Now the question was, how did she deal with it? She answered first. “Well, I figured out a way to stop all this, no more good, no more evil. The struggle ends.”
But her answer was met only by a reflective silence. Eldana looked around. There were far too many mirrors to attack all of them.
“You dare to question the balance?” the king spoke.
Chills were running down her spine at the threat in the King’s voice. But yeah, she did dare.
But how the hell was she going to explain that to someone who claimed that this balance was his creation in the first place, even everyone knew he is not? All the peoples of Taos had agreed on this one thing. They all knew the cost and yet they went down this road sacrificing away. He was too deep in it to understand. She had hoped for so much more.
Eldana had to get out of here. She thought through all the spells she mastered but none of them made her go faster. She needed to create a diversion to get out. “Yes, I do.” She didn’t think twice before she shot a bolt of lightning into the ceiling.
With a crash, blocks of stone fell from the ceiling, smashing most of the mirrors nearby, but not all.
Eldana began to run. She was inches away from the door. The few mirrors that had not been hit began to transform. They grew larger and larger, closing in on her. There was no way out. Eldana ran in a zigzag and made it past one mirror. She tried hard to not look at it. Once caught, she would be gone. She ran past the second and saw a light towards the exit. There was only one mirror between her and freedom.
Eldana ran as fast as she could and fired a lightning bolt. The final mirror burst and she was free.
She had done it! She was outside but knew she couldn’t stop running. Any hope that she might have had for winning the King was gone now. They would not stop hunting her. They would not listen to her.
She had almost reached the gate, but exhaustion was spreading through her body. When would it all end? Maybe she should just give in and let it be over with!
She became overwhelmed with weakness. Nothing made sense anymore. Her whole plan was in shambles. She felt she was getting sick and the world was spinning. She stumbled through the city, heading for the outer gates – and almost got there! - when she fell. She had lost her balance for only a second and yet this was enough to throw her to the ground. Eldana could not hold on any longer. She staggered for several meters and tried to hold on to something, but that was not possible. Passers-by looked at her with confusion yet carried on with their routines. A lady from the market screamed as Eldana reached into her basket. She knocked her hand away and left hurriedly. No one would help Eldana.
After a few more meters, she fell to the ground. No one came to help. She only heard the roar of the crowd, scattered conversations of many different people. Then there was just static. The King’s magic mirrors had been far more powerful than she had given him credit for, and the toll that they exacted was terrible. She was hallucinating. She could hear all of her friends screaming. She thought she felt hands clasping her. In her hallucination, she was carried across a field of flowers by friends that she loved. They were all especially friendly and had no reason to be angry. She would just die now, she thought, and heard exotic new names and saw people she had never intended to meet. But they were all in the flower field together. All the problems of the past few weeks had faded away...
But something was wrong. The voices became clearer, like it was all real. They screamed her name from the flower field, but she could not move.
Slowly, she became curious. Was this death? She heard her name very softly but growing louder steadily. Suddenly, there was a huge wave of water, a wave that disturbed and completely soaked them all. What was happening? Eldana was confused as she tried to keep the water away. A second wave hit her in the face. She didn’t know what was happening to her. The voices became louder and now she could understand who it was. Siem was screaming her name, about to throw more water on her. The whole dream world around her collapsed. She was not dead. She was with Siem in a hiding place with lots of different people.
“Are you back?” Siem looked suspicious with the bucket of water in her hand, leaning it towards a confused Eldana.
Eldana blinked and ran a hand over her face.
“What happened?” she asked. Hermon quickly rushed to her side and held her up.
“I don’t know. You tell me. ”Siem said. “Hermon found you on the ground, some streets away from the king’s palace. He said you were muttering incoherently, and somehow you had blended with the ground. He almost did not see you. Then he brought you here.”
Eldana looked around to discover that she was in some kind of room with stone walls and fairly large shutterless windows. People were talking among themselves.
“A-All of that? That had been a dream?” Eldana said, for Siem to only shrug as she looked at her with big, worried eyes.
Not all of it, Eldana thought to herself. Not the palace itself. Not the voice of the King. But the King must have cast some sort of curse or enchantment upon her as she had escaped, or perhaps it
