by F. P. Spirit
Glo was about to say more, but stopped as a calming tune suddenly filled the air. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Elladan strumming his lute. Glo eyed the bard quizzically—Elladan merely smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know why, but I got the sudden urge to play. It somehow felt like we needed soothing music in here.”
Glo spiked an eyebrow but said nothing. The bard continued to play tranquil tunes the rest of the way down. A few minutes passed until finally the top of an open doorway appeared at their feet. The disc slowed and came to a complete stop, even with the base of the door. Glo peered out the doorway and into a vast room. He estimated it was similar in size to the first floor of the monolith. Yet this chamber was not dark, lit by glowing tiles along the floor every few yards and on the ceiling far above.
Seth cautiously stepped out into the room, followed by Donnie, then Lloyd and Alana. After a short pause, Seth motioned for the others to follow. The rest of the companions piled out into the room—it was indeed identical to the first floor of the monolith, including archways on each of the four walls of the chamber. The exception was that there was a hall beyond each arch, there were no stairs spiraling up the pillar behind them, and there was a hip-high pedestal a few yards in front of them. Seth and Donnie approached it together, the others following close behind. As they drew closer, Glo noted a circular depression in the top of the dais. Donnie cautiously examined the pedestal all over. “I wonder what this is for.”
“From the circular indentation, I’m guessing it used to hold some kind of sphere,” Seth answered, as he knelt down and searched the base of the dais.
“Yeah, but where is it now?”
Seth’s face bent into a half-smirk. “Do you really want me to answer that?”
“No. Probably not,” Donnie responded almost immediately.
The duo concluded that the pedestal was not rigged with traps of any sort, and moved on to the rest of the room. The others waited patiently, but in the end they found nothing hidden, neither traps nor secret doors. They did, however, discover a plaque with a symbol on it above each archway. The hallways beyond the arches each led to a closed door. Every door was locked, but next to each was another plaque with the seven chakra symbols and circular indentations. Seth and Donnie returned to the others and described what they had found.
Aksel listened intently, his hand silently rubbing his chin. When they were done, he mused aloud over the archway plaques. “So we have four archways, each with a different symbol—a triple set of spirals, a circle with three consecutive spirals over three wavy lines, a flat-topped pyramid with a single spiral inside and lines across the base, and a single spiral with three flame-shaped objects extending upward from it.”
“Air, water, earth and fire,” Glo said with certainty. “The four elements once again.”
Elistra pursed her lips and nodded slowly. “That does seem to be a recurring theme.”
Seth spun around, gazing at all four archways that led from the chamber. “So each door represents a different element—probably another puzzle of some kind.” He swiveled around one more time, then stopped, facing one of the arches. “I say we go to air first. I mean, if it is air, it’s probably the least dangerous of the four. Right?”
“We’ll see soon enough,” Aksel responded, not sounding all that convinced.
Air
The wind whipped harshly around the room, its gale-like force making it hard to stand
The small company passed under the archway with the symbol of the three spirals above it, quickly reaching the door at the end of the short corridor. Just as Seth and Donnie had described, there was a plaque on the wall with the seven chakra symbols on it. Next to each symbol was a circular indentation Glo estimated to be the same size as the discs they had found on the second floor of the monolith. Seth turned to the others, a thin smirk on his lips.
“Too bad we don’t still have those discs.”
“Maybe we do.” Elistra stepped forward, knelt down in front of Seth, and stared at his forehead. “If you don’t mind.”
Seth eyed her curiously for a moment, then lifted up his black locks. The seeress took her index and middle finger and touched his tattoo. She hummed a deep tone, the same sound she sometimes made when she was meditating. A few moments later, the tattoo disappeared from Seth’s forehead, reappearing in Elistra’s hand in its original disc form. She held the purple disc out to him, a satisfied smile across her lips. “I believe this is what you were looking for.”
“Nice trick,” was all Seth said, but Glo knew him well enough by now to see that the halfling was impressed. Seth took the disc from Elistra’s hand and inserted it into the plaque next to its matching symbol—the symbol immediately lit up.
Aksel stepped in for a closer look. “So the discs also function as some kind of key.” He around to face Elistra. “Can you do that with the others?”
“I can,” Elistra responded slowly, her tone dubious as she regarded Lloyd. The young man’s face turned a bright shade of scarlet, nearly matching his armor. He leaned in close to Elistra, and asked in a soft voice, “Is there any way I can get my own?”
“Hmm,” the seeress murmered, a slender hand going to her chin and her head tilting to the side as she mulled over his question. After a few moments, her face lit up. She peered at Lloyd speculatively. “Do you know how to meditate?”
“Yes...” Lloyd replied, his expression rather puzzled.
Elistra smiled warmly at the young man. “Well then, that’s all you need to do. Place your two fingers over the tattoo, and then clear your mind.”
Lloyd’s face lit up. “Is that all?”
“That’s all.”
Lloyd let out a huge sigh, his coloring returning to normal. “Phew. No problem then.”
The young warrior spun around and retreated down the corridor to meditate in private. In the meantime, Elistra knelt in front of Aksel and retrieved his disc. Seth took the disc and placed it in its associated slot, and once again the symbol next to it lit up. Lloyd returned at that point, holding a red disc in his hand. He handed it to Seth, and the halfling inserted that one as well. Elistra gazed approvingly at Lloyd. “See, that was easy.”
Lloyd grinned back at her. “Yes, yes it was.”
As Glo examined the partially-lit panel, he suddenly remembered Elistra’s theory. “Elistra, do you think we need to retrieve all the discs, or do you want to test out your theory that certain combinations would work?”
Elistra pursed her lips, shifting her weight to one foot, and placing her hands on her hips. “Hmm—it might be worth a try.” Her eyes fell on Aksel. “What do you think?”
Aksel gazed at the plaque, his brow furrowing as he thought it over. “It might be worth a try. How about this—let’s retrieve all the discs just in case, but if your theory is correct, Elistra, we might just need to use Glo’s.”
“You mean body, mind and spirit,” Lloyd said, ticking off the associated chakras with his fingers.
“Exactly,” Aksel said with a nod.
Elistra gave Lloyd a sidelong glance. “You know—this would go a lot faster if you could help me.”
“Sure!” came the immediate response, the young man practically beaming at the chance to help. The two of them split up, Elistra handling Alana and Glo, while Lloyd worked on Elladan and Donnie. When the seeress placed her hand on Glo’s solar plexus, he was momentarily embarrassed, but that quickly passed. He noted with keen interest a tingling sensation in his abdomen as she chanted over him. It only lasted a few moments, then the chakra disc with the yellow symbol materialized in Elistra’s hand.
Glo felt a bit strange once the disc was gone, empty somehow, but that feeling passed after a short while. Once all the discs were retrieved, they handed them over to Seth. With the red ‘body’ disc and white ‘spirit’ disc in place, the only thing needed to test out Elistr
a’s theory was the yellow ‘mind’ disc. Seth picked that one out and placed it into its associated slot. The symbol lit up, and sure enough, the door in front of them slid open.
Glo tried to congratulate Elistra, but his words were drowned out by a loud whooshing noise. He peered through the doorway and observed a large, well-lit, circular room beyond. Abruptly, they heard a high pitched howl.
Donnie glanced around wide-eyed at the others. “What was that?”
Ruka’s lips warped into a lopsided smirk. “Sounds like the wind to me.”
Everyone except Seth and Ruka gathered around the open doorway, trying to get a good look at the room beyond. Elladan motioned for the halfling to take the lead. “After you...”
Seth shook his head. “First things first.”
One by one, he removed the four discs from the plaque. When he was done, he held all the discs in his hand once again, but the symbols remained lit and the doorway stayed open. “Well, that answers that.”
Aksel gave him a nod of approval. “That was a good find, considering we will probably be needing those again.”
Seth wore a satisfied smirk as he redistributed the discs to their original owners. Once he was done, he led the way through the open door. The companions found themselves standing in the alcove of a large cylindrical chamber. It was quite bright in here, as if standing in the midday sun, but there was no evidence of those glowing tiles anywhere along the floor or walls. At the edge of the alcove stood a railing with an opening to a narrow walkway, leading to the center of the room. The walkway ended at a circular platform suspended in mid-air, which was no more than a few yards wide, and was barren except for a dais with a single lever on it.
As the companions approached the railing, they had to grasp it tight. The wind whipped harshly around the room, its gale-like force making it hard to stand. Glo peered downward, but could see nothing except swirling mists far below—a glance upward revealed a similar sight. The room appeared to have no real top or bottom.
Directly across the chamber stood a second alcove. In its center was another lever, similar to the one on the central platform. There were two more alcoves along the wall of the chamber, one to the left and one to the right. Glo leaned out over the railing and could just barely make out an additional lever in the back of each alcove. Floating discs, no more than a yard in diameter, traveled back and forth between the alcoves and the central platform. The discs would stop just outside each alcove, remain stationary for a few moments, and then float back toward the center.
More discs circled around the chamber. It appeared that to get to the alcoves, one would have to ride the floating discs, leaping their way across. To make matters worse, not all the discs were stable. The wind in the chamber gusted occasionally, attributing for the howling noise they heard, but also causing the discs to spin or flip over.
“Did you say something about this room being the easiest?” Aksel shouted over the sound of the wind.
“I never said that!” Seth yelled back.
“Actually, your exact words were, ‘It’s probably the least dangerous of the four.’” Elistra repeated, staring at Seth with an impish smile when she was finished.
Seth tilted his head forward and glared at the seeress darkly. “Thanks, Elistra,” he mouthed the words.
“Anyway—care to check out the center platform?” Aksel yelled to Seth.
“Sure!” Seth replied. “After all, how dangerous could it be?” he added with a glance back at the seeress. Once again, Elistra merely smiled mischievously at him.
Seth appeared cavalier about traversing the chamber, but Glo was worried. “Those winds are pretty fast! I’d say at least 70-80 miles an hour!”
“Try more like 90!” Ruka corrected him. All eyes turned to the teen. Ruka glanced around the group and shrugged. “Take it from someone who flies all the time!”
“Can’t argue with that!” Donnie chimed in cheerfully.
“Can you stop with the shouting? Casting a spell here, people!”
Glo spun his head to see Seth making the motions of a spell. He watched the halfling’s movements closely, barely catching the phrase at the end over the rush of the wind. “Aranea Ascenditur.”
Glo recognized the spell—it was called spider crawl. It was a rather clever idea, considering where Seth was going. The spell would make his hands and feet extra sticky, helping him to hold onto the walkway, even in those high winds. Nevertheless, Glo watched anxiously as Seth stepped out onto the narrow walkway. The wind buffeted him, his cloak and hair being whipped to the side, but the halfling’s feet stayed firmly in place.
Glo felt a hand on his arm, and turned to see Elistra holding onto him. He gave her a brief smile, then turned his attention back to Seth. The halfling crouched down, keeping as low a profile as possible as he slowly working his way toward the central platform. Glo could feel the grip on his arm tighten as Seth moved along, mirroring his own nerves. Seth continued his slow advance, everything going surprisingly smoothly, until he reached the halfway point. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blew across the chamber. Seth crouched down even further, but despite his best efforts, his feet began to slip. He slid to the very edge of the walkway, then his feet went out from under him all together.
“Seth!” Glo cried, his voice lost in the howling of the wind. He felt sharp nails dig into the skin of his arm but ignored them, intent on his friend’s plight. Glo watched in horror, expecting to see the halfling whipped away, but by some miracle, Seth managed to hang on. His hands shot out and grasped the edge of the walkway, his body completely stretched out behind him, until the gust finally died down.
Once it did, Seth swung himself forward, and in an amazing feat of agility, planted his feet underneath the walkway. He was not done, though. Seth continued his forward motion, arching his body and grasping the other edge of the walkway. As he spun around, Glo could have sworn he heard the halfling cry out. Not taking his eyes off of his friend, Glo yelled, “Did anyone hear that?”
“You mean Seth yelling, ‘Weeee! This is fun!’?” Elladan cried back, his ironic expression mirroring how Glo felt.
Glo wasn’t sure whether to scream or applaud. Only Seth would make light of such a dangerous situation. Glo watched in awe as the halfling flipped himself up over the side of the walkway and back onto the top, once again solidly planting his feet. Glo let out a huge sigh, the grip on his arm finally relaxing.
“That was good. Really good!” Donnie cried over the rush of the wind. “I’d hate to have to pull that one off myself!”
“Don’t be getting any ideas!” Alana retorted, elbowing him in the side.
Glo exchanged a brief, knowing smile with Elistra, then refocused his attention on Seth. The halfling was crouched down again, slowly inching his way forward. Thankfully, there were no more gusts of wind. After what seemed like an eternity, Seth finally made it to the center platform. Glo noted with keen interest that the moment Seth stepped onto the platform, his cloak and hair fell back into place.
It must be like the eye of a storm in there, Glo reasoned. He had studied natural phenomena including storms and earthquakes. All spinning storms had a calm area, the winds never quite reaching the center. As he understood it, this happened because of the spin—the winds wanted to move in a straight line, but got bent around. Either way, Seth was now safe.
“I think he’s good in there!” Glo cried aloud.
“It appears so!” Aksel agreed.
The entire party seemed to breathe easier now that their friend was safely tucked away. Back on the central platform, Seth spent a few moments straightening out his hair and clothes, then proceeded to the center dais. He stood there for a minute or two, examining the pedestal, then reached up and pulled the switch. The platform began to lift on one side and lower on the other.
Glo did a double take. The entire platform is turni
ng over! So much for being safe.
Elistra’s nails bit into his skin once more as they watched Seth scramble up the rising end of the platform. He reached it moments before it went completely vertical and grasped the edge. As the platform continued to turn, Seth launched himself over onto what was now the top. Glo let out a sigh of relief, the nails in his arm releasing once more. The former underside of the platform now came into view. It turned out to be a mirror image of the top, with another pedestal, switch and all.
Seth waited until the platform stopped, then stood up and dusted himself off. He turned to the companions and gave them a brief thumbs-up before striding over to the new pedestal. Seth examined it closely for a short while, then reached up and pulled the switch. The entire platform began to turn over once more.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Elladan cried, the exasperation in his voice apparent even over the constant sound of the wind.
The companions watched on incredulously as Seth scrambled for the edge once again. As before, he waited until the platform began to flip over, then hoisted himself back on to the top.
“Well, it’s official! Seth has a death wish!” Donnie cried over the continued whoosh of air around the chamber.
Seth dusted himself off, then turned toward his companions and shrugged. He then proceeded to the dais, sat down in front of it, took out his knife, and began to sharpen it.
Elladan turned to the others. “I guess he’s done for now?”
“There’s not really much more he can do!” Aksel cried over the perpetual noise of the rushing air. “We might need to pull those switches in the other alcoves!”
Donnie cupped his mouth and yelled, “I’ll go and try one!”
Without warning, Ruka lashed out and punched him square in the arm.
“Ow!” Donnie cried, “What did I do this time?”
“Just be careful!” Ruka yelled, then stormed off to the back of the alcove.
