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By Tireon
Enter this joyless, sunless abode, these vague, vexed regions... - Virgil
"I had thought the Labyrinth to be an abode of grotesque denizens and nameles horrors only," he said. "Yet I had found a wonder and a peerless beauty therein. Alas! it is lost to me...and I can not recover it." He clutched his breast as if it had been pierced by the Wizardspike. "Stay awhile my friend and relate to me the tale in full," replied the kindly voice of Cain. "Oh mute wide leagues of Nightland!" the man half-chanted, "May I reveal what lies deep in the murk of the Underworld! Through the void domiciles of Dis..." "I descended a winding helix, both dank and treacherous, that led to the subterranean vaults of the Catacombs. The sputtering sepulchral lamps and sickly phosphorus aura that pervades those tombs and crypts emitted the scant light I was afforded. There the very masonry exudes malevolence. Anon, after many perils I found a padlocked door of iron; a small pyramid of skulls with sundry scrolls and parchment littered the ground before it. The lock was much rusted and easily broken; it led to still another chamber of foul air and bone. Then, I discerned a lever upon a nitre encrusted wall; pulling it, creaking hinges and grinding stone effected a subterfuge or place of concealment to be revealed." "Go on," spoke Cain. "Within this ante-chamber I found a full-length oval mirror; no dust or film tarnished the surface, it was as clear as if newly burnished. Strange to find such a thing so secretively warded I thought. Then, to my amazement the form of a woman appeared within it. So lovely was she that I lost my heart to her; and yet she wept bitterly, her beautiful countenance glistening with tears; and lo! the maiden spoke: "Though you see me no more, shatter the glass and free me," she implored. "I stood dumb-founded; the notion of losing the vision of her forever, to nevermore gaze upon that graceful visage...having her lost to me I deemed unbearable." "Did she impart other words to you?" asked Cain. "Nay! These were the only ones she ever uttered...though I pleaded for her name and the reason for her strange imprisonment. I could not bring myself to shatter the Mirror and I would not suffer being parted from her, so I resolved to dislodge it from where it had been secured; then could I take the Mirror back to the sunlit surface-world of men." "Yet it was bolted as to adamant. I believe a strong magic holds the Mirror there and it cannot be borne away. What is more, though I returned day after day to gaze upon her, at great peril to myself braving lich, hellhound or winged terror...her image grew fainter and fainter until vanishing from sight altogether." Here the man bowed his head. "My friend," spoke Cain, "I had heard rumors ere now that this Lady of the Mirror existed...fanciful though I deemed them. I can see now that they are true. Nor are you the first I think to have beheld her." "I beg you to relate what you know," entreated the man. "This woman is no specter but a living breathing child of Adam. An Advocate named Medir, evil and cruel once tried to win the love of this woman. When she refused him he made her a captive within the glass. The only words she seems able to impart are the ones you've heard." "An ancient pagan author wrote of a fadeless flower, the amaranth; and so she is called for time has not ravaged her beauty though the years of her imprisonment lengthen." The hapless fate of the maiden having been recounted, the man departed from Cain and the town and was not heard from again... ~~~ Anon, a sorcerer emerged from a glistering orb, blue as sapphire, upon the margins of Tristram and related a tale that was much the same: "The Everdim is precipitous and winding, veiled in gloom and unintelligible shapes. A macabre bestiary contested my every step: the bloated Tyrannus Pinguis, the razor-mawed Maleficus Vorax, and formless wrapped Metus Occultus." "Within the ante-chamber I discerned that heavily shod feet had at whiles disturbed the ground thereabout," said the mage. "The thought that another had gazed upon my enchantress filled me with possessiveness. I would not suffer another man to look upon her. If I could not win her, for I had tried every spell and incantation known to me to call her forth, I resolved to share her with no other; yet try as I might I could not harm the glass...stave would not shatter it, nor would fire and lightning scorch it. Though in time, my spectral lady faded altogether and I departed." Whereupon he too left Tristram not to be heard from again... ~~~ At length a young warrior by the name of Accolane, girding his courage, ventured into the pallid, morose corridors and mazes of the Catacombs. There, freakish voices mewling and wailing resound. Finding the ante-chamber where the Mirror had been hidden he, as with the adventurers before him, fell deeply in love with the beauteous image. "Though you see me no more, shatter the glass and free me," she pleaded. Accolane knelt before the Mirror racked by indecision ere he could summon-up the resolve: "Though I shall surely die from want of the maiden," he bewailed, "It were better I lose her and end her torment than to seek to possess her by keeping her captive." For this man did truly love her, with an unselfish, uncovetous passion. With great effort, and weeping as he did so, Accolane struck the Mirror full and forcibly with his bastard sword... Shards in a coruscating casacade of glass fell about him knocking the man to the ground; and lo! when Accolane looked up he beheld the form and lovely countenance of the radiant Amaranth...freed from her glass prison. His love pure and unsullied having overcome the curse of Medir! ~~~ Since that day full glad have Accolane and Amaranth together been. I heard this strange tale related one night at Ogden's Tavern as I sat over a mulled cider with the poet/mage Morteleux...and so I've imparted it to you.
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