Jason was hurled to the cold ground. He sucked air in as pain shot up his leg. He heard a thud next to him as Obadiah hit the floor. Odin moaned.
"Remove the sacks from their heads, " A crisp, clear voice commanded. A woman's voice.
When the sacks were pulled roughly from their heads, Jason took in his surroundings. His first glance fell on his companion, who laid sprawled on the hard stone floor next to him. Outside of general bruising, he had a gash on his left forearm that had dried blood smeared across his entire arm. And from the way he was breathing, Jason was pretty sure that Obadiah had fractured a few ribs as well. Now that he was completely conscious, he tried to take stock of his own injuries. He felt bruised and battered, and he saw some minor wounds along his arms and legs, but the serious pain emanated from his knee cap. He tried to push the pain that was roaring through his body out of his mind, but it kept pressing to the fore-ground. Before he could look around him much more, the same voice brought his attention back to the front of the hall.
A slim figure stood in front of a stone cut throne, which was squatting on a raised dais. Along the high-arched hall, many doors led off to who knew where. There was something imposing and awe-inspiring of this mountain fastness. That, is the only way that this could be possible, thought Jason. It must be underground somewhere.
"Hello, Jason dear. It has been awhile."
Lydia watched as Jason's head snap back to her, now sitting enthroned. Confusion and surprise clouded his normally handsome now bloodied and soot covered face. "Lydia?"
"Yes, it is me. Happy to see me?"
Jason looked down at his ripped garments, nearly useless left knee-cap, at his beaten companion, and then back at Lydia. "No.. I don't think that I am."
Lydia laughed. "Oh, but you will. Once you understand what I mean to do with your world."
Jason's brow knitted. "What is going on, Lydia? And what do you mean by "my world"?"
Lydia shook her head. "All in good time, dear. Now, the pressing question is what can you do for me?"
When Jason just glared at her, she continued. "Alepp is falling apart, her nobles are tearing at each other's throats, she has no king. Alepp is decaying, a mere two months after you freed it, Jason. And do you know why it is rotting? Because you didn't fulfill the prophecy. You didn't finish the job. You failed. You failed the world you promised to protect. Yes, you won a few battles, but you did not find the heir of The King. Because of all this, I thank you. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, I owe you. Now that Alepp is practically mine, it is time for your world to bow before me as well!"
Jason listened incomprehensibly. He was astonished. This was Lydia. This was the girl who had helped them escape pirates and Drolfs. This was the girl who had been with them every step of the way. The same one who had been so eager to escape that sea-side prison-house and make something of her life. Now here she was talking nonsense.
Lydia smiled. "No, Jason, this is not nonsense. This is life. And it is mine. Just as your world will be mine after we find the stone."
"I'm sorry, but, what? No one knows how Ab and I got transported here. You of all people know that. There is nothing that can be done until we are zapped back to my world."
"Once again you are wrong, dear." Lydia chirped, and started pacing back and forth on the dais. Obadiah moaned and struggled to his knees as well.
"So glad you could make it, Obadiah. Now please, no more questions, I'm trying to explain the situation here to Jason."
Obadiah glanced at Jason. Jaw pumping, anger seemed to be dancing on the edge of bursting onto Jason's face. Jason acknowledged his companion with a nod, his mind busy trying to take in all of the details. But still glad that Obadiah was alright.
"Back to what I was saying. Jason, you and Ab came here, went back, and came again. There must been an explanation, so I started searching. Well, to cut a long story short, it led me to this very mountain. So, I started practicing my new craft that I discovered, and continued searching for the answer to my question. Once I mastered my new craft, I knew how to change to weather to my will and send discord amongst my enemies. I learned how to make fire, wet, and make stone, crack and become nothing. I have turned my new found powers into something productive and have gathered men that see reason and what really is. Who can see past the mist that cover human beings eyes. They now know the truth. They have been enlightened." At this last bit, her face lit up with maniacal delight.
Jason looked to Obadiah, who looked stunned, then looking back to the witch. He asked, "Enough of this madness. What of this "stone" you have been going on about?"
She looked back down at them, and started walking toward them. "This stone is the answer and solution to my problems. It is called the regina. It is said to to possess power beyond all imagination. Once you or Ab have gone through with this stone, as long as you hold on to it, the portal will enlarge it self slowly but surely. And at the end of a week, my entire army will empty into your world. It will seem like it is the end, but it will only be the beginning of something bigger and better. Your world and our world will be made new. They will be made one, both will be stronger because of it, and will be united under my rule." She halted right in front of them. "What do you say, Jason? Will you join me?"
Jason grimaced through the pain and glared up at her. "I don't think I will. I think what you are doing is wrong, and that you will have Elohim to answer to."
"Elohim! HA." Lydia let out a bark of derisive laughter. "Elohim is nothing to me. He is nothing." She glared down into the Jason's stony face. "You will do as I say."
"What if I don't? What if you just kill me now?"
"Well, you may do that, if you want to see your father die a slow and painful death first." With that, she clapped her hands, and what had seemed to be a solid stone wall gave way to something like that of a projector screen. What Jason saw was horrifying.
James Sterling was running. On what looked like a concrete treadmill, that seemed to be going at a very fast pace. On the walls surrounding this huge tread mill, were thousands of sharpened stones that stood out like rhino horns, three to four feet long. And where the tread mill disappeared into the ground, hundreds of short teeth poked horizontal with the ground. But what worried Jason most of all was his father. His father looked like he could not hold on much longer. He looked that fatigued.
"Let him go!" Jason shouted, and he actually tried to rise, before he remembered his leg. His face contorted once again with pain and rage as he collapsed back to the floor. "Do it now! Or else!"
"Or else what, love?" Lydia sneered.
Obadiah leapt to his feet and tried to hurl himself at her, but was restrained by guards who had been waiting for something like this to happen just behind them and out of their sight. "Join me Jason, or else watch your father be impaled on one of those stones. Hurry. He won't last much longer."
