The Other Throne Room

---Aaron---

"What?" Indigo furrowed her brow in confusion. "What's this? A reflection? Another throne room?" Cautiously, she poked the center of the portal with her spear. There was no resistance from the surface of the portal, and Indigo stuck half of her spear inside. Katherine circled around the back of the portal to see what was there. We couldn't see her through the portal.

"The entire backside is black," Katherine reported. "I tried to stick my sword in, but it's like hitting a rock. Nothing can go through this way."

"That's so weird," Indigo commented as she pulled her spear back. Nothing seemed to be different about the spear. Then she slowly stuck her arm through the portal and waved it around. It was like she was waving her arm in air. Katherine circled back. The three of us stared at the mirrored throne room in the portal, stumped. Why would the portal show us this? What did it want us to do?

"Should we go in?" I finally questioned. "See where it leads?"

Indigo and Katherine shared a look. "I guess that's our only option right now," Indigo said slowly. "But we can't all go in. Someone should stay out here in case something happens."

Since I made the suggestion, it was only fair I go in. Besides, I certainly wasn't going to be twiddling my thumbs while I let two girls go explore the unknown, where danger might lurk around every corner. "I'll go in," I said.

"I'll go with you," volunteered Katherine.

I turned to Indigo. "Indigo, are you okay with staying out here by yourself?"

She nodded. "Be careful, both of you. If anything happens, just come back. We'll figure it out together."

Katherine and I nodded together. Taking a deep breath, I stepped over the threshold and into the portal. It was just as if I took a regular step. My feet touched the same stone ground as I had just stepped off on. Katherine followed after. I looked back at the portal, where Indigo was peering anxiously after us.

"Be careful!" She said again. I flashed her a thumbs up.

"Don't worry, Indigo. We'll be back soon."

Katherine and I looked around this new room. It looked exactly like the throne room we just left, just mirrored. Even the toppled torches and cracked pillars were there. Lord Victor's throne stood on its platform, empty. The air smelled faintly musty.

"Is this monster dust?" Katherine kicked at something with the tip of her boots. I looked down at the small pile of black dust. There were lots of those piles scattered around the proximity of the portal.

"Maybe? It sure looks like it." I stabbed it with my sword, murmuring the spell to activate the rosewood tip. The dust exploded. It was the remains of the Evils that passed through the portal. "If these are the remains of Evils, then where's Lord Victor?"

This throne room was silent and empty. There was no sign of any remains of Lord Victor.

"Maybe he disintegrated into dust too," Katherine said. "Maybe we're stepping on his ashes right this second."

"I like the sound of that." I stomped on a nearby pile of black dust with extra spite. Then I walked around the back of the portal. Like what Katherine reported earlier, the back was made of an unknown solid black material. Nothing could pass through.

"Aaron, is it just me, or does everything look old and abandoned?" Katherine asked as she walked up to the throne. "This isn't how the throne room we came from is."

I studied the room more carefully. Sure enough, there were signs of age everywhere—cobwebs in the corners, a layer of fine dust—not the monster dust—on the ground, and tiny cracks in the pillars. A thin ray of sunlight filtered through the heavy maroon curtains, illuminating tiny particles dancing in the air. Half-melted wax candles slumped in the iron chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. Both throne rooms bore obvious signs of battle, but this room gave me the feeling that no one had been in here for a long, long time.

I walked to the closed doors of the throne room and pulled them open. They groaned and creaked as they revealed the hallway outside. The torches on the wall were extinguished. A window down the hall showed that it was snowing outside. Every sound echoed loudly in the silence. The air was musty. Aside from these details, everything looked exactly the same as the stronghold we just came from.

"This is so weird," Katherine said in a low voice as she joined me at the doors to peer into the hall. "This place feels like a creepy abandoned castle."

"That's probably because it is a creepy abandoned castle." I closed the doors. They thundered shut. For a weird reason I could not explain, I felt compelled to speak no louder than a whisper. "There's nothing here. Let's go back."

Katherine did not need to be told twice. With her in the lead, we stepped back through the portal and emerged in the less-creepy, better-lit throne room where Indigo waited nervously. We told her all that we found and saw.

"So it's exactly the same as this stronghold, just older and seemed to have been abandoned for a long time? That is weird." Indigo paced in front of the portal, thinking. Then she stopped. "Guys, do you remember what Lord Victor said about his stronghold when he was showing us his memories?"

Katherine blinked. "He chose the Northern Mountains because it snowed. It reminded him of Marcellus, because of his snow powers, and Bianca, because winter was her favorite season."

"No, no, he said something else before that." Indigo's eyes were wide. "He said he rebuilt the stronghold of the previous evil lord. Could it be that the portal leads to the stronghold of the previous evil lord, before Lord Victor became Lord Victor?"

My eyes widened as well. "You mean, the portal is taking us back in time, to after the previous evil lord was defeated but before Lord Victor rebuilt the stronghold? But…how? Why?"

"I don't know for sure. But that explains why everything looks abandoned and old, right?"

"But didn't Lord Victor say he, Marcellus, and Annalise burnt the previous evil lord's stronghold to the ground before returning to the Academy?" Katherine pointed out. "The throne room in the portal is not burnt."

Indigo let out a noise of frustration. "But I can't think of any other explanations for what you guys saw. Unless—" She stopped talking as another thought hit her.

"Unless what?" I asked expectantly.

"Unless the portal is not taking us back in time, but forward, to what the stronghold looks like in the future because we defeated Lord Victor." Indigo stated. "That's the only other possibility I can think of. But again, why? There must be some significance to what the portal is showing us. What are we supposed to be doing right now?"

Again, the three of us looked at each other helplessly. If even Indigo, who is the mastermind, could not figure out what was going on with the portal, there was no way I could. I stared at the portal's dark red edges, watching small tendrils of magic flicker and dance. After sucking in all the Evils and Lord Victor, the portal was no longer a smooth elliptical shape. Instead, it had widened and the edges became more jagged. It looked so weird, especially since it showed a mirrored version of where we stood.

"Hey, the portal looks like a giant rip in the room," I said aloud. Katherine stepped back to get a more complete view.

"It does," she agreed. "So weird."

A few moments later, Indigo suddenly looked up—first at me, then at the portal, and then back at me. "Aaron, you're a genius!"

"I—what?" I was confused. What did I do that was genius-worthy?

"You said the portal looks like a rip in the room. Another word for 'rip' is 'tear'. Remember the prophecy?" Indigo's eyes were shining with excitement. "'In opposition the tear will mend'. This is what the prophecy meant.

"We have to mend the tear. We have to close the portal in order to fulfill the prophecy."