And Emily can’t leave a good mystery alone.
She climbs the mountain face, looking for an easier route and finding none; it’s too steep to find a regular rhythm, and she has to carve steps into the rock and throw down blocks of dirt and cobblestone to make the way easier. Emily pushes forward, getting closer and closer to the top.
From here she takes a moment to admire the view: the deep valley and the river pulsing through it, leading toward the faded horizon and what she knows to be the sea just beyond. To the west, the torches on the edge of their base are just visible. Movement in the east—that must be Tank and Jake, herding sheep back to the new base they started today.
“How’s it going?”
“They move so slow,” Jake complains.
“Be patient. If you go too fast you’ll get out of range and they can’t find you and your wheat,” Tank says, whistling. A quick glance at his screen next to Emily’s shows Jake running off after his sheep as Tank’s own three sheep wait idly at his feet.
“I found something,” Emily says. “A sign. I think it’s a clue.” She looks through their basic new inventory and sighs. “Come on. It’s not too far from here.”
She leads them away from the plains where they’ve settled and up the mountain face to their immediate north. Sign are stuck into the center of the plateau.
My soul is empty until you begin to walk. I’ll show you a vision of forests with no trees, oceans with no waves, mountains without rocks, and the place of your next clue to the greatest treasure of this world.
Bear northeast a thousand paces and find me below the thicket with no roots.
“The greatest treasure of this world,” Emily repeats with interest.
“What does it mean, an ocean with no waves? Mountains without rocks? These things don’t exist,” Tank says.
“It’s a riddle. We just have to figure it out,” Emily says. She gives the boys the coordinates and paces back and forth, thinking. Obviously the builder is pointing them toward something that will start this adventure and lead them to the next clue. “Below the thicket with no roots,” Emily repeats.
“I think we just have to walk northeast from the sign a thousand paces and then just go down.” Tank shows up behind her, switching out his pickaxe for a shovel. “I made us all shovels in case it’s really deep.”
Jake reads the sign again. “A thicket is just a bunch of bushes, right?”
“It could be trees, too,” Emily muses. “But no roots. Plants don’t have roots in Minecraft anyways, so it could be anything!”
“I don’t think we need to know what we’re looking for just yet,” Tank says. “Just that it’s exactly northeast from here.”
“All right, let’s go, and be careful down the mountain, it’s st—”
Tank tumbles off the cliffside and groans. “Great. Fall damage already.”
“I’ve got some food, here, Tank—”
Emily keeps a careful eye on her coordinates and tries to make sure they’re going directly northeast. They push through the forest, getting distracted when Tank pauses to collect different flower types they don’t have at the base yet. Emily shakes her head but waits for him. She even spots those azure bluets he’s been looking for and adds them to her inventory.
They get back on track, following the coordinates until they reach the sparkling sea.
“Um,” Tank says. “We’ve still got a hundred blocks to go.”
“Right into the water? Do you think we’ll have to dig underground?” Emily shakes her head, thinking of how long it takes to break blocks underwater. They’re going to need to keep coming back up for air, or get all the ingredients to make Potions of Water Breathing again.
“It’s a map,” Jake breathes. “A treasure map.”
“What?”
“Oh, like on another shipwreck? Didn’t you find that already?”
“Look, the final treasure is all about this underwater city, right? But suppose the Wizard already knows what we know—that we solved riddles seventeen and eighteen, and found the mural, and were working toward riddle nineteen. What if he started the game over, and changed it?”
“What about the bits about mountains without rocks?”
“Yeah, on a map you can’t see the individual details, just the big picture,” Emily realizes.
Jake throws a boat into the water and starts sailing out toward the horizon. “Come on!”
Ugh, boats. Emily crafts her own, forgetting how much wood she needs, and fumbles until she catches up. Jake’s already ahead, his boat speeding off. Tank watches her, spinning around in circles as he waits.
“What kind of flowers do you need this time?” Emily teases.
“Very funny,” Tank says. “I was just waiting for you. Ready?”
They catch up with Jake and then leap out of their boats, diving into the deep.
Emily keeps an eye on her health as it starts to drop as the water gets darker and darker the farther they go. They swim past clouds of green kelp, drifting in the waves—oh. The thicket without roots.
Below them, a shadowy shape on a rock outcrop comes into full focus.
A shipwreck.
Emily’s seen shipwrecks before, and the first ship Jake showed them to prove he saw mermaids. But now that they’ve met the Wizard and are in the throes of the game…well, it’s not just a story anymore. This is part of the riddle, part of a game that they’ve been invited to play.
They’re really here.
Lilting music starts, and Emily swims forward. Eerie green-blue light from underwater torches swathes the shipwreck in a ghostly aura, and shadows dance all around them.
Mermaids.
They’re covered in shimmering scales of blue and green and red and gold, swimming and laughing as they beckon the group forward.
“Don’t follow,” Emily says to Tank, who’s already swimming after one. “Haven’t you heard the stories about sirens? We’re here for the riddle and the map to the next clue. Stay focused.”
“Trapdoor here!” Jake announces.
Below the deck is a stately captain’s quarters, with bookcases surrounding an enchanting table. With everything underwater, the familiar glow of the miasma floating from the open book in the center takes on a sinister, otherworldly light.
They take their time investigating what they can in between bouts of returning to the surface for more air. Chests creak open as they look for the map in the riddle’s clue; Emily pockets gold ore and gems and precious items that mean little when there’s a map to the next riddle to be found.
“Did you find anything?” she asks.
They’ve searched everywhere. Emily’s running out of air again, and maybe it would be better to come back when they have the Potions of Water Breathing to—
Wait a minute.
Item frames decorate the walls, like paintings of food, and Emily remembers something she saw in one of PacificViv’s videos, about where you could put hidden rooms—
She charges headfirst at each painting, hitting the wall until finally she runs right through the painting of a seashell.
“Emily? Where’d you go?”
“The seashell painting—it’s a hidden door!” Inside the plain room is a single chest containing a map. “I got it!” Emily says triumphantly, grinning with the thrill of adventure.