In the Beginning
Part 7
I
can't believe I'm about to scale a castle wall, I thought, catching the
rope Target tossed to me.
"How
did I get roped into this?" I sighed aloud. Target, standing on the edge
of the wall, raised an eyebrow as if to say, "do you really want an
answer to that?" and I added, "Don't answer that." He nodded and
began pulling as I scaled upward.
"Ya
realize..." began Target, grunting as I reached the edge of the wall,
"...that walkin' in the front door's what she'd expect."
"So
why's Robin standing in front of the place lambasting the castle guard?" I
asked.
"Diversionary
tactics," Target frowned. "Cor, 'ave you got a lot ta learn about
breakin' inta a castle."
"Apparently,
I've got a while to do it in," I said wryly. I laid on the floor as I made
it over the edge, breathless with the unusual effort. "Jee-zus, I'm outta
shape."
"Scaling
castle walls takes practice," came the reply.
"Oh,
you do this a lot, do you?"
"Only
when I lose me key."
I
laughed aloud at the response. "Well, now what do we do?"
"Well,
we swing over tuh the window ya passed on the way up..."
"What?!
Like hell we are!" I snapped. Target laughed and thumbed over his
shoulder. I looked around him and saw the side of the turret nearest us.
"So?" I said.
"We're
going in that way," said Target evenly.
"Yeah,
we are," I said sarcastically, as we walked to the tower wall. "Right
through the wall."
"Looks
that way, don't it?" he said. He stopped at the wall, then turned to look
at me...and walked straight through the wall. I stood agape for a moment, then
shrugged and followed him. I found myself standing at the top of a set of
stairs that spiralled down through the large turret. The illusory wall was
still behind me, looking as solid as ever. "Oh," I said, as Target
grinned at me. "Well, that's okay, then."
I
began to walk down the steps. Target held me back with a deep sigh, then
stepped through the wall again. He returned momentarily with a relatively large
catapult rock and rolled it down the stairwell. I jumped as a metallic thud and
other sounds of traps being sprung reached my ears.
"Try
to think before yeh walk, awright?" said Target. "I don't know
how things are where you're from, but nothing is ever that easy around
'ere."
"Uh,
right," I said, looking sheepish. This time, I proceeded more cautiously
down the stairs, picking my way, through the spikes and fallen poison darts
along the way.
We
had nearly reached the bottom when we saw the rock sitting on the steps about 7
or 8 steps from the bottom.
"Didn't
go all the way down," said Target, stopping to look ahead.
"Yeah,
but we only got a little ways to go," I said, going around him. There's
not much you could..." As I spoke, a small click sounded above me and
Target sprang into action.
"Move!!!"
he yelled, shoving me forward. I ended up sprawled on the floor at the bottom of
the steps, just as a metal door slid down over the entrance, cutting me off
from Target.
I
leapt up and pounded on the door. "Target! Target! Are you
okay?"
"Yeh,"
came the muffled reply. "But I don't think I'll be joinin' ya anytime
soon. The spring mechanism's hidden around in here and I gotta find it to move
this door. Go on and find Christine and I'll have the door up by the time yeh
get back."
"What,
like, alone?" I asked, suddenly extremely worried.
"Yeh've
got magic with yeh," said he. "Jest don't do anything stupid."
"Thanks,"
I grumbled. "Like I planned on it." I turned away from the door. This
is definitely not turning out as planned, I thought, but what choice do
I have?
It
didn't take me long before I entered a huge hall near the back of the castle. I
was up on a balcony overlooking what seemed to be a royal receiving room.
Beautiful crystal statues and marble busts lined the white marble room like a
museum exhibit, while thick pillars soared upward toward the ceiling mural. On
the far wall was an unfinished mural not unlike the one above. It depicted a
beautiful woman with rays spreading out from her fingers like sunlight toward a
small child, an adult fairy and another person whom hadn't been painted yet. I
could see now, however, that several murals and tapestries like this were
around the room, all of which had people groveling or pleading at the feet of
this god-like woman.
I
could see an entrance below me, but going downstairs might end up taking me to
the fighting action, I thought, so I decided to scale down the nearest tapestry
instead.
Somehow,
I should have known better.
It
took less than 10 seconds for the tapestry to detatch from the wall from my
weight and only 5 to fall the 15 feet to the ground. Some of the tapestry did
land beneath me, saving my from certain death, but not from certain pain.
Staggering up, I groaned, "What more could I want than a plummet off an
indoor balcony to match my fall from the outside one?"
"Perhaps
a goddess who loves and needs you dearly," came a softly powerful voice. I
whirled around to the main platform near the unfinished mural and saw a woman
lying on an old-fashioned couch. I was afraid to ask how she'd gotten there,
seeing as how it could only have been by some type of magic.
"Goddess,
huh?" I said, looking around what really did resemble a temple, now that I
thought about it.
"A
banished goddess," came the reply. "For instead of bestowing my gift
upon others, I took it away, leaving them powerless. My colleagues did not
condone my actions and therefore sent me to this mortal puddle of a country you
call Caustria to repent my ways. Yet I still continued to thrive upon the gift
and I laid in wait for the one who could bring my power back to its peak so
that I may crush my enemies and take my rightful place as ruler of this
universe." Slight power trip, I thought, just as she added,
"And you are the one."
"I
am?"
"You
are."
I
frowned. Something was vaguely familiar about the identity of this immortal, I
thought. "Uh...what exactly are you the goddess of?"
The
huge temple doors swung shut behind me with an ominous boom, providing the
perfect dramatic pause before she said:
"The
Goddess of Imagination."
"Oh,"
I replied matter-of-factly. Now this made a horrifying amount of sense. Lyra
was a character I had made up some time ago to be Dove's mother, but the idea
of a goddess who thrived on people's imagination just seemed to hard to find a
flaw in, so I tossed it. But, as I could see now, the subconscious mind never
tosses anything out.
So,
now, Lyra, the power-tripping goddess from stories past, was alive and well and
about to de-imaginate me.
I
should have known this would happen when I ran into Dove, I thought. Panic
began to well up in me as she rose and I noticed she was a good 10 inches
taller. "So, like you're gonna just suck the imagination right out of
me?" I asked, backing away as she approached.
"Precisely."
Of
course she was, I thought to myself. That's what she was created
to do! That was why I didn't like her in the first place. "Anything I
can do to get out of it?"
"Mmmm,
you could stop imagining, but that would be rather difficult," she
replied. I began to concentrate, trying to void my head of all imagination and
she laughed. "That means stop imagining what will happen to you if you
don't succeed."
Damn!,
I thought. This is utterly hopeless! I'm dealing with an absolute
power. "Lyra, if you take all my imagination away, then I'll be some
vegetable with no clue on how to get back home!" I explained. "I'll
be in a coma forever or I might even die!"
"Well,
they didn't die," said Lyra, pointing to a corner of the room partially
covered by a curtain. The curtain withdrew itself and revealed two more marble
statues; one that looked like Naomi in her fairy form on a pedestal and another
larger statue that resembled a defiant Christine. There were other statues, but
I couldn't bring myself to look at them.
"What
did you do to them?" I gasped.
"The
same thing I'm going to do to you," said Lyra. "But, don't worry. Not
only will you all be immortalized in marble, you'll be in my newly inspired
mural." She waved backward to the unfinished wall mural and I suddenly
recognized the other two people as Christine and Naomi. The last person, who
was not fully painted, would probably be a cringing version of me. Desperately,
I hurled a bright blue powerball at her. She reeled backwards a little, then
regained her balance and laughed. "Oh, the feeling of power!"
she gasped in delight.
Help!,
I thought, looking toward the corner. For a moment, I thought of Christine. Poor
kid. All that effort to try and help me only to have me blunder this horribly.
Even Naomi didn't deserve to die that way! I diverted my attention to their
statues and hurled all the imagination I could into them...my thoughts about
them, their attitudes, Naomi's wings, Chris' sweet youth, any details about
them I could think of that would bring them back. Before I had finished, Lyra's
expanse of purple light flew from her fingers like controlled lightning bolts
and attatched to my body, whereupon I dropped to the floor in agony.
"As
if bringing back a worthless fairy and a child was worth your time," I
heard Lyra say mockingly. "But if this is the way you want to spend your last
few coherent moments. then so be it." She closed her eyes and I could feel
her concentration deep in my own imagination. Suddenly, I felt incredibly dull.
It was as if everything was slowing to a halt in my mind. It was a strange
feeling of emptiness, so strange I tried to fight it off, only to suffer more
torment.
Naomi
unfroze in the corner in a foul mood. She didn't know how she'd gotten here,
but she certainly didn't appreciate the humor in it. She watched the combatants
near her and suddenly remembered where she was and where she'd been headed. She
quickly flew toward a window to make a quick and quiet escape, but paused
briefly to watch the fight.
"Bring
Christine back, too!" she hollered, then darted out of sight.
Even
in my foggy haze of pain, I could hear the suggestion. Lyra heard, too, for she
turned to look, letting up slightly on her hold on me. But what, if anything
can I do about it laying here?, I thought, wrestling to keep my sanity. If
only I could just get rid of this goddess, just get her away...
And
then it came to me in a sudden flurry of pain doused inspiration. Couldn't I
just uncreate this woman? After all, I was the one who created her...!
Lyra,
sensing my idea, immediately drew it away from me and I was left with nothing
again. But an imaginative thought had come to me and it brought others. Besides,
I thought, she can't really take all my imagination away, can she?
I'm real and she isn't. The thoughts were flowing steadily in now, almost
as fast as Lyra could take them. But it was obviously true. I was too real for
her to handle. She'd never be able to take all of my reality into her
power...it was too paradoxical. And, after all, this is, technically
speaking, a complex figment of my imagination...
For
a moment, I considered whether or not it would be fair to use that kind of
power, if I had it. Christine's marble figure in the corner answered that
question fast enough. Picking on little kids, I thought grimly, is not
fair.
Armed
with this, I began to systematically dismantle the Goddess Lyra.
It
took a lot more than just deciding Lyra didn't exist, I found. Lyra, like
everything else around me, was an incredibly complex and realistic illusion
that had become a complete individual through months of stories and game play.
Much of her aspect had grown on its own. But, painfully, I reversed everything
I knew about her, her personality, her ebony hair, her violet eyes, her sultry
voice...everything I knew about Lyra was stripped and taken back until she,
looking disorientedly about the room from lack of memory, disappeared from
view.
I
realized I was laying on the floor now and looked around me. I was exhausted,
but Chris' statue was still in the corner unchanged. Had to do something
about that, I decided, throwing all my thoughts into her like I'd
done with Naomi.
Just
as I felt the wide world of pain was now caving in on me, Chris leapt into
technicolor life and ran toward me almost before she'd gotten her bearings.
"You came!" she yelled estactically, sliding across the marble
floor to me on her knees and throwing her arms around my neck. "I knew
you could do it!"
"I'm
glad one of us did," I sighed, hugging her back.
"Others
of us felt so as well," came Robin's voice. I looked up and found her
standing with Target in the main doorway.
"I'd
like to rejoice over this all, but I think I've discovered a new world of
agony," I groaned.
"Pain
hurts," said Target briefly. "Suck it up and live with it."
"Easier
said than done for some, dear," said Robin, coming over to me and taking
my hand.
"I
appreciate your understanding," I said, but Robin was fading from view.
For a moment, I thought I was fainting, but suddenly my vision cleared and I
found myself in another place.
This
time I was in the middle of what seemed to be an endless filing room. The
stacks of papers and cabinets seemed to go on forever behind me, but ended a
few yards in front of me by a desk swamped with papers. At this desk, along
with a computer, sat a person with her back to me typing. I recognized this as
the room I had woken up in earlier today. Or was it still today?, I
wondered. It certainly seemed like a lot of time had gone by.
At
any rate, I didn't know this girl from the back, but I'd already had enough of
evil people, so I looked around for a weapon, just in case. I mean, seeing
as how this is part of my subconscious, she isn't supposed to be here if I
don't know her, I rationalized. To my surprise, my sword hung at my side in
my left hand. I hadn't remembered getting it back, but no matter. I switched it
to my right hand, turned it on and slowly advanced on the girl at the desk.
At
first, I thought it might be better to ask her who she is and then attack, but after
remembering my incident with Naomi, I decided to hack first and bury bodies
later. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but just as I was ready to deal
the first blow, something in me compelled me to pause with a slight wince. Wellll,
I thought, maybe I'll just immobilize her a little and then figure out what
she wants.
Before
I could make any decisions, the girl looked up, then whirled around. Both of us
screamed at the same time, both from fright and and surprise.
But
then, what else would you do if you'd just nearly been killed or had been about
to kill a mirror image of yourself?