Chapter 304: The Five Mirrors

The world disappeared.

For several seconds, Arthur couldn’t tell whether he was standing, falling, or floating. There was no ground beneath his feet, no wind, and no sound, not even the faint breathing of his companions. There was only white.

Then his feet struck stone, and he staggered forward and caught himself.

Arthur slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was that everyone was still there.

Vedas stood a few steps away, one hand gripping King Maker and the other arm half raised, as if he had been ready to defend Arthur the instant the light faded.

Mithra was beside him with her tails spread on instinct, Sun had his staff raised, and Kong crouched near his feet.

Athy hovered next to Athena, Melo looked around in obvious confusion, and Eden floated close to Arthur’s shoulder.

Star bounced once against the ground before hopping straight back to him, while Luna stood a little farther back, staring at their surroundings.

Nobody spoke.

Arthur looked around. "This isn’t where we were."

Athena slowly lowered her weapon. "No," she said quietly. "We’re underground."

Arthur glanced up. If there was a ceiling, he couldn’t see it. The cavern was enormous, its stone walls stretching up into darkness so far that even Athena’s enhanced vision couldn’t find their end.

Then Arthur noticed the Mirrors, and he stopped.

Five enormous Mirrors floated around them, fire, water, earth, light, and darkness. They were no longer sitting in separate chambers or separated by miles of ruins, Miasma, and forgotten paths. They were together, all five of them, and something about them had changed.

The Fire Mirror burned with a deep crimson glow, and the Water Mirror’s surface shifted like moving blue water. The Earth Mirror shimmered like polished ancient stone, and Luna’s Light Mirror gave off a soft golden-white light.

And the Darkness Mirror...

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. It wasn’t producing Miasma anymore. Its surface was simply black, not dark, but black, as though light itself vanished the moment it touched the Mirror.

Then he noticed the beams. A line of energy extended from every Mirror, and all five descended toward the same point, the center of the cavern.

Arthur slowly turned, and his expression changed.

The entire floor beneath them was covered in an enormous pattern. It had once been buried beneath stone and dust, but now the ground had become almost perfectly smooth, revealing thousands of carved lines, overlapping circles, and ancient symbols arranged around the edges. Five huge sections surrounded the center, and each one matched one of the Mirrors.

Mithra stared at it. "Was this here before?"

"No," Athena answered immediately, stepping forward as her eyes moved quickly over the symbols. "This wasn’t here."

Arthur crouched and pressed his hand against the stone, and nothing happened. He traced one of the carved lines with his fingers, but there was still no response.

Star bounced onto the pattern, and the moment its tiny body touched a symbol, the symbol glowed.

Star froze.

Arthur looked at it, and Star looked back, then bounced again, and the symbol lit up once more.

Arthur blinked. "You found something?"

Star bounced twice.

Arthur smiled. "Of course you did."

Sun stared at them. "How does that thing keep finding everything?"

Star bounced proudly.

Mithra laughed. "Because Star is apparently better at archaeology than the rest of us."

"I am not surprise anymore." Melo said softly.

Athena ignored them. She had already moved to another section of the pattern. "Look here." She pointed at a series of symbols surrounding the central circle. "They repeat."

Arthur leaned closer. "What do they mean?"

"I’m not sure yet." Athena traced one with her finger. "But I’ve seen this symbol before, in the Fire Mirror records." She pointed to another. "This one was at the Earth Mirror, and this one was in the records from the ancient city."

Arthur looked at Luna. "And that one?"

Luna stepped closer, and her expression changed the moment she saw it. "I know that symbol." She crouched beside Athena, her fingers hovering over the carving without touching it. "My grandfather had records with this on them. The oldest ones."

"How old?" Arthur asked.

"I don’t know." Luna shook her head. "He said some of them were copied from records that existed before our tribe settled in the Everglades."

Athena looked at her. "Before the Venus Tribe?"

"Yes."

That caught Arthur’s attention immediately.

"He called it the Fivefold Seal," Luna said, still studying the pattern. "Five powers, five locations, and five guardians." Her voice grew quieter. "He said it was connected to something ancient beneath the Everglades."

Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "Did he ever say what?"

"No." Luna looked frustrated. "He didn’t know."

Mithra crossed her arms. "So we’re back to the same problem."

Melo nodded. "Every time we find something that explains one thing, we discover three more things we don’t understand."

Arthur smiled. "That’s what makes it fun."

Sun stared at him. "You’re actually enjoying this?"

"Of course." Arthur gestured at the five Mirrors. "We’ve spent months trying to figure out why these things exist, and now they’re all sitting right in front of us."

Vedas sighed. "I knew you were going to say something like that."

Arthur looked at him. "You knew?"

"Whenever everyone else starts worrying, you start smiling."

Arthur thought about it. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Usually."

Mithra laughed.

Athena, however, was still staring at the array, and something about it bothered her. She slowly stood. "Luna, your grandfather called this a seal. Are you sure that’s what the original records said?"

"Yes," Luna said.

Athena walked toward the center, looking from the symbols to the Mirrors and back to the beams connecting them, and her expression gradually changed.

Arthur noticed. "What?"

Athena didn’t answer. She crouched and followed one of the carved lines with her fingers all the way to the center, and her eyes widened. "Wait. Look at this."

Arthur walked over. At first it looked like just another line, but now that Athena had pointed it out, he could see the difference. The lines weren’t spreading outward. Every one of them pointed inward, five paths from five Mirrors, all leading to one center.

Athena’s eyes moved across the whole structure. "This isn’t a seal."

Luna’s face changed. "What?"

"Your grandfather called it the Fivefold Seal," Athena said, looking at the Mirrors, and then she pointed at the floor. "But whoever built this wasn’t trying to keep something in. They were trying to connect the five Mirrors to the center."

Nobody said anything for a moment.

Arthur looked at the enormous pattern. "So if it’s not a seal..."

"It’s an activation array," Athena finished.

For several seconds, the only sound was the faint hum coming from the five Mirrors.

Sun lowered his staff slightly. "Activation?"

"Yes."

"Activation for what?" Mithra asked.

Athena shook her head. "I don’t know."

That answer didn’t bother Arthur at all. If anything, it made him more curious, and he slowly started walking toward the middle of the array.

Vedas followed him immediately. "Arthur. You’re doing that thing again."

Arthur glanced back. "What thing?"

"The thing where you walk toward the mysterious ancient mechanism nobody understands."

Arthur considered that. "You’re right."

Vedas sighed.

Arthur smiled. "I’m doing it."

Mithra covered her mouth to keep from laughing, and Sun shook his head. "At least he’s honest."

At the center of the array, another symbol was carved into the stone, and it was different from the others. It was a circle with five lines extending from it, each one connecting to one of the Mirrors.

Something about it felt familiar to Arthur, not because he had seen it before, but because it felt like the center of everything they had found. The ancient maps, the five Mirrors, the barriers, the World Tree murals, the strange records, the Miasma, and even the mysterious creature from the old vision all seemed to point toward something. But what?

He slowly reached toward the symbol, and Eden drifted closer. "Arthur?"

"I’m just checking something."

His fingers touched the symbol, and nothing happened. He frowned and pressed harder, but there was still no response.

Mithra raised an eyebrow. "Maybe the Mirrors have to be aligned first."

Arthur looked up. "That’s probably it."

Athena’s expression turned serious. "If this really is an activation mechanism, then gathering all five Mirrors here may be exactly what it was built for."

Luna looked at the Darkness Mirror. "But why?"

No one had an answer.

Arthur looked around at everyone, then at the Mirrors, and he smiled. "There’s only one way to find out."

Vedas closed his eyes. "I knew you were going to say that."

Arthur raised his hand, and the King Mark beneath his skin suddenly grew warm. He stopped, and his smile faded. For just a moment, the mark pulsed, once. He looked at his hand, but nobody else seemed to notice, so he lowered it.

Then he reached for the center again, and when his fingers came within an inch of the symbol, the entire cavern shook.

BOOOOOOM!

"Arthur!" Vedas grabbed him and pulled him back.

The five Mirrors began to move, turning one after another toward the center, fire, water, earth, light, and darkness. Their beams grew brighter, and the ancient array beneath their feet ignited. Golden lines raced across the floor, followed by blue, red, brown, white, and black, five colors flowing through the enormous pattern like blood through veins.

"It’s activating," Athena said, staring.

Luna stepped back. "But we didn’t do anything."

Arthur looked at his hand, then at the center of the array and the Mirrors. "We did." Everyone turned to him, and he pointed at the five Mirrors. "They were waiting for all five of them to be together, and for someone to reach the center."

The ground began to vibrate. It wasn’t a normal tremor. It was something deeper, something enormous, and a low sound rolled up through the stone beneath their feet.

THOOM.

Dust fell from high above, and Star stopped bouncing. Eden’s expression changed. Even she could feel it. Something was moving, far below them.

Arthur slowly looked down. "That’s not the array."

Athena went pale. "What?"

Arthur pressed his hand against the ground as the vibration came again, and this time everyone felt the floor shift beneath them. Mithra’s tails spread, Sun tightened his grip on his staff, and Kong scrambled onto his shoulder. Vedas stepped directly in front of Arthur. "Something is underneath us."

Arthur nodded.

The five Mirrors released a wave of light that shook the entire cavern.

Far away, beyond the ancient ruins, beyond the underground rivers, and beyond every region they had explored, something opened its eyes. Two enormous golden pupils appeared in the darkness. The stone around them cracked, roots shifted, and something ancient began to move.

BOOOOOOM!

A violent shockwave tore through the Everglades, and the entire Secret Realm trembled. Mountains shook, ancient ruins collapsed, and underground rivers changed course, and somewhere far above them, the forest bent as if a storm had suddenly struck.

A massive crack split across the cavern floor, stretching farther and farther into the distance. Arthur stared after it, and for the first time since entering the Everglades, he wasn’t smiling.

"That came from underground."

The five Mirrors kept turning, and beneath the Secret Realm, something began to wake.