A Plunge Into Darkness

Darkness fled and light took hold as the summer sun parted with the expansive lake. The rays sprung from the deep blue of the waters had begun to bring out the shine and luster in the steel of Jupiter’s enchanted armor as he leaned back against the rough yet oddly comforting bark of the tree. To admire the rising beauty before him with a snack of bread in his hand was a treat so great that it alone could purge whatever sleep remained in his eyes. The darkness of the night had been bested yet again and it relieved him. He was already washed and suited up, ready for the day’s adventure. He knew that the Alchemist had given his friend Vera a task to acquire some kind of artifact. What exactly it was surpassed him. All he knew for certain was that at any moment he would hear the booming voice of his early-bird companion as she readied the rest of the party the same way she always did.

A clanging of pots and pans disrupted any tranquility the morning had granted. The passive sounds of cicadas and birds singing were quickly buried by the sound of bashing metal on metal as she sounded her alarm. All Jupiter could do was smirk. If he had gained any kind of wisdom throughout his travels with Vera, it was to drag himself out of bed early enough and far enough from the rest of the posse so as to not receive her wake-up call. It was a lesson more valuable than any spell his book had.

From what he remembered their mission would be a simple one: secure some artifacts within the temple buried beneath the lake. He brushed up on water-breathing and movement-retention spells the night before in preparation. The only question he had was exactly how they would get there without a boat. Any adventurer knew that all lake temples would be located close to the center and in what looked like a two-hundred-mile-long lake, it would take forever to swim through. Vera better know what she’s doing, he hoped.

Once the clattering had died down, he removed himself from the comfort of the tree and paced himself back to their camp into the woods in the cracking sunlight. The other two members Odessa and Matthew begrudgingly readied while Vera stood there, wide awake and with a grin on her face which only seemed to grow when she saw her friend already up and prepped.

“Good morning, Jupiter!” she exclaimed with her hands resting on her hips.

Infected by her smile, Jupiter joined her with a tip of the wide brim of his feathered hat. “Same to you,” he replied in a more subdued tone. Even with her usual cheery attitude, something about her struck him as the opposite, which turned his smile into a look of confusion.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that Vera had a backpack with wraps of rope along with several pieces of hiking and caving equipment locked and loaded into it. He had never been on an underwater voyage that required such gear.

Vera took notice of her friend’s confusion and confronted him. “Is something wrong?”

 He shook his head. “No, no. Everything’s alright, I just don’t think we’re going to need all of that stuff at the lake temple,” Jupiter elaborated as he pointed towards the lake behind them.

“Oh!” Vera’s eyes widened and her lip curved all while Jupiter’s puzzled expression remained.

“Uh...yeah...I also noticed that we don’t have a boat…” he continued. “Did you plan on swimming all the way to the center?”

She began stroking her long braided hair, smirking again, only this time more sheepishly. “Yeah, about that. We’re not going out towards the lake.”

“Well...then why are we here? What about the artifacts?”

Vera simply guided him further into the woods from the shore. Passed flowers, wandering critters, and creeping sunlight to a hill obscured by a giant boulder which she then managed to roll out of the way to uncover a dark, deep, mossy cave built into the forest where no light shined. It was into that dark abyss that she pointed. “They’re in there…” She then brought her hand up below Jupiter’s chin to keep his jaw from dropping. “I know it sounds bad, but trust me. It hasn’t been opened in years and there'll be good stake in it for us if we get the relic for the Alchemist!”

Jupiter simply stepped away from his friend. “You knew this didn’t you? When were you going to tell me?” he said, losing his composure for a moment.

Vera could just have easily lost her temper as her friend did, yet remained calm. “Jupiter, you’ve trekked through so much worse. The deepest of waters, the highest of mountains. This shouldn’t be any different,” she said with her hand now on his shoulder.

Jupiter’s lip quivered in distress. “But...the darkness Vera. I can’t take it. I won’t be able to focus on my magic! I know what lays in the seas, what lurks in the mountains. I don’t know what lies in the dark! Caves embody that. You know it. It makes my mind wander deeper into the darkness. It creates visions in my mind. Horrors that make me lose my focus.” His voice grew calmer the more he went on. “If I can’t focus, I’ll let you all down. That’s the last thing I want to do.”

Vera understood all too well and it didn’t take an all-knowing seer to know that. As the team’s leader she had put a load of pressure on herself to keep the party safe and secure as they plunged into the unknown. Yet, such security could only be provided with a group effort. As their only magician Jupiter had a pressure of his own. To be their light in the darkness whenever something supernatural reared its dreadful head. At an age of seventeen years, something like that means a lot, often to an overwhelming degree. It wasn’t the monsters or the spirits he could find in the caves that he was afraid of, it was the ambiguity they offered.

She laid her second hand on to her friend’s corresponding shoulder “Jupiter look at me...the worst enemy you will ever meet in there is your own mind and you can’t let it win! I’m sorry I lied to you. I really am, but I wanted to help you! I won’t let it win. It wouldn’t be right if I did.” Vera then let go of her friend’s shoulders in exchange for his hands and smiled politely at him before quietly assuring: “I’ll be with you every step of the way. Whatever you face, I face. This time I promise.”

Jupiter’s face answered for him. It was not so often that she would use anything close to an indoor voice, especially one so endearing. If she had not had an outdoor voice she would have no voice at all, at least according to Odessa and Matthew. He nodded with a returning smile as he grasped his spellbook and began to scan through it.

The remaining adventurers made their way to the cave entrance where Vera and Jupiter laid waiting. Both of them wore similar backpacks while Matthew had carried a spare he had packed for their young magician.

Vera smirked, back to her usual demeanor. “By God Jupiter do you see it? The cicadas have finally emerged from their brood!” she remarked.

Crossbow over her shoulder, Odessa scoffed. “At least we don’t collapse to the ground the moment the sun goes down.”

Matthew laughed and tossed Jupiter the other haversack. “Do we have a light, Jupiter?” he asked to realign the party’s focus.

Jupiter nodded silently, flipping through his book to the desired page whilst unleashing his sword from the leather-bound comfort of his scabbard in order to prep the spell. “Illuminu!”

Almost instantaneously, the steel blade of his sword bloomed into a brilliant white as he placed his book back to his side. Over the shadows of the cave the light beamed, revealing the next few steps ahead. Now the vanguard of the party, he stared deeply and nervously into the void that awaited them until Vera took his hand again by his side. Silently she repeated, “What you face, I face.”

With a deep breath, Jupiter led the party onward. The sounds of their footsteps echoed through the caverns as they continued further into the abyss. The rest of the party all had their weapons on stand-by with Odessa’s crossbow, Matthew’s whip, and Vera’s flanged mace all drawn to neutralize any threat that may come their way.

The chasm then started taking them downward, the light of the outside completely nulled. Just as he had worried, the darkness started to displace Jupiter’s mind with its shroud of mystery. Eyeless and deformed beasts started to fill his head. The kinds of creatures his mother told him would snatch him if he had stayed up too late. Demons. Ghouls. Wraiths. Night crawlers. Creatures of his nightmares.

However, even with all the looming fears, the warmth of Vera’s hand on his gave him a sense of soundness. The thought that even if his fears were to reveal themselves, that he would have Vera’s strength to shield him from harm. That feeling resonated with him and met his fears head first, retaining his focus as they trekked deeper in their search for old relics.

“How will we know when we find the artifacts?” Jupiter inquired.

“Aren’t you supposed to be taking us to them?” Odessa commented jokingly, her eyes and body sweeping around the area.

Vera glossed over her remark.“According to the Alchemist's map she gave us, It should be held up by a pedestal atop a round staircase surrounded by water.”

“How do we know it’s still there?” Matthew asked.

Jupiter joined in confidently. “I went with Vera to see it. The cave had been sealed with a boulder. From how stubborn it was to move, it had to have been there for a long while.” Jupiter joined in ponderously. “But if you don’t mind me asking, Vera, what is this artifact supposed to be anyway?”

Vera looked back at Matthew before looking to Jupiter with another one of her warm smiles. She felt stupid for neglecting to tell him. “It’s a helmet, enchanted with the power to unleash the inner wings of any given creature. Wings that will grant them flight. As to how I know it’s here, the cave was sealed” As she spoke, the party began to round a corner where they were meant with mossy stone stacked in layers all meeting within the centermost point where a pedestal stood just as she described. “And it should be right there,” she finished, using her mace to point towards the top. A six yard moat stood between them and the staircase. It was as if the cave they had just trotted down had been a tunnel into the real cave. A wide, tall cave where pointed rocks hung from the roof.

It was there at the edge that Matthew cut through Jupiter and Vera, readied his whip, and latched it onto one of the rocks. Gripping it with both hands he swung past the moat and landed his feet on the darkened stone that propelled the pedestal. “This has to have been here for at least a few centuries,” he claimed, analyzing the stone foundation.

She called over to him with zeal. “I’ll bet the helmet is just as old!” she exclaimed, her voice echoing with the cave. “Why not fetch it for us?”

“Aye!” replied Matthew with a salute. Vera wore her excitement very clearly on her face. It made Jupiter smile, although sheepishly as his mind was now left to wander again without her hand bonded to his. The light of his sword began to dim as he looked around. A sudden disturbance, gone unnoticed by the others, ran through the water. The light dimmed further. What was that? he thought. There did not appear to be anything else with them in the cave. He crouched down to see if he could see anything in the water to no avail. My mind must be playing tricks on me.

He banged his head against his sword’s hilt to secure his focus which then brightened the blade’s glow once again. He looked over to Matthew who had reached the top of the circular staircase only to tell him, Odessa, and Vera that the helmet was not there.

Vera’s eagerness turned to shock as her jaw dropped. “It’s gone? But how?” she said in distress and panic.

“Someone must have found it before us,” Odessa suggested, resting her crossbow back onto her shoulder.

“That can’t be! The cave was sealed! It had to be!” she then began looking frantically around the cave for any trace of the helmet. The rest of the party followed suit. Matthew looked roundabout the staircase as Odessa pushed through rocks to see if it had been buried somehow.

Looking into his reflection, Jupiter hatched an idea. Maybe the disturbance he had saw had been the helmet falling into the water. He then took his glowing sword and stuck it into the moat to search for it. The light from the sword then uncovered a reptilian monster which caused Jupiter’s eyes to widen and the blade’s light to completely go out. His fears had come to life. It leaped out from under the dark waters taking Vera and the other completely off guard. Its scaly blue hands wrapped around his neck with its claws digging into the flesh of his neck as its yellow eyes pierced his soul. It jerked him around like a rag-doll until a well placed bolt fired from Odessa entered its side. The thing dropped him and focused on his fresh attacker. From here, just as Vera came to his aid, Jupiter saw its seven-foot-long, slender, snake-like body, a scaled hood, a blood-red tongue, and surprisingly, wings. “He’s got the helmet!” he told her, still in shock and awe of the creature.

The creature grabbed Odessa and lifted her up in the air and flew her around the cave all while scratching her with its claws with her feebly fighting back. Vera started throwing rocks at the creature while Matthew tried striking it with his whip. Jupiter just stood there, frozen from fear. Vera then shook him, her warmth bringing him out of his fears.

“Jupiter you have to do something!” she said, picking up another rock.

Jupiter’s breath drew heavy to catch up with his now pounding heart. “I...I can’t!”

Vera would not take that for an answer. She lifted him up and gave him his sword. “You have to! Remember what I told you! We face this together!” She grabbed his offhand once again. “We’re counting on you!”

Her words echoed in his mind as he felt her hand again. The adrenaline that froze him was now pushing him to act. He grasped the hilt tightly, his eyes tracking that flying serpentine’s every movement and when he cried “Igneum!” a slash of blazing blue fire casted forth from his sword and struck the beast setting it alight the moment it was hit. It sank into the water, taking Odessa with it as it burned.

As if instinctively, Jupiter dropped his sword, hat, and cloak to ground and dove into the cold water after Odessa who’s armor had her sink close to the bottom. He lifted her up as she struggled to swim up due both to her injuries and the encumbrance. Together they emerged back to the surface where Matthew and Vera had reunited to help fish them out. Vera had laid her on her back to find that she was still breathing as she warmed her up with Jupiter’s blue cloak.

When Odessa woke up she smirked at the rest of the party. “Thanks Jupiter. That was some trick you pulled on that snake thing. Whatever it was. Looks like we won’t be seeing him again.”

He blushed. “Hey, that’s why we’re together. To lean on each other. To face obstacles as one,” he began looking over to Vera. “In spite of danger. In spite of fear.”

“That goes tenfold for me,” agreed Matthew. “Still, it’s a shame we couldn’t get that helmet. Looks like we’ll have to go back to the Alchemist empty-handed…” Vera punched his arm. “Hey! I was only kidding!” he said rubbing his arm

Jupiter and Odessa laughed as Odessa interjected, “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” From the blanket of a cloak she lifted herself up and handed Vera the jewel-encrusted helmet with gilded wings decorating its sides.

Vera was astonished at the surprise. “Odessa, you know your safety matters more than a helmet.”

“I know, but I was down there anyway, so I thought I might as well…”

“Well, I’m glad you did. Now you and Matthew go ahead and start packing up the camp. Hopefully we can get back to the Alchemist before sunset.” Now on their feet, the pair headed back the way they came to prepare for their departure. Vera then looked over to Jupiter who in the meantime, stared into the waters where the monster had sunken down as he put his cloak and hat back on. “Don’t worry. Last time I checked water won’t put out a magic fire.” They both laughed for a moment before handing him his sword. “You made the right choice. The brave choice.”

Jupiter sheathed his sword before tipping his hat all while smiling. “With a friend like you, being brave is a breeze,” he said. They took each other in their arms for a hug, giving the cave one last glance before setting off for another journey without a second look back.