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Quest for the Final Shadow

Excerpt from a rare written narrative by Shataina, Mistress of Mystery, Lady of Legends

Flawless Mirror waited in the frosty anteroom, ill-concealing his impatience. He had realized too late that his iridescent ensemble did not have the effect he had aimed for, in this Manse of sparkling water and rainbowed lenses of ice. The fact that he looked ridiculous made him, predictably, even angrier. When the woman he had come to see came at last to greet him, it was all he could do not to fling the wine she offered in her face.

I need her, he thought, and forced himself to display calmness.

"Thank you for meeting me so quickly," he said with false sincerity. "I'm sorry if I interrupted your studies."

The dulcet tones of one of Creation's most celebrated voices said merely, "Forgiven."

He had to admit that she looked magnificent, and his ire -- which he had thought at impossible levels -- grew. The feathers around her enormous black eyes were brushed with silver, and her silver-streaked brown hair was so long and fine that it resembled gossamer thread. At the glittering parties of their peers, she had always faded so well into the background that he had never realized how lovely she was.

"I'm here," he said, stepping forward, "to help you avenge an insult."

"Ah," she said sweetly, "how charitable."

"I can only guess that you don't know how much you've been insulted," he continued, gritting his teeth.

"Perhaps not," she murmured into her wine. The suppressed laughter in her voice made him throw diplomacy to the winds.

"Lord Nefhindi," Flawless Mirror barked. "He is making a laughingstock of you in Namarath. Your face and form are practically no longer your own! And his crimes are mounting. Don't you recall how you nearly got the blame for the exploits of Grassblade? The same will happen in the Principality, if you don't take care. It only takes one fool incapable of penetrating Nefhindi's disguise to implicate you once again."

"Namarath," Quicksilver Scribe mused. "Where is that again?"

Flawless Mirror stared straight into her eyes and played his trump card. "It's rather close to the Bitter Flower Empire," he said bluntly. "Close enough to go to war."

He was rewarded by a slight flinch, a waver behind her gaze, before the poet said softly, "I fear that the Dual Queens and I have rather ... parted ways. Anything Nefhindi does to them ... even in my name ... matters nothing."

Flawless Mirror didn't bother to repress a scowl. "And the good opinion of Lady Vivid Rapture? Does that, too, mean nothing to you?"

"I have work to do," said Quicksilver Scribe, and he saw, too late, her own anger. "Are we quite finished?"

Out of palatable tactics, Flawless Mirror resorted to his least favourite. "Please, my Lady. I need your help with this. I can't do it alone."

"Even finding Nefhindi is impossible if he doesn't wish it," she snapped. "I've no time to quest for a shadow, and if I did, no inclination. I'm sorry he implicated you in the usage of the Ritual, but it is naught to me." Her bare feet were silent on the floor of ice as she left, calling back only, "Good day, my Lord."

"Good day," he growled, and stormed out, relieving his feelings by annihilating her guardian demons. A new ally, he considered. That's what I need. But who? The only other man who hated Nefhindi as I do is trapped within the Kerning Stone ....

References:

• Flawless Mirror
• Incandescent Inveiglement Ritual
• Namarath, Principality of

• Other Q Entries

~ Shataina

See also Shataina's other Lexicon entries