Elven Princess

Pylaieus

Nimuel shrieked. Saayan went silent. And Aelanor moved faster than the speed of light. She reached behind Nimuel and broke off the head of an icicle and drew it against the intruder.

"Your endeavor is futile, Princess, for I cannot be harmed by a shard of ice."

Pylaieus moved slowly towards them, blue lights falling on his bare skin like thousands of bioluminescent planktons in water at night. His gait was steady, and so was his piercing gaze, that held the trio in a dead lifelessness."

"I am warning you, Centaur..." Aelanor took an unsteady step towards him.

"The name is Pylaieus, and you will do well to remember that."

"Pylaieus, listen, it is not what you think," Nimuel said.

"It is precisely what I think, and understand, Lady Saeltheriel. There is no use trying to deceive me. You are trying to destroy the Kingdom, and take down Elektra with it. But you have no path forward, none at all, getting out of here." Pylaieus said.

"Then do what you must," Aelanor roared, "and we will fight to our deaths if necessary. Your Queen, she is..."

"A monster."

There was nothing in those blue eyes that betrayed any emotion, but his voice suddenly seemed weak- perhaps with guilt. It got caught in his throat.

"There was nothing to be gained with the death of the child," Pylaieus walked past the group's stunned faces to read the inscription properly. "Elektra is aware of the repercussions of the unholy act of murder, much more of that of a child. The resultant revival of the death would be a mutation, a cross between the living and the dead. It would not be of any use to anyone."

"Then why did she do that?" 

"To demonstrate her powers. But we are running out of time, and we should try and solve this quickly and leave, or else Elektra..."

"We?" Aelanor shook her head.

"Yes, Princess, we. Need you some form of hearing aid? Now, quickly."

Aelanor made no argument as she moved swiftly towards the inscription where Nimuel and Saayan had already stationed themselves. 

"We have to put the stone tablets into the dugouts. There are six of them."

"The drop of water is the first clue, right?"

"The fourth to the right of water is- "will ring"- the bell; and it should be placed on the top."

"The light that fight against the dark- this symbol- black and white..."

"The yin and yang. But where should we put it?"

"Unclear. It should, however, be next to the bell, I think."

"Okay, lets look at this clue. "the fruits of hardship fail to meet the glistening drop of ecstasy", the drop and the fruit is separated by "the offering of peace"- the peace symbol!"

"This has to sit on the left, so the immediate left one should be Peace."

"And the immediate left of Peace should be the fruit- the apple."

"See now, "the hands of time will ring right by"- which again means the bell. The bell should be beside- "the hilltops". That seems logical, right?"

"So, the final answer should be- clockwise from the top- the bell, the hills, the drop, the symbol of peace, the apple and, hand me the last one- the symbol of yin and yang. Whoa!"

As soon as Aelanor put the last stone in the wall, it gave a low rumble and a crack opened up in the stone door. They squeezed through the opening inside.

The scene in front of them was dramatically futuristic. Large shards hung from the roof of the head, which had a wide gap in the middle. Some stones above even resembled fierce taxidermic birds. The cave was bathed in bluish purple light so strong the group had to blink a few times to focus. As the cave came into focus, they could finally make out the brightly lit sphere in front of them. 

"Is it," Nimuel whispered, "the sun? The white sun of the Dream Isles?"

Pylaieus nodded. "The very same. Projected to the skies through atmospheric particles."

"So how do we destroy it? Can you switch it off?" Aelanor looked swiftly about the sphere, which was raised in the air above a circular platform, connected by a raised platform to the plane where they stood. As they look around, they realised for the first time that apart from the platform on which the sun shone, they were standing on a dark, massive mound of nothingness.