As Amaretto and her godmother stepped out of the corvette-tank, Katherine began to walk forwards. As she did so, Amaretto frowned and said, "What about the car?"
Katherine waived a hand at it absently. "It will keep."
She continued to walk towards the strange temple after her aunt. "You know. It looks like something straight out of an Indiana Jones film."
Kathrine paused at the the steps and then paused to root around in her purse. She then pulled out a pair of 'queen' high heel open-toe sandals with a bow detail. Katherine looked to her godchild and then said, "They are pale pink python with light gold." She smiled and Amaretto rolled her eyes.
"Do you always have to do that?"
Katherine smiled. "You mean pull a new pair of shoes when the occasion warrants?"
"Something like that," said Amaretto.
They walked into the first antechamber of the room and what Amaretto saw made her wonder. There was a small hall at the end of the antechamber and through the hall, there was a small doorway with the glow of light at the end of it. The hall was carved through the rock as well and the sides were carved into beautiful reliefs and as she walked towards the other end of the hall, she noted that the women all had sad smiles.
As she stepped from the hall into the new cavern, her mouth seemed to drop open at what she saw. The cavern itself seemed to keep raising up into the solitary mountain and along the walls, carved from the living rock, there was nothing but caryatids and statues of people, doing all manner of things that were akin to life. Amaretto stared at them in awe looking around at all of them. Amongst the statues, hundreds upon thousands of candles were placed in niche and convenient spots so that the light would be bale to be cast everywhere. Flickering flames swayed to the rhythm of their own wind.
That was not what made her stare however though. In the center of the room, on the floor, spanning almost thirty feet across, was a large glass dome. The sides were almost all but bolted to the floor by a large gold band that had runes all across it. The strange runes that danced across the gold band, made it seem as if they were constantly shifting, though the glass itself never did. The glass dome didn't seem to raise above ground level anymore than two inches.
In the direct center of the strange glass dome, standing on the top was a small girl who had dark colored hair which was tied up into several braids and long sticks were used to keep them up as they trailed down the sides of her face. Her eyes were a deep sable green and golden flecks swam in there. She stared at her two new arrivals and then clasped her hands firmly in front of her.
"It seems that you have finally come around and shown up now." the girls voice was musical and floated on the air in between the candles and flowed around the whole room and echoed softly as well.
Amaretto blinked at that moment and then heard her godmother curse. "I didn't wear the right kind of shoes. This is horrible," was all she said under her breath as she pulled her PDA from her purse and then nodded. "This girl in front of us is indeed who we are looking for. This is la sorcière. Be nice then."
Amaretto almost didn't say anything at first and then she scoffed. "This girl is her?"
La sorcière smiled and then said, "It is quite all right. I don't expect you to understand." The girl smiled.
"So this is la sorcière? Not much of what I thought that she would be," Amaretto paused, not sure of what it was that she was to be expecting.
"Taller perhaps?" Katherine's voice was not at all what Amaretto had expected to answer her and actually la sorcière giggled at the joke.
"I don't think that I have ever heard that one before." As musical voice responded, it drifted once again and Amaretto noticed that the candles all responded and swayed. Amaretto looked at the woman that everyone seemed to be calling "the witch of time and space" and was still rather unimpressed.
"So then," began Amaretto, "What is it that I am here for?"
La sorcière smiled. "there is a small problem, one that you can fix, but do not necessarily have to."
Amaretto put her hands up almost as if in defense against the words that La sorcière was saying.
"Don't try to talk circles around me; I've seen the lord of the rings. I've also read plenty of books. You can't say that I can turn you down cause there is always some terrible consequence for doing so." Amaretto looked rather proud for a moment. She then felt that she had figured it all out. "So if you do tell me why I am here, the I will feel obligated to you. Which when I think about it, that is not so good. I don't like that idea.
La sorcière looked amused and Katherine looked a little aghast. "She might have a point," La sorcière said, "However, I cannot argue on this one." Her voice was quiet, but the authority was there. "Unfortunately, you have to hear it anyway."
The small girlish body began to move its way slowly across the glass surface. Amaretto watched the bare feet hit the surface hit the surface without a sound. La sorcière stopped in front of Amaretto and then stared at her with clear eyes.
"There are those who even I answer to here in my Hollow World. Even I am not entirely a slave to what I see, though I may never leave." Amaretto watched as La sorcière tried to step off of the glass surface and the surface contorted and a lash of water surged upwards and like a manacle, clamped around her foot right before it could touch the ground. The shackle and watery chains tightened and Amaretto could see a look of slight pain on the girls face. She pulled her foot back and stepped back onto the mirror.
"As you can see, even if I wanted to leave to help I cannot." La sorcière words were true to her voice and Amaretto could only nod her head.
"I think that I understand you." Amaretto's voice was quiet.
Katherine nodded herself and then said, "Well, we can't stand here all day now can we?" With that, she stepped up onto the glass and her shoes made a resounding crack upon it. The sound echoed all around the area and she turned around and held out a hand or her godchild. "Come along now. I don't have all day and we should see what she wants without any more trouble. There's a sale at Gucci that I really want to get to as some point in time." She smiled her winning smile and Amaretto could feel her eyes rolling into her skull even though she tried to will them not to.
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