NOVEL NEXT 45 - A Wizard Should Know Better
"Well, at least we know which way not to go," Razhik said as the group found itself at the rainbow crossroads once more.
Orion buried his face in his hands and slowly dragged them down, stretching what paunch remained on his lean features.
"It was bound to happen sooner or later from the design of the place," Anilith replied, trying her best to defuse the tension in the Wanderer.
The walk back had felt even longer than the journey forth, Orion adopting a cloak of brooding silence for the duration.
"At least we didn't pick that path first," she went on, "I can't imagine we'd have had any idea how to proceed if we had. Might have seemed like every choice would have led to a similar room. We definitely would have wasted a lot more time there, at the very least."
Orion glowered at her, but Anilith met his gaze calmly. After a moment, he relented.
"Yeah," he replied as his shoulders sagged in acknowledgement, "I suppose that's true enough. Don't make it feel better, but you ain't wrong there." Letting out a pent-up breath, he continued, "Not really sure what's got me so worked up. No surprise to me, Razh bein' Razh, not after all the years I've known him. Something about this place sets me on edge, an' the longer we're here, the worse it gets."
I reckon you're right, though, an' we stumbled on somethin' big here, an' a part of me wants to turn back. Feels like we're buildin' a connection to…somethin' I can't grasp. It's important, that's for sure, but I ain't sure it's natural. Feels dangerous."
"What about this place is natural?" Anilith asked, gesturing around widely. "I don't just mean the here, but the Tower as a whole. We only just found out that it wasn't always like this here, and we've seen how stagnant the people of Spokane have become; it's the whole reason you led us here in the first place. Don't forget that."
Anilith sighed and continued. "Things need to change, by your own admission. Whatever this feeling is, it's been bottled up here so long, it's spilling out into the wider realm. It's gotta be connected to the surge in rare spawns, and we both know how much of a threat they pose. Not enough real adventurers going around to keep them in check, and the rest, well, they'd never stand a chance. That pack of dire wolves we fought just to get to the dungeon would have eaten them for lunch. No, Ori, sooner or later, change is coming. It always is."
A distant look, one Orion was intimately familiar with, briefly overtook Anilith as she battled some ghost of her past. "Change… it isn't ever easy, but fighting it hardly leads anywhere good, either. Maybe what you're feeling is the importance of all this and the change it's bringing. At least this way, we have some control over the results."
She slapped a hand on one of his shoulders. "So lead on, old man. Show us the wisdom of age. Follow that feeling and tell us young'uns the way to go. If you're not feeling up to that, we can always leave it to chance."
She summoned an object to her hand and tossed it to him.
Orion caught the coin and shook his head, wearing a wry smile. "No, I think I can handle it. Better to make a choice an' live with the consequences than pass off the burden to Fate."
As he said those words, he felt a searing heat in his hand. It bore all the intensity of a branding, with none of the pain. After a brief sense of connection, the minor weight he cradled vanished without trace.
Glancing down at his palm, he saw the image of a woman's face that had somehow seeped into his skin. Beautiful was too base a word to describe her countenance, yet his heart quickened in fear under her gaze. As he turned his hand, her eyes followed his, and he felt a thread connecting him to something ephemeral and vast, something that seemed to be ever shifting, holding countless possibilities at any given moment.
"You know," Anilith said in a singsong voice, "I kinda expected to get that back. Not sure how many rupees the Tower would say that was worth, but let's just say you owe me and call it that."
"Bah," he spat back, "it was a gift freely given, an' you know it. The nerve. Brand a man, and then demand payment. In my day, that would earn you a special place among the dregs of society."
"Alright," she said with a grin, "We'll call it even. Guess that makes you our guide then, though. Do you have any idea how much use I got out of that thing?"
Anilith paused a moment and scratched her cheek. "Come to think of it, I guess you wouldn't actually owe me, anyway. I never exactly did get around to paying Ol' Mingus for that, yet."
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"Oh, no. You ain't passin' your debt off on me, kid," Orion laughed, "I'd rather be in debt with you any day. Not gonna let you make me twice cursed in as many minutes, now. Tell you what, we make it out of here, an' we'll find a way to square this all up. Somethin' tells me we'll come out ahead," the old man finished, staring at his newly decorated palm.
"Fair enough, Ori," the girl replied, "Which way will it be, then?"
"I have a good feelin' about yellow," Orion said, grabbing hold of the reins of Fate.
The yellow pathway turned out to be nothing like the other two they'd traversed already. It was almost…pleasant? The hall was warmly lit, not obscuring any details, and the yellow rug ran from wall to wall, leaving no bare stonework underfoot. Evenly spaced between the torches, which burned with a soft light, hardly flickering at their passing, purposefully shaped bits of soft material adorned the walls. Any noise they made rand with clarity, yet lacked any echo or reverberation.
Orion couldn't remember a time he'd felt so relaxed out in the Wilds, but it wasn't like he spent a lot of time in places like this. It was almost as if there was music playing, just outside of reach: ever-present and yet always beyond his reach, like a phantom lingering in the wind.
This place had no business being so relaxing, not when it housed such power and danger. Unsettling circumstances were far from those he held in high regard.
In short, Orion hated it here.
Thankfully, the journey to the end of this hallway wasn't a long one, and the group didn't run into any obstacles either, not that the fact did anything to settle Orion's nerves.
Used to be, you could count on a dungeon to just be dangerous, Orion thought, not lull you into a false sense of security, and I got no doubt it ain't real. The kid might have stumbled on a passably friendly monster, but there's always an exception: just look at Razh.
It had been Orion's experience that there were seldom two exceptions.
The hallway culminated in a small, comfortable chamber. The smallest door he'd ever seen lay set into the far wall. Symbols Orion had never seen were artfully carved into the door, following a flowing pattern, and yet utterly distinct from the Elderscript they'd discovered earlier.
Upholstered chairs lined both walls, all arranged with their backs to the wall, inviting the group to take a load off. Razhik needed no prompting and draped the length of his body over the chairs on the right-hand side of the chamber in a way that did little to utilize the chairs' comfort.
"What?" Razhik asked, when he noticed Orion's deadpan stare. The man really needed to work on his resting glare. There was a time people considered his disposition friendly.
"You don't expect me to just stand there when this place offers up an assortment of chairs. Ani got to sit down for a bit and talk to her dead friend," Razhik went on, "Sorry, Ani. But it's only right I take my turn. And besides, you picked the path, so it's only right that you go in this time. The gods know I won't fit as nicely through that door."
Orion looked over at Anilith.
"You agree there, kid. I don't see why we can't go in together, if you want. I ain't one to hog all the glory. Don't do no good to a dead man, an' only fools see it otherwise."
"Oh, come on," Anilith teased, "Where's your sense of adventure? Besides, how dangerous could whatever's behind that door be?" The shade of humor departed as she grew serious again. "It's only right you have a chance to test yourself, too. Whatever's waiting at the end of this place, we're gonna need to be at our best to face it. There can be no growth without challenge."
"Fair enough," Orion replied with a sigh. "Can't blame a guy for askin'. Better get this over with so we can see what lies behind door number four next."
Orion walked steadily toward the door, steeling himself as he prepared for whatever awaited him. As he reached for the handle, Anilith called from behind him, "do you hear that?"
"Nope," Razhik said, "You're not gonna trick me into getting up, Ani."
"Can't say I do, kid," Orion replied as he turned around. Anilith knelt down where she stood, one hand on the bare stone at the base of the wall. Her eyes were shut as she listened to…whatever it was she was hearing. Probably something in the stones, from the looks of things.
Your senses are just downright freaky, sometimes, kid, Orion couldn't help but think.
"It's… a strange rhythm in the stones. I…feel it more than hear it. A pattern of beats, some weaker, some stronger, almost like a drum." She stood up, shaking her head as her eyes remained shut, no doubt focusing on her earth eyes, as Orion thought of them.
"Well, nothin' for it but to press on, I guess. Wish me luck," Orion said as he reached for the handle again. The moment he touched it, he could hear what Anilith had found, and so much more. The ghostly music came into focus, beauteous and haunting. It filled the air with rich vibrations, each so powerful that he could nearly feel the connection in the air as it reverberated with barely concealed intensity.
He turned the handle and pushed the door ajar, peering into a well-lit chamber. Inside, a figure sat before a series of massive pipes, unlike anything Orion had seen in his long life, moving back and forth in time with the music as it hunched over a surface he couldn't see.
The moment Orion stepped through, three things immediately happened. Anilith screamed; he felt her crumble to unconsciousness through their connection. The door behind him closed with a snap. Lastly, the door disappeared entirely, taking with it all traces of his connection to his friends.
"Well, that's definitely not good," Orion said as he gritted his teeth, "Guess I am twice cursed, today. Just hold on, kid."
A resonant voice boomed from before him, even as the music swelled with a crescendo.
"Some people just have no manners. She shouldn't have been listening. I mean, really," the creature went on as the music continued frantically building towards climax, drums affixed to the walls each banging rhythmically with increased fervor, "After all the effort I put into inviting you in here. A wizard should know better."