Before any other consensus could be made, Windhelm presented images from the massacre. Without warning, the room lit up under the viewing screen located directly behind Windhelm.  Durwood turned away in disgust. Windhelm explained to Firebrand the error of his rash assumption. “It is very possible for one as powerful as One-Arm. But these bodies prove otherwise. Not a single burn unless you count injuries from explosions. Primary causes of death were gunshot wounds, or being crushed under immense force.” Each image was more grotesque than the last as the slide show continued. Durwood spoke up, “Enough! We understand your plight William!”. Windhelm stowed his control band underneath the table to bury the horrifying evidence. “Good, then we are in agreement that the ones responsible must be stopped.”

The attendees of the summit nodded in agreement. Firebrand started to slowly rise from his seat. “Understood, are we done here?”

Durwood rose up quickly, “If I may have a moment?”

Firebrand huffed as he plopped back into his chair.

“I wouldn't dare try to lighten the gravity of the current investigation, but I would also like to  propose the implementation of my ongoing project. I believe that the Grid could provide us with the energy for more powerful technology that can be used to track down this mysterious assailant.”

Firebrand was no longer able to hide his impatience. “This scheme again?”

“Please save your questions for after my presentation, Doctor.” Durwood snapped at the outburst.

“No need!” I know full well what you're planning with this Grid of yours. Firebrand barked back.

Durwood took a shrewd tone, “Doubtful, but please go on.”

Firebrand returned to his standing position. “We let you expand into our territories and the next thing we know you have sole control over all energy in the Oasis, you might already be plotting to expand into the city as well...Making you the single most powerful man in the Oasis.”

The snide businessman chuckled under his breath. “Sounds like the delusions of an old man off his meds”.

Firebrand turned to exit the room. “And with that, I conclude my attendance at this fools summit”

“Understood, we can discuss this at a later time. But not too much later though I hope” Durwood stood proud of his ability to antagonize Firebrand.

A final glare was shot by Firebrand before leaving the room. Windhelm leaves shortly after, visibly upset but unwilling to look at the remaining attendees. Durwood rises from his seat with a deep sigh but is halted by a cool touch on his hand.

“Not going to finish what you started?” Stillwater whispered.

“Unhand me”, Durwood roared as he snatched away from the cold grasp.

“Still sore? Let the past go Arthur. She’s long gone.” Stillwater reclined into her seat as she crossed her arms.

“And who’s fault is that!?” Durwood had somehow yelled louder than before.

Stillwater took hold of his hand again. “Don't you think it's time that I..we forgive ourselves? She fell, Arthur. There was nothing I could do.”

Durwood snatched away and prepared to leave. Just then, Stillwater revealed a filed report from her control band and displayed it on the viewing screen.

“Ahem. It was a monster. It killed everyone inside the arena. It didn't care. And it was talking to itself the whole time and laughing. It said : Doesn't matter, as long as I get my target, let God sort out the rest “

Durwood froze. Stillwater continued, “ Not a lot of God fearing folks out here, save a few raiders. But I only know one raider in particular who spoke like that”

“I don't understand.” Durwood stumbled.

“And he was last under your employ, Durwood.” Stillwater revealed as Durwood squirmed.

“You can’t--”  The lion's roar had faded into the whimper of a frail kitten.

“And one more thing, I also came across some other damning information” With a slight gesture of her chubby wrist the viewing screen shifted to an image of Audrey Durwood entering the Windhelm estate.

Durwood turned to the image then returned to the cold stare of Stillwater.

Stillwater hushed his lips with a cool finger before he could stammer out any more broken responses.. “ I don't know what kind of monster you made but I want one.” He nodded in silence under her cold touch. She kissed the back of  her finger while still pressing Durwood’s lips closed. “Your secret is our secret now”, Stillwater swung her hips to exit the room. 

Durwood sank back into his chair. Stillwater turned before leaving “ Oh, and per our new arrangement, feel free to expand your grid as deep into my territory as you like”. Stillwater ended with a wink and with one final sway of her hips, she left the room.

Durwood shielded his face with his hands and breathed deeply. A sigh escaped his fingers as he prepared to leave as well. He was so shaken that he accidently displayed his own stored images on the viewing screen. Durwood made his exit,  stopping only to glance at an image on full display in the shadowy room. He stared at the picture of the beautiful woman, “What has our daughter gotten herself into now?”

A young woman in a flowing dress is spotted by two guards as she runs frantically towards them. Without a word the young woman collapses in the dune just in front of the guards.

“Hey!” The guard on the left readies his weapon but is halted by the guard on the right; who began a slow approach. The woman was facedown and her clothes tattered by the wind. A veil was wrapped around her head. The guard removed the wrap to find a stunning face. The woman stirred awake in his arms. “Please help me, my friend is hurt.”

“Hang on!” The guard looked back to request help but was shocked by the sight of  his partner being dragged off by a slave. Before he could ready his weapon, a tiny hand took hold of his exposed face, rendering him asleep in seconds. The guard passed out on top of the woman. “Holder!” she screamed from underneath the body. 

“Good job Link”, Holder replied as he removed the guards and placed them inside of the structure they guarded. 

“There's a whole city in here?” Link pointed at the stone hut that was barely a few stories high.

“Yea, this is the workers entrance, it doesn’t look like there are any scheduled expeditions, so we should be fine.” Holder reached to help Audrey off the ground. As Audrey dusted herself off, Holder returned to the car hidden behind a man made dune of ash and placed Belle on his back. Together they entered the workers entrance and descended down several flights of stairs until two large metal doors blocked their path. 

“This is the way down” Holder motioned for Audrey to operate the machine. 

She checked her control band and was granted access. 

A cold rush of air raced past them as the doors opened. A long black cable was pulling up a big metal box. Everyone boarded without a word and watched as the box was sealed by the metal doors. The ride was silent and short. When the cable had fully extended a loud clunk signaled the end of the ride. Holder stepped off first and showed Audrey to a locker room with bright yellow full body suits hanging on the walls. While she got dressed, Holder and Link waited with their backs turned, facing the door opposite of the elevator.

The second door clicked with the sound of an electronic lock opening before rising straight up and disappearing into the wall. This time, Audrey crossed the threshold first; followed closely by the others. Just as they emerged into the cold darkness, lights began to flicker on, like stars awakening from a long slumber in the night sky. The lights shined in all colors, from reds as bright as the light on a slave collar to different shades of yellow, blue and a color rarely seen above ground; green. In time, the flickering dance of lights settled to illuminate a vast city hidden underground. Audrey could not believe her eyes. The city of the Oasis could fit inside this place 5 times over.

“It knows we’re here”, Holder mumbled as he carefully stepped forward with Belle on his back.

While the safety suit did an automated self containment check, Audrey looked through the visor from the platform. Rows of brick and windows were stacked in perfect alignment twenty times from the ground up. Audrey realized that the landing point for the cable elevator was actually the top of an impossibly tall building. But ‘impossible’ could not describe the rest of the new world before her. She looked on to count 40, 60, and over 100 stacks of perfectly aligned grids of windows. Other structures were even larger, and resembled groups of misshapen towers of the Oasis. The largest of the buildings had fallen, leaving behind a stump no larger than the manor she grew up in. However the top portion was stretched over the land, having flattened all in its path and creating a bridge to the ground on a building similar in size to the landing platform.

Link huffed out  clouds of white smoke from his mouth. He had never felt so cold before, even in the longest nights of the desert. His small body shivered for just a moment before adjusting to the temperature. The city had its own sky, carved out from the rock above in the shape of a massive dome. Looking around, he could not fathom the darkness that surrounded them, or the lights that peppered the shadows. It was if this place couldn't decide if it was day or night. The walk down the fallen tower was long but did not prove perilous as a path was lined out from previous explorers. Audrey looked down over the edge of the walkway and noticed that the ground below was arranged in a similar grid-like fashion to the buildings. The otherwise perfectly arranged roads now formed a maze due to  the fallen buildings and debris that blocked off paths.

Once they reached the ground, Link’s wonderment switched from the sky to the road. On one side was  black land with the occasional bright yellow or white strip on the ground. On the other side, the land was smooth and shined with all the colors of the lights above. Link approached the strangely colored ground to realize that the land was actually clear, as he stared back at a reflection of himself.

 “Wait! Don't step there!” Holder rushed to grab hold of Link

Link became a statue in mid step as Holder placed a firm palm on his shoulder.

“Never walk on the mirror path. If you can see your reflection where you walk, then find a different way. Or else the mirror will swallow you whole and trap you inside.”

“Forever?”

“Yeah, forever. But there was once a man who escaped the mirror at the last second. He survived but his leg turned to glass and shattered on his very next step.”

Link fell back on solid ground as he gasped, “really?”

Holder nodded in silence as he continued on. Link stood up and decided to follow right behind his mother and was certain to match every step Holder took. Audrey walked right beside Holder, with one arm firmly interlocked with his. Link had assumed that Holder was following the yellow lines on the path until he realized that the lines were the same in all directions. Holder would stop at every intersection of the lines and examine his surroundings. After a few moments he would turn or continue forward. Audrey noticed that Holder was following a strange symbol she had never seen before to navigate this underground maze.

Audrey examined the warped piece of metal that Holder glanced at before continuing on. A picture of a rod with wings that was tangled between the grip of two snakes facing each other. The white symbol stood out on the rusted blue metal. There was also the bottom half of what must have been an arrow directly above the rod.

“We go straight from here. Stick close. “

“Where are we going?” Audrey dropped the strange symbol on the ground..

“There” Holder stopped to point in the direction of several buildings in the distance. “To the big building with the glowing red plus signs. Inside there's a chamber with this blue liquid. It can heal any kind of injury.”

“Are you sure this will save her?”

“When I was a kid, I once saw a man’s leg grow back in a matter of hours. So yeah. I’m sure”

“The man who escaped the mirror path?”

Holder looked at Link, “Right, so it will definitely work for your mom.”

A smile shined on the child's face, so broad that the corners of his cheeks were free of shadows.  Link was spurred by Holders’ words and now had faith that he could save his mother. A fire burned in his eyes as he marched dutifully onward. From where they stood, the Firebrand estate was now directly overhead, and the ‘good’ Doctor had just returned from his meeting.

The entire estate was in an uproar whenever travel preparations had to be made for Firebrand. The staff of workers and slaves adhered to a very strict schedule to ensure that the Doctor was always in his best condition. His true age was a well guarded secret, but it is rumored that he has outlived slaves who were able to survive long enough to die of natural causes. A not so well guarded secret was how Kenneth Firebrand had survived so long. Directly below his strategically built mansion were the ruins of a medical facility. Within those ruins was a chamber that could reverse any negative health condition, even the effects of old age. However, this procedure had to be used sparingly, because the chamber required a glowing blue solution to work properly. As of now that solution could not be reproduced by the Firebrand estate scientists, and the supply was extremely low.

“Nurse!” Firebrand resembled a walking corpse more than a distinguished head of an estate, as he hobbled into this mansion clutching his chest for dear life.  A crowd of people rushed to his aid before his ancient body could collapse on the floor. Voices of concern and regret showered the dying man as he was lifted into a wheelchair and taken for emergency treatment. 

A short analysis by his personal physician confirmed what the Firebrand children already knew. “He is too far gone, the strain of the sudden travel was too much. He must return to the chamber if he is to survive.”  The Firebrand family was not an especially co operative group of individuals, but could unite instantaneously for the wellbeing of their father. The oldest son took charge, ramming past slaves, workers and anyone else who had the misfortune of standing in his path. The Firebrand family entered the estate lab with haste and boarded the elevator to begin their descent. In moments they landed and began putting on the yellow full body safety suits. All except for one.

The second youngest Firebrand daughter stood where her safetysuit once hung with a puzzled look. “Mine is gone”. The oldest Firebrand sister jerked her head at the empty clothes hook. “Where did you put it?”

“ I-, you put it away for me remember? It got torn and you had it fixed then put it back…”

The oldest paused before she announced to her siblings. “Family, prepare yourselves. Take any weapons and equipment you need before we enter the ruins.”

The stunned group turned all their attention to their sister as she finished her message. “Firebrands, we have intruders!”