"Get away from her, you bastards," a familiar voice roared. Meera figured she must've been hearing wrong because it could have only come from Onyx.

With immense exertion and will, she looked up and saw a bright, glowing horse charging into the horde of wraiths, plowing them under his powerful legs. His light was almost too bright to look directly into. She had to shield her eyes with one hand, and even then, it was too much.

Between her fingers, she saw Onyx's glowing form trampling the wraiths like a warhorse charging enemy soldiers. He circled her a few times, making wraiths evaporate. The rest shied away from him, covering their eyes because of the blinding light that Onyx was outputting.

"Meera, get up! And get on me," Onyx yelled, continuing to do his rounds around her.

Meera frowned at how she could get on top of him, but she couldn't ask as she didn't have the strength to shout over his thundering hooves.

"Get up, Meera!" Shade shouted from somewhere up above.

"Meera, you cannot die now," Cinders squeaked from the tunnel. "You're our only hope."

Meera tried to move her knees, only for her to slip on her blood and fall flat on her face. She cried out. Time was running out, and Onyx couldn't hold the wraiths back forever. Meera activated Druvis Power, as that skill ran on Stamina, and she still had some of that remaining. She somehow got on her hands and knees.

Onyx trotted over, and the wraiths kept their distance. "Hurry, Meera!" He urged.

With an immense push, Meera got her feet underneath her and stood, holding herself together somehow. The pain was numbing, and she was leaking too much blood. It made her lightheaded. She also tipped over and fell, or would've if Onyx hadn't moved to support her.

To her surprise, she didn't pass through his body. It was enough of a surprise to bring her back to her senses.

Meera stared wide-eyed at the glowing ghost. "How…"

"There is no time for that," Onyx cried. "Hurry, just get a hold of my hair and get on top."

Meera had been riding horses since she was nine years old. Their estate in the country had a whole stable that raised racing horses. Her parents let her and Neel ride them as training to learn how to ride horses. They could not have known that it would come to save her life one day.

Meera grabbed hold of Onyx's mane. He didn't cry out. Then, using the last of her Stamina and Druvis Power, she jumped on the steed's back. As soon as Meera was on his back, Onyx moved—by move, it was more like he blasted off, and she somehow kept a hold of his mane, or she would been thrown off to become a feast for the horde once more.

Onyx's glow faded the moment he ran, and in the next second, the wraiths returned to their screeching and hollering selves. They ran after Meera and her ghostly friend, trying to slash them to bits. But Onyx was too fast for them. He made it to the tunnel's safety long before the wraiths, leaving them to trail in his dust.

This time, he came to a slow stop further down the tunnel, just a few paces from the door. Meera tried to gently slide off her savior's back but fell flat on her back. She groaned as that sent a fresh new wave of pain through her wrecked body.

Cinders and Shade were beside her in a second. As soon as they arrived, Onyx backed off towards the door. Silly horse.

"Stay still, Meera," Cinders said. "You've lost a lot of blood. Do you have a healing potion?"

Meera thought she might, but she wasn't sure anymore.

"I know you have a healing skill," Shade said. "Use that."

“Don’t…have the M-Mana…”

"Right." Shade scratched his head. "What about a Mana potion? Then you can heal yourself."

Meera paused at that. That was a good idea. As far as she knew, she had a couple of Mana potions remaining. She opened her Lunar Hoard Belt with trembling hands, pulled out the last two blue Mana potions, and downed them. It refilled her Mana to about quarter-full.

She activated Vitalize right away and laid her head on the ground as her body healed. Cuts sealed up, and bruises withered away. Even the darkness around the edges of her vision flew away as her headache lifted. By the time she was fully healed and good as new, her Mana was back in the double digits.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

But just because she was healed didn't mean she wasn't dead tired. Her Stamina was still negligible.

"I'm just…going to take…a nap," Meera said and promptly passed out.

----------------------------------------

Meera didn't know how long she was out, but when her eyes fluttered open, she had a horrible pain in her neck from sleeping in the wrong position. She wondered if she could fix it with Vitalize. She brought up her stats.

Stats

[Health: 684/690]

[Stamina: 591/690]

[Mana: 645/720]

She raised an eyebrow at that. Stamina and Mana had both recovered quite a bit. She used Vitalize for her stiff neck and saw her Health fill up as her Mana lost a point. She sat up and yawned while stretching. Looking about, she found Shade hanging upside down from the ceiling. Onyx was seated with his legs folded under him by the door, and Cinders was nowhere to be found.

"Hey guys, I'm up," Meera said.

"Well, look at that, and here I thought you would return when we are dust," Shade said, flying down to land before her.

"But we're ghosts?" Onyx was also on his feet but didn't come much closer.

"Yes, my horse friend. I was making what the kids these days call a joke," Shade said.

"Oh, right."

"Where's Cinders?" Meera asked.

"Gone to scout out the other remaining tunnels," Shade said. "Hoping to find some clue that would tell us which room rests the leader of these lovely folks." He motioned to the wraiths with his head.

Meera nodded and looked down at her clothes, which either said she was making a fashion statement or was very down on her luck. Her 'armor' had been so cut up that it was essentially a crop top from the front with a hefty amount of cleavage, and the back was a cape of tassels. Her pants were ripped in several places. If her mother saw her wearing this, the lecture would have been unending—the mother of all lectures.

"Well, we'll wait for her before we go in—" Meera never got to finish her sentence as Cinders peaked her head out from the opposite wall.

"Hey, look who is up," Cinders said. "How are you feeling?"

From the corner of her eye, Meera saw Onyx melting into the wall. She frowned when she realized she didn't have Mirror Eagle's Perceptivity up and running. She activated the skill, and right away, her three-sixty-degree vision returned.

"Much better." Meera smiled.

"That's good. Considering you've been down for a whole day, maybe more."

Meera's eyes popped open. "I've been sleeping for that long?"

"Considering what you've been through, I would say you needed more, but then I am just a simple rat," Cinders scrunched up her nose.

Meera scratched her head. "I don't think I've ever slept an entire day away."

Her mother would tan her hide if she slept that long. Oh, man, who knew being cut up to near death and exhausted would make you sleep that long.

"Anyways, I think we should check out this last room," Shade said, taking flight. "I've been dying to know what this crystal does."

"As am I." Meera stood, dusted herself off, and moved for the door, wishing this crystal would let her take a bath wherever she wanted, as she really badly needed one.

She checked the door handle, and it was locked, as expected. She activated Druvis Power, gripped the handle tightly, and ripped the entire frame off, door included, and it didn't even use a fraction of power. She deactivated the skill to conserve her Stamina.

Inside, there was no animal but a lot of crystal strewn about the table. There were crystals in all shapes and sizes. Some crystals looked like rubies, some resembling sapphires, and others like emeralds.

Shade whistled. "You humans consider those things valuable, don't you?"

"If they are real." Meera picked up a green one and used Identify on it.

[Green Crystal]

"I saw many miners mining for these shiny crystals in the caves where I was born," Shade stated.

"Unfortunately, these are not real. Probably just colored glass." Meera dropped the green crystal on the ground, where it shattered to bits. "Let's hope the crystal in this room is worth something."

As she moved for the box set on a pedestal in the middle of the room. That's different.

The journal was open on the same pedestal, and Meera could not help but notice the beautiful writing on its pages. The other journals had handwriting that was nothing special; some were basically chicken scratches, but this was beautiful, as if each letter was written with care and love.

This necklace is my gift for my beloved Kalrina, for there is no one more beautiful than her in all the worlds. A necklace to match her golden hair and its magics only she would be able to unlock.

Edwyn Toller

Meera's brow furrowed. "This was written by the lead researcher himself."

Cinders scurried up the pedestal to take a look. Shade hung from the ceiling and squinted. Even Onyx poked his head inside the room, which was saying something.

"What does it say?" Shade asked.

"The bastard was in love with the sorceress, Kalrina, and that he made this for her." Meera opened the box, but Onyx interrupted her.

"Meera, if this is the room Ed—you-know-who was experimenting in, then could it be room number thirty-nine?"

Meera snapped her head to him. He could be right. She surveyed the room's walls, and right above the door was the number 39 etched into the wall. This was the room in which they had made a major discovery.

Meera's heart raced as she looked at the box and slowly opened its lid. Inside was a stunning gold necklace with a gold crystal in the center. She quickly Identify'd it.

[Necklace of Darthin's Robes – An ornament worthy of the Master of Skills himself. This necklace is meant for only those who can twist mirrors to do their bidding, for only they can bend it to their will and bring forth its unique gifts of turning mirrors into protection.]

"What is it?" Cinders asked.

"It's a necklace, and it seems pretty useless to me."