Chapter 4: Chapter 4 — The Seven Doors

The bell rang a fourth time.
The chamber trembled.
Dust fell from the ceiling as the scratching outside grew louder.
Seris raised her silver blade.
“Behind me.”
Elian stood and gripped the crystal.
“What happens when the bell rings seven times?”
Seris didn't answer.
“Seris.”
She looked at him.
“The seventh bell opens the Spire.”
“And that's bad?”
“It opens the way for everything trapped inside.”
A fifth bell sounded.
BOOOONG.
The six frozen doors around the chamber began glowing.
Symbols appeared across their surfaces.
Elian stepped closer.
He recognized them.
“Those are part of the cipher.”
Seris stared at him.
“You can read them?”
“I think so.”
He examined the first door.
The symbols seemed chaotic, but when he touched the crystal, they shifted.
A sentence appeared.
WHAT IS FROZEN MAY STILL REMEMBER.
Elian moved to the second door.
Another message appeared.
WHAT IS LOST MAY STILL RETURN.
The third:
WHAT IS SILENT MAY STILL SPEAK.
The fourth:
WHAT IS BURIED MAY STILL WAKE.
The fifth:
WHAT IS BROKEN MAY STILL BE JOINED.
Elian approached the sixth.
The symbols refused to change.
“What's wrong?”
Seris looked at the door.
“That one doesn't open for me.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't know the answer.”
Elian studied the symbols.
The crystal became warmer.
Then he understood.
The sixth door contained only one question.
WHAT CAN DEFEAT WINTER?
Elian whispered the first answer that came to mind.
“Fire.”
Nothing happened.
Seris shook her head.
“Too simple.”
“Magic?”
Nothing.
“Spring?”
Still nothing.
The scratching outside stopped.
Elian looked toward the entrance.
“Why did it stop?”
Seris suddenly looked alarmed.
“Because they're waiting.”
“For what?”
“The seventh bell.”
Elian turned back to the door.
He studied the question again.
WHAT CAN DEFEAT WINTER?
Then he remembered something his mother used to tell him when he was little.
He could barely remember her face anymore.
But he remembered her voice.
Even the longest winter ends when someone remembers how to hope.
Elian touched the door.
“Hope.”
The sixth door opened.
Behind it was darkness.
Not ordinary darkness.
A darkness that seemed to absorb the light around it.
Seris stepped backward.
“No.”
“What?”
“That door should not exist.”
Elian looked inside.
A staircase descended beneath the academy.
“Where does it lead?”
Seris whispered:
“The original chamber.”
A sixth bell rang.
BOOOONG.
The walls cracked.
The Frostbound burst through the outer doorway.
Three creatures entered the chamber.
Their black armor steamed with cold.
Seris attacked.
Her silver blade struck the first creature across the chest.
A burst of blue fire exploded.
The creature staggered but did not fall.
“Elian!” Seris shouted. “Go!”
He hesitated.
“I can't leave you.”
“You have to!”
She blocked another attack.
“Find the seventh rune!”
Elian ran through the open door.
The darkness swallowed him.
He descended.
One staircase.
Then another.
And another.
The deeper he went, the colder it became.
Yet the crystal in his hand remained warm.
At last, he reached a circular room.
There was no floor.
Only a vast frozen lake beneath a transparent sheet of ice.
At the center stood a throne.
Empty.
Behind it was a massive rune carved into the wall.
Elian approached.
Seven smaller symbols surrounded it.
He raised the crystal.
The rune awakened.
A voice filled the chamber.
FIRST KEY ACCEPTED.
Elian looked around.
“Who's there?”
SECOND KEY REQUIRED.
“What second key?”
The ice beneath his feet cracked.
Elian froze.
Something moved beneath the surface.
A face appeared below the ice.
A woman's face.
His mother's.
Elian's breath caught.
“Mother?”
Her eyes opened.
She looked directly at him.
“Run, Elian.”
The ice shattered.
A hand reached upward.
Elian stumbled backward.
Then the seventh bell rang.
BOOOONG.
Far above, the Glacial Spire erupted with blue light.
And the ancient archmage finally stepped from his tomb.
Vaelthar opened his arms.
Winter answered.

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