased, Ice King was left unconscious, but Huntress was still left awake, if very weak. With no way of being able to fight back, she could only groan in pain as the cell's gate magically opened and the Mongos stepped inside, grabbing and carrying her out.

"Huntress!" Finn shouted, still trying to break through the wards with his brother. "Leave her alone, you monsters!"

She could barely even lift her hand. From the back of the Mongo carrying her, the room behind them was nothing but a blur.

"HUNTRESS!"

As the door closed behind the Mongos, she could hear no more of Finn's voice calling her name.

The halls were hollow, devoid of anything but the small cracks along the stone walls and the torches hanging from their racks. Huntress tried with all of her might to move, but to no avail. She was too weak to do anything right now. All that was left was wait and see where the Mongos were taking her. To the Witch, no doubt, but what would she even want with her?

Whatever the case, there was little she could do to break free from the Mongos' grasp. After a while, others would start to walk past, either just wandering aimlessly, carrying objects from one place to another, or just plain lying dead on the ground, left to rot and ignored by all others. It was difficult to tell which still had some semblance of sanity and which were already driven insane beyond saving. Although some were obvious, seeing as how they continuously banged theirs heads against the walls. Huntress wondered how anyone could live like this, forced to nothing but a mindless beast for the rest of their lives.

It was difficult to recall the exact route, but after passing through a small doorway, Huntress knew they had reached the main hall of the castle.

The architecture was more or less the same as the rest of the castle, if a bit more well-preserved. The walls seemed black, but from up close they were more of a very dark shade of gray, just like the large columns on each side to keep the entire structure intact. And what hall as grand as this was complete without a throne? And who else to sit on top of it than the little girl who commanded the savage Mongos?

From what she learned after reading several old books, Huntress would consider the large windows above the throne to be of gothic design. Although, upon closer examination, it was more a mural instead of a window since the only view behind it was the rock of the mountain that the fortress was built into. At least, that is what Huntress assumed. She had a pretty good feeling of where she and her companions had been taken now; she only wished she was wrong, because otherwise they were in very deep trouble. Even more so than before.

She looked behind her at the massive doors that led outside. But even if she was somehow able to regain her strength and run for it, there was simply no way she could open them fast enough on her own. All she could do was stare at the custom throne where the Witch sat, playing with a small doll. And 'custom' was the right word, because unlike everything else in the room, it was made entirely out of old rusted swords and pieces of metal. Maybe iron? It was a bit hard to tell.

As if the throne itself was not menacing looking enough, standing guard on each side of it were the biggest Mongos Huntress had seen thus far. Behemoths, both about five meters tall, and no less terrifying than the rest. No mere person could create such monstrosities, unless multiple had been used to add more body mass.

The Witch turned her head to Huntress as the Mongos carrying her dropped her at the base of the throne. Again she tried to summon an arrow in her hand and shoot, but once again there was nothing. She had never felt this level of weakness in her life.

"Leave us," said the Witch. She never raised her voice, but it still echoed through the hall, and the Mongos obeyed her command; except for the two big ones.

Her lifeless eyes stared down at the wizard, and she could only guess what was going through her mind. Turn her into a Mongo? Keep her as a personal servant? Or maybe just toy around with and torture her for fun? So many possibilities and none of them were good.

Huntress watched from her spot at the foot of the throne as the Witch was helped down by one of the behemoths. It grabbed her in its hand, as delicately as plucking a flower from the dirt, and placed her firmly on the ground. She still grasped the doll in her hands, holding it like any other child whenever they were nervous about speaking to a stranger. But it was pretty obvious the Witch experienced no fear.

She knelt down to face the weakened wizard directly in the eyes.

"What…do you want?" Huntress asked.

The Witch only stared for a moment with her dark-as-the-void eyes. While holding the doll with one hand, she raised her other and slowly moved it to the side of Huntress' face. At first there was nothing, but then, her vision started to get blurrier than it already was by the second.

Rare were the times when Huntress was terrified, but this was one of them. And as her eyesight was completely gone, all she could do was shriek.

Finn's knuckles were showing the red stains of his blood by this point. Jake was surprised they remained uninjured for as long as they did from how many times the human continuously punched the cell's metal bars. But even when it was obvious every punch was painful, he continued to try and bust his way out nonetheless.

"Finn, stop," Jake said while placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We've tried our best; there's no way of breaking out of here."

"But we have to save Huntress!" the human screamed as he refused to stop.

"And how do you plan to do that if you're not able to fight! Your hands are gonna get all messed up. Face it, dude, we're stuck on here with no way out."

Finn continued to hit the bars, but not as strongly. Jake knew the look on his face all too well; the look he always had when he was well aware of his defeat but did not want to admit it. Eventually, he calmed down completely, simply resting his head against the invisible ward in between the bars acting as a wall of glass.

"What if they kill her?" he asked without looking directly at Jake. "There has to be something we can do besides just sitting here waiting for Weimar. The Witch will deal with all of us by the time he arrives, and what will he do on his own? The dude is super old!"

"Hey, never underestimate old people!" Ice King said from his cell, rubbing his head as he recovered from the earlier shock.

"Like you've been much help," Finn replied, a bit harsher than he intended but he never made his regret known. Ice King seemed rather unfazed, however.

The human sighed and slid his back down the bars, sitting on the ground. Jake joined him.

"It'll be okay, man," the yellow cane said in an attempt to reassure Finn's worry. "Besides, if what Huntress said about Weimar is right, and he's not that crazy, chances are he didn't choose to come on his own."

Finn turned his head and sighed. "Maybe…" he looked down at the crow marking on his hand. "But why do I get the feeling something terrible is gonna happen?"

Blayze screamed as another claw dug its way into his shoulder.

Streams of lava poured from the wound, but there was little he could do to stop it. The Mongo had him pinned against the tunnel's wall, fiercely trying its hardest to bite his head clean off with its sharp fangs. It was only Blayze's other arm pressed against the beast's throat that was keeping it from coming any closer to accomplishing its goal.

Its black skin was melting under the intense heat of his body, but it did not seem to care. The only one fazed by the whole experience was the face located above its shoulder, who was screaming in agony and begin for the pain to stop.

Blayze had never seen such a creature, and was surprised to see it even when Weimar had warned him about them on their way through the dark tunnel. Mostly beast, but also retaining part of who it once was. He could only imagine how terrible the experience must be.

Just before his arm strength gave away, Weimar hit the Mongo over the head with his staff, surprisingly strong enough to knock it down to the ground. There was little time for Blayze to thank the blind wizard, or wonder how he even knew where to swing, for there were more than just one Mongo to deal with. They came from just one side of the tunnel, but their claws gave them the edge necessary to climb up the walls and land on the opposite side, catching both men off guard.

Ignoring the pain still present in his shoulder, Blayze formed a flame sword with his hand and slashed the downed Mongo's head clean off. Another tried to jump down at him from the roof, but he moved out of the way and quickly stabbed it in the back once it landed. Another crawled along the wall, but it was handled by Weimar as he blasted it with his staff. They screeched, but Blayze liked to imagine that deep down, they were overjoyed with their miserable lives ending.

When he struck the last one down with his fire sword, the tunnel grew quiet once more, save for his heavy breathing. Weimar continued to swing his staff around a few more times before he realized there were was nothing left to hit.

"Is it over?" he asked. "Ah, wonderful. Shall we press on?"

Blayze winced as he felt another wave of pain come from his wound. "I don't see how any of this is wonderful. My shoulder was hurt pretty badly back there. My fighting won't be as good if we run into another horde of those things. We should-"

He was silenced when Weimar bonked him in the head with his staff. Before he could argue, its orb began to glow bright yellow, and he moved it closer to the wound. Within seconds, it closed, leaving behind only the stains of the lava that managed to continuously spill put during the time it was still open.

"There, now you don't have to be such a whiny child," Weimar said.

Blayze grumbled, but never tried to argue against the wizard's insult. After testing out the healed arm, he gave a satisfying nod at how good it felt. "Fine, let's go."

They went on their way once Blayze pointed Weimar in the right direction. At least, he hoped it was the right direction. He had gotten a bit turned around during the Mongos' attack and the narrow tunnel looked nearly identical no matter how long they traveled through it. Difficult as it was to tell the time, he figured they had been walking for at least half an hour now. Windar had to be close now.

"Is there any way you can contact your granddaughter again?" Blayze asked.

Weimar stopped in his tracks for a brief moment as he held his staff close to his face. He hummed and spoke several words in a language Blayze did not understand before he went back to holding the staff with one hand.

"Hm, nothing. It's as if our connection has been cut off. All the more reason to hurry and reach the end of this tunnel."

Blayze nodded, once again forgetting that Weimar could not see him. Several more Mongos were guarding the way, forcing the duo to stop for a moment in order to fight them. The more they fought, the more their attack patterns became clearer, and each fight was easier than the last even when there were more than just one to deal with. But after a while, the ambushes stopped, and the rest of the way seemed clear. While this should have made them feel relieved, it only made them feel uneasy. There was simply no way it would suddenly get so easy.

"I don't like this," said Blayze, ready to attack anything with his flame sword at a moment's notice. "Why did they stop coming. They know we're down here, and they could flush us out in a heartbeat if they sent dozens of them at once."

Weimar rubbed his beard. "Perhaps the Witch of Tears does not have such a large force at her disposal. Ha! If her greatest strength is her snow giants, we may be able to get through this without any mayor problems. As long as we don't run into her, we'll be…"

As he trailed off, both men stopped walking. The tunnel had begun shaking. While barely noticeable, it was quite obvious it meant nothing good was coming their way.

Blayze readied his bow and was ready to summon another flame sword if the time called for it. Weimar's staff glowed, also prepared to attack anything that showed its face in the darkness. As the shaking grew, it was safe to assume a lot of them were coming their way. And even worse, they could have been coming from both directions.

But that would have been too easy.

There was no time to prepare for what actually awaited them. In the blink of an eye, the roof of the tunnel caved in above them, allowing them only a split second to jump out of the way of the rubble. Weimar landed on top of Blayze, knocking them both on their backs. But to the wizard's fortune, and misfortune, the shape of what appeared to be a large hand came through the newly created hole and snatched him away to the surface before he could be burned.

He was still groggy from the initial impact, but Blayze still found it in himself to stand up and follow after whatever took Weimar. The sky could be seen as he stepped below the hole, and several snowflakes landed on his fiery skin, melting on impact. But there was no time to worry about pain. He simply boosted himself out of the tunnel with his flames.

Outside, he was met with the full force of the cold winds. From what little time he had to analyze his surroundings, it was clear he was within Windar's main courtyard.

They had made it past the walls, and the fortress itself was within reach. The main door was within sight, and Blayze could have just dashed towards it at full speed. However, it would not be that simple. Aside from the fact that the courtyard was filled with hundreds of Mongos waiting for him, one particularly large one had Weimar in its grasp.

The fortress seemed much larger up close, and far more menacing. Its spires were like the dead fingers of a hand trying to reach out into the sky, and the mountain that it was built into was a monument of pure terror by itself from how large it was. The black walls made them hard to see, but Blayze knew countless Mongos were walking along them on their way to join the ambush.

Weimar grunted as the beast holding him roared. "Boy!" he shouted. "My senses are not as good without my staff. What's happening right now?!"

Blayze noticed the staff in question lying on the snow right in front of the behemoth. "Just hold tight, old man," he said. "Things are about to get ugly."

"DON'T CALL ME OLD!" shouted Weimar.

As the Mongos began to surround the elemental, he readied his bow and began to fire away.

Finn's worry was understandable, but having him nervously pacing back in forth in such a tiny cell was beginning to make Jake uneasy.

"Finn, can you please sit down?" begged the dog. "Being hungry is starting to make me dizzy and you walking around isn't helping."

"How can I possibly keep calm right now? Have you forgotten that HUNTRESS GOT TAKEN AWAY? We can't keep waiting for Weimar; we have to come up with some way out."

Jake leaned forward, forming a fake smile on his face. "Okay then, how do we do that?"

As expected, the human had nothing to offer. He continued his pacing instead.

Ice King was still asleep in his cell, but Finn and Jake were almost sure it was just that. Sleeping. The effects of the shock he had received early had worn off, and now the old ice wizard was catching some proper shut-eye. It did not help the situation, but then again, there was really no expecting some sort of help to come from him even if he was awake. In fact, he would probably just be an annoyance.

Jake sighed as he continued to watch the worried human. "Look, I'm sorry I'm being such a downer right now. I'm just really mad that we can't do squat right now. Normally cells aren't a problem but this witch, whoever she is, thought of everything. Everything! It's like she knew we were gonna run into her or something."

"Yeah," Finn said, looking down at the marking on his right hand. "She does seem to know a lot more than we think…"

Finn continued to look at his marking, and then the bars to the cell, and then back to the marking again. One of his eyebrows raised and his tongue pressed against the side of his cheek from the inside.

"But maybe she doesn't know everything," he said.

It was a long shot, but Finn thought it was better than doing nothing. As Jake watched his actions in confusion, the human raised his right hand and placed the palm against the barrier enforcing the cell's exit. He then closed his eyes and focused as much as he could, attempting to push out all thoughts of anger, worry, frustration that could cloud his mind. As he did, the words that the Phantom had said in his dreams returned to him.

"And the day will come when you may bend the earth to your will, calm a roaring ocean, and tame a thundering sky."

Finn was hesitant to believe such power even existed. But after all that he had been through, there was really no way to be one-hundred percent sure of anything. If he really could wield such abilities, even by the smallest amount, he had to try. Somehow, maybe the mark of the Shadowed One was more than just a blemish on his skin, and more than just a pretty light whenever it glowed.

As he reopened his eyes, he imitated Jake with the same look of shock on his face.

His entire hand was glowing purple this time, not just the mark, and its light spread to the rest of the ward it currently touched. Like the time when he opened the door to enter the Order of the Crow's hideout, multiple tendrils of this light spread out across the entire surface. It started out small at first, but then it kept expanding to the point where the ward surrounding the cell was no longer invisible, and the two adventurers were left staring in awe at the beautiful aurora of light that swirled over their heads and under their feet. And with a bright flash that made them both cover their eyes, it was over. The light was gone and the cell was back to looking the same way it did before. But neither of them needed to say a word for Jake to know what to do.

The canine expanded his hand to giant proportions and smashed through the metal bars, knocking them away with such force that they crashed against the ward that was still surrounding Ice King's cell. The noise startled the wizard awake.

"Huh?! What?! What are you two doing over theeeeeeeere-How did you break through that cell?!"

Finn smirked, walking out of his own cell to place his hand on Ice King's. "You should know by now, Ice King. Cells aren't really something that can hold us back."

After Finn repeated the same process and Jake was able to break through the bars, Ice King needed a brief moment to process what had just happened before he mustered up the strength to stand up and float out of his imprisonment.

"Alright, we're free!" Jake shouted triumphantly, high fiving Finn.

"Whoo! Teamwork!" Ice King shouted, raising his own hand for a high five that never came as Finn and Jake conversed with each other.

"So what now?" Jake asked.

"We find the Witch, kick her butt, save Huntress, and get out."

The dog nodded. "Pretty straightforward. Let's go."

After sighing in disappointment at the lack of a high five, Ice King followed closely behind the two heroes as they headed deeper into the heart of Windar.

Note: I deeply apologize if the length of these chapters doesn't make up for the inexcusably long waiting times between updates. Personal life has me extremely busy and I don't have as much time to write as I would like. Plus it doesn't help that I've been feeling down and uninspired lately. Rest assured, however, I'm still around and plan to keep going.

-Fiery Crusader: He probably will need all of Ooo on his case soon enough...

Next Chapter: Glimpse