The Pendant of Andwe

The blue stone fell. A young woman watched it plummet, keeping her eyes on the river at the bottom of the cliff, waiting for the splash that would mean her troubles were over. She still wore the gold chain around her neck, a symbol of power she had not wished to yield. After what seemed like an eternity, a tiny splash made the girl turn away, and look towards the distant lights of her own village.

Nidala was only 16, and yet, had suffered more than many of the elders in the small village from which she came. It was not her first home, nor was it to be her last. She had secrets to hide, from which she was always running, that haunted her very steps. If she had expected that getting rid of the gem would clear her name, she was sadly mistaken.

The pendant had come to Nidala as an heirloom, the only reminder of her parents who had died as criminals. Not knowing the dangers of the necklace, Nidala had eagerly put it on, caressing the azure rock that glowed gently, nestled within the gold. But as she had touched the gem, her world had blurred in her vision, and she had been catapulted to another place entirely. It was a world full of shadow, danger, and pure evils.

But now she had gotten rid of the stone. The gem itself would not affect the user. It was a unique blend of magic, mineral, and gold that produced the awesome transversal of worlds. Should the gem fall into the wrong hands, the finder would be powerless without the gold chain that still hung around Nidala's neck. And here she planned to keep it.

As Nidala turned her back to the cliff, the wind began to pick up. Leaves swirled around her flame-red hair and her skirts billowed. Clouds began to obscure the full moon and the stars grew dim in their shadows. Nidala's green eyes widened as she saw the shadowed figure approaching. She put her hand to her waist and felt for the hidden scabbard. A sigh of relief exited her lips as she grasped the worn hilt and drew the sword.

Nidala took the moment to spring. She flailed her sword wildly, forgetting all the training she had recieved, just trying to inflict as much pain as possible onto the creature. But her steel did nothing but anger the being, as the weapon simply parted the shadowy material of which it was made. "A Shadowbeing," Nidala murmered to herself, taking a step back. No wonder it hadn't spoken. This was clearly the work of a skilled mage. Most likely one that Nidala wouldn't want to meet.

But the meeting was imminent, as a clap of thunder announced the arrival of another figure. This one more defined and clearly humanoid. Under the black hood that it wore, fires burned in the depths of its empty eye sockets, and smoke billowed from its nose. "Nidala. You know what I seek. The pendant of Andwe is mine. Give it to me." A male voice issued from the black cloak and the figure held out its hands expectantly.

"It is gone. I disposed of it," Nidala replied in a steady, unwavering voice. The figure raised its hands in an unmistakable position of magic.

"I said, give it to me!" The man wasn't going to be intimidated by a young girl. Nidala was pinned up against a dying oak tree by an invisible hand.

"I don't have it," she choked, wriggling to get free of the magic that cut off her airway.

"I am sure, then, that you will be happy to tell me where it resides," the figure suggested, loosening the magic. Nidala nodded. The hand faded and she massaged her neck, ignoring the advancing shadow, which she had all but forgotten about. The shadow approached her and tried to take the necklace off her neck. Nidala refused to let it. "Give it the gold," the man said. Nidala shook her head. "No?"

Nidala stood up, shaky on her feet. "I will tell you where the gem is. But you will never get the chain. Never." She ran. "It's down there," she called back, through the wind. "The gem is in the river." She chuckled to herself after looking over her shoulder to make sure the mage wasn't following her.

Several yards away, the mage was doing likewise. He turned to his shadow minion. "Does the fool not realize," he began. "That I don't need her silly gold?"  He drew a gold chain from inside his deep pocket. "I have the original pendant, all I am missing is the stone."

Nidala laughed as she collapsed into a haystack in an abandoned barn, ignoring the protests of the cattle. Although she was exhausted, she had gotten away. There was no way that Ciend, yes she knew the mage's name, would find her, or get that gem. The river had swept it away by now. It was probably at sea. And as Nidala drifted into a deep sleep, she remembered one thing. Shadows only existed in Raen, the other world. But the waves of sleep were inevitable, and before Nidala could do anything about this discovery, she was snoring.  

Ciend did not need sleep. Instead, he stole into a stable at the nearest inn and took the fastest horse. On it, he galloped until he reached the end of the river, where he used a simple seive spell to dredge the river for the pendant. He knew that it was not far to the cliff where the pendant had fallen, and that he might be too late. The gem could be halfway out to sea by now, and then, there was no hope of finding it.

Nidala stretched, letting the golden light of dawn penetrate her eyelids before she gracefully opened her eyes. She unconciously stroked the chain around her neck, feeling the hole where the gem used to reside. She breathed a sigh of relief at her narrow escape. It was only when she noticed the shadow of a cow on the wall of the barn that she remembered her last thought of the night. She was somehow trapped in Raen.

The only way that she knew to exit Raen was to take off the pendant. But somehow, seperating the parts had left her trapped. She needed that gem back, before Ciend found it. Venturing out of the stable, she found a carriage, with horses already harnessed, waiting for a rider, no doubt some noble who had thoughts of going into town. There was no one about, so Nidala climbed into the drivers seat and set out on the road the ocean. In her mind, there was no other place where the pendant could be. All rivers lead to the ocean, after all.

Ciend had searched all night, unsuccessfully. There was no sign of the pendant anywhere. He lit a magical fire and stared at it in frustration. The shadow hovered a few feet away, staying in the shade, as even the flickering quality of light from a magical fire would harm him.

Halfway out of the drive to the farm, Nidala's carriage broke. The wheel came off the axel, leaving the carriage lopsided and unable to move. Annoyed, she jumped from the seat and unharnessed the large brown horse. She mounted it and rode at speed down the rest of the drive and down the dirt road. After about two hours, the horse began to tire. Clearly, it wasn't a race horse, or one used to doing much hard work. Realizing that she would never make it to the sea at this rate, Nidala turned the horse and rode toward the cliff. Where the gem had fallen would be a good place to begin a search for it.

As the sun set, Nidala could just see the faint glow of a fire in the distance, the first sign of life she had seen all day. She automatically began to ride toward it. But, as she conisdered the possibilities of who it might be, she decided the better of it, and instead rode towards the cliff, following her original plan.

The mage had, by this time, sat down with his bowl of still water. He gazed into it and muttered strange words until it turned as clear as a mirror. The image zoomed in and out, until it focused on a girl with red hair, Nidala. Cutting off the image abruptly, Ciend jumped onto his horse and kicked it into a gallop, leaving his camp, and the shadow, behind.

Nidala turned around at the sound of hoofbeats that she knew did not come from the animal beneath her. A dark figure rode on a horse that was much faster than her own. She spurred her own horse on. She knew that her pursuer was Ciend, and she knew that he wanted the gem as much as she did, and had figured out where to find it. The persuit became an allout race, each horse kicking up dust and rocks to make an avalanche jealous.

A glint of blue encouraged both riders. But the shine did not come from the water. Rather, it came from a branch, just above the river. Nidala arrived at it first. She reached for it, but was not tall enough to attain it. Ciend leisurely rode up to her, slowing his horse to a walk, gloating.

He dismounted, and pushed Nidala aside. He raised his hands in a magic casting position, but was unable to complete the spell, as Nidala had knocked the gem off its precarious perch on the limb by throwing a rock at it.

Ciend advanced to Nidala, who was still on the ground, another stone from the riverbank in her hand. She quickly dropped it and thrust the gem into her gold necklace. Ciend howled an unearthly sound as Nidala ripped the necklace off her neck. She was surrounded by blackness for a moment before she landed facedown in a green meadow.

The sun was shining, and over to her right, was a cliff, not unlike the one she had just come from. But she knew that she was back home, not in Raen. The necklace remained in her hand. Staggering slightly, she dragged herself to her feet and made her way unsteadily to the cliff's edge. Beneath was not a river, but solid, rocky ground.

Gathering all her courage, Nidala pulled her arm back, and threw the pendant over the cliff. She waited for a moment, then turned away, not caring to see what happened to it. It was someone else's problem now.

At the bottom of the cliff, the pendant shattered. Pieces of blue crystal shined for a moment, then turned gray as the magic was destroyed. No one would ever wield the power of the pendant of Andwe again.