| From: | ANGLISS@***.PSU.EDU |
|---|---|
| Subject: | (yawn) The finale, I think(the cave, last part) |
| Date: | Tue, 15 Mar 1994 11:36:48 -0500 |
time-
delayed sleep spell?{ NO! }grin!{
Let's see, I was just going over the battle with the three BASTARDS!!!!! }calm
down, Rox, and you were done with that part. You had just got to thier
retreat down the tunnel{ Oh.
Ok. So they put out the fires on their clothing by jumping into the stream,
and then they ran back, stopping after about a hundred yards and regrouping.
We all followed, carefully watching for traps and other goodies like the
tripwire grenade we found and the monowire set at neck height. Well, we saw
them disappear around a corner and we carefully came up to the corner ourselves.What we
saw was beautiful as we stuck our heads around the corner. It was an
entry cavern, just before our goal, and it was lit. Not by fire, though. The
walls glowed in an almost prismatic manner, casting light throughout the
entryway. And while Val disarmed the claymore set at the corner(I wonder where
he learned to do that?), N'Ralen and I looked around.
The cavern was vaulted, with almost gothic looking columns set along the walls
for support. But they had not been placed there--they looked to be cut from
the heart of the mountain itself. The walls were of clear crystal quartz, and
the columns went from clear to a deep purple. The vaulted roof of the cavern
was covered in sigils and runes of an old language that I do not understand,
but N'Ralen seemed to. He was most impressed, and he told me what the runes
meant.
"This, the Vault of Time, shall stand till the Old One who guards it falls.
Honor him in death and life and thee shall know the honor we did him and the
honor he shows us. This place, created by him for the Vault of Time at our
request and with his assent and aid, shall be a place of peace until such time
as he deems it necessary for battle to be joined and the old ones return to
claim thier birthright."
Max and N'Ralen were both suitably impressed, and the runes were definately
of Fourth World origin. This was about the time that not only did I notice
its shape of an ellipse, but a lone figure standing at the far point, looking
at the entrance door, away from us. And as we carefully entered, we noticed
that the three had taken up positions along the wall, perfect for crossfire,
but were not firing for some reason. Perhaps the fact that the Old One,
whoever he was, had imprisoned hundreds of individuals, all armed and in
combat with each other, in the crystalline walls and columns of the cavern.
}it is beautiful, Rox, that the Old One, the spirit of the mountain itself,
would honor a bargain from so long ago, even through the dead time of the
Fifth World when mana was low. No looter ever damaged the Vault, and even
the battle{ NOT NOW! I'm getting to that, Max! }oops. I'm sorry{ No, you're
not }grin{
Well, as Max has partly ruined the story, I'll hurry it up. The runes showed
that this was a sanctuary from battle until the Old One decided that the old
ones, in this case us and the lone figure, returned. We wandered around, even
walked right past Smith and French, but they didn't attack as they knew it
would mean their imprisonment forever in the crystal walls. Max disappeared
for a while, and when he returned }I told them that the people in the walls
were still alive, after eons, and even conscious. They knew how much time had
passed and were aware of everything, including the amount of time the Old One
had imprisoned them for. Some of them will be in that cavern until the Old
One dies...{ Thank you Max! LET ME TELL IT!!!! }pout{
Well, we four found our way up to the closed doorway on the far side of the and
N'Ralen again read the sigils. It was funny. We still coldn
}snicker...{ Oh, shut up about my typing...
We still couldn't see the features of the figure.
"Before you lies the inner sanctum, the home of the source. Only those who
know the way may pass" No riddle to solve, no nothing. Just a mention that
we could get in, but not how to do it. N'Ralen said this aloud, and that's
when we heard behind us the voice of the figure say, in his strange language
and along with N'Ralen, the exact words of the vault door. N'Ralen was rather
surprised, and an intense look of pain and anger appeared on his face. For
behind him was his parent's killer, and my parent's killer, and the elf who
still vowed to kill me as the end of a family line and a blood oath. Etsy,
who's real name I still don't know for sure, stood there, with his goatee and
blond hair and elven ears, laughing as I readied to blast him out of existance
with a spell.
"Come, come now my dear Elissadril. You wouldn't want to become one with the
walls of the Vault of Time, would you? And N'Ralen, I am so glad we meet
again. It has been quite some time since we spoke face to face like this,
although my agents tell me you are doing excellently in your studies at
college. And how is Seraphylanjalijigusnort these days? Still up to his old
tricks on my lawn while I am not around? I certainly hope so."
"Don't even bother trying to enter the sanctum. I've been here three days
myself and have yet to find 'the way' in. Perhaps because I've been inside
before, with your father, Elissadril. But then again, perhaps not. You,
however, are known to the sanctum, and will be my guide and aid that lets me
inside."
I laughed and proceeded to tell him exactly what I thought of his idea,
parentage, clan, and sexual relations in not so nice terms. And all the while
he was laughing, until the outer vault literally rumbled. It seemed that the
Old One had decided the old ones had returned, and it was time. And the drek
hit the fan. Bullets started flying from the three, and spells began to fly
from everyone. Val wasn't even fighting, just standing there keeping all of
us encased in anti-bullet barriers. Grenades were thrown and for the next
several minutes the three, but not Etsy, just poured out leaden death. But to
no avail. They literally ran out of ammo. And the vault seemed to laugh at
them as the realized that not only had they not hurt us in any way, but the
vault was totally undamaged. The magic of the Vault of Time had somehow
managed to ignore the bullets and explosions that should have chipped the walls
and columns at least, if not shattered them. And there was nothing damaged,
not even any scorch marks. Etsy just smiled at us, motioned the three to leave
him alone, and then turned around, facing the other focus of the ellipse.
Somehow, N'Ralen had disappeared from near us and reappeared at the far point,
facing Etsy. That's when the most intricate hermetic...ellipse appeared and r
began to light the floor. All sound from within the circle was cut off as a
fantastically powerful ward and multiple barriers rose in an arc, meeting over
thier heads and totally encasing them in mana. They seemed to perform a rather
long ritual ceremony of some kind, a naming of names and clans, and then they
actually began to fight. Magically, of course. Etsy was rather surprised at
the beginning. As N'Ralen had said before, they had met and fought once before
but he was much better now. Apparently Etsy agreed as he smiled and the mana
began to flow, lighting the barrier and wards with the energies of two
fantastically powerful magicians weilding the strands of life with finesse.
That's when the pain hit me again. It had gone away when I entered the
tunnel like part of the cave, but it returned with a vengence. I literally
passed out for a few minutes there until it came under control again. And when
it did, there was a picture in my mind of exactly what needed to be done to
enter the inner sanctum, and how I would have to do it, and what would happen
to me when I did. Somehow, I generated a magical lift under my feet and rose
along the ward to the vertex of the vaulted roof. There were sigils, older
even than the the other ones, in a language dating, the Old One said, to
before the cycles. And I pressed them and understood thier meaning, and the
great door opened.
I settled myself down again before the door, ignoring the raging battle behind
me, and stared forward into the sanctum. It was the Cave of Lights, the true
Vault of Time. An ice cave, lit by mana, a cave of mirrors, perfectly
spherical, and the actual source of the mana spike that started the whole thing
in the first place. And with it opening the mountain rumbled again, and the
battle came to an abrupt end. Etsy, slowly beating down N'Ralen, was most glad
for the opening, and N'Ralen smiled at Val and I. It appears that neither of
them wanted to fight at the time, but somehow the magic and the spirit of the
Old One entered them and forced them too as part of the requirements for my
entrance into the sanctum. Why he allowed me to enter I don't know, except
that my father somehow had something to do with it. Etsy cursed, tried to pass
me as I entered the sanctum, and was stopped by a barrier at the door, and then
the door closed behind me.
This is where things got interesting for me. The sanctum turned out to be some
kind of storage device for mana, tied in directly to the cycles of the Worlds
and the spirit that the Great Ghost Dance taps. And it had allowed me into
it, as it felt honorbound to help me when it couldn't help my imprisoned father.And my
life as it was came to an end. When I finally realized where I was, I
had already been removed from the sanctum by Val and N'Ralen. Etsy had left
and I was told that he had tried to kill me.
}I'll take over now, Rox, as you don't remember what happened. The mana
within the sanctum, as she calls it, was concentrated and poured into her in a
way that essentially woke her to the true potential of her own magic, and it
drained away the mana for kilometers around, causing a reverse mana spike and
a temporarily mundane area of Germany to occur, a dead zone that is now
returning to normal. And when she left, Etsy realiszed what she had become and
tried to kill her. The Vault and the Old One, recognizing him as one of the
old ones, didn't try to stop it in any way, and it caught N'Ralen off guard.
Valentine too was surprised, but not Rox. The spell he threw at her should
have destroyed her atom by mundane atom, and yet it did nothing. It washed
over her like a cool mountain breeze and she just smiled. She then looked
him right in the eyes and told him this:
"Because of you I am created. I am Mistress to the Cycles and beyond your
power here in this place. Leave and beware when again we meet."
Etsy was surprised, looked rather worried, and then faded out as he left.
When I looked at Rox again, her hair was rising as if lifted by a wind, her
eyes were on fire, her skin almost glowing, and her aura perfectly stable and
more powerful than I had ever seen it. That's when she fell over, passed out,
and we woke her{
Thanks, Max. So, anyone know what I meant when I said "I am Mistress to the
Cycles?" I sure don
t(and no typing comments, Max!) }Who, Me?{
and I wish I did. And Val just smiled when I asked him and said he'd tell me
eventually. Probably after I already know the answer...
We got out of the cave the same way we got in, minus N'Ralen who left the same
way Etsy did as he had a quiz the next day and wanted to make sure he didn't
miss it. And we had to again sneak through the Swiss. We made it to Paris and
then returned here.
And I have a question: does anyone know what a mana spike, focused on me,
would do to...an unborn child?]<<<<<
-- Foxey Roxey(11:38:45/03-15-55)
