As she moved to the next row, the mimic turned."OOooo, if you go in that one, I want to go to!" it squealed, jumping up and perching on the chest next to it.
"Why?" she asked, suddenly not sure she wanted to go into the next one.
"It"s full of things the first king described as naughty," it said, putting emphasis on the last word.
Taking a step away from the chest, she was almost certain she didn"t want to see what was in it, if the mimic was so excited about it. Though, it had been pretty excited about the bracers and shadow weapon she had acquired as well.
"Why do you want to go in with me?" she asked, frowning at her reluctance.
"I want to see your face," it said with a wide grin, showing rows of super sharp teeth, "when you realize what you are surrounded by."
Aella"s frown grew as she studied the chest for a moment. She had overcome her fears of just about everything when she was first thrown into the pits. Something about the mimic"s reaction made her not want to enter this chest. Giving herself a shake, she turned a grin on the mimic. Its smile faded around the edges.
"You"ll be disappointed," she said, her smile widening as the mimic shook itself in a huff, and stepped up next to her.
"I still want to see how you react to naughty things," it said, flipping the chest lid up with obvious practice.
Stepping into the chest, with the mimic next to her, she looked around at the displays of s.e.xual clothing and toys on exhibition around her.
"So, this is naughty?" she asked, indifferent to the items.
"Oh, you just have to be a kill-joy, don"t you?" the mimic grumbled, turning away from her face to look around.
"Even if I were surprised or shocked by what was in here, I wouldn"t give it away on my face. The counselors who made me fight my way up to being king taught me to hide my emotions very quickly. They loved to see fear and disgust, hopelessness and depression in the faces of those they didn"t want to win."
"Why wouldn"t they want you to be king?" asked the mimic, watching her as she examined a long thin object, without touching it.
"Have you been down here licking things?" she asked, noticing several of the objects on the wall were wet and sticky.
"No, the magic on them makes them constantly wet," it chuckled.
"Oh, well, I don"t think there"s anything in here that will interest me anytime soon," she said leaving the chest. The mimic was right behind her, moving over to its spot with a huff.
"To answer your question, none of them liked the fact that I was a half demon, instead of a full demon. I was smaller and thus not as impressive to look at."
"You seem to be doing just fine, to me," it grumbled, settling back into place with a wiggle, sucking its legs and arms back into its body.
"What"s in the rest of the chests?" she asked, feeling as if she were wasting her time, going into chests that didn"t interest her.
The mimic turned to her with a look, before nodding to itself. "The sooner you leave, the sooner I get my treat. The chest next to you has miscellaneous stuff. After that is clothing, then the next two are scrolls."
"Why two chests of scrolls? Are there really that many of them?" she asked.
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"The first is divine scrolls, and the second is arcane scrolls."
"Divine and arcane? As in magic?" she asked, gritting her teeth in annoyance. This magic thing was getting ridiculous.
"Yes, a scroll is a parchment with a spell written onto it. The first king liked to collect them, and almost had a complete collection, but the second king that came in here raged when he couldn"t read them and destroyed most of them. I salvaged what I could, but I can"t repair and mend things with magic."
"Pity," she murmured, knowing that the mimic would have gotten into more trouble before being trapped her, had it been able to do so.
"The chests after the scrolls have potions and then shields at the end of that row. The back row has a chest of gold, silver, copper, platinum and other ores, gems and jewelry, art and the last is full of cursed items. I would caution you not to go into it, as some of them try to attack you just from being close to them. The first king put them in there, to keep them out of the way until he could have them destroyed, but never got a chance. One of the kings that came in here didn"t listen to me, and is still in there."
Aella nodded, deciding she didn"t need to go into any of the last chests. When she decided to leave the castle, she would grab some to have as spending money, but that wouldn"t be soon. She didn"t use shields, so that chest was useless for now, and the scrolls were all magic, that she had no clue about. The potions intrigued her, as there might be something there she could use, but she doubted it.
Flipping open the miscellaneous chest, she stepped inside, wondering what could possibly be considered miscellaneous. Looking around at the shelves and tables, she had to step closer to see what some of it was. There were vials of powders and creams, small jewels she knew would give her magical abilities if she allowed them to float around her, and small statues that if she tried to use them, would do different things.
What surprised her the most, was the large amount of jewelry that was hung in the wall. There were tons of necklaces and bracelets, earrings and chains. Aella decided they must be here, instead of the jewelry chest, because they were all magical. She didn"t have much of an interest in jewelry, but one pair of earrings caught her eye. They were tiny, black gems, easy to miss if someone wasn"t looking for them. As she hovered her hand over them, to see what magic they had, a voice whispered to her.
"Your mind is a battlefield. Be its commander, not its soldier."
A smile lit up her face as she picked the two gems up carefully. She would wear these with delight. They would bestow her with the truth of ancient generals. Holding them up to her left ear, she felt them sink into the skin of her earlobe.
The longer she wore these earrings, the more knowledge she would gain from the old fighters, generals and tacticians. Just because she had the knowledge didn"t mean she would be able to use it well, so the sooner she could begin implementing what she learned, the better she would be able to understand it.
Leaving the chest, she moved to the next, that had clothing. Ignoring the mimic as it craned to see what she had acquired, Aella stepped into the clothing chest. She really expected everything in here to be for large male demons, but to her surprise, there was a whole section of women"s clothing. Most of it wasn"t magical, so Aella couldn"t tell why there were so many here. A few things caught her eye, but for the most part, it didn"t look like there was anything of interest here.
Turning, after walking and perusing the selection, she headed back to the exit, when something caught her attention. A black cloak, she was pretty sure wasn"t there before, seemed to have appeared on the floor by the exit rune.
Approaching it, with an eye on her surroundings, she saw it flutter as she stepped next to it. Reaching down to pick it up, it flapped up and wrapped itself around her.
"You are mine, and I am yours. For the rest of your days, we shall be together," it whispered in her ear.
The shadow weapon, in the guise of a glove, gave a start, flowing up to attack the cloak. Aella stepped back, trying to tear the cloak off, as the two magical items fought. She could hear the rings murmuring to each other in her head as the internal noise coupled with the fighting occurring around her rose to a crescendo.
The words of the earrings rose in her head and she suddenly understood what they meant.
"Silence!" she bellowed, throwing all of herself into the word.
Everything went still. The cloak settled against her back, and the shadow weapon went back to a simple leather glove. The rings went silent.
"Never again will you fight each other," she growled, clenching her fists tightly. "I am in control."
"I apologize," whispered the cloak with a slither across her shoulders.
"What ability can you do, other than causing trouble?" she asked, directing the question to the cloak.
"Anywhere you have been before, I can take you back."
"What do you mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes, as she looked around the room.
"You must take a moment to envision the location you have been, and I will show you that spot in your mind"s eye, as if you were looking at it again. Whoever might also be there, you will be able to see them moving around in real time. You can choose where to appear, and I will take you there."
"I take it you belonged to the first king?"
"I was brought here by him, but I didn"t care for him. He was wrong for me. You have an aura that pleases me. I was created by a great witch, but she was killed before she could use me."
"Can you change your form, or must you always be a cloak?" she asked, wondering how she would figure out how to fight with a cloak billowing around her.
The cloak began to wrap itself around her, shredding her current clothes. As the sc.r.a.ps of soft cloth drifted to the ground, Aella found herself wearing black clothes that clung to her, yet didn"t restrict her movement any. With a grin, she stepped onto the exit rune. She couldn"t wait to see how the mimic reacted to this.