by J. Stone
That wasn’t even the only severed body part in the vault. The skull of a mighty demon had been stored there as well, as it too continued to show the presence of magical energy long after the creature’s death. The skull was placed inside a large wooden box and sealed with arcane rituals.
Among the most peculiar items stored within the castle’s magical archive was a pouch of dust. Everyone that had ever investigated it said there was enormous potential there, but despite great efforts, no one had determined what it could do. People had swallowed it, poured it into open wounds, used it in alchemical concoctions, and tried channeling spells through it, but nothing had ever come of it. To that day, no one understood it, but it was kept hidden in the vaults to prevent anyone from ever finding out its true potential.
Somehow, Sythys had acquired a golem during his time hoarding valuable items. No one knew how to operate the giant thing, so the rock construct had remained stored within the castle archive for as long as the room existed. To protect the other items, a rumor was spread that the golem watched over the vault, but in truth, it wouldn’t have lifted a finger to stop intruders.
The snake also had kept a large horn fashioned from some great beast that was too big for a normal sized human to feasibly use. The expectation was that Sythys had never used it either, but when Cyrus and his people found the horn in the serpent’s things, they worked together to hold up the horn, so they could blow through its hollow body. What followed was the worst thunderstorm in recorded history. They didn’t attempt to blow the horn again.
One of the most interesting items Ruby had seen in the vaults was a lantern that was said to expose all magical illusions for their truth. If someone had cast an invisibility spell, the radiance of the lantern would shine through it. Occasionally, her father had put the magical lantern to use, testing the truthfulness of various diplomats’ intentions. It had on two separate occasions saved him from an attempt at subterfuge from other nations.
Though her father had allowed the princess to see many of the things held within, there was always one that he kept from her. It was a mirror that was of immense power, and he had kept it covered by a sheet at all times. Given his absence and her lack of restraint, Ruby decided to finally peek under the cloth and see what the mirror’s power was. The princess approached the hidden mirror and grabbed the dark sheet, pulling it back and throwing it behind her.
The cloth had not just covered a simple mirror, as it turned out. The artifact was a folding double mirror that was angled in such a way that one person could stand in front and see both reflections staring back at them. Each mirror had an intricately crafted trim in the form of a long-bodied dragon that was biting its own tail as it looped back around the other side. One dragon was black, while the other was white.
“What is it?” Scarlett asked.
“I have always wanted to know the answer to that,” Ruby replied, stepping forward and seeing the pair of reflections in each mirror.
The counterparts looking back at her were not what she would have expected. In the black dragon mirror, Ruby saw herself, but in the white dragon’s reflection, she saw her sister, Leina. Her own image was covered in both her poison and someone’s blood, her skin was paler than she had ever seen it, and the red glint in her eye was stronger. Leina, on the other hand, looked as she did when the dream had briefly shown her free of corruption - clean, pleasant, and healthy. Both wore the same crown on their heads, depicting them as the queen of Lavidia. Her sister’s was clean, while the one on her reflected brow was covered in the same dried poison that was splattered all over her.
Scarlett stepped up behind Ruby and saw herself reflected only in the black mirror. Leina remained the only person in the glass of the white dragon mirror. The horned demon in the black reflection wrapped her arms around Ruby, eyeing the original pair of women curiously and wearing a sly grin.
“I repeat my question,” Scarlett said. “What is it?”
The princess looked from one mirror to the other and came to the realization. “Possible futures…”
“A scrying… mirror?” the horned demon asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Apparently.” Her eyes continued to bounce back and forth, not truly believing what she saw.
Scarlett pointed to the white mirror, where neither of them reflected back. “Why aren’t we in that one?”
“Maybe… we die?”
“Hmph. Then I say we go with that one.” She pointed back to the black dragon mirror.
“I agree with Scarlett,” the Ruby in the black mirror said.
The image of Leina looked out of her own mirror to the one with Ruby and the horned demon. “The decision isn’t yours!”
“You… can talk?” the princess asked.
“Yes, sister,” Leina said.
“Right. Why is that?”
“You guessed correctly,” her sister answered. “This mirror shows you possible futures. It allows you to look beyond your choices and see the consequences of those decisions.”
“Okay… then what choice are you supposed to represent?”
“Whether you keep the poison inside you or not,” her reflection answered.
“What do you mean? How am I supposed to get rid of it?”
“The Oracle told you about redemption,” Leina said. “This is it. The strange powder kept confined in this room was created long ago for a single purpose. You.”
“Me?”
“It can cure the poison from your system, returning you to the woman you used to be.”
“We,” the duplicate Ruby continued, “are the consequences of that choice.”
“So you’re supposed to help me decide?” the princess asked the reflections.
“That’s the idea, my princess,” the Scarlett in the mirror replied. “I hope you pick us.”
“I can just… ask you questions then?”
“Yes,” Leina answered. “And we will attempt to persuade you to pick what each of us believes to be the correct path.”
“Easy enough.” Ruby looked back and forth between the dragon mirrors before finally settling on Leina’s. “Let’s start with the obvious. Why aren’t Scarlett and I in your reflection?”
“Excellent question,” the reflected Ruby mocked her sister.
Leina’s glance shot over to the alternate mirror and then back to the real princess. “I’m sorry to say that you died.”
“How?”
“You sacrificed yourself to ensure I survived.”
“But you did die,” the mirror Ruby reminded her.
Leina tried to ignore the comment. “You were brave and honorable. You did what was best for someone you love, and no one can ever take that from you.”
“And since I died, Scarlett died too?”
“Yes,” her sister replied.
The horned demon’s hand gripped around Ruby’s shoulder unintentionally. She was not eager to return to the nether realm. “You don’t need fixing,” she reminded her master. “You don’t need that dust. You’re perfect the way you are. Nothing has changed since that insolent little wood spirit tried to cleanse you of your power.”
Ruby thought about it, trying to remove emotion from the equation. “But we corrupted the whole forest after that. Maybe there is something wrong with me.”
“You’re strong. You’re free. If you get rid of the poison, all that will change.”
The princess thought about it but came to no quick conclusion. She looked up to the black mirror to pose them a question. “If I’m absent from the cleansed future, where is my sister in yours?”
Her reflection’s red eyes met her own. “Leina didn’t make it.”
“What happened?”
“Yes,” Leina agreed. “Tell her what you did.”
The mirror Ruby gave her reflected sister a hateful glance and then looked back to the princess. “I killed her.”
“You killed her? Why would you ever do that?”
Her reflection thought for a moment. “She… was wea
k. The kingdom was better off without her. Besides, after everything she did, it was what she deserved.”
The answer was harsh, but Ruby admitted to herself that she had experienced those very same thoughts as well. Hearing the words spoken through her own mouth, though, was painful. “So, you’re saying that no matter what… either I die or my sister dies?”
“Yes,” both reflections replied in unison.
“What about the craggy hand demon? What happens to him?”
The black mirror Ruby was the first to answer. She smiled widely as she did. “You break nearly every bone in his body. You make him bleed. You poison his body. You take your time, and you enjoy every minute.”
“And in yours?” she asked Leina.
“He is dead as well,” she replied. “Though admittedly, it was a much more difficult task in my world. You weakened him, separated my connection to him, but he killed you. I was the one that killed him in my world after seeing what he did to you.”
“At least there’s that,” Ruby said. “He dies either way.”
“His death means nothing if you’re not there to enjoy it,” Scarlett whispered into her ear. “It has to be by your hand.”
Ruby looked between the two mirrors. “Are these futures determined? Is there no way to change them?”
“This is it,” her reflection answered. “You can’t fight fate.”
Ruby looked to her sister in the white mirror. “But I could save you and keep the poison. If I know what happens, I can change it.”
“You must choose,” Leina replied. “You have to decide what is important to you.”
“Your sister there,” the black mirror Ruby began, “wants to trick you into choosing her. I, on the other hand, don’t need to show you or tell you anything. You’ve already made your decision. I am everything you want to be - a powerful and free queen of Lavidia… not to mention, alive.”
“But you’ll be soulless if you keep the poison,” Leina interjected. She pointed across to the black mirror. “There is a block of ice where her heart should be. Is that who you want to be? This is your chance for redemption. This is your opportunity to set right all the ill that both you and I have done in the past decade. Please, sister, you must do the right thing.”
With that, the two reflections disappeared and all that remained was the actual images of Ruby and Scarlett looking back at them.
The princess was confronted with the same question she felt she’d been asked since the day she was poisoned.
Do I do what is right, or do I do what I want?
Chapter 39. What is Right
The darkness was making it hard for her to think. Her every angry impulse, avarice desire, or lustful thought was pounding at the inside of her head. The greed for such power refused to let go of her. That was how she knew she had to rid herself of the toxin. Ruby stepped away from the folding mirror and retrieved the bag of dust from the shelf it rested on.
Scarlett rushed toward her princess, seeing what she intended. “Ruby, no.”
“I have to be rid of this,” Ruby replied, clenching the soft leather bag in her fist.
“But we’ll die.” The horned demon pointed back to the mirror. “You’ve seen this for yourself.”
The princess shook her head and gave a glare toward the mirror. “I refuse to believe there isn’t a way to save my sister and myself.”
“And if there’s not?”
Ruby’s eyes drifted to the floor. “Then at least, I’ll have saved my sister.”
Scarlett reached out and grabbed her princess’ hand. “I don’t want to die. I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to be alone again.”
Ruby looked up and into her demon’s eyes. “No matter what happens, Scarlett, you’ll never be alone again. We’re bonded. In life, and in death.”
That was little comfort to the demon, but it would have to do. She could clearly see the resolve on her princess’ face. Scarlett released her grip on Ruby’s hand, allowing her to continue with what she was doing.
The princess nodded thankfully at her horned demon and then tugged at the slender rope strings of the leather pouch. Peering beyond the stitched together lining, Ruby saw particles of what looked like sand. These, however, were a strange pink color that sparkled as the candlelight reflected off them.
“What do you think I do with them?” she asked her demon companion.
Scarlett shrugged. Even if she had known, she wasn’t sure she would have answered.
Ruby poked a finger into the pink sands, swirling and pushing it around the pouch. She felt no different upon touching it, but as she retrieved the finger from the sack, some of the dust and sand stuck to her skin. She took a heavy breath and then stuck the tip of her finger into her mouth, licking the sandy particles off and swallowing them down toward that poisonous lever in her chest.
Scarlett winced at the sight of this act, as though she were in great pain. “Are you okay?”
The princess still felt nothing from the pouch of dust. She lifted the remaining powder to her lips and dumped the entire contents into her mouth. The sand was thick, and it was almost like swallowing a handful of sugar. Her eyes watered, as she forced the remainder of the grainy substance down her throat. Ruby was not willing to take any chances with the cure, so she took it all inside herself. As the little particles of magical sand and dust fell through her body, she followed their progress to where the poisonous lever was contained inside her. The pink grains began to swirl around the heart of the venomous infection, tearing at her from the inside. Dropping the empty leather pouch to the ground, the princess fell to her knees and grabbed her chest in a futile attempt to quell the pain.
Following her down to the floor, Scarlett asked with wide, fearful eyes, “Ruby?”
As the grains choked the poison and in turn, the princess herself, she clenched her eyes shut and reached out to find her demon’s hand. She clamped her fingers down on Scarlett’s hand, hoping to numb her own pain by some small amount, but there was nothing she could do to keep from feeling the infection being cleansed. Similar to when she forced a maelstrom of poison to manifest around her, the venom and toxins began to ooze out of her various orifices. As though she were being cleansed after a long sickness, the poison was purged from her body by whatever means it could take. She sweat the toxins out her skin, cried them from her eyes, and spat them from her mouth. Shuddering, Ruby felt the last of the noxious substance leave her body and splash to the floor in a purple pool of congealed muck under her knees.
Opening her eyes, she saw everything that she had done since being poisoned. It came back to her in a sudden rush of images. The darkness inside her had blocked her from feeling the full weight of her decisions, but now that she was cleansed of that, she felt all the guilt and regret that she once should have. The emotions of her choices had gone unfelt for far too long.
Looking down in her mind’s eye, she saw a man’s face. He wore an agonized expression, as venom pooled into his mouth, flooding his eyes and nose as well. The face belonged to the first man that she had killed - the guard that tried to assassinate her when the poison had failed. She saw the fear and pain in his eyes, but she hadn’t cared. The darkness inside her had forced her to kill and to even enjoy the act. Two more men died on her way toward her sister, back before she knew that Leina had been responsible for the assassination attempt itself. Ruby didn’t get as good of a look at them, as she filled the hall with her poisonous toxins in an instinctive act. Another died in the throne room, as the anger of seeing her father’s death drove her toward the craggy hand demon. In a flash, she saw four men die by her own hands. Clean, clear tears began to stream down her face, as she recounted her experiences.
Then, she saw the Abyss and the poisonous imps she created with her yet misunderstood powers. She tossed them aside like they were nothing, down into the depths of the cave, using them to help find her way toward a treasure that never existed in the first place. The princess remembered the enormous serpent that had
dwelled within that place and how she had generated a ball of poison in his gut. More than a decade had been lost to the blissroot that grew in those caverns, but it had all felt like a few minutes to her. Now, though, Ruby felt every agonizing second wasted away in those tunnels, sucking at the spicy venomous juice of the white fruit and caring for nothing but her next toxic meal.
It was only with the help of Scarlett, the demon she had bonded herself with, that Ruby was finally able to escape the addiction of the blissroot, eventually making her way to Gloomport. There, the princess ripped off a rapist’s manhood, saving the young woman, Clare, from his assault but damning her and her father to further attacks. Even now, she wasn’t certain that they had survived her poisonous explosion in the dark city when Wesley and his Underlaw attacked the tailor’s shop and home. Ruby slaughtered them all like she had been killing all throughout her life. Their deaths meant nothing to her; it had all come so easy. Now though, the princess hated herself for what she had done. She couldn’t imagine having taken so many lives with so little effect. By any account, she was a mass murderer from that day alone, and she didn’t even know if she’d saved the young woman and her father. During that fight, nothing but satisfying her own hate and rage had mattered.
After that, she recalled herself being a torturer. Whether Wesley had deserved to have his mind taken over by her toxic power was a moot point to her cleansed self. She had played with him, made him feel terrible things, and cared nothing for his ultimate fate. The whole crew of the Black Wave and even Sniggle had perished to the strange beast of the sea all to give Ruby and Scarlett time to escape its grasp. Though that sacrifice had succeeded, it made her feel no better about it. The death, pain, and poison was all too much. Leaning forward, the princess retched up on the floor of the archive room, barely missing her demon companion.
Her purge, however, did not stop the flood - the onslaught - of dark memories and acts. The terrible choices she had made continued in her head. Lorelai, the strange half woman-half spider, was her next victim. Ruby gorged herself on the spider venom, empowering herself but fueling her rage as well. The princess slashed the blade across the woman’s neck, decapitating her and killing her instantly, but that hadn’t been enough. She further mutilated the spider corpse to get at the venom sack stored within. Ruby drank until there was nothing left inside the fleshy bag of poison. Again, the princess had cared nothing for the creature she maimed, but seeing the images without the poison inside her forced her to experience that anguish for the first time. She never had seen herself capable of such destruction and murder, but there lay the proof, flashing before her eyes, forcing tears to flood out from them.
