as written by Script and Tiko
"We'll have more to report back if we give it a closer look," Cinaed replied, pausing to look back at her, "I'm not saying we should delve deep into the foreboding cave, but we can give it a quick look over at least! It looks totally deserted - the snow hasn't been disturbed in ages by the looks of it - so it should be fine!" And with that, he continued forwards eagerly.
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Amethea frowned deeply as she threw a look over her shoulder. It wasn't that she was afraid, but protocol was such that they should report back. If anything happened, Jason and the others wouldn't even know where to begin looking for them. Unfortunately her impulsive companion had other plans as he forged on ahead.
She scowled as she looked back once more before starting after him. She wasn't of the mind to leave him out here alone... especially since she held no illusions that he intended to stop at the entrance.
She chose her steps carefully, but even still she moved at less than half the speed of Cinaed's more spry form, and on a few occasions the ice gave beneath her weight. She was more nimble than her bulk suggested though, and she maintained her footing as she clambered her way after the youth.
She was favoring one of her rear hooves by the time she joined him at the entrance where sharp ice had gashed her ankle on some ice, but it didn't appear particularly serious for the moment.
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By the time Amethea reached him, Cinaed was crouched down and peering intently at the runes on the pillars. "They're not anything like I recognise, but I'm not very well versed in ... runes. I mean, for all I know they might just be a language I don't know. Like, I bet if someone who'd never been to or heard of Shintenchi came across writing in their languages, they'd think they were magical runes or something. Or the other way around! Runes are just another language when you think about it..."
He trailed off. "Rambling there, sorry. But anyway, I poked them a few times and they didn't start glowing, so that's good at least."
Beside him, the rabbit-hawk sniffed at one of the pillars, wondering what all the fuss was about.
"I'm gonna take a look inside, just far enough in to get an idea of whether it's a cave, or a tunnel, or something else." he said, glancing back at Amethea for the first time. "Oh - your leg! Are you alright?"
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"It's just a scratch," Amethea replied.
She approached the pillars to get a good look at the runes herself, but they weren't of her people, or of the Ghrigorians. Finally she drew one of her blades, holding it carefully as she nodded for Cinaed to take the lead. Perhaps it was a bit paranoid, but she wasn't in the habit of delving into abandoned looking caves in the middle of potentially hostile mountains without being prepared for some measure of trouble, even if just some local wildlife unhappy to share it's chosen den.
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Nodding, Cinaed gathered a small ball of flame in his palm. Both for protection, and to use as a light source. He started forwards. In the very entrance of the cave, where the light from outside still fell, it was immediately apparent that it was at least partially man-made. The floor was one of smooth flagstones, cracked in places but largely intact. They had entered a large chamber - large enough that the light from outside and Cinaed's flame did not reach all the edges of it.
Inside, against the back wall, was a statue of a female figure, the details of her attire and face worn away with age - or possibly deliberately eroded. It was hard to tell from a distance. At the base of the statue lay a broken stone slab on a small dais surrounded by a shallow pool of water.
More of the runes from outside were visible scattered around on the walls and floor, as well as on the statue - though those were largely worn away.
"Whoa. Whaddyou think this place is?" Cinaed asked as he walked inside, growing his flame to try and better light the area. "Some sort of temple, maybe? Or maybe this is a like... entrance hall?"
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"I'm not sure..." Amethea said.
The steady clopping of hooves echoed through the entrance hall as Amethea approached the statue. Her hooves splashed lightly at the edge of the pool as she tried to get a look at the woman's face. It wasn't of any of the northern godesses that she was familiar with.
Something felt strange though and she frowned, looking down where the water licked at her ankle. It was warm... but it left the cut skin tingling as she stepped back from it.
"Hey... get over here," she called to Cinaed as the gash began to knit right before her eyes.
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"Wow!" Cinaed exclaimed, "That's incredible! You think if we can get the Admiral here it'll... no, wait. When that other guy tried magical healing on her it backfired. I'm guessing this must be magic of some sort, so the same thing might happen."
The teen ran one hand through the water, enjoying the cool on his skin. Of course, it was warm to Amethea, but his own body temperature was much higher. Beside him, the rabbit-hawk hopped over and began drinking from the pool.
"I wonder who she is," he mused, looking up at the statue. Then he blinked. For a moment there, he could have sworn that he saw light in the statue's eyes. Which was odd, since now that he was looking again, its facial features had been worn away. It didn't even have eyes! "Did you... see anything odd just then?" he asked.
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"Hm? No, I didn't see anything," Amethea remarked. "Here, put some of that water in this," she suggested as she passed a canister over to Cinaed after pouring its original contents out onto the stone floor. "And maybe put some of it on that cut on your arm?"
"I'm going to keep looking around.... and do you smell that? It almost smells like... oil."
As if on cue, the room began to grow lighter as flickers of fire ran down the length of the hall on either side lighting up oil that ran through narrow troughs. Perhaps it had something to do with whatever Cinaed had seen with the statue?
"Well... guess you don't need that anymore," she said with a nod towards Cinaed's ball of light.
With the flood of light through the stone hall, it was evident that there where other passageways leading deeper.
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Cinaed nodded his head, scooping up a canister full of water. He brought some of the water up to his arm and pressed it against the cut from the bullet wound. Just as Amethea's leg injury had healed, so too did that gash. "That ... that felt really weird. But cool!" he said, staring at the freshly healed skin.
Regaining his focus, he dismissed his fire, placing the cap on the cannister and slipping it into his bag. "How big do you think this place is?" he asked, watching as the room was lit up.
The runes in the walls and floor also began to give off light with the arrival of the fire, but oddly. Individual runes lit up seemingly at random, in a whole spectrum of different colours, with no identifiable effect.
Each passageway out of the room - five in total, had a rune above them. Like the runes on the floor, they too were periodically flashing with different colours. "What's with the light show?" Cinaed wondered out loud.
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"I'm not sure..." Amethea remarked.
They really should head back, but her own curiosity was piqued at this point. Five passageways... She chose the center most that lead straight ahead, past the statue.
She walked slowly, her eyes cautious as the passageway spilled out into a round room with a large silver framed mirror standing at its center. It was simple in design, and no runes marked the walls or floors within this room. It seemed remarkably out of place with all the flare they had encountered thus far.
The mirror itself was tall enough that a man could stand before it and see the entirety of themself in the reflection.
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Cinaed followed behind Amethea, emerging into the circular room just after her. He raised a curious eyebrow upon his entry. "A mirror, huh? I wonder if it's magical. It seems odd otherwise to have nothing else here aside from it."
The teen approached the mirror cautiously, looking it up and down, but only his own reflection looked back at him. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like a perfectly normal mirror.
"Let's see..." he began, thinking for a moment before speaking again. "Mirror mirror, on the floor, do you mind telling me what you're for?"
He paused. Nothing happened, and after a few moments he laughed. "Oh well, worth a shot." he said, shrugging his shoulders. "What do you make of it?" he asked, bending forwards to stare at the surface of the mirror, holding his face mere inches away from it.
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As Cinaed drew closer to the mirror, his eyes locked on his own reflection he would see his image distorting, swirling with the embers of fire that burned from within. Dancing there in the irises of his eyes within the reflection was the winged image of a phoenix.
"Cinaed?" Amethea asked.
She seemed somewhat concerned at the intensity that Cinaed was staring into the mirror, several minutes had passed and she started towards him.
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Cinaed's eyes widened upon seeing the image in his eyes, leaning backwards and taking a step away from the mirror. The image didn't change, though, despite his movement. His eyes were locked on those of his reflection. "What the..." he murmured.
He blinked.
He opened his eyes. He was running along the rooftops in a crowded city, the yells of guardsmen in the street below chasing him as he laughed gleefully along with the girl who ran alongside him.
He blinked.
He opened his eyes. An arrow brushed by his face, missing him by a hair's breadth, as around him a village burned. People screamed and ran in the face of armoured men bearing torches and swords, but not him. He stood his ground, a sword in his hand, and met the charge.
He blinked.
He opened his eyes. The ranks of an army stretched endlessly to either side of him. Men died in the dirt at his feet, banners flew in the wind, and warhorns tore through the yelling and clashing of steel to rally soldiers to the sound. His katana grazed the armour of the man before him, who swerved out of the way of the strike at the last moment.
He blinked.
His reflection stared back at him with fire in its eyes. Sweat poured down his face. "What is this..?" he stammered, slowly lifting a hand to the mirror and pressing his palm against that of his mirrored self.
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There was a jolt of energy, akin to an electrical current, that passed through his hand and the mirror as his fingers brushed it. He had never experienced heat in the same way as other people, but in that moment his hand was on fire. He couldn't move though as the energy coursed through him, forcing his body rigid as if something was splitting him in two.
"Cinaed!" Amethea yelled in alarm as she saw him go rigid.
She grabbed his arm to pull his hand from the mirror, but the energy coursed through his arm and into her hand scorching and blistering the flesh as she jerked it away from his arm.
"Cinaed!" she shouted again.
The image that Cinaed was seeing in the mirror was engulfed in flames as the phoenix rose from the fiery embers. He could feel it shrieking within his mind, tearing at his soul.
Amethea reversed her grip on her sword with her good hand and hurtled it towards the mirror. As the point connected, the glass began to crack and then shatter leaving Cinaed to fall to the stone floor.
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Searing hot pain filled Cinaed's body as the mirror tore at something deep inside him that he had never even known was there. Heat, unimaginable heat seared through his hand and up his arm and he cried out in pain.
The phoenix reared its head, spreading its wings and shrieking, mirroring his own cry of anguish. He tried desperately to pull away, but it wasn't until Amethea threw the sword and shattered the mirror that he was released.
He fell to his knees, eyes wide and staring. The heat faded, and was replaced by a terrible, unbearable coldness. He gasped, a wrenching feeling of emptiness filling his gut. "No... no... no..." he breathed, "What have... what have you done?" he scrambled forwards, grasping at the shards of the mirror and desperately trying to piece them together, "No, where is it... wh- wh..." The teen stammered, beginning to shake and shiver as though he'd just been plunged into an icy lake. He dropped the glass shards as his hands became too unsteady to grip them. "Wh... when did it get s-s-so c-c-cold?"
By this point, Cinaed had visibly paled, and was barely holding himself off the ground. "What's h-h-happening to me..?" he managed to gasp out, before his vision faded and he toppled over sideways.
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When Amathea returned to the outpost, it was nearly dark out as she picked her steps carefully through the precarious rocks. Reaching the outpost with Cinaed slung over her back had proven difficult to say the least. When the peculiar spring had failed to rouse him she had determined to get him back to the others. His condition had only deteriorated though.He was ice cold, and only the occasional groans and murmurs told her that he was still with her at all.
She threw her shoulder into the ajar door, forcing it open against rusted and frozen hinges before heading inside. Jason was asleep, having finally relented to his bodies need for rest, but Ejon had been left on watch to keep an eye on the Taiyou prisoner, and Nagala.
"Ejon, give me a hand," she called out. "Help me get him by the fire, he's frozen."
Cinaed wasn't remotely dressed for the weather, and though that hadn't proven a problem prior to today, something had changed.