The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 26ii

Adrian is not alone in his affliction. A piece of my own soul was torn away the night that he left me. But the sight of him in that chamber reminded me of that for which I am fighting. And for as long as I breathe, I will keep fighting. And god himself will not save those who stand in my way.

The next chamber must be the final chamber. I know this because of who greets me. "Hello, Scarlett." A very familiar female voice speaks to me. "What's the matter? You look as though you've seen a ghost." The air in my lungs leaves and refuses to return. This isn't just any ghost; it's me.

My shadow self stands by the Speculo Animam and caresses the smooth glass with her middle finger. "Ready for the last challenge?" All right, keep it together, Scarlett. It's just another stupid rid... Shadow Scarlett charges at me and delivers a perfect roundhouse kick straight to my face. The torch falls to the floor, and so do I. "Were you expecting another riddle?" She smirks.

The blow was crippling, but I summon enough strength to crawl away from her. I clutch my face where her shin struck me, suffering through the pain. "What is so damn special about you?" She kicks me again in the abdomen as if I'm a soccer ball. I am too wounded to fight back, so the only thing I can do is groan and curse my damn subconscious. "You're not a prodigy. You have no army of your own. You're eighteen years old and have no real experience. How can you hope to turn the tide in a millennia long blood-feud?"

I claw my way across the floor, trying to get as much distance between Shadow Scarlett and me as possible. "The only meaningful thing you've done with your life is making Adrian fall in love with you, and god knows how that happened. Look at how that all worked out." A scornful laugh fills the room.

She stomps on my back, and this quickly becomes a re-run of my first fight with Diana. I lose the ability to even crawl any further and accept my fate at the hands of my own dark reflection. "You are nothing compared to those with whom you surround yourself. You are a pretender princess, an incompetent warrior, and an unworthy wife."

"But I will not surrender!" I howl, and the words echo in the stone chamber. "You can kill me, but you will never break me!" And that's when it hits me. Every challenge I've faced so far has been a manifestation of one negative emotion that hinders me. Sophie was guilt, Selena was fear, and Arianna was insecurity. What would myself represent?

Everything that my shadow self has used to taunt me is a reminder of my own inadequacy. She has mocked my abilities, my upbringing, and my importance to Adrian – all the things that I doubt. That is what she is – doubt. She is my self-doubt!

"I know I'm not perfect." Magically, my pain lessens, and my strength returns. I stand up to face my shadow self. "But I know what I'm capable of, and I know that I have value. The fact that I'm here right now, enduring my self-induced hell, is proof of that." Shadow Scarlett grimaces at me. "The only strength you have is the strength that I give you. You only exist if I allow you to exist." My dark reflection shrieks madly and lunges herself at me. Yet I stand unbroken, and like all the others, she shatters into oblivion.

The stone chamber begins to shift again. The bricks rearrange themselves exactly as they were when I entered, sealing the doorway. And in the opposite end, the steel door through which I entered reappears. Inspecting my body, I see that there's not a scratch on me. Everything that happened was in my head.

The door opens, and Samir and Anessa enter. "Congratulations!" Samir grins with satisfaction. "I had no doubt you would succeed. My daughter is an excellent judge of character." As I smile back, I vow to myself that once I am done with the Ashcrofts, I will come back here and lock his sorry ass inside this room.

"You said that it would only take a small amount of time." I say. "I've been in here for almost half a day."

"No actually, you've been here for about twenty minutes." Samir replies. I squint in confusion. "Time passes more quickly in this room. Or rather in your mind." Anessa looks at me like a woman who just found out her mother's cancer went into remission. She must have been in this room before.

"What is the Via Domos?" I ask. I have no interest in sharing pleasantries with this twisted psychopath. As we exit the room, I pound the steel door, leaving behind a thin sheet of frost. I'll die before I ever go back in there.

Samir leads us to a study. He opens a large safe and removes a long, cylindrical box with the utmost care. Inside the box is a rolled-up piece of thick fabric, which covers the entire desk when unrolled. "This is the Via Domos." Samir says with reverence. The Conduit is a map. "Its name means The Way Home in Latin. Place your hand on the map, and it will show you the location of that which you value most in this world."

The fact that House Claudius was able to create a magical map of the world more than a thousand years before Christopher Columbus existed speaks volumes about how powerful they must have been. Back in the days of the Roman Empire, Isabella's ancestors must have been a superpower. I would love to know exactly how they were defeated.

I place my hand on the map as Samir instructed. The map functions like a supernatural version of Google Maps. It zooms in on six locations; three in London, two in Paris, and one on an island off the southern coast of Great Britain. I use my cellphone to record everything it shows me.

For the locations in London and Paris, it shows me five office buildings, and then it transforms from a two-dimensional map, into a three-dimensional map. It shows me intricate designs of underground structures beneath these office buildings. These must be House Ashcroft's strongholds. The sixth location is a mystery; it is just a big, empty forest on sparsely populated island.

"Where is Adrian?" I ask. Samir doesn't answer. I look to Anessa, and she is just as oblivious. "The whole point of me coming here was to find Adrian. You said that this map would show me where he is. Adrian can't be in six different places at once!"

"The Via Domos does not lie. If it shows you six places, it means that you desire six different things in six different places." Samir answers flatly.

"You lying piece of shit!" I slam my fist against Samir's desk, my rage on the verge of overpowering my common sense. "You made me go through hell for this! This map is worthless!" I scream.

Anessa places a hand on my shoulder. "Please Scarlett, calm yourself. What my father said was true; the Conduit does not lie. Adrian is almost certainly in one of these places."

Bullshit. If the map really were telling the truth, it would be showing Vimana Acropolis. Because right now, there is nothing I want more than to blow Samir's brains out.

Anessa and I turn to leave, and I cannot believe that I am walking home empty-handed. "Remember," Samir calls out to us. "Lex Clementiae." I clench my fists the entire way out.

On the way back to the airport, I ask Anessa, "Your father has some pretty powerful toys. Between your abilities and his collection of Conduits, he must be the most well-informed person in the world."

"Not as much as you might think." Anessa grimaces at the rear-view mirror as we leave the gates. "The Via Domos only works one time for one person. My dad used it when he was a kid, and it led him to a massive oil deposit. He swindled the man who owned the land into selling it to him, and he built an oil well on top of it. That money sustains my family even today. And as for me, my father has to stay on my good side if he wants to use me as his oracle."

We drive in silence for a long while before Anessa brings up the elephant in the car. "The Via Domos showed you all of House Ashcroft's strongholds, and it gave you explicit information on how to infiltrate them. That must mean that you desire to see House Ashcroft fall just as much as you want to save Adrian." I close my eyes and focus on nothing but the wind in my hair. I don't trust a magic map to tell me what I want.