by Andrew Rowe
I frowned. That wasn’t what it had sounded like when she’d described before, but she had been pretty vague.
Elora led the group of us toward an unguarded section of the spire, then reached into a pouch at her hip and pulled out what looked like a comically large crystalline key. It was vaguely shaped like a serpent, complete with fangs serving as the tines of the key.
I stared at it for a second before recognition dawned on me.
That’s like the key we found last time we visited the tower. It’s slightly different in shape, but it’s a serpentine and made of crystal.
Does that mean the other key would have allowed for a secret entrance into the spire, too?
I wished I’d kept it, but Orden had taken the key and never given it back to us. Maybe she knew.
A section of the wall glimmered and vanished.
There was a glowing magical barrier behind that section of wall. Beyond that, I could see only darkness.
“Servants of the Spire, I beseech you to open the way. I am Elora, of the House of Theas, bound by my pact to serve.”
She reached forward and touched the barrier with a bare hand. It vanished.
Then there was just blackness ahead of us.
Elora turned to the group. “I wish you luck and safety. If things don’t go as planned, I recommend you leave immediately. There are still other options.”
We exchanged a few goodbyes.
And with that taken care of, the six of us entered the tower.
There was the usual moment of disorientation as I stepped through the gate, then the dysphoria of seeing entirely new surroundings.
And when I say entirely new, I mean that in the literal sense.
We’d gone through the same entrance as last time, but this was far from the same destination.
I knew, even at a glance, that something had gone wrong. Or, at least, not quite the way I’d expected.
We were not on the first floor.
And worse than that?
We weren’t all in the same place.
***
Four of us stood in a square chamber wrought from brown stone. Massive tree roots broke through the floors in several locations, and overgrowth of vines covered the walls to my left and behind me. I mentally labeled those directions “east” and “south”, because I didn’t have any way of determining actual directions while inside the spire.
More jarring than the appearance of the chamber, however, was the distinct lack of Keras and Researcher.
I glanced around twice, wondering if they’d somehow ended up elsewhere in the same room, but there was no sign of either of them.
“Well,” Sheridan searched the room with their eyes, much as I had, “This is an auspicious start.”
“Where are we?” Patrick asked.
“From the look of it, I’d say somewhere around the twentieth floor,” I offered.
Marissa blinked. “How can you tell?”
“The spire is always changing, but every set of ten floors has a general theme,” Sheridan offered. “Corin is right. The twenty first through thirtieth floors are wood and nature themed. If we’re in the first half, it will be similar to the other spires — lots of small rooms with individual challenges. If we’re in the upper half, each floor will have a single harder challenge.”
I frowned, reaching up to my necklace. “Message. Keras. Can you hear me?”
I heard Keras reply almost immediately. “Yes. Are you safe?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least the necklaces worked. “Yes. I’m with Marissa, Patrick, and Sheridan. We seem to be around the twentieth floor. Is Researcher with you?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?”
“We’re in prison cells. Almost identical to where you first found me.”
I raised a hand to cover my eyes. Ugh. “Okay. Can you get out?”
There was a pause. “Same problem as when I was first in one. If I break out, it could trigger traps to incinerate the other cells. The runes are different, so I don’t know how bad it would be. Researcher might not survive.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “We’ll see if we can figure out how to come to you.”
“Hold on.”
Keras went silent for a few moments, while I relayed everything we’d discussed to the others.
“Researcher says she can identify the runes and figure out an order that we can safely disable them, but it’s going to take a while. Probably hours, at least. Once we’re out, she should be able to locate you, and we can fight our way there. Don’t bother trying to come to us — we’re probably below the first floor like before. It would take you ages to get here.”
I nodded, then I realized he couldn’t actually see me. “Okay. You may just want to use your return bell once you get out of the cells.”
“If we can get out, I can handle twenty floors. We’ll have to be careful, but Researcher should be able to guide me to you. Best guess is that it will take at least four or five days, though. Maybe a week.”
That wasn’t great news, but at least they’d be able to catch up to us eventually. “Any idea why you’re in there?”
“Researcher says that the teleportation effect on the entrance was probably set up to route non-human entities to a different location than humans. Non-humans probably weren’t supposed to take that door. Either that, or someone changed it specifically as a trap for people like me.”
Or creatures like Children of the Tyrant, I realized.
It was a sensible precaution, but inconvenient.
I turned to the others and explained the situation.
“Should we just camp here until they catch up?” Patrick asked.
Mara frowned. “That sounds really boring.”
“Boring or not, Patrick has a point,” Sheridan replied. “People are expected to be at least Sunstone level to clear this floor. And that’s with six people, not four.”
“The longer we’re idle, the more likely that Mizuchi frees herself from wherever she’s banished. Moreover, people from Tristan’s organization are probably aware that we’re here. If we just sit here, they could make a move — either against us, or outside the spire.”
“How would we even find Tristan without Researcher?” Patrick asked.
That was a good question.
I did have a way, but I’d been hesitant to show it around everyone.
Bah. It was far too late for this kind of secret.
“Retrieve: Trials of Judgment.”
I showed everyone the book. “I can communicate with Tristan with this. Provided he’s actually paying attention.”
Sheridan’s eyes narrowed. “How very interesting.”
I grabbed a pen and flipped the book open, planning to write Tristan that I was inside the tower.
I didn’t need to. There was already a new message.
Corin,
While I am pleased to see that you are alive, I am disappointed you did not follow my instructions.
You should not be in the spire right now.
You should leave.
I’m not the only one who knows you’re here.
You are in tremendous danger as long as you remain, and I am not in any position to help you.
-Mysterious Brother Entity
I wrote back.
Tristan,
I’m coming for you.
Please tell me where you are.
I’d hoped he would give me directions, but based on our previous interactions, I didn’t think he would.
So, carefully, I pried apart the pages of the book. I could see the runes inside the binding. I might have done some damage to the book in the process, but I told myself it was necessary.
I pressed my finger against the rune that I believed was responsible for communication with a matching book and focused.
Arrow of Direction.
A glowing arrow appeared, pointing straight up.
After an instant, it vanished.
I tr
ied the spell a few more times, but every subsequent attempt failed. I’d probably triggered some kind of location spell countermeasures.
But I’d learned two important things.
One, Tristan was somewhere above us.
And two, I apparently had the ability to use basic information gathering spells inside the spire. I presumed that was because my Arbiter attunement marked me as an assistant to the visages, so the spire’s basic countermeasures against divination didn’t affect me.
That could be very significant in the longer term, if I could learn better information gathering spells. For the moment, however, I had to work with the minimal information I had.
Then I tucked the book away in my bag. I didn’t store it in the box — I wanted to be able to check it quickly.
“Tristan is above us somewhere. I don’t know where.”
Sheridan folded their arms. “I don’t suppose your brother could give us some clues on how to make it through the rooms on this floor?”
I glanced back toward the book, then back to Sheridan. “Believe me, he’s awful at that. We’re better off on our own.”
I didn’t mention the fact that Tristan wanted us to leave. Maybe I should have, but with two of our climbers separated from the group, morale was already low. I didn’t want everyone to decide to abandon the expedition.
Sheridan rolled their eyes. “Okay. Let’s go.”
The room had three doors. Each was a simple wooden door with a handle, similar to what I’d seen on the first floor.
Each door did, however, have a single colorful gemstone in the center.
To the west, a red gemstone.
To the north, blue.
To the east, yellow.
The presence of the gems seemed odd. I remembered the color coded doors in my Judgment, but they hadn’t been like that in the first floor of the spire.
And when I’d read about the spire, I didn’t remember there being gems like these in the upper floors. Was that just an omission in the books I’d read?
“Sheridan, have you been up here before?”
They nodded. “Sure. But not many times. I’ve done some climbing, but I’m not a professional like Derek or Elora. And this is already different from anything I recognize.”
“Any idea which way to go?”
Sheridan shrugged. “Derek is usually the one leading the way, and he prefers physical stuff. That’d be either red or yellow.”
“So, it’s normal that there are gems on the doors?” I asked.
Sheridan frowned. “Now that you mention it, this spire doesn’t usually have them, outside of Judgments. The Tortoise Spire has them on every floor, though.”
I scratched my chin. “...Any idea about why there might be a change?”
Sheridan shook their head. “Katashi’s personal preference, maybe? Don’t know.”
That was an interesting possibility.
Could Katashi be restricting the spire in Tenjin’s absence? “Hm.” Probably wasn’t worth worrying about immediately. “Okay. Red is fighting, yellow is speed and agility?”
“Red is more like brute force in general, but yeah. Something like that. Blue tends to be puzzles.”
I turned to the others. “Any preferences?”
Marissa enthusiastically punched one hand into the other, then winced. Apparently, she wasn’t fully healed yet.
Patrick just shrugged.
“We’ll check each of them. Mara, up front with me. Unless Sheridan is hiding physical combat skills?”
Sheridan shook their head. “I’m a Mender and a Necromancer. I can fight a bit, but healing is my focus. My attack spells are ranged.”
“Okay, let’s do this.”
We walked to the blue door first, since it seemed the least likely to explode in our faces.
It led to a circular room with a large pool of water in the center. No monsters, no obvious traps. Just a big pool of water.
I closed the door. “None of you have water magic, I assume?”
A chorus of shaking heads.
“Okay, we’ll skip that for now.”
Selys-Lyann could potentially freeze the water, but without walking in, I couldn’t get a better look at what the actual challenge was. If it was something like swimming to the next room, I didn’t think it would be a good idea without water magic.
I opened the yellow door.
There was no floor in the next room.
It was just a long hallway with vines draped from the ceiling, leading to another yellow door on the other side.
Some of the vines looked sturdier than others.
I gazed downward, but there was only pitch blackness below. Clearly, falling was a bad idea.
I closed the door.
“Not too bad,” Patrick noted. “I think I could maintain four levitation spells at this point. We could probably skip the vines entirely.”
“And Corin’s got ‘is ring.” Mara looked thoughtful. “We want to try this one?”
I shook my head. “Let’s check the last one first. I have a feeling there’s going to be a trick in there.”
We headed to the red door and pulled it open.
The room ahead was circular, with doors on the left and right sides.
The floor was grass and dirt, rather than stone. The more concerning part, however, were the knee-high mushrooms that stuck out in dozens of places. There were probably at least thirty of them.
“Mushrooms?” Marissa asked. “That’s the challenge?”
She had to say something.
All at once, the mushrooms began to rip themselves free from the ground. They sprouted tiny, spongy arms and legs and charged.
Marissa lowered herself into a combat stance, but they never got that close.
Instead, the hoard of mushroom creatures stopped a dozen feet away and opened fang-filled mouths, ejecting clouds of some kind of mist.
Or, more likely, toxic spores.
I tried to slam the door shut.
Obviously, it couldn’t be that simple.
As soon as the door closed, it disintegrated, leaving no barrier between us and the clouds of spores.
Patrick reacted quickly, pushing his hand forward. A gust of wind blasted outward, pushing back the mist.
“Don’t get close or breathe that in!” Sheridan instructed. “You do not want to see what happens.”
I drew Selys-Lyann and slashed in mid-air, launching a shockwave of ice and freezing a pair of them solid.
Marissa punched at the air, sending out a shockwave of her own and blasting several of the mushrooms back.
But there were dozens. Patrick maintained the gust of wind, but the mushrooms were pressing through it.
Sheridan pointed at the floor. Spears of bone erupted from the ground, piercing through the lead wave of mushrooms and stopping the charge.
That gave Patrick a moment to point with his other hand and hurl a tiny, compact sphere of flame.
He stopped the wind for just a moment, then when the sphere of flame was near the mushrooms, he activated the wind again.
The moment the wind made contact with the sphere, it detonated, annihilating nearly every remaining mushroom.
Patrick stepped forward, blasting the smoke from the explosion clear with another concentrated burst of wind, then clearing the remaining mushrooms with more blasts of fire and lightning.
“Wow.” Marissa nudged Patrick. “Not bad.”
Patrick blushed. “Wide area spells are sort of what I’m made for.”
“Still, Mara’s right. You were quick to counter those spores. That could have gone a lot worse.” I pointed toward the room. “I guess we’ve pretty much cleared this one out. May as well go inside and check the doors?”
Patrick spent a few more moments using wind to send the remaining spores as far from us as possible, then created bubbles of air around us just in case. I hadn’t realized he had that degree of control of air magic. It was pretty impressive.
The south door had a white gem
, which was intriguing, but it was locked. “White means, what, a safe room?”
Sheridan nodded. “Yeah. We definitely want to get back here if we can. It’s strange to have one so close to where we started. You usually have to go through about six rooms to get to a safer room. There are shortcuts, but right next to the entrance is...odd.”
“Can we break it open?” Marissa asked.
Sheridan shook their head. “Not a good idea. Spire guardians often show up if you start breaking things, and I don’t know if we can handle one.”
“Other door, then.” I pointed across the room. Another red gem. “Hopefully the key is over that way.”
We headed to the other door and opened it.
The next room was another long hallway, much like the one with the vines, but wrought from solid stone. It was wide enough to walk two abreast, but just barely.
The floor was dirt and grass, though, and I could see some roots protruding from the floor.
“Anyone see any obvious traps?” I asked.
“Nothing.” Patrick frowned. “I don’t like it.”
“Better than the vines,” Mara offered. “I bet those were going to reach down and try to eat us or somethin’.”
She was probably right. I turned to Sheridan. “Preference on this room or the vines?”
“It’s generally safer to continue down the same path unless you have a good reason to go back. Every door leads you one step closer to an exit.”
“On it is, then.” I turned toward Patrick. “Be ready to levitate us if the floor is dangerous?”
“You got it.”
We pressed on into the next room.
The distinct lack of immediate death traps made me nervous.
Maybe it’s just a hallway?
That was too optimistic, of course. I never believed it.
We reached the door on the opposite side of the hall. There weren’t any obvious traps on it, but we didn’t have someone like Vera with us who could check with any degree of reliability.
I turned the door knob and opened it.
There was a solid stone wall on the other side.
The door we’d entered the room from slammed shut. That was a little startling, but not particularly worrisome in itself.
