Seeking the Truth

         Riana trudged along a forest trail. The crunch of the snow broke the quiet of the night. Her breath fogged in the frigid night as Riana approached her favorite spot. She sat in the snow with her back against the lone weeping willow along the bank of the ice-covered lake. It was a very cold night, but her fur-lined cloak, gloves, and boots kept her warm. Her eyes tilted toward the heartless stars above. Riana scolded herself for that last thought because those stars had lifted her spirit when she was too afraid to speak out. Through her years under her foster aunt’s strict tutelage, she had come to depend on the comforting sight of those stars.

         Riana’s thoughts drifted to her parents, and her heart ached as she tried, unsuccessfully, to conjure her mother’s image. For Riana, Mother and Father were only names with no faces to belong to them. Some people said that they died, while others said that they ran off. Those who said her parents had run away gave countless excuses: wrongly accused, escaped convicts, hunted witches, murderers, or exiled nobles. Whatever had happened, her parents had asked Lady Bevlyn to take care of their four-year-old daughter. Aunt Bevlyn would only say, “You need to get on with your life and forget about them because they aren’t coming back.” Deep inside her heart, Riana was sure that wasn’t true. Whether that feeling was a real prediction or only wishful thinking, she didn’t know.

         A shift in the atmosphere woke Riana from her reverie. Sorcery, possibly brought upon by the mysterious Ancient Ones, seemed to settle around her with the falling of the snow. Little by little, the magical tension in the air built up so that it felt like she was sitting in a dense fog. The change wasn’t uncomfortable. She relaxed, and, for a moment, she pictured the stone construction of the Ancient Ones. Riana shivered as she thought about the altar stone splashed with red and silver.

         Riana let her breath out in a long, shaky sigh after realizing she had been holding it. A noise, a feeling, like that of her own desperation, echoed her sigh in the small still clearing around the moonlit lake. Trying to attune her hearing to the sounds of the night, Riana froze upon discovering that there were none. No night birds called, no dogs barked, no mice burrowed through the snow. It was the silence that surrounded a predator or a wraith. She feared a combination of both.

         Finally daring to move, Riana cautiously slid her gaze across the scene around her: the dark silhouettes of the pines, the faint path leading back to the manor, the frozen crescent lake, and the heavenly bodies above. So, at first, she saw what she was supposed to see—nothing—but then, with a second glance, Riana noticed something different. A shadow. No. Yes, but one that wasn’t there before.

         Too scared to move, to blink, Riana tried focusing her sight on this enigma. The dark figure turned, and upon spotting Riana, started to leave. Only a supernatural creature would have been able to distinguish her from the trees and brush in the dark, but Riana didn’t care. She did not want that person to leave. Springing up, she started forming a single word, “No,” which although only came out as a whisper, caused the mysterious entity to pause and wait.

         At first, Riana didn’t know what to do. Her own actions and emotions had shocked her as much as the figure’s reaction to them did. A silver, incandescent light began to radiate from the stranger, and this assured Riana that he or she must be one of the Ancient Ones—those magical beings who liked to humor and play with mortals and their minds. Although Riana’s brain raced with every horror story about the Ancient Ones that she had been told as a child, she did not believe a single one.

         Relying on the boldness she had shown when she had uttered that single word, Riana carefully closed the distance between her and the Ancient One. Riana’s steps were slow and deliberate, as if she was trying to approach a startled deer. Stopping ten feet in front of the figure, Riana could not perceive any details of the entity’s physical form. Swallowing her fear, Riana took a deep breath and started to ask the featureless figure who or why or how, but she was stopped mid-syllable by the being.

         “Who are you?” a genderless voice asked.

         Riana paused before answering, “I am called Riana DeNevyn.”

         “That is just a name,” the Ancient One chided. “Answer my question.”

         “I don’t understand what you mean.”

         Riana could sense the entity’s eyes looking into hers, through hers, and into her soul. Without warning, a sharp pain stabbed the inside of Riana’s skull causing her to fall to her knees in agony as a great voice, a voice composed of many voices, demanded, “Who are you truly?”

         As quickly as it came, the pain subsided, but the question still echoed in her head. Without moving her eyes from the Ancient One’s, Riana honestly replied, “I don’t know.”

         In contradiction to the myths Riana had been told about how callous the Ancient Ones were, she saw a flash of emotions – sympathy and understanding – gleam across the being’s blue eyes. Blue eyes! If those eyes had been any other color, she wouldn’t have noticed them, but those blue eyes were her blue eyes. Because Riana’s eyes weren’t brown or hazel like everyone else’s in the land, she had been chased by men who thought their dark indigo was exotic, and she had been chased away by those who thought their unnatural color marked her as demon spawn. In either case, the equally unique silver streak in her hair only worsened the situation.

         “Do you know who I am?” Riana asked, rising to her feet. No matter how much she begged, Aunt Bevlyn would avoid answering any questions about her parents or any other family. Now the hope in discovering who they were and who she was had been rekindled by this mysterious creature.

         “Yes, I know you very well, Riana,” the Ancient One answered, “but you must learn the truth on your own.”

         Right then Riana was sure the spirit would fade out and leave her with her disappointment, but what happened next truly surprised her. He, she, it beckoned for Riana to follow. For a moment she hesitated, but then the being said, “Please, come with me.”

         It was a command, not a suggestion, so Riana followed the being as it glided through the forest along a path she could not see. They entered a clearing, and Riana could not refrain from gasping aloud. There in the center of the clearing stood the ruins of a stone construction rumored to have been made by the primeval Ancient Ones. Five triangular stones stood upright in a crescent shape. Each stone’s top half were blanched white, signifying Exteria, the world of the Ancient Ones and other spirits and magicks; the bottom halves of the stones were a mossy green-brown to stand for the mortal world humans called Eradde. Exactly in between the two stones that made up each point of the crescent lay a sixth stone laying flat, splattered with red and silver. This altar was where the Ancient One supposedly made human sacrifices to their cruel deities. Only Riana’s slight fear for this place held her to obey her aunt’s prohibition to ever come here. That trace of fear still lingered, but Riana did not believe she would become the Ancient Ones’ sacrifice. When the Ancient One stopped and faced her, Riana began to doubt that last thought.

         “Do you truly want to learn who you are?” the being asked her.

         Fearing of offending the true powers that controlled these grounds, Riana whispered, “Yes, I do.” The anticipation of the truth built up in her heart.

         “There is always a price, of course.”

         “I will pay it, no matter what it may be.”

         “Even if the cost is your life?” the Ancient One asked curiously.

         “We mortals all die at sometime or another,” Riana said, smiling a little, and then added more seriously, “As long as I die knowing the truth, it does not matter if I must do so now.”

         Apparently, the Ancient One didn’t understand her determination because the being questioned her again, “But why now?”

         Riana gave the answer she felt deep in her soul. “Because it is time to uncover the truth.”

         As vague as her answer was, it seemed to satisfy the Ancient One who nodded and said formally, yet sadly, “To uncover the truth you so seek, you must complete the labyrinth. The only aid you can get must be found within yourself. The maze is short; however, it tests not just physical ability, but the strength of your will, your belief, your mind, your heart, and your soul. To succeed, you must transcend upon Storin, the altar stone. Time moves quickly, so to begin, enter the cave, but once inside, the opening will seal and you cannot turn back…. You may still change your mind.”

         “And if I don’t succeed . . .?”

         “You will die. Before you pass on, the truth will be revealed to you, but any knowledge gained is wasted on the dead.”

         Nodding, Riana turned to face the cave that had not been there a moment ago. The ruins lay 100 yards away, but she did not take that short distance for granted. Looking at the Ancient One, Riana murmured her thanks, took a deep breath, and approached the mouth of the cave. The voice of the Ancient One floated toward her with a soft, feminine tone.

         Inquisitive, the being’s question came to Riana on a warm breeze. “Is this knowledge you seek truly worth dying for?”

         In answer, Riana stepped under the archway of the cave’s opening, and continued inside. About six feet away at the back of the cave lay a tunnel.

         Suddenly, it was dark. Riana didn’t need to look back to know that the entrance had been sealed. Before panic could set in, she sternly set her mind to more useful things. Her boots were a little wet, but her feet were still dry and only a little cold. She had to be careful—who knew how long she would be in the labyrinth. Riana decided that the sashes and lace on her dress would only hamper her on her journey, so she tore the useless decorations off. As she did so, she grinned, imaging Aunt Bevlyn’s reddened, scrunched, and shocked expression at such inappropriate and destructive behavior. It didn’t really matter; after this, there was no way she could go back to the manor. Taking a deep breath, Riana started her trek.

         Stubbing her toe, Riana found the opening to the tunnel and entered it. She couldn’t see any twists or turns or forks; point in fact, she couldn’t see anything but darkness. Since there was no use in keeping her eyes open, she closed them, steadied her shaking breathing and relaxed as much as she could. After a bit, Riana became more aware of her surroundings. The walls of the tunnel gave off the pungent odor of dank earth, but the air was not as stagnant as she had anticipated. A warm breeze blew gently at her face from the right-hand side of the tunnel. From that direction Riana could also detect the faint “plink…plink” of water dripping. It was as good a direction as any, so after removing her gloves to feel the surface of the walls, she followed the right wall of the tunnel, tracing the air current back to its source.

         Suddenly, her foot went through the floor, and she stumbled after. For a moment, Riana worried that she had actually taken the wrong path, but she put any doubt aside to deal with this new obstacle. All her breath was driven from her lungs by the shock of the icy, glowing water. Frantically, Riana scrambled to the surface, and as she gasped for air, her head bumped stone, only an arm-length above her. Riana reached up, searching for either the break she had fallen through or something to grab on to. Her exploring hands only banged, scratched, and slipped on flawless, solid rock. The faint light that emanated from the frigid pool provided enough illumination to view the scene of endless water. The weight of her sodden skirts and cloak convinced her that she must remove some of the heavier layers or be dragged under.

         After scraping her knuckles against the ceiling a few times and swallowing some water, Riana managed to remove everything but her thin shift. Treading water, she turned herself toward what she believed to be the direction she had been going before her mishap, and decided to swim that way as long as she could. The already low ceiling began to taper down after a few minutes, but she had room enough to get breath…so far.

         Riana came to a point where she had to stop because if she went further, she would not have room enough to get air. Her limbs ached and screamed for rest, and until the water splashed into her eyes, she hadn’t noticed her body was sinking. I will not give up! Riana cried fiercely in her mind, but it took every effort to keep her head above the water. An idea struck her—maybe the answer rested beneath the surface. There was nothing else Riana could do. She was too exhausted to swim back the other way.

         She took a few deep breaths and plunged under the water. The cold water stung her eyes, but Riana forced them to remain open. The glowing water was clear, but she could not see any bottom. Fear was useless at that point, so Riana pushed the feeling aside and swam forward.

         She continued to swim even when her chest began to hurt. She continued to swim although she was sure her lungs would burst. It was when Riana started getting light-headed that she truly began to panic. Just as she was about to give up and inhale the merciless water, she spied a round, silver, hole hanging in the water—a sort of floating portal. Without a second thought, Riana dove through.

         Upon entering the portal, her stomache dropped. She tumbled through a twisting tunnel of silver and darkness. How long she fell, she did not know. The longer she fell, the darker it became. Then, Riana's fall came to a sudden stop.

         When she slowed her frantic breathing and calmed her pounding heart, Riana noticed something very unnerving. There was no floor, or ceiling, or walls, or anything. A vast, dark oblivion stretched as far as she could see in any direction. It was a void. The term defined the nothingness accurately. Riana’s eyelids grew heavy and she thought about how much she really missed her mother. Just as a warm tenderness began to envelop her weary, chilled, sodden body, a dry, scratchy laugh startled her.

         “Hehehehe…maybe you wouldn’t be missing your mother if you hadn’t killed her!”

         Wide-awake now, Riana shrieked while looking wildly around, “I did not kill my mother!”

         “And you killed your father, too, but you don’t miss him.”

         “Who are you?” she demanded. “I did not kill my parents!”

         Ignoring her question, the heckler continued his taunting, “Well, Miss Know-It-All, who did kill them? Hmmm?”

         “I don’t know!”

         “If you don’t know, how can you be sure you didn’t kill them?”

         “I…I…” she stumbled off. Riana was at a loss for words. How did she know she hadn’t killed them?

         “Mur-der-ess! Mur-der-ess! Mur-der-ess!” the voice chanted in a singsong tone while cackling wickedly.

         She looked within herself and searched for the aid that the Ancient One had spoken of. There she found an idea, although weak. Riana called out to the nothingness, “How do you know so much about my parents? You probably don’t even know my name.”

         The voice only laughed harder. “I could tell stories upon stories about you, Riana DeNevyn.”

         Her first idea had failed, but it spawned another. She called out again, challengingly, “And how much of what you say is the truth?”

         Silence. She had hit a nerve, and hopefully it was the right one. “My parents probably weren’t murdered. They could have died accidentally, or by illness, or…or maybe they aren’t dead at all!”

         The void was again empty. A taste of truth filled her mouth. Her parents may be gone, but they weren’t dead. Groggily, Riana blinked, and when her eyes reopened, the scene had shifted. She found herself in a dimly lit stone tunnel, at a dead end.

         Drained and numb, Riana sank to the ground and curled into a ball. A fierce heat radiated from her body, but she was shivering violently. She had reached the end of the labyrinth, but she had not quite succeeded. Riana stared up at the ceiling, looking for a way up to the altar stone, but all she saw was rock. Vision blurring, the length of each blink grew longer. Riana’s mind was heavy and thick as the bedrock that surrounded her, but she would not try to go back. Pain slashed through her skull as she tried to figure out how to get up to Storin. Up to the altar stone. The surroundings seemed to fade away, and Riana was sure she was going to die. The fact that she was still going to be told the truth about herself comforted her somewhat, but she thought she would have liked to have lived a while with that knowledge.

         In front of her distant gaze shifted a dark shadow she recognized. Struggling to focus on the Ancient One who was her key to the truth, the sight of the familiar figure soothed Riana. As the being approached her, Riana stirred, apprehensive that it was another test.

         The voice was noticeably feminine as the entity said soothingly, “No, fear not. You have done well.”

         Riana relaxed a bit, and although her shaking didn’t cease, it was not as violent as before. She could feel her body begin to die and her spirit begin to rise. At first she struggled to fight it as the Ancient One watched with those mournful blue eyes, but Riana knew as well as she did that the battle would not last long. Riana’s soul was nagged by a need to go up. Up? Up! The altar stone, Storin, was above her—she was sure of it. Riana had unraveled the puzzle. She had figured out how to transcend to the altar stone. She had succeeded.

         “Congratulations, Riana DeNevyn. You have prevailed in your quest,” the Ancient One said with love, although not enthusiastically. “Now you will learn the truth and live forever with it.”

         She was going to discover the truth. That sudden insight warmed her. The pain, fever, and shivering completely dissipated. Her vision was not only cleared, but heightened as well.

         Again the scene shifted and Riana was now standing opposite the Ancient One upon Storin, the altar stone splashed silver and red. She watched the Ancient One who smiled sadly. The details of her appearance became more and more vivid.

         Without a word, she stepped forward and took both Riana’s hands into hers. Riana noticed that the immortal’s hands were cool and finely shaped, but not unaccustomed to hard work. Those hands were strong, powerful, and magical. Riana’s gaze followed up since her curiosity made her forget momentarily about the knowledge she awaited. The Ancient One had a slim figure with slight curves; her frame and poise seemed oddly familiar. Remembering the blue eyes, so like her own, but not looking at the entity’s face quite yet, Riana asked, “Are there many others with my silver streak as well?”
         “None born of the Eradde,” the Ancient One stated flatly, “but the females of your family line bear the sapphire eyes and lock of silver.”

         “None born of Eradde? That leaves only Exteria, the world of spirits and such. What type of family do I have? And your blue eyes. How can you have blue eyes if…?” Riana didn’t finish when she saw that silver streak in the Ancient One’s hair. Only one person could have such characteristics so close to her own. Mother.

         She had always thought of herself as human and never questioned it. Not until now. The realization struck her hard: not human, but an Ancient One. The more Riana wanted to deny it, the more she knew it was true. The knowledge cut her deeply. And her guide? She was the mother Riana could not recall until this moment.

         Blood from the cuts on her hands dripped silently down. With the acknowledgment of her heritage, the acceptance of the truth she had so desperately sought, Riana wept tears of silver. The red of the blood and the silver of the tears splashed together upon Storin. Riana now understood exactly what was sacrificed upon that altar stone: naïveté, mortality, security, and the familiar life to which one could no longer return.