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I kicked my way down through the lake, trying to keep myself oriented as the water grew darker with depth. If I pushed the thought of what was waiting for me out of my mind, then this was quite a nice swim. It was pleasantly cool and so quiet I could hear the blood rushing in my head.
I judged I didn’t have much longer before the air bubble around my head grew stale. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me, because the lake seemed to be getting brighter instead of darker.
Then, all at once, I could see it.
It looked like an ancient temple, made out of brown stone, with a massive dome in the centre. At the apex was something white that glowed, providing the illumination. It was in incredible condition, considering how old it must be and that it was at the bottom of the lake. I could practically feel water magic coming off of it.
I paddled down until I reached the lakebed. My air was seriously starting to get stale. I hoped I wouldn’t need it for the whole way. Half walking, half swimming, I circled the building and found a covered doorway. Kicking in, I found a door and gave it a push.
The door went in, and so did the water. I was sucked in with the tide and very quickly hit another wall. My air bubble popped. I coughed and focused all my will on holding back the water. It wasn’t easy, and I could feel the built-up pressure straining against me. I threw my shoulders against the door and it closed with a painful grating sound, sealing off the rest of the lake.
I leaned against the door, breathing heavily, listening to the sound of draining water. My heart pounded like a frantic drum.
I wanted Fera. I wanted my sister down there with me. I needed her to be recklessly charging ahead, pulling me along behind her. I couldn’t be brave alone.
The problem was, I had to be. There was no way Fera was coming to the bottom of a lake. I hated having to leave her behind. I felt sick.
It took me a while to realize there was a faint, rosy light, coming from above. Only a few paces away was a wall, with an empty spot set at about the height of my head. I strode across to it. It was roughly circular in shape. I felt it, and found little grooves at the back.
Slinging my bag off, I searched through it until I uncovered the key pieces we’d collected. I fitted them together and held them up to the hole, turning the strange disk this way and that until the pegs all slid in. There was a click. Nothing happened. Frowning, I pushed on the key and tried turning it to the right.
Click. Click. Click-click-clickclickclick. I stepped back as the rapid-fire sound echoed and the wall swung back like a draw bridge, lying flush with the ground.
Okay, now to find the shard, grab it, and get out.
With a deep breath I treaded lightly across the threshold and into a room. There were two doorways, one on either side, and writing written in coloured ink curling on the wall between them.
Congratulations, worthy challenger. You have followed the clues and challenges to make your way here, but the quest is not yet at an end. Only one deserving can gain the Crystal of Arasha. Power is nothing without the mind. Good luck.
You stand before two doors, each leading you somewhere else. One is simple, straight and neat. One is hard, testing and cold. One will take you where you need to go. Choose wisely.
I wanted to scream, to attack the walls until they crumbled to dust. Except then I’d probably die.
I forced myself to remain calm, which wasn’t easy. The two doors were marked, letting me know which one was which. I thought about the challenges up to this point. I thought about what was written before me. I knew exactly where I need to go.
I turned to my left and walked through the doorway marked as ‘hard’. Harder roads reaped rewards, as this quest was clearly a testimony to.
I walked softly down a hall that reminded me of the tunnels back home, except there were no spiders, and at intervals lit torches were fixed to the wall. I figured it must be that ever flame stuff Fera knew about. Like a proto-type of Sun Lanterns.
After a few minutes, I came to a small, square room. Across from me was a door frame with no door, just a metal gate.
“Oh,” I relaxed, “this is easy.” I pulled water from my Relic and stepped over, checking the gate. “Wait . . .” I doubled checked, and triple checked. “There’s no lock!” I made a sound of annoyance.
Glaring, I looked around and found engraved writing above the door.
We hurt without moving,
We poison without touching,
We bear the truth and the lies,
We are not to be judged by our size,
Who are we?
I threw my hands up in annoyance. Riddles! More riddles! I got that water elementalists, as a generality, preferred to be intelligent, but this was getting ridiculous.
Rereading the riddle, the answer came to me quickly. “Words,” I said without thinking. “Wait, how am I supposed to an –” There was a screech of metal, and one side of the gate loosened from the stone.
I knitted my eyebrows. Now they were using air and earth enchantments? All this was set up in the aftermath of a war, so I couldn’t imagine them being purchased, which meant they were either great thieves or great manipulators. It was hard to tell which option I liked best.
Sighing, I pulled open the gate and proceeded.
This passageway curved about, before dropping me in a room with many ways out, all just big enough to crawl through, and set at varying heights on the walls. In the middle of the room was a pedestal with a sundial in the centre. Hanging directly above was a lamp, the light reflecting off the dial to throw circles of light above each opening.
I crouched down by the pedestal to read the awkwardly slanted writing.
Find to flip.
Always old, sometimes new, never sad, sometimes blue,
Never empty, sometimes full, never pushes, always pulls,
Who am I?
Part of me was starting to think that Fera was right in calling those who set this up ‘nutso’. The riddle wasn’t even that hard. “The answer is the moon.” I said out loud. Nothing happened. So this wasn’t like the last one. And what did it mean by ‘find to flip’?
Okay, the answer was definitely the moon, and there was a sundial throwing light in front of me. “The moon is the opposite of the sun,” I said, thinking out loud and standing up. “So the opposite of a sundial would be . . .” I gripped the brass disk and gave it a yank, “Gotcha.”
The other side was almost a mirror image, save that the arm pointed the other way, and the face was silver. There was a narrow trench in the pedestal for an arm to sit in.
After trying a few orientations, I found the correct one and the dial sank into place. The light reflected off of it differently now, a bright circle showing up above only one tunnel.
I walked over to the tunnel and boosted myself up. With a bit of scrambling, I managed to drag myself in and started to crawl forward.
It turned around a few sharp corners where I couldn’t see what was ahead of me, and with a sinking feeling, I realized that if I got even one wrong, it was game over. I would die. The clues had been dangerous to get, and the final round would be the worst yet.
The tunnel stopped, a paved stone floor spreading out in front of me. My hands and knees were aching as I crawled out. I was covered in dust, and my hands were pitted with little marks. Brushing the dust off, I looked around the room.
Painted on the walls were six murals. The paint had barely faded over time. Four of them I partly recognized. They were of legends of the gods of the four elements. A fifth one was strange, and I assumed that it was of some aether thing. I hadn’t exactly asked after their lore. The sixth one was hidden behind a pillar with writing.
I walked over and read.
Do I speak to you?
I can bring tears to your eyes,
Resurrect the dead,
Make you smile,
And reverse time,
I form in an instant, but I last a lifetime,
Who am I?
I frowned and thought it over. It took me a few minutes to understand. The first line had to reference something else, like the previous riddle, otherwise the whole thing didn’t make any sense. The rest of the riddle allowed me to get an answer – a memory. What was that about something speaking to me? One of the murals?
Circling the room, I inspected each one until I reached the sixth one. I stopped dead, staring. It was odd – at first, I thought it was an image of Gaile and Chion, but that didn’t make sense. Chion was the only fire goddess, so it had to be her, but the hairstyle was wrong. The other figure couldn’t be Uisce, since the hair was red or yellow, instead of black, so it had to be Gaile, even though she usually had brown hair.
Then, with a chill, I realized the image could almost be me and Fera. The features were a little fuzzed, but the two people had identical faces and were using water and fire.
I glanced at the other murals. “Oo-kay. I guess this one speaks to me. Now what? Is there a hidden door?” I shook my head. “Wait, how is this possible?” How could some ancient people know about me and my sister before we were born? Oracles weren’t that accurate.
Maybe . . . maybe this was another enchantment.
I told myself it had to be an aether enchantment. I knew they could make things appear differently. This might just be a trick by them to make me see what I’d want.
That was feasible, right? I should’ve asked more questions.
Scowling, I poked the painting. It rippled like it was made of cloth. Raising an eyebrow, I tried to see if I could lift the edge, like it was a tapestry, to no end. “What the heck does this mean?” I yelled, ramming my fist on the wall. It rippled again. This time, I heard a faint chiming sound.
Freezing, I rapped the wall again. The sound repeated. The same note. I pressed my hand against the mural and listened as a couple bars of a song rang out. “Do I speak to you,” I murmured, “and it speaks in a melody. A melody and a memory. Oh!”
I realized I recognized the snippet of song. It was the beginning of a lullaby my mother had used to sing to Fera and I all the time. My mother, who’s family line was the owner of the house with the scroll. I quietly sang out the rest of the lullaby.
There was a grinding noise. I turned to face it and saw the mortar between some of the stone crumbling to dust. Scowling, I went over to the section and worked at getting a large brick out.
Peering through the hole I saw a passage leading on. “Seriously?” I exclaimed.
I started working on a second brick before realizing there was an easier way to do this. Taking a few steps back I pulled a lot of water from my Relic, swirled it around, and blasted it forward with all the force I could muster.
Several of the bricks crashed inwards, making such a clatter I covered my ears until they stopped and the dust settled. I hadn’t entirely removed them all, but the gap in the wall was large enough for me to fit. Exhausted, I drew a deep breath and plunged onward.
***
MY LEGS WERE CRAMPING by the time I managed to plod my way through the curving, twisting passage. I contemplated taking a nap, except then I might fall asleep for a few hours and give Fera a massive fright up top.
I exited into another room. “You’ve got to be joking,” I gasped out. “Another riddle?” My head was going to explode if they kept this up.
The room was mostly barren. The floor was paved in a circular pattern that spiraled inward. Brightly coloured stones of different sizes and shapes were placed in a pattern that probably formed something if I got a bird’s eye view. There was writing on the floor.
I walked around the perimeter until I found the beginning. Following it around, I read.
Place me gently, dear friend.
What does man love more than life?
Fear more than death or mortal strife?
What do the poor have, the rich require,
And what contented men desire?
What does the miser spend, the spendthrift save,
And all men carry to their grave?
At the centre of the room, where the riddle turned to an end, there was a small, perfectly round depression. I frowned and looked at it. The riddle was simple enough. The answer was nothing. How did one gently place nothing?
I sat down in front of where I had to place nothing and crossed my legs. I poked the little circle with no result. This didn’t make any sense. I glanced around at the stones. They probably had something to do with this. Maybe they formed an image that elaborated the riddle. Then again, they could have nothing to do with it as some sort of clever ploy on the answer.
I sat there and I thought and I thought and I thought, staring at all the stones. Only a few would fit in the place. I supposed I could always pick up potential candidates and try them one by one. That was hoping that there wasn’t a nasty trap rigged to spring if I messed up.
I tried to approach the problem a different way. What was nothing? Well . . . it was nothing. Different spins such as ‘the absence of everything’ didn’t help much. I sighed and plopped my chin on to my fists. Where was Fera with her odd theories when I needed her? This was impossible!
Forget placing nothing – I had nothing. No matter how hard I thought my mind was just a dark, empty void – I went tense. Dark. Nothing meant the absence of everything, including light. It would appear to a human as darkness, so . . .
I stood up and began to search the stones for the darkest one I could find. Most were bright colours, a few were varying shades of grey, but I found only one small one that was jet black. I bent over and gingerly picked it up. It was slippery, coated in some kind of oil.
Carrying it carefully back, I knelt down by the little hole and slipped it in. For a moment I just held my breath. Then there was a loud grinding sound and the ground started to shake.
With a squeak I leaped back, watching mesmerized as a circle in the centre of the room retracted. It revealed a well-lit place and a spiral staircase. Steeling my nerves, I started down the stairs.
The staircase wrapped around a statue on a pedestal, though who it was a statue of, I had no idea. The room was large and circular, with a slightly domed ceiling and five large archways evenly placed. Around each archway were a different coloured tiles and each of the five pillars had large symbols on them. Four of them I recognized, leading me to believe the fifth was for aether.
I turned to the face of the statue, which was massive, and looked at the little stand in front of it. There was a curling piece of parchment tacked on. I was surprised it still existed, and that I could still read the ink.
Worthy challenger, the power brought strife. Six fractions to make a whole. The way forward is clear if you can answer this. In civil unrest who does best?
“Earth,” I said automatically. That was the first answer that jumped to my mind. I took a few steps towards that arch before stopping. “No, too obvious.” I thought about it. “Earth is stubborn, but in some sort of war that’s bad because they won’t compromise. They’d be overrun eventually, so it can’t be them.” I turned to the next one.
It was hard not to snort. “Fire,” I rolled my eyes. “I think I have a sister who is a prime example of why they wouldn’t do best.” It did tend to be a lot of ‘burn first, ask questions later’ with them. They’d just keep fighting indefinitely. I went to the next one.
“Air,” I spat. I fought the urge to move right along. When this had been set up, there’d been no reason for prejudice. I forced myself to approach this rationally. “Generally,” I mused, “they’re fairly peaceful. They usually go along with things – or they used to, at the very least. But they value honesty, so they’d be easy to take advantage of, in a way, and they’d lose sight of their ideals or whatever along the way.” I went to the fourth.
This one was an interesting option. “Aether.” Could this be it? They had, technically, kept a better history than anyone else. They’d also supposedly ended the war. Had they done best? Then again, they struck me as a very non-confrontational. They had just left everyone while enduring on their own. It wasn’t a bad idea, but not exactly the way to be the ‘best’ in a war like period.
“Probably come up with some reason why it’s all unimportant,” I mumbled, turning to the last one. “Water.” It seemed too egotistical to be the answer. I thought it over. “Well . . . I suppose we can be stubborn, just not as bad as earth. And we are willing to change if the alternative is reasonable . . . I guess we would adapt enough to come out on top. It seems to be the most logical answer.”
Doubts nagging at my mind I went under the blue archway and into the consequential corridor.
I didn’t die, which made me think I was right. I followed the corridor, pausing briefly to pull out something to snack on. I was starving. I walked on until my feet hurt. I was led to a staircase.
Beyond was more corridor that ended rather abruptly at a wall. I stopped dead and stared at it. It took me a moment to realize there was writing carved on it.
So close yet so far, worthy challenger. Look closely. I am a window, I am a lamp, I am clouded, I am shining, and I am coloured. Set in white, I fill with water and overflow. I say much, but I have no words. What am I?
I drew up at a blank. I racked my brain for an answer. “Um . . . a rainbow?” That didn’t seem quite right. “A . . . a waterfall – no that doesn’t make sense . . . a mirror! No. Never mind. Er . . . rain? No, I crossed those possibilities out . . . uh . . . I don’t know!” I slumped to the ground, trying to think of something, anything, and the next thing I knew I was crying.
I didn’t know that answer. I was tired and scared and stuck down here. I couldn’t think of an answer. I’d failed. I’d come so far only to fail now. Why did I have to do this? Why did I have to start this? I couldn’t do it! I was a failure. I was a lonely coward who couldn’t solve a riddle.
For a while I kept crying, unable to stop myself. I tasted salt. My throat felt sore and behind my eyes felt hollow. I scrubbed at my eyes, trying to make the flow of tears subsided.
Suddenly it hit me. Oh, how could I have been so stupid? Here was the answer, bawling right on me. Hiccupping a little, I stood and rubbed my face dry. Look closely. I ran my fingers over the words and leaned in. My eyesight was a little blurry, but I managed to find a tiny hole to look through.
Pushing my face against the wall I shut one eye and looked through. I could vaguely make out a room behind, and something that looked like a track. “All right,” I breathed, “A job that requires fine control. Now that, I can do with ease.”
I stood back and pulled out fine streams of water. I flowed them through the tiny opening. There was a creak, and the wall fell back like a drawbridge.
Before me was a large, circular room with a dome. In the middle was a pedestal, and on the pedestal was the shard. It was beautifully formed, like a natural gemstone, cloudy in colour with a faint bluish hue at the centre. It was just the right size to easily pick up and carry.
I went over to it lightly. There were words on the pedestal. So you did not get cold feet, and you have followed the clues. The quest is at an end. You found the power; may you use it wisely. Here is our shard of the Crystal of Arasha. Remember all you have learned.
Was that it? I reached out and picked up the shard. Even though it’d been sitting down here for a long time, it felt warm. I cradled it against my chest and turned around. I expected I’d have to walk all that way back.
There was a second doorway. I seriously hoped that wasn’t the easy option at the beginning. I might have tried to go back in time and attack those who set this up. I walked through it and followed the way until I brushed through a curtain.
I found myself in the entrance room. Looking back, I saw that the curtain was camouflaged.
It was a little tricky, opening the door to the lake without flooding the entire complex. Clutching the warm crystal to my chest, I kicked rapidly and swam up to the lake’s surface. I couldn’t stop grinning. I’d done it. We’d done it.
I got my feet hooked on the bottom and started walking to shore. After a few paces my head popped up over the surface. “Fera!” I called, my face hurting because I smiled so wide, and picking up my pace. “Fera, I got it! I got the piece!” I stepped onto shore. Something wasn’t right. “Fera?” I took a few cautious steps. “. . . Fera?”
Suddenly a hand clamped over my mouth and an arm wrapped around my chest, picking me up. I screamed.