The Unnamed Saga: The Four Thrones, Chapter Thirteen: "Cage of Flames"

Chapter Thirteen: Cage of Flames 

Open on Metis’ bedroom within the Black Castle.  The curtains are drawn, the room is dark.  A fine dust covers the desk against the far wall away from the door.  Everything is organized and neatly tucked away.  The room was once the library where Mary took the queen for the sacrifice.  A wardrobe has replaced the area where the secret entrance was.

Show Eros at Metis’ work desk, digging through papers.  Drawers are open.  A small candle is lit on the table.

Eros pulls another drawer to the ground, papers scattering around it.

Eros punches the desk in a fit of anger.

Eros: “Nothing!”

Eros stares at the drawer while rubbing his chin.

Eros: “Metis is too thorough to not keep a record.”

Show Eros standing, holding a ledger.

Show the ledger interior, numerous figures written in neat rows across the page, fine notes made in the margins.

Show Eros tapping various portions of the desk.

Show Eros sagging against the wall with a sigh, the desk in tatters, drawers deposited around the floor, papers scattered around it.

Eros: “And he’s far too paranoid to leave such records lying about.”

Eros looks about the room while tugging his vest.

Show the wardrobe over Eros’ shoulder.

Eros: “So he would hide them…”

Show Eros replacing papers haphazardly.

Eros stops at the wardrobe, opening the doors.

Eros carelessly dislodges boxes and boots, neatly organized robes parted about his body.

Eros sighs.

Eros: “Damn!”

Eros sits back against the wardrobe.

Eros: “This is pointless.  Metis is the smartest man alive.  Whatever he’s doing, he wouldn’t leave record of it anywhere that I might find.”

Hold on Eros sitting, eying the room.

Eros: “No point in waiting around.  I should clean up and get out—“

Eros uses the wardrobe to balance himself and hears a click.

Eros stares curiously at the wardrobe’s far panel, which has come open, dark shadows showing beyond it.

Eros pushes the wall.

Hold on Eros, arm extended, as the wall drifts open.

Show Eros from below, a long spiral staircase leading to where he stands, him looking down into the darkness.

Show Eros from above, staring into the darkness, his body the sole image seen in a bottomless darkness.

Eros: “What is…”

Show Eros from the side, staring, his hand gripping tightly to the thin stone railing of the staircase.

Eros: “…Looks bottomless…”

Show Eros approaching the desk from the candle’s vantage point, the small candle halfway melted.

Show Eros at the staircase now holding the candle, holding it in front of him.  The shadows seem to swallow the light.

Eros extends Metis’ pen from the desk.

Eros releases the pen.

Show the pen disappearing into the darkness, growing smaller in each panel.

Hold on the bottomless darkness for a few seconds until there is a faint tapping.

Eros: “Close enough to bottomless.  I wonder where it leads.”

Show multiple images of Eros’ descending the spiral staircase, changing only as he winds around, holding the candle before him.

Eros stops at the bottom of the staircase, in the chamber where the queen was killed.

Show Eros from the back, looking out at the large, circular stone laid platform with lupine runes cut into the surface.  Four torches burn at four points within the runes, their light casting color and signifying magic.  The shadows are darker here.

Eros rests his candle on the stairwell.

Eros: “How long has all of this been here?”

Show Eros’ foot touch the runes.

Show the torches dim as the shadows swell.

Show the candle snuff.

Eros stops, staring wide-eyed at the shadows, shaking.

Eros: “S-Something is wrong…”

A growl is heard.

Eros: “I shouldn’t be here.”

Eros sprints past his candle.

Show Eros scaling the stairs from above.

Show multiple panels of the stairs as Eros passes.  The shadows follow him up the steps.

Show Eros pulling the wall shut in Metis’ room.

Eros hastily reassembles Metis’ closet.

Eros stops at he doorway, checking the room, body wet with sweat, panting heavily.

Eros shuts the door behind him.

 

-The Four Thrones-

 

Cut to party traveling through the Silvaran forests.  The trees are thinner here, with darker wood, but they seem healthier.  A light snow has dusted the ground.  Leaves crunch beneath their feet.  Zara leads with a smile, Elsea trailing just behind her.  The other three follow, fatigued.  Zelos is farthest back.

 

Zara: "Come on, it shouldn't be much further.  The sign we found said we should arrive within the day."

 

Mary: "Yes, lady princess, so you've reminded us.  Though, I am curious, what finds you so jovial today?  On the average you behave as if the weight of the world rests solely upon your lovely little shoulders."

 

Zara: "I'm just excited to be back in Silvara.”

 

Mary: "Really?  I, personally, can hardly tell the difference between the two nations."

 

Zara: "There are many differences, though.  For example, the air here smells much cleaner."

 

Mary: "I'll take you at your word, then. However, the sun will soon set.  I think we should make camp for the night."

 

Zara pouts at the gathered party, who has stopped to speak.  Elsea stands quietly by.  Mary crosses her arms and tries hard to stare Zara down.  Zelos yawns behind them.

Zara: "But the town..."

 

Mary crosses her arms and looks at Gleen while Zara continues to pout.

Mary: "I fear that pout has left me incapable of refusal.  Sir Knight, you're of the heartless sort, are you not?  Why not try your cold, ice-veined hand at it?"

 

Glenn stares at the two of them flatly.  Zelos is looking somewhere off-screen, bored.

Glenn: "Princess, we really should rest."

 

Zara: "But the..."

 

Glenn: "The town will be there tomorrow.  We're all tired, and Zelos still looks a bit pale."

 

Zelos: "I'm just cold."

 

Glenn: "We rest."

Glenn walks away, leaving Zelos to look apologetically at Zara while Mary and Elsea stand nearby.

 

Zelos: "That means that's the end of it."

 

Zara sulks ats Mary passes her.  Elsea pats Zara’s shoulder.

Zara: "Fine, I suppose you're right, but I want to leave at the break of dawn."

 

Show Glenn dropping his pack while Mary is writing runes upon ground.

Glenn: "Feel free to wake us."

 

-The Four Thrones-

 

Cut to the party by night, Zara and Zelos seated close to a brightly burning fire, Elsea tending the flames.  Glenn lies on his back, staring up at the sky.  Mary is sewing.

Zelos scoots to Mary’s side, surveying what she is sewing.

 

Zelos: "What are you doing over here?"

 

Mary: "Quite funny you should ask, actually, I'm making you an accessory of a sort."

 

Zelos: "An accessory?"

 

Mary: "Yes, and a functional one at that.  Let me ask you this: since the tunnel how has your eye been?  Aching?  Straining?  Do you feel as if an immense pressure has built up behind it?"

 

Zelos touches his left eye self-consciously.

Zelos: "I guess."

 

Mary: "Then there may yet be ambient magic in the air.  In fact, some was released earlier by the flame what Lady Elsea had prepared."

 

Elsea: "Oh my!  I am so sorry, it wasn’t my intention to…”

 

Mary: "Think nothing of it.  Such things are necessary on a journey.  We can't very well go without fire in winter, can we?  No!  And since the behavior cannot be changed, we must find a way to circumvent Zelos' affliction entirely."

 

Glenn is watching now, as is Zara.  Elsea pokes the flame with a stick while Zelos leans over Mary’s work.

 

Zara: "And how exactly might we do that?"

 

Mary: "Simple!"

Mary holds up a cloth eye-patch with finely written runes lining the interior and exterior.

Mary: "Functional accessorizing!"

 

The party stares quietly at the eye patch while Mary smiles.  The fire crackles in the silence.

 

Zelos: "What is it?"

 

Mary: "An eye patch, of course.  We simply place it over the offending eye and the runes on the outside keep the magic at bay while the runes inside diffuse any magic what might be released.  So, should you somehow overflow with magical force yet again, it will do nothing but release it into the aether quietly rather than in an admittedly impressive but highly dangerous display of the flaming pillar what we are used to.  Also, should you think to start a career in the circus or some such other business of its ilk then remove the patch and the powers of blistering destruction are once again at your finger tips—eyes—whatever have you.”

 

Mary places the eye patch on Zelos’ lap while the party watches.  Zara is smiling in the background.

Zelos lifts it up and holds it between his parted hands, eying it uncertainly.

Zelos: "Seriously? An eye patch?”

 

Zara bursts into laughter.

Zara: "You'll look like a pirate! HA!"

 

Glenn lies back, grinning.

Elsea smiles while tending the flame, hiding her smile behind her hand.

 

Mary: "Quite like one, yes. Now then, go ahead and try it on, let's see how it looks."

 

Zelos: "Mary, I don't think..."

 

Mary: "I will allow no arguments on this one!  It is for the best, come, come."

 

Zelos looks hopefully back at Glenn while Zara continues to laugh.

Glenn closes his eyes.

Glenn: "Save us the headache.”

 

Zelos sighs, shoulders slouched, body sagging.

Zelos: "Fine, I'll put it on, but I'll remember this."

Zelos slips the eye patch on.

Zelos looks at Mary petulantly while Mary smiles.

 

Mary: "There, there, and you do look quite fetching!"

 

Zara falls over, holding her side and nearly crying with laughter.

Zara: "HAHAHAHAHA! PIRATE! HAHAHAHAHA!"

 

Elsea: "Oh, m'lady..."

 

Zelos: "Know what?  I'm going to bed."

 

-The Four Thrones-

 

Cut to the late night, the fire having dimmed, Zelos sleeping soundly nearby. Glenn is sleeping across the camp, while Elsea sleeps closely to the flame, alone in her bag.

Show Mary sitting cross-legged while staring up at the stars, the camp just behind her.

 

Mary: "Yes, princess?  Is something wrong? Can't you sleep?"

 

Zara joins Mary, standing beside her, holding her cloak to her body.

Zara:  "Can't you?"

 

Mary: "You know what they say: when I'm dead and all of that."

 

Zara sits beside Mary.

 

Zara: "I'm too excited to sleep.  We're finally back in Silvara!  I want to keep going, to make it home as quickly as possible."

 

Mary: "Understandable, though not all of us share your fervor.  For some it isn't a homecoming, but instead a flight from home."

 

Zara: "Like Zelos."

 

Mary: "Not just him."

 

Zara looks over her shoulder. Show Glenn sleeping, hands folded over his chest.

 

Zara: "Sometimes I forget."

 

Mary: "That is unsurprising.  The good knight is often quiet and prefers to suffer in silence."

 

Zara: "That doesn't seem healthy."

 

Mary: "People are rarely healthy things, princess."

 

Zara: "True."

Zara rubs her hands together for warmth.

Zara: "Mary, how long were you the court magician in Fiona?"

 

Mary: "Since before you were born.  Why do you ask?"

 

Zara: "I was just curious.  I had asked Elsea who you were when we met in beneath the castle, and all she knew was that you had served the royal family as a court magician."

 

Mary: "I see.  Do you have any more questions what have been bothering you as of late?"

 

Zara: "Well..."

 

Mary: "Feel free to ask.  My life is an open book."

 

Zara: "And like some books, I imagine most of your stories are fiction."

 

Mary: "I leave that to the discretion of my readers."

 

Zara: "Had you met Glenn before you were..."

 

Mary: "Incarcerated?"

 

Zara: "Yes."

 

Mary: "Yes, I had.  Glenn joined the military at a young age and earned himself a place in the Black Guard in short time.  He was there before Eros was born, if I remember correctly."

 

Zara: "What was he like?  I mean, when he was younger.  I find it hard to imagine him as anything but him."

 

Mary laughs.

Mary: "Yes.  Truth told, the young Glenn and the Glenn you see now were very much the same.  He was always quiet, and serious, too, almost comically so.  He was loyal, as you might imagine, and very, very driven.  His promotion to captain was well-earned, I would imagine, though that did happen while I was underground.  Mostly, he kept to the walls and did his duty."

 

Zara: "That sounds a bit lonely."

 

Mary: "Hardly.  Glenn was well-respected by his peers, and he always had Zelos."

Mary laughs again.

Mary: "Even from a young age the two got on famously.  When Zelos was a toddler only learning to walk he would disappear from whatever room he was in, almost as if in a burst of smoke.  You would search and search, frantic, afraid the poor babe had found the stairs and had a tumble.  Then, Glenn would come around a corner with the prince crawling in his wake."

 

Zara laughs quietly.

Zara: "That's so sweet!"

 

Mary: "It was downright delightful, for us at least.  Glenn always seemed exasperated.  Still, he clearly developed quite the attachment."

 

Zara: "So did you."

 

Mary: "Everyone did.  Zelos brought something to the castle with him, something that had long been missing from our lives."

 

Zara: "Trouble."

 

Mary: "No.  I don't mean to say he brought none, of course he did, look at him.  But he brought something else.  Contentedness, maybe, or the beginnings of peace.  For most, at least, but not all.  Certainly not all."

 

Zara: "And you were arrested after Zelos was born, correct?"

 

Mary: "Shortly after, yes."

 

Zara: "And the crime you committed, you did that afterward as well."

 

Mary: "Yes."

 

Zara: "Mary, if I may, what did you do to be sealed beneath the castle for so long?"

 

Mary: "Are you sure you wish to know, princess?  Knowledge is easily given, but not so easily forgotten."

 

Zara: "We've been travelling together for some time now, and by how Glenn acted I imagined you to be some great terrible monster.”

 

Mary: "I am unimpressive, then?"

 

Zara: "No, your magic quite impressive, but the way you carry yourself is unexpected.”

 

Mary: "Considered it my poor posture.  My mother was always quick to lecture me on it."

 

Zara: "Mary."

 

Mary: "Fine, if you must know, I killed many people."

 

Zara: "How many?"

 

Mary: "Depends on the story you're told."

 

Zara grows quiet and stares thoughtfully at the ground in front of her.  Mary continues to watch the sky.

Zara: "Did they deserve it?"

 

Mary: "One did."

 

Beat.

 

Zara: "Do you ever regret it?"

 

Mary: "That is quite enough of such talk.  You should get some sleep now."

 

Zara reaches toward Mary’s shoulder but stops short, hesitating.

Zara hugs her knees to her chest and stares at the ground.

Zara: "Mary, you don't need to carry all of this alone."

 

Mary: "That's quite sweet of you, princess, and cute as can be, but I've carried it this long, haven't I?  Some things needn't be shared with the world."

 

Zara: "It's strange that you and Glenn bicker so often considering that you’re practically the same person."

 

Mary: "Not even in the least.  For one thing, I am a woman.  Now, off with you.  We have an early morning if you have your way, no?"

 

Zara stands and dusts herself.

Zara: "You should take some time and sleep as well."

 

Mary: "Not quite ready for the grave, princess, but thank you all the same.  Now, shoo, leave me to my reveries."

 

-The Four Thrones-

 

Cut to darkness and the sound of burning kindling.

Open on a dimly lit room, red and golden flames burning on all sides.  Zelos lies on the floor, bathed in light and color.

The room grows brighter while the edges of the hall grow dim.

Zelos sits up and looks around.  Neither of his eyes are glowing.

 

Zara: "So, you return."

 

Zelos turns, staring down the hall.

Show Zara appearing from the shadows.  She wears a sheer nightgown with skimpy pink lingerie beneath, and she is smiling seductively.  Both of her eyes are golden in color.

Show Zelos staring, wide-eyed, jaw slack, blushing.

Zelos: "Zara? No, wait, you’re not her.  It’s you again.  Who are you?”

 

Zara: "I've told you be before.  I am flame."

Zara disappears in a burst of smoke.

Show Zelos from the front, staring in shock, Zara appearing behind him.

Zara wraps her arms around him, raking her fingers along his chest.

Zelos leaps away from her, out of her grasp.

Zara: "Do I ignite your passion?"

 

Zelos turns on Zara, who is now standing over him.

Zelos: "Where are we?"

 

Zara: "You."

 

Zelos: "Me?"

 

Zara: "Of one body but two minds, two souls, one eternal and one decaying as we speak.  It is an imperfect solution, but it is only the first step."

Zara approaches Zelos, while Zelos is scrambling away on his hands and feet.

Zara reaches him, touching his chest gingerly.

Zara stops with their lips almost touching.

Zara: "With you I shall reclaim my throne."

 

Zelos: "What are you talking about?"

 

Zara: "You mortals, you burn so brightly but so briefly.  When impassioned you illuminate the sky.  When at rest you grow dim."

Zara walks away, shimmying dramatically while doing so.

Zelos stares at her rear as she moves.

Zara: "There will come a day when you will burn so brightly that you set the world aflame."

Zara looks back at him over her shoulder.

Zara: "Then, you will die.  You will burn until you are hollow and black, black as the night and thin as dust."

 

Zelos: "You want to kill me?"

 

Zara: "I want to seize you, use you.  You are a tool, after all.  All your kind are.  You resist, but it is futile, and I have and can wait an eternity.  This is your birthright.  I am your birthright.  Your fate.  Impermanent as you are, you are vital."

Zara smiles viciously, with hunger.  Flames crackle behind her eyes.

Zara: "I will devour you, use you as tender.  Take your remains and make them my own, and then you will be eternal through me.  You will last forever."

 

Zelos: "And what if I don't want that?"

 

Zara appears before him suddenly.  She is gripping his arms and has him pinned to the stone floor.  Flames roll from her mouth and her eyes.

Zara: "Struggle if you like, but you cannot overcome your fate.  In time, it will come to pass!"

Zara kisses Zelos.  Fire continues to roll from her mouth and washes over him.

The entire screen goes blank white.

Zara, off-screen: "It is your fate.  Your spirit will wither and fade, and in its place I will shine."

 

Zelos, off-screen: "Why?"

 

Zara: "Because you are a tool meant only to facilitate my needs, to help me fulfill my destiny."

 

Zelos, off-screen: "Which is?"

 

Zara, off-screen: "To...BURN!"

 

Zelos sits up, covered in sweat and breathing heavily.  The sun is rising in the distance behind him, its light making the snow glow.  The camp is partially broken down.  Elsea is packing her things with Zara’s aid.  Glenn is finished with his work.

Glenn tosses Zelos’ pack to him.

Glenn: "You're awake."

 

Zelos nods while rolling his bedroll.

 

Zara: "It's about time you woke up.  We've been waiting on you!"

 

Zelos: "I'm sorry."

 

Mary: "There is no need for an apology.  The young princess had a late night of tossing and turning and woke only a scant few seconds before you did."

 

Zara: "I—Well, Elsea, come on, we'll scout ahead."

 

Elsea: "Yes, m'lady."

 

Zara storm off, Elsea trailing while slipping her pack on.  Mary follows them, laughing.

Glenn shoulders his pack while Zelos ties his.

 

Zelos: "You can go on ahead.  I'll catch up."

 

Glenn: "I'll wait."

 

Zelos: "Right. Thanks."

 

Zelos wipes his forehead when finished with his pack.

Zelos tugs irritably at the eye patch he is wearing.

 

Glenn: "You okay?"

 

Zelos: "What? Why?"

 

Glenn: "Just curious."

 

Zelos: "No, I'm—I’m fine.  Just had a bad dream."

 

Glenn: "Hm."

 

Zelos: "I'll be fine."

Zelos stands, lifting his pack.

Zelos slips his pack over his shoulder.

Zelos : "I'm ready to go."

 

Zara, offscreen: "If you don't hurry then we WILL leave you behind!"

 

Glenn: "We're coming!"

He looks at Zelos, who is still sweating and tugging at his eye patch.

Glenn: "You don't need to hurry for her."

 

Zelos: "I'm not. I'm fine."

Zelos looks at the ashy remains of the fire.

Zelos: "Honestly, I could do with a little civilization myself."

 

Glenn: "Then let's go."

 

Chapter End.