It had gotten so dark that the group had to rely heavily on using their hands and ears to sense anything at all. Most of which were the echoes of their feet scraping against the stone floors of the halls.
Fenris ran his hand along a wall for bearing, then touched something, “Ungh…it’s…slimy…,”
“We don’t have time for this….,” Pharda said impatiently, “We have to find the Shard of Light.”
“Pharda—how are we supposed to follow you if even you can’t see where you’re going…?” Andomiel said.
“Ah, ‘the blind leading the blind,’ but then…why speak ill of the blind when they have so many other greater qualities?” Strife said stoically, then running his hand on a nearby wall.
“Pharda…,” Strife said, “Follow my voice, put your hand on this wall…what do you feel?”
After carefully stepping towards Strife’s voice, he had stumbled enough by that point to watch where he stepped, Pharda placed his hand on the wall and felt along it.
“I feel….glyphs?”
“Yes, anything familiar about how they feel?”
“One is…cold, like ice, and the other is…ow! Hot! And I feel others, one’s wet, still another’s like soft dirt, and here’s…URK! Electricity!? And…this last one feels like a wind current is blowing through it……oh….,”
“What’s going on, Pharda?” Urd asked. “Are you okay?’
“Yeah, fine, just a little jolted.”
“They are the elements...…feel a little further…,”
“This one…I…feel…cold…not like the stone…but a sense of cold fear…,”
“Be careful, Pharda,” Fenris said.
“And this last one…,” as soon as Pharda touched the last glyph a door opened near them and a hall of light flooded the room.
“Ahhhnn!!” Pharda yelled, the group had to shield their eyes at the bright light in the room.
“…Let there be... Light.”
“….What…is this place…?” Andomiel asked in wonder.
A young girl appeared in her late-teens in an elegant crystal-white dress and golden crown curtsied and kindly smiled at the group.
“Welcome, dear sirs, and ladies, to the Secret Holy Place of Alexandria…,”
“Who…is that young woman….?” Pharda asked nearly overwhelmed by her beauty.
“She is the Heir to the Throne of Alexandria, Queen Garnet ‘til Alexandros the 29th. Her diplomatic power is every bit the equal to her wit and her beauty…....Your Highness…,” Strife neatly bowed, and gestured that they do the same.
Pharda got down on one knee, and bowed more like a knight, than a samurai, and said, “It is truly to my honor, that I should encounter such…the very treasure of Alexandria.”
“Your words…they flatter me, Samurai…let us hope I am able to live up to this…,”
“You humble yourself to us, my lady?” Andomiel said not quite sure what she meant, “I think it unseemly that your Highness do such.”
“Nonsense…not when I speak to such as the heroes of Gaia…, Sir Strife? I had not known you to be among these elite ranks…,”
“Your Highness…you truly speak well of me…I am merely their teacher,…nothing more…,”
“I only speak the truth and--!!!” The queen stopped mid-sentence when she saw Urd, “I….,”
“What is it? What’s the matter your Highness?” Pharda asked, “What troubles you…,”
“I never thought…to see…myself?”
“What?” Pharda turned around to look at his friends, then he saw Urd…who was shyly holding her arm, and looking down rather timidly.
“Urd…? You…look….just like the queen?”
“mmm….mmhhmmm….,” she cleared her throat, then said, “Neither did I.”
“How can this be?” the Queen asked. “How can you look like me…?”
“I…I don’t know….,” Urd said, a slight quiver in her voice, “I don’t know…,”
The young queen grasped her dress and ascended the steps, and quickly grasped Urd’s shoulders, shaking her out of her mystification.
“You…are a sign, a symbol…,”
“How can you say that?!” Urd said, half in tears, then spun around so no one could see her face, “I’m just a common…th-thief!”
The queen looked down oddly at her mirror image and said, “Whatever this means…it means I still get to travel with you…after all these years…,”
“…What…?” Urd said turning back.
“It was told in the old books that one of the Zodiac Braves was a Thief by nature…but it also says that this thief fell in love with the great Queen of Alexandria. And that she too was also a brave, who would fight alongside her fellow braves. I have longed greatly for a chance to fight alongside you heroes…but as of late, my duties as queen forbade me…until now…,”
“Now…?”
“Now my dear sister will take my place…you will fulfill my dream for me…as a Zodiac Brave…,”
“How can you say I’m your sister, I’ve never known royalty…”
“You bear the visage and heart of Alexandria upon you…that is how I can say you are my sister…,”
Then, the queen abruptly took a signet ring embroidered with a fiery red Garnet stone, and slipped it on Urd’s finger.
“I…?”
“So you shall remember where your home….truly is….but onto more important things…,”
The queen seemed to straighten herself and went back up the stairs, and her whole countenance seemed to take on a more serious tone.
“Braves…I give you a test here…in this holiest of places in Alexandria. A test of honor, of chivalry, of courage. You are to ascend these steps and glance into the Mirror of Truth, each of you, and face who you truly are without fear.”
“This is the test to get the Shard of light, correct?” Pharda asked.
“Yes…but many have failed it, and gone insane as consequence, seeing what they fear most….themselves.”
“…I’ll go first…,” Andomiel said.
“Godspeed, Paladin.” The queen said.
As Andomiel marched up to the steps of the light-filled hall, he noted the peacefulness of the place, and the quiet. But it was the quiet that somewhat disturbed him. Too quiet. As he marched down the lit hall to the center room, he could see the mirror, covered in a sort of curtain for purposes unknown.
“I must look and not be afraid of what I see…,”
As he stepped on the altar, he felt the hairs on his back begin to rise, a sense of someone in the room besides himself, but purposefully neglected that sensation, for he knew it could only be the mirror.
Pulling back the curtain, he saw a Black Knight laden with a massive black sword, and ghastly armor, the likes of which would make out for a slaughter. The knight’s blade was dripping with putrid slime and blood from countless battles. Then he saw the eyes under the armor. The innocent blue eyes he once knew to be his own were now wearied and bloodshot, but not just that, a look of madness filled them, like he was blinded by some evil force.
“…I fear you not!!!”
A strange voice croaked in response, "You may not...but your allies will fear me!"
And just as he viewed the visage of evil, it was gone. He then walked back with a perplexed look on his face.
“You have returned whole, Paladin, that is good to see…,” the queen greeted.
“…To tell you the truth…I saw something that didn’t make me fear for myself…but for my friends…,”
“What do you mean…?” Pharda asked.
“…I…don’t even think I know…forget it…it was something that was in me trying to scare me, that’s all…,”
“Hmm…..”
“I guess I’ll go next,” Pharda said.
His stride was quick and easy, knowing Andomiel could beat the mirror was enough for him.
“I’ll just hurry up and get this over with so we can get the shard…,”
He uncovered the mirror, and gasped in shock to find….a reflection of himself?
“Huh? What is this! It’s just a regular mirror!!”
He spun and marched back.
“Well, you seem well…” the queen commented.
“You sure that ‘Mirror of Truth’ thing really works, Queen, cause all I saw was my own reflection…,”
“Yes…I don’t see why not…? The only explanation I can give, is that you have a pure heart…,”
“A pure heart?”
“You are honest in everything that happens, and you hide nothing, nor have nothing to hide.”
