Vile winds brought rain from the ocean and slammed large waterdrops like bullets against the mountain side. The weather had been terrible like this for weeks, which made every rock on the trail slippery and cold. On the western horizon, the setting sun was waging a battle against the thick thunderclouds, knitting them into a purple woolly blanket that spread over the entire sky. In the glow it emitted, the narrow path above the fjord almost looked beautiful to its two peculiar guests.

  A young woman was firmly holding the hand of her little child while climbing the steep mountain side together. Protected by a scaled animal skin they clutched above their heads, the heavy rain didn’t succeed in bothering them. The slipperiness of the steep path seemed to have its own plans, though. It kept pestering them and only too often, tried bringing them back down to waterside by loosening a pebble or stone when their leather boots stepped on it. With the fjord lying hundreds of meters underneath them, it would surely make a deadly fall or tumble along that merciless slope.

  They had been travelling through the Northern wilderness for more than four days now, but no wear or tiredness showed on the little child. She happily hopped from one obstacle to the other, with eyes as determined as her mother’s, her dark hair swaying, and the little boots on her feet niftily seeking balance each time they landed. In the brief moments during every jump when she floated weightlessly in the air, her mother couldn’t help but to squeeze her little hand. More than ever, she understood the dangers of the earth, who at present seemed determined to pull them back towards her.

  Just when their destination showed again from behind a scarp along the steep wall, the young woman felt the grip underneath her feet disappear. There it was. Some loose pebbles finally succeeded in disconnecting her from the trail. A shrill shriek resonated along the mountain wall. She desperately clutched at the mountain, at pebbles and mossy roots, but nothing was large enough to be of use. She was sliding down fast. As her hands painfully grazed by the sharp rocks, worry for her own life somehow vanished, and made way for realizing that she nearly pulled her daughter along with her. She heard the child screaming. Then she heard a thud, and felt the impact only after hearing it, and the air that remained in her lungs was pressed out violently. A rare collection of large boulders had ceased her fall miraculously soon.

  She raised her arms to see that the palms of her hands were grazed open, but her arms were functional, and so were her legs. No bones were broken in the fall. She patted her neck and belly, then the onset to her legs. Everything seemed to be in place. She didn’t feel any pain. Yet, a feeling of acute panic emerged, tangling up her stomach in an uncomfortable knot. Her mind started racing.

  Had this all been a mistake, risking the life of her daughter and her own in a blind search for answers? Everything that seemed so essential before, now felt like a feeble reason for facing these dangers. Maybe she just should have travelled South. Getting a ride on a marauders boat surely seemed safer than the road they had been travelling.

  As swiftly as they had swirled away, her rattling thoughts were calmed again by the soothing touch of two little hands that started stroking her head. The child had climbed down to huddle herself against her mother and in her tender toddlers voice, she asked if her mama was ok. The young woman’s eyes regained focus as she smiled at the wonderful little creature in front of her. Some of her long, maroon hair had found its way between her lips. She spit it out while nodding, and pulled the tiny head close to kiss it.

  “Just a little while longer, dear. We’ll be there soon.”

  She gathered every fraction of strength that was left inside her and continued climbing along the trail.

  About an hour later and guided by the very last daylight, they reached their destination: a small plateau, carved out of the steep, solid ridge. From here, they were staring into the darkness of a long tunnel that went straight to the interior of the mountain. When they had been looking at it from the waterside in the dale, the tunnel had seemed no more than a small, black spot on the enormous grey wall. Now however, when standing right in front of it, the opening looked like an ominous dark mouth that would devour anyone who dared to go in. As they sauntered hesitantly before the entrance, a chilly wind came out of the tunnel and blew its musty smell into their faces. The young woman sighed – a breath split in half, with one part dedicated to contentment for reaching the cave, and the other one to nervosity for entering, but they hadn’t come all this way to give up on the doorstep of their search. She assembled her most confident smile and cast it at her daughter, squeezing her little hand.

  They stepped over the sill and entered the mountain. Cold, humid air welcomed them grimly. The walls inside were made of dark stone, covered with thousands of glittering droplets of water. After a few meters in the cave, the dim light of the outside world could barely reach them anymore and the young woman worried about having to walk blindly in the pitch black of the tunnel. Her eyes were wide open, pupils dilated, as she scanned the walls close to them. A soft, joyful shout stirred the darkness of the tunnel when she saw it; a large wooden rod, hanging in a metallic socket. Its purpose was clearly hinted by a collection of flintstones and some wax-cloth, stacked in a rush basket underneath it.

  After wrapping the cloth firmly around the wooden stick, the young woman sat down to try to light it. She had gotten quite used to maintaining herself in the past few years. Her marriage had taught her things she had never even considered before. Of course there were servants, desperately running around her all day, trying to catch her days before she’d only make the slightest hint of a tumble, but she never quite liked relying on them. After all, what is the purpose of being part of nobility when the common folk are capable of more than you? Still, lighting a fire with stones had always unsettled her nerves tremendously. She resolutely started to rub the stones together. Now wasn’t the time to give in to her annoyances. After generating a spark that was strong enough to set the cloths ablaze, for a brief moment, mother and child packed together by the small fire and allowed its warmth to relax their tense muscles. The young woman took in a deep breath, looking at the burning textile. It wouldn’t last all night.

  They continued their journey in the bright light of the fire. It functioned perfectly to show them the next few meters, which was strangely comforting and menacing at the same time, as beyond the bright orange hue, the pitch-black void that was gaping at them was so much more obvious.

  After walking through the darkness for what felt like hours, slowly but surely, the child started to lose her bold spirit. She annoyedly pulled her mother’s while hovering down with her upper body. It was no wonder for the child to get tired, it rather was a small wonder she was still up and walking, but her mother didn’t dare to rest and risk burning up their torch while doing so. She stopped walking.

  “Listen Tieve, sweetheart,” the young woman started. “We should walk a little further before we take a break. I can only carry you for a little while, so would you want me to do that now, or could you walk a little further?”

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  The little girl was fidgeting indecisively as she seemed to consider the options her mother had proposed. She looked so tired and probably just wanted a warm, soft bed to sleep, longing for home. Slowly, her eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip started to tremble.

  With the precarious posture of little Tieve as a sudden reminder of her young age, her mother sighed compassionately and got down on her knees to bring her head at the same level. In the warm glow of the torch, she recognized so many features of her husband within that sweet, little face. At the sudden thought of him, her eyes briefly closed as she made a quick prayer for his safety. When she looked up again, two watery, blue eyes were staring back at her, only half open by fatigue. She tugged on the furry collar of Tieve’s coat and kissed her nose.

  “It’s okay, love. I’ll carry you. Come here.”

  Within the blink of a big, soggy eye, the child wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck and gave in to the strong grasp of her one free arm. Tieve’s little legs swaddled clumsily around the bloated belly of her mother, which made carrying her extra heavy. After a few minutes, the young mother already felt a burning sensation travelling through her upper body, but she was determined to continue. The warmth and tenderness of having Tieve so close encouraged her to proceed faster.

  Still, the long journey didn’t leave her unaffected. Fatigue was creeping through her veins, numbing her muscles and clouding her mind. She slowly started to feel dizzy and slightly confused. She imagined a humming sound coming towards her from the depth of the tunnel, and saw little blue lights in the darkness before her. They had this energetic look but weren’t really moving, more like twitching and glistening. Yet, every time she expected to closely pass by one of the lights, the tunnel walls showed nothing but moist, dark rocks reflecting the orange glare of the torch.

  Having these visions was alarming, even her tired brain could puzzle that together. Nonetheless, she briefly thanked the gods for them, as the distraction made her forget about her tired body. A little later, she started to see a sort of blue shade that accompanied the small lights in the distance. The cold light seemed familiar to her, alarmingly too familiar to see it in this long, dark tunnel. It was moonlight.

  This couldn’t be true... Had the tunnel just led them straight to the other flank of the mountain? Did they miss some crossing where they had to take a turn and follow a different route? She fastened her pace as the cold gleam kept getting brighter, but while coming closer to the light source, she realized it wasn’t the other side of the mountain that was lying before her. Instead of seeing the large, dark void of another dale, lightened by the moon and some stars above, she saw the entrance to an enormous hall which was carved out of the heart of the mountain.

  The walls were dozens of meters high and eventually ended into a large, spherical dome. Beautifull carvings of animals and plants decorated the high vertical walls while the dome itself was entirely covered by small, diamond-shaped mirrors. The most stunning of all artworks were four enormous trees, sprouting out of the stone floor and growing all the way up to the dome, where their masonry branches helped supporting the sky full of mirrors. The young woman recognized different tree types, among which one was certainly a birch. Upon its large stone limbs, the tree provided housing to numerous birds and insects which were made of colourful gemstones.

  The other trees were rather hard to identify and held birds, insects and animals the young woman had never seen before. Between the roots of each magnificent sculpture, an arched, wooden door was placed. Their centres were connected by white veins in the dark stone floor which crossed each other by making a pentagon underneath the middle of the dome.

  The moonlight that lit the entire place entered the hall via a vertical tunnel, ending neatly in the highest point of the mirrored ceiling. Its inside was covered with mirrors as well.

  The young woman had stopped at the entrance to take it all in for a few moments. Standing there, she noticed that two white veins in the stone floor were sharply pointing at her. She looked up to notice that the doorway to the tunnel was lying in a fifth grand tree, positioning the large sculptures in a perfectly symmetrical pentagram.

  Whomever had made this hall, had gone down to the last detail to accomplish this level of splendour. It was strange to think of such beauty being concealed from the outside world. The real glory days of the place seemed to have past, however, since even though the walls and ceiling were richly decorated, the hall itself was almost entirely empty. A few dark wooden cupboards and some chairs were leaning against the walls but they looked rather ragged and didn’t seem to fit in the setting of the marvellous room.

  In the centre of the pentagram, an old chaise longue was brightly lightened by the beam exiting the vertical tunnel. Decorated with beautiful woodcarvings and copper pins, the chair once must have been a stunning piece of furniture. Now, however, the once luxurious cushions were torn up and dusty.

  While inspecting her surroundings, the young woman pondered over the thought that the mountain castle might not actually be the destination she had intended to go to, but she decided to not yet worry about it and allow her arms some time to relax. Strengthened by some rest, it would be easier to explore the rooms beyond the large doors and seek the motive for her travels. So she gently put down the torch to get a better grasp of little Tieve and walked into the room. The ragged chaise longue seemed more comfortable than the stone floor or any of the old, wooden chairs, so she crossed the shiny dark deck towards the middle of the hall. Once they arrived underneath the centre of the dome, the young woman looked up in astonishment at the large vertical tunnel above her. It must have gone up for hundreds of meters to completely protrude the mountain towards its peak.

  She laid down sleeping little Tieve on the old sofa and seated herself next to her. She wouldn’t sleep herself. The heavy doors frightened her, and even though the place was dead quiet, her ears strained to seek any sign of life behind them. But they were far away, those doors. From the centre of the hall where the sofa stood, there were at least thirty metres to each one of them.

  The silence and surprising comfort of the old sofa were seducing her to sleep as well. Her eyelids grew heavy and her limbs went soft. She fought with every woken nerve, but eventually, decided to yield. They were trapped in the depths of a mountain cave anyway. If anyone or anything meant to do them harm, she was quite unlikely to prevent it by looking at their opponent as it was approaching them.

  When she opened her eyes, the cold blue light from the tunnel had obtained a warm tint and was much brighter than before. It must have been daylight. How long would she have slept? Her body for sure felt much better and more energetic than before. As her sleepy eyes started seeing more sharply, she noticed that the heavy wooden door underneath the large birch was slightly opened.

  They were not alone.

  She immediately looked down to wake Tieve, as her heart sank to her toes. Tieve was gone. The young mother jumped up in a rush of panic and ran towards the foot of the stone birch. The seconds it took her to cross the hall felt like hours. When she reached the large door, pushing it open was heavier than she had thought, so she realized Tieve would never have been able to open it by herself.

  Beyond the door, she entered a room that was much darker than the hall, demanding a few moments of her eyes to adapt to the dusk again. This room was smaller too, but decorated more lively. Someone was living here. There was a table with some chairs, a sofa and some fauteuils, there were cupboards, richly filled with books, provisions, and much more. By the seating area, a large fireplace was ablaze, which was decorated with as much detail as the sculptures in the large hall. Thousands of tiny insects, made of gemstones and pebbles covered in silver and gold, crawled up along the wall to form the fume hood and funnel of the hearth. A large carpet was lying in front of the open fire where the young mother noticed a small figure lying down. Tieve! As she started running towards her daughter, Tieve turned around to look at her mother and moved her index finger over her mouth, indicating her to be quiet.

  “Sssht mama,” she whispered, “It’s just starting to like me.”