The Moth-Girl

2

Kai (May) 3, Omega : Early Evening

The Temple was a towering stone spire. Its cone-shaped tip was wrought of gold, with a shining pin at the top that pointed right to the center of the sun at midday. Over the large carved double-doors was a shimmering metal sun; a circle with both twisted and straight rays coming out of it, and a crescent moon on laying on its back in the middle, much like the clasp on Seiriô's tunic and the design etched into his compass. Stained-glass windows lined the bottom of the first story, giving it a slightly gothic feeling.

Timidly, Eruûne and Seiriô set down their baggage and pushed open the doors. They were heavy, and almost too hard to move. Inside, the floor was made of a glossy black stone, with the reflections of the windows streaming across it. All across the ceiling, there were gold-embossed pictures—of the sun, the moon, the stars… and something else. It was a white entity, a nameless being, sealed away. Was it the part of the Great Spirit that was locked in the sun?

Studying the magnificent paintings on the roof, Eruûne and Seiriô walked on through the enormous circular room. In each of the four corners were altars. Candles were set out upon them, laying on translucent silk cloths with tiny embroideries of the sun and planets and little crystals for stars. They were beautiful.

A loud clanging noise sounded, reverberating off of everything in the room, and the two boys turned around sharply to see what it was.

They saw something clothed in armor of brilliant gold, bronze and silver standing underneath a trap-door in the ceiling. It held a shield of the same gleaming metals, with the same emblem of the sun that was over the door engraved into its center. Unsheathing a sword, the metal-clad warrior slowly moved towards them. As soon as it set its enormous foot onto the stone floor for its first step, metal bars fell down over the exit. The creature blocked the other way out. It was a set trap! But why would there be such a thing in a Temple full of friendly monks?

Seiriô jumped in front of Eruûne, and faced it. Waiting for an opening to fire, he studied the being. He could only see black under the armor. Not black fabric, or black skin, but a sort of black shadow.

O' rain that trickles from the sky

O' water of the sea

O' spirits of the abyss come

For now, I summon thee!

A bluish substance spun around Seiriô. He held his hands up high over his head, and the matter followed. It was a water spell, Eruûne realized. With one smooth, quick motion, Seiriô lunged forward, towards the monster, and stuck his hands out in front of him. The blue magic flew from his hands, and splattered all over the being's shiny armor.

It dripped to the floor in puddles, and then disappeared. Seiriô swore, and began to try another spell. Water seemingly didn't have any effect. As he was about to raise up his hands and start singing a fire spell, Eruûne charged with his porcelain blade.

He aimed right at the point where the being's chest armor and leg armor met—at the darkness in between. The creature blocked his blow with the polished sun shield, and knocked Eruûne aside. He fell down hard, and skidded across the room hitting into a wall. The thing was strong, whatever it was. Panting, Eruûne tried to get up, but he found that he couldn't. His legs and chest hurt from the shield sending him flying.

Seiriô ran towards the enemy. It stuck its golden shield out in front of it, so as to stop him. But it didn't work. The nimble green-haired minstrel jumped onto the shield, somersaulting over the creature, and grabbed it around the head from behind. Digging his hands under the metal helmet that it wore, he tried to find its neck and strangle it.

His arms went around nothing, and he fell off. There was nothing underneath the being's helmet. Nothing. Just darkness. Jumping back up, Seiriô ran over and took Eruûne's sword. He grasped the leather handle, and tried to run at his foe, but the sword was too heavy. It clanked to the ground, and he fell over. How was it possible that Eruûne, a sickly-thin younger boy, could hold it so easily when he couldn't?

Seiriô was loosing time. The creature slowly made its way over towards him. The metal armor clanked together. He concentrated on the dark nothingness under it. If it was just nothing… just darkness… then he knew how to defeat it.

Sprits o' the sun I divine,

Spirits o' the light angelic,

Bring upon me, your golden beam

That banishes darkness

And makes it seen!

A beam of light circled around Seiriô's two hands, which he held out high above him like he had with the water spell. He quickly spread them apart, and the light flew everywhere. Eruûne covered his eyes with both arms, and screamed. He felt as if he would go blind. When all returned to its normal, dismal dankness, he lowered his arms.

The clank of tons of armor hitting the stone ground was almost as deafening as the light was blinding. Seiriô stood in his position in front of the heap of metal, and slowly fell onto his knees, and then his face. Eruûne crawled his way over to his friend, and rolled him over onto his back.

"Seiriô?" he asked, "It's gone now. You did it! Seiriô? SEIRIÔ!"

"I'm… okay…" he groaned, "I just used a lot of my energy. Light spirits are really powerful, and hard to control… Are you okay?"

"Yes, I think," Eruûne answered, "My side really hurts… it pushed that shield really hard against me. But I can manage."

"At least… that's over…"

"Seiriô, what was that?" the blonde elf asked.

"I'm not sure…" he responded, breathing hard, and wiping sweat off his forehead, "It was just some sort of shadow. I'm not sure when I realized that. Probably when I tried to grab on to its neck, and found it had nothing under its helmet. A light spell was the only thing I could think of to beat it."

"Thanks," Eruûne smiled, "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything. It just… really hurt, and I couldn't get myself up."

"Why couldn't I hold your sword?" whined Seiriô, suddenly remembering its weight. "It was so heavy, that when I tried to pick it up, it just clunked onto the ground and wouldn't budge."

"I don't know. It's really light to me."

"That's weird," Seiriô looked away, and crossed his arms, "It's not that good of a sword anyway. Doesn't really suit me."

Eruûne smiled. He knew that Seiriô was just annoyed that he couldn't pick it up, when it was so easy for a boy from the forest with no magic.

"You're… being really quiet," Seiriô stated, helping Eruûne up to his feet. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine," he answered, sighing as they walked over to the spiral staircase in the center of the large hall. "I was just… wondering what that shadow thing was doing here."

"And why there aren't any monks," Seiriô added. "I've been wondering that. In the Temple of Ages, there are—were—priests and priestesses guarding the place from intruders. We walked in here freely—unless that thing was meant to stop us."

Kai (May) 3, Omega : Evening

The steps were hard and cold, made of the same polished black stone as the floor of the main room. At the first landing, there was an intricately carved wooden door. Seiriô pushed it open, and the two boys walked through. Inside was a medium-sized room about the same area as Eruûne and Lotus's hut in the village.

Eruûne couldn't tell where the ceiling was. The room was dark and damp like the forests outside, but it had no lighting at all. Two torch stands sat by the door, as if asking to be lit. He heard noises of animals, most likely bats, flitting around in the darkness. Wondering if it was better to turn back, Eruûne hesitated for a moment. That wasn't at all what the Temple should have been like. Seiriô was correct; something was wrong there.

Seiriô took his hand, and led him into the room. Eruûne tripped over something. As he looked down upon it, he noticed it was a floor switch. Metal bars stained with blood at their tips crashed down over the door they had just come from. Swearing, Seiriô stamped his left foot on the switch, to see if hitting it again would do anything. But it had no effect. What would a switch like that be doing in a Temple?

Suddenly, Eruûne let out a small screech, and was consumed by the darkness. Strong hands grasped around his throat, while others held his body. Trying to call out to his companion, Eruûne let out another muffled scream. Seiriô swerved around, and caught the last glimpse of Eruûne fading to nothingness.

O' luminescence guided

By the spirits of the sun,

Darkness will be punished

All light become one!

As with the first light spell, Seiriô summoned forth a group of light spirits who lit up the whole room. The darkness engulfing Eruûne vanished, and he fell to the floor, grasping his throat, and breathing hard. For a moment, all the objects in the room became clear. But then the light disappeared back to darkness, and everything was gone again.

"Are you okay?" Seiriô asked, rushing towards his fallen companion, and helping him up.

"Yes," Eruûne panted, now clutching his chest. "I'm… fine…"

"That's good to hear," he sighed with relief, "I don't know how much longer I'll hold out, though. This Temple seems to be full of dark spirits, and light spells take up so much energy."

"I'll try to do something from now on," Eruûne said. "No matter how hard I try, I always end up getting saved by someone, and never do anything myself."

"It's okay," Seiriô smiled, "Maybe I'll use some fire spells. Fire makes light. Lightning would work too, I think. Though spirits of the moon are just as hard to evoke as sun ones—at least for me."

"Why would moon spirits make lightning?" Inquired the green-clad elf boy. "Moon is darkness, but I didn't know it was also storms. Lotus didn't do any moon spells. She stuck with forest and sun a lot."

Unsheathing his sword, Eruûne waited for something to come and grab him again, so he could prove to his companion that he could do something.

"Um… Seiriô?" he asked. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to light those torches?"

"Precisely," the boy answered. "That's what I'm doing."

So deep your heat protrudes to.

Now I call, I summon you

Rise up o' mighty flame!

Fire suddenly sprung up from both of the torch heads, and it illuminated a small portion of the room. Eruûne saw something saunter away into the shadows and ran after it.

"Oh, you idiot!" Seiriô shouted, but it was too late.

A long, thin, groaning noise filled their ears. It sounded sad, sort of. Tortured, maybe. The thing Eruûne chased turned around and looked at him. It was grayish brown. A dismal color. There were no outstanding features on its body. It was just sort of… there. Its arms and legs had no feet or hands attached to them. They just faded out to thin little strings. Its head was round. There were three sunken holes in its face. Eruûne guessed that it was the thing that had grabbed him a few minutes earlier.

Its skin was sort of rotting away, but they couldn't see any bones. It was just soft and rather mushy. Wrinkled. Eruûne wasn't quite sure if it was a human being, or had ever been one. The thing ushered another moan, and moved its head towards the elf boy. He lashed out with his sword, slicing at it. It had no bones. It was just soft flesh. After another moan, it fell onto its side, and slowly faded to nothingness.

Eruûne looked stunned.

"What was that?" he asked. "Seiriô? What was that thing?"

"I'm not sure," he answered, "But don't go chasing after spirits, okay? Sometimes those things will attack you. They sort of clamp onto you and suck your life-force out, like what it began to do to you before. I'm just… glad you're okay. This is your first step to getting the Blade—you can't fall here!"

"I feel bad for killing it," Eruûne said. "It seemed sad. I wish there was a way to talk to it."

"Hey, what's that?"

"What's what?"

"That!" Seiriô pointed to something that looked like a bowl, which was sitting innocently down on the ground near where the creature had fallen.

Eruûne walked over and picked it up. When he turned it around, he noticed that it was the face of the dead creature. A mask.

"Hey Seiriô," he said, walking back over to his friend with the mask. "This thing… it's the face of that creature."

"Precisely," he answered, taking it in his gloved-hands. "It looks like an echo. Yuck! It's soft!"

"I know… that's how the thing's body felt. What's an echo? I mean I know what an echo is, but they don't have shape. Is an echo a—?"

"Echoes are forest spirits," Seiriô explained, "You know… those little white things with three black spots on their heads that make a rattling noise. They grow from the mushrooms that rise from the Great Spirit's footsteps."

"Oh, I guess it does look like that," Eruûne said.

Seiriô held the mask up to his face. Not to put it on, but to inspect the inside close-up. There was no string to secure it to his head, but it stuck, as if it had suddenly clamped onto him. It seemed to be growing into his face. He felt little things…veins, or roots digging into his flesh. The mask wouldn't come off. He couldn't yell out. The thing had no mouth; just a sunken hole.

"Seiriô, are you okay?!" Eruûne shouted.

It also had no eyes. Seiriô's world was black. He felt suffocated. There was no way to breathe… no way to speak… no way to see. He stumbled backwards, and fell over something. He felt his hands becoming soft and mushy. Like the mask. Energy seemed to leak out of him like water coming from a bag with holes in it.

Falling to the ground, Seiriô sort of felt something holding him, picking him up, and shaking him. Maybe it was Eruûne. Maybe it was something else. He really didn't care anymore. Life was just a waste of everything anyway. What was the point of living, if the afterlife was much more… peaceful? Or was it…? But wait! That wasn't his way of thinking! Was it…?

Memories flooded into his mind. Terrible memories. Were they his? People… forced into lines leading to guillotines. Why was it worth it, grimacing at their pain? Blood flew everywhere, and people turned their heads away. They were all chained together. Where were they? A burning village. Where was it? The Forests of Shikaä, maybe. It didn't matter. None of this should matter to him. He was already dead. Had he died like that? Had he ever been living?

"SEIRIÔ!" Eruûne shouted, tears coming from his eyes as he shook the limp body of a creature now very unlike his friend. "SEIRIÔ!"

Seiriô heard an echoing voice, calling someone's name. Was it his? It sounded mildly familiar, but he could have heard it anywhere. It came again. This time, it sounded more distant and faded, as if he was underground. Buried alive. Is that how he died? Yes. He remembered it clearly now. Marching in lines of people. Going off to war. He had been captured. By who? Someone. It didn't matter.

They had locked him up in a coffin, threw it into a pit, and buried it. Knowing that he was all alone, set off to die. Buried alive. Underground. War. Fighting. His family. Did he have one? Who was he? Where was he? The Forest. But there had been no wars in this part of Shikaä for a long time, right? No! How did he know that? Did he? How old was he? How long had he been dead…?

The people marching off to get their heads chopped off were the rest of his troops. Not all of them were present. Some of them were hanged and shown off in the villages. What villages? Where was it? Questions that he wasn't sure if he even wanted to know the answers to flooded into his brain.

It didn't seem right, somehow. Even though he remembered clearly those events, that echoing voice called his name. It wasn't a fitting name for a soldier. 'Seiriô', a 'sweet song'—not a name for a soldier in the least.He also remembered other things. Temples collapsing, screaming, tears…these were not the memories of a soldier.

"SEIRIÔ!" Eruûne shouted more times, but he still got no response.

The limp body of the undead creature fell out of his arms. It was no longer his friend. It was the same brownish-gray sullen creature that he had killed, back to life. It had found a host body. Sad though it was, he couldn't feel sorry for it. Why did it want to live so badly as to take the life of someone else, just to be an undead horror? What was so important about its life that it needed to live again in order to fulfill?

Seiriô felt something beneath him now. Was it… ground? The same ground that had suffocated him when he died? That same dirt… but it felt hard. Was it stone? Probably. It wasn't cold. Or maybe it was. He couldn't tell. This body was just… there. It was dead. A living soul in a dead body. That wasn't it, was it? Wasn't he the soldier, or was he the… person that the voice called. Seiriô was it? Once he said it to himself, the name sounded even more familiar. Yes, that was him.

Then why did he remember things that hadn't happened to him? He was no soldier. He was an elf boy in the Forests of Shikaä, who, with a new friend, was going to help the Deity of the Sun. Why? Who knows. He had heard some rumor that she was in trouble—that all the Deities of the Temples were in trouble. Not just from the Prophecy. Or was it? Something had gone wrong. What was it? Did he ever know?

Seingô. That name sounded familiar. It was… the Deity of the Temple of the Heart of the Forest, wasn't it? Yes. That was right. He had heard something about her. She had done something. What was it? He knew that he knew it. It was like it was right in front of his face, but in another language. Hadn't she left her Temple? Freed that part of the Great Spirit? No. It wasn't free. There was a shield generated by the other six Temples that held it there. But Seingô had left. She was trying to free it. That seemed right. Or did it…? She had sent out Unseen to ward people away from not only the Heart, but the 'Barrier', too. That Unseen… Arum… Cattelya…it had… His gloves! He didn't have them on! His hands were that of the undead. It wouldn't matter. Or would it? Would the mark still show? The Curse? Could Eruûne see it?

"Seiriô…" Eruûne sobbed, his voice just a small quiver. "I… I can't stay here anymore. I'll come back for you. I need to stop whatever is happening in this Temple. I won't leave you for too long. Just promise you'll stay here. Please… promise me that. I'll… I'll not leave you for more than an hour! I swear! Oh, Seiriô… don't be gone forever! I wish I could carry you, but I'm not near that strong…"

He hesitantly stood up and walked away. There was one unbarred door at the opposite side of the room. Pushing it open, Eruûne found himself at another set of stairs. The room must have just been built into the first landing, as a place of worship. He continued walking upwards.

Torches lined the stairs, and an occasional stained-glass window let in some light. These stairs had a long carpet covering all but their edges. It had yellow fringe, and it was red and blue. Embroidered pictures of planets and stars were all over it. He made no noise as he stepped up the stairs. To no surprise, there was a door at the second landing, leading into another dark room.

As he walked into the center of the room, he hit into something hard. Feeling it with his hands, Eruûne noticed that it was made of hardened sandstone. There were two slick adamantine surfaces on both sides of it that felt like metal. It was a statue of some kind. Eruûne found that he could rotate it. He turned it so that one of the slick surfaces faced out the door that he'd just come from, and left open.

The other faced towards another door, not yet opened. He went out that door, and left it open. On the first step, there was a slanted mirror, which would reflect light to another mirror on the ceiling. That one was slanted, so it would rebound light at a mirror on the wall, which would cast the light onto a mirror on the door at the third landing. Eruûne wondered what all the mirrors were for.

As he walked into the next room, he realized how much easier it would be if he had a light. Taking the flint and steel from his satchel, he cast sparks upon the torches, and they soon erupted into full flame. The room was large. As he felt across the walls, he found more torches. After lighting them all, he could see everything in it. The ceiling was high, but close enough to be in the circle of light. There was a hole in the center. Eruûne could tell that something was up there. He heard its clanking footsteps. He waited. Finally, it fell.

Slowly, the being stood up, facing Eruûne. It looked exactly like the metal-clad shadow that Seiriô defeated in the main hall of the Temple. All the polished metal armor shone like beacons in the light of the torches. Eruûne clutched his sword tightly with his hands. His fingerless leather gauntlets complimented the color of the leather-wrapped handle of the sword very nicely.

He charged at the shadow. It wasn't expecting him to, and didn't have its shield ready. Eruûne knocked the circular piece of metal with an inscribed sun symbol on it to the floor. The creature deflected his next blow with its sword. Eruûne was surprised that his porcelain blade held up against the solid metal one.

He slashed at the creature. It blocked with its sword again. Eruûne knew that it would beat him if he kept up what he was doing. Being so much smaller than the metal giant, Eruûne rolled under its legs, and came out behind it. Taking the opportunity, he used his sword to pry off its helmet. If the thing was only a shadow, light would do it in. The metal shielding clanked onto the floor, and the being writhed as if the fire-light caused it pain. Maybe it did.

Crashing down to the hard stone floor, the shadow split into a myriad pieces, and then disappeared into nothingness, leaving only the pile of gleaming armor. The metal sword it had been holding caught Eruûne's eye. He took it, and its sheath, and attached it to his belt. If his porcelain sword broke, he would have a replacement. The shield, he found out as he tried to lift it, was very too much too heavy for him to use. What a shame! It was so beautiful… As he looked for the next door, a bright flash of light blinded him for a second. When Eruûne recovered, he saw what had happened.

There was another mirror over the door leading out to the next fleet of stairs. The fire's light had reflected in it, and then into his eyes. Attached to a stone obstruction in the center of the room was another mirror, this one facing the door. Light would come from the mirrors on the staircase, onto the door, onto the one above the unopened door, onto the one on the floor, and then out the door. He opened the door, and stepped through.

As expected, there was a stone statue with two mirrors on it. He turned it so one would take the light from the room, reflect it to a mirror over the door, and then to another on the opposite wall, and finally into the other mirror on the statue. That one reflected it into an opened door at the top of the stairs. He didn't know why he was setting them up, but it seemed that it was a good idea—for they were set up as if asking him to. Eruûne rushed up there to see what was in the new room with glee.

Kai (May) 3, Omega : Twilight

He found the next room empty. One of the walls was made out of metal bars, and as Eruûne looked closer, he noticed that it was a cage built into the wall. Cobwebs hung onto everything, creating misty veils throughout the room. A silver glow illuminated the intricate patterns in the cobwebs, and also lit around the cage, but Eruûne wasn't sure where the light was coming from. It was said spells were woven into spider webs. He wondered if it was true.

Eruûne kneeled down to the floor to re-tie his spats. The heavy metal sword he had taken from the warrior slid out of its sheath, and he cringed at the noise of it clanking against the floor that echoed throughout the small, cavernous room. It seemed it would never go away, rebounding off everything so many times.

"I already told you," a girl's voice announced sternly from the darkness, "I won't eat your sickening food! And don't try to get me to talk, because I won't! I'm not telling the likes of you anything!"

"Really?" Eruûne answered, in a soft, sweet voice as he walked up to the cage and tried to see the prisoner inside, "What's wrong with me?"

He could see a young girl sprawled out across the floor, as if she'd fallen and didn't want to get back up. She had a scowling face, and pale skin that faded to green on the tips of her ears, and her hands (and her legs, but she was wearing both pants and boots so he couldn't see). The girl had two long, fuzzy antennae springing out of her straight, lustrous black hair. Her ears were very long, and ended in a curled shape, much thinner than one of his fingers. The earrings she wore were like the tassels at the end of pillows, or on the money case Seiriô had had. Quite odd for a female to wear earrings. Only elven boys would do that. Was she an elf? No.

Her eyes were slanted and very persistent looking. She looked like the type of person that could get you to do what they wanted, just by staring you smack in the face and glaring. But that wasn't what Eruûne found weird about her. None of that was.

She had wings.

Her wingspan was probably twice her body length, if both wings were lined up at their longest point. They were green wings, with brown, black and white circular symbols on them that looked like eyes. She looked like a lunamoth, and the silver glow was being emitted from her wings. Eruûne wasn't sure why; maybe all moth-girls—or whatever she was—glowed.

"You… you…" she stammered, moving closer to him so she could see him clearer, "You're an elf!"

"And what's wrong with that?" He inquired.

"Nothing," she answered, startled. "It's just… that I've never met an elf that didn't automatically grimace at the sight of me. Stuck up knaves!"

"You're a faery!" he stated, realizing it suddenly. "I thought that all faeries would do the same to us."

"I wouldn't," she giggled, "There's no way I'd grimace at such a nice face!"

Eruûne blushed. "But… what are you doing here, all caged up? And who were you talking to?"

"Oh, I thought you were one of the monks," she answered.

"But, I haven't seen any monks anywhere!"

"They're all under the control of the evil in this Temple," the faery girl explained, "And they caught me snooping around here. They're trying to get me to tell them where some 'Eruûne Aeyr' person is. Humph! The way they treat me here, even if I did know her… that Eruûne girl, I wouldn't tell them a thing!"

"It's a guy, actually," Eruûne corrected, "Eruûne is a—"

"Do you know her… or him?" she inquired excitedly, getting up off her knees, and grabbing his hands through the bars. "Please tell me!"

Trying to make her let go of him, and wondering if he should tell her who he was, Eruûne stammered. "I… er… well…"

"Please?" she gave him a moony-eyed look. "You wouldn't let them keep me as a hostage here until I die, would you? Or… are you him by any chance?"

"Me? Eruûne?" he interrogated, realizing that he would be safer if he didn't say who he was. "No. I'm just…" he said the first thing that came to his mind. "A wandering minstrel-mage named Seiriô Lichen Watÿr Sakanai. But, I've traveled with him."

"Really?" she sounded ecstatic. "Please tell me where he is, traveling minstrel!"

"I'm afraid," he began, his voice quivering now, remembering his companion. "That my friend, Eruûne, is sort of… dead."

"DEAD?"

"Her body was used as a host frame for a wandering spirit in this Temple," the boy explained, trying not to cry at the thought of his friend, dead. "I'm afraid that I have no knowledge of how to bring someone back from that state."

"That's horrible!" she cried out, letting go of his hands, and clasping hers together as if she was praying. "Such a young noble boy, destined to hold the Great Sword of his Ancestors, dead. And I bet he was really good-looking, too!"

Eruûne turned an even deeper shade of red at this. "Do… do you mean the L-Legendary Crystal Blade of Aeyr?"

"Yes! Oh, that boy…" she said, in a weeping voice that then turned to a sort of happily vengeful tone, "I can't wait to see that old monk's face when I tell him that his precious Eruûne's dead! That'll teach him… but it'll also mean that the Sword's lost forever, and the future of the forests is in peril!"

"Why?"

"Because he's the only one who has the power to retrieve it from its supposedly 'eternal' resting place in the Heart of the Forest!" the faery explained dramatically. "And without the Sword, no one will be able to defeat Seingô and restore the forests to their original state of peace! Or at least that's what I've heard. But that's not why the monks want it."

"He's that important?" Eruûne asked, almost wishing that he'd told her the truth about his identity, and not even realizing that she had said something about defeating the Forest Deity. "And… weren't there two heirs?"

"Oh yes he is that important!" she sighed, "But he's dead now, gone forever. They won't believe me, those nasty old monks! Please, kind minstrel, help me!"

As he'd expected, she gave him The Look. He couldn't resist it. "What should I do to help you?"

"Get me out of this cage!"

"Oh, I know that!" Eruûne growled. "But how?"

"You shine light on that switch right there, on that narrow strip of wall right before the cage meets the ceiling." She directed. "You know all those mirrors set up around the stairs and such?" the faery girl asked, and smiled when Eruûne nodded his head. "Hopefully, you were smart enough to set them up right. Anyway, you shine strong light on the first one, and it'll ricochet off of all the others and hit the switch if you have them set up right."

"Yes, I see now," Eruûne murmured, "What could I use to shine light on them?"

"A light spell perhaps?" she hinted.

"I am afraid, young girl," he sighed, trying to sound as much like Seiriô as possible, "That I know no light magic."

"Lightning?"

"No," he answered, lying about Seiriô's magic, "I only know the most basic in… uh…earth spells! And none of those would help. Right?"

"Do you have a light amulet? Moon amulet? Anything magical that gives off light?!"

"No, I'm afraid not."

"What sort of minstrel-mage are you, then?!"

"A minstrel isn't taught in the ways of magic through implements. Minstrels perform spells through music!" Eruûne explained nervously, hoping she knew just as little about what they were talking about as he did.

"Oh, well," she quieted down, "Are you sure you don't have anything that gives off light? Oh alas! I'm going to be stuck here forever!"

"Do not fret," he cooed, "I think I know a way to reflect light onto the first mirror. For, I do have a mirror myself."

As he left the room he could hear her scream, "And what the hell good is that going to do us? You can't make light with a mirror!"

Though Eruûne might have been able think of some way to do it with only a mirror after a long time, he had another idea. Maybe he could find Seiriô. Maybe he wasn't dead. But at least he could get away from the persistent faery girl for a while. Though, he did now have to rescue her. Knights did that. Knights rescued 'damsels in distress'! Eruûne suddenly felt happy about his saying all that and now having to rescue her. He was finally on the road to become a knight!