Hall of Mirrors

Chapter 6: Endraithians

A thousand memories.

Sounds. Colors.

Joy. Agony.

Bursts of light. 

Cracks of darkness.

She felt a sinking feeling in her brain, like she was falling into an endless crevasse. The sensation that she was drowning made her want to scream, but when she opened her mouth she realized she had no mouth. She had no body. It was just her mind. Her soul. She tried to flail wildly, but she stayed eerily still, giving a mimicking of paralysis and filling her mind with frantic panic.  But the spinning feeling in her core stopped abruptly, and she felt a jolt vibrate through her mind as she fell. 

Into a memory. 

The sounds and senses were muddled and blurry, like trying to see through thick glass. But she could make out the conversation and people.

Lady Wood stood before seven dryads. The dryads all looked human, except for their clothing and their pointed ears. And their deathly pale skin. They all had beetle-black eyes. 

"You have all committed a serious offense to the Woodland Creatures," Lady Wood said, her expression stern. "You have all fallen in love with a male human. And you are now with child." 

The dryads nodded, eyes filling with tears.

"Our Magic is not private anymore, you realize. The race you will have created upon having these seven children is a half breed race, the race of creatures and men. They will hold our future in their hands. You have put our whole world in jeopardy." Lady Wood looked grim.

"These new beings will have our Good Magic," Lady Wood said. "Let us hope that the seven children you bear will know how to hold the noble gift, or heaven help us, we are destroyed." 

Lady Wood's eyes clouded, her hands starting to shake. She looked upward, her facial expression terrified. "I see the future of these new men," she said in a raspy voice that made the seven dryads all step back. "They will be known as Endraithians. They will rule well and fair, a race as noble as their beginnings." Lady Wood drew in a racking breath. "But they will fail. They will be conquered, their race overthrown by humans. Their legacy will be destroyed- for a time." 

Lady wood gasped again. The dryads all clustered closer, holding Lady Wood's arms as she doubled over, eyes clouding again. "A baby girl, snow white, the direct descendant of the Dryads and Kings, will inherit the most powerful Good Magic of all. She has the Last Gift. She will grow up with the enemy, deceived by her own father from birth. She is and will be the last Endraithian. And she can save them all. When she dies, the Good Magic dies as well. She is the last hope. When all else fails, true love's kiss will seal the bond."

Lady Wood doubled over again in pain. The dryads all grasped her shoulders, steadied her. The cloud was gone from Lady Wood's eyes. "Tell this to no one, for all will come to pass," she whispered. "But pass it on to your children and their children, down to the very last Endraithian. Then they will know what is to be done. This girl is the only thing that can save the Good Magic." 

River's core seemed to be lifting again, and she was yanked out of that memory, the beginning of Endrai. 

Her prophecy. 

She felt the familiar spinning again, and she landed this time in a horrific landscape. 

Clashes of soldiers dotted a green battlefield. One one side, the armor was silver and the crests were purple- the Bellumsilvans. On the other side, the armor was black and red- the Endraithians. The bloody combat looked grim- many Endraithians lay dead and the Bellumsilvans seemed to be conquering with their advanced weapons and large swords. 

And their leader.

In the heat of the battle on a tall chariot stood Queen Freia, her warlike beauty stunning and striking in the dazzling sun. Her golden hair was in a furious updo and wrapped with exquisite black lace, reflecting the sun in all its looming glory. Her makeup was dark and Gothic, all over her face, flaring out from her glowing violet eyes like a feathery mask and making her face shine with a god-like countenance. Her dress was slim, fitted, and shining black, deathly and heavenly all rolled into one. The skirt flared at the knees into pitch-colored lace, showing a shocking amount of leg, the bodice was tight and showy, and the neckline closed low on her breast with a band of velvet and a pin carved to look like a human skull. Her look was pure evil, and the whip she carried was a band of demonic fire. Ash flew out of the wheels of her chariot. She struck down Endraithians left and right, screaming a battle war cry that chilled River to the bone. She had never seen her mother this terrifying. 

She practically radiated hell. 

River could see from her being-less place in the sky that the Endraithians were strewn in hundreds upon the ground, obviously beaten. The ones smart enough to save their lives were running into the Forest- River recognized a few that had been in the Endraithian camp- but some stayed, fighting to the very end. At last the few that stayed were dead. Freia smiled, a cold, toneless smile that ran a shiver down River's spine. It was a smile that took joy in blood. 

Suddenly, Freia did a horrific thing. 

She flung out her arm, screaming a curse that sent a vibration through the very air. Every single body on that grisly field was turned into a Mirror. 

River recognized her own Mirror among the piles, a small one that had once been a boy younger than herself. She tried to close her eyes to block out the terrible sight, but remembered she had none in her soul-like state of being. 

"THIS BATTLE IS WON! I HAVE CONQUERED THE GOOD MAGIC!", Freia screamed, a powerful cry that reverberated through the trees. 

River's gut yanked again and she felt herself spiraling out of this memory into the next.