Ran would never forget what he found within the inner most sanctum of the temple: seven young women bound by chains that were connected by a strange looking dagger. The women- girls, really; they couldn't have been any older than him- ranged from a rather slender brunette clad in what looked to be the robes of a cleric, to a buxom, blacked-haired girl in a dress of belts and buckles. Six of them were seated on thrones that were arranged around the seventh, the dagger to which they were all bound sitting on her lap. Each one looked to be merely sleeping, and there wasn't a speck of dust seen on any of them (or the room, for that matter), but Ran had a feeling that they had been there for a long, long time.
Now, Ran was what most people (both those of the Moon Kingdom and those of modern times) would call a badass. He lived for the moment, he kicked ass like nobody's business, and he didn't take jack shit from anyone. But if there was one thing his mother had drilled into him, it was chivalry. Oh, he ignored most of the stuff he saw as frivolous, but he took the basics to heart: the practice of mercy (where reasonable), fairness, courage (also where reasonable), and valor (ditto), the protection of those that could not protect themselves, the willingness to give his life for his kingdom, the protection of innocents, being a champion of good, being generous (once again, where reasonable), and general gentleness and graciousness to MOST women (there were some exceptions that he would rather beat the living crap out of rather then give the time of day, much less treat with gentleness and/or graciousness).
At the moment, he was faced with a situation that applied to quite a few of those tenets: seven girls trapped by obviously magical means, rendered helpless for... well, how long didn't matter. What mattered was that he had seven girls in need of assistance, and his honor demanded that he aid them.
And if they proved hostile? Well... he didn't like it, but if he had to, he would fight, and do everything in his power to keep them from escaping.
He first tried attacking the chains, using every one of the attacks in his considerable repertoire. None of them made even a dent in the links, but he had kind of expected that; the fact that they were being used to bind seven beings in the legendary Temple of Discord probably meant they were probably magical in nature, with a good chance of some of that magic being some kind of spell to keep it from breaking easily. But he had to try, if for nothing else then to eliminate one possibility.
Next, he slowly explored the room, paying special attention to the thrones to which the girls were bound. Unfortunately, except for being made entirely from what looked like a single, solid block of a precious gemstone (several, in the case of the seventh throne in the center), there was nothing extraordinary about them. The chain didn't connect to them in anyway, just wound around the girl and the back of the throne several times before being linked back to the chain, making a loop; there were no hooks- or anything similar- that could indicate the end of the chain.
His check of the room having proved useless, Ran only saw one more thing to check before he would have to leave and try to find something in the other rooms in the temple: the dagger binding all the chains together. It was of a strange design- the blade was wickedly curved and rather long for a dagger, but still too short for a short sword, and the tang was a disk with a yin-yang engraved on it. Six small gems were embedded around the yin-yang, while where the pommel stone should have been was a metal ring to which was connected the seven chains that bound the girls. The whole thing, from the blade's tip to where the chains connected to the hilt, was about as long as his forearm.
On hindsight, it should have been fairly obvious: all seven chains connected to the dagger, so it was a reasonable assumption that the dagger would be integral to breaking the binding spell. Ran nearly smacked himself for not realizing it earlier. A part of him remembered a saying about hindsight and 20/20 vision.
He studied the dagger for a minute, trying to see if there was anything he needed to push, or if there might be some kind of booby trap on it. The initial examination didn't show him anything, and as far as he could tell there were no booby traps on it, magical or otherwise.
And so, with great trepidation, Ran reached to pick up the dagger... and was promptly thrown clear across the room as a column of multicolored light blasted straight up into the roof. The only thing that kept him from slamming into the wall (he had somehow been thrown between two of the thrones) and being in a world of hurt was a quick twist that allowed him to land feet first against the wall, from which he did a flip and landed gracefully on the ground.
Pain momentarily avoided, he watched as the room was awashed in light. Each chain disintegrated into nothingness, and with the breaking of the spell each girl slowly opened their eyes and awoke, one after another. Shortly after, the column of light faded, plunging the room back into its previous gloom, the only light coming from the nearby asteroids as the light of a hundred distance stars reflected off them.
Ran could only stare in amazement, not quite believing he had broken the spell. It didn't last long, though, since the eyes of the seventh girl- a beauty with dark violet hair that flowed down her back, wearing an outfit similar to those worn by the warrior priests and priestesses of Mar, though violet and black replaced red and white- eventually met his. Time froze for a moment as the girl seemed to look deep into his soul, and he had the distinct feeling that he was being judged. Then the moment was broken as...
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(Posted Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:51)
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