Under the Mountain

An old man sat chained to a cold floor of a dungeon. This dungeon was at the base of a certain mountain, the home of a certain sorceress. This man's name was Zvosel Araskeni.

Zvosel had been rescued from a blazing fire many years ago, by someone he did not even recognize. But then his sister, the sorceress who had set the fire on his home, came, and easily murdered his savior with a flick of her wrist. She had brought him to a large mountain, and he had been there ever since.

He did not know how many countless days had passed since he entered the gloom. With nothing to do but stare at the speck of light at the end of the dark hallway.

Suddenly, the speck of light was covered with a dark figure. Zvosel could now hear the faint tapping of soft leather shoes against the stone floor.

Now that he thought of it, there were two people coming towards him. one was probably Eteirea—no one could enter this part of the mountain without her permission—but who was the other one?"

He could barely make out that one was clearly a victim of the other.

Who would the sorceress bring to the deepest part of her lair? No one except a powerful prisoner who she shared a grudge with.

"Let me go, you witch!"

The prisoner was shoved into a wall near where he was. The voice was of a young woman.

"Welcome to the Mountain of Lies, my dear niece." the sorceress hissed, but only the young woman could hear.

After a few moments, he heard a slam. Zvosel could no longer see the end of the long hallway. How could Eteirea be so cruel to erase one's only hope of survival in the mountain's dungeon?

A weak light appeared to his left. The prisoner leaned towards him. Her face was stained with dirt, and her dark hair was in a mess. "Who are you?"

Though she was completely a stranger, Zvosel felt a strange, warm, aura around her. Had they met before?

"I am but a victim of my sister's madness." he answered.

"Your sister? Is she the sorceress?"

Zvosel sighed. "Sadly, yes."

"You can call me Elena. I am from the kingdom of Avhunin."

"It is truly nice to meet you, Elena."

"That's it!" Lila cried. "I knew that I saw it somewhere else!" Forgetting her doubts about her companion, Lila pulled up her sleeve. Nevnera took a closer look and saw a small red ∂ drawn on the skin.

"That is a wonder!" Nevnera exclaimed. "Who would have thought about it, except for you?"

"This symbol was drawn on by my biological father when I was still young. I also had an elder sister, who had another symbol on her left arm!"

Lila and Nevnera both suddenly spotted a rectangular line to their left. It seemed darker than the areas of the room not touched by the orb. It was like a line of ink.

They heard a rumbling sound behind them, the two of them turned right as a stone wall slid over the doorway smoothly, leaving no trace of the way back.

At the same time, another wall slid at the opposite side of the cave. Instead of covering a patch, it seemed to be revealing a tunnel behind it.

A flicker of fire sprang up beyond the second doorway. It reflected on a white, slender hand hidden under a black sleeve.

Meanwhile, in the dungeons of the mountain, even on the topmost level of the large prison, each prisoner heard a soft rumble from way down below.

Elena and Zvosel, being on the lowest level a few feet above where Lila and Nevnera stood under the mountain, could partly hear what was going on below.

But after the rumble repeated, all was silent. They could hear their own breathing, as if the loudest sound they could hear.

After a while, another sound was heard. This sound was like a small breeze mixed with ringing laughter, though underground there was no breeze, and clearly no one was laughing, either.

The space inside the ink line in the circular room and the same shape on the wall behind Elena and Zvosel glowed. The wall morphed into the spirit of an elderly woman.

Lila felt her arm tingling, the same arm that the symbol was drawn on. The symbol slowly lifted off her arm as a patch of red mist. Lila, Nevnera, and whoever it was in the darkness at the other side of the room saw it float towards the glowing part of the wall. There, it was joined by another patch of red mist. The wall outlined by the black inky line slowly disappeared.

The spirit of the elderly woman glided towards the empty space in the cave wall. The dungeon and circular room were nearby under the mountain.

The two patches of red mist landed on the woman's arms and reformed into ∂ on the arm facing Lila and another symbol which only Elena and Zvosel and of course the elderly woman could see.

The spirit clasped her hands together and spun in a full circle. Now, everyone could tell what the symbol on the other side was.

The spirit pointed to the ground with her right hand (which was the one on Elena and Zvosel's side of the wall) then vanshed, but a flat plate the same red color as the symbols dropped to the ground. Around the plate, white lines began forming themselves.

Zvosel was the only one who inspected the lines.

"You are Nevnera?" said Zvosel quietly.

"Yes?"

Zvosel raised his eyebrows. "Your mother is Eteirea."

"So what?"

"Your father is Prince Reko."

"Who?"

"Sir—" said Elena from near the place where the wall had once been.

Zvosel sighed. "I am not dumb. Don't think you can hide your identity."

Zvosel suddenly spotted the red plate. He lifted it from the ground. It was a wide cylinder about a centimeter high.

Zvosel sighed again. "I warned her not to use the Panel of Personalities..."

"What panel?" the other three asked at once.

Zvosel waved his hand. An image of a stone panel appeared in the air.

In the middle of the panel, then was a large circle emptied out from the stone. Zvosel waved his hand again. A duplicate of the red cylinder appeared in the image and was inserted perfectly into the circle.

Around the circle, there were eight triangular dents in slightly different shapes with an upside-down pyramid carved inside the panel. Each had an outline in a different color than the previous one.

Surrounding the eight outlined dents was another dent but rounded at the bottom.

"My sister used the panel, wishing for a better life."

"Well, if what you mean is to undo the panel's effect, can't you just destroy the panel?" one of them blurted, but no one could really notice who (they hadn't heard each other's voices in a long time except for Lila and Nevnera and the light from the orb in the center of the circular room was faint).

Zvosel shook his head. "No. If you destroy the panel, everyone effected with the curse will be destroyed along with it."

Zvosel turned to the tunnel at the other side of the cave. "Is that the way out?"

"Yes." said the figure in the darkness. Their voice sounded neither like a man or a woman. "But do not enter alone."

"Can you guide us out?"

"You are headed for the valley of Raezhyn." The figure stepped into the light. This made no difference, though. He or she was cloaked from head to toe with a dark black cloak, a good outfit for blending into the tunnels. "I created these tunnels to lead through plains and under mountain ranges. The Mountain of Lies is just one of the stops. Come with me."

Zvosel nodded slowly, seeming to understand, and stepped towards the doorway. "Please take these these three to where they need to be."

He turned to Nevnera, "You must find your mother. She will explain everything to you, but you must leave before dawn."

Nevnera didn't argue and vanished.

She thought as she appeared in the center of the mountain, "If this man knows so much about my ancestry, he must know why I must find Mother and leave before dawn."