• Closed • Imperfections of the Heart (Arlo, Vega)

[Oracle]

98th of Ashan, Arc 718 - Afternoon

Mistral Woods was a peaceful place, filled with the melodic singing of birds and the distant calls of forest dwelling beasts. A warm gentle breeze drifted through the canopy sending the leaves whispering as they brushed against one another. The sound of cascading water murmured in the distance where a tributary of the Zynyz River meandered its way through the woodland before ending at a brief waterfall. The water pooled beneath this cascade in a shallow pond with smooth pebbles coating the bottom. At the end of this glistening body of water rested the yawning mouth of a cavern.

Ever the wandering travelers, Arlo and Vega were visiting the forest to-trial, their footsteps crunching lightly as they moved through the woodland. Indigo and fuchsia hued stormflowers were in bloom and dotted the base of trees and the edge of the gurgling creek.

Arlo and Vega had been through a great deal in the past, suffering, hurt and guilt between the two of them. Vega had been shattered, quite literally. Death had come to her, before being brushed away like a troublesome cobweb. She had been remade by fire like a broken sword that had been reforged, but fractures would always remain in her core, in her heart of hearts. Arlo himself had searched for his father, to no avail. What does that do to a child, what does it do to the man to have never known your parent? It was the sort of pain that left scars on the soul, little imperfections that stalked one forever through life. The pair bore their wounds well, leaning on each other for support when needed.

Scars are a funny thing, they are a constant reminder of the damage we have suffered, of the wounds we have borne, but they are also a part of who we are. Would Arlo be the same man if he had always known his father from birth? Would Vega be the same woman if she had never died? Scars are the marks left on our souls as we make our way through life. What if on a whim you could simply erase them?

Suddenly a cold icy wind began to blow from the mouth of the cavern, tugging at Vega and Arlo’s clothes like a crying child looking for comfort. The birds ceased in their singing and the melodic gurgling of the water became dissonant and almost uncomfortable to hear.

There in the mouth of the cavern stood a little girl, appearing out of nowhere. Her eyes were nearly obscured by a matted cascade of hair; although a pair of hopeful deep green eyes could still be seen peering at Vega and Arlo. She wore a tattered brown linen dress and her feet were bare. Along her arms and legs were scrapes, cuts and bruises that were only half healed. The girl seemed to stare at the couple for a few trills before a tall feminine silhouette appeared in the darkness behind the child. Even in the poor lighting the woman appeared almost inhumanly tall, with perfectly sculpted features and gray stone-like skin. The woman reached for the girl and gently pulled her back toward the depths of the cave. The pair vanished as they both walked into the cavern together; the distant sound of a child softly weeping seeming to follow in their wake.

[Vega]

Oracle, your post made me think of this song

"It's right pretty 'ere, innit?" Vega said with a glance over to him. They'd come to Mistral Wood because... well, because it was here. The pair of them individually needed no more impetus than that and together? Well, together they had been in no doubt. "I mean, it's warmin' right up an' everythin'." He was keeping an eye on her, she was on him and it was always this way between them. Vega had missed this, so much that she barely had words for how she felt to be walking next to him. Just the act of putting one foot in front of the other and going where she wanted to go, under her own steam and at her own behest was a delight to her. But it was more than that. Since the time at the docks, where she had died, Vega realised that she wanted, more than anything, to enjoy every single bit and trill. To live their lives together, happy and exciting and wonderful lives. Exploring new places was part of it, of course, but the cynical, cantankerous and largely obnoxious mixed race woman had always been fundamentally hopeful, curious and excited about life. Things just seemed more vivid, more there. She supposed, if she thought about it, there was an argument which said that she had lost it all and so understood its worth.

"Oh, look at those flowers! They're well pretty." Vega was looking around with wide eyes, drinking in the sights and sounds with eyes which swam with orange and green. She was well wrapped up, even though the weather was better they both knew better. High boots, thick skirts and warm trousers underneath them; keeping her legs warm was important, she knew and she didn't mess around with that. All of that, of course, was as usual for her as the sword at her hip and the bow at her back. Stopping, suddenly, she turned to him and her face lit in a smile. "Xiur's perky nips, Arlo, I've missed this. Us, doin' this. I know you know that, but you know, I 'ave." There's been a time when they were simply never nice to each other, before they got together as a couple and those trials were behind them now. "An' I know you'd have been by my side no matter what, but flop-a-mop, I'm glad it's like this." Of course, those trials of being rude as a sign of affection weren't really that far behind them and could catch up easily enough. "I'd 'ave got right bored sittin' an' lookin' at you all trial." She put her hand into his and said nothing more, because there was not a need.

But then, things changed. Like the colours of her eyes or, if she was honest with herself, her moods, their surroundings seem to spin on the side of a silver nel. With a shiver as the wind suddenly bit cold against her, against them, Vega recognised that the sounds were different and the feel was different as they seemed to have moved from Cheery Forest of Pretty to Gloomy Woods of Doom, but all of that was very peripheral for her.

"Hey there," she said, to the child who had more or less appeared in front of the entrance to the cavern. "Are you a'right, love? Are you lost?" Vega should be cautious, she knew, of strange children who suddenly appeared. Last time, after all, she'd tried to help a child, she'd ended up possessed by a fire demon, prone to bursting into flames or being engulfed in molten lava.

It had been quite the relationship inconvenience, the redhead considered with an ironic smile.

"I'm Vega, this is Arlo. Are you with someone?" Oh, it seemed she was, Vega thought as she recognised that there was a very (very) tall woman.. "Is she...oh, ok." The woman didn't say anything, but the two of them stepped back into the cavern and Vega sighed. "We're gonna go in there, so shall we jus' do it?" She looked at him and smiled a shadow of a smile. "It's a child, innit. We're suckers for them, always 'ave been. Least we've always got light, though. I can light the way for us." Marked by Xiur, after all, Vega was able to make anything she touched glow with star light, lit like a torch. So, she looked at him and didn't move until he did.

[Arlo Creede]

It was Arlo agreed as they walked, side by side and sometimes one behind the other along the forest path. Though pretty hadn't ever been his primary reason for being drawn to the wilderness. Whether it was forest, jungle or woodlands, plains, lowlands or mountain range. Even the open sea, more recently. It was was the lack of walls and ceilings, the absence of man-made boundaries. Where even the air smelled of freedom. Funny that he'd once had himself convinced that traveling with anyone else would taint or diminish the sensation. It might have, was it anyone else. But with Vega by his side, the sense of freedom and possibility was all the stronger.

Considering he'd grown up in the area and had only left when he was sixteen arcs of age, The Mistral Woods were familiar to him. He'd spent a lot of time running wild and elusive, hiding from his chores back at the farm. "It's warming up, yes," he agreed, but still eyed her the way that he had been ever since she'd been broken. "Are you sure you won't wear this?" By this, he meant the small wooden peg leg that he pulled out of his coat pocket, leaving it to dangle and turn on its leather string. Arlo was wearing layers enough to stay warm. Leather armor over his clothing, a long leather coat over that. And like Vega he was sufficiently armed for whatever might spring up along the way.

"Stormflowers, that's what my mother called them,' Arlo remembered when Vega spotted the blooms. He'd told her it was only a matter of time before she was back on her feet, he reminded her with a grin. But still, he couldn't help teasing. "Though I don't see how you could grow bored with my face to gaze on." There, where his little diri friend rested, riding along in the brim of his hat, Lyova rolled her eyes and snorted. The blast of cold air though brought her up short though, and Arlo too as he stopped dead in his tracks and frowned curiously. It just didn't seem natural and soon enough he was convinced that it wasn't.

There was nothing strange about the waterfall or the evidence of a cavern before. Both he and Vega had seen similar things before. It was what was in the mouth of that cave that was curious and a little off putting. The child that was, but then the woman appearing behind her added a second layer of unnatural to the equation. Appearances could deceive but it didn't appear as if the small girl wanted to be there. He'd have argued that for his part, he wasn't convinced that he was a sucker for children...at all. But Vega had a point, maybe. Were they going in? "Most people with any sense would say that's nothing but trouble calling, and it's better left unanswered. So yeah," he added with a lopsided grin. "We're going in."

If she wanted to light up their way, all the better but Arlo would make sure to grab the little glass jar from his sack with the blue light stone inside. Fixed on a leather strange he could drape it round his neck and leave his hands free. If they needed to wade through the water to get to the mouth of the cave, so they would then. But in the meantime he nocked a bolt into place on his pistol crossbow and kept the thing in hand, just in case.

[Oracle]

The mouth of Creeksong Cavern yawned open before the pair. What had once seemed like a lovely and benign place had soured in mere trills. Shadows seemed to ooze from the entrance of the cave, although if Vega and Arlo looked carefully they could detect multiple gleaming, glittering surfaces within.

As the couple moved across the stream and into the cave the, discordant aura that had fallen over the glade vanished. Birds began singing again and the chipper gurgling of the streamed resumed. There in the entrance of the cavern stormflowers were seen growing right at the edge of the cave opening, but no further. It seemed that the only life inside the caves was mycological, as a myriad of softly glowing, luminescent mushrooms and lichens could been seen draped along the walls. Their radiant colors were rich, sporting hues of lavender, cobalt and emerald. The fungi provided a seemingly otherworldly source of light that cast the cavern into a perpetual state of twilight.

Perhaps more impressive than the luminescent life forms was the crystalline interior of the cavern. Mirror-like crystals with a metallic sheen reflected Arlo and Vega’s reflections in perfect clarity. The crystals were thin and wide, also appearing quite breakable. Perhaps if enough pressure was applied a piece, it could be broken off quite easily.

Even if the crystals provided a wonderfully sharp mirror image, the images reflected in them were somewhat different than the couple appeared in real life. Vega’s reflection held more wrinkles and freckles than before, with dark fatigued circles lining the space beneath her eyes along with her lips appearing thin and pale. If she managed to see her legs in one of these crystals they would seem shrunken and atrophied, as if they had never healed correctly. Her hair seemed thinner in the reflection, with a few streaks of gray running through the tarnished red locks. All in all her robust strength seemed leached away in those reflections. Arlo did not escape these effects in his own reflection. If he gazed into one of the mirror crystals his face would seem sunken, with wrinkles gathering in the corner of his eyes and deeply lining his forehead. He appeared almost shrunken and feeble, like a man much older than his years would suggest.

Regardless of how they saw themselves, if either of them looked at each other’s reflection then they would see a perfect version of their partner. Vega upon looking at Arlo in the mirror crystals would see a youthful, robust man without a single blemish or wrinkle. Likewise Arlo would see Vega with perfect unblemished ivory skin, bright glittering eyes framed in rich lashes and a posture and strength she had not possessed since before her legs had been shattered.

The crystals continued forward into the cavern until the path was divided into two tunnels. Both tunnels were lined in mirror crystals but they had grown to enormous size, providing a full length image in their reflection.

To the Right the crystals reflected a perfected image of the viewer. This path seemed to draw them in, to gaze upon their attractive reflection. To the Left the mirror crystals reflected the imperfect reflection. This path was darker and seemed to hold to the discordant aura that had first descended upon Arlo and Vega outside.

It was almost as if they were being herded toward the right, like cattle.

[Vega]

When he looked at her that way and then asked if she was sure, Vega stopped and turned to him. "I'm sure, Arlo. Yer really startin' to flibberty my gibbet, sunshine an' in a bit I'm gonna be thumpin' you so hard you'll be in no doubt that I. Am. Fine. Stop it." Looking at him, she sighed and shook her head. "I'm fine, Arlo. Look. Feel," taking his hand she put it on her cheek and stepped into his arms, then, even though she was irritated she knew what it was, why he did it. "Smell. See now, feel now, hear now an' smell now." She grinned at him slightly, then. "An' shove that pegleg where the sun doesn't shine, I don't want it. I want you, an' me an' us. Which means I've got all I want right here." Touching her nose to his, she whispered, "I'm not broken, Arlo. I never was, not where it matters. An' I'm not gonna waste the rest of my life worryin' about might 'ave been or could 'ave happened.Or what did 'appen but is over now." She placed a soft kiss on his lips and looked at him with serious eyes filled with concern. Yet, her words were teasing, albeit gently. "I don't think you should spend your life doin' that, either, but if you carry on fussin' at me? Whatever you spend the rest of yer life doin', you won't have long."

Lifting his hand, she put it against her chest. "Feel it? It's strong, an' it's beatin'. I love you, an' I'm not broken." So close after his mother had died, he'd seen her die and Vega wished, more than anything that he hadn't. "Nor are you." Leaning up, she kissed him again and there she lingered for a while. "Now, come on, Creede." Vega whispered the last against him as she thumped him gently (ish) on the shoulder.

The cavern was in front of them and as they moved across the stream, the nice sounds and generally good feeling of the place returned once again. That was good, Vega thought. She kept an eye on him, in the way they always did watch out for each other in these sorts of moments, and a frown creased her forehead as she knelt down. "Look. This is weird. They're jus'..stoppin' in a line." The stormflowers seemed to just stop and she glanced up at him with a slightly raised eyebrow. Inside the cave was no less weird, in fact it was probably more so. The mirrors were well strange and Vega took a moment to look at her own reflection and then at Arlo's. "Well, neither of 'em's true, that's stupid. Mine is like, all old and wilted an' my legs not fixed right, an' you look like someone's gonna burst into song about yer shiny teeth any trill." With a deep frown on her face, Vega turned to look at him and shook her head. "I like this one the best. Scars an' wild hair, bit o' sleep still in the corner of yer eye an' you need a shave." She grinned at him. That was him, the right now, right here him and that was all she was interested in.

And then, they came to an intersection and Vega frowned. "My instinct is to say jog on an' I'm not dancin' prettily off where the perfect people live, that looks like a kidnapper offerin' a kid candy. But..." Vega suddenly shook her head, as though to clear it. "But we're followin' that little girl. An' what we look like don't matter, Arlo. They're jus' mirrors. I was gettin' well caught up in them. We're helpin' her not lookin' at reflections of ourselves cos we're obsessed." It was the unusual nature of the place, maybe, the way that the walls and the fungus and, the reflection of the light off her silver blood, but they couldn't afford to lose their focus, not at all.

So, Vega concentrated on looking for tracks. If she found them, or Arlo did, then that would be the way they should go. If not, then she'd suggest that they go to the left, not the right. Left, after all, was where there were reflections of them having lived a life. As she was looking down at the floor, studying and trying to find where they should go, she thought about searching for the little girl in Desnind, for Ser Denny in Scalvoris. "We keep runnin' into kids, have you noticed that?" Vega asked, thoughtfully. "An' it keeps bein' lost ones." And with that, she kept searching for tracks which, if either of them found she'd suggest they go the way the tracks did. If not, then to the left.

[Arlo Creede]

"You can fuss and complain all you like," Arlo maintained, even as Vega stepped into his arms, caressed his cheek and they shared a kiss. "But I'm still going to worry about you, just the same as you seem bent on worrying about me." Her concerns for him, he knew, were related to him coping with everything that had happened. He was also fine, it was in the past. But no matter how many times he said it, the look in her eyes, the touch of her hand at times told him that she worried without saying it. "Tables turned. It's all fair play," he added and couldn't help the lopsided grin that preceded all the strange goings on. "I love you but threaten all you like. Deaf ears," he teased.

But how strange it was that the atmosphere around them changed, not once but twice in the span of just a bit or so. Something about them wading through the water and in through the mouth of the cave could have given less suspicious others the impression that simply going in had put all to rights. Both him and Vega knew better. "It's not so strange is it?" he said, referring to the stormflowers in particular. "Some things grow better in some places and not in others. They might need a lot more sunlight than they'd get inside the cave." The luminescent mushrooms and other organic matter were far more interesting though in his mind. And Arlo might like to take some samples away from them, at the end of the trial.

The crystal studded walls were more curious still. It wasn't the same as quartz, as he'd seen occur naturally in stone countless times by now. This was much different in fact and made him feel a little uneasy. As if he wasn't already experiencing a heightened sense of watchfulness. To have two versions of himself staring back at him, neither of them exactly on point, and the same for Vega, well, "I can say that if this was true to form, by the time I'm in my twilight arcs, I won't have aged very well," he quipped. And yet the image of perfection wasn't right either.

There was no question about which path seemed more compelling, at least in a sense that was as close to physical as could be. And yet his instincts were heightened and warned of a trap. Unless, well, that was a trap too. But that would be thinking too deeply. He sensed that if it was the girl they needed to find, then it was the left hand path they needed to follow. "Well I guess it's alright we keep running into kids, so long as one of 'em doesn't try to follow us home to stay," he said, while at the same time studying the floor of the cave for tracks. Any except for their own of course.

But so long as there weren't any that told him that to the right was where she'd gone, then left it was. But not without his pistol crossbow close at hand, loaded, safety on and ready to go if necessary.

[Oracle]

The floor beneath the couple’s feet was nearly pristine, bearing only passing hints that animals had passed through long ago. There was no evidence of the woman or child they had seen earlier. Moving into the left passage Arlo and Vega were surrounded on both sides by the tall mirror crystals. Their reflections bore the weathered and pockmarked illusions that they had seen earlier. They could both see these clearly. An eerie luminescence composed of a finely diffused purple light seemed to cling to the crystals. The corridor was narrow, forcing them to look at their reflections even if they focused straight ahead toward their destination

In that strange place a silken voice emerged within Arlo’s mind, ringing as true and clear as a bell.

“Poor fatherless boy.”

It was a woman’s voice, rich yet deeply feminine and perfect in every way. Comfort and safety exuded from the Voice. The crystals seemed to pulse with light as she spoke. All the while Vega would hear none of this.

“Is that why you chase lost children?” The Voice was amused, laughing musically at him. “So you can protect them, save them from that same loneliness that aches in your heart?”

Her voice was soft yet taunting, wrapping around Arlo like a comfortable cashmere blanket. It would be easy to simply let go and allow the woman's voice to suffuse his consciousness. To relax and let her soothe away his pain like a balm. “That feeling never leaves you does it? Not even for a trill. Always sitting at the back of your mind…What if your father cared so little for you that he simply left…abandoning you?”

She let out a breathy chuckle. “What a terrible feeling to carry for such a very long time.”

The Voice vanished from Arlo’s mind, leaving behind a palatable emptiness.

At the same moment that the Voice spoke to Arlo, the same beautiful voice rang out in Vega’s mind. Arlo could in no way detect what was said to Vega,in the same way that she was ignorant of the words the voice had shared with him.

“The shattered girl.” The words were said with derision, as if somehow this strange disembodied voice disapproved of Vega. The woman’s tone lacked the comforting appeal that Arlo had experienced, instead seeming to inspect Vega with a critical eye.

“My, my…you are full of cracks.” The disembodied voice purred, the crystals thrumming with radiance as she spoke.
“Touched by death as well…you are something of a mess…”The exquisite female voice continued, chuckling lightly to herself as if she was reading a particularly entertaining book.

“Tell me, does he ever notice the cracks in your façade, and do you ever worry that one day you may not be able to put yourself back together again? What would he do then, if you were so utterly broken and useless…?” Disdain dripped from the Voice’s words before she went silent, leaving Vega to her thoughts.

Looking in the mirror again, Vega’s visage would appear cracked and shattered like the skin of a porcelain doll that had been smashed against the floor.

If they made it through the corridor of mirrors the pair would arrive in a massive stone chamber where a crystal clear pool of water rested. The water was deep enough that it could only be crossed by swimming. Although perfectly clear the same eerie luminesce clung to it that had cloaked the mirror crystals. The path continued on the other side into another narrow crevice that led deeper into the cavern. The distant cries of a child echoed in that direction.

[Vega]

Deaf ears? Now that posed something of a problem to Vega since he wasn't playing along with her bluff and bluster. She quirked an eyebrow at him as she considered what the best way not to lose face was here.Then, with a haughty huff and a mirth filled grin, she replied. "I spose it were only a matter of time, really, before you started ignorin' me. You an' yer deaf ears, Arlo Creede, it's a slippery slope you're teeterin' on." Did one teeter on a slope, slippery or not, she wondered. Never mind, that kind of thing was the sort of stuff that academics and thinking people thought about. Not her. "You watch out, if you don't stop it, soon you'll be ignorin' me an' turnin' deaf ears to me so regular, I'll wilt away." With a grin as they moved into the suddenly much more serious moment, Vega genuinely considered that the poor guy was probably thinking that a chance would be a fine thing.

Neither of them were exactly looking their best in the mirrors, she considered, but she didn't mind at all. Who he was right now, that was all that was important to her. But when he spoke about lost children following them home, Vega chuckled. He made them sound like stray dogs, she thought and nearly said, but in truth he was right. So, she gave a slight shrug and didn't argue.

But, now was not the time for lollygagging, so off they went to the left. "So, either this place has a cleaner what they call in to battle the dust, it's a place with no dust or, the most likely option, there's somethin' well gnarly goin' on here." She smiled at him. "It'll be the weird thing. It's us." That was so very true. But he seemed a little distracted, Vega thought, and was going to ask him what was wrong when some woman spoke in her head.

It had to be said, Vega was getting mightily sick of voices in her head. She'd spent nearly a ten-trial with the constant bombardment by a raft of voices, each one niggling at her insecurities so a smooth female voice was just another one to add to the collection. Shattered girl? Vega reached out and her hand touched Arlo's. Just a touch, a simple brush of skin against skin, but she knew that he would know.

Stop

Should she say something, tell him what was happening? That she had some sarcastic voice in her head? Again? Vega frowned deeply and she looked at Arlo with conflict in her swirling eyes. And then the voice asked a question and then, another. And it was in that final question that what happened next became an absolute certainty. Her gaze did not lower, and she spoke calmly. "There's this voice in my head who's wonderin' if I worry about bein' shattered an' cracked an' touched by death. Noticed that I'm a mess, inside I guess." Having been inside her head for more than five trill, it would know she didn't care how she looked externally, so the mess must be internal. "Then she asked if I worry about not bein' able to put myself back together again an' I was buyin' it," with a shrug, she admitted what she figured he already knew, "am buyin' it, I guess. But then, she took it too far an' asked me somethin' I don't doubt. Can't." With a frown Vega kept her hand touching his, needing the physical contact. "So, to answer that aloud, jus' so we're not whisperin' secrets an' insecurities, I know what he'd do if the seas were boilin' an' the skies fallin' in. He'd stand with me. So no, love, I don't worry about what he'd do if I ever got so shattered I was scared I'd never find myself."

With a slight smile at Arlo, an apology in a way, she supposed, Vega finished her answer. "I don't worry about it cos I know. 'cos he's done it. When I was broken, he was by my side, remindin' me that I'm never so broken that I'm useless. Cos he needs me like I need him. So jog on, love." She frowned deeply and motioned forward. "Distraction tactics from a rank bloody amateur in the whole whisperin' insecurities deal, I tell ya." Glancing at him, her swirling eyes met his. Deep enough that she could drown there, in those eyes. "You a'right?"

Ahead, though, onward and not getting distracted by whatever nonsense this was, Vega was sure was the thing to do. "Could be worse, mind," she said, thoughtfully. "We could be disembodied voices with nothin' better to do than ineffectually poke at the insecurity of folks wanderin' past tryin' to do a good deed. That would suck."

The lake? She sighed, slightly. "I guess the thing to do is 'ave one of us swim across then the other. If I go first, you're better with range if anythin' comes out, but if you go first, same's true in reverse, innit? Or we can jus' say stuff this, we go together?" Vega was more than prepared to do it however he wanted to. She was clear that they should keep going forward, not least because that woman in her head didn't want them to, but until they were sure that there wasn't a child in some kind of danger here, Vega wasn't stopping.

[Arlo Creede]

If the child and the woman had passed the way they were currently going, wouldn't there be evidence of it in the form of footprints? There were plenty that indicated that animals of some sort had, now and again though clearly not recently. Except there were too ways in which this place was a strange one, and very little resembled any cave that he'd seen before. These weren't ordinary circumstances, and it was hard to say whether the figures he and Vega had seen were real, or if they were made of less solid stuff. Arlo understood that more than most. One tap of his small fingernail brought spirits into view...hearing, conversation sometimes, so long as there were any around. And in fact, now he thought about it, he gave that fingernail a tap on the wall, and the tiny flame appeared...that did that sort of thing now and again.

He didn't care much for the image of him staring back. But it was illusion, he figured, and he was more mindful of making sure he had a weapon close at hand if he needed it, and keeping close watch around them as they went. The voice though came as a surprise, but then not. Poor fatherless boy? Children? Arlo wasn't sure that was the reason at all. In fact, if he'd been in an argumentative state of mind, he'd have said that repeatedly stumbling across children in need of help was due to nothing but dumb luck. But then he'd had a choice not to help them surely? But who would refuse a child in need? "It would be a little like kicking a puppy wouldn't it?" he mumbled quietly, barely above his breath.

But no, even though his stepfather Jonas was every bit a father to him and always had been, in every way that counted, Arlo had never forgotten that there was someone out there that his mother wouldn't tell him about. And as a result, as a kid he'd built a marvelous sort of myth around the mystery, assigning identities to the man than any mere mortal would be hard pressed to live up to. He'd outgrown that of course. But he still wondered now and again. He snorted then and frowned. He didn't like anyone poking around in his head. Not a bit. At the least, the trespass left him feeling violated.

The crystal clear water though? That was a wonder and it wasn't the first time him and Vega had seen something like that. Different circumstances though and when he heard the cries of the child, Arlo frowned. They were being led, baited. But why? There must be a reason. Talk about slippery slopes. That was what Vega had said and he'd laughed. But this didn't really seem like a laughing matter now. Weird and gnarly, as she said, was right. And then it seemed that something had been toying in her mind too, and Arlo looked at her with a thoughtful frown. 'I'm ok." So what had he taken away from the experience? "I think that maybe I haven't given Jonas the credit he's rightly deserved," Arlo said.

So to cross the water together or separately? If she went first he could keep an eye on her. But if something happened, he'd be limited to what he could do and might reach her too late. If it was him, Vega might take risks he'd rather she didn't, with her own life. Together they might both get into trouble. But didn't they always? Half of one, six dozen of the other. "We go together," he decided. And so they would, for the reasons she'd mentioned and more.

[Oracle]

It seemed that the pair was inseparable, choosing to cross the crystal clear lake together. The water was pleasantly warm it seemed, this was possibly because of its location underground, sheltered from the brisk Ashan weather outside. The water truly was crystal clear, the strange luminescence clinging to it allowed them to see straight to the stone bottom. Light rippled on the ceiling of the massive chamber as they moved, the water becoming disturbed by their swimming. It was all rather beautiful, almost perfect even. This entire cavern seemed strangely perfect, with glittering mirror polished crystals, a complete lack of dust and filth along with the gleaming absolutely transparent water. Arlo and Vega stuck out like sore thumbs in this place, both bearing scars and imperfections that had laid marks upon their very souls.

As they swam the pair would begin to see items littering the bottom of the lake beneath them. Hundreds of mirrors of all shapes and sizes lay discarded. Assorted hand mirrors and massive mirrors like those seen in a dressing rooms were in piles along the lake bed. Some were simple, framed only in wood, while others were far more ornate. Many were shattered but some were still mostly intact. A particularly beautiful hand mirror edged in silver etched with beautiful patterns lay just beneath the pair, along with a simple wooden framed hand mirror. The mirrors were dark, seeming untouched by the strange luminescence that permeated everything else in the cavern. Vega and Arlo could continue across the lake, or choose to investigate them. They seemed mundane enough, and it appeared that someone had been dumping them in the lake for quite some time. Perhaps they had been unhappy with their reflection.

Once reaching the other side of the lake the pair would find a corridor that led deeper into the caverns. After a short walk through the tunnel they would find themselves face to face with a child, but not the one they had been searching for. It was an older boy, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, with lean, perfectly symmetrical features. His ivory skin was flawless and smooth, pairing well with his silky white -blonde locks that curled delicately around his ears. The teenager’s eyes were a strange color of crystalline blue, almost pale indigo in appearance. He wore a crisp white tunic that as belted at the waist along with a pair of black trousers that were perfectly pressed. He was perfect in every way, although his eyes seemed vacant…maybe even dead in appearance. There was no spark there, no glimmer of life or passion.

“She waits for you.” He uttered in a soft chiming voice, not quite making eye contact with either of them. Without waiting for a reply he turned and continued down the tunnel, oblivious to whether or not they were following behind.