PAXLAIR - June 2, 1999 - Anonymous

The footsteps sounded light, but haunted from the ancient walls of stone. In a rushing of cloths, a slender woman hurried through the dark corridors toward the Hall. A desperate look on her face, she tried to hasten her pace even further without beginning to run. Faster, she thought, i must not disappoint him.

She had almost reached the massive iron doors that protect (trap, a thought flashes through her mind) the Hall as she hears the voice calling for her, stopping her cold and then lurching her forward through the doors: "Melina! I am waiting..."

Steadying her pace and catching her breath, she stepped through the doors into the vast cavern of the Hall. Dropping her gaze, she avoided to look at the bed-like altar in the middle of the room and concentrated on the red glow of the crystal, from which the voice sounded. "I am here, master."

The voice broke in a little laughter, both mocking and sad: "Where else, Melina, where else? We have always been here in this crypt, your family and me... I have always been in here, always starrred at this ceiling with my never closing eyes, for more than just one life-time..." A heavy sigh seemed to manifest from the very air itself. "But noone dies forever my dear, noone suffers for eternity..."
"No, master."
"Ah, Melina, poor Melina. Do you ever get tired of the waiting, did you ever get tired of being in here?"
"No, master, not me...i..."
"But your daughter did!" he reminded her in a flat voice,
"Yes, master, she did. As the earthquake opened the cavern, she was out and i could not stop her. She ran straight into the servants of British... And she paid for it, as was to be expected. I could not tolerate her treason." A tear glistened on the unmoving face of Melina.
"It was a great sacrifice of you to kill your own child, my dear, one that i will not forget. But that her soul was trapped in that strange fountain was...unexpected. And she even managed to speak from within. Your blood has always been strong. Alas, no harm was done. They took it for just another prophecy to stow away in their vaults, not thinking twice. They even trusted you after this. An added bonus, although the price..."
Melina straightened herself: "I live to serve you, my liege. She shouldn't have ran away. I failed in teaching her the proper ways. It is all my fault."

"Sometimes i wonder who is to blame, or who is the teacher and who the students," he mumbled, "But enough of the past! The Plan proceeds well, my dear. They swallowed the bait we threw them. For these great heroes it could have been no less than the destruction of the world!" A cackle sounds from the crystal, desperate, hopeless. "If they only would know how true it was... but not the way they thought. The thirst for revenge of the necromancers of Hrathmor was never more than a tool, but all sides thought the very world the price... as if i would endanger my land, ha! I expected the necromancers to cast the part of the spell i had forbidden and took preparations. And i expected our shining heroes to 'rescue' the precious book and save the day."

Melina glanced at the manuscripts from which she had assembled the book under her masters guidance. "They were easy to fool, master. With the heavy resistance, noone questioned the importance of the book."
The red shine seemed to intensify a bit more, almost expressing amusement.
"Aye, that was the reason. You always desire that which you should not have. The necromancers desired power, the heroes desired fame and Atlan... was he desiring revenge or salvation? I am not sure... he still is ignorant to my teaching, as the rest of them. But he holds the key, without him knowing. Everything is spread out before them, but they refuse to see it, and even he proves more resistant than expected."

"But you said, it is not necessary for them to understand it yet, master. Why do you want them to solve the puzzle?", Melina asked.
"Ah, my dear, wouldn't it be so much more graceful for them to actually understand? If they fail, they will die ignorant, not even knowing what has cast them into oblivion. But if they survive, ah, if they survive, the multivers will open up to them, creating them anew in spirit and soul! Shouldn't they know the choices they have? But maybe it is only my hubris to want them to know why i did all what i did... had to do..."
The voice trailed off and the light dimished, but then came back to new brilliance.
"Anyway, we still have much to do. They had enough time to either forget the important details or to deepen their understanding, although i doubt they did. They did a marvellous job by crafting me the Golems, however... Now it is time to put them to use...activate the Golem of Love!"

She approached the altar and reached for the strange Device that was embedded into the lower half: a pyramid made of blackrock. Attached to this pyramid were three coins of a similar material, each with an etched symbol on it. Her fingers grasped around the one with the circle at its centre. With a low humming sound, the coin broke free from the pyramid and began to pulsate slowly with energy. As she carried it farther away toward one of the limp bodys in their thrones, it drew a faintly visible line of red light into the air.

Before she put it into the opening of the Golem, she hesitated for a moment. "Master, is it really necessary?" - "Melina, if there would be ANY other way, i would take it. But there is none. It has to be done..." With a twist of her hands, she placed the coin firmly in the clasps and closed the hatch, and suddenly, the voice was not behind her anymore, but it came from the body in front of her "... it has to be done."

The lifeless eyes began to glow and the body jerked upwards, eventually standing in front of her. "How i loathed this feeling... to have a body, to walk and to touch! Alas, i cannot remain in this body for long, it draws too much of my magical energys, crippling my abilitys to cast. I have to hurry, Melina, preparations have to be made..."

NOTE: This is part of a continuing PaxLair Player Quest, not a Seer Quest.