It was nice to have a vacation and relax after the great epic battle we had - it was a shame we had to kill Malistaire, but Grace was right - murdering a wizard who wanted to awaken one of the entities that had sundered the Spiral in order to revive their loved one was a sacrifice needed to protect the entire Spiral from being utterly destroyed by the reawakening of the great war that shattered the former world into what we know was necessary. I shook my head and prayed that whoever stole the corpse of Malistaire was giving it a decent burial and not what I thought was happening. (Oh how I was proven wrong much later...)
Just then I got an unexpected visit from my friends, the two who helped me fight Malistaire. "How's it going, carrot fairy?" said Christina Dawnblade. I had met her when Grace had left to help the pirate woman Clever Agnes Thatcher investigate the Map of El Dorado.
"Stop calling me that," I groaned, but I laughed as well. "You two look different."
Grace grinned. "We have finalized our looks. I decided to go for something more fancy, but Mma Dawnblade got a change in color."
"I had to stay true to my school colors, you know," said Christina, grinning. "I liked my old suit but this was more in tune with Balance." (I finally got the Malistaire robes stitched to these two. The dress was a dress dropped by the Black Widow. It's a bit formal but I sort of like it. ^_^)
"Well, but..." She paused. "Well, you hear about one of the guards suddenly disappearing on Colossus Boulevard? Well, turns out he wasn't eaten by Gobblers..."
"You ever hear of Briskbreeze Tower?"
I shook my head. "Sounds like a vacation spot."
"Trust me, it's NOT," said Christina. "I got molested by this evil Scarecrow which summoned fire elementals that blasted me with fireballs! Then there was this Wraith which cast Heckhounds which did a lot more damage than I had expected and summoned evil golems that I couldn't scratch! Luckily Sailor Mercury bailed me out of that jam."
I sighed in relief. The thought of losing Christina to death was too scary. "Go on..."
She showed two keys. "I found these keys on the Wraith's corpse and uned the skeleton key to unlock the door to the top floor, where the soldier was being held. He told me that the wraith was taunting him, telling him that something BIG AND EVIL was coming to the Spiral, and that Krokotopia was the next step. I was going to Krok anyways to speak with old Al, my professor."
"Really?" I asked.
Grace arrived. "I asked her to... in order to investigate another mystery..."
She began. "My professor, Rra Balestorm, summoned me and told me that he had been using a strange mechanical device he invited called the Omni-something to detect storm signals through the Spiral, and he recently got a strange garbled message in one of the transmissions. He had installed the device in the Storm Mill on Triton Avenue and asked me to investigate it."
"I bet Blad wasn't very happy about that," I giggled.
"You would be right," said Penny with a sigh. "He was very unreasonable."
"But he did let us use the device and we inscribed a very strange transmission," said Grace. "So I asked Mma Dawnblade to go ask her professor if he could translate. My Professor sent me to Zan'ne, who explained that Alhazared had something that could translate any language..."
"Al did have such an item, or HAD it," said Christina. "The Stone of Mazzaroth could translate any language written or spoken... but some Krokomummy called Typhon Dustwind stole it from under his snout and was holed up in the Djeserit Tomb, so I went to the Tomb of Storms and found him... with a very strange creature. How can I describe it?"
"It looked like the Undead Wizards in Dragonspyre, but it looked like a bug! It hissed when it spoke, and it was VERY strong! It didn't help that my Judgement could do much to it." Christina got visibly worried and for the first time, I saw fear in her face. She grinned immediately. "But I survived and got a piece of the Stone. That mummy mocked me and said that the Stone was in pieces and the others were held by stronger foes."
"After conferring with Mma Dawnblade," said Grace. "We spoke with my Professor - he said the pieces of the stone resonate with each other so we could find the other quickly. The other pieces were in Mooshu and Dragonspyre, so I went to Mooshu and followed the stone piece and it lead to a place in the Village of Sorrow where a pig bandit was conferring with a pair of creatures... it was as Mma Dawnblade had described, vile insect humanoids in robes. The bandits called them Shadow Weavers and they nearly defeated me."
I felt an ill omen."Did you win?"
"I would not be here today if I did not," said Grace, smirking. Her new-found power was clearly getting a little to her head. "But we would like you to investigate Dragonspyre. From what the stone reaction is, the final piece is in the Crucible."
"I'm on it," I said, eager for adventure and yet a bit dreading the experience. I had a feeling things would get a lot more scary from now on. (Grace was dropped to 229 HP but we managed to pull out a Storm Lord; the Balance Weaver had thrown up an Elemental Shield but the Viridan Blade came through and finished him off. Closest battle ever!)
I took the gate to the Basilica and followed the instructions give me, entering a house. I gasped in horror - four vile creatures were hovering over a ghost woman and speaking in hissing tones.
"Our queen will make it worth your while," hissed the leader.
"No! I have heard about this Wizard!" said Vesna. "No price is enough!"
The creature hissed. "Very well! We'll deal with your treachery once we have taken care of this girl!"
Needless to say, this was the hardest battle I had faced - the leader was Myth and I was outnumbered four to one, but I eventually got through it. (I have to give props to the strange mouse man called Raggedy Max and his elephant pal, Aejej Stonetusk, for helping me out. I couldn't have done this alone.) (More henchs, but I only bought the two - the Level 100 Life and the Level 70 Balance. Max used Forest Lord to take out the Balance Weaver and Death Weaver and Aejej's Chimera took out the Storm Weaver with the first hit. Then a buffed Frog took out the last guy.)
"You are pretty strong," said the woman. "I was offered gold to hide piece of Stone. Here, allow me to restore the Stone of Mezzaroth to its original state."
I smiled. "That will save us a trip to Krokotopia!" I handed her the pieces my friends had given me.
She waved her hands and the pieces flew together, forming a giant monolith carved with runes.
"Who are these Shadow Weavers?" I asked.
"Vile creatures!" said Vesna in disgust, spitting on the ground. "They appeared in Dragonspyre some time ago, about the time you defeated Malistaire. They clearly have some ulterior motive as does their wretched queen. May they all burn in the lava of the Great Spyre forever!"
I realized I was feeling how Ashley felt when she said she had a chill down her spine - I felt a deep chill down mine... I had a feeling I'd meet this 'queen' soon enough. I shook my head.
I approached the stone and pressed the box that had the transmissions in it to it. The box flared to life and there was gibberish language... but the stone glowed and it played again, this time in normal.language.
"Mayday! Mayday! This is Thurston Plunkett of the Spiral Geographical Society, seeking assistance! Our expedition is stranded on Celestia! We are under attack! The Umbra Queen has returned! It is the work of Mor--- " The transmission cut off.
I wrote down what I had heard and hurried back to Ravenwood, but not before stopping by the Krokosphinx so I could telll Al where he can pick up his stone.
I nodded. A new world awaited us, and someone was in trouble there. I booked it to Marleybone.
Unfortunately, the news wasn't good. Walter told me that the Spiral Key to Celestia was kept in the old Spiral Geographic Society archives warerhouse... which had suddenly been occupied by bandits from Hyde Park. This was not good, but I decided to tempt fate and hope for the best.
"You crazy carrot fairy!" said a voice. I turned and saw my friends. "You think we're gonna let you tackle this alone? Fat chance!"
"We work together, Mma," said Grace.
"Thanks," I said. "Let's go find the key."
The first couple of floors weren't too bad, just ruffians and a puzzle. (Which we flubbed and ended up in another fight...)
And then I met the crab guy.
The first round, he threw a shield on himself and caused an Earthquake to erupt. Luckily we hadn't bladed up yet. Then three skeletons appeared from thin air. We had to take them out ASAP.
Penny unleashed her Sirens and with blades on everyone but the ice skeleton perished in one hit. Christina defeated that guy with Judgement. ^_^
"Easy peasy," said Christina.
"I dunno," I said. "That crab guy cast two spells at once, this bodes ill..." My spine tingled again.
(If you want to know about General Stormclaw and his minions, go to Mercs101.com and check out their article here.)
"Someone is hiring these crooks to watch for us," said Grace. "This bodes ill, Mma."
"I know," said Christina. "Whoever it is, he must not want anyone to go to Celestia."
"How did you know about that?" I asked.
"Rra Balestorm told us about what the message said," said Grace. She grew silent and pouted and I sensed that there was more she couldn't tell me yet. I dropped the matter. (There is another puzzle but you can't solve it with only three people as it involves three people hitting floor plates and the fourth pulling a lever. Ugh.)
We reached the top and found another of those horrifying creatures. Unlike the specters, these Shadow Weavers had robes that billowed out like dresses.
"You will be rewarded well by our queen when we have the key," said the Shadow Weaver. I couldn't see his mouth move but heard a gravely deep voice that sounded like a undead troll. "Just make sure they do not cast any global spells."
"We've got company, boss," said the other rat magician.
The creature turned to us. "It matters not, you will not get the Spiral Key! Destroy them!"
It turned out that the cat thug would suddenly cast a powerful healing spell that summoned Bartleby if we healed, so we had to heal first and then attack...
And we had to heal as that thing launched a fireball that was like Christina's Power Nova! It did a lot of damage and we nearly died! But suddenly Grace cast Darkwynd and when the field of electricity rose up, the Shadow Weaver screeched and shook its head. "That's it!" I said. "That was a global spell and it weakens him! Quickly, all together!"
I launched my Frog, Christina did a Sandstorm which took out the rat magicians, and Grace finished the others off with Penny's chant. We cheered as the thug and bug collapsed.
(If you want to know about Estrakir Gloomthorn and his minions, go to Mercs101.com and check out their article here. Also, the boss respawns so I had to flee as soon as I got the event trigger. What a nasty twist!)
"NO!" we cried as the bug-man spat on the key and it melted into slag. Then he groaned out words:
"The Mirror shall Break,
The Horn shall Call,
From the Shadows I Strike,
And the Sky shall Fall!"
His laughter echoed in the air as he died. I cried as I picked up the metal slag...
It formed into a broken key. I shook my head as tears ran down my face. "We'll never get to Celestia."
"Let's give the bad news to Rra Balestorm," said Grace in despair.
"Cheer up, we'll find a way," said Christina, trying to be the light in the darkness.
The news Professor Balestorm had was comforting. "Can you really fix a Spiral Key?"
"We Professors were given the knowledge of making the Spiral Keys by Bartleby himself," said Halston, smirking. "It's a small matter to repair a broken key! Relax and take a break. I'll call you when I have repaired the key, and then I'll duplicate it for your friends so you can all explore the wonders of Celestia!" He tipped his top hat and I knew he was honest.
"Well, that's that," Christina said. "We'll have to be patient."
"Rra Balestorm will fix the key," said Grace, smiling. "In the meantime, how about a tea break? We have been through rough times."
"Okay," I said. "Just let me tend my garden..."
DANG IT HEADMASTER!!!! CAN'T I GARDEN IN PEACE?!? :(
[To be continued...]
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