The Seven Keys of Areid **COMPLETE**

Chapter VI: The Fifth Guardian

The very exact moment her worn shoe touched the step, Adalira felt a violent shove from behind, like someone was pushing her. Startled, she tottered down a few steps, finally pushing off a wall to achieve and maintain equilibrium. Turning back to see what had sent her sprawling, Adalira found herself face to face with the heavy pearl door, glowing luminously like the moon. Sounds of flowing water echoed around her, and the eerie sounds and glowing door sent the battered elf maiden rushing quickly down the spiraling steps, descending ever deeper into darkness. She could feel the painful pressure building as she squinted into what lay ahead, and finally Adalira stopped attempting to resist the pressing blackness and blindly followed the stairs down, down, down.

The stone walls that had surrounded her previously seemed to fade away without warning, and a faulty step sent Adalira careening down, freefalling in a way that reminded her of her original descent into the labyrinth. At first, a shriek ripped through her, and echoed across some distant surface. But this time, Adalira knew there must be an end to this descent, for where would the stairs be leading otherwise? After a few minutes of the vicious wind tearing at her, Adalira briefly caught a glimpse of something blue before smacking into what she deemed her watery grave. The water met her skin with an icy thwack and Adalira could feel her skin stinging profusely as she sank into the darkening depths. She tried to move her arms to swim to the surface, but the water was too heavy, too massive for one to budge. As her lungs screamed for air and the last of her air bubbles floated away to the ever distant surface, Adalira's eyes slowly, groggily closed. Her last sight was a glowing blue key.

                                                                                  ~O~

Adalira was yanked brutally out of the peaceful darkness by a sob, an anguished wail of sorrow. The sound pierced her ears, her extensive, honed sense of hearing, and she sat up, coughing up gobs of water violently. The shriek dimmed slightly as Adalira purged the last of the deathly waters from her lungs, and Adalira opened her eyes to see the strange figure in front of her.

The girl - for the figure was female - was curled up sadly around a rock, as if the rock were her only comfort in the world. Her skin was a sickly periwinkle, and very sallow. The girl's hands grasped at the rock as if it were a lifeline, her fingers long and tapered. She had very long hair that would probably reach her knees had she been standing, and it was a deep blueberry color. Her eyes were hidden by hair, but Adalira could see the glowing tears flowing freely onto the positively saturated rock. The girl was garbed in a long robe the precise shade of the ocean on a cloudless day, and her bare feet were tiny and wrinkled. Turning her head, Adalira surmised that she was in the middle of a deep underground cavern, on a solitary rock in the middle of an underground ocean. Adalira returned her gaze to the weeping woman.

"Miss?" she spoke, her voice cracked and hoarse, and echoing throughout the cave. The woman paused her wailing and turned to face Adalira, who had to bite her tongue to keep from jumping back at the sight of the glowing sapphire eyes. They were alien, unearthly, and they disturbed Adalira. Evidentially Adaira's perturbance was clear in her own eyes, and the bleary eyed woman's strange eyes pooled anew with fresh tears.

"What are you staring at?" the woman whimpered accusingly, her voice trembling. Adalira put her hands up in a show of defense, shaking her head.

"No, miss, I wasn't staring at you," Adalira hurriedly apologized, feeling as if she had started this encounter off on the wrong foot. "I just..." she paused. For some reason, being around this strange person greatly upset her, and tears burned in her eyes. "I just have never seen eyes such as yours before."

The threatening tears did not wait an instant longer; they gushed down the woman's sallow skin without impediment.

"I have heard this so much," she wailed. "People always say this, and they mean to hurt me! I cannot help that my eyes are like this! They are hideous, I knowwwww!" Here the girl trailed off in a wordless cry of despair. Adalira accidentally let a few tears free as well, although her tears did not sizzle on the rocks like the blue woman's tears did.