by Noah Michael
The Chief walked to the end of the room and put his hands on the wall. The area around his hands glowed, and the wall moved backwards to reveal an opening. The Chief signaled for the others to follow him through. Arias’s voice rose behind them, giving guard orders. The dim passageway led to a long staircase, at the bottom of which sat the mirror, covered by an old, dusty sheet.
Raiden watched the Chief approach the mirror as he tried to fathom just what he’d gotten himself into. He had expected their journey would end when they got to the land of the Shadows, but now he realized it was just the beginning.
The Chief pulled off the sheet. The mirror was shiny, clear, and tall, with a brown and golden polished wood frame engraved along the top in what seemed to be ancient Greek.
The Chief turned to them. “I don’t know what the transportation process is like. We may get separated. I think we should tie ourselves together.” He held out a thick rope. Maximus attached it to his wrist, and helped Sarah tie it to her arm. Raiden followed suit.
“On the count of three, we shall jump.”
“One. Two. Three.”
Everything went black.
◆◆◆
Sarah grunted as she fell to the floor. The others were gone. The rope was still tied to her wrist but was attached to no one. She untied the rope from her wrist and looked around. She was in a circular room made entirely of glass. Its walls were divided into rectangular sections, each composed of a different type of glass and each featuring a different battle accessory. In the center of the room on the floor was a circle made of a grey, metallic substance. It glowed as she approached it. Light projected upwards from the circle and projected the form of a familiar figure.
Raiden? She thought, astounded at the resemblance. Tall and muscular, the redheaded man was dressed in full battle gear. On his hands were thin, metallic-looking gloves. Over his right glove, on his fourth finger, was a ring and an array of items was fastened to the man’s belt, one in particular caught Sarah by surprise.
“That’s my kaza!” she exclaimed.
The man spoke. “My dear son or daughter, you have traveled into the Nexus, a portal which I fortified with the intention of protecting a great power which should never be awakened. If you are here to awaken that power for purposes of greed, then you shall perish. Many trials await you, trials in which only you, a Surger, can prevail. If you are worthy, you shall succeed. The door back to Earth is opened only if one first crosses to the other side.”
The man disappeared. Sarah walked to where he’d been standing.
“Who are you?” She whispered. The others still hadn’t arrived, and they weren’t coming. She was on her own. Walking the room, trying to figure out what to do, she noticed that one of the rectangular glass shafts contained no item. The glass had been shattered.
Maybe I’m supposed to take one of the weapons first.
Sarah inspected each of the items, dragging her hand along the glass. As she did, she realized that each of the glass shafts emitted a different frequency. She passed by the shield the man had been wearing, pausing to look at it. When she put her hand to glass, the man’s voice echoed through the room. “My shield will project a frequency that is the opposite of any blow that strikes it. It is indestructible.”
It might be indestructible, but it is also looks way too heavy.
Sarah moved on to the broken glass and put her hand carefully forward to touch it. “My sword will imitate the frequency of any object it strikes. It can smash through any armor or object.”
Still wondering what might happen if the missing sword met the indestructible shield, she moved on to the next glass, and then the next, but she encountered the same problem, she was too small to manage any of the battle-gear. Finally, she got to the last section with the gloves the man had been wearing. They seemed much smaller than they had on the man’s hands.
As they were the only things in the room she could lift, Sarah put her hand to the glass, then took out her kaza and began to play a note. The glass began to shake in a rapid wave-motion and she took a step back as the glass shattered.
The gloves seemed to be made of some sort of elastic metal. On the palm of each glove was a series of metallic circles. Before listening to the explanation, Sarah slipped the gloves on. She made her hands into fists, amazed by the comfort and flexibility of the gloves. She put her hands out and forward, wanting to see what the gloves looked like from the back.
They vibrated rapidly and circular pulses shot out from the palms of each glove, pushing Sarah backwards onto the floor as they hit the glass containing the shield, shattering it instantly. The shield clattered to the floor.
“That’s so cool!” Sarah felt the different frequencies throughout the room. As if sensing her mind, the gloves shot out pulses that shattered the glass and the battle-axe fell to floor. “Woohoo!”
Sarah moved through each section, blasting each with increasing speed. Glass flew in every direction and the floor was littered with weapons and armor. She’d figured out the gloves. Now it was time to find a way out of the room and find her friends. The only thing she could think of was the circle in the middle. Sarah stepped onto it and it glowed. “There we go.”
Her victory was short lived as a large crack encircled her, and the floor gave way beneath her. Screaming as she fell down into the abyss, Sarah scrabbled about, feeling for anything she could grab ahold of, but there was nothing.
She stopped abruptly mid-fall, bouncing on what seemed to be a net. She couldn’t see a thing. Feeling around, she realized she was in some kind of tunnel made of wire. Moving forward, she found the tunnel split to the left and right. Debating which way to go, she noticed they vibrated, almost unnoticeably, with a consistent frequency.
Maybe I need to find whatever is making that sound.
She moved to the tunnel on the right, sensing for a frequency. Finding none, she turned left. As she continued down the tunnel, the frequency changed, urging her on. Sarah moved quickly, anxious to find her way out of the darkness. Within a few minutes, the sound waves had intensified to the point that the wires were vibrating uncontrollably and emitting a high-pitched ringing noise. The intensity frightened her.
As she was considering turning back, a large pair of glowing red eyes appeared and moved towards her. Part of her wanted to run. The other part pushed her to stay put, that perhaps this was part of the trial. She stepped back. The eyes didn’t blink but they drew nearer. She lifted her hands, preparing to fire with her gloves. The wires in the tunnel sparked, creating just enough light to see in flashes.
Twenty feet in front of Sarah stood a massive, metallic spider. Two razor sharp pincers snapped out towards Sarah from the spider’s face. Its legs were sharp blades. It let out a high-pitched cry and pounced forward.
“Maximus!” she cried, running as fast as her small legs could carry her. The tunnel shook as the spider landed, snapping its pincers inches from Sarah’s neck. She had to do something and fast. There was no Maximus here to protect her.
Praying she was using it right, Sarah spun and fired pulses from her gloves. The spider shielded its body with its pincers and the blast had no effect on it. She dashed off again, unnerved that the attack had failed. That blast should have destroyed anything.
She had an idea. She turned around and the spider surged forward. When it was close enough, it pounced. Sarah put her hands out and fired into the air. The blow launched her towards the spider. She flew under its belly and, hands extended, she fired a pulse. The spider flew up and crashed into the wires above. Its entire body began to vibrate. Then the spider let out one last cry and exploded. Sarah covered her face as metal fragments flew in every direction. When it was all over, Sarah looked around her.
The sparks had gone out, ushering back the darkness. Sarah grabbed the wires and pulled herself to her feet. As she did, she realized the wires had stopped vibrating. There was no more sound.
Next time, I should choose the quiet tunnel, she thought.
Sarah continued walking down the tunnel, hoping that she was heading in the right direction. After a few minutes, she reached another intersection, this time with three different paths. She placed her hands on the wires of each one, searching for signals. The first two were ringing, the third one was quiet. She entered the third tunnel, going as quickly as should could. Reaching the end of the tunnel, she landed at another crossroads, this one connecting eight tunnels.
Sarah walked and found the one tunnel that was not vibrating, sincerely hoping she was not lost in the tunnels forever. As her hope was waning, she found herself at yet another intersection. When she grasped the third tunnel, she was filled with cautious excitement. Something was different. It was a frequency unlike the spider tunnel, but more than the empty tunnels she’d been following. Sarah walked into the tunnel, scanning and her heart beating faster as the vibrations grew. Something lurked at the end of the tunnel, she could feel it.
She froze as the vibration screeched through the air. The wires around her began to spark.
Sarah prepared to run, but just before she could take off, she saw a bright red light at the end of the tunnel. It was a door. Red light poured out from the room on the other side.
She walked inside and the door close behind her. She turned around. The door was gone, replaced by a wall. That couldn’t be a good thing.
The room was lit by a multitude of powerful red light bulbs connected to wires running along the room’s steel floor, ceiling, and walls. Other than the lights, the room was completely empty. But the wall opposite Sarah was made of wires, just like the tunnels. As she walked across the room, she sensed the frequency which had led her to the room in the first place.
She placed her hand on the wall and the wires moved, pulling and stretching in opposite directions, opening a hole through the wall. Past the wall was a pathway made of wire, stretching over nothing but darkness.
Sarah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could do this. She had to. Cautiously, she stepped through the opening and walked over the pathway towards another wall of wires on the other side. The opening behind her closed back up.
As Sarah placed her foot onto a seemingly flat part of the platform, the floor gave in and her leg fell through. She grabbed onto the edges and, with some effort, pulled herself back up, heart racing. She sat down on the platform, trying to calm herself. A tear ran down her cheek.
She didn’t have time to dwell on her fears. She picked herself up and continued towards the wall, placing her hand against it. As before, the wires created an opening and she walked through, entering a dimly lit, circular wire-chamber. As she looked around the chamber, she recoiled in horror. Wires spun like giant spider webs throughout the vast chamber. The walls were filled with human skeletons wrapped around in wire-cocoons.
She had to leave immediately. She turned to look for a way out, but one of the cocoons caught her eye. She looked up at where it was stuck. It didn’t contain a skeleton. It was Raiden.
“Raiden!” She shouted.
“Silence, child!”
Sarah spun, startled. Behind her was another man in a cocoon. His hair was braided, long and black, and it reached almost down to the floor. On the floor beside his cocoon lay a sword.
“Keep your voice down, child, and free me!” he whispered.
“I don’t know you. I’m going to free my friend first.”
“Your friend is unconscious and twenty feet above the ground. How will you get to him?”
“I’ll climb.” And with that she grabbed onto one of the cocoons.
“And if you manage to reach him, how will you free him?” Sarah ignored the man and climbed. “Child, this is no place to be defiant. If you want to live, free me this instant!”
A noise came from the circular ceiling as the wires above her separated. The screeching noise grew unbearable. Out of the ceiling climbed a massive mechanical spider, four times the size of the one she’d seen before. Its eyes glowed red. Its pincers were long and sharp, and stained red with blood. It opened its mouth and revealed a mouth full of blades.
Sarah shrieked, jumped from the cocoon, and ran for the exit. The spider followed. She placed her hand on the wall and the wires opened.
“Child, don’t-!”
Sarah ran out of the chamber and onto the thin pathway, running as fast as she could, jumping over the hole she’d made on her way in. Miraculously, she reached the other side and pressed her hand against the wall. Just as she hopped through the wall, she heard the spider scream as the wires closed up behind her.
Sarah looked frantically around the red room for anything she could use to destroy the spider. But the room was completely empty, except for the red lightbulbs on the ceiling.
Crack!
Sarah stepped back. Something bad was happening. One of the light bulbs fell from the ceiling and crashed onto the floor, red goo oozed where it landed. Then something began crawling out of the bulb. Only they weren’t light bulbs.
They were eggs. Sarah was in the royal nest. Hundreds of newborn spiders made their ways toward Sarah. She pointed her gloves, shooting back the spiders as fast as she could, but she could only slow them down. They continued to multiply. There were too many of them.
The spiders swarmed around her from all sides. Sarah shrieked as one landed on her shoulder, digging its legs into her skin. She blasted it off with her glove and turned back towards the wire wall. She blasted a spider off the wall and pressed her hand against it before another could take its place. The wires created an opening. Sarah ran through, back onto the floating pathway. As she did, hundreds of spiders swarmed through after her, storming the pathway. They were growing at a rapid pace, almost full size now. Sarah sprinted to the other side and then turned to face the spiders.
She had an idea. She used her gloves to send forth pulse after pulse at the ground beneath the advancing spiders, and she blew a hole in the middle of the pathway. Hundreds of spiders rained down into the darkness. Sarah then turned to the entrance of the queen’s chamber. There was only one way to go now. Sarah pressed her left hand against the wall. She readied her glove with the other.
The wires separated. To her surprise, the chamber was absolutely silent. She walked in cautiously, arms raised. She looked to her right, that man was still stuck in his cocoon, his eyes were closed. Sarah tried to figure out where the spider had gone.
“Pssst.” The man was not sleeping after all.
“If you want to live, do exactly what I say, when I say it. First, walk backwards away from me, towards the opposite wall.”
She didn’t know this man, but she decided to trust him. She had no other options.
Sarah shrieked as wires shot out from the wall and wrapped themselves around her. As she looked on in confusion, the giant spider emerged from under a net, climbing the wall above the man.
“Help!”
The spider pounced down from the wall and landed on the floor, advancing quickly. She struggled, frantically trying to break free as the spider grew closer and closer. “I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die!”
“Calm yourself!” the man said. “Aim your gloves at me and fire!”
Sarah did as the man said. She struck his cocoon, shattering it to bits. He fell to the ground, picked up his sword, and with incredible speed jumped on the spider’s back, smashing his sword into the mechanical beast. The spider lifted its front legs off the ground, screaming out in protest. The man stabbed it a second time, shattering its legs to pieces before it exploded. The man swiftly dodged from the explosion as the spider’s pincers crashed to the floor.
Sarah stood stuck to the wall, her body in a state of shock.
“Calm yourself, child, the trial is won.” He approached and slashed her cocoon open with his sword. “Why has a child such as yourself ventured into the mirror?”
“I don’t speak to strangers.”
“I saved your life.”
“Actually, I saved yours. Nice try, though.”
“You are
a wise girl. My name is Peter.”
“You’re lying.”
“You can be a Surger or a Reader, but not both. Now if we are to leave this place alive, we will need to work together. So, again, what is a child like yourself doing in a place like this?”
“First get my friend down from there.”
“Very well. Is he a Surger too?”
“Not telling.”
“Stubborn little girl you are...” The man walked over to the wall, jumped easily through the air onto the first cocoon, then leaped again until he found himself on top of Raiden’s cocoon.
“I cannot carry him down with me, he is too heavy. What type of Enlai is he? I could-”
“It’s fine, I’ll stop his fall. Just drop him.”
“You will stop his fall? And how do you intend to do that?”
Sarah lifted her kaza from her neck to her lips.
“You had the kaza this entire time!? Do you know what weapon you yield? Where did you find it!?”
“It’s mine. Now drop him.” The man cut Raiden loose from his cocoon as Sarah blew into her kaza, playing a very high yet calm note, causing the air to pulse upward, cushioning Raiden’s fall. “Raiden, Raiden get up.”
“He’s in a deep sleep. The spider injected him with a powerful serum. It can sometimes last for hours.”
Sarah ignored him, continuing to shake Raiden.
“We had a deal. Your friend is down, now you speak. Where did you find the kaza?”
“Why do you need to know that to trust me?”
“I need to know because it’s mine.”
She held the kaza in her hand. “I’ve had this since I was born.”
“How did it reach your hands? When I left my village to come here, I gave it to someone who meant a lot to me. I hoped it would protect her.”
“You’re Grith, aren’t you?” A moment of silence passed between them.
“I thought you might be here.”
“What is your name, child?”
“My name is Sarah.”
The man looked closely at Sarah, as if trying to compare her to someone else.
