For the first time in his very long life, Kendle knew abject terror for his very existence as he ran through the tunnels into the Kings' Proving Grounds. He dared not slow even for the darkness, knowing the furious Desanti woman was hard on his heels and completely undeterred by the unlit tunnels, having spent so long blinded when she first arrived in Sharindel.
"By all the gods, she is persistent, isn't she?" Izkynder giggled at the Roylat's droll question. Kendle hopped up several rocks to reach an upper level. He hid behind a boulder, panting heavily as he listened. He narrowed a glare upwards as another figure hopped down from a higher ledge to his. "What took you so long to get here?" he hissed.
The chestnut-haired man, with refined features much like Kendle but dressed in forest green, smirked at him. "We had to figure out how to get here without drawing her ire as you have." Ignoring Kendle's less than elegant response, the gathered Kings transformed their inner world into a surreal wilderness.
Kendle heard her skid to a stop below. "Izkynder!!" she called. He covered Izkynder's mouth, but the muffled giggles were still audible. "I swear to you!" she seethed. "If my tlisan is harmed, I swear upon the souls of my ancestors, you will suffer for eternity!" With a visceral shout, she spun, slicing a giant, snake-like creature looming over her from a bizarre tree with violet foliage. It fell dead, sliced into five segments before it even hit the ground.
Kendle blinked as he looked down to where Storm turned on another Roylat-created beast. "Incredible. She is more a force of nature now than ever." He looked at the boy. "Come, young one. Let us go await her completion of this trial. I have no doubt she will be done quickly."
Pushing onwards, Storm hacked, slashed, dodged or otherwise dealt with various obstacles with such determined focus, she barely noticed any of the injuries she was incurring along the way. By the time she caught up with Izkynder and his abductor, she was tattered and bleeding, but no less furious and driven. "Give him back!"
Standing across a wide gorge, Kendle was a tall, broad-shouldered man dressed in deep indigo edged with silver and accented with white. His hair was black as night and his eyes were vivid blue. Izkynder sat on his hip, tugging at the pendant the Roylat wore. "You fight well, Warrior," he stated mildly. "As we expected you would, once you came to us. You have nearly completed the tests within the Kings' Proving Grounds. I have only one more task for you to win this round."
"I care nothing for you or your games," Storm snapped. "You have no right to torture me or any of my tlisan. We did nothing that caused your imprisonment here. Return my tribesman to me!"
Lightly brushing his fingers through the boy's hair, the stranger looked at Izkynder, who though looking worriedly at Storm, was calm and quiet as the woman raged. "He will be returned to your... tlisan? The one you call Jaison waiting for you outside. Unharmed," he added, then turned his piercing regard back on Storm. "On two conditions." When Storm said nothing, he continued. "The first is you agree to continue to the Queens' Crucible."
"What is this 'Queen's crucible'?" Storm demanded after gritting her teeth for several heartbeats.
"There are two phases of tests every mortal who wishes to become a Guardian must endure. The Kings' Proving Grounds tests the mental and physical ability of those who would face the time shifters and other entities directly." He quirked a wan smile. "Your methods are quite effective, if a little untraditional."
"Give!" Izkynder stated flatly, yanking harder at Kendle's pendent.
The Roylat smiled faintly at Izkynder and transferred the necklace he wore to the boy's neck. "The Queen's Crucible tests the mental and spiritual endurance of an Adept." He regarded Storm with maddening serenity. "An Unsvet must pass one. A Dusvet must pass both."
Storm glowered at the man, swords not budging an inch. "If I agree to enter this... crucible, you will return Izkynder to Jaison? Outside of this pit?"
The man considered a moment. "You must agree to both conditions. Do you wish to know the second?"
"I wish Izkynder to be returned!" Storm yelled. "I care nothing about your games!" She shifted position, beginning to run to attempt leaping the divide when vines lashed around her wrists and ankles and pulled her back from the edge. "Return him!"
"We both know this gorge is too wide for you to jump as you are now, Swordanzen," Kendle stated, his tones hard but flinching as he watched her hack at the vines in single-minded determination, occasionally cutting herself. He waved a hand, and vines lashed around her wrists to stop the heedless attack. "Tell me your true name," the man stated flatly.
Storm's struggling faltered a moment before the fury returned, albeit subdued. "If you are what you are, you already know my true name. All divine servants know a mortal's true name."
"What I know is irrelevant. It is what you know. Tell me your name."
"I am Githalin Swordanzen Storm il'Thandar!" she snapped, tugging at one wrist to free herself.
"That is one of them. But not the name I want. Your true name," the man stated again.
Gritting her teeth, she snarled, "Aelia na'Zhekali."
The man tilted his head. "Almost, but not quite." His smile faded to a more menacing expression. "Your soul's true name! Say it!"
"I did say it! You want a name from a previous life?" She spat to the side. "Go prong yourself! You know as well as every mortal and immortal alive and dead that mortals do not remember beyond their current lifetime." Storm looked at her wrist, focusing on aging the vine until it withered, pulling her hand free.
Another vine appeared and lashed around her wrist again. Narrowing a hateful look on the man, she closed her eyes, all the vines binding her turning to dust. Storm only managed to take two steps forward before new vines pulled her down to her knees at the precipice of the ledge.
Kendle suppressed a pained, sympathetic expression watching Storm's struggles. "You are persistent, Swordanzen," the man said almost kindly. "I have no wish for you to die. I never did. What I had done in the past was unforgiveable." He hesitated a few heartbeats before he walked towards the ledge. Large fingers of rock melted like living liquid, reaching outwards to form a bridge. With Izkynder nearer, Storm stopped struggling, glowering up at him.
The Roylat crouched by her, intense blue eyes on her furious green-gold ones. "You know me, Swordanzen. I am Kendle." Storm flinched when he stated his name, looking away. "Countless lifetimes ago, you once counted me as a friend." He fixed his gaze on her. "Your true name. Speak it, and you will be free to go to the Crucible and I will return the boy to those who await you without. I vow this upon the ancient trinity."
"I cannot," Storm whispered. "Only immortals can remember..." She flinched when he touched her hair comfortingly.
Kendle murmured quietly, "One wiser than me once told a fool that mortality and immortality are not about destiny or birthright, but about--"
"Choice." The word was a harsh whisper, torn from the depths of her soul. Storm trembled in silence before she finally relented, head bowed as she touched her brow to the rock. "Zhekali. My true name... is Zhekali."
Kendle relaxed, gently setting Izkynder down when he began to struggle trying to reach Storm. "You counted me as your friend, Zhekali, and I failed you twice. Once because I was too late, once because... I was too weak. I do not deserve your forgiveness. But I hope... you understand the reasons behind my actions."
Hunched in a small ball, Storm did not notice the vines melting away as she reflexively covered her head with her arms. "You were always more Trisari than Totani in your cruelty, Kendle. Ruling yourself with your head, not your heart. Now you understand the power of the heart you had always denied." With a pained sound, she begged, "Please, I don't want to remember more. It hurts..."
She looked up when she felt a small hand on her shoulder. "Sta-im," Izkynder said quietly as he tugged his shirt out and wiped away the tears on her cheeks, much as the others would do for him. Mutely, she fiercely embraced the boy. Izkynder hugged her tightly, then put one hand over her heart. "Be good, Sta-im. No owie." He repeated firmly as the tension in the woman's body eased. "No owie."
Releasing the child, Storm brushed his hair back in place gently. "Be good, Izkynder," she whispered. Putting her hand over his heart, she said, "No matter what happens... no owie." Looking up at Kendle, she nodded once as he took the boy's hand. Slowly getting to her feet, she looked at the bridge, then resolutely crossed it.