Chapter 39: Mystical Mirror Labyrinth

Avabella

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“Mairi approached me before the battle of the Supreme Castle… I thought she was going to help the pack… I didn’t know she had this plan laid out for a while now to get to know more of Alpha Elias, Avabella. I swear, I had no idea!” Sangye said.

I could only crease my forehead while letting the information sink into my brain. “So, it wasn’t you who I met? It was Mairi then?”

She glided to face me and nodded her head mournfully. “I only knew about you by the monitor-like thing that showed me what happened outside this cage. I’ve been here for a couple of years now. She only left my body with me when you and Alpha Elias got here in her own realm. Please, Avabella! Help me! Alpha Elias is in danger right now! He needs us! If… if she got his soul… and go to the spirit realm, I-I think it’s too late!”

I froze when I heard it. I could feel my blood go down my feet and I paled. “What?” It only came out as a whisper. I blinked, forgetting that the glass was burning my skin, I touched the glass. I winced and cursed. “We can’t let it happen!” I bawled.

Darn it! I tried to think fast while Sangye filled me in what happened then. If my maker hasn’t come here yet to rescue us, that meant the realm was cloaked or something. I couldn’t just rely on Maria Adriana, so I had to do something to save us all from all of this, especially Elias.

My eyes turned red, making Sangye glide back and away from me. Good girl.

I remembered Luis was no immune to the ice, so I decided to use it around the glass to break it. I smirked when it was covered all over. I couldn’t see Sangye or her body anymore. I gritted my teeth as I made I crushing motion with my hand. To my disappointment, only the ice was crushed, leaving the glass cage unscathed. Darn it!

“You can’t break it?” Sangye asked the obvious; her hands were against the glass and peered at me.

I let out another curse. I tried using the fire element, sending the glass cage in a firestorm. But not a tiny soot stained the enchanted glass cage. It was pissing me off minute by minute. I vowed to make Mairi pay for all of this! Her spectral body will burn into oblivion once I got my hands on her!

I used even the wind element combined with water but still in vain. The water just flooded the room. I waved my hand to remove it, drying the floor and the glass cage. I breathed raggedly due to my anger.

“Maybe a reverse incantation can break this enchanted glass cage, Avabella,” Sangye suggested.

“I don’t know much about incantations, Sangye.”

Her eyes lit up. “What about retrieval enchantment?”

“Retrieval? I don’t know anything about that.”

“Oh, I know! I’ll tell you and you can use it!” she said excitedly.

I looked at her with hesitance. “Oh-kay? Tell me.” I took a deep breath, preparing myself.

Sangye’s lips curved sideways. “You have to touch the glass for this, though.”

I sighed noisily. “Fine! I think I can do it. I heal fast.”

She nodded. “Okay. You have to recite it nine times.”

“Nine times?” My eyes bulged. That meant I had to touch the glass for a longer period of time! Darn! A second of it already scalded me. How about a minute or longer than that?

‘Again, I’m really going to kill that spaewife witch!’ I promised to myself.

“Yeah. You have to, for this one.”

“Okay. Let’s do this!”

She looked deep into my eyes before she spoke the incantation.

“My body is earth,

My blood is water,

My breath is air,

My spirit is fire,

My love is all,

Everything around me is my strength,

Body and soul, I call, I writ!”

She paused, looking at me. I arched my eyebrows. “That’s it?”

She nodded in confirmation. “Yes. Try it!”

I took a deep breath and rubbed my hands together. I positioned my one hand to direct Sangye’s spirit, which was on my left, while the other is to direct her body, which was on my right. When I thought I was ready upon memorizing the incantation, I slowly laid my hands on the glass. Once my skin made contact on the glass cage, the searing pain of burning flesh hit me. But I did my best to say the incantation nine times, trying to endure this torment.

Slowly, I saw Sangye’s spirit being sucked into her own body, making her smile. And right after I finished the incantation, the shamaness was out of the enchanted glass cage.

“Ah!” I panted when I moved my hands away from her prison. My hands were sizzling skeleton when I looked at them, shaking. “¡Maldición!”

Sangye smiled and held my skeletal hands gently. She chanted something I couldn’t understand, maybe in her native tongue, and my eyes widened. The pain faded from my senses, and the flesh regenerated in a couple of blinks or so.

“Thank you for helping me out of the cage, Avabella!” she said with grateful eyes.

I gasped when she suddenly hugged me by the waist. Her head lay resting against my breasts.

“It was so awful to be imprisoned in the darkness, without my powers, Avabella. I thought it was better to die!”

“Oh, Sangye…”

“But I’m really glad you’re Alpha Elias’ mate!” she said tearfully. “This is all my fault!” Her eyes searched my face.

I opened my mouth before I assured her, “No, it isn’t. And everything will be fine.” Her scent of sweet lotus wrapped around me.

She nodded. “We have to go. I know he needs us now!” She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand.

“Right! And that Mairi will pay for all that we’ve been through!”

“I never killed anyone, Avabella but I want to really do that to her!” Sangye’s jaw was set firmly as she gritted her teeth. Her small fists were tight that I could almost literally see her vengeful aura.

We walked through the entrance-exit open doorway and found ourselves trapped in this labyrinth of mirrors. I broke all of it with a wave of my hand, but they all got fixed in a matter of seconds afterward. But during the time window of all that, I could only see darkness around us.

“So… if I may I ask… Your scent is totally different from Mairi’s, which is dahlia. Why didn’t Elias or the others notice it?”

The mirrors were now completely back in their places like nothing happened.

“Right. Glad you noticed it. But I think she did something to cover it and deceive the entire pack and the others who already know me,” she answered sadly.

We continued to walk around, turning right. It was all mirrors around us. It was never-ending. I burned down the entire place this time, leaving me and Sangye safe in the shield bubble I created to protect us from the raging fire. Still, we couldn’t see the end of this place. The exit was nowhere. After an hour of burning it, the mystical mirror labyrinth rearranged itself, confusing us in the process. Great!

I turned to look at Sangye. “Any other powerful incantation up your sleeve to get us out of here?”

She was quiet, pursing her lips while she wracked her brain. While she was on it, I froze the mirrors and broke them again. Ice pieces were scattered all around. I blazed the entire place after that, to give us light. Still, no exit from what I can see.

“Do you think the exit is underneath or above us?” I asked, looking up and down. My eyes were swiftly scanning the entire place while the fire illuminated our way.

“I don’t know for sure.”

“I remember I came from above since I was sucked in by the spaewife’s magical quicksand.”

“I doubt it but maybe we can try.”

“You think it’s a good idea?”

“We’re trapped in here. There’s nothing wrong in trying.” She shrugged.

“What if it’s going to collapse and hedge us in even more?”

“I can help you with getting rid of everything afterward,” she smoothly rejoined like everything was easy peasy.

I let out a breath. Using the earth element, I created an earthquake above us. Pieces of glass mirrors rained down on us. ¡Dios mío! I waved a hand to protect us from the falling debris, big and small. We looked up and there was a ray of light that seemed to blink. But before we knew what it was, water poured down like a flash flood, washing us away from where we stood.

Oh, Lord! The icy water almost drowned us if we both hadn’t used our magic to free us from the colorless liquid. It receded until the floor was dry. Our clothes were so wet and we were naturally soaked to the bones! Sangye shivered, and she conjured another dry clothing on her. It was a Tibetan robe, with red, green and yellow colors. She also conjured another pair of boots that was almost knee-high.

I conjured clothing for myself, too. I decided to wear a pair of stretchable pants of dark green color and yellow sweatshirt, paired with black ankle boots. I felt comfortable in them while Sangye eyed me with a smile.

“You look pretty in yellow,” she praised me.

I snorted my thanks. “So, the exit is not above. It’s like we’re underwater.” I fingered my wet hair. I swept it again until it was dry.

Sangye did the same for her wet hair. “You mean… we’re underneath the pond?”

“Probably.” I was thinking hard, forehead creased. “If that is so, we’re not altogether in another realm, Sangye. Mairi just built a place that cannot be easily detected by magic or otherwise.”

She looked at me with confusion while the mirrors started to appear around us again. It was making my anger rise to the surface once more. I tried to ignore it, thinking hard to escape from this wretched place. I really couldn’t wait to get out of here and kill that evil bodach! I was missing the sunshine, the beach and… yeah, Elias! Darn it! I am yearning for him. I know it was just a few hours since we’ve seen each other but it already felt like forever!

“Should we go up and up until we know what really is there? Maybe the water is not everything up there. It could be our exit after all.” Sangye disturbed my deep thoughts—and feelings.

I looked at her. “Are you serious?”

“We can just use your bubble shield, so we don’t have to have unwanted swimming.” She lifted a shoulder carelessly.

“And when we’re up there while Elias is here, what then? Can we still get back and rescue him?”

We both sighed. Sangye kicked a mirror in frustration. The mirror broke into pieces only to get fixed by itself a few moments later.

“That bodach is mine, Avabella!” she shouted out of the blue, turning to me. Her little eyes were fiery. She was cute all the same.

My vampire red eyes flashed. “She’s mine, Sangye. She’ll be nothing when I’m through with her!” My hand was raised in a fist.

“I want to torture her!” She kicked the mirror again, breaking it.

I momentarily saw how her foot got lost while kicking it. I tilted my head to one side. “Kick another mirror, Sangye.”

“Huh?” She was confused.

“Kick another mirror,” I repeated. I was beginning to smile when she did it. “Hah!” I gleefully exclaimed, slapping my thigh.

“What?” The little shamaness still didn’t get it.

“We were fooled, Sangye! Darn that spaewife witch!”

“What is it, Avabella? Have you figured out how to get us out of here?” She was excited. Her eyes twinkled.

“Oh, yes! That darn specter! She made our heads ache on how to get out of here. The mirrors, Sangye. The mirrors!”

“Come on! Don’t drag it on, Avabella! Tell me already!”

I grinned at her. “The mirrors. They’re all our doors to get out of here.”