Story Arc #1: The Castle of Shadows

The Tempting Banquet

A chapter of a ‘choose your own’ story.

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You decide to grab some of the food. How bad could it be? Presumably Jade or one of her allies set this here. It can’t be a trap — nobody knew that you would escape your chains.

All the same, the foodstuffs are strange. A handful of olives melt into bitter water in your mouth. You then munch into what at first looks like a chicken drumstick, only to notice after one bite that it turned green since you picked it up. You throw it aside, but feel more hungry than ever.

You reach out, grab a slice of apple pie and stuff it into your mouth, but as you chew, it turns to ashes. Spitting, gagging, you staggering back from the table, now realizing that the room is spinning around you.

You think you hear Balorg shout something, and then notice that you are falling.

Down the stairs?

No… you are falling upwards. Rising into thick air, almost like liquid, high in the cavern. This must be a hallucination caused by the food. But what food? Neither the table nor the area by the stairs can be seen, and instead, you find yourself floating, confronted by a massive round mirror.

In the mirror is your younger self.

“What are you doing?” they say.

“I made a mistake. But when I get my head right and recover from that damn food, I’ll carry on to the Castle of Shadows. Find the Sword of Light, you know. Win the game.”

They frown. “The Castle of Shadows is just a story.”

You shrug. “Stories are important, kid.”

“I’m not a kid. I’m your soul, and I’m here to remind you about what matters. To get you out of this dream and back to your family.”

“My family? What family?”

The child-you sighs and walks away inside the mirror, and now, as you start to hurry afterwards, it’s your own appearance that you see. You run, but thump your face hard on the surface, then land on your back. Groaning in agony, you try to figure out where it is that you have landed… and figure out what it was that your soul was trying to tell you.

Continue…

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