Drifters

Inti's Watcher

Nop hopped onto the table and cleared her throat. "This week, the time has come for another obstacle course! We're sending you into the biggest pyramid in Egypt, where you'll face pressure plates, impossible jumps, door puzzles, constricting walls, and more!"

Marie raised an eyebrow at Nop. "There really are death traps in pyramids? I thought that was just in novels."

"Giant pyramids really exist?" Razan asked.

They all turned to look at him.

"Well I've never seen one," he said. "An ancient, giant mountain built by men for a king whose name no one remembers? Sounds like a myth."

"I assure you they are real," Nop said. "And while they didn't originally have death traps in them, we have altered the inside to fit our needs. Sadly, human technology is progressing, and we won't be able to use the pyramids in Egypt much longer. Thankfully there are several elsewhere in the world humanity has forgotten about."

"Sounds fun," Sophie decided.

"Wait," Peter said, "did you say 'death traps' because that's the phrase Marie used, or are they really death traps?"

Nop looked amused. "While death is unlikely, it is possible. Just keep your bail device on hand and you'll be fine." She hopped, getting back on track. "So! We will put you at the bottom of the pyramid, and your goal will be to get to the top. It should take about four hours. We will put teams at the starting point in half-hour increments. As always, let me know by tonight if you're joining."

"How dark is it in there?" Marie asked.

"About dusk darkness," Nop answered. "We have added lights, especially to the trap areas, because no one wanted to join a pitch-black death maze. There's also some natural light in certain areas."

"If there's light I will join," Razan said reluctantly.

Marie knew she was joining, and she knew Sophie would join every contest, so she turned to look at Peter.

He hesitated. "It's not really a maze, is it?"

"Not like the maze on the moon," Nop said. "There are branching paths, with different obstacles, but they cross each other and all end up at the same place. There's no dead ends."

He sighed. "I'll join. Not in love with the idea, but I can't chicken out of every maze. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Marie smiled. "Good. We'll join."

"Wonderful!" the raven said, then tilted her head. "You will be sent to the starting line at one in the afternoon on Friday."

"Thank you," Marie said. "Is there anything specific we should prepare for?"

"I can provide you with a blueprint to examine here, but you aren't allowed to copy it or take it with you to the maze," Nop told her.

She nodded, looking at her group. "I'd like four. Razan, have you seen a blueprint before?"

"No, but I know how to read maps," he answered.

"Close enough. Sophie, Peter, I assume you've seen blueprints before."

Peter nodded.

"Yes, but most of them weren't anything like what the building actually looked like," Sophie said.

"As long as you know what you're looking at. I want everyone to spend an hour studying them tonight, and tomorrow we'll plan what to do," Marie ordered.

They agreed, and Nop promised to get the blueprints as soon as possible.

Sophie laughed at Antoni, who was failing to move from the wall to the ceiling.

"Why don't men ever listen when we say something is difficult?" Rani asked, lazily spinning on a newly-installed rope.

"Because we make it look easy," Sophie answered. "And if two girls can do it, obviously a manly man must be able to. Because there's nothing in the world a girl can do that's even remotely challenging for a man, right, Antoni?"

He growled, lunging for a handhold. He missed. With a yelp, he plummeted to the spongy floor. Rani laughed.

"Oh no, poor baby, are you hurt?" Sophie asked, dropping lightly next to him. "If only someone had warned you that trying to climb along the ceiling was probably not something you could do!"

"I get it," he snapped, swiping at her.

She easily dodged.

"Great," Rani said, sliding down the rope. "Apologize for being an asshole and we'll stop mocking you."

"I don't have to apologize to you," he grumbled, getting to his feet.

"Then we don't have to stop mocking," Sophie said logically.

"Exactly," Rani agreed. "You're pathetic. It took all of ten minutes to go from trying to get close to Sophie by praising her, to insulting all our hard work, to failing miserably. I'd hope this is a learning experience for you, but that would require you have the intelligence and self-awareness of something more than a slug."

Antoni glared murderously at Rani. "I tried being nice, and this-"

"You did?" Sophie interrupted. "When?"

After a moment of silence, he stormed out of the climbing room.

"Seriously, what the hell was he thinking?" Rani asked.

"I don't know," Sophie said, climbing up the wall again. "He was almost charming yesterday; I thought he'd manage at least a day or two of pure flattery before he got around to the subtle insults."

"Well, at least he'll leave you alone now," Rani shrugged. "Will you tell anyone?"

Sophie debated. "No. The story isn't even all that amusing. Would you mind watching the space? I'd like to try jumping from the wall to the rope again."

"Sure." She dropped to the ground and moved to stand guard at the entrance. "You still have gloves on?"

"Yes."

Sophie got into position, focusing on the rope hanging well out of reach. A part of her noticed the door open, but she trusted Rani to keep whoever it was out of her way. She tensed, aiming, not going to repeat her mistakes from last time, and pushed herself off the wall in as strong of a leap as she could.

She flew through the air, time slowing as her hands approached the target. They closed around the rope, but it moved. She swung forwards, yelping as the rope caught her weight and she spun around, her hands sliding down it. Not thinking, she made the mistake of trying to grab it higher up. As soon as one hand was off the rope, her other hand lost its grip, and she fell to the ground, landing in an ungraceful roll. After a slight bounce she gently hit the wall next to the person who had walked in.

Razan held out a hand to help her up.

"I'm fine here for a moment," she sighed, closing her eyes.

"Did you hurt anything?" Rani asked, kneeling down next to her.

Sophie grimaced. "My pride. I thought I had it that time…"

"That implies this isn't the first time you've tried jumping halfway across the room," Razan said slowly.

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"Third," Sophie said, opening her eyes.

He frowned down at her. "There is a fine line between brave and stupid. I'm not sure which side you fall on…"

Rani laughed as Sophie stuck out her tongue at him.

He sighed, looking around the room. "Captain Marie insists I climb with you until I'm confident I'm not going to freeze during a challenge."

Sophie sat up. "That would be good, yes. Even if it was slightly her fault you froze."

"She kicked me off a cliff, I wouldn't call that 'slightly'," he grumbled.

"You should come back Wednesday," Rani told him, standing again.

"That's when Innoka is here," Sophie added.

Razan debated. "No, now is good," he decided. "While I appreciate the thought, I'd rather she not see me panic if anything goes wrong."

"I can respect that," Rani said, nodding.

Sophie smiled sweetly, getting to her feet. "So I should intentionally make things go wrong to test you? Very well!"

"No."

"Rani, you heard the man! No safety measures!"

"That's not-"

"I've been needing some target practice," Rani said cheerfully. "I'll go get my rifle!"

Razan glared. "I need a sane person."

Peter sat in the common area, looking over the map of the pyramid again. They'd decided on a route to take the night before, but he was convinced there was something he was missing. It didn't look terribly deathly, so there must have been some detail left out.

Fael walked over and looked at the paper. "Ah, finding a good route?"

"Yes," Peter answered. "We decided on one, but I'm not sure it's the best way."

"As long as you avoid the snake drops, it's not a particularly difficult maze," Fael said.

"Snake drops?" Peter echoed, watching Grace and Juan strolling his way.

"Yes. Places where snakes drop from the ceiling," Fael said, as if that explained everything.

Peter looked at the map, then back up at him. "Could I get some details on that?"

"In some corridors and rooms there are traps which drop snakes from the ceiling," he elaborated.

"What kind of snakes?" Peter asked.

"Don't answer!" Grace ordered, sliding into the chair next to Peter. "Let it be a surprise!"

"I hate surprises," Peter said flatly.

"They're not real," Juan said. "They're like the hawks."

"No venom, but their bites still bloody hurt," Grace added. "They drop down and then chase ya."

Fael pointed to a squiggle mark on the map. "This is their icon. There is no real trigger; if you pass under their box it will open."

"Great," Peter said, scanning their proposed route. There were five snake drops along it. "Anything else we should know?"

Juan pointed to a set of stairs. "These revolve. About half the time they're stairs, half the time it's just a ramp, and pray you don't get anything caught when it flattens out."

"Last time, Mel got her skirt caught there and the stairs kept rolling. She bailed, but it was left behind," Grace said.

"Who?"

"One of the Bees," Fael said, shaking his head at Grace. "It was a terrible thing to have happened."

"She was fine, just a bit embarrassed," she shrugged.

"I'll avoid wearing a skirt, then," Peter promised solemnly.

Grace flicked his hat off.

"The fringe of your poncho might be a risk," Juan said. "If you fall, it might strangle you."

"I'll tuck it in," Peter said, retrieving his hat. "Anything else?"

"I'd recommend bringing a source of light," Fael said. "There is some lighting in the rooms and corridors, but in places it really isn't enough to see by."

"I think we were planning on doing that anyway. Still, it's good to know we aren't the only ones who don't do well in darkness."

"Most people don't do well in darkness," Juan said with a shudder. Fael and Grace agreed.

Peter smiled. "That's good to know as well."

"So, got any plans for today?" Grace asked.

"Nothing specific."

"Great! Join us in the pool for fight practice, we need a fourth," Grace said. "Keiko prefers swimming around without the fighting."

"If you're comfortable with swimming," Fael added.

Peter looked at the group, then got to his feet with a shrug. "Sure, sounds fun."

Razan watched Sophie trying to spar with Keiko. She was terrible, but, well… No, she was just terrible.

He frowned, trying to figure out why Sophie couldn't seem to attack without leaving herself open. About half the time she managed to defend, and she was improving, but then she'd move to attack and get stabbed for her troubles.

Next to him, Ariharu snapped his fingers. "I know what her problem is."

"She has several problems," Ujinao said under his breath.

Ariharu ignored him. "She'd defending herself against the knife, not against Keiko. And when she attacks, it's like she's targeting a training dummy. Not a person."

The three men were silent for a few seconds, sipping tea as they watched the women fight.

"Yep," Ujinao finally decided.

Razan nodded. "That is what it looks like, yes."

Ariharu set his tea down, then paused, looking at Razan. "Miss Sophie is in your group; would you prefer to correct her?"

"If I can," Razan shrugged, getting to his feet. He walked over to Keiko, bowed slightly, and took her place as she went to get tea. He unsheathed his long knife, turning to face Sophie. "When you fight, where are you looking?"

"At the sharp, stabby thing which is about to cause me pain," Sophie answered primly.

"Try this: look me in the eyes," he ordered.

She frowned slightly, her posture relaxing as she held his gaze. Razan waited a few seconds, then lashed out, aiming to cut her arm. She squeaked, blocking his blade with hers, her eyes moving to his knife and then staying there.

"Look me in the eyes," Razan repeated, stepping closer.

She glared. "You want me to defend myself without knowing where your weapon is?"

"No, I want you to know where my weapon is without looking directly at it," he said.

He struck again, and she flailed to block, her eyes flicking to the weapon before returning to his.

"How am I supposed to know where something is if I can't see it?" Sophie asked.

"Because you can see other things. Where do I look? Which direction do I turn? Do I move my arm back, or out?" he asked. "If you only watch the weapon, you only know where it is in the moment. You'll never know where it's about to be."

She sighed in annoyance. "Maybe I should give up and focus on being a thief."

"You are very hopeless at this, yes," Razan said, grinning. "You will never, ever be able to land a single hit on me, so practicing is indeed a waste of your time."

That got her to glare at him. He struck at her, and she dodged, switching her knife into her left hand so she could aim a weak punch at his jaw. Razan easily caught her fist as she stepped up to him, knocking his follow-up slice away with an elbow. And then he felt a blade stab into his gut.

Sophie continued to glare, thankfully putting no strength behind her knife. "Ha."

"See? You managed all that while looking into my eyes," he said, ignoring the pain. "You only glanced away twice."

"You are a horrible human being," she told him.

"Yes."

"Completely arrogant and vile and-"

"And I will agree to all of that if you remove your knife from my appendix."

"Oh, sorry," she said, all the anger from a moment ago fading away as she stepped back. Sophie looked at the blood on the tip of her knife and paled. "That's not- I didn't really hurt you, did I?"

"No, just a scratch," he said, letting go of her hand.

"Good." She hid the knife behind her back and looked at him haughtily. "You're evil and I hate you."

Razan bowed, then smiled at her. "Now that you've grasped the concept, shall we try that again?"

Marie scrolled through a list of everything Ebba had in the room she used for storage, impressed by the variety of things. Technically Louis also owned everything in the room, it being shared, but he had no interest in claiming anything.

"You know, Ebba, when Louis said you had the heart of a lion, I thought he was being metaphorical," she said. Ebba laughed, but Louis just grinned.

"When have you ever known me to use a metaphor?" he asked.

"Excellent point. Incidentally, where does one acquire a dried lion's heart?"

"Ethiopia," Ebba answered. "Or, no, Algeria?"

"Algeria. Ethiopia is where you got the monkey's paw," Louis confirmed.

"Is the paw cursed?" Marie asked.

"Possibly. We lost two contests in a row after getting it, so I turned it to ash and requested the ashes be dropped in the jungle," Ebba said.

"Wise." Marie continued reading. "What is a limestone canopic jar, why do you have a set of them, and why are they listed as 'for emergencies'?"

Louis finished whatever he was doing and sat down next to her. "Those would be Egyptian jars for holding organs."

"Specifically the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines," Ebba added.

Marie waited, but that was apparently all the information she was going to get. "Right. I don't question you having nose rings, but I do wonder why they're listed here."

"Obviously they're listed on the shared list because we share them," Louis said seriously.

"I bought them years ago to sell off, as it seemed that the market for them was growing, but then the rostari decided human-made nose rings weren't exciting after all," Ebba explained. "They've never been worn."

"Ah, worthless cargo, I know the pain… Would that also explain the seventeen perfume-filled chicken eggs?" Marie asked.

Next to her, Louis stiffened ever so slightly. Ebba coughed.

"I'll take that as a no."

There was a pause as they looked at each other, then both spoke at once.

"Those weren't really-"

"Well, to understand-"

"There's a tradition-"

"It's illegal, but not enforced-"

Marie set the list down, waiting for the people she loved to stop frantically making excuses and get the story out.