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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hellefire" data-source="post: 3638484" data-attributes="member: 28129">Round 1 - Match 5Ceramic DM - ENWorld Short Story Smackdown - Summer 07Round 1 - Match 5 - Hellefire vs. TrenchPure HeartBy Aaron Blair/Hellefire“Peace, Love and Serenity!” purred a soft voice through the phone, invoking the good will of the White Priestess.Erin rolled her eyes. “Mmph,” she replied indignantly, “coffee.” Why would anyone call her before she had had her coffee?“Good morning, Sunshine!” the voice continued pleasantly, “And Happy Anniversary!”Erin sighed. “You too, Katie. Peace and all that. After coffee.” Role-playing was fun and all, but you have to have your priorities. “Call you back in ten.”Staggering slowly from bed, Erin stumbled into her family’s kitchen and turned on the coffee pot. After throwing some cold water on her face and stretching like a cat, she poured a cup and thought about the coming day.The International Day of Peace didn’t mean a lot to her because of Peace, but she had met Katie on that day four years ago. It was such a strange meeting, too. The White Priestesses joined with the local Baha’is every year to stage a peace parade. As accepting as the Baha’is were, the White Priestesses never told them of their actual beliefs – that a Mother Goddess existed and whom they worshipped, that they could heal all manners of illness, that there is another world, named Shangri-La, which they hope to open a doorway to. They simply helped with the decorations and marched in the parade, wishing peace and happiness to all.Erin wasn’t particularly impressed with the theories of the White Priestesses, or of the other role-players for that matter. Some were fanciful, some were strange, and some were downright demented. As far as Erin could tell, they all just wanted to believe in something more interesting than politics, law and dentistry. At least the White Priestesses were pleasant with their ideas.The phone rang, blaringly cutting the silence surrounding Erin’s musings. She jumped, and then reached over to pick up the receiver. “Hi!”“Ten, twenty, what’s the difference?” asked the same voice, never losing a touch of its gentleness. “Sounds like you’ve gotten some caffeine. What time are you coming over?”“I’m going to a thing at the Java Shoppe before the parade, so I need to make myself pretty. I’ll just meet you there.”“Okay. We still on for flowering at the club tonight?”Erin thought handing out white flowers at a rave was one of the most insane things they had ever done, but it was their anniversary after all. She tried to suppress a giggle, failed miserably, and nodded to the phone. “Absolutely! I’ll change into my initiation gown after the poetry.” She knew that the gown was only to be used for initiation into the White Priestesses, but loved to tease Katie about it.“You’re almost as sweet as your brother, Erin! Speaking of which, is Mighty Mouse coming today?”Erin’s younger brother, Konrad, was a Gray Wizard. He was also rather short, so Katie had come up with a fitting nickname for him. Most of the White Priestesses looked down on the Grays as being one step from evil. Grays considered themselves to be open to everything. Erin thought about her brother. Konrad had been getting more and more moody lately. He had introduced her to this whole role-playing thing in the first place. He had been so excited and curious about it when he was younger. He had always talked to Erin about it because their parents would not have understood. Erin had accompanied Konrad to the peace parade four years ago so their parents would let him go, and met her best friend. She had actually been hoping to meet boys.“Erin?” Katie’s voice prompted, ever-patiently, from the phone in her hand.“Sorry, was just thinking about the little gray goober. I don’t know; I haven’t talked to him much lately.”Katie’s voice sounded suddenly concerned. “You should try to talk to him. He might be slipping to, well, the other side.”Erin laughed. “Or maybe he’s just a normal teenager, or there’s a girl or something. I’m going to get ready. See you on the hill.”“OK sweetie. I have to go too, somebody’s at the door. Peace!”Erin took a slow, hot shower and considered her wardrobe for the day. She was going to the Java Shoppe later, and decided her red ‘Beer & Poetry!’ shirt clashed nicely with her bright orange hair and went well with her tight jeans. Erin laughed, wondering how the White Priestesses ever accepted someone like her; she was never calm on the inside or the out.‘Maybe I’ll try that spell again,’ Erin thought as she reached inside her secret cubby-hole for her spell book. She flipped it open to page three. One spell for each full year she had known Katie, with another coming today. In one more year, if she decided to take initiation, she would be taught more spells, and how to research her own. Katie’s mother was a White Priestess as well, so Katie had been learning her entire life. Her spell book was almost full, and Erin was a bit fascinated with it.Erin studied the spell for a few minutes, remembering the exact pronunciations, intonations and gestures to accomplish it. It was similar to her first spell, which was just a poem really, but it was more intricate and had more of an effect. While her first spell simply helped her focus, and her second helped with hangovers, her third made her feel tingly and strangely calm. Erin had never really accepted this as magic, more like guided meditation. But it did work.Closing her eyes, Erin moved her body in the required ways and allowed the words to swell in her throat then burst out of her mouth. In the middle of the spell, her body started feeling warm; a soothing warmth that started around her stomach and spread to her limbs and head. As the last syllable faded, tingles encompassed her as well, and her senses and mind cleared. It felt like being in Love, or eating a Swiss chocolate, combined with a perfect night of rest. It wasn’t coffee, but it sure came close.Erin closed her spell book and put it back in its cubby. Better not to carry it to the poetry reading. Besides, she lived 10 minutes walk from campus and could pick it up afterwards. She wondered what new spell Katie would teach her today.Choosing matching necklace and bracelet to complete her attire, Erin quietly closed her door and headed down the hall. She paused as she came to Konrad’s door. Where was the little squirt anyway? He had been hanging out with her less and less recently. Erin knocked lightly on the door. No answer. Well, maybe he would meet them later. The Gray bunch attended events when they felt like it. She wondered briefly about Konrad’s spell book. How full was it, and what types of cantrips might it contain? She had never seen it, and assumed it was hidden somewhere near his Playboy collection.The poetry reading at the Java Shoppe was rather predictable that day. Much about peace, and a few sarcastic pieces about war. A couple poems were rather insightful, but most were simply following the theme of the day. ‘At least they are trying,’ Erin thought benevolently as she slipped out the door.Erin headed to campus, to the central quad where the parade would be gathered and starting any minute. She walked slowly to the top of the hill overlooking the quad. Katie traditionally met her at the top. She looked around, but Katie was nowhere in sight. Well, she was a couple minutes late – Katie probably didn’t want to keep everyone else waiting.Erin went to the far side of the hill and looked down over the parade. It was just beginning to move, with Baha’is in the front surrounding their floats and symbols. The motif was always the same – white doves holding olive branches in their beaks. Other figures were decorated and carried to depict various historical personages who dealt in peace – Mother Teresa, Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and so on. ((Picture_3.jpg – parade)) Behind the Baha’is would come the White Priestesses, smiling and wishing well to all. Erin looked, but the White Priestesses weren’t there. None of them.Erin felt a twinge of uncertainty. The White Priestesses always took part in this parade. Surely Katie would have called her if something had happened. Erin felt strangely disconnected. Of all the things she felt confident in, the regularity of the White Priestesses, and Katie in particular, ranked highest. The sun might not come up this morning, but they would definitely be here. But they weren’t.Erin ran down the hill and approached a Baha’i she had met last year. “Hey Barb,” she called, “have you seen Katie?”Barbara smiled at her pleasantly. “Hey Erin! Nice to see one of you girls showed up. We were wondering if you all caught chicken pox or something. We haven’t seen any of you. Your help and presence is always so nice.”Erin mumbled a quick “Thanks Barb” and ran toward Katie’s dorm. Where the hell was she? Erin tried to calm herself on the way. What kind of White Priestess loses her composure at the first sign of something out of place? It did no good, and she didn’t have her spell book with her. She wasn’t nearly practiced enough to know the spell by heart.Bounding up the stairs three at a time, Erin raced to Katie’s door and began pounding on it. “Katie, are you there? Katie! Open the door! What’s going on?”The door to Katie’s room opened, showing a mass of White Priestesses. The head of the order, Katie’s mother, quietly asked Erin to come in and closed the door behind her.“What’s going on?” Erin asked, feeling more scared by the second. Katie’s mother, Vanessa, smiled at Erin gently. “Calm yourself, child. We think a matter of great importance has happened today, and you may well be a part of it. Well, your brother anyway.”Konrad? What did he have to do with this?“I haven’t seen my brother all day. Where is he? Is he ok? Where’s Katie? What great importance?”“Be at ease. This is a Blessed day. You know of Shangri-La from our meetings and studies. You also know that our greatest hope is to open a gateway to that land. I have been researching the Way for most of my life, and have been teaching Katie to do likewise. I believe that my daughter has finally found the way.”“Katie found the way to Shangri-La? Whoa. That’s great! So, um, is she there now? Is she coming back?”“She called me this morning and told me she had found the Door. She said that the key had been brought to her by your brother. She mentioned his redemption, and that she would come home before the parade. If she did not, she said that she would be in Shangri-La, and that we should find her. She left her notes so that we could follow. We are almost done, we believe.”Vanessa guided Erin to a chair and handed her some papers. “You are not yet initiated, but you are intrinsically tied to this through Katie and Konrad. And we may need that. You are welcome to come with us if you wish.”Erin nodded, still feeling lost in all of this. Hands touched her shoulders as White Priestesses murmured words of support and cast various spells of peace. Erin felt herself calming, but still wondered if life would ever be normal again.Vanessa leaned over Erin and showed her two sheets of old, dry paper. “These were written by Gray Wizards many years ago. One refers to the location of the Doors. Each order has their own outer plane they are trying to reach. We have always assumed that they were separate Doors to separate planes. However, if we cross-reference the Gray information your brother found, here, with the White information Katie was working on, here, you see…”Erin looked at the newer piece of paper Vanessa was holding. Vanessa held the papers together, and then put a candle behind them. Erin watched the lines from the maps drawn on the papers match perfectly, leading from one to the other.“We had never considered information sharing, “Vanessa laughed wryly, “for each of the orders sticks to their own. Of course, we still have one missing piece to the puzzle.” Vanessa placed her fingertip on the combined maps, showing that just as the White map the ended, where the Gray map began, the Gray map also ended.“What piece is that,” Erin asked.“There is but one more order,” Vanessa answered. She gave Erin a few seconds to absorb this information.“But, Katie told me that the White Priestesses would have nothing to do with the Black. They are corrupt and twisted, and cannot be saved.”“So we thought,” Vanessa said softly. “We may have been wrong.” Vanessa handed Erin the other sheet of dried paper.Erin read slowly. “The same Doorways may be used by each order to reach their particular outer plane. The spells are even the same; it is simply the mind and heart of the caster that decides which plane opens. After the Door is open, only followers of the correct order may enter, using an order-specific spell. Of course, the mind and heart of the caster must be as one with the spell for entering as well, thus are separate orders kept from other’s planes even if they know other’s spells. There is but one exception. While the Whites accept the freedom of the Grays, they continue in their attempts to ‘Save’ the Blacks. It is written in the Chronicles of the White that ‘While normally only the Cleansed may enter Shangri-La, it is possible for a Diseased to enter and be saved. To do so, the Pure Heart must enter as one with the Corrupt Mind.’ These theories have been composed by myself and one of our order who chose to become White and has been trying to convert me as well. We cannot test these theories without the aid of a Black, and that is problematic. Signed: Stephan the Gray. 1814.”Erin thought for a moment, trying to understand all that she had read. “What are the Chronicles of the White?” she asked.Vanessa sighed. “The White order kept their combined knowledge recorded in a great text for hundreds of years. It was kept and protected for many generations, but in the Second World War it was lost or destroyed. We have been trying to piece together the lost information ever since. This is one of the few direct quotes we have found.”“Bleh. That sucks. So why are you here instead of following Katie?”“It took us a couple hours to put the pieces together. Now, we are at a loss. Notice the map ends? Well, as I said, there is only one other order.”“So you have to find a Black to help you? You don’t have any records of their information?”“The Blacks don’t keep records. While we kept a single great chronicle, the Grays keep individual notes, and the Blacks have rituals. They pass information along through formalized sessions. At least, that’s the theory.”“So how could Katie find the Door without the help of a Black?” Erin asked.“She couldn’t.”“Um. Wow. So, Katie, Konrad, and a Black? This gets even more twisted.”“Actually,” Vanessa said slowly, “Katie only mentioned herself and your brother. How well do you know your brother?”Erin was mortified. “Konrad? We, we, well we used to be really close. He’s been, well, distant lately, but that’s normal. He’s a good kid! There’s no chance that he, that he could, no!” Erin was stammering, defensive and at the same time deeply worried by the implied accusation.“Calm down,” Vanessa soothed, “if he is still Gray all is well. If he has turned to Black, Katie was surely seeking to Save him. Perhaps he merely learned something from a Black trying to convert him. Either way, things will be ok.”Erin took several minutes to compose herself. Konrad was clever; maybe he did learn something Black, but he surely couldn’t have become Black.“Actually,” Vanessa continued,” I was hoping you could help with the final part of the map. However Konrad came by the last bit of information, I thought maybe your connection to him may help you recreate the last steps.”“How?” Erin asked.Vanessa sighed. “I don’t know, but I’m at a loss where else to go with this.”Erin nodded. “If I can help, I will.”The White Priestesses followed their map to its end, which showed the area of the city where the Door was located. As luck would have it, this was within the university campus. From there, the Gray map showed the direction to follow, to the entrance of the subterranean maze where the Door was hidden. They found the entrance to the underground at the bottom level of the university library, through an old hinged trapdoor under piles of uncatalogued books and crates. After wrestling the door open, two White Priestesses stepped into the darkness, and found several torches stacked in a pile. They continued to the end of the Gray map, and stood in front of a shadowy underground maze.Vanessa looked at Erin. “Here we are lost, for I am sure finding our way to the end will take more than luck.”Erin closed her eyes and tried to feel for Konrad. After a couple of minutes she opened her eyes, feeling foolish. “I’m not sure what I can do. I suck at mazes. The last time we had a maze in the game Konrad was running, I spent 2 hours getting lost and coming back to the beginning until I found that rhyme with directions through…”Erin looked at Vanessa. “It can’t be that simple. But. Let me see if I can remember it.” She began muttering to herself. ‘Three to the right, straight to the light, left around the bend, then do it again. Right, left, right, left, straight, straight, straight, straight, straight. Go straight up, through the cup, be sure to watch your weight. Half-way down, grab the line, swing on through, check the time. Hard left, soft right, quick stop, jump tight.’ “OK, got it. I had to memorize that damn thing to complete the dungeon. I thought it was kind of dumb. So, that’s Black magic??”Vanessa handed Erin a torch. “Slowly,” she warned. “I have a feeling this is dangerous.”Erin kept repeating the simple steps to herself as she led the White Priestesses down the first three turns to the right, then continued straight past other turns. They came to four unlit torches placed in sconces on the walls. At the next intersection, she took them left, through a curving tunnel. At the next turn, she went right and repeated the pattern. Again, the three right turns. Again, the torches set in the wall. Again, the curving left tunnel. All the time, the floor was sloping steadily downward.Erin went through the next verse in her head as she came to more intersecting passageways. She turned right, then left, then right again, then left again. She carefully counted the next five crossings, and then looked for a staircase. They came to a dead end, and milled around trying to figure out what went wrong.“Are you sure you counted right?” Vanessa asked.“Yes,” Erin answered, “I was very careful. And I remember the staircase in Konrad’s maze.”“But,” Vanessa said, “the rhyme doesn’t say anything about the layout of the maze other than directions. Are we sure we are looking for stairs?”The White Priestesses examined the area for a few minutes until one found a hole in the wall, about eight feet off the floor. After helping each other up, they continued. The hole opened into a tunnel, which led into and out of a cup-shaped depression. On the other side was a rope bridge. Heeding the instructions, they crossed one at a time. On the other side of the bridge they found a ladder going down.Erin handed her torch to a Priestess and started climbing down the ladder. After a moment, she cried out. “The ladder ends! I stepped into space!”Again repeating the rhyme, Erin looked for a line, and found a rope hanging from the bottom rung of the ladder. “Found it,” she yelled, “watch your step.” She slowly put her weight on the rope, and then tried swinging. Slowly at first, then harder, she found an opening in the wall and swung through.Erin waited for the White Priestesses to join her. She couldn’t help but smile to herself. She was having fun with this. It was like actually hunting treasure!The procession continued through the passage. There was suddenly a loud ‘Whoosh’ sound directly in front of Erin, and her torch was knocked from her hand by a swinging blade! She jumped back in fear, directly into Vanessa.Vanessa held Erin and comforted her. “Shhh. It’s ok. All is as it should be.” Exactly a minute later, the blade swung through the wall and across the passage again.“Ah!” Vanessa proclaimed, “Now I see. We must time this.”To be safe, the White Priestesses only used 30 seconds of the 60 available between each deadly swing, and safely crossed the trap. They continued, very slowly.The next intersection was composed of seven different tunnels. Erin carefully recited the rhyme in her head, and chose the one 90 degrees to the left. The next intersection was the same, and she chose the one 45 degrees to the right. Then she screamed.Vanessa and another Priestess grabbed Erin just as she began falling into the open pit in the floor, and dragged her back above the lip. Erin scrambled back, then curled into a ball on the floor and cried. Vanessa held her head and cast five soothing and mental/emotional healing spells. Erin slowly composed herself.“That sucked,” she said, as she wiped her tear-streaked face and laughed humorlessly. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”“We should be almost there,” Vanessa said, “only one more part. ‘Jump tight.’ What can that mean? What did it mean in Konrad’s dungeon?”“I had to take short hops to avoid swords sticking up from the ground,” Erin answered. “I don’t see any swords here though.”Vanessa pondered for a moment. “Maybe we can avoid more unpleasant surprises.” She took a torch and threw it past the pit. It skidded along the floor, and then disappeared into a second pit. “Ah hah!”The White Priestesses and Erin took turns jumping over the pit, helping each other to avoid any falls. They repeated the torch-throwing process, and found a third pit. After the third pit, the floor was solid for about 20 feet, and the passage turned right. They followed it, and when they turned the corner they stopped and stared in awe.The rough floor and walls of the tunnel became smooth, almost to the point of polished. At the end of the passage was a wall made of close-fitted stone blocks. In the wall was an open door, topped by the Infinity sign of the Three, showing them what could only be Shangri-La. Past a pleasant hedge maze stood an imitation of Stonehenge. Or perhaps the original. Past the monument a huge, blazing sun was setting. Above the setting sun was a beautiful night sky, with amazingly-brilliant stars, new constellations, and a crescent moon. A sign just past the doorway said, simply, ‘Elsewhere.’ Sitting on the foot of the doorway laid Katie’s open spell book. ((Picture_2.jpg – Door))The White Priestesses all started talking and chanting. Vanessa turned to Erin and hugged her tightly. “You did it! Great job!” She then ran over a scooped up Katie’s spell book, and then started dancing.“Look! Here it is! The spell! To travel to Shangri-La!” Tears were streaming down Vanessa’s face. She turned to Erin. “Child. Go get your initiation gown, if you want to continue farther. Only the Cleansed may enter. It will take me an hour or two to decipher and learn this spell. Also, bring your spell book.”Erin left the White Priestesses to their chanting and ran back the way she had come. This was suddenly exciting again! She caught herself before she plunged into the first pit in the floor, and carefully made her way back out of the maze. Less than an hour later, she climbed back into the library, left through the front door, and ran home.Erin’s parents were out of town for the weekend, so there was no need to slow down upon entering the house. She ran through the hallway towards her room, and then came to a dead stop.Konrad’s door was open. Konrad’s door was never open. Ever since his parents allowed him to start locking it when he was ten, he had kept it carefully closed and locked at all times. He never even opened the door when someone else was in the hallway. Erin had always thought it was pre-teen hormones or some privacy issue, but had never given it much thought. The sight of his door, now open, somehow made Erin feel apprehensive.Erin slowly reached out and opened the door further. Inside, the room was meticulously clean. There were a couple of paintings and a mirror on the wall, and everything was in place. Everything except a disheveled stack of papers on the desk. Drawn to the desk, Erin sat down and started leafing through the papers. There were notes on Gray magic, on spells and spell research, and on the freedom of the Gray Way. Deeper into the pile she found notes about Black magic, on how the Gray Wizards believed the Blacks to operate. Even further down she found notes regarding Grays turning to White or Black. She stopped when she came to a bound notebook, entitled ‘Konrad’s Treatise on Darkening and Control.’Hands trembling, Erin picked up the manuscript. The beginning pages were something of an autobiography, telling of Konrad’s childhood and search for freedom, and power. Erin’s body was shaking badly as she read ever-darker ideas about life that had lived in her brother’s mind and come to light in this text. She turned to a page near the back, and gasped in shock as she saw a picture of Katie, bound and fearful-eyed. Underneath the picture were diagrams including bondage, mutilation and dissection. On the next page was glued a clipping from ‘Haiku Monthly.’ It read ‘A bird let free and flying. Gilded cage no more. Is yet a bird in meaning.’ Underneath the clipping, in Konrad’s messy scrawl, was written ‘And so too a heart.’With horror, Erin turned to the last page in the journal and glanced down at the picture. And screamed before her mind closed off the world. ((Picture_1.jpg – Girl)) The Pure Heart had indeed gone to open the Door.</blockquote>

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