The Broken Flame

The sounds of mobs moving about in the early morning was what woke Celina up the next morning, her eyes fluttering open to the high gray ceiling of the cave. She could see sunlight streaming in through the hole in the closest wall she had made. Celina slowly sat up in her place, stretching her arms over her head as she yawned.

A small noise had Celina looking to her right to see Brine rolling onto his back, his eyes opening ever so slowly. He blinked a few times.

“Good morning, Brine,” the queen spoke.

Brine turned his head to look at her and smiled. “Good morning, Celina. Did you sleep okay?”

“I did, thank you for asking.” She tilted her head. “How about you?”

“I did.” Brine slowly sat up and yawned. He then moved to stand from the bed, looking at the hole in the cobblestone wall. 

As Brine moved towards the small wall, she could see that the scratches on his back had healed up completely. His healing blood really worked wonders for him. The queen stood from the bed, pulling her pickaxe from her inventory. “Here, let me make the hole a little bigger so we can see out.” She raised her pick and took out a few of the blocks, leaving a hole so the two of them could see outside. 

The plains in which they had fought last night were now clear of monsters, with just a few pigs and sheep roaming about, eating at the grasses. The sunflowers swayed in a light breeze as they faced towards the rising sun, with a few mob drops laying on the ground.

Brine and Celina took turns looking at each end of the plains, before they nodded to each other. “Doesn’t look like there’s any monsters left,” Celina murmured.

“Appears so.” Brine carefully climbed out of the hole, waiting for Celina to grab their beds and helping her climb out with him. Celina and Brine walked out to the more open area of the plains, before sitting down. Celina then pulled a couple of pork chops from her inventory, handing one to Brine.

The Demi-God and queen ate in comfortable silence, and when they finished, Brine stood and looked towards the sun. “Now that we’ve eaten, we need to start moving again. We need to cover as much ground as we can before the sun sets again.”

Celina nodded. “I agree. Let’s get moving.”

*****

The biome the two reached next was a taiga, with tall spruce trees towering over their heads. Sweet berry bushes and small ferns littered the ground, with a few foxes nibbling at the fruits and wandering about.

Celina looked at the trees with wonder as she moved by Brine’s side. She hadn’t been to this area outside the kingdom before and it was quite pretty. Taigas were a biome she really appreciated, though she was a little too used to the warmth of the plains to ever live in such a biome.

Brine could see Celina looking around as they walked, and he felt himself do the same. Though he very much resented his sister for not helping him all those thousands of years ago, he truly loved the beauty the world she created held. Every little thing he took note of made him feel happy, every little detail was lovely and he truly loved this world and all the things in it.

Celina turned her head to look at Brine as she adjusted her backpack. “It’s really pretty, huh,” she asked him.

The Demi-God nodded. “I would agree. This world truly is beautiful, and even in the thousands of years I’ve been here, I always seem to find something new I appreciate. With everything new that is added to this world, I find myself in awe of what the Deities have done to heal this world.”

Celina smiled. “Yeah, the new things we discover and get recorded are really cool, and I’ve always found it nice that the Deities still care about this world and are trying to heal it after Iraura tried to purge it.”

Brine blinked in surprise and looked at Celina. “You know about that?”

She nodded in response. “Yeah. I’ve done my research on this world and everything about it. I’ve known for some time that Iraura attempted to purge most of the life from this world for reasons that no one really knew. And considering that the other Deities had worked so hard to make this place full of life, they were angry with her and exiled her. They threw her from her throne.” She looked at the ground. “It’s recorded that no one knows why she tried to purge the world… but I think I know why now.”

Brine tensed up visibly in his walk and Celina’s next words chilled him to the bone.

“It was because of you, wasn’t it?”

The queen could hear the Demi-God taking shaking breaths, and she looked to him as he nodded and spoke.

“Yes… I found out from Glistenia that… Iraura tried to purge the world in an attempt to fix what damage I had done. She was going to wipe out every single form of life on this planet, but one of her spies saw Jeb, Dinnerbone, and many of the others stop her from doing so. She wiped out much of the life on this world, but humans and some of the mobs were saved because of their actions.” He put a hand on his arm, as if embarrassed. “I became more angry with her than I ever had been, and I vowed to show her how powerful I could be. I wanted to make her pay for what she did, and show her that she couldn’t get rid of me.”

Brine’s voice became quiet on those last few words, as if he was ashamed of himself. Celina noticed this and she saw how he closed his white eyes in shame. She put a hand on his back and told him, “Brine, it’s not your fault. You were betrayed and had your life torn apart by one envious person, and she changed this world forever by doing what she did. She didn’t think about what her actions would cause, and you had every right to be angry and do what you did in your anger. Even though killing people wasn’t a good thing, you were only doing what you felt was justified.

“What matters now is that you’re not hurting people anymore, and that you’ve changed to be a better person. What you did while you ruled the monsters wasn’t good, but you’re changing and becoming a better person.” Celina gave a soft pat to his back.

Brine looked at her with those enchanting white eyes, before a soft smile formed on his face. He felt a warm feeling in his chest from her words and he couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. Somehow, someway, Celina always knew what to say to him and he couldn’t help but smile. She was so understanding, so kind. She was a ray of sunshine whose kindness was undeserved by the fickle people of this world.

Brine intertwined his hand with hers for a moment, telling her, “Thank you, Celina. You always know how to make me feel better. You’re the kindest person I know, and I’m glad to call you my best friend.”

Celina nodded. “And I feel the same way about you.” The queen could see his smile and it made her so happy.

*****

It took another two nights and two days and the crossing of a snowy taiga, a flower forest, and a tall birch forest before Brine recognized the area they were in. They had arrived in a dark forest, filled with dark oaks and huge mushrooms. Rose bushes were scattered about the ground and there was plenty of shade from the sun with the tall dark oaks towing over their head. Brine recognized this place, his ears twitching as his heart began to race.

Celina seemed to notice his sudden change in posture and she asked, “What is it, Brine?”

“The entrance to the cave. It’s within this forest.”

Celina’s eyes went wide. She took a quick look around to see if she could spot anything out of the ordinary. “Where?”

“It’s not that far. I know what to look for. Just follow my lead.” 

Celina nodded as her friend began to walk through the trees and rose bushes. He seemed to keep looking up at every mushroom he saw, looking inside of them. Celina noticed this but couldn’t find what he was looking at.

It wasn’t until he looked up into one of the fungi and she looked up with him that she noticed a dark colored rose in a flower pot, held up with strings. She whispered, “Is that a Wither Rose?”

Brine answered with, “It is. Glistenia used them to mark the way to the cave when I first became Lord of the Mobs, so I could learn the route to the cave. That was so I’d be able to find her when I needed to talk to her. Her lair is within that cave, and she kept it well hidden from everyone… besides myself.”

“We must be getting close,” Celina commented.

“We are. Keep looking for the Wither Roses.” 

Celina and Brine continued their walk through the woods, keeping their eyes looking up as they walked, spotting several of the black flowers. They seemed to be along a naturally made trail in the forest and after several minutes of this, the Demi-God held a hand out in front of Celina. She saw him staring straight ahead, across a river at the base of the small hill they stood on. She followed his gaze, and her eyes went wide. 

There were a lot of trees and mushrooms hiding something made of stone before them, but within the hills they looked at were a few stone blocks peeking from behind the foliage on the ground. Behind them was something dark, as if no light reached the area behind the leaves. She let out a tiny gasp.

Brine heard this and began to walk down the hill with his friend following at his side. The two waded through the small river, before climbing onto the shore and standing before the large bushes and mushrooms. Brine parted some of the leaves and saw darkness before them. “We found it,” he murmured.

Celina gasped as she moved to stand next to Brine. She could hear a slight breeze blowing through the entrance as wind began to blow through the forest. She could see nothing but darkness ahead of her and that worried her a bit. However, she knew Brine was right when she recognized some of the stone placements on the walls. She remembered them from Brine’s memories, and she found herself looking to her friend with wide eyes. “This is it… we just have to make our way through here and find our way to her lair… right?”

Brine nodded. “That’s most likely where she’s keeping Steve. And I have a bad feeling about it. I don’t know what she could be doing to him by now, but we have to save him.” He turned his head to look at her. “Do you have all those torches you prepared before our journey?”

Celina nodded and pulled a stack from her backpack’s side pocket. She held one up to let some light into the cave, not seeing any mobs but recognizing the cavern from her friend’s memories. She gulped. “So… no going back now. We have to get in there and save Steve.”

Brine nodded. “This won’t be easy, Celina. The mobs in this cavern are usually stronger than any others due to the power Glistenia gives them to guard this place. I don’t know if she’s done anything else to this cave, but I know this: we need to be prepared for anything and everything.” He looked down at his friend. “Can you do that?”

Celina could see the true seriousness on his face and in his tone. She gave him just as serious of a look and nodded. “I’m ready for anything, Brine. I’ll stay by you no matter what, and I promise you: I’m prepared for whatever may be beyond this point. I know there’s no going back. We’re not coming out until we have Steve.”

Brine nodded and gave a smile. “That’s what I want to hear.”

He and Celina turned back to the cave, the queen saying, “Let’s go save Steve.”