The Legend of the Seven Sages: The Kin of Caladen

by B. A. Scott

  “What does it say?” Kaven asked. Kade cocked her head to read the markings.

  “From the depths you shall awaken...” she began. Gabrel removed his glove as quietly as possible. “...Defenders of the realm unshaken...” Gabrel moved his hand closer to the pool. “...By quaking rock and shifting mud...” Kaven looked deeply into the eyes of the Enchantress. He hung on every word she spoke. “...Behold, the Spawn of Mirrorblood.”

  At that moment, Athiux saw Gabrel place his hand within the pool. “Gabrel, no!” he yelled. But it was too late. The instant Gabrel’s fingers touched the mirrorblood, blinding beams of light shot up from each of the eight pools.

  “Gabrel, what have you done?!” Kade yelled.

  “I don’t know!” he belted. “I just touched it!”

  The chamber trembled. Then, the nine empty pedestals began sinking into the ground.

  “What’s happening?!” Kaven yelled. When at last the tops of the pedestals were flush with the floor, a deep boom sounded, and the beams of light vanished. But the golden inscriptions around the pools they once shone above glowed white. For a moment, all was quiet. No one said a word, though everyone’s accusing eyes focused on Gabrel.

  “What?” he asked. Then, the ground trembled beneath him and he lost his balance, falling flat on his stomach. When he raised his gaze from the stone floor, Gabrel saw that he had fallen only inches away from the pool he had dipped his hand into. He watched the mirrorblood move as if being stirred from within its depths. Then, a hand rose from beneath the surface of the pool, and spread its fingers wide.

  Gabrel got to his feet as quickly as he could, realizing that what appeared to be a person was coming out of the pool. It pulled itself up from the confines of the mirrorblood, the dark blue substance dripping from its body as it rose further and further above the surface. When it finally stood before Gabrel, he could not believe his eyes.

  There before him stood his mirror image. It wore his armor, it had his face, it even held its posture like he did—only, it was entirely composed of mirrorblood, which had solidified into a finely polished state.

  “What the hell?!” Kaven yelled. From the other pools, dark, embodied reflections of he, Athiux and Kade emerged as well. “What are these things?”

  “Behold, the Spawn of Mirrorblood,” the Sage uttered under his breath. “They’re guardians of the junakothari,” he answered Kaven.

  Then, the four Mirrorspawn simultaneously opened their eyes to reveal orbs of golden light. Kade jumped back, startled, and instinctively placed her hand on her sword hilt. The Mirror Kade before her reached for its hilt as well, and unsheathed a dark blue blade.

  “They’re going to attack!” she warned the others, then met them back-to-back in the center of the chamber. Gabrel saw Athiux’s and Kade’s eyes ignite as they filled themselves with magic. The Mirror Athiux stepped forward, and the Sage sent a blast of Fury toward it. But the Mirrorspawn blocked the lightning with a shield of magic.

  “They have our talents,” Athiux said. At once, all four of the Mirrorspawn raised their blades, and brought them down upon the group. Kaven pushed his sword against his mirror’s, then kneed it in the stomach. The blue figure let out a deep, beast-like yell, then grabbed Kaven by the arm, and yanked him away from the others, tossing him with ease into the outer corridor of the junakothari.

  “Kaven!” Kade yelled, looking to where Kaven had been thrown. The brief moment of distraction was enough for her mirror to slice her hand, causing Kade to drop her sword. The Mirror Kade grasped the Enchantress’s neck, and lifted her from the ground with a single hand. Kade scratched at her mirror’s arm, and writhed against its hold as she was carried into the outer corridor.

  The blue woman pressed her against the walls of mirrorblood. Though, Kade did not feel the hardness of the wall behind her. Instead, she felt a cool liquid upon her back, for what used to be a solid wall had changed into an ocean of liquid mirrorblood that chilled her to the bone. The strange sensation was accompanied by sheer terror when she saw the once solidified bodies that had been trapped within the walls reach out to her from its depths.

  In that moment of horror, she understood why the bodies were there in the first place. They were just like her, she thought—people who sought the furenti of the chamber, and had been forced into the mirrorblood against their will, ultimately suffering the consequences that the warnings foretold.

  A slick, blue Marinean wrapped its arms around her torso from behind, and began pulling her into the wall.

  “Join ussss,” she heard one of the faces around her say, just as another hand grabbed her ankle. “Take me with you!” a different face begged her. “I don’t belong here!” Kade filled herself with magic, and blasted her mirror in the chest with Fury. It smashed into the pillar behind it, which shattered to pieces upon the collision, causing the chamber to shudder. Kade then tried to step out from the wall, but was terrified to discover that she could not escape the grasp of those who bound her.

  “Somebody help me! Please!” she yelled, just as mirrorblood oozed over her stomach and neck.

  Athiux stepped back from his likeness, and filled himself with magic. With a swipe of his hand, he levitated the mirrorspawn, and bashed it against a stalactite on the ceiling. The body fell to the ground with a loud crack of stone tile. Then, the Sage sped toward his granddaughter. He entered the outer corridor ready to tear her from the wall.

  “Behind you!” Kade yelled as Athiux reached out for her. The Sage turned to send an icy blast of Suspension at his foe, but discovered upon doing so, that his mirror was delivering the exact same attack. In an instant, both Athiux and his enemy were frozen in their tracks, covered head to toe in prisons of ice.

  “Grandfather!” Kade screamed as she was pulled deeper into the wall. The mirrorblood began to creep up past her ears.

  Kaven rolled under what would have been a fatal strike by his opponent. Then, he spun and sliced off his mirrorspawn’s head, which struck the floor like a heavy, polished rock. Immediately, he dashed toward Kade. As he did, he noticed that another body was surfacing from one of the pools of mirrorblood. It looked like the Enchantress, he thought. And in a different pool—the one that his own likeness had emerged from—he saw a gloved hand, identical to his own, break free of the blue liquid, and grasp the side of the hole.

  “More?!” he asked the chamber.

  Gabrel caught his mirror’s blade-hand before it could deliver a deadly blow, then pulled his likeness toward the outer corridor. He swung the mirrorspawn around by its arm, and slammed it into the wall of thrashing bodies. To his surprise, when it struck the wall, it was absorbed into it as effortlessly as the joining of water droplets.

  “What the hell?” Gabrel asked. “Did I kill it?” But only a moment later, his mirror leapt out of another portion of the wall, a few paces away from where it had entered. “Well, shit,” Gabrel said. The mirrorspawn twirled its blade, and made straight for him.

  “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Kaven said, then reached into the wall to pull the Enchantress from it. It was like trying to tear a full-grown tree from the ground, he thought. Hands and arms from the poor souls trapped in the wall tried to hold Kade within it, but Kaven ripped her free of their grasps. They both fell to the ground, covered in mirrorblood. Kade landed on top of Kaven, who still held her around the waist.

  “Remember this,” he told her. She nodded, her head close to his. Then, a beast-like yell attracted both of their attentions to the reborn Mirror Kade, who was already delivering a fatal attack. Kaven and Kade rolled away from the blow and separated.

  The Enchantress stood, and stretched her arm toward her fallen blade, summoning it to her. Its hilt scraped across the stone tile, then raced through the air, and found her palm.

  Kaven started toward Kade, but was kicked hard in the gut by his own reborn likeness.

  “Why won’t you die?!” Gabrel yelled as he swung his blade at his mirror. But the Mirror Gabrel caught the sword in it
s hand, then snapped the blade in half, and tossed the end of it aside. Gabrel dodged stroke after stroke of his mirror’s blade. It advanced on him, causing him to jump backwards every time it swung its sword. Eventually, his foe pushed him back into the outer corridor so far, that he could not take another step, or he would be forced against the wall. But it did not attack. Instead, its eyes focused intently on something just above Gabrel’s head.

  Gabrel followed the path of the mirrorspawn’s gaze. He noticed that he was standing directly in front of the large silver mirror that rested in the indention in the outer wall. Though, there was something different about it than he remembered. Its glass was no longer solid. Just as the walls of hardened blue mirrorblood had turned to thick liquid, so had the massive mirror.

  “Pure Mirrorblood,” Gabrel said his thoughts out loud. “Do you fear this?” he asked his likeness. If the mirrorspawn truly feared the magical substance, it might be the key to their defeat, he rationed. “Bring them here!” he shouted for the others to hear.

  “What?!” Kaven asked, blocking vicious attacks from his own foe.

  “Bring them to the mirror!” Gabrel called out as he saw his own likeness bring both hands to its sword hilt, and raise the blade high behind its head. It’s going to throw its sword, Gabrel thought.

  “Why?” Kaven asked.

  “Just do it, Kaven!” Gabrel yelled.

  “Easier said than done!” Kaven muttered.

  As the Mirror Gabrel hurled its sword, Gabrel filled himself with magic, and reached out toward the blade. The sword instantly stopped its advance, and remained frozen in the air, hovering just inches from Gabrel’s outstretched hand. He paused, astonished that the defensive action had come to him instinctively, then concentrated on moving the hilt of the floating sword to his hand. As soon as the thought came to him, the weapon did as it was instructed.

  Gabrel took it for his own, then watched with surprise as his mirror dashed into the outer corridor, and dove head-first into the wall of tangled bodies, disappearing in an instant. Gabrel searched the blue walls behind him for any sign of his mirror, expecting his likeness to reappear at any moment.

  “I know you’re there,” he whispered to the walls of the corridor.

  Athiux’s eyes, still wide and glowing in the melting ice, suddenly twitched. Then, the Sage blasted away the icy shell that bound him, as did his mirror only a moment after. Shards of ice flew in every direction as Athiux conjured a shield of magic around himself, blocking a blast of Fury from the palm of his mirrorspawn.

  Athiux filled his blade with the power of Fury. Jagged tangles of lightning ignited from the pommel, all the way to the tip of the blade. Athiux’s mirror filled its sword with Suspension, causing millions of particles of ice-blue light to revolve around its darkened blade. The Sage swung his sword horizontally, and a crescent of electricity spread toward the mirrorspawn. But his likeness hacked his sword in a downward chop, sending a crescent of ice toward the Sage. The conjurings collided with a loud bang, and disappeared into the air. Athiux and his mirror began a battle of speed, each trying to send magic from their weapons faster than the other could counteract.

  Kaven and Kade dashed to the grand mirror, leading their foes behind them. Their mirrors chased them through the chamber, completely unaffected by the battling magic between Athiux and his foe. Kade observed Kaven’s decapitated mirror upon the floor.

  “They suffer death, and are reborn,” she said.

  “Do we fight them till we die?” Kaven asked. Both his and Kade’s attackers stopped only a few paces from them, their gazes fixed on the outer wall’s massive mirror. Kaven searched the chamber for his brother, and finally spotted him perusing the outer wall.

  “Gabrel!” Kaven shouted. “What now?”

  Turning his back to the wall of mirrorblood, Gabrel faced his brother, and spoke, “They fear the mirror!” But the instant his back was turned, a pair of glowing eyes opened from within the wall behind him. Gabrel’s mirror emerged from between the writhing bodies, reached out to grab Gabrel around his neck, then yanked him violently backward.

  Gabrel gasped in surprise, and dropped his sword as his mirror pulled him into the outer wall. He strained and squirmed against its grasp, trying desperately to break free, while cool, blue mirrorblood consumed his body.

  “Gabrel!” Kaven yelled as he raced toward his brother, leaving Kade’s side. But his mirror managed to dart into the outer corridor, cutting off his advance.

  “You cannot save him,” the mirrorspawn spoke in a guttural voice.

  Gabrel’s vision darkened as he grabbed for his belt knife, then sliced at the arm that squeezed around his neck. His mirror roared and released its hold. Gabrel lunged forward, and fell to the ground, coughing, catching his breath as best he could. He looked just in time to see his likeness disappearing into the wall of mirrorblood once more.

  “Oh no you don’t!” Gabrel told it as he grabbed one of its arms, and pulled hard, tearing the mirrorspawn free of the wall. Its back slammed against one of the columns. When it recovered, it gave Gabrel a hideous scowl, then charged him. The collision brought both Gabrel and the mirrorspawn to the ground. They rolled across the floor of the chamber, each delivering brutal punches, amidst attempts at strangling one another.

  “They fear the mirror,” Kade repeated Gabrel’s words. Blue mirrorblood still dripped from her skin. She studied the substance on her forearm, then turned toward the giant mirror, and dipped her hand into the silvery liquid. It rippled around her as she reached in up to her elbow. When she retracted her arm, everywhere the pure, silver mirrorblood had touched her, there was smooth, clean skin. “Now that’s interesting,” she said. The most obvious course of action to Kade was to get the mirrorspawn to enter the mirror. But how could she do that? Especially when her enemy would not take a step closer to it.

  Kade looked to her dark blue likeness.

  “You cannot change your heart,” it told her. Kade blinked in surprise, then looked behind her foe, where she saw scattered piles of stone from the ruined, crumbled columns, and great chunks of rock that had fallen from the ceiling. In that moment, an idea came to her. She dropped her sword, rendering her completely vulnerable to any attack her enemy might bring. The Mirror Kade cocked its head, then sneered, wondering why the Enchantress chose to lower her defenses.

  The instant it advanced on her, Kade levitated one of the large stones, and smashed it into the back of her mirrorspawn’s head. The Mirror Kade stumbled forward, into the Enchantress. Kade instantly spun her around, and grasped her throat. For the first time, the Mirror Kade had an expression of fear across its face.

  “Your turn!” said Kade, then she pushed her likeness into the mirror. She felt her foe struggling from beneath the pure mirrorblood, which heaved and splashed like a thick ocean of molten metal. Silvery hands stretched out from within the mirror, grabbing at her, but despite the thrashing, Kade managed to keep her hold.

  She saw her own reflection in the mirror grow calmer as her likeness drowned beneath its surface. Soon, the Enchantress felt her foe’s neck growing thinner and thinner in her grasp, until finally, there was nothing left for her to hold.

  “I did it,” she realized. “Send them through the mirror!” she yelled to the others.

  Upon hearing his granddaughter’s instruction, Athiux’s face filled with determination. He sent a raging blast of Fury, not at his likeness’s body, but at its feet. It utterly destroyed the stone tile, and sent explosions of rock and dirt into the air, which knocked the mirrorspawn off balance. Athiux summoned the power of Gale, and sent a mighty blast of wind at his mirror. Its body slammed into the giant mirror with a force that shook the entire chamber.

  The Sage released the magic within him, and stepped toward his adversary, watching as the mirrorspawn tried to claw its way out of the silver liquid, yet inevitably sank into the mirrorblood like it was quicksand. In its final moments, the Mirror Athiux calmed its struggle, accepted death, looked to the Sag
e, and spoke, “You cannot stop it.”

  Kaven knew he couldn’t levitate his mirror into the air as the Sage had done. And the only thing he seemed to have accomplished with all his sword fighting was the tiring of his own muscles. There was only one course of action left, he realized. I’m going to have to carry the bloody thing in myself, he decided.

  With a heavy swing of his blade, Kaven knocked his mirror’s sword out of its hand, then tossed his own blade aside, and lunged at his likeness, catching its stomach upon his shoulder. With all his strength, he heaved the heavy blue body off its feet, and dashed toward the grand mirror.

  His likeness squirmed, and Kaven had great difficulty maintaining control of the body upon his shoulder. Just as Kaven stepped into the outer corridor, only paces away from the giant mirror, his likeness buried its belt knife into his lower back. Kaven fell to his knees, screaming in pain as the mirrorspawn rolled free of his grasp.

  “Kaven!” Kade yelled, then leapt to his side, and swung her sword fiercely at the mirrorspawn. “Damn you!” she yelled as every swipe proved just as ineffective as the last, passing harmlessly through the deep blue body.

  Kaven placed a flat foot on the floor, and tried to stand, though he found the ability to control his muscles was far more difficult than it had ever been. His vision blurred, and he felt life draining from him with every passing moment. Amidst Kade’s attacks, the Mirror Kaven grasped the knife hilt that was sticking out of Kaven’s lower back, then twisted it violently. Kaven roared against the gut-wrenching pain that tortured every nerve in his body, and consumed every thought in his mind.

  Gabrel rolled along the stone floor, battling his own foe as Kaven’s shrieks filled his ears. His mirror forced him onto his back, punching him in the face repeatedly. Every strike felt like a boulder crashing into his jaw. Soon, Gabrel found himself incapable of blocking the mirrorspawn’s punches, and succumbed to the unrelenting bashing of his foe.

  Kaven’s mirror put a boot to Kaven’s back, and removed the blade from his body with a mighty yank. Kaven jerked forward, fell to the floor and coughed up blood.