The Druid and the Igniad
Chapter 9
Together, Lu and Gern entered the high-vaulted chamber of the witch-queen's castle. It was warm, and the thin mountain air was dry. Sunlight streamed through stained crystal windows up high, and Lu recognized at once the crystals were shards of her own crystal trees, kept prisoner between veins of lead. A thick, tinny magic ran through them, tinting their facets all manner of colors.
The windows did not depict anything in particular besides shifting patterns. Evalyn was nowhere to be seen, but there was a door on every wall, as well as stairs of red obsidian sweeping up like two reaching and conjoining tentacles.
"She is hiding," Gern grated. The patterns of color in the windows shifted in unison, and became an image of Evalyn rising out of a flower of black tendrils. Suddenly, Evalyn herself stood at the top of the stairs, wearing a full dress as red as blood, but thin as shade. A dim impression of her alabaster skin showed beneath it, and her smooth tail snaked against her calf. Her spiral horns glinted with a headdress of crystals, and she smiled pleasantly down at them.
"How polite of you to knock," Evalyn said. "I heard it from all the way up here."
"Give us our daughter and face Justice!" Gern demanded. Lu knew Evalyn would not show herself if it were not a trap, so she waited and listened.
"Justice?" Evalyn said dismissively. "How would you know what 'justice' is, druid? Or 'balance', for that matter? Does your goddess tell you? Do you receive commandments from the trees or are they whispered to you on the wind, where only you can hear? The true workings of the universe are beyond your feeble superstitions."
"Truth is beyond any of us," Lu stated, preparing her mind to assert her will in magic.
"My truth becomes me, as your daughter will become me." As Evalyn spoke, the images on the windows shifted to depict Evalyn ascending from her demonic body into the darkly enshrined figure of a shapely young woman wreathed in fire.
"It is only your delusion," Lu asserted, keeping her energy grounded.
"She is stalling," Gern said quietly, hoping only Lu would hear.
"She is baiting," Lu replied in the same volume.
Gern grunted softly in begrudging agreement, eager to inflict harm on his daughter's kidnapper.
"How do you know beforehand when Gaia intends to trade one life for another?" Evalyn said, sauntering down the stairs, sliding one hand along the tentacle-like railing. "When your spear kills the meat for your meal, when the bitter blade cuts down your brothers? The drive behind each is a part of your goddess. Nature does not take sides. Nature simply gives you what you want so long as you give it what it wants in exchange. I have given much, and I have not come all this way to fail, now. I am the one who will bring balance to this world! I will live to discern and judge what is best for all even beyond the death of Gaia, and it is through me that life will survive her."
"Enough of your poison!" Gern shouted, and sprinted towards Evalyn, who had reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Gern!" Lu called, but Gern swung his staff at Evalyn with all the speed of his rage. The wood whooshed through the thin air where she stood, and at once she vanished along with the staircase going up, replaced with a staircase going down. Shadowy tendrils reached from the darkness below and seized Gern, pulling him down, where he vanished from Lu's sight.
Gern rolled to his feet and struck his staff on the floor, said: "Begone!" The loud clack of the wood and the force of his command made the shadows scatter, and he stood alone in the darkness.
"Your presence is disruptive," Labolas said in the dark, echoing chamber, his voice hanging low all around Gern.
"Lu?!" Gern called, looking for the stairs, but there was no light anywhere.
"She must contend with Evalyn. You will not interfere."
"Shining Ones," Gern chanted softly, "bring forth ever anew the sun." He struck the bottom of his staff against the floor, and a spark of daylight grew from the top. Labolas was illuminated, the bronze feathers of his wings catching the light and reflecting it onto his muscled form.
"Your paltry prayers will not avail you, human." Labolas stretched his wings high, striking a tall, imposing figure.
"Labolas!" Gern growled, and rushed in to attack. He swung his staff with power and speed, but each strike was brushed aside by sweeps of the demon's wings, the strange feathers glancing aside the enchanted wood.
Meanwhile, Lu searched for Gern, but as soon as she had lost sight of him the windows turned black as pitch, blocking out all light. The stairs and all else were gone, and she found herself alone in moonless midnight. She conjured a flame in one hand, then saw that the walls were in different places than before. Glinting gems in the woven arches of obsidian seemed to glow with a pale light above her like a field of stars, twisting above her as she ran down hallways that seemed to take her in circles.
"I told you before, dear", Evalyn said from down the corridor behind her. "What killed me in my previous life gives me power in this one."
Lu whirled around and dropped into a fighting stance, her jeweled armor articulating with a quiet clank.
