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part four.
IP: 82.14.67.140
Posted on September 10, 2012 at 02:43:34 AM by georgia

Part four Mount Etna, the isle of Sicily off the coast of Italy, Earth The hidden mirror in the Galerie des Glaces in the palace of Versailles, France, was the only way for a fairy to travel into Shaman without losing his or her magic, and the easiest way for fairies to travel back out. Small time-stop spells had been placed over the area so often that the native humans joked that the exquisite decoration had such a relaxing effect that visitors would often leave the Galerie an hour after entering, certain that they had only been in for a few minutes. As the deities passed through the mirror back into the human world, Tsi gathered them together and made a group teleportation out. A split second after they departed, time resumed and the humans unfroze, blissfully unaware that anything had happened. Tsi took them not to the council’s secret base in Middle Egypt, as they’d expected, but to a gloomy room with no windows lit by several oil lamps. It took Aura a moment to recognise it, but Mallos was looking about with the keen expression of a man who had never been here before. Then again, she supposed, he hadn’t. Mallos had been locked away beneath his Moroccan palace, the Alhambra, many years before construction on the underground mansion beneath Mount Etna even began. Built initially as the fortress of a paranoid multi-millionaire, the Gulag, as it had been nicknamed, had long since been adopted by the originals for various uses. The eastern wing had been converted into a prison and had contained Aura’s daughter Poppy for a long time, but the western wing, where they were now, was used as a primary base for the Alliance (an elite group of fairies trained in espionage and war) and a secondary base for the council. Lorraine, Allianah and Khasekhemwy, three of the five deities who had inhabited Earth these past twenty years, were already there waiting for them. Lorraine, the beautiful Russian goddess, batted her eyelashes prominently at Mallos who smiled back in a way that made Aura want to punch him. Allianah, the goddess of Nubia and Guardian of the council, threw them both a disgusted look and scornfully balled her hands into fists. Mallos looked even more delighted to see her than he did Lorraine; he went immediately to her side and offered her a simple, polite greeting. Allianah swung her wooden staff at him, which he’d evidently been expecting since he ducked easily and it slid harmlessly over his head. Khasekhemwy ignored the lot of them and simply sat in the corner on the only chair, scribbling busily on a piece of pale yellow papyrus-paper. Lorraine had once tried unkindly explaining to him that the world had moved on from papyrus by several thousand years, but Khasekhemwy still preferred this medium for all of his personal documents. Having determined that she’d gotten all the attention she was going to get from Mallos, Lorraine flicked her hair disappointedly and turned to Tsi. “Why must I be here?” She demanded in a tone which reminded Aura of a spoilt two year-old. “I have not been selected for this mission, and I have important things to do.” She looked back at the Spaniard with an expression which clearly said, of course, If I had been selected, adventuring with you would have been my top priority. As always, Tsi refrained from expressing anger or annoyance. “The council has gathered,” he replied mildly, “you are a member of the council.” “So is Zed,” Lorraine responded sulkily. “Zed is on an important mission of his own,” Tsi explained patiently. “He is gathering the other originals. Now,” he continued in a slightly louder voice, since Lorraine looked like she was about to interrupt. “The time in Italy is twelve minutes past two. Using the volcanic shafts, it shouldn’t take you more than six hours to reach the centre of the Earth. Upon your return, call us back to this room in the usual way. The rest of you know what to do – good luck.” He managed a half-smile for them, before turning to the remaining two deities and the cat. “Lorraine, Khasekhemwy, Sperantia, I have a special task for you…” Aura couldn’t remember ever cruising the scorching air currents through the volcanic shafts to the centre of the Earth, but something – an odd sense of déjà vu – told her that she’d done it before. In spite of what Mallos had said about it only taking a few hours to sort her memories back out, they still weren’t aligned properly in her mind and she could sense many things were still beyond her grasp. It was like trying to remember a word or a name which was on the tip of her tongue but danced further out of her reach every time she moved towards it. None of the others’ expressions were readable so she couldn’t tell if any of them had memories of free-falling to the magma core: Mallos’ face was as impassive as ever, and Rhaegar and Allianah had the identical stone expressions typical of a seasoned warrior about to enter battle. Even falling as fast as gravity could pull them, it took four hours to descend. Boredom had already engulfed adrenaline before the end of the first hour, and since none of the others felt inclined to conversation Aura was left with only her thoughts and her own confused memories for company. As she recalled more and more and began to start sorting everything into the right order, a nagging thought – a memory sprung from the final year of the war on Shaman – began to play on her mind. At first she dismissed it for its extremity, putting it down to the insane desperation of wartime, but as more of her life came back to her it continually returned with growing sense. Could it work? Nobody had ever succeeded before – but then, nobody had ever gone about it in this way before. Stories, myths and legends pertaining to the only known (and probably fictional) successes all confirmed her mad theory – stories of old, the myths of Heracles and Hermes. Aura was grateful when they finally landed on solid ground, forcing her to lock the thought away for later contemplation and focus on the problem at hand. Travelling to the centre of the Earth wasn’t difficult, at least not for gods. Divinity kept them alive in spite of the pressure and the heat. The first part of the journey consisted of a straight free-fall down to the central shaft of the active volcano, but they couldn’t get all the way to the bottom through that or they’d be burnt to cinders in the fiery magma. Even magic couldn’t cure that. After four hours’ travelling down the shaft, they veered away and entered one of the solid tunnels leading off to the right. The underground was a natural labyrinth: continuous heating and cooling created a constantly shifting tunnel network which one could navigate with a touch of divine help. From here, it would be at least another two hours’ careful descent until they reached the underground cavern which was as close to the centre of the Earth as anyone could get without being fried. Allianah led the way with her brisk strides, followed by Aura, who had to trot to keep up. Mallos hung back, apparently to annoy Rhaegar, who had also been hanging back, apparently to avoid Mallos. Allianah didn’t look remotely grateful that the Spaniard was leaving her alone for a change; in fact, she seemed more irritable than ever. Aura deduced that she, like Rhaegar, had not volunteered for this mission. The sound of the men’s exchanges – light and cheerful on Mallos’ part, cursing and snarling on Rhaegar’s – were the only noises to be heard. Aura wondered briefly how the Spaniard could succeed in offending someone so greatly without using any insults. Mildly amusing at first, it was starting to grate even her nerves after about half an hour. The dark atmosphere and the dancing shadows caused by a glowing orb Aura had summoned were not conducive to such light-heartedness. She was about to tell him to shut up (Allianah and Rhaegar had already done so countless times, but Aura suspected she was the only one Mallos would listen to) when Allianah suddenly stopped in her tracks, throwing out one arm to halt the others. Aura edged closer to her and would have brought the orb further forward if she hadn’t noticed that the angle of Nubian’s head indicated she was listening. The two men fell silent, and then Aura heard it too: the unmistakeable grumble of the Earth. Somebody yelled – Aura wasn’t sure who. It might have been her. A memory of being trapped under the Earth during a quake burst rapidly into her mind. She was thrown forward against Allianah – the light extinguished – and through the blackness the roar of crashing rocks ripped her ears apart.

Replies:

• part five. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:43:23 AM
• part six. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:43:10 AM
• part seven. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:42:56 AM
• part eight. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:42:50 AM
• part nine. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:42:40 AM
• part ten. - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:42:30 AM
• epilogue - By georgia September 10, 2012 at 02:42:21 AM

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