[Valerianne Yul]

“I think we should turn around and…” June said.

The mech nearly stumbled as the sand beneath its feet moved apart, the entire ground shifting beneath it. An enormous crystalline hand lifted us up above the desert, up to the roof of the crystal mountains.

I gulped. The hand held us and placed us in the middle of a... city street shaped from crystal. Yes. This was a city! A bizzare city made entirely of crystal. Crystalline monsters and people turned towards us, observing us with transparent eyes. An enormous crowd of thousands of crystal things of all sorts of shapes parted as the hand gently placed us in the crystalline courtyard.

A crystalline girl walked towards us, shining in the setting ringlight.

“By Gaia! I think I know what this is.” I said. “A crystal spirit!”

June didn’t respond.

There was no sense in hiding from this thing, no sense in fighting something so gargantuan. I had no doubts that this was the Avatar of the Crystal mountain that had brought me here. I took off three of the mech controlling rings, keeping one on myself just in case I needed to heal myself or others.

I turned my head towards June. She was gone. She had used her Shadowmancy to hide herself from the crystal beings.

“Back me up if I don’t come out of there in 10 minutes.” I whispered. “I’m leaving you these rings, okay?”

There was no response. I prayed that she heard me.

I opened the metal door, scaling down the ladder.

“My, my! What an adorable little, cute organic you are up close!” The crystal girl commented, her crystalline dress sparkling with myriads of brilliant stars as she moved towards me. A crystal crown sat on her head, shining just as much as her dress and body, every single sharp edge glittering with tiny rainbows. I tried not to gawk at the spirit. I had never seen such an elegant, beautiful and surreal thing. I grew up with a Dryad, but this crystalline girl and her city were absolutely different to what I was used to. She was bewitching, strange, exotic.

“Greetings, crystal spirit of the desert. Forgive me for intruding upon your land.” I bowed. “Accept my prayer and mana. I am at your mercy.”

“Ha ha ha. I need not your prayers or mana, Valerianne Yul.” The crystal girl spoke with a brilliant smile with a small bow. “Also, you may call me... Maggie.”

“You… you know my name?” I inquired.

“But of course! I know all about you. The dryads told me all about you! Why, I simply just had to see you for myself!” Maggie twinkled towards me, grabbing me by the elbow.

“Come!” She dragged me away from the mech. “I get ever so lonely in my Citadel of Glass.”

Maggie pulled me inside her palace. It was just as mesmerizing on the inside as it was on the outside. Light of the setting corona entered the glass structure and fractured into a billion reflections. Every corner, every edge of the place glittered and shined with surreal, exquisite forms. Majestic, crystalline doors closed behind us.

“What did the dryads tell you about me?” I inquired.

“All sorts of things, my dear! All sorts of rather interesting things!” Maggie twinkled. “You need not worry. I’ll be quite frank with you. What they’ve done to you was simply outrageous!”

“So you know…”

“Oh yes! I know everything about their human breeding experiment, your origins and the shard of the All-mother inside you. How is she by the way?”

I opened my mouth to speak.

“A shame, a real shame.” Maggie said.

“But I didn’t say anything.” I muttered.

“You need not say things. Your thoughts are open to me, my dear!”

“You can read my mind?”

“Many progenitors like myself can. Why, your fake best-friend Aloenna has been reading your mind your entire life.” The crystal girl smiled. “Poor, little human, led astray by the sentient forests. Don’t worry though, your road ends here! My thread has finally led you to me.”

“You brought me here?”

“Oh yes. I have my hands in many human pies. My crystal critters reside in many meaty brains, whispering many things to many little humans. Do you recall Virtue Knight Maximillion Rex? He’s one of my many hidden operatives across the shattered world. Wasn’t it hilarious how he burned your clothes? I thought it was.” Maggie opened up her hand and a crystalline spider started to dance there.

I froze.

“Did you really think that a Divine level healing artifact would simply be given to a level zero healer? My, my, such naivety. Naw, that was me. You’re welcome! I had to make sure you wouldn't just break along the way to me. One of my operatives had the previous possessor of the Divine amulet of healing killed so that my Maximillion could give you the artifact. Trust me, it took a VERY long time to kill the little, old bitch. She just kept healing over and over, coming back from one HP! Ha ha ha. You would know all about that, wouldn't you? I had to cut off her head for her to die permanently.” The spirit spoke of torture and brutal execution with far too much merry cheerfulness.

I choked and not just from shock. It was getting harder to breathe in the room for some reason.

“I’ve been observing, guiding you all along the way. You came here because I’ve had the Sextant base commander shoot a spell at you while you weren’t looking. Do you really think that the Sextants would straight up give you a mech without even a day of training you on how to use it? That was also me. I was really excited to see you! Nothing on Magraterra goes without my notice or approval. I also sent one of my crystal bugs to play with you. That was fun, wasn’t it?”

I stepped back.

“Oh don’t be so spooked. I have no need to put a silicoid into your brain. You’re just a nobody. Your importance extends as far as being a pure, uncontaminated carrier for mommy dearest. It’s her cooperation that I really require and she probably wouldn't like it if I put a crystal spider into the brain of her organic container.”

“But she’s…”

“Asleep.” Maggie nodded. “An unfortunate miscalculation. She wasn’t supposed to have feelings for you little meatbugs. Whatever! Doesn’t matter. I know how to wake her up. I’ve already read it in your thoughts. Te he he.”

“Doesn’t matter? Wake her up?!” I stammered, retreating.

“That’s right. See, I just need to kill you and she’ll be awake once again!” Maggie laughed with a twinkle and I saw pure, unconcealed malice in her smile. This was just another ancient monster! Fuck!

I stepped further back. Why the hell did I leave the safety of the mech? Why the hell did I assume that this spirit was going to be nice? I cursed my foolishness, realising that I was led here by a guiding spell and not the mech. As I looked around I saw creatures within the walls, encased in glass. Monsters, humans, beastkin. The Queen of the crystals was collecting them all. There was even a dryad encased in a crystal here, her face askew with rage!

“Don’t be afraid. Relax. Breathe in. Easy, peasy. I just want to talk with my dearest mommy. I’ve been waiting for her for so long, you see. Six thousand years is a bit of a long wait.”

I choked again, suddenly realising that I wasn’t able to inhale. There was no oxygen in the air here! None!

“See, humans require certain gases to operate, while I do not,” Maggie said, as the ring finally set behind the horizon and the crystal Citadel darkened. “Good night, my dear.”

I collapsed, choking and flailing on the ground, unable to take another breath. I tried to form a healing spell with my hand, but the crystalline monster dressed like a magical princess stepped on my hand with a crunch. I thrashed, falling into oblivion.