Prophecy Approved Companion

Given its secret purpose of being designed to hide a secret entrance to the castle, Qube would have thought that the maze would be subtle. Understated, so as to not draw too much attention to its existence, while still being beautiful enough to make it plausible that it was for decorative purposes only.

Instead it was massive, and block-like. The sides of the hedges rose up to dizzying heights, although not outside of the range of the Chosen One’s bolt-ladder trick.

The party had followed the moat around the castle, past the marketplace, past the nice houses, and into the area where they had once, so long ago, rescued a small child from a well and accidentally made him climb into the sky.

Qube wasn't exactly sure how long ago that had been, but it had to have been a couple of weeks, at least.

Glancing up at where the Royal Observatory was squatting above them, she wondered how the worker from it had managed to find his way to the Wizard’s Tower, and become friends with Definitely Bad Guy’s twins. She’d never been to this side of Cobbletown before, close to where the castle nestled against the cliff. While the entrance was bathed in sunlight, it quickly became engulfed by the foreboding building’s shadow.

Soon they would be inside that stone beast, fighting the Evil Emperor.

The Healer recoiled from the joy that surged within her at the idea of the Evil Emperor dead before her. No! She had to keep the belief that he could be reformed! That was the whole purpose of second chances! His mind had been opened, so she knew that he would have a chance, now, to be something more than what he had been.

Despite both the thief and the captain’s words, there were no signs of any castle guards around the maze. The entrance was nothing more than an open doorway in the greenery, lined with red roses. Next to it was a wispy blue Save Point. The Chosen One waved a hand through, but didn’t seem as revitalised as he normally did.

“Okay,” the Chosen One said, peering into the maze. “This looks like the end of the line. We probably won’t be able to come back out once we start down here. Does anyone have any business they want to attend to before we go in?”

“Why wouldn’t we be able to go back into Cobbletown once we go into the maze?” Qube asked, confused. “Surely we’d be able to just retrace our steps? We could leave little signs, or markers, for ourselves, so we can find our way back quickly, if we need to.”

“I dunno about the maze part, but once we go down the trapdoor we definitely won’t be able to come out again. But I reckon this Save Point means we can’t go back.”

“Why would the Save Point stop us from going back?” Qube asked, eyeing the blue sphere with suspicion. Sure, it had tried to eat her brain once, and was a conduit to the people who held the fate of her world in their frighteningly indifferent hands, but she’d never suspected that the Save Points themselves could have any kind of influence over their world. She’d thought of them more as a very specific kind of portal, attuned to the Chosen One (and subsequently those in tune with the Hero could also see them).

“Ah, it’s part of the [Save Scum Attack] thing,” the Chosen One said, looking slightly uncomfortable, no doubt at the public discussion of the inner workings of a spell he had kept remarkably quiet about. Which Qube thought was a bit rich, coming from him. After he’d forced so many public conversations about everyone else's spells, to be acting squeamish simply explaining a component—! “Basically, the Save Points are what I return to when I, uh, use the spell? So, when the Devs anticipate someone would need them, like when they’re entering a point of no return, they’ll put them outside, so I can return to them.”

Qube frowned slightly, trying to understand how that would work. Once again, the level of control the Devs displayed over the events in her world was mildly disconcerting, but she’d become pretty much reconciled to it. This had to do with the Golden Prophecy, which was where their influence was heaviest.

She might no longer find comfort in the thought that the Golden Prophecy was directly involved in the path they were walking, but she still accepted it.

“Any business I have to attend to can wait until after we defeat the Evil Emperor,” Sexy Screamy Spider Briar said. She shot a look out of her many eyes at the rest of the party. “But believe me, there is much I wish to explore before we ascend.”

“Everything I wish to deal with is contingent upon how this encounter plays out,” Sencha Bard said, without his usual flair. He seemed to be taking the revelation that he‘d fallen into the same trap as the Devs rather hard. Qube would have to talk to him, once he’d had a chance to digest it, and find the right words to make him feel better about it.

“I am ready to proceed,” Definitely Bad Guy said calmly.

Squiggles, still perched on the Chosen One’s shoulder, nibbled on his hair.

“Stop that,” the Hero said, pulling his head away from the eternally-hungry mascot. “What about you?” he asked Qube, giving her a tired smile. “Anything on your checklist we got left to do?”

“I don’t have a checklist,” Qube said defensively. “But, even if I had a mental checklist, we would have done everything on it that was worth delaying saving the kingdom for.”

For a second she thought the Chosen One would, for some reason, argue with her that they should delay saving the kingdom even more (something she wouldn’t put past him, given how often he went on digressions) but instead he just shrugged, waved his hand through the Save Point once again, and plunged into the maze.

—

It was surprisingly cool within the maze. Even though they were still in full sunlight, Qube felt a chill run up her spine as she stepped through that empty threshold. The aroma of the greenery was almost overwhelming, surrounded as they were by the sweet-smelling hedges, and the occasional burst of flowers.

The Chosen One, against all good taste, didn’t seem pleased by the delightful garden smells.

“Oh, that’s too much,” he said, wrinkling his nose. “That’s turned up way too high. They need to dial it down a bit.”

Sencha Bard opened his mouth, frowned, and closed his mouth. “Fragments of a saga I don’t know just entered my mind,” he confessed. “I felt the urge to tell you all about it, but for the life of me I can’t remember where it comes from. ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’ do any of you know where that’s from?”

“Ah, yeah, that’s from the Devs’ realm,” the Chosen One said, still pawing at his nose as if trying to rub away the smell of nature. “Sounds like something Shakespeare wrote.”

“I’m not familiar with that Bard,” Sencha Bard said stiffly. The Hero had progressed to rubbing his entire face.

“You’d know him, for sure,” he said absentmindedly. “He’s public domain, so they probably have his stuff in here. Especially with that whole Romeo and Juliet situation they were rocking in Construct Crossroads. They probably didn’t put his full stuff in, though, just the best known bits.”

“Oh,” the Bard relaxed slightly. “So, similar to the books you gave us, his works would have been placed in books in the Bard’s Academy by the Devs. I must just not be remembering it at this very moment, since I wasn’t given the completed texts.”

“Yeah, most likely,” the Chosen One said, snorting a little to clear his nostrils out. “It’s not even real pollen, how is it getting in my nose?”

"It almost felt like a compulsion," Sencha Bard continued, still looking relieved. "Similar to ones I've felt before to say or do certain things."

The Hero suddenly stopped fussing about the smell.

"What kind of things?" he asked, casually enough to fool everyone but Qube.

"Oh, certain comments," Sencha Bard said, his relief suddenly becoming brittle. "The hand of the Golden Prophecy sometimes moves me into place. Rather more roughly than necessary; I am, after all, a very willing piece in this game."

The Chosen One reacted much more strongly to that statement than Qube thought it deserved.

"Cool," he said, as they moved deeper into the maze. "Yeah, that's cool."

"I have noticed that both the Bard and the Hunter have a habit of making helpful comments that seem to surprise them," Definitely Bad Guy said. "I believe it to be possible that they are prompted by the Golden Prophecy to help complete its objective of saving the kingdom. I do not know how quoting a Bard would give any kind of assistance, but no doubt there is some value in the sentence."

Yep. Qube was pretty much reconciled to the amount of influence the Golden Prophecy had over them. Totally and utterly reconciled.

—

Sharp, semi-tuneful whistling was the only warning they got before a guard spotted them. They'd made it two turns into the maze, and the whistling had been steadily growing louder. At first Qube had thought it was part of the music playing in her head. The tempo seemed to change slightly every time they chose a new path to travel down.

She was making small marks on the ground at each turn, just in case they needed to find their way back in a hurry.

"Oi!" the man shouted as he turned a corner and made eye contact with the Chosen One.

It wasn't just any guard, either. It was a Royal Guard. A remarkably familiar-looking Royal Guard.

"You're not supposed to be here!" the guard shouted. He raised a black baton. "Get out of here before I beat you black and blue!"

That seemed like a disproportionate response. There had been no lock, or even any guards at the entrance telling them they weren't allowed to go into the maze. For all this man knew, they were just simple townsfolk, wandering around their own city. Why, they hadn't even needed a token to enter the maze! They could have just walked in any time they felt like it!

It would have ended poorly, since they would have been unable to defeat the Evil Emperor without whatever benefit the gems offered, but the fact remained that, as members of the general public, they had the right to be in the maze!

She was also pretty sure that this was one of the Royal Guards who'd been holding the Exiled Princess prisoner in Sencha Bard's memory, so he wasn't even supposed to be talking! Just standing guard!

He'd probably left his post at the front gate and gone on break, which was why he was being so aggressive. He clearly needed to be set straight on a few matters!

However, before she could tell the Chosen One any of her thoughts about the situation and recommend a course of action, the Hero went completely blank-faced, spun around, and jogged out of the maze. He didn't even look down at the markers to show him the way.

"Chosen One?" she called after him, immediately hurrying to catch up. The rest of the party followed her, all of them in the same loping jog. "Chosen One, I don't think this is ’make travel go fast’ time!"

By the time she caught up to him, the Hero had already reached the entrance to the maze, and stopped meditating.

"Ah [snacks]," he said, grumpily. "Looks like they teleport you back to the entrance."

"Chosen One, you walked back here," Qube said, concern for the Hero's mental state temporarily overriding her indignation at the Royal Guard. "Don't you remember? You were meditating."

Had the guard used some kind of spell on the Chosen One? Why, then, had he bothered to threaten the Hero? It must have been a subtle spell; she hadn't even noticed him casting it.

"I did?" The Hero looked genuinely surprised, confirming her suspicion. "Huh. I guess it just acts like fast travel. Interesting." A small, devious smile formed. "Very interesting. I think we could have a lot of fun with this maze."